Chapter 19 - Arc 2 (Akala Island) Will the Real Elio Please Stand Up?
As the crew had moved on from Heahea City, they had caught sight of Royal Avenue, or more specifically, the two Skull members harassing a Drifloon in front of it. Elio had loudly complained, and Selene had seemed equally as upset to see them ganging up on the pokémon (something about people always ganging up on Ghost-types? He wasn't sure what she was talking about), and they, along with a stout girl with long, black hair Hau didn't recognize, approached them, and dealt with them. Hau felt a little guilty for wordlessly refusing to offer his assistance, but he didn't want them to see him catching Ikehu. Once Lillie seemed to quietly be watching the confrontation from a distance as well, Hau had crept off the route into a thicket of bushes and lowered the Pichu from his arms. Popper curiously sniffed her with his round, pink nose, much to the Pichu's shy suspicion.
"Okay," Hau hissed under his breath at the Pichu as he dug for a Poké Ball from his orange backpack, "you can come with me, but you've got to take it easy on all the electricity stuff, got it? I know you can offload some on to me if you need and I can give you some if you need, whatever, but that's not cool around other people. Got it, cousin?"
Ikehu scratched one of her ears with a large back paw, staring back at him with unblinking, beady black eyes. She clearly had no idea what he was saying. Groaning in frustration, Hau slapped a hand over his face. Great. I know Electric-types always kind of were drawn to me, but I was hoping I could have one without it acting so weird…
Ikehu suddenly squeaked and Popper issued a surprised bark. Hau jerked his head to look over his shoulder and he flailed his arms, falling over awkwardly to his side, when he saw Lillie. "Lillie!" he yelped. "What—what—"
"What are you doing?" she asked dubiously, raising a brow at him. Selene and Elio then appeared behind her, peering from around her shoulders.
"Those guys weren't hard to deal with," Elio boasted, snickering to himself, "I don't blame Hau for goofin' off to play with the new Pichu."
Yet, Selene was eyeing him with that calculated, thoughtful stare she was so good at. He swallowed anxiously and rubbed where he had hit his elbow from being startled. "Ah, ae, just, play with Ikehu," he offered to them slowly, struggling to translate to Galarish in his panic. Heart still thumping, he froze when Ikehu launched herself at his arms again, rubbing a cheek affectionately over where he had rubbed his arm seconds earlier. A spark flashed from her and over his arm, and after a split-second delay, he jerked his arm to make a show of it hurting (though, it honestly hadn't bothered him at all). Ikehu tumbled to the ground and shot him a disapproving glare afterward. Popper did too, and Hau fought the urge to glower back at him. Whose side are you on, anyway? he wanted to mutinously ask the Brionne. "Need catch her," he distractedly said with a vague gesture in Ikehu's direction.
"You couldn't have done that back over there where we were?" Selene asked interestedly.
Feeling a flare of serious panic that felt as if it would strangle him from the inside out if he didn't end their sudden interrogation, Hau squared his shoulders and looked pointedly at the ground below him. "Is not that big deal," he defensively snapped at them. "Give second, will be out. Okay?" Guilt flooded him almost immediately after, especially given the way all three of them recoiled at his abrupt shift in attitude, but nervousness started to change to terror when Elio returned fire instead of backing down.
"Just what're you doing to that Pichu over here that needs so much privacy, Hau?" he asked darkly, brushing past Lillie.
"Elio," Selene warned, "that's enough, leave him alone, you know he probably didn't—"
"Not do anything," Hau spat back, feeling like a flighty, caged animal as Elio started to tower over him. He scrambled to his feet, Ikehu and Popper both darting in front of him protectively. Still, despite the fear fluttering in his chest, Hau knew he couldn't afford to back down, to show it, because his secret was his own, and to be completely honest? He was getting a little tired of Elio's bizarre, seemingly random mood swings. One moment, he seemed friendly, and Hau had even believed Selene when she had said he liked Hau; meanwhile, the next, Elio was back to stiffening his back and looming over everyone else, like a bully.
Hau didn't feel like he had the patience for bullies. He hadn't left Iki Town for that.
