When Looker stepped into the ruins, he shuddered. The wind couldn't follow, but here it was still cold and dark. Cavernous. Quiet without the howling in his ears. He squinted at what lay ahead.
The walkway was narrow, cobblestone and vines. It crawled up into the ruins at a steady tilt, with the ground on either side falling far away, sand and rock and plants writhing in the darkness down below. Sand spilled in through the entrance.
The Sandile lay there. It was digging, head cocked and snout scrunched. There was a circle of sand cleared away around it like a lumpy snow angel without the snow.
000 was crouched by its side, tentatively holding out a pokéball as it wormed its way around.
Sweet was nowhere in sight. Then again, there wasn't much that was.
"What are you doing?" Looker asked just as 000's pokéball and the Sandile collided.
The flash that followed left Looker seeing stars.
A click, another flash, and Sandile sat there at 000's feet, grinning. Well, maybe not grinning but sitting there, tongue flicking in and out.
"My sister is gonna love this guy." He said.
"You have a sister?!" Sweet asked, from SOMEWHERE in the room.
000 and Looker shared a look, and then Sandile had its own look at the walls.
"Yes, he does. She's a scammer." Looker said, an edge to his tone. "We should focus on the screaming."
Sweet stepped forward into the sparse light. She stood there in front of them, shoulders back and spine straight. She looked…like something. Not herself. The softness of her features was overwritten by the set of her jaw and the line of her lips pressed together. One hand held a pair of sunglasses Looker didn't remember her owning. The other rested on her hip. Her knuckles were bone white.
She turned and walked back into the darkness. She didn't look back. The path was simple, a straight shot from point A to point B. They could manage.
There were divots in the path, giant square patches where the floor dropped away and was filled with something else. It was still stone, their footsteps just as heavy, but it was different. It was darker and less worn, hewn of one piece, etched with patterns that were thick with moss.
The giant blocks had been pushed, wide tracks cleared through the sand. By who or what, they didn't know. They just kept walking. Focused on the opening ahead. It was silhouetted in red, a faded, dusty color.
They stepped through. It was darker here. The floor was wooden, framed by stone, flourishing with ferns and flowers that all shaded together.
An altar rose above it all.
Someone stood there. There was a faint glow.
Sweet crowded closer to Looker and 000. Looker stepped back, craning his neck.
"I think we might be intruding." He whispered, careful not to be heard.
000 narrowed his eyes into the kind of squint that pinned you like a bug. "I could've told you that when we tore down that gate. Or the police tape."
"Hmm. You might be onto something."
Sweet started to say something but clamped her mouth shut and grabbed Looker by the wrist, grip bone-crushingly tight.
Metal clattered, three tiny clinks one after the other.
A beat of silence, then, "Leave me alone."
Looker struggled to take his arm back, stuck fast. "That wasn't you."
"No." She said, "It was her."
Light struck them head on: eyes. The glowing eyes of a Metagross, sunken but bright, casting eerie shadows, the same way an exit sign in a long hallway did after hours. The same color, too, as red as could be.
A woman had her hand on its head. Her nails were painted white.
She had brown skin and black hair, cut in a short bob that angled sharply against her cheeks, framing golden brown eyes. Her gaze pierced.
"How long have you guys been standing there?" She asked, face drawn.
Looker waved with his free hand. "Hello! We heard you scream!"
The woman stared, stock still.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She looked back over her shoulder, gaze lingering on the totem behind her. It stayed - squat and with a painted grin. "The ruins are closed to the public."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm allowed to be." Her voice was strained, held taut like a tightrope. "None of you are."
"We're tourists," Sweet said, holding up her camera.
"Put that down!"
Sweet dropped it. It thunked against her chest, strap tight on the back of her neck.
"I'm Ada Dale. Who are you?" Her gaze cut through the dark, straight through each of them.
They gave their code names in turn: Sweet, Looker, Zeroes.
Ada Dale huffed, taking her hand off the Metagross' back. She covered her mouth, laughter struggling out. She snorted, and that was when she lost it. She laughed like it was the first and last time she ever had and ever would - like it was the funniest thing she'd heard in her life.
