I would like to thank The King of Emerald who is my Beta Reader once again, and also thanks to the two reviewers of Chapter 1: Umbruhon and St Elmo's Fire, especially St Elmo's Fire who gave a ton of suggestive criticism and tips on how to improve the grammar of this story. Big thanks to you, and we took a lot of this to heart and implemented it not only into this chapter, but went back to the first chapter and edited it carefully, implementing these changes. While other authors may get mad about suggestive criticism, I personally welcome it, and it shows signs that I need to still improve and helps me work harder to write good stories and chapters.

By the way, moves and attacks are still going to be capitalized to distinguish them from the rest of the dialogue, as well as to make Kukui's puns stand out more. If this bothers too many people, I will change it later, though.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and feel free as always to leave a review if you like the story or want to offer some advice on how to improve the story farther. Enjoy!

It had been two weeks since Wes stepped off the plane from Hoenn, and two weeks since Rose defeated him in a pokemon battle. During that time, Wes actually had begun taking the advice given to him from his mother, and began buckling down and attempting to remember the basics, along with some side training with Nayru in an attempt to grow stronger. Unfortunately for him, it didn't seem to change much, as proven by that Thursday's class exercise, which involved working together with your pokemon to get through an obstacle course.

Although Wes wasn't last to get through the course, he still was one of the stragglers, and was currently lying in the dirt with Nayru, panting as sweat dripped from his body. "Remind me what this has to do with pokemon battles?"

"If the trainer and pokemon aren't in sync, they won't win," Kukui replied, his signature grin etched on his face. "You need to Synchronize and get in tune with your pokemon, working together as a team."

"More move puns?" Wes asked, groaning a little, as Kukui walked over to where Rose was stretching with her bagon, who was imitating her.

"H-hey, Wes?" A nervous voice stuttered. Wes turned his head to see a ebony skinned girl standing there, his brown eyes nervously darting around to avoid looking directly at Wes. Her long, blue hair showed signs of sweat, as did her green tank top and white skirt, her blue shoes covered in dirt from the course. "I-I brought you a towel and some w-water."

"Oh, thanks Chloe," Wes grinned, sitting up and taking both items from her, proceeding to wipe the sweat off his forehead, before opening the water bottle and draining half of it in one gulp. "How did you do on the course?"

"O-oh, not as good as you!" Chloe nervously said louder than possibly intended. "I-I'm not too good at physical activity."

"You'll get it with time," Wes smirked. "I really only straggled behind because I haven't ran that hard since I was little."

"R-really?" Chloe mumbled, looking away once again. Unknown to Wes and Chloe, Rose was watching them over her shoulder, specifically at Wes, her expression one of interest and wonder.

"Alright, let's get ready to go back into the classroom," Jason's voice rang out. "We got an announcement to make."

"Welp, looks like that's our cue," Wes said, getting up and holding his hand out to Chloe. "Need help."

"Oh," Chloe stuttered, blushing heavily. "I'm good thanks!"

"Oh, okay," Wes shrugged, heading off, leaving Chloe to mentally curse herself inside of her head. Ten minutes later, everyone was back in the classroom, with many students fanning themselves off after running for so long. Some of their pokemon were still out, sitting either on their desks or on the floor depending on the pokemon in question.

"Now some of you might recall me saying on Monday when school started that there would be a surprise for you guys," Kukui explained, grinning. "Well it is finally time to announce it. This year, a few lucky students per class will be participating in the Island Challenge!"

Amidst the murmurs of excitement, Wes cocked his head. "What is that?"

"Ah, right, you wouldn't know because you aren't from Alola," Kukui smirked. "Well, for Wes and those that need a reminder, the Island Challenge is a rite of passage for brand new Pokemon Trainers here in the Alola region, which involves traveling through each of the four major islands here: Melemele, Akala, Ula'ula and Poni! On each island you will complete various trials, held by a Trial Captain, however these trails aren't just limited to battles, often times you need to find items or identify patterns, while with others you need to complete certain tasks or get tested on your knowledge. All trials end, however, with a battle involving a totem pokemon, a special pokemon trained specifically to be stronger, larger and more powerful than average pokemon. You will receive this to prove you're participating," Kukui then held up a amulet with four beads on a brown leather band, one red, one yellow, one purple and one pink, with a silver twist connection lock at the top to disconnect the string and hook it onto a bag. The amulet itself was golden in color and contained four obtuse triangles also with the colors of red, yellow, purple and pink, with two tuffs of leather on each side.

