Thanks to our attempts at giving the postgame a plot, we cut out one of the Celesteela encounters. But at least we finally fused it with the Ultra games.
On Mohn's island, Diana was faced with a dilemma.
She'd never been responsible for reuniting a man with his son before. And how would she break it to him that he had a family he accidentally left behind? Mohn was a nice guy, he'd probably take it pretty hard.
The crunch of sand under her feet increased, and Eli cleared his throat.
"Freaking out a bit, Diana?"
"A little," she admitted.
"Thought so." Eli shrugged it off. "We'll have to find a way to get this out sometime. Maybe he'll bring up the topic if you freak out and wreck his tropical paradise."
Diana had to laugh at that. "Maybe that would be the best option," she suggested as they walked into the hut. Mohn wasn't there. "Better than, 'Hey, you accidentally made the world think you were dead and your wife lost her mind and your kids ran off and dragged us into the family feud.' And then there's the fact that you thought Lusamine chopped his head off..."
"Who cut whose head off?" Mohn's voice asked from behind them, and both children spun around, orange and white sparks dancing in the background.
"Nothing important," Diana lied as Eli faked a coughing fit. "He's alive."
"That's good." Mohn did seem a bit more suspicious of them than usual, but he pushed any thoughts of that aside as he asked for more updates on the UB mission.
Diana lied about that, too. "It's coming along," she said, forcing a smile. "I have the Elite Four on the lookout, too."
"And our grandma," Eli added.
Mohn laughed. "Let me guess. She has the power of mind control."
The kids were quiet for a while. "Kind of, actually," Eli said, impressed that a man that knew nothing about himself knew this about their grandmother. Did they meet before Mohn lost his memory? Could Ursa talk the memories back?
"We'll take you to Melemele with us when we finish this mission up," Eli said quickly, before Diana could say anything else. He did notice her confused and mildly panicked expression, but with a half-embarrassed smile, he hoped it could stop her from asking any questions.
Luckily, Diana knew him well enough to read that expression as 'You do not want to know.' So she let it be, and struck up a conversation with Mohn about something else entirely.
"So," she said, trying to figure out how to approach the topic. "You seem to be pretty cool about us hanging out here. Do you think you had kids back on the mainland?"
Mohn hadn't recalled having children, but he said he barely remembered his own birthday. This fit their little plan just fine - all they needed was to bring him right to Aether Paradise and have Wicke fill him in. They'd call Gladion on a mission of his own first, or maybe send him to find a gathering of strong trainers on Poni Island.
When Looker called them back, it was not to tell them of a new UB sighting, but to tell them about his worries for Anabel.
"She says that the beasts get aggressive, when she is in their sight," he told them. "It is likely her imagination, but I cannot deny that distracting the creatures takes a lot of her effort."
"So that's why you send us," Rotom said from Diana's bag. "With these losers, you only have to worry about colossal amounts of property damage."
"There hasn't been much damage yet," Looker pointed out. "But you were on to something, my mechanical friend. Whatever it is about those beasts that distresses Anabel that much, it appears that it does not affect Eli and Diana to the same levels."
"That's because those kids are freaks of nature," Nanu's voice said from the doorway. He stepped inside, tracking dirt in as he did so. "There's a beast on Ula'ula Island, by the way."
Looker's entire body tensed, and Nanu's glare intensified. "And are you going to give us more information?"
"It's the one you call Blaster." Nanu turned around, wiped more dirt from his sandals on the floor out of clear spite, and headed back out the door. "The guardian's not going to be happy if we don't get something done about it. The girl and I are already on thin ice."
"I regret nothing," Diana said quickly.
"Same here, kid."
And then Nanu left. Looker stared at the door in clear disappointment, before he went back into action.
"I will relocate to Ula'ula Island," he told them. "I will also inform the chief about our situation. Knowing her, she would prefer to meet us there."
