{How long's it been since we came here?}

"Pushing twenty minutezzz. I don't think they're coming back anytime soon!"

I hoped he was right. It only took a few minutes to heal our Pokémon at the front counter, and another handful to stock up on healing items at the Poké Mart, and now we were all sitting at the café, waiting for them to storm in. But the grunts hadn't shown their faces yet, and we weren't sure how much longer it would take them if they were still roaming around out there, looking for us. Perhaps the place we chose to hide was so obvious to them that they'd assumed we hadn't chosen such a stupid hiding spot, and had gone to look elsewhere. But thinking about it that way, the stupid location was actually quite genius.

"In that case, I'd say it'd be safe to leave at this point and make out way back to Iki Town," Ilima commented, casually taking a sip of the lemonade he'd ordered from the café. "The Kahuna will be pleased to hear about your victory."

{I'll have Dartrix take a peek and give us the signal; just in case.}

I called my starter out of his Poké Ball and gave him the order.

"Krrrroo," he responded, coolly and compliantly. He'd seemed to have calmed down a bit ever since he'd evolved; perhaps he'd been storing all of the energy I'd seen accumulate in him as a Rowlet so he could use it to obtain his new, stronger form.

Dartrix went through the automatic doors, then returned less than a minute later and gave us a nod and a smile.

"Guess it's safe! Let'zzz head out now before those thugs change their minds!""

I didn't bother returning my starter to his spherical confines; he seemed pleased to simply fly above us as we made our way back down the road towards the outskirts. Besides, watching him fly kept me from running too fast, so I didn't end up leaving everyone in the dust.

It wasn't long before we found ourselves entering through the Iki Town gates, and I barked once to announce my presence to the villagers. And the first one to answer the call was not the Kahuna, but the next best thing.

"Hey, bud! Over here!"

Hau looked particularly excited, though for what reason I wasn't sure. But there was only one way to find out, so I approached him and gave him another bark of greetings.

"Wow...Almost didn't recognize you at first, with that new getup. Looks even better up close; I had no idea somethin' as cool-lookin' as you would look so good in pink."

I glanced off to the side. I couldn't help but feel flustered by the compliment.

"But anyway, you wanna see somethin' awesome?"

I nodded, and he held a Poké Ball in his hand...which I suddenly realized was wrapped in a white cloth, the same kind that was around my middle; it was fastened securely around his hand, and extended down the arm a ways past the wrist. Come to think of it, wasn't that the same arm that I'd accidentally...

My hands rose up to my mouth in shock at the sight of what I'd done, something that Hau caught onto.

"Hey, hey, Echo, it's okay; you didn't mean it, bud. Besides, it's not too bad. Doesn't even hurt anymore."

I cocked my head and gave him a skeptical look; I just wanted to be sure he wasn't feigning it.

"Yes, I'm sure it doesn't hurt. It's okay...Now, you wanna see what I got?"

I nodded, and Hau responded by tossing the Poké Ball, releasing whatever was inside. What came out wasn't his Popplio, rather a Pichu; I recognized the species from when I battled against it earlier.

"...chu?" it squeaked, rubbing its tired eyes. When it opened them and looked up at me, though, they shot right open. The Pichu squealed in terror, then hid behind Hau.

"Found this little guy just outside the gate. He looked pretty beat up, so I took him in to patch him up and he stuck to me like glue. Figured I might as well make him the latest addition to the team, you know? Plus, Popplio has a new playmate!"

The Pichu peeked out from behind his trainer, its horrified gaze flashing recollection.

{Rotom, you don't think that's the same Pichu we fought earlier, is it?}

"Zzt! It just might be! It does look sort of familiar!"

"Yo, what's going on, guys?"

"We fought againzzt that Pichu earlier this morning! Echo didn't want to catch it, though; didn't think it would be strong enough for the, uh...pack, and she didn't want it ending up hurt all of the time."

"Fair enough; your loss, though. But as long as we don't overdo it, this little guy is gonna pack a punch someday!"

I nodded approvingly; besides, it seemed like the Pichu would get along better with the human than with me, seeing what it'd done when I'd first encountered it.

Speaking of stronger Pokémon...