Wes' excitement could no longer be contained. "That sounds amazing! Where do I sign up?"

"Not so fast, Wes," Kukui shook his head. "Like I said, only a few lucky students are going to participate in the Island Challenges, each one having already proved themselves beforehand. For this class, Jason here has personally picked out who is participating in the Island Challenge."

"Why didn't you choose, Professor?" Chloe asked, tilting her head in confusion, petting a bulbasaur which was sitting on her desk, cooing happily with each pet.

"I have my reasons for letting only my aid pick," Kukui stated. "Now, those chosen will have until tomorrow morning to get ready, because they will undergo the first Trial Challenge tomorrow at Verdant Cavern with Trial Captain Ilima, who will meet you there around noon. The other classes are going at a later point. If you are chosen, you are responsible for getting there yourself, but maps are easily available to those chosen, and it is not that far of a walk towards the cavern. Now, if you would Jason?"

Jason remined silent for a moment before clearing this throat. "Rose. That's it. She's the only one capable of it."

"W-what!?" Wes gasped, flabbergasted. "Y-you can't be serious! You aren't going to even think about choosing me?" At this outburst, a bunch of the students began chuckling, while Chloe looked sadly at Wes, and Rose looked at him with some annoyance.

Jason looked at Wes. "How could I forget you, Wes," But before Wes could even realize what he said, Jason continued. "Thank you… for reminding me how right I am in my choice to only pick Rose and no one else."

Many of the students grumbled in frustration upon realizing Jason was serious, forgetting Wes' outburst, but Kukui quickly calmed the class down. "Well, Jason has spoken, but just because Rose is being picked now doesn't mean you won't get a shot. In fact, in two months' time, we will pick more students to go on the challenge. Until then, study hard and prove yourself worthy of this! Class dismissed!"

"This is insane!" Wes roared, having zipped over to where Jason was so fast, it was almost as though he teleported. "You won't even give anyone else a chance other than your precious top student!"

Jason glared at Wes. "First of all, you need at least two pokemon on you to partake in the challenge, and since you only have your ralts, you instantly disqualify yourself. Second of all, you have done nothing to prove yourself worthy of the trials in this school so far, while Rose has been top of the class since the beginning. If you want to prove to me you are worthy of partaking in the Island Challenge, improve yourself and impress me, and I'll choose you in two months. Good day."

"But…" Wes began.

"I said good day," Jason snapped, walking away. Rose followed after him, shooting Wes an analyzing glance before stepping out of the room.

"Ugh, that guy," Wes growled. "Who does he think he is? I bet this whole 'he is the champion' thing is just a fib."

"Well, maybe this is better?" Nayru suggested. "I mean, we don't even know much about the Alola Region, so facing these trials might be difficult."

"But how can I prove myself if they don't even give me a chance?" Wes asked, leaving the classroom and walking slowly down the hall. "If they just let me attempt the first trial, I bet they would regret thinking that I am just some punk kid."

"To be fair, they aren't entirely wrong, master," Nayru teased, earning herself a glare from Wes.

"So only Rose was chosen in your class?" A voice asked from an open doorway in the hall. Wes halted, before getting low and sneaking over to the door to listen better.

"Yes, seems like Jason is dead set on it too," Kukui replied, sighing a little. "I can't say I totally agree with it, though."

"Who is that?" Wes whispered, looking inside, making sure it wasn't obvious he was there. A tan version of Professor Samual Oak seemed to be standing there, with a lime green shirt with orange and white markings on, wearing a pair of white shorts and sandals. Wes pulled himself out of his thoughts, but had already missed some of the conversation by then.

"Well, I'll talk to him tomorrow," Kukui replied, putting down an amulet that he had shown in class. "Rose and the other students from the different classes got theirs already as well, so only thing left to do is file the paperwork and send off the students one by one. I must say, this year is going to be interesting, Samson, with our assistants and our newest student."

