When we asked a toy to make a decision for us, we agreed it would mean nothing in the main plot. Then it gave an answer, and we immediately wrote a joke, so the answer became relevant.
This isn't the place for the joke, so enjoy this bit of the second plot of the story.
Looker and Anabel called them in again the next day. They had spotted an Ultra Beast in Diglett's Tunnel. Their mission had officially started.
Diana was very concerned that they hadn't bothered to mention what the UB was, what it could do, or anything beyond its location. Still, she chose to leave both Stanford and Mimikyu behind to protect her family as she started off on this mission.
Eli could help. If his Fire-types (and fire powers) couldn't help, then he had Ninetales and Snorunt. Diana had Lycanroc, Honchkrow, Bewear, Poliwhirl, and Artemis to help her out - and of course, she brought Gizmo along for protection.
Gizmo didn't seem to be responsive. It replied to her questions bluntly, and Rotom translated exactly as answered, but there had been nothing to indicate that it would do more than follow her orders. Diana had planned to try to break the mask, but the call had interrupted the plan for both that and trying to play with her own powers.
So she and Eli found themselves in the middle of Diglett's Tunnel, searching for something they knew nothing about. Eli's Arcanine was sniffing out ahead of them, but didn't seem to be finding anything, while Snorunt shuffled along behind them, ready to use a melted Ice-type attack in case something got Eli'd. They had been here for a few hours now, and nothing was happening.
"This is pointless," Diana muttered. She could smell smoke, a telltale sign that Eli was on edge, and she turned to him with a smile a bit too fake to comfort. "Well, let's give it another five minutes. Then we'll just bail."
"Can you bail?" Eli asked. "You're the Champion, and they're cops."
Good point. Maybe she should have surrendered her title to Hau...
No, Hau wouldn't be capable of leading a UB invasion. Fighting them was one thing, but it was entirely different than commanding the team, even if the team of soldiers was currently two kids and their Pokémon. This was all her, and her Pokémon, and her partner in crime. And besides, she liked having power.
Gathering her resolve, she cleared her throat, and let her voice echo in the cave. "Hey, Ultra Beast! I am officer Diana Freeman of the International Police's super-size division, ordering you to show yourself!"
There was about three seconds of nothing, and then her worst nightmare came true.
Nihilego. Just one, but one that floated in front of her, acting shy - as if it were apologizing for something.
Gathering sympathy so she'd touch it.
She swallowed hard. "Hey, I was right," she said in a small voice. "It's something horrible."
As a scientist who focused on urban legends, Diana did not scare easily. Certainly not as easily as her cousin, who had become infamous for paranoia and had his supernatural talent linked to the emotion. But if there was one thing Diana would admit to being afraid of - that she was aware she was afraid of - it was Nihilego.
Just like the last time she'd encountered an Ultra Beast, her heartbeat picked up in both speed and intensity. Her brain came to a halt as she took it all in, bracing herself for the worst. And a chill started in the center of her chest and spread, down to her belly and up to her face, through her body until she shivered, wrapping one arm around herself as if to keep herself warm.
She was aware of Rotom buzzing around and taking pictures or video, but she didn't pay him any mind. Arcanine had returned to his trainer, baring his sharp teeth at the monstrous jellyfish invading his planet. Diana didn't think about which of her own Pokémon to send out.
Eli grabbed her by the wrist, which was, unfortunately, the hand she used to throw her pokeballs. "I'm warning you," he said, holding out her hand for her, ignoring how one or both of them was shaking. "I have a Diana! She...she punched Tapu Bulu in the face! She'll do it to you!"
Nihilego chirped and rubbed two tentacles together. Diana turned away from it, and Eli's determination faltered at the wild look in her eyes.
It didn't stop him completely. "Not afraid of that, huh?" A flash of light in the corner, and an Icy Wind from Snorunt, proved that Eli was very afraid of what was going on. "Well, she's not just a fearless idiot! She's...she's a part of my family! I'm Eli Frost, Lord of the Flame!" He shook Diana's hand around. "Don't make me use this!"
Arcanine silently questioned his trainer's decisions. Diana attempted to wiggle free. "Why am I the weapon?" she complained. "You just established yourself as a weapon! Why are you waving me around?"
"Because you're the more destructive force!"
Diana grumbled, admitting the point. "I don't wanna do it, though..."
"Well, let's look at the rules for life. Maybe there's a rule saying that you don't have to do things you don't want to do if doing the thing saves your life. No, not there. What about not wanting to save the world because it's inconvenient? Hm...nope, movies taught me nothing. What about dying of smoke inhalation because your cousin's too freaked out and is yelling at you to take his mind off his own problems?"
"Not on my list of top 10 ways to die," said Rotom.
