The ship war is officially on.

It was nearly noon by the time Diana woke up, Eli and Snorunt already gone. After forcing down a single waffle and dressing in a hurry, she took a Charizard ride to Eli's house, and then another to the motel in question.

"It says third door from the Pokémon Center," Diana said as they walked from said building to the motel. "It shouldn't be too hard..."

"It's open," Eli commented, having already pushed open the door to find a man in a trench coat and a woman in a fancy black suit.

The man jumped back at the sight of him, but Diana's arrival seconds later calmed him.

"So you came," said the woman. "Champion Diana."

"And my sidekicks," she said, emphasizing the word clearly so they would know how she preferred her friends addressed. "Eli and Rotom."

"Yes," said the man, relaxing a bit. "I was in disguise last night. I have seen them before. I was merely concerned upon seeing the boy unsupervised."

"So you've been spying on us," Eli summarized, but Diana silenced him with a look.

"Dude. Calm." Then she turned to the man with the same look in her eyes she'd once given a Mimikyu seconds before dropping a Bewear on it. "So you know us. Who are you?"

The man chuckled. "My name...my codename, it is Looker. I am a member of the International Police. And this is my boss."

The woman nodded. "It's an honor to meet you, Diana. My name is Anabel. I am the head of a secret division of the International Police - the UB Task Force."

"UB..." Diana had a suspicion, but she didn't want it to be confirmed. As interested as she was in learning if she had stronger gifts than she'd suspected, she didn't want a motel to be the first place to run those tests. She'd get sued.

"Indeed," said Looker. "Diana. Eli. Rotom. Is it true that you have encountered UB Symbiont?"

A beat of dead silence, and then Diana broke it. "What." The word wasn't even a question.

"What's a UB?" Eli asked, though he, too, had a suspicion.

"UB," Anabel said, in a tone that confirmed their shared fears, "stands for Ultra Beast. UB Symbiont is the creature known as Nihilego."

Fwoosh.

The cousins barely processed the spontaneous flames in the corner, but Looker had come prepared with an extinguisher.

"We'll take that as a yes," said Anabel.

"What do you want to know about it?" Diana asked. Her own voice was shaking as she tried to suppress the memory.

Looker shook his head as he put the extinguisher away. "It is not what you can tell us. It is what you can do."

"Everything we're about to share with you is classified," Anabel warned.

"Only a handful of people are allowed to know," Looker continued. "In fact, we ourselves are to be shot as soon as this mission is over."

Anabel yelped in shock. "No! No, we won't, Looker."

"We won't?" he stared for a moment, then laughed. "That is a relieving surprise!"

Anabel shook her head and pretended the conversation never happened. "When the former Aether president...did what she did...Symbiont wasn't the only UB to come to our world. We've heard reports of another Symbiont, that is, another Nihilego..."

And that was when Diana stopped listening. Another Nihilego. The risk of another Lusamine. Or, worse, whatever had happened to Lillie and Gladion's father.

"The UBs are dangerous," Looker said, though only Rotom was capable of listening at the moment.

"So are these two," Rotom pointed out, smacking both of the kids to wake them up. "Trust me, I know how to handle danger."

"Not like these beasts. Their powers exceed the boundaries and logic of our world. We have chosen you, Eli and Diana, because you also have powers that exceed the boundaries and logic of our world."

"So to summarize, we have freaky powers and you want in on it," Eli said with a nervous chuckle. "I can respect that. I guess."

"Those powers are temperature immunity and fear-triggered fire generation," Diana pointed out. "They're useless when fighting Ultra Beasts, good for distraction at most. If they weren't, Eli would have..."

She stopped talking as memories of the jellyfish cave broke through the barrier she'd attempted to place around them.

Anabel held her head high. "You seem so certain of that. But didn't you say yourself that you wanted to test the limits of your powers, Diana? See if your limitation stops there...if you've truly peaked at eleven?"

Diana stopped, realizing that these people hadn't really been spying on her, merely watching some girl's YouTube channel. She was more impressed than angry - she had only 17 subscribers, and the international police were among them? That wasn't something she'd expected, and from the look on his face, Rotom hadn't seen it coming either.

Anabel smiled slightly. "Besides, this is to help with studying the Ultra Beasts. As a scientist, you understand how important learning their ecology can be."

It wasn't fair, using her scientific curiosity against her. Unfortunately, when Anabel put it like that, there was no point she could make against it.

Anabel continued on as if she hadn't noticed. "We're also tasked, and tasking you, with searching for more UBs and protecting people from them. And of course, protect them from people."

"We have heard that they were destructive beings bent on revenge," Looker said. "But we need to be sure of that. If they can be spared, we would prefer taking that option. We would prefer you to catch them."

"Catch?" It was Rotom that repeated it this time. "How are they going to catch them?"

