A/N: i'm really sorry about the unexpected hiatus ! exam season finished just over a week ago, and some irl problems have since cropped up that have made writing / editing / etc very hard. hopefully my schedule should smooth out now summer is here, though! thank you so much for being patient with me!
Mantine surfing was the most fun Ash had had since arriving in Alola. Nyabby hadn't agreed—he had clung stubbornly to the broad neck of Kiawe's charizard, yowling whenever they dipped too-close to the waves and dropping face-first into the sand once they touched down on the beach, looking the very image of disgust—but Pikachu had, and Iwanko had, and Professor Kukui had finally lost that pensive, troubled look in his eye, so Ash figured it was worth the scratches and cold shoulder Nyabby gave him afterwards.
(Mostly.)
Professor Kukui brought them to the Tide Song Hotel, where a white-haired woman (Professor Burnet, his girlfriend) and a scrawny, awkward-looking girl with a large barrel bag she kept clutched close to her side were waiting for them. Professor Burnet brightened when she saw them, though the girl seemed to deflate, tucking herself behind the professor and keeping her eyes trained on the floor as they approached.
"This must be your kid," Professor Burnet said, smiling at Ash. Ash waved both hands in a traditional Alolan greeting, and beamed when she returned the gesture.
Kukui set a hand on his shoulder and nodded at the girl cowering behind Burnet. "And that must be yours," he said.
"It is. Lillie, this is Professor Kukui, and those are Ash and Kiawe."
Ash and Kiawe waved. Lillie kept her eyes on the ground and said nothing.
"Uh…" After a few moments of awkward silence, Kukui squeezed Ash's shoulder and moved across the lobby. "We're gonna go upstairs, yeah," he said. "We've—"
"Professor talk," Burnet said smoothly, following Kukui into the elevator. Lillie winced, tucking a phantom strand of hair behind her ear. "You guys have fun, yeah? Try 'n' get to know each other."
Before any of them could respond, the elevator door closed behind the professors, leaving Ash, Kiawe, and the weak-kneed girl alone in the lobby.
"Lillie, right?" Kiawe said, after a few, uncomfortable moments of silence. The girl—Lillie—'s eyes darted over to him nervously, and she nodded in the briefest tiniest acknowledgement.
"Are you a pokémon trainer too?" Ash tried, and got a barely-there shake of Lillie's head in response. She reminded Ash of a pokémon, a little bit, one that was scared and wounded and confused. Like Serena's eevee, avoiding eye contact in the hopes that it'd make her disappear.
Kiawe cleared his throat, looking knocked off-kilter, like he wasn't sure what to do with someone who couldn't surpass his own energy. "Right. Well—I was going to show Ash my family's ranch, if you wanted to come…? It's not far from here, don't worry."
"I—" The girl swallowed, white-knuckling the strap of her bag. She looked—terrified, Ash realised, not just nervous, like she was convinced something awful was about to happen. It set him on edge, and Pikachu, too; the electric type seemed oddly tense, ears drooping worriedly. Not Serena's eevee—his chimchar, back when he first took him in, and kindness seemed completely alien to him.
Kiawe gnawed on the inside of his cheek. "You don't have to, but it'll be… fun."
"More fun than bein' on your own," Ash added.
"Okay," she whispered, nodding to herself. "We can—I can go."
"Great!" Ash put on a brave face, hoping to soothe whatever darkness had taken root inside her, and was rewarded with a watery, fleeting smile. He'd take it. "Kiawe was tellin' me on the way here that his ranch has loads of miltank. Like, more miltank than you've ever seen in your life! He says he's only got fourteen tauros, though, and I've got more back home…"
He kept chattering—partly because it staved off the awkwardness; mostly because the more he talked, the more relaxed Lillie seemed to become—as Kiawe led them down Heahea City's touristy streets, through its suburbs, and out, abruptly, into the semi-wilderness of a bizarrely linear path signposted as Route 6: Straight Street.
It was quieter than Heahea City, enough that Ash's mind began to wander, and Pikachu's focus began to drift away from the world around him and down to Lillie's bag, and the way that it shifted periodically. The movements were minute enough that they could've been from walking—but Pikachu still tuned in, ears twitching. "Pika?" he squeaked, drawing everyone to a standstill, and descended from Ash's shoulder, approaching Lillie slowly.
"What's wrong, Pikachu?" Ash asked. Pikachu rose onto his back legs, stretching to sniff at the bottom of Lillie's bag.