"Then why run off like that and get all pissy for some privacy with it?" Elio demanded, taking a decisive step forward. Popper barked threateningly and clapped its flippers, as if trying to get his attention, and Ikehu's tail flashed with electricity.
"Elio!" Lillie barked, her voice cutting the tension in the air like a knife. Both boys blinked and slowly moved to look at her. Arms crossed over her chest and Nebby hovering at her side (who Selene was watching anxiously closely), she tapped a foot disapprovingly against the ground. "Leave Hau alone. That is his pokémon, and so what if he wanted to get some alone time with it to learn about it better? Look, it's ready to defend him. From you. Stop being such a dick, why don't you?"
Begrudgingly looking down at the Pichu and the Brionne growling and threatening him, Elio paused, then dramatically tossed up his hands in surrender. "You're right. You're right." He shuffled away from Hau, backwards, still holding up his hands. "I'm sorry."
Dusting himself off but still trembling from the adrenaline, Hau found he still couldn't meet Elio's gaze. "Thank," he offered emptily. He didn't feel thankful, but it was better than having him in his face.
"Elio," Selene quietly interjected, "what was that?"
Hau surreptitiously flicked his gaze up to look at her, and found that she, too, had her arms crossed and refused to look at her brother. The Dartrix on her head, however, stared at Elio and annoyedly clicked its beak, all its feathers ruffled.
Reluctantly, Elio huffed, "It just seemed weird. He just got a new baby pokémon and while we're distracted, darts off to 'play' with it, and gets mad when we find him doing so. I don't know, it's just weird—"
"Weird how?" Selene cut him off icily. Finally daring to look up at him, she growled, "I know you care a lot about pokémon, I do, too, but that seemed super uncalled for. Is there something you know that I don't? Because I'm really lost. It kind of seemed like you just wanted to find an excuse to pick a fight with Hau."
"That's not it!" Elio defended himself hotly, planting both hands over the ballcap on his head. If he weren't wearing it, it looked as if he might have grabbed his own hair and pulled it. Shaking his head vigorously, he explained, "Look, I—I—I've seen people do some messed up things to pokémon you wouldn't believe when nobody was looking, people who you'd think are great otherwise."
"Like what, what are you getting at?" Lillie agitatedly demanded. "Because if you're getting at what I think you are, you have some nerv—"
"When I was in grade school, on the playground, some kids and I found a wild Ekans!" Elio blurted, shrinking away from Selene, Hau, and Lillie, pulling at the brim of his hat so that it covered more of his face. "It was my friends who found it! We'd never seen a wild pokémon before, not in the city, anyway, and it was curled on the blacktop, it was overheated, and when a reptilian pokémon gets too hot they get super hungry, and it struck out at anyone that got too close… But we didn't know that was why it was doing it at the time. I watched, and tried to get the teacher later, but my friends took sticks and anything else they could find to try to move this stupid Ekans and then one kid realized that if they pushed its own tail in front of its mouth, if it struck out, it would grab it and start trying to… to e-eat it. He thought that was h-hilarious, y'know, until it started to actually… eat itself and then… then…"
Stunned, Hau, Selene, and Lillie said nothing.
"Look, I—I don't know, okay?" Elio shakily mumbled. "I just—it was awful, and—that's why I got all into the whole pokémon rights thing, and that's why I hate battling, and that's why I—I don't know." He finally let go of his hat and put his hands over his face. "I don't know… I'm sorry."
"You… I thought you said they just… kicked it… and the teacher helped them get it out the yard…" Selene whispered, sounding faint. "A-and here I thought that was bad enough…"
"That… does sound awful," Lillie commented quietly, shuffling uncomfortably. Nebby pewed and, apparently picking up on the sadness in the atmosphere, his puffy 'arms' drooped at his sides.
