A/N: Aha, man watching how the game plays out as it does instead of knowing ahead can be problematic sometimes. I was expecting Acerola's house to be like the haunted house from the anime, but I forgot the latter was just a set up for Lana's sisters who wanted to experience haunted house, so it was an orphanage instead in the game. But then just a little later it sort of gives me the right thing by giving me an abandoned mart. I find it interesting that my story is sort of like a reaction video with how I'm going about it, but it's also like I'm setting myself up to guess something that's wrong later. It especially doesn't help that Ultra Sun/Moon doesn't have a detailed walk-through on Bulbapedia like the rest. That was rather annoying to find when I learned that. Anyway, onto the chapter.
Finding an Aether styled building, the teens rushed in, to which they sighed. However, a little boy and girl came at them.
"Strangers! Go get em Yungoos!" The girl commanded, and the small little weasel went to try and gnaw on Hau's shoe, but it wasn't doing much damage aside from light scratches and bite marks.
"Uh, why is this little fellow gnawing on me?" He asked with a confused state.
"We'll protect our home when Acerola's away!" The boy answered, but then the ragged purple haired girl entered.
"I'm back everybody!" Acerola called out. "Oh, I see you three have become familiar with my friends here at Aether House."
"Big sis!" The two kids went to hug her, which she accepted with a smile.
"Looks like I finished up my shopping spree right on time!" She laughed.
"So what's the Aether House?" Ash asked.
"It's an orphanage, funded by the Aether Foundation, obviously. We all live here."
"Oh. Say, where's Lillie?" Misty asked, noticing she wasn't around. By now, the trial has begun for Ash and Rotom.
"I left her with Hapu. They should be coming soon. So, why don't we get those trials done first? You did know I'm the Captain, right?" The girl asked, to which Hau gasped.
"You are?! I had no idea!"
"Come on, don't you see that hair clip?" Misty literally pointed out while Acerola giggled. "That means she's a trial Captain!"
"Hey, I haven't seen her as much as you two apparently had, and I spent a good while enjoying Malie Garden and Mount Hokulani so small details tend to fly by me." He defended.
"Hehe, you're a funny boy, aren't you?" The trial captain giggled, but stopped when they heard a cry of distress from outside, and it sounded like Lillie!
"What do you think you're doing?! Stop it! Stop it right now!" Rushing outside, the three trainers, trial captain and two kids saw a Team Skull thug harassing Lillie.
"For real girl?! Your bag was moving! Right in front of my eyes! And I'm just supposed to ignore that?! If you've got some rare Pokemon in there, I'm going to have to take it and make some cash!"
"Leave her alone!" Ash stood between the thug and Lillie.
"Ash!" The blonde girl smiled at his rescue.
"Oh, so we're following that script, are we? A trainer dashes forward to save the girl, huh? I'm not going to let you be the hero of this story!
"Hey, don't think he's alone!" Hau joined with Ash.
"Yeah, we're all here to help Lillie!" Misty stepped in too.
"She's my shopping buddy!" Acerola added.
"Ha, even with four against one I'll still win! Drowzee, go!" Sending out his Pokemon, he was grinning quite confidently under his mask, but then they all sent out a Mudsdale, an Incineroar, a Gyarados and a Dehlmise, which was a sentient giant ship anchor with a steering wheel. Even the kids' Yungoos joined the much larger Pokemon.
"Whoa, where did you get a Gyarados Misty?!" Hau gasped.
"Wha-what's up with that?!" The thug was quite intimidated by the opposition he was seeing. "I'm being ganged on by both number and size! I'm oughta here yo!" He and the terrified Drowzee ran off. Returning their Pokemon, Lillie giggled as she latched onto Ash's arm.
"My hero. It's just like the script he brought up. Thank you."
"Oh, you're welcome." Ash awkwardly chuckled, unsure how to react to this weird hug.
"And thank you all as well." Lillie expressed her gratefulness to everyone else."
"That's what we do!" Hau laughed. "Keeping our friends safe."
"What were you doing out here alone at night Lillie?" Misty questioned.
"I just wanted to go for a stroll on my own, to see what it must feel like to be a Pokemon Trainer. So Hapu and I went our separate ways. But then Nebby tried getting out of my bag." Lillie let go of Ash to look into her bag. "Didn't you Nebby?! Go on you little troublemaker, you'd better thank all of them too." She scolded her Pokemon, whom made a noise trying to say thanks. "Oh, and Ash? While I was out shopping, I kept thinking about you, and I wanted to get you something. So... here." Lillie handed Ash a ball of bright red thread, to which Hau and Misty gasped while Acerola silently became excited. "I just bought it without thinking!" The blonde girl laughed nervously.