Anabel did meet them there, and sent the kids on a mission immediately. The UB called "Blaster" was located in the middle of a desert close by, and if they looked hard enough, they could almost see the peak of the mountain and the League building. They had been searching for hours. They were tired, hungry, getting sand everywhere...and apparently not the only ones searching for the beast.
A girl was studying the area. She had long, bright orange hair in a thick braid, and, with her helmet, goggles, and jumpsuit, was much more prepared for the desert area than Eli's t-shirt and Diana's entire outfit. She seemed to be focused on tracking something.
She also, to Diana's surprise, seemed to be blue.
The girl looked up at the small squeak the Champion made at that discovery, and she moved as if to stop them from entering the area. Then she stopped, her mouth open.
"What are you?" she asked, taking off her goggles to get a better look.
"The Champion of Alola," Diana answered at once.
"A freak of nature," Eli said at the same time.
"Haunted technology," Rotom said, rounding out the heroes' moment of unison.
The girl took a moment to process this, but as she did, she grew more confused. "So...you're from around here, then?" She said it like a question.
"Where else would we come from?" Diana asked in return, but Eli caught on much faster.
"You're not from this area, are you?"
For a moment, he and the girl stared each other down. Then the girl shrugged it off.
"Not really," she said with a cheery smile, before putting her goggles back on. "But I am on a mission! So you guys shouldn't play here, it isn't safe."
"We're also on a mission," Eli told her. "And we need to be here for it. What's your mission?"
"I'm looking for strange Pokémon with weird auras," the girl answered. "And some Z-crystals."
"Funny. We're also looking for a Pokémon with a weird aura. What have you found?"
"So far," said the girl with a serious expression on her face, "a Rotom in a Pokedex." And then she giggled, clearly amused with herself. "And two humans with even weirder auras."
"We're not exactly..." Eli started, before catching his cousin's warning glare. "We're not exactly 'normal.' We have seen way too much for kids our age."
"Same." The girl made a square motion with her hands, and followed it with, "Alola! My name is Zossie, and I'm part of the Ultra Recon Squad!"
"Eli." He made the traditional rainbow shape with his own hands, and Zossie copied it excitedly, as if she was more excited about learning this culture than she was about completing her mission. "This nerd is my cousin Diana, and the other nerd is her Rotom buddy."
"So what's with the goggles?" Diana asked.
Zossie smiled again, and bounced a bit. "They help me find the auras of the...um, mysterious Pokémon!"
As if she'd summoned it, the sand started shifting, and the four soon found themselves facing a gigantic monster of a Pokémon. Two arm-like structures disconnected from the main body (a Psychic-type, moving false arms through telekinesis?) and a body that looked like a cross between a rocket and a bowling pin. Its disproportionately small face was twisted in disappointment, and it appeared to be focused entirely on Zossie.
Luckily, Diana had a plan.
"Stanford!" she shouted, and the Decidueye emerged, wings spread to make himself seem far more intimidating than he actually was. Diana quickly did the steps for the Ghost-type Z-Move, catching Zossie's attention once again. "Sinister Arrow Raid!"
The move proceeded to take out the beast in one shot. As it dragged itself away, Diana groaned.
"Please tell me that was the one you were looking for."
"It wasn't." But Zossie's enthusiasm was wiped away, and she was once more focused on Diana herself as her own mission took priority. "But I would like to know more about what your Pokémon just did."
"Maybe Eli can fill you in," she suggested. "As long as you don't try to probe us, or whatever it is aliens do. We can fight our way out."
Zossie, to her credit, did not deny that she was an alien. "I can always disarm you," she taunted, mouth twitching as if to tell them she didn't mean it.
"Trust me," said Eli, "you can't disarm me completely."
Zossie nodded, as if his words confirmed her suspicions. Eli grinned, as if her existence proved his own suspicions.
"Well, they're best friends now," Rotom said as he enjoyed the scene in front of him.
And Diana, reluctantly, wondered if whatever organization the redhead belonged to would be able to provide her with the answers she was searching for.