"Oh, we have ways." Anabel smiled. "So. Champion of Alola and friends. Do you accept the mission?"

Diana went quiet. "Fine," she said, "but if we die, or a Nihilego possesses us and uses our powers and Pokémon to literally rain down Armageddon, it's on you."

Anabel nodded seriously, having already considered the possibility. "You're afraid," she observed, and Diana made an unladylike sound.

"How can you tell?"

"Who wouldn't be? I'm afraid, too." She pulled out a Pokeball. "Let's calm our nerves with a battle."

The Alakazam knew Focus Blast, which was a bit disappointing for the first round against Lycanroc. Switching out for Honchkrow took care of it, and the Mismagius that followed. The Salamence convinced Diana to switch for Artemis, since a legendary that knew Moonblast was Diana's best shot now since Mimikyu was at home, and Bewear had beaten a Snorlax before. The Weavile was slightly more difficult, taking out both Bewear and Poliwhirl, but Diana had healed Lycanroc, and he had finished it for her.

Anabel looked around once more. "The testing is complete. There's a very good reason you became the first Champion of Alola, Diana. We'll do fine work together."

"Fun," said Diana, almost tasting the sarcasm. "What's our first mission?"

"The chief and I will gather more information on the UBs," Looker explained. "As for the three of you, you will go to the secret labs in Aether Paradise. Ms. Wicke is our associate, having contacted us when her former boss forcibly opened Ultra Wormholes. She will know why you came."

"What about the rest of the Foundation?" Eli asked. "We weren't exactly welcome there the last time."

"But a young man has taken over for his mother," Anabel said, and they all noticed recognition on Diana's face. "Ah, so you know him."

"Yeah." Gladion had taken over the Aether Foundation? He didn't seem that much older than his sister...was Wicke running things through him? "We've met a few times."

Eli made a sound of mock disappointment. "Diana," he said, "we both know the two of you saw a Luvdisc singing Disney. Just admit the boy's your soulmate."

"You mean the urban legend?" She rolled her eyes. "That is still undetermined."

Despite her (admittedly mild) objection, Anabel and Looker both laughed. "Well, then," Looker declared, "I believe that settles things. The entire Aether Foundation will welcome you, or risk their jobs."

Diana groaned. Rotom patted her shoulder.

"If it means anything," he said, "I still think you have a chance with your real crush."

It didn't, but it was a good try.

Wicke was waiting for them. She gave them some updates on the family, some snacks, and an escort all the way to Secret Lab B.

Once the door had closed behind them, she began. "I assume you met with Looker and Anabel?"

"We did," Eli confirmed. "They said that you were the one who can give us the information."

"What I'm about to tell you is absolutely classified," Wicke warned. "I haven't even told Master Gladion, and he...well, let's just say he's interested in fixing his mother's mistakes. But if he knew, he would try to take them out himself."

"And he can't help us do that?" Diana asked.

"Looker said he wanted them alive," Eli reminded her, and Diana fell silent. So she and Looker had different ideas on what to do with the UBs when they found them. She couldn't blame him.

"So we'll keep them alive," she decided. "We'll catch them like Pokémon, and then duct tape the balls shut." She shrugged, pretending that had been her plan all along. "Sounds easy enough."

Wicke, at least, was sympathetic to her reluctance. "I know it's terrifying," she promised. "That's why I stole some of Lusamine's Beast Balls...an experimental Pokeball specifically designed around Ultra Beasts."

"Regular ones won't work?"

"Not nearly as well," Wicke specified. "We think it's based too closely to this world's biology."

Diana nodded along. "It makes sense. Who knows if Ultra Beasts are even made of normal stuff? Or if their saliva isn't radioactive?"

"Precisely." Wicke handed half of the Beast Balls to Diana, and the other half went to Eli, accepting that they were a team when it came to adventures. "Master Gladion wanted to see you before you headed out, by the way. It seemed to be important."

Eli kept his taunting mouth shut this time, which made it much easier for Diana to agree to head to the conservation area to find him.

Gladion held a Pokeball in his hand, looking over the rail at a group of playing Staryu. His brain was full of things he'd rather not dedicate much time to thinking about, so he chose to focus on the scene in front of him instead of following those thoughts.

Diana crossed his mind then, and he covered his face with his free hand. He hadn't been there when she'd saved his mother and sister, but the thoughts of it hadn't stopped. The images were slightly different each time, going off Lillie's short description - "a dark, crystal-filled cave, getting colder the deeper we went until we found the icicles that Diana used to threaten Mother into a normal battle." His current mental picture had Diana holding a whole sword made of ice, looking like a warrior princess as her Poliwhirl punched through Lusamine's team. It was a pretty nice picture, actually.

And that right there was why he didn't want to board any of these trains of thought. It almost made it sound like he was developing feelings. Gross.