Then it went on a bit too long, and she was leaning on her pokemon until she could finally breathe again.
"Those are fake names."
000 stepped forward, expression flat, tone flatter. "We're just tourists."
"Tourists with fake names who are trespassing on sacred ground?"
Even in the low light, it was easy to see how 000's jaw was clenched.
Ada Dale jumped down the stairs, landing on the wooden platform below like a pole vaulter. The Metagross followed. With a resounding thud and the pained groaning of planks bending beneath its weight, it landed. Its mouth was a gaping hole as it opened and a sound like metal tearing apart came out.
000 didn't budge.
The Metagross' eyes focused on them, gaze searing, and they stood there like a herd of Deerling in headlights.
"Are you with the FBI or something? The CIA? Another three letter organization?" She shook her head. "Wait, wait, there's no way that's it. You guys are not that good."
"We came here to see the ruins. There were pamphlets." Sweet offered a pamphlet from her pocket.
Ada Dale made no move to take it. She looked at it, then at Sweet, annoyed.
Sweet put it away but kept her smile fixed. "It made the ruins sound cool, but it was also, like, suuuper vague."
Ada Dale's expression twisted into something almost like surprise, barely off, something not as solid but just as wide eyed. It was like surprise to the left.
"I promise, we're really just tourists." 000 said.
Looker nodded eagerly.
"Well, you see," she said, nodding back, "he has a gun."
Ah. Fear. That's what that look was.
"Looker!" Snapped 000.
"I have a concealed carry permit," he offered, hands up and fiddling with his tie.
"Still working on the concealed part, huh?"
The Metagross lunged forward, shoving itself through and leaving them stumbling. It lumbered towards the exit. Every step sent tremors through the floorboards. Ada Dale walked alongside it, one hand on its back, head turned to watch the agents stand there.
"Uh?" Sweet reached out, like that would do anything. Her hand hovered there in the darkness, fingers twitching unsurely. "I'm sorry!"
Her pace slowed. Metagross groaned from somewhere beyond the opening. "Okay?"
"You were right. We're agents, but we're sightseeing right now. You know?"
"If I tell you about the ruins, can I leave?"
"Please do!"
Her eyes were trained on the exit, but she took a moment, took a deep breath, and stopped. "Were you planning on asking for something from Tapu Bulu?"
Looker and 000 looked at Sweet, who shrugged.
"What's a Tapu?"
A beat passed in silence. Ada Dale stared - she cocked her head like she couldn't believe what she had just heard. She closed her eyes, head back as she breathed in then sighed.
"The Tapus are the four deities that watch over Alola. Tapu Bulu is this island's guardian. You're in the Ruins of Abundance right now, which is where people go to give offerings and pray to Bulu."
Looker nudged Sweet and whispered. "Do you think that's why there was a gate?"
Sweet stepped on his foot. He stopped talking.
"Tapu Bulu is angry right now. That's what the gates are for." She locked eyes with him.
He shuffled his feet and looked away.
"You should thank Bulu for even letting you in here."
"Of course!" Sweet said. "How do we…?"
"Put an offering in the bowl and a hand on the totem, and tell Tapu Bulu you're thankful for your...nice vacation. Or whatever it is you're doing." She was walking fast again, nearly gone, more and more shadowed with each step. "OkayhavefunAlola!"
She disappeared. The Metagross' heavy footsteps faded away and left the room silent.
They were still. The air was warm and stagnant, thick with the smell and taste of dust.
There was a click, click, fwoosh, and a tiny flame sparked to life. 000 held out his lighter. The flame cast a warm glow, the fuzziest, faintest circle of light. It made the shadows on his face that much starker as he patted through his jacket pockets.
"That could've gone better." He said.
"Ugh." Sweet made a strangled sound. "Why didn't we bring flashlights?"
"At least that kind of helps?" Said Looker.
"Huh? What helps?"
"Your lighter? It's dark?" Sweet swept her arms out wide. It was about as visible as everything else.