Lillie recoiled with a high shriek. "Get—stay away from it!" she wailed. "Don't come any closer!"
Pikachu backpedalled, rapidly, until he bumped into Ash's shin, the fur along his spine puffed up in alarm. "Pikaaa," he started, a bemused apology, scrambling back up onto Ash's shoulder—but then Lillie's bag stirred again, jumping, and—
And something appeared, floating in the space between them.
It was unlike anything Ash had ever seen before. It was small and vaguely round in shape, with cheeks that glowed like Pikachu's—only they were blue, and this thing looked as though it'd been plucked from space itself. It peered at Pikachu with vacant, yellow eyes, as though assessing him, then turned to Kiawe—and then, finally, to Ash.
And then it laughed, a high-pitched, bell-like noise, mouth opening wide to reveal a swirling void of pink and yellow light.
"... What," Kiawe said, "in the Guardians' names… is that?"
Lillie turned a strange shade of white-blue and said nothing at all, save for making a strange, strangled sound in the back of her throat, somewhere halfway between a whimper and a choking gasp.
"Rotom?" Ash asked, semi-oblivious, throwing the question over his shoulder. Rotom surfaced from his backpack, scanning the pokémon and coming up with— "Nothing?"
"I don't… I don't compute, bzzt," Rotom said. Lillie had since turned a nauseous almost-green, stock-still and bulging-eyed. "I can't find anything like it in any of my databases. This is—" it turned to her. "What is this, bzzt?"
In lieu of a response, Lillie burst into tears, and the strange, tiny pokémon suddenly stopped laughing, expression contorting into one of childish, uncomprehending distress. More out of instinct than anything rational, Ash reached out to cup it in both his hands, while Kiawe—startled into action by Lillie's panicked sobs—approached her as though she was a wounded deerling, one hand outstretched and alighting, delicately, on her bony shoulder.
"Hey, Lillie, I wasn't trying to be—I didn't mean to frighten you, or upset you, or—" Kiawe looked to Ash for help; Ash, equally flummoxed, could only offer a shrug, still cradling the little pokémon against his body. Pikachu pawed at it gently, wiping its damp, beady eyes. "I was just—surprised, that's… that's all."
Lillie stared at them both, wide-eyed and panicked, breath whistling through her clenched teeth—but, after a moment, she began to unwind in increments, shoulder going slack beneath Kiawe's palm. "O—okay. Okay. I, um…" She straightened, movements jerky, and dusted her—clean, unblemished—dress off. "Please, I know what it looks like—"
"I don't, bzzt," Rotom mumbled, and neither did Ash, but he wasn't going to say anything about it.
"—but please, just—you can't tell anyone about it, okay? Please."
Rotom waved its arms with an indignant sense of urgency. "Don't tell anyone? This is—this is an unregistered species, bzzt! It's of great import! Keeping this quiet would be a disservice to—"
Whatever else the pokédex had planned on saying was muffled by the inside of Ash's backpack. "Sorry about that one." He laughed sheepishly. "It can get carried away when it gets excited, but I won't let it tell anyone—and we won't tell anyone, either. Right, Kiawe?"
Kiawe looked… unconvinced. "Why not?" he asked, suspicion bleeding into his voice. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing! It's just…"
"If Rotom doesn't know about it, then it's probably super rare, right?" Ash surmised, jostling the creature a little. Lillie looked at him, pupils as huge and dark as new moons, and nodded. "So there are probably loads of super bad people who'd wanna take it for themselves, if they knew about it. And it doesn't look very strong. That's why Lillie's keepin' it hidden. So it stays safe."
"People like Team Rocket—or worse," Kiawe murmured with abrupt clarity, nodding. His free hand's fist clenched, expression suddenly something tense and impossibly passionate. "I'll fight with all the strength of Wela Volcano to keep it safe!"
"There, y'see?" Ash said. "So there's nothin' to worry about! We're on your side."
Lillie sniffled, wiping at her eyes, and managed a smile. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much!"
After that, the trio's journey continued without further upset, and they made it to Paniola Ranch by noon, traversing greenery that became duller and duller until the ground beneath them was earthy and bare.