As if trying to weakly joke his way out of it already, Elio licked clammy lips and nodded unsteadily. "Yeah, kicking it would have been bad enough without all the horror, wouldn't it?" He practically choked out, "Kids, am I right? Ha, ha…"
Yet, despite everyone else's clear sympathy for Elio, Hau felt something just shy of outrage. So, had Elio believed he was going to do something like that, that he was capable of something so heinous? If so, why? What could he have possibly done so far that would have made the Kantonian think so lowly of him? A million thoughts raced in his mind and adrenaline flowed freely again, but Hau merely clenched his fists and stuffed them deep into his shorts. The crackles of electricity arcing from his knuckles were quickly snuffed out by the fabric. He had figured out long ago that the fabric swim trunks were made from tended to stifle it that much better; that was why he wore those gaudy, floral shorts, not because of any hope to make a fashion statement. Staring at his sandals and at Popper and Ikehu, Hau kept decisively silent. He had nothing nice to say, so he intended to say nothing at all.
"You can… still catch, uh… Ikehu, was it? Hau?" he heard Lillie softly suggest.
Stiffly shaking his head, Hau swallowed his anger and then exhaled it all at once, leaving him feeling exhausted. Battling everyone else's preconceived notions about him was just far, far too exhausting. "Catch later," he muttered, picking his way ahead of the group. Awkwardly trying to dissipate some of the nasty new tension in the air, he lazily called over his shoulder, "Lana trial first, ae?"
"Y-yeah," Selene whispered, "I thought that's what we decided on, anyway… We were gonna try to catch some pokémon and all on the way… Hapu, the girl we were just helping, she said there's a ranch town up ahead with a bunch of pokémon we probably haven't encountered yet…"
Paniola Ranch, yeah, Hau thought to himself. "Sound good," was all he replied with, though. He kept his hands firmly in his pockets as Ikehu scaled his body like a tree again, and Popper trailed after him worriedly. Another thought that set his fingertips to prickling with that furious electricity, which he knew would be interlaced with volts of red amongst the normal yellows or blues due to his anger, was that he was stuck with Elio. Elio seemed determined to hate him, Selene seemed okay, and he liked Lillie, but as long as Elio was around, he would be stifled into this same, enraged silence no matter what. Aside from simply wanting friends, he needed them to better his chances at making it through the Island Challenge, or even just to traverse Alola safely. Doing so alone… sounded incredibly unappealing.
That depressing thought, that he was stuck with Elio, made it so hard to be angry, though, and soon, the tingling in his hands faltered. It just felt empty and exhausting. He had finally found his out, his escape, had expected the stringent social rules and the like of Iki to be left behind, but Elio had ensured that wouldn't be the case.
Figures. Bless Tapu Koko, he thought bitterly.
You know better than that, Elio.
Elio felt so sick to his stomach, that vehement, dreadful wave of nauseating embarrassment having whipped his insides into what felt like a disgusting frenzy. He had clearly toasted whatever relationship he had hoped to have with Hau with his overreaction, but how was he supposed to not have overreacted? It wasn't as if he had singled Hau out for it, nobody else there had done anything to trip his turbulent, overzealous care for pokémon like that. Sure, Lillie kept Nebby in her bag a lot, hell, he was in the bag right then, and he didn't approve of that, but he had seen firsthand the trouble she faced and he found it so easy to believe her… And Nebby didn't seem that disturbed, just frustrated… Moreover, Elio just didn't know Hau that well. How could he? He and Hau could barely speak to one another and—
You should've just kept acting the clown and they wouldn't have questions to ask you.
Elio lagged at the rear of the group as they traversed the rest of the Route 6, deciding to skip checking out Royal Avenue for the time being. It was a quiet, subdued march now, a far cry from the earlier, tense jokes they had been enjoying, the comfortable, easygoing loping pace they had settled on. It made him painfully aware of just how fragile his relationships with these people were—even his own sister, who seemed unable to look at him. A saner part of his mind reassured him that it was because she was upset and overwhelmed by their situation at large, not because she held anything against him, but a crueler, vindictive part of himself wouldn't believe it.
She knows you lied.
Wincing at that intrusive, dark thought, Elio ashamedly dropped his gaze to his shoes. Macho perked up and cocked his head at him, offering a small mrrow?, as if to question if he was okay. Elio, of course, couldn't find it in himself to verbalize a response or even stop to pat the pokémon on the side. How could he deserve to, knowing what he had done before? Knowing how much of a fraud he was?
You take so many pictures because you're afraid of hurting another pokémon. You told yourself you couldn't be trusted to use them, so you documented them instead, waved through a window at a world you knew you couldn't ever have… shouldn't ever have. Yet, here you are.