"Oh. Yeah, no. I just need a smoke." 000 said, letting the flame die. There was a cigarette in his other hand, already burning. He took a drag.
She took a step towards the altar. "So, should we -"
"Also, I can see."
"What?" Asked Sweet, missing the first step of the staircase. Her foot hit nothing, then sandy wood before everything slid out from under her, and she was staring up at a ceiling littered with holes.
Tiny stars stared back at her. They flecked the floor with white light that was scarcely there.
"In the dark. I can see in the dark." He said. "You were like half a foot off the stairs."
"Thanks for that, I guess?!"
"Welcome."
Looker helped her up.
The totem sent a chill through her fingertips. It raced up her arm and down her spine, a shiver that made her jerk. She pulled her hand back, arm to her chest, but the feeling was already gone. She wondered if that meant something.
Probably not. Sunglasses weren't much of an offering. They stared up at her from the offering bowl, pink frames that were neon bright, kid-sized.
(They'd been in her pocket when she'd woken second time - less wooziness and IVs and more questions. No matter how hard she tried to remember, she didn't know whose they were or why she had them, a hollow sense of detachment spinning through her stomach when they caught her gaze).
(Maybe Tapu Bulu would know. Maybe she just wanted an excuse to get rid of them).
She stepped away. Back down the stairs to where 000 and Looker waited.
"It was cold."
"As it should be." Looker said with an air of dignity. "Because it's a rock!"
Sweet patted his shoulder.
"You know, cause they're not alive."
"You're way too proud of yourself for that."
Looker made a noncommittal sound.
"Okay, Zeroes. Your turn!"
"Nope. You had your fun. We're done here." 000 started to step away, only to be caught by the arm.
Sweet's fingers dug in ever so slightly. She grabbed his other shoulder and shoved him back around.
Ah. No leaving allowed. Okay.
"I don't have an offering."
"You've probably got something." Sweet said, voice about an octave too high - like she was trying too hard or wanted to break glass.
He reached into his pocket. "I guess, I mean -"
"Nanu, do not give it cigarettes." Said Looker.
000 threw his hands down in disgust. Then, he dug through his pockets, jacket and pants, before he pulled out something crinkly. It was a honeybun still in the plastic wrapper, half of it squished flat and the icing mostly melted, but it was a honeybun nonetheless.
Mostly. Close enough.
He went up the stairs. Unwrapped the honeybun and shoved the wrapper back in his pocket like it wasn't sticky. He let go, watching it fall in with the mushy fruits and coins.
The totem stared. Its eyes were curved lines etched into the stone, upturned in laughter and painted white.
It reminded him of family photos, the way its smile was forced, the way once a year, he'd wear a button up shirt starched stiff with the collar pressed tight against his throat. The way he'd posed with his parents and sister as the camera flash went off in their faces, trying to keep his smile straight and even and pleasant, because too often it came out smug or lopsided. Usually, his smiles were both, never reaching his eyes.
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts like an Etch-a-sketch drawing. His hands were sticky from the honeybun. He grimaced. Wiped them on his pants.
Deep breath in, and okay. He placed a hand on the totem.
It wasn't cold like it was supposed to be and didn't feel quite like stone. Smooth, and it had give like he could plunge straight through.
Warmth seeped up through his fingertips, tingling across his palm. It was as warm as his morning mug of coffee as it spread up his arm and through his chest, heartbeat quickening like a jolt of caffeine.
He jerked back.
His hand was still on the totem. His feet were still planted on the ground. Everything was stuck.
With a huff, he tried again but nothing happened. The totem grew warmer.
He could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as the room darkened. The edges of his vision were going fuzzy, things turning fog-thick.
A shadow fell, stretching across the altar. It stopped at the edge of the totem, dwarfing 000.
"Turn around."
He did. His hand came unstuck and his feet moved on their own. The totem was at his back, and the wooden floor stretched below, Sweet and Looker pressed close together. He couldn't make out their expression, but from the way their shoulders were tensed, and the way Sweet had a vice grip on Looker's arm, he knew they saw it too.