The ranch was a vast, open space, dusty pathways carved into a sea of yellow-green grass. Herds of miltank rested together, grazing and basking in the warmth; one or two tauros stood guard on the outskirts, bellowing at one another across the fields. A mixed group of mareep and flaaffy—smaller than the miltank herds, and more tightly-packed—moved in a slow trek along the westernmost fence, headed by a lean, powerful-looking ampharos, its tail gleaming red like a late-evening sun. And by the water troughs near the entrance gate, a girl who looked exactly like Kiawe, only much smaller, was tussling with a small, equine pokémon Rotom surfaced to refer to as a mudbray.
The girl ran to greet them once they reached the gate, vaulting over the fence and into Kiawe's waiting arms. (Lillie stiffened, nervously, acutely aware that her pokémon was still cradled in Ash's arms, "Kiawe!" she said, just as Kiawe, speaking over her, began to fuss, scolding her for playing with a mudbray alone again, Mimo, when she knew how strong they were (if it hurt her, he'd never forgive it—or himself, for letting her out of his sight) and checking her over for signs of imminent death.
"I think she's fine, Kiawe," Ash said, watching Pikachu and the mudbray sniff inquisitively at each other's faces. Kiawe muttered something that sounded a little bit like a prayer and let Mimo slip out of his hold—though he kept one hand wrapped loosely around her upper arm like a tether.
"Woah," Mimo said, eyes on the pokémon in Ash's arms. "What's that?"
Ash blanched. "It's, um—"
"It's—" Kiawe tightened his grip on her arm.
"It's called Nebby," Lillie blurted. "Its—its name is Nebby. Please don't tell anyone you saw it—it's… it's only a baby, and I'm keeping it safe."
Mimo squinted, looking awfully suspicious—then Nebby stretched its 'arms' above its head and laughed, and Mimo started laughing with it, and then Kiawe and Ash and Lillie joined in, nervous and relieved all at once.
"Can I hold it?" Mimo said, and then gasped when Ash gently placed it in the crook of her arm (and pretended not to notice the way Kiawe started to fidget worriedly). "Nice to meet you, Nebby! You're really weird," she cooed, rubbing the golden circlet that wrapped around its body. Nebby wriggled and gurgled, just like a baby. Ash supposed it was a baby, in a way. "D'you guys wanna come in the house? Mom's made loads of saimin."
Ash had only had saimin once, when Professor Kukui had made it, but he'd liked it so much he'd eaten his weight in it. "Yeah! Man, I'm starving," he said, and then Lillie nodded, too, so Mimo brought them in before Kiawe could say anything (though he still insisted on serving the saimin himself, because it was hot, and what if Mimo spilled some and burnt herself?).
They ate in mostly-silence, save for the loud, echoing sounds of Ash slurping noodles, while Mimo fussed over Nebby and Pikachu in equal measure.
"Hey," she said, after a few minutes of quiet, "have you guys been to Pikachu Valley before?"
"Pikachu what, now?" Ash mumbled, mouth full. Mimo gaped at him.
"You have a pikachu and you've never been to Pikachu Valley?" she shouted. Kiawe winced, shushing her, but she only shouted louder. "There are hundreds of pikachu there! Maybe even thousands! You have to go! We have to go! Right now!"
"Mimo," Kiawe sighed, wearily, "I don't think that's a—"
"Let's do it!" Ash exclaimed, effectively cutting him off. "Hey, buddy, you wanna go see Pikachu Valley?"
"Pika pika!"
"What if—what if Professor Burnet wants me back soon?" Lillie asked uncertainly, but Rotom wriggled its way out of Ash's backpack to point out that the professors would likely contact one of them if they needed anything, and with no more room to protest, they let Mimo rush them through the rest of their meal and pull them back outside.
"Pikamo, Pikawe, you've brought new friends, pika!" The girl—orange-haired, dressed head to toe in yellow, and sporting pikachu ears and a heart-tipped tail—clapped her hands together and beamed from ear to ear. "Welcome to Pikachu Valley, pika! My name's Pikala—I look after all the pikachu here, pika!"
She spoke like Rotom did, Ash thought, adding something weird onto the end of sentences for no reason. "Um," he said, "why does she…?"
"It's part of life in Pikachu Valley!" Mimo grabbed his and Lillie's wrists, tugging them forwards. "This is Ash, and that's Lillie!"
"I see, pika," Pikala said, cupping her chin and studying them both. "Pikash and Pikillie!"
"Uhh… sure." Ash glanced at Lillie; Lillie glanced back, giving him an awkward half-grin.