I called for Dartrix, who was still hovering above the treetops, and he stooped down and landed beside me; it was my turn to show my Pokémon off.

"Trrrill!" he called.

"Whoa! Rowlet evolved! That's awesome!"

Dartrix nodded at him, tossing his head as though to show off the flowing leaf on his head.

"Dang...Well, one thing's for sure; he'll come in pretty handy when you go up against my gramps."

I let out a curious chitter.

"You gotta fight him if you wanna finish the Melemele Challenge. Good news is that he's a Fighting-Type user, and your Flying-Types serve as pretty good checks. I haven't actually tried my hand at it yet; I'd have to do Ilima's trial first."

"Well, you're welcome to come to Verdant Cavern whenever you get the chance, Hau," the captain stated from behind me. "And I am pleased to inform you that our scaly friend here has cleared the trial with flying colors. Ha...if you'll pardon the pun, seeing what her team looks like."

"You finished already? Man; I thought you would have had to go through that at least twice! I haven't battled against the Totem Gumshoos yet, but I have watched the cap' here train it up, so I've seen it in action, and lemme tell ya; it's not somethin' to mess around with."

I nodded in agreement. The Totem Pokémon had in fact nearly beaten us, but we were a hair ahead, and Rowlet's evolution into Dartrix had certainly helped the matter.

"We were about to announce our victory to him now!" my PokéDex stated. "You happen to know where he izzz?"

"Sure thing, lil' fella. In fact, howzabout I go and get him for you guys?"

I gave another nod, and he ran over to one of the larger houses closer to the wooden battle stage.

I stood in the center of the village, just before the arena, waiting. It was silent for a few moments, but then...

Rotom's blocky arms rose to cover his mouth, and he wore a very amused expression.

{What's so funny?}

"I-I just realized something," he muttered, trying fairly hard to contain his laughter. "The bag the Professor gave you is UNDER that shirt."

I turned my head so I could see for myself; the bag looked like a lump of some sort under the pink and white fabric.

{Is it not supposed to be that way?}

"No! It's not! And that's what makezz it funny!"

...

When the Kahuna came out, he asked me a few questions regarding what was to be between the two of us, mainly about what I'd learned in my training so far, and whether or not I would be up to the challenge right at the moment. He even gave me the chance to go prepare before the battle.

In the end, I decided that it would be wise to wait until the evening for the Grand Trial. Besides, the heat was beginning to get to me again; the Professor had said that it was going to be cooler than the previous day, but I still didn't want to risk a repeat of yesterday when I collapsed at the door to the Research Lab. Besides, and the escapades from earlier had begun to wear me out.

Hau had agreed to accompany me back to the lab again, and we gave the news of the upcoming trial to Lillie and the Professor. As expected, they were immensely impressed.

"You're goin' on to the Grand Trial already!? That rules!"

"That's wonderful! I hope you do well when the time comes!"

"I think she's gonna nail it, fellas," Hau replied to them. "She's got two Flying-Types on her."

"Yeah, but keep in mind; your grandfather has a few tricks up his sleeve for dealing with those. Even with the type advantage, she should still watch her back. I've got a few extra potions stored away; maybe you could use 'em for the battle this evening, bud?"

{Potions?}

He explained to me that they were used for healing Pokémons' battle injuries by spraying them onto the wounds, and they would instantly heal them, and therefore instantly restoring some, if not all of the Pokémon's lost fighting capacity. He ran down to the lab, then returned with several.

"Stick these in your bag. That's four regular Potions and a Super one. They'll come in handy when you take on the Kahuna."

I nodded in appreciation, and we all attended to our own business afterward.

The next few hours were fairly uneventful; me and my Pokémon ended up passing an hour or so napping, and not long afterward, the Professor took me down to the lab and gave me something called an "X-ray." He said that he could use it to see my bones, and the image he showed me afterward proved he was right; I had an odd-looking skeleton, that was for sure.

"You're middle's healin' up pretty nicely. I think it's about time we take those bandages off, yeah?"

I had quickly agreed to this; the linen dressing had begun to feel somewhat constricting, and once that had been taken care of, I had made sure to put the floral-print shirt on before the bag. I was glad Rotom had pointed that out earlier, or I may have made the same mistake again(granted, when I had gotten myself into the shirt, I was in a bit of a panic, and I wasn't concerned with formality.)