Even their Pokémon were looking upwards, Matilda and Sugar standing by their trainers' feet, heads dipped ever so slightly. Sandile was beside them, snout touching the ground as if in a bow.
In front of him a creature towered. Its skin was black and its arms ended in hooves. On its head was a hat of berry-red wood, pierced by massive horns. It floated so close to the altar that 000 could see each and every line of wood grain, saw its chest rise and fall.
It snorted, white nose ring twitching with its breath.
His lungs were in his throat and his heart in his feet. Some other organs were somewhere, doing what they weren't supposed to.
"You accept."
It didn't sound like a question. The voice was in his skull. He could feel it right behind his eyes and pressing at his temples.
Tapu Bulu lowered its head, horns at an angle. Its eyes were bright through the darkness, the color of cherri berries. 000 was trapped in that gaze.
An orb appeared between the Tapu's hooves, wavering and green. It promptly exploded. You know. Like good orbs do.
It coated the room lazily. Vines grew like they were crawling, bursting with leaves and blooms that split wide into flowers. Ferns unfurled and covered the walls. There were mushrooms the size of dinner plates, pinks and blues and purples, glowing brightly.
000 took the stairs down by two's, Pierce already crouched on the platform below, fangs bared.
It stared, swaying in place above the ground. Waiting.
(There was a glint in its eyes.)
"Sucker Punch." 000 said.
Pierce was a blur, skidding underneath Tapu Bulu's massive form. He twisted, launching himself into its back claws first, crackling with energy. It didn't budge. Pierce fell like he'd slammed into a brick wall.
Plants were glowing before he got to his feet. Vines and loose leaves flew in a whirlwind, a wild flurry of movement that swallowed Pierce whole.
Tapu Bulu just watched.
000 just watched. The leaves setted softly and the vines crawled back into place like thorny snakes. Pierces' sides heaved. His hackles stood on end in jagged white clumps.
That wasn't…good. Yeah. Opposite of good, actually.
"It's a fairy type!" Sweet shouted, still wedged between Looker and a glowing mushroom.
000 said nothing, wracking his brain for moves that weren't basically useless. He was going to work on better type coverage after this, assuming he wasn't about to be killed. For blasphemy or trespassing or blasphemous trespassing.
"I ACTUALLY READ THE PAMPHLET!"
000 also not to listen to that the same way he hadn't read the pamphlet.
Pierce growled at his silence.
He usually wasn't this…freeze in place-y. He never was. But maybe it was the fact they'd already fought one beast today and now some island god was staring him down like he was a piece of gum on the sidewalk, maybe that was what made his heart beat sideways and his thoughts hiss into steam.
There was a flash. White-blue, cold radiating from it, Pierce yowling as he fired his attack. It met Tapu Bulu square in the chest, sent it flying back, tail ringing louder than church bells.
Ice Beam. Oh yeah. Pierce knew that move, didn't he? (Maybe that mission in Galar hadn't been a bust after all, what with the TMs and Looker getting travel banned.)
Another flash. Vines had twisted together into a braided trunk, up and into the head of a mallet.
"Dodge it!" 000 said, but the hammer was faster.
It cracked down, catching Pierce along the back and driving him into the wooden stage. The boards groaned, ruts and splinters dragged out by his claws. He tumbled to a stop in a splash of petals and thorns.
The recoil sent Tapu Bulu's bell clanging.
Up again, but favoring his right side. Still growling.
"Slash!"
And Pierce leapt. His horn glowed brilliantly as it slammed into Tapu Bulu's hat, right between the horns. A jerk of its head sent him into flight.
Pierce threw his momentum into a sprint as he landed.
"Keep going and use Sword's Dance!"
He ran, zig-zagging across the stage as Tupu Bulu watched.
Beams of light clashed above his head.
Tapu Bulu lowered its head, horns sharp and ready. It flew like a bullet.
They collided, horn to horn, Pierce digging in every claw for all he was worth. Tapu Bulu grunted. His footing started to slip, slowly backwards (in the same way kids got rug burn - when there's rugs). He grit his fangs and dug in harder.