At this, Wes noticed Kukui beginning to stand up, and quickly began scooting back away from the door. Lucky for him, when Samson and Kukui left the room, they began heading down the hall in the opposite direction from where he was. The door to Kukui's office shut and Wes waited until they had turned the corner before looking at the door with somewhat of a grin. "Hey, Nayru, I got a way to prove I'm good enough to face the trials."

"Oh, no, you are not thinking of doing what I think you are thinking of doing, are you?" Nayru asked, then suddenly she blinked and muttered "what did I just say?", as Wes turned the handle to Kukui's office, realized it automatically locked itself. Wes wasted no time, getting on his knees, pulling out a paper clip and bending it into shape before sticking it into the lock.

"I'll just take one of the amulets, and pose as some kid who just wants to take the trial," Wes explained, picking the lock slowly.

"Yeah, and then you'll get expelled, and what will your mom say then?" Nayru hissed, glaring at him. "I doubt Rose will just be fine with us being there to take the trial even though we weren't chosen, huh?"

"I'll tell her I was picked at random. Besides, they won't expel me, probably just give me a detention or something. If they do expel me, maybe we'd get to go home and can do an actual Pokemon League Challenge instead of this 'Island Challenge'," Wes sighed, the lock clicking as the door creaked open a bit. "Yeah, it sounds awesome and all, but I think battles are more my specialty instead of these trial things. I just hope they aren't like that dumb obstacle course," Wes creeped into the room, looking around the office before spotting a box of 9 amulets along with the one amulet on Kukui's desk. Wes, thinking it was better to take one of the boxed amulets, nabbed one and slipped it into his pocket, carefully approaching the doorway and looking outside to make sure the coast was clear, before pressing the lock on the door and stepping out of the office, closing the door behind him, which clicked to indicate it was relocked. "I'm glad they don't have security camera's here."

"Yeah, so am I," Nayru sighed. "I may not like where this is going, but I have to say it's at least gonna be interesting to see what happens. Wait, what about the whole 'needing two pokemon' thing?"

Wes paused, thinking for a minute before he spoke. "Yeah, good point, let's capture one tomorrow morning so we can qualify and make it not look too suspicious."

"Sure hope whatever we catch is at least somewhat decent at battle," Nayru muttered, as they headed down the hallway, with Wes whistling. "These totem pokemon sound like they're no joke."

XxXxXxX

The alarm woke Wes up that morning around 6 am, which was unusual for him since he normally woke up for class around 7 am, however Wes had no intention of going to class that day. He made sure everything he needed was packed in his backpack, including healing items, extra pokeballs, which contained a mixture of different types, as well as snacks and water bottles. After confirming everything was packed, Wes placed the bag on his back and turned to Nayru, who was looking at him sleepily.

"If you want to catch some extra sleep, you can go into your ball," Wes stated.

"No thanks," Nayru groaned. "I may dislike how early we are getting up for this, but there is no way I am going into that devil contraption."

Wes sighed, picking up Nayru and placing her on his shoulder. "If you say so. Come on, we need to get out of here before the nerds start getting up."

Carefully, Wes opened his door and closed it with care, making sure that he made no extra noise that could wake up anyone, before creeping down that hallway and onto the staircase, taking the stairs carefully one at a time, before walking out the front door. Unlike most times where Wes would just follow the main path, Wes dipped behind the building, hanging close to the wall so anyone happening to look outside their dorm windows wouldn't spot him.

"Sense anyone?" Wes whispered to Nayru.

"No one, I think we are in the clear," Nayru stated.

"Ok," Wes sighed, heading out into the heart of Hau'oli City, trying to look as normal as possible to the people who were up at this hour. "We'll make our way onto Route 2 and do some training, hopefully capture a wild pokemon or two, then make our way to the cave before Rose."

"I can still see several ways this plan will go wrong," Nayru pointed out.

We'll be fine," Wes grinned, stepping out of the city and onto Route 2. "Alright, this should be Route 2. The cave isn't that far up the road, but in order to avoid conflict, we should go past that to attempt our training, after that we'll backtrack. I should have enough items to heal any injuries you or wild pokemon we catch have, but just in case we might backtrack early and go to the Pokemon Center in the city."