I spent some more time hanging around the lab by myself, taking the books on the shelf into interest. I had opened one of them, and it turned out to be about Pokémon moves, explaining the different kinds of battle moves-Physical Attacks, Special Attacks, and Status Moves, in great detail. I was just finishing a paragraph on the different stats and how they effect a move's power when an odd noise caught my attention.

"Pew!"

I raised my head up and scanned the lab area; nothing seemed out of place, but I knew that I hadn't heard that noise anywhere before. My curiosity peaked, I closed the book and stood up to investigate. I sniffed, and I noted a very faint, yet unfamiliar scent. It was a smooth, soft scent, and it seemed like it was coming from somewhere by the metal table I'd found myself on upon my arrival.

"What do you think that wazzz?"

{I don't know, but I'm inclined to find out.}

I let Dartrix out of his Poké Ball and gave him an order, just to be safe.

{Dartrix, scan the lab for anything out of the ordinary. If it's safe, give us a signal.}

"Krrroo," he responded compliantly before fluttering over to the table.

"Hey...Come to think of it, I think I've heard that sound before. Up until you came along, I'd been hanging around the lab. The Professor usually had me separated from the other Pokémon, but I could see what he did with them during his research. But sometimes I heard that noizze, usually when Lillie was in the lab with him, and during some of the test runs with the PokéDex here, I asked the Professor about it. He always said it was nothing important...but I wonder what the big secret's all about?"

{I guess we're about to find out ourselves.}

"Kroooo!"

Dartrix sounded off and motioned for us to come over, and he eyed something behind the table. I quietly trotted over to where he was standing, then bent down to match his height.

And there was the weirdest-looking Pokémon I'd seen yet.

It essentially resembled a sentient puff of sparkling smoke or dust, and I couldn't tell if it was more blue or more purple. It's bright yellow eyes stood out on its dark face, and its mouth was opened in a little "o" of surprise.

{Do you think it'd understand us?}

"I mean, probably. Dartrix, how 'bout you say something to it?"

The Blade Quill Pokémon let out a series of soft, trilling hoots to communicate with the creature, and it wasn't long before it's mouth curved up into a smile.

"Pew, pew!" it squeaked.

{What about me? D-do you know what I'm saying?}

The Pokémon nodded, tilting its entire round, gaseous body forward and back.

{Where'd you come from?}

"Pew?"

{Do you live here with Lillie and the Professor?}

It nodded again, emitting another happy-sounding noise.

So it did live here at the lab. But for how long had it been here without anyone knowing? Not even Dartrix seemed familiar with the Pokémon; odd, seeing that he had been in the lab as a subject of the Professor's research for at least a while before I even arrived. Had the two humans been hiding it for some reason?

"Oh, no! Nebby!"

Lillie's unmistakable voice came from the stairway, and she rushed over to the small puff of a Pokémon.

"Nebby! What are you doing down here!? You know you're not supposed to go wandering around like that! Especially now that we have..."

She looked up at each of the three of us, her face somewhat contorted with frustration, yet also red with humiliation.

"...people here.

And then she stepped in front of the floating ball of sentient gas, as though to conceal it from view, and looked at all of us right in the eye.

"Uh, you guys! What just happened wasn't of your concern at all! Just...forget about it! Okay? It was nothing."

Me, Rotom and Dartrix all exchanged odd looks with one another, and I deduced that we were all thinking the same thing; that wasn't nothing. That was a Pokémon, or at least something similar to one. And it was apparent that Lillie didn't want us near it, which further confirmed my suspicions.

We didn't bother trying to hide our skeptical faces, so Lillie saw right through them.

"I...guess you're all wondering about what just happened, aren't you?"

Dartrix and I gave discernible nods, and Rotom responded verbally.

"What'zzz the deal, huh? I know I've heard that Pokémon's cry before since I've been here! Why'd you guys keep it secret?"

"It's...it's hard to explain, but now that the Meowth's out of the bag, I suppose I have no choice. I'll go get the Professor; he can probably tell it better than I can."