Diana shook her head, more stubborn than ever. "What about a rule saying that just because someone has freaky powers they have to use them to benefit society?" she demanded, ignoring the catchphrase of the entire Spider-Man franchise. "I want to know my limits, but I don't want to become a superhero! I don't want to do this anymore!"
"Guys," Rotom said, diverting the argument. "It's not doing anything."
Reluctantly, they looked. Another spark, another overenthusiastic Icy Wind, and another pulse of cold. Still, Nihilego was just floating there, its faceless body giving the impression that it was watching them.
Diana yanked her hand back, and to her displeasure, Eli's went with it. "Dude, if you're going to make me do this, let me go."
"I thought I did." He looked down at his hand, and Diana's. Whatever was happening had stuck them together, and the Nihilego was getting bored.
"Hold on a second," Rotom told it, and got down to investigate. "Well, Diana, there are a few options. Either your hypothesis was correct, or Snorunt misfired on that Icy Wind. Either way, it's easy for Eli to get out of. All he has to do is look at the Nihilego while you don't."
Eli did. Instantly, Diana was able to pull her hand free, and reached for the strange blue and yellow balls that Looker and Anabel had given them. As if he knew what she was planning, Eli took his out, too. They proceeded to throw the balls one at a time, until finally, on the last one, it stayed closed. Arcanine and Snorunt never even saw battle, and they looked at each other in resigned disappointment.
"It's over," Diana said quietly, surprised at how calm she'd been, all things considered. "It is over, right?"
"I hope so," Eli said, before looking over at Arcanine. "Well? Can you sniff out another one?"
Arcanine sniffed the air, and the ground, and the cave walls. Then he shook his head.
"Awesome," said Rotom, and the three left the cave, Diana duct taping the ball closed as she walked.
"You...threw the Beast Balls to damage the beast?"
Diana didn't know why Looker was so shocked. They were, after all, children. Intelligent, capable, part-alien and/or X-gene-possessing children that had gone up against forces beyond mortal comprehension with monsters they had befriended and taught to fight, but children all the same.
"Uh," she said, "yeah."
"Those were a million dollars each!" Anabel wasn't sure if she was horrified, impressed, or a combination of the two.
"And we're kids," said Diana. "What's your point?"
"You did leave them in the hands of these two," Rotom agreed. "Most technology is doomed to be broken beyond repair in their hands."
Anabel looked up at him. "Technology like you?"
Rotom made a loud, panicked whirring sound. "Oh, gosh..."
Looker cleared his throat. "The children being irresponsible with technology is not the point," he said. "The point of it is that Wicke has had enough research on it at the Aether Foundation, even to the point of recognizing that it has similarities to Poison and Ground-type Pokémon. We will not be taking it back to headquarters."
"What do you mean you're not going to take it?"
Diana knew very well what he meant, of course. But if Anabel and Looker weren't going to take it, and Wicke and Gladion weren't going to allow it to live at Aether Paradise (which was, admittedly, a good decision) that only left one option. And Diana would sooner toss this Beast Ball into the ocean than have a Nihilego near her any longer than necessary.
Anabel didn't seem to understand the true depths of Diana's terror, writing it off as unease from being so close to the Lusamine incident. Diana had never mentioned how the creatures had fused with the woman, possessed Guzma after only seconds of contact, or done terrifyingly impressive acapella music. Maybe she should.
"This was already a gift to science, Diana," Anabel promised. "Just think about how much you'll be able to learn by studying it yourself."
"I strongly insist you take it to HQ. I don't have a degree yet, my last name isn't a tree..." she shrugged, pretending that she wasn't worried about the consequences of what Anabel was insisting on. "And as we just discussed, I'm just a kid. I'll get laughed out of the scientific community as soon as I present it."
"But it would be treated more humanely under your care."
Diana bit back a laugh as she pictured the Beast Ball on the ocean floor. How little they knew...
But she had a much more legal idea.
She released Artemis as soon as she stepped out into the parking lot, paying no mind to the people who stopped and stared. She held out the Beast Ball. "I don't know what to do with a Nihilego," she said, "but I'll bet you do."
Artemis looked at the ball. Then she looked at Diana. Then she looked at Eli, following in silence as usual.
Then she let out a screech, tore a hole in the fabric of spacetime, and sped them away.
"I didn't say you should take us!" Diana complained, wiggling free of the bat's tight grip. Artemis abruptly made a u-turn to catch her before she could be lost to the void.
They ended up on an island none of them had seen before.
Tall trees that grew Pokebeans, with Pokémon playing under the shade. Nothing but ocean for miles. A sheepish Lunala attempting to return herself to the ball.
"Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!"
A human man with blond hair and green eyes, holding a plastic bottle as if preparing to attack.
What was with that color combination?
Diana was too stunned to speak. Eli was not.