"Haha, don't worry. It's a nice gift. Sure is some good yarn. Thank you." Ash said, which made Lillie beam.
"You-you're welcome Ash."
"Lillie, after something like that, why don't you rest in the Aether House?" Acerola offered. "We have something to talk about with Ash."
"Oh, thank you. I might take you up on that." The blonde girl nodded before heading in. Eagerly moving Ash away from the house, leaving Hau there as well since he was stunned, the two girls squealed which Ash had to cover his ears.
"Agh, what's with the squealing?!"
"Lillie gave you a destiny knot!" The trail captain answered.
"A destiny what?" The boy asked, never having heard it before.
"Ash, don't be so dense!" Misty told him. "A destiny knot is a sign a girl likes you! And I mean 'really' likes you!" Ash was shocked upon hearing that.
"She... likes me like that?! But we haven't known each other all that long! How or why would she love me?!"
"Well, it doesn't have to be necessarily love, but it does say something when a girl gives a boy a destiny knot." Acerola told him. "It's like an unofficial proposal for a deeper relationship!"
"I couldn't have explained it better myself, Acerola." Misty agreed. "Ash, I don't normally admit my feelings but this is a big deal. To be honest, I've sort of developed a small crush for you myself." Ash just spaced out upon hearing that. "But there's no way I can ruin something so precious with a girl like Lillie. She's so nice and sweet, so you better treat her right or I'll have Gyarados learn Hyper Beam to blast you then eat you!" The redhead ordered while pointing her finger at his face really closely.
"Okay, okay!" Ash put his arms up in defense. "I'll do what I can for Lillie!"
"Good. Now, why don't you go down Route 14 past Tapu Village?" Acerola explained. "I'll catch up to meet you for your trial. Misty and I just need to talk for a second."
"Okay." The boy said before walking off, having a lot on his mind. The girl then looked up at the redhead teen. "So, a small crush huh?"
"Don't say this to anyone else, but... yeah. It wasn't anything major though. I felt pangs of jealousy when he and Lillie were being close together alone and he's certainly a nice boy... but I don't really like him like that deep down. He's just the first person I've talked to that treated me like a normal person, even if we annoyed each other a lot at first and still do every now and again. But I think that's the extent of it. I do like him as a close friend... but he's not entirely my type."
"Oh? And what would your type be?"
"I don't know, but hopefully I will find that one guy I'd like to give a destiny knot to."
"Atta girl. Well, I should go and meet up with Ash. Don't want him wandering into an abandoned mall without any guidance." Acerola said before running off.
"Wait-what?" Misty asked, but she was alone. Shrugging, she went back to the Aether House where she saw Hau sitting on the steps.
"What's up?"
"Nothing." He replied, not sounding as enthusiastic as he normally does, which sounded weird to Misty.
Ash eventually found the entrance to the trial, and yet there was no captain to go with it.
"I wonder where she is?" He asked, but his mind wasn't really on the trial right now. Lillie, possibly in love with him? Even if that wasn't the case, Ash never really thought he'd get that kind of attraction. It wasn't like he was deliberately trying to woo her or anything. He was just being a good friend. He figures that's good enough for Lillie?
"Hi!" Ash jumped in shock when the trial captain greeted him from behind, successfully spooking him. She giggled. "Well, right up these stairs is your trail. Step on up and it will begin."
"Oh... thanks." Ash said as he walked up the stairs to find an old, abandoned shopping mart.
"The time has finally come, Ash! So I guess I should explain what the trial is. This old building has lots of ghost Pokemon. Here's where the trial part comes in. You've got to find the Totem Pokemon and take a snap shot of it. The totem is a bit of a trickster, and it likes to play hide and seek and mess around. If you take pictures of the other ghost types, it'll definitely come out to get in on the fun and have its photo taken too! So, if you see anything weird happening inside this old place, check it out."
"Luckily for my brave, kind-hearted owner, Ash has his handy dandy Rotom Dex with a built in camera!" The little machine flew out of Ash's bag.
"Hee hee, that's cool. And Rotom are part ghost type so that makes it extra cute! Here we go aaaaand... done! I've set up a special shooting mode just for this trial. You can only use it here though. As soon as you enter, your trial will begin. And you can't catch any of the Pokemon either.
"Alright, I'm ready. Let's do this." With a nod, Ash went to the front doors and pushed them open.
"Thizzz place izzz giving me the creepzzz! I'm glad we're in this trial together, my lovely!" Rotom cheered.
"Yay." Ash said with very little enthusiasm as he took hold of his dex camera. Moving along the checkout stations, one of the conveyor belts turned on.