She returned to the first floor, and we were called up there before long. We sat in the living room as the Professor gave the explanation.

"It's a long story, but bear with me. When Lillie first showed up here at the lab, she had Nebby with her; she said something about it using some sort of teleportation, is that right, Lillie?"

"...That's right."

She was somewhat hesitant to answer; I wasn't sure why she seemed so upset with us knowing what we did, but I supposed we were going to find out soon.

"Anyway, it took a while, but she warmed up to us here at the lab eventually, and she told us what the deal was with the Pokémon. She said she was being pursued by people who wanted it for the wrong reasons, and she had to hide it in order to keep them both safe. Little fella's never far out of our sight, and sometimes we even had to keep it in, uh...tight spaces so it wouldn't go wandering off somewhere it shouldn't be. Apparently, it decided it'd be fun to go explore the lab, and there you guys were."

"So that'zzz why you guys have been keeping it a secret!"

"That's right. Only we and Kahuna Hala know about it, and we don't want that number getting much higher. Can you guys keep a secret well enough?"

"Bzzt! Can do, Professor! What about you, Echo?"

{You don't need to worry about that with me...for obvious reasons.}

"Oh, yeah. Right."

"What'd she say, Rotom?"

"That's exactly her point!"

{Don't rub it in, Rotom...}

"Ah, heh...Sorry."

"But anyway, as long as you guys don't go all over the place telling everyone about it, we don't have anything to worry about. Even if most of the people here in Alola can be trusted, you never know who might be a bad apple in the bunch. Especially those Team Skull goons; remember to be careful around them, okay, Echo? I know you've been able to handle yourself in the few run-ins you've had with them, but you never know what they might try to pull next, even if they aren't very bright..."

I nodded solemnly.

"Good. Lillie, do you have any input?"

"Well...I guess I just wanted to thank you for keeping what you know about Nebby to yourselves. I'm sorry if I was a little apprehensive back there. I'm just...really worried about what might happen if it's seen by the wrong people..."

The Pokémon floated out from behind her and looked up at me. It didn't seem frightened, so I bent down to sniff it. If...if the night sky had a scent about it, this would be it.

The creature grinned, and I attempted to nudge it with the tip of my snout; what I touched wasn't quite solid, but not quite gas, almost like dipping my nose in a cool, dry fog.

"I think it likes you well enough, I'll say that," the Professor commented. "That's a plus."

"Yeah. As long as this stays between all of us, it should be alright...right?"

I nodded in response to her concern.

"Okay. Good...um...Th-thank you guys."

"I, ah...guess I'm not allowed to scan it, am I?"

"Not right now, Rotom. Maybe some other time," the Professor replied.

Not much else happened in between then and dusk; I assisted the Professor in the lab while he studied Nebby's physical properties, which was amusing for the short time it lasted. It turned out that Poké Balls did work on the creature, confirming its status as a Pokémon.

"Not gonna keep it in there, though; lil' fella technically belongs to my assistant as of now."

I nodded in understanding, and watched as the Professor fiddled with the Poké Ball; within moments, Nebby was washed in a vivid, blue light. I expected something to happen to the Pokémon, as when one underwent evolution, but the glow simply dissipated, leaving Nebby the same as it was before.

I tilted my head in confusion; what had just happened? The Professor seemed to catch onto my thoughts.

"I released it. You can release a Pokémon if you're not going to be using it for some reason."

I tilted my head the other way, as attempt to ask for examples of such a case.

"Well, say a Pokémon you just caught doesn't want to listen to you, or if you just catch it to record it in your PokéDex, so you won't be using it to battle. Thos are a few instances where you might release a Pokémon."

I nodded again; it made more sense now.

"I think that's all that need be done for now," he continued. "You go on ahead and entertain yourself.