Push. Shove. Bellows and grunts and growls. They were at a standstill. Muscles shook, but neither moved, pressing so hard it ached.
With a snort that stirred the air, Bulu backed away. But, it hovered. It still watched.
000 paced along the edge of the battlefield. "Double Team."
Mirror images of Pierce flooded the field. Dozens of Absol stood in one big circle, all panting and with eyes as hard as stone, Tapu Bulu waiting in the center.
A vine writhed to life. It lifted into the air and struck, half the copies gone with a fizzle and a pop.
"Detect!"
The vine changed direction with liquid ease, a serpent in the water, just as cold and harsh. It cut the copies into shining ribbons. Diced them.
It glanced over Pierce without a scratch.
"Another Ice Beam!"
The blast glanced Tapu Bulu's shoulder, striking the wall behind. Ice bloomed across stone. The ferns and ivy trapped beneath began to wilt.
Tapu Bulu lowed. The sound was like a Miltank calling to a herd across the fence line, long and pitching at the end. Wanting. Seeds scattered around the room lifted into the air. They spun. They flew, a blanket of projectiles, a barrage that couldn't be dodged no matter how he ducked and weaved and rolled. They burst on impact. Sprouts unfurled from the shards on the ground.
Pierce's breaths were shorter now, shallower, starting to frost in the air.
"That's enough." He returned Pierce, clipped his pokéball back to his belt.
He threw out Twitch. Her eyes glittered in the mushroom' glow, wide and hungry. Her smile was a crescent moon of teeth.
She was like a child hunched in Tapu Bulu's shadow.
"Fake out."
Twitch feigned left. Tapu Bulu dodged to the right and met her claws across the face. She twisted as she came down, landing behind it.
"Shadow Sneak - drop down and hold on," he said, nodding up.
In one oil slick movement, she melted. First her legs went. They sank like she was standing in quicksand. The rest of her followed in flat blackness.
The Tapu snorted. The sound rattled in 000's bones. Its eyes darted around as it turned from one side to the other. Tried to find what wasn't there.
Shadows crept along the ceiling. They turned purple and glittering and hard.
She plummeted. Claws first, she smashed into its hat. It bucked, but she latched onto its horn like a Komala to its log.
Tapu Bulu slammed its horns and Twitch into a wall. Her body crunched against stone. The sound as she fell grated like cinder blocks rubbing together. She landed in a tangle of ivy that fell away beneath her claws.
"Encore."
Both Pokemon locked eyes. Lights shone down on Tapu Bulu. They erupted into confetti and melted into nothingness as quickly as they'd appeared.
It knocked its hooves together, letting out another snort that stirred sand and leaves. Then, it charged.
Twitch dropped to all fours and scrambled out of the way. Like an absolute gremlin. Momentum sent Tapu Bulu careening across the stage. Something shattered in a cacophony of jagged sounds.
It pulled itself back into the air and bellowed. One horn was stuck in a potted fern, scattering terracotta pieces and dry soil as it moved. The other horn was still free.
000 grinned. "Disable."
Twitch grinned back, and her eyes flashed.
Tapu Bulu eyes flashed in kind as it floated closer.
And closer.
It floated over Twitch. (She grabbed at its tail, but it didn't seem to notice or care.)
It placed a hoof on 000's shoulder. Casually. They were friends at a party, not deity and man, and 000's breath wasn't hanging in his chest like it was tied to a noose. The touch was warm and sharp in all the ways it shouldn't be.
A vision of PrideRespectAccept shimmered in his mind. The thought was foreign, a square peg in a round hole, a voice that wasn't even really there.
And then it was gone.
So was Tapu Bulu.
The terracotta pot sat in its place. Its glaze was perfect and smooth, not a crack or a chip. Every fern leaf was perfect and fragrant.
"You know what?" Said 000. "Fuck this. I'm leaving."
Looker and Sweet followed quietly.
Twitch picked up Sandile like it was a barbie doll and loped after them.