Gross and, as he quickly decided when he heard the voice of the girl in question, highly impractical. She was eleven, he was almost thirteen, and even if he did start getting gross, impractical feelings, she was the Champion. She could kick him around for even thinking of it.

So he didn't think of it, and turned to Diana and Eli with the same expression he always did. "I assume, since you're here, you know what the Aether Foundation is currently up against."

"We do," Eli confirmed, at the same time Diana mumbled "Don't make me think of it, please."

Gladion chose to ignore her request. After all, if she didn't think of the current situation, she would have no use for what he was holding. "I suggest you do think of it, Diana," he said, and at the sound of her actual name she was brought back to focusing, waiting to see if he had more instructions for the UB project. Instead, he handed over the Pokeball. "I know you aren't the biggest fan of those things. Neither am I. So..." he looked down, cleared his throat, and continued on, "we decided it would be better if you took something with you. As an investment, not as a gift."

Diana looked confused. "I already have seven Pokémon," she pointed out, "and the limit is six."

"Only the limit for what you can carry," he reminded her. "If you're gone again, we'd like it if you took some extra precautions." He looked at the Pokeball again. "And there's no one that would be a better protector for that Pokémon than the local Champion."

"I had enough protecting Pokémon with Cosmog," Diana objected. "I can't go through with you what I did with Lillie."

Gladion wasn't sure if he wanted to smile in understanding or scream in frustration. "I'm trying to give you a puppy, Buttercup." Ok, that nickname came out way more affectionate than he'd planned. Stupid thought trains. But at least it still made it clear that she was starting to get on his nerves. "But if you don't want the chance to take it..."

"I'll take the puppy." She seemed to do a complete flip in attitude, but he didn't bother to comment. She knew that this Pokémon was literally created to destroy Ultra Beasts, regardless of her constantly calling it a 'puppy.' It would serve her well, despite its own natural distrust of people.

His own Silvally nudged him forward, its beak open in what appeared to be a taunting smile. Gladion could practically hear it - probably saying something like "Just let your guard down for once. It's only Diana."

Diana carefully placed the Pokeball holding her brand-new Null in her bag, like she was carrying a weapon instead of a Pokémon. "Any advice?"

"Take care of it," Gladion answered immediately. "You're the only one I can trust."

"Anything else you'd like to say?" Eli asked, and both of the other humans glared at him but otherwise pretended he hadn't spoken.

"Feel free to interact with any Water-type you choose," Gladion told him, and as soon as he was gone, he focused once more on Diana. "Are you prepared?"

"It's just another invasion plot," Diana said, trying very hard to hide her true feelings on the matter. From Gladion's disbelieving look, she didn't do a very good job, and she immediately stopped trying. "Whatever I feel about it, I have to face it eventually. These Ultra Beasts can't just be beaten back by the kahunas, or else it would have been their problem."

Gladion grunted in acceptance. "If you say so," he said, and Silvally made a sound that could have been a snort of laughter. Gladion ignored it. "Just keep us in mind, ok? I'm strong enough to be your backup."

Rotom made a similar sound. "If I didn't know any better, Gladion, I might think you caught some unfortunate feelings for our friend here."

Gladion's entire body went stiff at the thought. "Wrong," he said, a bit defensive after Wicke had taunted him for the same thing. "I'm looking after her so Lillie doesn't have to come back to Alola for her funeral, and so I can challenge her for the Hall of Fame rights. And..." he looked over at Diana, briefly. "And because I do consider her a friend. For some stupid reason."

He meant that. He really did see Diana as just a friend - a close friend, close enough that both Wicke and Silvally were jokingly making plans, but he wasn't lying awake at night thinking about her.

"And the same feeling is reciprocated," Diana promised.

Rotom registered Null to the Pokedex, laughing to himself as he realized that he got to write the entry himself. Thinking that it wouldn't be right to mock how hard Silvally seemed to ship the humans, he decided on a simple few sentences. Due to the danger that this synthetic Pokémon may go on a rampage, it wears a control mask to restrain its power.

"Are you going to give it a name?" Rotom asked, and Diana thought.

She thought about names that would definitely annoy Gladion as well as reference its dog-like shape. Fido crossed her mind, but she didn't want something that would annoy her, too. Scooby, then? Einstein?

No. Gizmo. The name for one of these things was Gizmo.

When she told Gladion her choice, she saw the annoyance on his face.

"Gizmo?" he repeated. "You're naming it Gizmo?"

"Yes."

"After the creature from Gremlins."

"Yes."

He sighed in disappointment. "You're a gremlin."

"Then give me a better nickname."

To emphasize her teasing, she blew him a kiss. Gladion smacked her hand down.

And somewhere in the conservation area, Eli Frost was surrounded by Grass and Bug-type Pokémon, and nothing was on fire.