As Diana and Rotom searched for the beast again, the other two got to talking. Eli spoke only of Alola, as if his new friend was a mere visitor from Unova, and Zossie did not ask any more questions about the auras she had noticed around the heroes.
"How can something that big hide so well?" Rotom demanded.
Stanford had returned to his ball after the sandstorm had gotten too much for him to handle, but Diana's other Pokémon hadn't come out. She reached for Lycanroc now, waiting for her chance.
"I wouldn't do that," Rotom continued, realizing which one she was going to select. "He's better suited for the weather, but I got a read on that thing's type. He won't last long in battle."
"So Stanford and Full Restores?" Diana offered. "Maybe Bewear?"
"Not Bewear."
"Should I have Eli do it instead?"
Rotom considered. "Can you lend him a Dark-type crystal and your Z-ring?"
"What type is it, Rotom?"
"Steel/Flying." Rotom chuckled. "We have a bit of a problem, but I don't think Eli should take it out in one hit, too."
"So Dark-type it is."
Diana turned around and tapped her cousin on the shoulder, diverting his attention mid-sentence as he gave away all he knew about Z-crystals. She handed him her Z-ring and the crystal she won from Nanu.
"You're in charge now," she told him. "You and Robbie figure it out."
Once Diana put Eli in charge, she could focus on the alien. As he and Rotom wandered the area in their search, the girls staying a bit behind but never letting them out of their sight, Diana spoke up.
"What's your deal, anyway?"
"My...deal?" Zossie sounded like she had never heard the expression before.
"What do you want," Diana translated. "There has to be a reason that you came here to Alola."
"There is. My coworkers are each investigating one of the different islands, and I happened to draw this one. We're looking for a specific Pokémon. We're going to leave your region almost exactly as we found it."
That wasn't exactly reassuring. But Diana couldn't object to this, because the beast had returned, and now it was looking at Eli with something close to rage.
Eli was, of course, on guard. The smoke scent that Diana barely noticed anymore was almost completely wiped away by the sandstorm, any flames smothered as soon as they could start. This helped him, as he and his Incineroar could focus on what they were supposed to be doing.
Eli hadn't seen Diana do this one often, usually because she preferred to use Honchkrow's Foul Play as it was than give him the crystal, but Rotom quickly showed the dance. Eli had never done a Z-move, but following the steps was easy for him, and Robbie felt the extra power pooling behind what was once Darkest Lariat and turning it into what the internet called Black Hole Eclipse.
This time, with three Beast Balls thrown, the Ultra Beast was captured. Eli picked it up off the ground, and handed everything back to his cousin with a wide-eyed stare.
"That," he said, "was awesome."
"It was," Zossie mumbled, before taking a step to the side. "Well, what I'm looking for isn't here. But I did see some Z-crystals, so my mission wasn't a total loss!" She turned to leave, stopping one last time to wave. "I'll have to tell my coworkers all about you! They did say to look for any other evidence!"
"Evidence?" Diana repeated, but the alien was already taking off as fast as her legs could take her.
Eli nudged her playfully. "Well, then," he said, his conspiracy theorist mask in place for the first time since he admitted he didn't believe most of it, "it looks like the score is Eli one, Diana zero."
"More like Diana five, Eli one-half, and that's being generous."
The comment flew from her lips easily, but she couldn't deny that he had her worried.
They'd just met someone who could only be an alien. Granted, she'd spoken perfect English, but her skin tone was not one that was normally found in the human population. And the alien, though apparently friendly, had not come alone, and perhaps her 'coworkers' were pacing the islands in the search for not the beast, but for the legends of an unusual family with its roots on one particular island, with strange genes that blended in with human DNA so flawlessly...
She shook her head, trying to wipe those thoughts from her brain like an etch-a-sketch. She sounded like Eli. Putting aside the idea of a would-be scientist becoming a test subject, she placed the Z-ring back on her own wrist and turned to leave herself.
If it came down to it, she was sure that she could take on the aliens.