I had my head stuck in several of the Professor's scientific books for a while after that; not much of what was written in them made much sense to me, but I decided to use what I could comprehend. One of the books talked about things called "Abilities," and described them as special traits that different Pokémon possess that give them certain skills on the battlefield. Upon reading through the glossary of Pokemon and the Abilities they could possess per individual species, I found that Dartrix could have one of two abilities, Overgrow and Long Reach; the former increased the power of Grass-Type moves when the Pokémon was at low health, and the latter nullified the effects of "direct contact" with another Pokémon that either had a specific Ability or was holding an item that could cause damage upon direct contact. Hawlucha could have one of two Abilities as well; Limber, which prevented the Paralysis status condition, and Unburden, which essentially doubled speed when the Pokemon used up an item in battle.

I found all of this, and anything else I was able to make sense of on Pokémon moves, types and matchups, very interesting. So much so that I would have done it the entire rest of the evening if the Professor had not alerted me to the time.

"You gonna hit the Grand Trial soon? It's gonna be getting dark here in a while."

And as soon as he said it, I bolted my head up from the book, double-checked to make sure I had all of my Pokémon, grabbed Rotom, scurried up the stairs and headed straight out the door, making a mad dash toward Iki Town.

"Hey, wait! It's not that late! You got time!"

I didn't even process what he'd said until I was already there. I slowed down to a walk, and was about to inform the Kahuna that I was ready for the final Melemele Trial, when I heard his voice coming from behind me.

"So, you came."

It's seemingly unnatural seriousness sent a chill down my spine. Nonetheless, I turned to face him, and there he was.

"I assume you've prepared yourself well enough?"

I nodded. I could get past his Fighting-Types with my two trusty bird Pokémon, even with the tricks he supposedly had up his sleeve. Plus, I had potions in case things got hairy, so needless to say, I felt pretty confident in my abilities.

"Very well. Meet me at the arena when you're ready."

He made his way to the wooden platform where the Pokémon battles were held, and I followed almost directly behind him. He stepped up onto the east side of the raised ground, and I did the same on the west, directly across from him.

"Hm...I can see you're quite eager to do this."

I nodded energetically.

"...Very well."

"Hey! Echo!"

The Professor and his assistant had finally caught up to me. They were just in time to witness the battle.

"She's...She's gonna do it," he marveled.

"Hey! What's all the hubbub out here!?"

The last voice belonged to Hau; he'd apparently heard the Professor call my name. And now he was going to witness the battle.

"Oh, man..." he said, realizing what was happening. "This is gonna be epic!"

"Need any tips?" my PokéDex asked me. "This izz probably going to be a tough one!"

{Actually,} I replied. {I think I wanna try this one without your help and see how well it goes over.}

"Oh. Okay, then. But if you really need me, I'll be on the sidelinezz!"

"Echo!" the Kahuna boomed. "Show me the full power of your Pokémon! Old Kahuna Hala won't be holding back! Let the Grand Trial begin!"

He pulled out his first Poké Ball and sent out his first fighter.

"Mankey! Focus Energy!"

The Pokémon emerged; it was small, beige and round, its eyes conveying a sort of primitive, uncontrolled rage. It pumped itself up for the oncoming fight.

{Red! Give it one of your Wing Attacks!}

My Halwucha came out, then immediately made himself airborne, one of his wings glowing white, and slammed it right into the enemy Pokémon. It sent the Mankey flying across the arena, and almost directly into its Trainer. The Fighting-Type struggled to get back onto its feet; the one attack had already taken most of its strength away. One more hit should do it in nicely.

{We're at an advantage, Red! Now's the time to use Hone Claws!}

Not only would Hone Claws power him up for the following opponent, but it would make absolutely sure of the Machop's defeat with the next hit. And if he took any considerable damage, I would just use one of the Potions the Professor gave me to patch him back up again, so there was potential that Red might be able to sweep his whole team.

But it turned out that I wasn't the only one with Potions.

The Kahuna pulled one out and sprayed the site of the attack wound we'd inflicted, and in an instant, it disappeared, restoring the enemy to its full strength. The human saw the shock on my face.

"You expect me to just have him take it? Ho! Think again, Trainer. Now! Mankey! Karate Chop!"

{One more Wing Attack! We've got a boost!}

Red ruffled his feathers, then went in for the attack, his wings glowing white again. It was strong enough to counter the enemy's Karate Chop, and it dealt considerablely more damage with the Hone Claws buff I'd ordered.

The Mankey stumbled backward, then finally collapsed; it was drained.