"Get it! Get it!" Rotom yelled as Ash aimed the camera towards the disturbance. It was a Gastly whom was laughing. Ash took a picture, and it stopped, only to laugh more after before disappearing. Ash then turned when a shopping cart began to rattle. It was a Haunter! Taking a picture of that, no more disturbances occurred until they reached the toy isle, where toys of Pikachu and all of the Pika clones started hovering in the air. A Gengar revealed himself and laughed while sticking his tongue out, which Ash took a photo of. Nodding to himself, Ash started to walk back until he saw Acerola facing the walk-in freezer doors.
"Acerola? What are you doing in here?" The trainer asked.
"Who are you?" She asked, which confused Ash.
"Ummm, I'm Ash." He replied, since she knew who he was.
"Oh, never mind that. Looks like you're done with the trial, right? We should hurry up and leave."
"But I haven't seen your Totem Pokemon yet." Ash objected.
"This place is dangerous. You should give up on the trial and get out."
"And why should I? I'm not leaving!" He protested strongly.
"I told you to get out! Leave!"
"No!"
"Get out. Get out! Get OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" Rotom took a picture while she was screaming, and she suddenly disappeared.
"Whoa, what wazzz that?!" It gasped. "I don't think that wazzz the real Acerola!"
"No wonder she seemed to be acting weird." Heading into the freezer space, Ash and Rotom could feel as if eyes were staring at them. Using the camera, Ash looked around, but there was nothing in front of him, or to the sides. Figuring it was empty, Ash turned around only to jump back with fright as he saw the Totem Pokemon, a Mimikyu. It didn't look like a Pokemon, but rather something wearing a shabby attempt of looking like Pikachu made of a pale yellow rag, crayon drawn face and a wooden tail. And there were two eye slits on where its belly is.
"See meeeee!" It squealed as aura surrounded the foot tall ghost/fairy type, making it powerful.
"Primarina, I choose you!" Ash sent out his Water Starter, whom remained composed despite the atmosphere. Mimikyu leaped forward and with the stick for the tail glowing white, and thanks to its aura, it moved with speed the Soloist Pokemon couldn't evade in time and she was got hit in the face hard, causing her to move back a bit. The water starter did not look pleased as she moved her head as to catch the Pokemon on its back and proceeded to bounce the Totem Pokemon on her nose. It started to his in protest.
"Shadow Ball!" Giving the ghost/fairy type a strong push, Primarina formed a black and purple ball and fired it at the Pokemon, which it exploded against crashing into the ceiling, Mimikyu and parts of the ceiling crashed into the ground. It tried to get up and call for help, but Ash didn't let it. "Now use Sparkling Aria!" Forming another orb made of water while singing, she launched it towards the downed Totem Pokemon, which pushed it out of the freezer. When Ash got out of the freezer though, it was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging, and with Rotom saying it took pictures of Ash and Primarina easily handling the Totem Pokemon, he left the abandoned mart. Acerola waved to him.
"Welcome back Ash! Now let me see those pictures there." Going through the pictures Ash and Rotom took, she'd make some commentary while doing so. "Oh Gastly, always laughing. Hey Haunter, you looking for some ghost gibble? Gengar, I didn't know you played with toys. Aww, Mimikyu looks so cute with Primarina like that! These are really great pictures! It's hard to get them with such clarity. Which means you've earned the Ghostium Z!" She handed Ash a purple crystal with a spooky image in the center. "If you want to use it, this is how you pose." Doing the standard initial movements, Acerola then stooped down to rise up again while waving back and forth before posing like she tried to scare Ash. "And since you've passed my trial, you can now catch the Pokemon here in that old building. Here's some Dusk Balls for ease. It's not a bad idea to have some Ghost Pokemon on your team, but if you've got it covered otherwise, than it's alright if you don't have one."
"Thank you. Weirdly, I saw you in there around the back, yelling at me to get out." Ash said, which just made Acerola giggle.
"Oh Ash, that was just the ghosts being tricky with you. I was out here the whole time. There's not even a freezer room out back there." Suddenly her face went all wide and open for a few seconds before it went back to normal. "Brrr, I feel like I'm getting chicken skin. Like a chill going through me for some reason." She just then walked off, going into the shadows.
"Sheesh, talk about creepy." Ash said while he himself shivered.
"Yeah, but now we've completed another trial, and I helped out! Let's go meet the others at the Aether House!"
"Oh right, the... others." Ash gulped, thinking back to the complicated matter of... Lillie.
A/N: Hmm, I thought I'd have a segment where Ash and Misty help a woman out from all those Frillish, thanks to Misty's newly caught Gyarados. Well, it doesn't have much contribution so it may just happen at some other time or whatnot. Oh well, either way I guess. Not that it matters much.