"Sounds like a plan," Nayru said, looking around before she spotted something. "Hey, what's that?"

Wes looked over at where Nayru was pointing to see a tiny yellow creature attempting to fly with wings very large for its body, white in color with brown circles on it. It had four tiny black legs with round feet, and big black eyes with a long, brown nose, and two tufts on its head resembling antennae.

"It's a pokemon!" Wes exclaimed, walking over to the tiny bee pokemon, who was still struggling to fly, looking dizzy. He pulled out a black device with red makings, rectangle in shape. Upon pressing the button, an image of the pokemon appeared on the device, with information.

"Cutiefly," Wes read from the PokeDex. "Average height four inches. Strange, this one looks a little bigger, maybe by an inch or so. Average weight .4 pounds, bug and fairy type. Seems like this one has the Shield Dust ability, which stopped added effects of moves."

"That doesn't seem to stop moves that only cause effects," Nayru pointed out. "Seems like she's confused."

"She?" Wes asked, looking back at his PokeDex. "Oh, this one is a girl. Well, we can't just leave her if she's inflicted with the confusion stat." Wes continued scrolling through the PokeDex, eventually finding the description of Cutiefly. "Cutiefly feeds on the nectar and pollen of flowers. Because they are able to sense auras, they can identify which flowers are about to bloom."

"With her being confused like this, I doubt she can see auras properly," Nayru muttered. "If I had to guess, I think a trainer came through here, battled her and inflicted her with confusion not too long ago."

"The confusion will wear off in time, but she's too injured to fly," Wes muttered, picking Cutiefly up, who seemed too dazed to notice. "Here, let's take her over to those flowers and let her drink some nectar, maybe that'll help heal her up and maybe snap her out of the confusion."

"I thought we were supposed to be training," Nayru stated, following Wes as he carried Cutiefly over to a bunch of blooming yellow flowers.

"Yeah, but I can't ignore a pokemon in need," Wes admitted, kneeling down and placing Cutiefly on top of the flowers. "I couldn't ignore you either, remember?"

"T-true," Nayru admitted, sighing. Cutiefly seemed to finally realize she was standing on some flowers, and inserted her long nose into the flower itself, beginning to drink.

"There you go," Wes said happily, watching her. "I bet that's loads better now." Cutiefly finished drinking, and after looking around for a moment, flew up into the air and circled around Wes' head, happily doing loops and spins in the air, before handing on Wes' knee and jumping happily. "Hey, there you go! I bet that's a lot better, isn't it?"

"She seems grateful," Nayru said with a smile. "In fact, I think she's grown onto you, master."

Wes gentle petted Cutiefly, before gently lowering her back to the ground and standing up. "Alright, Nayru, let's get busy training." As they headed off, however, Cutiefly zipped after Wes, landing on his shoulder. "Hmm?"

"Hey, I think she wants to come with us," Nayru thought, tilting her head.

"Cutiefly, do you want to join us on our journey?" Wes asked. Cutiefly nodded in excitement, jumping a little.

"Alright, let's see…" Wes got on one knee, digging through his backpack before pulling out a Poke Ball with a yellowish orange top, a big black spot just above that, and a red V shape on the front. "I think this Level Ball suits you perfectly. All right, Level Ball, go!" Wes gently threw the ball, which bounced off Cutiefly, absorbing her into the ball. It only shook once before it clicked, indicating a successful capture. "Alright, Nayru, we got a Cutiefly!"

"Reminds me of how you caught me," Nayru giggled. "You asked if I wanted to be your pokemon after you saved me from those jerk ralts bullying me, I said yes, and one Friend Ball later I was your first pokemon."

"I gave you the name Nayru after that too," Wes smirked, then suddenly remembered. "Oh, right!" Wes threw his Level Ball, and out popped Cutiefly, who hovered in the air looking at her new trainer with interest. "Let's see. I think a good nickname for you will be Faye, how does that sound?"

Cutiefly nodded in happiness, landing on Wes' shoulder once again.

"Alright, Nayru, Faye, let's get training! We got an Island Trial to prepare for!"