"And your pikachu, pika…" Pikala reached out, ignorant to boundaries, and took Pikachu from Ash's shoulder. "The sheen and density of his coat, the angles of his tail, the size of the caps on his ears, pika…" She scratched beneath his chin, and he gave a happy chaa, eyes closing. "He's from southeastern Kanto, isn't he, pika?"
Ash blinked. He didn't—know exactly where in Kanto Pikachu was from, he realised, but he was from Kanto. "You can tell all that just from his fur and his tail?"
Pikala winked, letting Pikachu wriggle out of her arms and back onto Ash's shoulder. "All the pikachu here are part of one colony, but they don't all come from Alola, pika. I've gotten pretty good at telling each region's pikachu apart, pika!"
"She's so cool," Mimo insisted. "Hey, Pikala, can I show Lillie the Pikachu House?"
"We can show her together, pika!" Pikala said, and the two—trailed by Kiawe, who was mumbling something about the dangers of electricity—tugged Lillie down the hill and towards a van that had been decorated to look like a pikachu, leaving Ash and Pikachu behind.
Pikachu Valley was awesome, Ash thought as he made his way down. Pikachu Paradise would've been an equally apt name: it sported lush, green grasses, a river running through the deepest part of the valley, and more pikachu than Team Rocket could shake a convoluted new mecha at.
… And, sat on the rocks by the riverbank, skimming stones along its surface, a familiar face. Ash stopped in his tracks, squinting. "Hau?"
Hau looked up, body unfurling; their face split into a huge grin. "Hey, Ash!" they shouted, waving their arms over their head. "Alola!"
"Alola!" Ash said back. Hau beckoned him closer, and he made his way over, swinging his legs over the smooth rock, kicking his shoes off, and dunking his feet in the stream water.
Hau leaned back, bracing their weight on their hands and turning their face to the sun. "So, you finally managed to beat Tutu, huh? What'd you think? He's good, right?"
"Uh huh." Ash nodded, thinking back to Crabrawler's flashy fists and endeavour tactics; Stufful's raw, brutish power; and Hariyama's almost limitless endurance. "He was really tough. His Hariyama's super strong; they had us on the ropes for a bit—right, bud?"
Pikachu trilled something high and semi-indignant, which Ash ascertained to mean something like I had it under control the entire time. Hau twisted to stare at them both, face screwing up.
"Maaan, he used Hariyama against you?" they groused. "He only used a makuhita against me."
That was… probably for the best, Ash thought, but he didn't say so. It wasn't that he doubted Hau's abilities as a trainer—they were learning fast, and obviously good—but Hariyama had been a veteran, and Hala had used her because Pikachu was, too.
"You'll just hafta train real hard and show him you deserve a rematch!" Ash assured, and Hau looked happier, at that. They relaxed, grinning from ear to ear—then faltered again, scowling abruptly.
"Speaking of training real hard… have you tried any of the trials here, yet?" Ash shook his head; Hau smiled, sheepishly. "Yeah, well, the first one is, uh..." They stretched up, craning their neck and peering past Ash. "Hey, Pichu, c'mere!"
A moment later, Pichu emerged from a small crowd of pikachu and made his way over, ears droopy and dejected. Hau scooped him up in one hand, setting him on their lap. "No luck?" they said, and Pichu squeaked something unhappy and pitiful, wringing his paws together.
Ash frowned. "What's 'a matter?"
"We came here 'cause I wanted Pichu to try and learn thunderbolt, and I thought if he was surrounded by all these pikachu, then maybe he'd pick it up, but it doesn't seem to be working."
Pichu deflated even further, looking incredibly sorry for himself. Ash winced sympathetically. "Don't worry about it, Pichu," he said. "It took Pikachu a while to learn iron tail, y'know? And it took Iwanko a while to learn rock throw, too! Don't beat yourself up just 'cause you're finding it hard now."
"Pika pi-ka!" Pikachu agreed emphatically, and Pichu peered up at him with huge, wonder-filled eyes. Ash glanced between them—then lit up.
"What if Pikachu tried to teach you?" he suggested. "Thunderbolt's our favourite move! If you work together, you'll have it down in no time."
The two scampered off, Pichu hot on Pikachu's heels. Ash turned back to Hau with rapt excitement.
"So, the first trial," he said. "What's it like?"