"Mankey! Return! Makuhita! Show 'em what for!"

His second Pokémon entered the arena; also round, but yellow, and it looked...very vaguely humanoid.

{Keep it up, Red! Try a Karate Chop; we need a little variation!}

The Hawlucha honed in, his clawed hand glowing bright red. It looked like he had this attack in the bag.

But then, just when Red was a mere foot away from his opponent...

"Fake Out!"

The Makuhita slapped its open palms barely an inch away from Red's face. He lost focus, and stumbled backwards, rubbing his stunned eyes.

{Red!}

"Now's our chance! Hit 'em with your Sand Attack!"

"...Cha?"

Red opened his eyes again, only for the enemy to kick up a cloud of dust into them.

"CHA!" he exclaimed, agonized by the stinging sensation.

"Arm Thrust! Let's go!"

The Makuhita continued to slam his open palms into my blinded fighter.

{Red! Take to the skies!}

My struggling Hawlucha obeyed, and he managed to get his hands away from his eyes to spread his wings and fly.

{Now! Shake off that and Attack and go in for Wing Attack! We need to make this a one-hit KO!}

I saw Red stop flapping, and as he began to plummet from the great height, he rubbed the last of the sand out of his eyes. He turned his freefall into a dive, then, with the precision of an arrow, slammed his glowing claws directly into the enemy. When the dust cleared, it revealed the Makuhita lying dead-out on the wooden stage.

Kahuna Hala was visibly awestruck; he probably wasn't expecting me to be quite as strong as I was.

"I still have one more Pokémon! Crabrawler! Leer!"

His final Pokémon was sent out. It was purple and yellow, with very large, blue pincers, and a peering look in its eye. It sent a sharp glare right at my Hawlucha.

"Lu...lucha," he grumbled, trying not to look the enemy directly in the eye. He wasn't low on health, but he was pretty worn out from the Makuhita, and his eyes still strained to remain open after the Sand Attack.

{Red. You've done well. Take a break.}

I returned him to his Poké Ball, then pulled out the one belonging to my Beta.

{Dartrix! Give 'em your Peck and see how much it does!}

"Trrrrrill!" he screeched, unphazed by the enemy's gaze.

"Pursuit!"

When Dartrix approached, the opposing Pokémon wound up its pincer, then sent it slamming into his face when he drew near enough.

"Kroo!"

It knocked my Flying-Type back, but other than that, it did superficial damage.

{Show 'em your Razor Leaf!}

My partner obeyed, summoning a flurry of sharp leaves and sending them hurdling towards the Crabrawler at full speed. It tried to block the attack with its giant claws, but its attempts were futile; it took most of the attack, and it did a number on it. The creature stumbled as it tried in vain to shake off the damage.

We had it right where we wanted it.

{Go! Peck!}

Dartrix fired up his sharp beak, flapped his wings, then flew full force at the enemy. The Crabrawler tried again to block the attack, but it raised its pincer a moment too late, and our Peck attack slammed right into its middle.

The Fighting-Type flew across the wooden arena, and landed at the Kahuna's feet, fainted.

We won.

The Island Kahuna's face portrayed pure shock; his entire team had been demolished, and neither of my Pokémon were even on the verge of fainting.

"I've...never seen such raw power before from someone so inexperienced," he marveled. "Even with the type advantage."

He looked up to me.

"Echo...You really are something special, you know that? You and your Pokémon."

"She did it..." the Professor mumbled. "The crazy son of a gun, she did it..."

The Kahuna returned his Crabrawler, then approached. I met him halfway across the arena, Dartrix close behind.

"I would hereby like to congratulate you on your victory, Trainer. If you would let me see your passport, I will mark that you have completed the Grand Trial of Melemele Island, granting you access to the trials on Akala Island.

I pulled my passport out of the bag, handed it to the human, and watched as he pulled something out from his coat and press it down on one of the pages, then proceeded to write something on it. He handed the open passport back to me for me to see what he'd done to it.

There was a large, yellow stamp on the page, displaying what vaguely looked like Tapu Koko's shell, and writing that read:

"Melemele Trial Completion"

"With this stamp, all Pokémon up to Lv. 35 will obey your every command."