"Greetings," he said, holding out his hand in the Star Trek gesture. "I'm Eli. This is my cousin Diana. We come in peace."
The man lowered the bottle he'd been waving like a weapon. "From space?" He didn't sound afraid. He sounded curious, impressed. Like Diana would.
Eli lowered his hand. "From Melemele Island, actually. Well, technically we came from Akala, but we live on Melemele."
The man looked confused, but understood quickly. "So you're trainers," he announced. "Sounds fun. What's it like on the main islands?"
"You mean this isn't close to one?"
"I don't know what region we're closest to," the man answered honestly. He adjusted his hat and grinned. "But I know Alola. The name's Mohn."
Mohn. It sounded familiar, but Diana couldn't remember where she'd heard it before. Eli didn't seem to notice it, so if he'd heard it, he'd forgotten. Rotom, on the other hand, buzzed and emerged from Diana's bag.
"Where have I heard his name before?" Rotom asked himself.
Diana patted him on the head (well, top of the casing) and followed Mohn and Eli into the hut Mohn lived in.
Mohn, it turned out, didn't like to talk about himself. He said he was "40-something" (and shrugged when they asked for his specific age) and "probably" human. None of the Pokémon here were his, but he fed them beans and they protected him, and his hobbies consisted mainly of attempting to brew his own beer.
"Is it good beer?" Diana asked, already wondering how she, a child, would get alcohol off this island and to her grandfather back on Melemele.
Mohn shook his head, his smile disappearing in an instant. "Not at all. It's like drinking the bathwater of a man who hasn't showered in 3000 years."
Diana made a face. "Why would you want to make something like that?"
"Not much else to do here," Mohn said. "We don't get a lot of traffic. It's just me and the Pokémon living on this island, and whatever else makes it here. I don't even know how to make beer, but I'm doing it trial and error style." The smile returned. "Well? What about you two?"
"I'm a scientist in training," Diana answered. "And the Alola region Champion."
"Didn't know they had one," said Mohn, turning to see if he had anything to offer these kids.
"I would be the first."
"That would explain it. What science are you doing?"
"Studying the behavior and habits of certain Pokémon." Diana nodded to her bag. "I have a Rotom living in my Pokedex. He helps me out."
"I thought Rotom was a genderless species."
"Yeah, but the machine gives him a male voice, so we agree to male pronouns for convenience."
Mohn seemed to understand. "What about you, boy? What are you doing?"
"I haven't actually thought that far ahead." Eli shrugged. "I mostly follow Diana around. I have duties, though! I give her moral support, handle the battles she doesn't want to fight herself, steal things that bad guys are hiding from her, and set things on fire."
"And I keep them alive!" Rotom added, emerging from the bag.
But Mohn was still staring at Eli. "Did I hear that right? You steal and set things on fire?"
Eli was, for a moment, surprised that someone had actually listened. Then, carefully, he leaned in to explain.
"You've heard of humans having Pokémon-like abilities, right? Psychics, mediums, legends of people using Lucario's aura skills?" Mohn nodded. Eli smiled. "Well, I might not be a scientist, but I have a theory. And if you let me and my cousin play on your island, I can demonstrate."
Eli had decided to use Diana as a test subject. It was safer, he said. She couldn't really disagree.
So she stood by the edge of the water, eyes closed as she tried to bring to mind the feeling that the presence of Nihilego brought. A cold in her chest...hammering heart...the overwhelming urge to run, scientific knowledge abandoned in favor of safety.
She had never encountered any of that in Kanto.
"It's not working," Rotom observed.
"I'm starting to think you kids got your brains messed up, too," Mohn agreed.
Eli wasn't about to give up. Acerola had helped him find his trigger. Diana just needed someone to pull hers.
"Hey, Diana? You have Poliwhirl on you, right?"
Her concentration broke. "Yeah, why?"
"No reason. Carry on."
But he made a beeline straight for the Beast Ball. Diana was not stupid, and she noticed this.
"Don't!" Mohn heard the panic in her voice, her calm cracking as her cousin approached her abandoned bag. "Eli! Stop it!"
She ran to stop him, but it was too late. He'd released a creature that looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a faceless girl.
Mohn was, to a degree, aware of the reaction. He saw Diana pick up a rock to defend herself. He saw her back up, over the edge of the island and a few steps more, and he saw the boy release a beautiful frost-colored Ninetales.
These kids were abominations. Mohn would never deny that.
But whatever that thing was...
It made his head hurt.
There were few things he truly knew about himself. His name was Mohn. He was somewhere between 40 and 55 years old. He'd been on this island for six years. He had no idea how to make alcoholic beverages but he tried to anyway, because he did know what plants were edible.
And now he knew that these mutant kids were in more trouble than they could possibly cause. And he did not know exactly how he knew that.