Hau laughed, a little hysterically. "Ah, man. It's… I know your pikachu's a freak of nature—hey, I mean that in a good way, don't look all grumpy—but, uh, that trial?" They folded themselves back over their knees, staring glumly into the water. "Guardians. Me 'n' my team trained for ages before taking it on, and the totem—it wiped the floor with us. And three of my pokémon are supposed to be strong against water-type attacks!"
"Three?" Ash asked, furrowing his brow in confusion, because the last time he and Hau had met up, they'd only had three pokémon.
Hau's eyes lit up, widening. "Oh, right! I caught an eevee after I came to Akala, and look—" they fumbled in their pockets for a moment, before pulling out a poké ball, hitting the catch, and— "My rowlet evolved into a dartrix!"
"Woah," Ash said, "that's so cool!"
Dartrix fluffed out his feathers and preened proudly.
"Yeah, he's awesome. But even he couldn't do anything against the trial."
"Why, what's it like?"
Hau stretched their arms above their head, thinking. "So you go into Brooklet Hill, and there's this huge lake, and there's a rock, where the Z-crystal is, right in the middle. All you've gotta do is send your pokémon in to get it."
"... But?"
"... But there's a totem araquanid guarding it, and it stops at nothing to stop you from getting it. I thought Dartrix 'n' Noibat would be able to avoid it, but even with Pichu and Eevee covering them, they couldn't get close." They prodded glumly at their bared knees, mouth a thin, unhappy line. "I know you're a better trainer than me, 'n' all, but jeez, that araquanid…"
Ash puffed out his cheeks, scratching the back of his neck absentmindedly. Nyabby and Iwanko were both weak to water-type attacks, and Pikachu couldn't out-swim an aquatic pokémon like an araquanid.
"Have you caught any new pokémon?" Hau asked, suddenly.
"Not since Nyabby."
Hau grimaced. "You're screwed, then; your team'll be useless against that thing. No offence."
Ash leaned forwards, eyes sparkling. "Is it really that tough?"
"Even worse. It oneshot Noibat with a giga drain."
A familiar, funny feeling built in Ash's stomach, flipping it over and twisting it into knots. He'd always loved a challenge—the more insurmountable it seemed, the better. "We'll think of somethin'," he assured. "What about you?"
Hau opened their mouth to respond—but a sudden cacophony stopped them, drawing their attention. Pikachu and Pichu were stood with another pikachu—female, with a curled patch of fur between her ears—and the female was watching, worriedly, as another pikachu, this one male, made his way towards them, eyes slitted and locked on Pikachu.
The rival pikachu was broad-shouldered, looked sunburnt in comparison to Pikachu, and boasted a thick cloud of fur between his ears; he stood several inches taller than Pikachu and bristled all down his spine, sparking from his deep red cheeks all the way to the tip of his tail, looped around the base of which was a beige, brittle rock roughly resembling a crown. He brute-forced his way between Pikachu and the female pikachu, shoving his head into Pikachu's chest and knocking him half a foot backwards. Around them, the other pikachu swarmed and linked tails, forming an electrified semicircle bordering the river. Several ousted the female from their ranks, and she pulled Hau's pichu with her, holding him close to her chest as she retreated to Ash and the others.
"Hey, knock it off!" Ash growled, indignant. "What's going on?"
Rotom surfaced from Ash's half-open backpack, expression uncharacteristically pensive. "In pikachu colonies, disputes are settled in combat, bzzt," it said. "It's traditionally for show—whichever pikachu first secures a bite on the other's tail is declared victor, and the matter is considered resolved."
"Disputes…? Pikachu didn't do anything!"
"Pikachu earned Curly's attention, pika."
Ash jumped to his feet; Pikala was standing at his shoulder, hands clasped behind her back. Lillie, Kiawe, and Mimo stood beside her, looking equal parts uneasy and perplexed. "The Boss has been trying to win Curly over for months—and your pikachu managed to earn her favour almost immediately, pika! Now, your pikachu is the Boss' rival in love, pika."
Love? "You mean…"
"The Boss wants Curly to be his girlfriend, and your pikachu is messing that up, so now they have to fight, pika!"
Ash screwed up his face, sinking back onto the rock beside Hau. Girlfriend? "Pikachu doesn't want a girlfriend," he mumbled, hands balled into fists. "Pichu was trying to learn thunderbolt, and Pikachu offered to help, that's all."