"Well done," he finished.

"That. Was. AWESOME!"

Hau came up onto the arena to congratulate me.

"How'd you even do that!?" he spouted. "None of your Pokémon even fainted! Y-you didn't even use any healing items!"

"I'd say she must have trained her team quite a bit," the Kahuna replied. "There have been Trainers in the past that have tried to defeat me with the strategy of using only Flying-Types, but none of them quite compared to this; regardless of whether they won or lost."

"Heh...Sorry if I was...rooting for her instead of you."

"Don't be, my boy. I'm just as proud of her as you are."

"Really?"

"Besides, you're next, don't you know? I doubt you'll be cheering me on then! Ha!"

"Oh. Yeah. I am, aren't I?"

"Hey! Congratzzz on the win!" Rotom buzzed, whizzing around my head. "You were incredible!""

{I think I'm getting the hang of this, don't you?}

"You said it! You didn't even need me to give you any pointerzzz this time around!"

"So, Echo," the Professor said to me. "Now that you've finished your trial on Melemele, are you gonna head on up to Akala Island here soon?"

{Akala Island...}

I turned to look at each of my human companions; I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave them all behind just yet. Especially Hau, who'd taken such a liking to me, right from the start.

And frankly, I felt very much the same.

{Rotom. Translate.}

And I explained my plans to them.

"Uh...She says that she doezzzn't want to explore the other islands alone, so...She's gonna wait until Hau finishes his Grand Trial so she can have a travel buddy!"

"Really? It could be a few more days until I actually manage to beat him, you know. I don't wanna keep you waiting."

I continued.

"What's that? Oh. She says it's perfectly fine, and that she can uzzze the extra time to train some more! And that..."

"And that what?"

"She says that you're her best friend, and that she wouldn't leave you behind no matter what!"

"Huh? Really?"

It was the first time I'd ever seen Hau look even remotely embarrassed.

"Well, ghee wiz, pal. We've only known each other for a couple days," he replied, managing somewhat of a laugh. "You really think I'm your best friend?"

I nodded.

"Well...Y-you know what? Yeah! Your my best friend, too! Come 'ere, you!"

He locked his arm around my head and pulled my hat over my eyes, much to my surprise.

"Weren't expecting that, were ya?"

I shook my head, straightened my hat, then assumed a pouncing position.

{So that's how you wanna play, huh?}

"Hey, pal. Easy there. What are you-"

Once he realized what I was doing, he sprinted into a mad dash in the direction opposite from me. I pursued him with a slower-than-normal gait; I knew I was that much faster than him, and all I wanted to do was give him a good scare.

"Hey, hey, okay, okay, I give," he finally huffed after a couple of minutes. "But anyway, mind if I show you something else?"

I stopped running and nodded.

"I know I showed you my Pichu earlier, and that was cool, but check out what happened to my Popplio!"

He pulled out a Poké Ball and tossed it to release his starter Pokémon.

It wasn't a Popplio anymore.

It was bigger, lighter, and had more frills and markings, and landed with poise on the dirt ground.

"I tried out Ilima's trial during the day! We just barely made it out of there, but it was worth the effort! She's a Brionne, now!"

"Bri-oh!" it called, its voice much more graceful than what it had been as a Popplio.

"Krrrrroo!"

Dartrix emerged by himself, and the two Pokémon began another faceoff. My partner Pokémon fired up a Razor Leaf attack, and I expected him to defeat the enemy yet again.

"Oh, yeah, Dartrix? Let's see how well you take Brionne's Icy Wind!"

The blue Pokémon fired a blast of ice-cold air from its nose in a puff of white. When it cleared, it revealed my Dartrix lying completely cold on the ground, his talons twitching.

I returned him to his Poké Ball, wide-eyed.

"I, ah...think you're gonna have to take him to the Pokémon Center, Echo."

{How...}

He read the shock on my face.

"What can I say?" he replied. "It's super effective!"

A/N: Alas, upon posting this chapter, this fanfiction no longer has 42,069 words. *sigh* It was nice while it lasted...

Thanks for the reviews, folks! I never thought people would actually like this crazy idea I had, but I guess you never can tell. :)