In which we confirm the origins of this bizarre family tree.
Diana slept without dreaming that night. It was good for her - she likely would have had nightmares of Guzzlord and Nihilego together, and it was clear that it was traumatizing experiences, not mere fright, that brought out her true potential. The comforting weight of the blanket gave her a bit more security, and of course the fact that she had sent out Poliwhirl and Bewear to stand guard around her bed, just in case the UBs got out.
She and Gladion had decided that they would go and take the UBs back to their respective worlds, using Artemis as transportation. Diana was sure she could scare away another Guzzlord if she had to. She hadn't wanted to make Gladion a Faller, but he'd insisted.
"I'm the only one of my surviving family that hasn't been to space," he'd pointed out. "That doesn't seem fair."
"About that," Diana had started, but then Looker had decided to give a toast to the child heroes who had stopped the UB invasion, and the conversation was ended. She hadn't gotten a chance to bring up Mohn again.
So she went home and slept, planning for her vacation in the morning. Meowth was with her in her bed, curled up by her face and waiting for a chance to dig through her jewelry box and swipe the biggest tangle.
"Ko-ooo-ooo-oooh!"
Diana twitched but didn't wake up. Bewear, who had been about to doze off herself, was alert at once. Nudging Poliwhirl, who was much smaller and could get around without waking Diana, she gestured to the window.
"Do you think it's Tapu Koko again?"
Poliwhirl's anger briefly made him look more like a Poliwrath than he should. "Most likely," he agreed.
"Should we find out what it wants? The last few times it was..." she looked back at her sleeping trainer and the switched-off Pokedex on the dresser. "The last few times, it specifically wanted them."
Tapu Koko cried again. This time, Diana sat up, blinking around the dark room, and saw the time.
"What the what?" she mumbled. 12:01 AM. "Looker said I was done with this..."
She hopped to her feet, the sound of it waking Rotom from his own position in the corner. He zipped past her head, landing in the Pokedex, as she picked the clothes she'd worn the day before off the ground so she could change in a hurry. Poliwhirl politely covered his eyes, knowing humans didn't like those of the opposite gender watching them change, while Meowth was already sleeping again. Rotom, despite being technically genderless, hid in the closet.
"We're hunting another UB?"
"Of course not," Diana said as she buttoned the last button of her blouse, grabbing her bag and staring at the Pokeballs. Stanford, Honchkrow, Lycanroc, Gizmo, Mimikyu, Artemis. Good enough. "We're hunting Tapu Koko." Her Pokémon perked up, waiting to be called into action themselves. She shook her head, and both of them were disappointed. "Sorry, Professor Kukui said that as far as he knew, Tapu Koko was Electric/Fairy. Since Fighting and Water are weak..." she stopped, frowning. "Honchkrow is especially useless...I'll ask Eli if I can swap him for Salazzle, she'll help. Poliwhirl, Bewear, stay and guard my parents and my stuff. I'm off to Eli's."
She just hoped he was awake, and that his parents would be cool with her breaking in.
Eli was awake. He had not slept as well as she had, and had woken up with holes in his sheets roughly the size of his hands, scorch marks surrounding them.
"I don't know why people actually want superpowers," he mumbled to himself as he left his bedroom. "What woke you up? Stuck yourself to the pillow?"
"I wish." She sighed. "We're not done, Eli. Tapu Koko paid another visit."
Eli was quiet for a moment. "Set some chicken traps," he decided, even as he went to put on his shoes. "We can fight a god. You and Nanu survived punching Tapu Bulu in the face, we can take down Koko."
Diana grinned. "I knew I could count on you."
Someone knocked on his window, and both of them prepared for battle. A familiar face was grinning back.
Zossie had climbed the house to find out which bedroom was Eli's.
"I need your help," she said, voice muffled through the glass.
The cousins shared a look. Since when did actual aliens require their help? "Did you find the Pokémon you were looking for?" Diana asked.
"Uh-huh," she said happily. "Well, Phyco did. He was the one assigned to Melemele Island, and -"
"You mean that the thing was here the whole time?" Eli demanded, barely remembering to keep his voice down.
"Don't worry," Zossie promised. "It's been in the place you call Ten Carat Hill for decades. We got a reading on it just because it woke up."
"And you want our help because?"
"It's way too strong," Zossie admitted. "It tried to eat the Solgaleo we used to get here, and the only other thing we have is a Poipole."
"What are those Pokémon?" Rotom asked, getting an irritated look from Diana.
"I can give you answers if you'll just come outside!"
The kids, seeing no way out of this, opened the window and climbed out, releasing Artemis on the way and leaving Salazzle to guard the house while they were gone.
"I'm glad I got you to come along," said Zossie as she led them to the edge of town. "Otherwise, abducting you would've been so much harder."
"Abducting?"
The alien girl smiled innocently as they found themselves surrounded by three more like her. All of them had blue skin, and two had dark hair that almost matched. The tall man had bright hair, too, and he stood over Zossie like an overprotective older brother.
"Oh," Diana said quietly, paying no attention to the sparks floating in the air.
The next thing they knew, our heroes were being herded like lost Mareep.
Despite the situation, the aliens did not take them to a spaceship. They walked down the street with their captives, and despite Eli struggling to find a way to distract them, Diana was surprisingly calm. In return, they were calmly introduced to the other aliens.
"I thought you said somebody found the thing."
"I found the thing," said the man with the mustache. "Unfortunately, it refuses to let us near it. Luckily, Zossie found you, and believed that you could do what we could not."
"Why?"
"Readings," said the dark-haired woman. She tapped her goggles for emphasis. "Zossie believed that she had found...interesting creatures, masquerading as humans. However, with some stray hair left behind at the scene, it became clear to us that you are human. And yet, at the same time, you are not."
"So, aliens," Eli finished.
"Aliens," the pink-haired man confirmed. "Though my guess is that your family is the result of humans from this universe mixing DNA with humans from another one, rather than humanoids from another planet. A universe, perhaps, where having your family's unusual gifts is common."
"My theory is that your ancestors got involved with creatures from another planet," Zossie said seriously. "Just because we've done all kinds of universe-hopping and haven't found a superhero universe."
"Yet," the man finished.
"Either way," said the woman who had introduced herself as Soleira, "the result is the same. You are and are not humans of this reality. You do and do not belong to this world. Therefore, you belong enough that the creature will resist harming you, but are, shall we say, 'foreign' enough that your presence will irritate it. Dulse will wake it up. Then it will be up to you to capture it."
Dulse, without changing his serious expression, held up a pair of cymbals. Diana fought a smile.
"We've been to Ten Carat Hill," Rotom pointed out. "That's where Diana caught her Lycanroc. Why didn't it attack them there?"
"It was likely because it didn't get a read on Diana," Phyco told him. "Until the incident with the last creature you published online -"
"Let's not talk about it," Diana interrupted firmly.
Phyco didn't listen. "Until that happened, Diana's only ability was a resistance to changing temperature. A weakened reading like that would convince it that it was strictly Eli behind it, if it was even awake in the first place. I've read that it generally doesn't bother unless it believes that humans are a threat to it."
"Just like my powers," Diana admitted. "Don't even turn on unless it's to give me a weapon or a distraction."
"Then you understand it," Phyco finished. They reached the cave, and he pushed them inside.
Dulse followed behind. "I have Solgaleo with me," he reassured the kids. "If you find yourselves facing certain doom, I will interfere."
Eli took a slow, deep breath. "I guess that's the best we can ask for."