Pikala hummed skeptically. "Mmm, maybe, but the Boss doesn't see it that way, pika. There's nothing we can do, anyway—the Boss rules this colony, and if he wants a fight, he's going to get a fight, pika. It's best to let the battle run its course; it's the way this colony works, pika!"
"Aren't you supposed to be their trainer? Can't you just tell 'em to stop?" Hau asked, easing their pichu out of Curly's grip and setting him back in their lap. Pikala smiled—though it didn't reach her eyes.
"Pikachu are pokémon, and pokémon aren't like people, pika," she said. "I don't want to force them to be anything they're not, pika! I don't try to mess with nature—besides, isn't battling what trainers do, pika?"
The Boss and Pikachu circled each other, sizing one another up. Pikachu seemed to know, instinctively, to keep his tail flattened against his outer flank, protecting it from the Boss' beady eyes; the boss held everything high, strutting rather than prowling.
"He's confident," Kiawe observed. Pikala hummed, sounding—proud.
The Boss broke the stalemate first; his arrogant impatience formed a red ring about him, visible whenever Ash blinked. He swung his tail, the crude crown looped around its base struck Pikachu between the eyes, and Pikachu flinched, turning his face away and shutting his eyes. The crown snagged against his ear, dangling from it; a moment later, the Boss knocked it to the ground, slamming one broad forelimb into Pikachu's chest and sending him flying. Stunned, Pikachu rose, tucking his tail beneath his body protectively and shielding his face with his paws—and the cycle repeated, over and over. The Boss beat him round the makeshift arena, offering no reprieve, no time to recover.
"What an interesting strategy, bzzt," Rotom murmured. "By flinging that king's rock, the Boss ensures that Pikachu can't attack for flinching—and by using knock off, bzzt, he can retrieve it and cause extra damage."
Ash balled his hands into fists and swallowed the urge to command. Pikachu's Aura was a flickering, surprised thing, but his determination was bright and blue. "Pikachu's got this," he promised. The Boss couldn't rely on one trick forever: the longer he persisted, the sloppier he grew.
And the Boss was persistent; soon, he had Pikachu haphazardly sprawled belly-down in the grass. He moved in on him with a cocky, swaggering gait, head held high, and swung his tail to fling his king's rock once more—
And Pikachu blurred, dodging with quick attack. The Boss retrieved the rock with an irritated grumble, flinging it again—and Pikachu countered with iron tail, smashing it to smithereens.
"Alright!" Ash shouted, back on his feet. Pikachu's eyes found his, briefly, and lit up with a smug glee.
The Boss froze, unblinking, staring blankly at the shattered pieces of his crown, as though he couldn't comprehend its destruction—then flattened his ears to his head, baring his teeth in a snarl.
"He doesn't look very happy, bzzt," Rotom stage-whispered.
Kicking a large chunk of his shattered crown aside, the Boss flung himself into a reckless volt tackle. Pikachu vaulted into the air, using his tail as a springboard, and pulled himself into a tight flip, snagging the Boss with electroweb and halting his rampage. The Boss stumbled and fell with a frustrated growl, thrashing and wriggling futilely; Pikachu touched down neatly, shaking himself out and trotting towards the Boss' vulnerable tail.
"That wasn't much of a battle," Kiawe snorted—but Ash felt uneasy, like things had happened too quickly and too easily for it to be over.
Then the Boss shouted something across the arena to Pikachu, low and derisive, and Pikachu's whole demeanour changed, head dropping so that his chin brushed the grass and his tail lifting so it arced, stiff and trembling, over his spine. He looked—wild, Ash realised. He looked like he was wild.
"What's happening?" Lillie asked, quietly. "What did the Boss say to him?" Rotom's screen flashed blue, then displayed a move factfile.
"He used swagger, bzzt," it said. "It's a risky move—it makes an opponent stronger."
"But that's so—so counterproductive. Why would he…?" She trailed off, eyes scanning the screen.
Pikachu's jaws snapped around his own paw, sharp enough that even Rotom recoiled with a modulated sound of distress.
"Because it confuses them, too," Kiawe said.
Tucked against Ash's ankle, Curly whimpered, and he bent to pet her ears. She probably felt responsible for it all, he realised, but that wasn't fair, really, because it wasn't like she'd planned on earning the Boss' attention. It didn't even seem reciprocated. The Boss was so caught up in getting what he wanted that he'd forgotten to consider her feelings.
"It's okay," he told her. She looked at him with watery eyes, and something in her expression made him pick her up, setting her on his shoulder. It was a comforting weight, even if she was a little lighter than Pikachu was, and didn't tug his body to the side in quite the same way.
The Boss smashed his way out of the webbing, wreathed in electricity, and knocked Pikachu backwards; disoriented, helpless, and confused, Pikachu toppled, losing his footing and tumbling down the steep embankment into the river.
"Pikachu!" Ash shouted, restrained only by Kiawe's hand crumpling the back of his collar. Frantic, he peered into the rippling water, but saw only his reflection. "Pikachu!"
Kiawe hauled him away from the water's edge and back onto the boulder. The Boss lifted his tail high and turned his back, preening and parading before the eager colony, but his eyes roved wildly, like he was looking for something. They eventually settled on Curly, clinging to Ash's shoulder, and narrowed, like he was waiting for something from her, but Curly only turned her head away, tucking it beneath Ash's chin and chittering churlishly.
She doesn't like you, Ash thought fiercely, like he was trying to transfer the notion into the Boss telepathically. She doesn't like you, and beating up other pikachu won't change that, and you should probably just leave her alone and stop being a big, dumb bully.
Then sparks struck the Boss from behind, and the chattering colony of pikachu went very, very quiet. The Boss turned back and found himself staring down the embankment at Pikachu—drenched, but very much conscious, and climbing, slowly, up towards him.
He struck the top of the embankment with brick break, dislodging huge chunks of dirt that rolled towards Pikachu—but Pikachu beat them back with iron tail, nailing the Boss in the face with one of them and buying enough time to ascend back into the arena.
Even after taking a beating, Pikachu was faster than the Boss—he was smaller, and leaner, and for all the power in the Boss' reckless attacks, he was tiring fast. Pikachu leapt nimbly from spot to spot, flinging sparks the Boss' way and wearing him down from a distance, and Ash could see the Boss' frustration deepening, motions growing clumsier with white-hot rage.
That was Pikachu's strength, he realised: the Boss was fighting for his pride, to prove himself to his colony, to Curly. Pikachu had nothing to lose.
Quick attack shunted the Boss backwards, and he teetered dangerously close to the edge of the embankment; he glanced down into the water, then retreated sideways with a low, growling shriek, jerking his head up and making a warbling sound that felt like a call to arms.
From the semicircle, three more pikachu—male, all smaller than the Boss—slunk forward, forcing Pikachu into the centre of the arena. One's teeth grazed the air mere millimetres from Pikachu's tail, chattering keenly.
Kiawe snarled, eyes burning. "Four against one's not fair! How can the Boss call himself a true leader if he has to cheat to win?"
Pikala cocked her head. "How do you think they do it in the wild, pika? There are no rules in nature, pika."
Two of the pikachu lunged for Pikachu from either side; he parried them both with iron tail, but the third—scruffy-looking, with a conniving gleam in his eyes—struck from behind, slamming his paw into the back of Pikachu's head, and Pikachu flinched, flattening himself against the ground.
It was the opening they needed: the Boss' three cronies swarmed Pikachu, pinning him down. He writhed and squirmed to no avail, tail whipping and wide open, and the Boss approached him leisurely, stopping to flick Pikachu between the eyes mockingly—
And Pichu leapt from Hau's lap, flinging a barrage of stars that knocked the Boss off-kilter and scrambling through the crowd of pikachu to throw itself, white-hot and glowing, at one of the Boss' lackeys. Its ears thinned, body and limbs elongating, and its tail curved into a sharp, jagged lightning bolt. It was—it was—
"Pichu?" Hau breathed, and Pichu—no, Pikachu—loosed a thunderbolt that sent one of the Boss' cronies skittering across the arena, eyes wide and nervous. Ash's pikachu twisted and bucked, throwing the other two off, and Hau's pikachu helped him to his feet, rubbing their cheeks together.
"That's more like it," Kiawe said, grinning. "Two against four is a little fairer!"
"And Hau's pikachu will have the advantage of post-evolution strength, bzzt," Rotom added.
"Pi- ka!" Pikachu shouted, defiantly, and he and Hau's pikachu locked tails, unleashing a joint thunderbolt powerful enough to send the Boss' lackeys scrambling back into the throng of onlookers. Alone once more, the Boss suddenly didn't seem nearly as ferocious: his pompadour was a frazzled mess, and he looked… smaller, almost. Less like a despot. More like… more like a pikachu.
Hau's pikachu retreated, and it was back to a one on one. Quick attack met volt tackle, and Pikachu spun into an iron tail that nailed the Boss right between the eyes; he staggered, stunned, but shook himself out, throwing himself into another volt tackle. Once more, Pikachu sprung over him, launched by his tail, and this time, electroweb did its job, trapping the Boss long enough that Pikachu could meander over—
And gently snag his tail in his teeth.
"Nobody's ever beaten the Boss in a battle before, pika. Your pikachu is really something, pika! And congratulations to you and your pikachu too, Pikau, pika!"
Pikala had been awfully nice about the whole thing, after the match had ended. The Boss had been surprisingly gracious, too—he'd come around to Pikachu almost immediately, and looked nothing like the brutish creature he had when Ash had first seen him, now he was cradled in Pikala's arms like a baby. He'd even stopped leering at Curly—she still sat on Ash's shoulder, while Pikachu took his place on the other, almost balancing Ash out.
"Gee, thanks," Hau said, bracing their hands on their hips. "We're gonna beat that trial easy, now! And Ash—uhh… Pikash… let's battle next time we meet up, yeah? My pikachu versus your pikachu."
"You're on!" The two shook on it; then Hau set off up and out of Pikachu Valley, waving one last goodbye before disappearing over the hill.
Pikala waved them off, then turned back to Ash, squeezing the Boss tightly. "Well, it was nice of you to all come and visit, pika! Feel free to come back whenever you want, pika."
"Thank you," Lillie said, bowing a little. "It was—it was really fun."
"Of course, pika! Curly—come on, pika. Let's let these guys get off home, pika."
"Pikaaa…" Curly then said, quietly. She looked nervous, over-grooming her paws, and didn't budge from Ash's shoulder. Pikala hesitated, frowning.
"Curly, pika?"
Mimo peered up at her. "Does she… wanna go with us?"
"I mean—" Pikala swallowed, faltering. "I—um… Curly, pika?"
Curly's ears drooped, and Ash could feel the conflict in her, but she didn't budge from his shoulder. Pikala ran her fingers through the Boss'—who looked shocked, tail stiff—pompadour, took a deep breath, and nodded.
"You can always come back if you want, pika," she said, eyes on Curly. "And you four, pika! Take good care of her, pika. She's—she's a good pikachu, pika."
Mimo loved the midday sun, but evening was her favourite: Kiawe was always busy enough that he couldn't follow her around, harping on about how everything was dangerous and could kill her if she wasn't careful, and she got to hang out with the mudbray by the edge of the ranch, right up against the northside fence.
It was peaceful, and she had a great view of Route 5 from where the mudbray grazed, enough that she could see the duo approaching her long before they came within earshot. They were weird-looking: the taller, a man, had a severe mouth, even if his eyes were hidden by a visor, but the smaller, a woman with braided orange hair, had a skip to her step that made her seem less scary.
"Hello, child," the man said, in an equally-severe voice, "does this place belong to our family?"
"Sorry, mister," Mimo responded, using the words her parents taught her, "our ranch isn't for sale, and my parents don't want to talk to you."
The man floundered, then, seemingly speechless, until the woman stepped forwards, twirling her hair around her finger and beaming. "Sorry about him! He can be a bit… unusual, sometimes." she laughed. "My name's Zossie, and this is Dulse! We don't want to buy your ranch—we just wanted to ask you if you'd seen anything, that's all. You see, we're looking for something veeery important—and dangerous. If you can tell us anything at all, you'll be helping a lot of people out!"
Mimo perked up at that. She'd always liked the idea of being a hero—of being free, and saving people from dangerous things, and not having Kiawe breathing down her neck all the time. "What is it?" she asked, leaning forward over the fence.
The woman held out her arm and tapped her wrist, producing a holographic screen bearing two images. Mimo felt her stomach flip; one image was of Nebby, and the other was of Lillie, only she looked healthier, and less like she was wasting away.
"Now, we need you to tell us the truth," Zossie insisted. She still sounded friendly, but there was something… off, about her voice, that Mimo hadn't noticed before. Something modified. Something alien. "Have you seen either of these?"
Please don't tell anyone you saw it, Lillie had said. It's only a baby, and I'm keeping it safe.
Mimo tightened her grip on the fence and stared nervously at Zossie. She was waiting for an answer. Mimo didn't know which to give her.
A/N: comments are always appreciated!