Their collective silence and his rampaging, anxious thoughts didn't fade even as they entered a sprawling, grassy ranch, dotted with hay bales and roaming Miltank, Tauros, and a variety of other pokémon Elio didn't recognize. Selene suggested they stop to eat—they each had some food packed for the road, foresight Elio was grateful they had had for the more rural roads of Alola—and as they were settling into somewhere in the grassy plains, a couple of ranch hands had come to say alola. Upon learning Selene and Elio were new to Alola and traversing the Island Challenge (as well as the requisite sob story regarding their parents' current situation), one had cheerfully offered an egg to each of them.
"These should all be flawless Miltank!" the ranch hand, who apparently bred pokémon on the side, had proudly boasted. "Well-bred and parents were right friendly, too! Wouldn' believe it!"
Elio had felt bile rise in his throat as he eyed the egg and he had guiltily looked down at a half-eaten sandwich in his hands. "I really appreciate it," Elio had quietly told her, "but… I think I'll pass. Sorry." Yeah, me and a newborn pokemon. Sounds like it'll end well.
"I'd love an egg!" Selene had piped up excitedly. "I always thought Miltank looked super cute! And they are great supports, both in battles and just with people in general!"
"I don't train pokémon," Lillie had shrugged. "Sorry."
Hau had replied in Alolan, but didn't receive an egg, so Elio assumed he had turned her down as well.
"Well, an egg won't help with the trial," Selene had laughed once the ranch hands said their goodbyes and were out of earshot, "but a Miltank could be super useful later on!"
Hau and Lillie had animatedly agreed with her, as if exaggerating to drown out Elio's deafening silence. Despite how beaten it made him feel, he was ultimately grateful; he couldn't have handled anymore questioning right about then.
What would Mom and Dad think? To know what you did, to know why you really love photography so much, to know why you feel the need to take care of everyone's problems, to prove yourself the good guy?
They had wrapped up the sad excuse of a picnic shortly after, and spent some time exploring the ranch. Elio desperately let his mind wander to avoid thinking further on the tangent his brain had locked onto but sighting a pokémon his Rotom Dex informed him was a Mudbray stuck beneath a few fallen hay bales reawakened that anxious beast. Even as he called for everyone else's attention and rushed to relieve it from its confinement—those hay bales were surprisingly heavy!—his mind was spiraling.
What if Mom and Dad already knew you were the one that killed that Ekans by being a heartless idiot all that time ago? What if that's why they ditched you? Because they figured out what a horrible fraud you are? Dad worked in the gyms. Mom's a pokémon behaviorist. They'd freak. They'd hate you.
Even with that inner storm, once the Mudbray was free, Elio beamed and threw his arms wide. Nobody else would have recognized that grin for how fake it was, because that same fake smile was the one he always used; nobody had seen a genuine one from him, not even Selene, given she didn't remember the time before the incident with the Ekans well. He hugged the Mudbray suddenly, and it bayed at him gratefully. Macho swatted at its tail, and instead of spooking and fleeing, the Mudbray whipped around and playfully scuffed its hooves against the dirt and grass.
"I see you and Macho are getting along already," Elio teased, his mouth dry as sandpaper despite the amusement richly layering his voice, concealing the panic like a fine, silken veil. Cockily retrieving a Poké Ball from his own bag, he held it up to the Mudbray. "You're one funny lookin' Ponyta. Wanna come take a walk on the wild side with me? Not sure what help a Ground-type would be for a Water-trial, but hey… you can be moral support! You're my emotional support Mudbray!"
The pokémon bayed in a way that seemed eerily like laughter, clicking its hooves against the ground in rhythmic, happy skips. Shaking outs its small mane, it moved its nose forward and clumsily pressed the button on the ball, sucked inside with a flash of red. The Poké Ball clicked just once, then flashed a bright white, signifying the capture.
I'm better now. I'll always be better, he adamantly told himself as he gripped that Poké Ball tightly, distractedly agreeing with the encouraging words from Selene and Lillie for the critical capture (Hau had remained uncomfortably silent, but Elio decided not to dwell on that fact; he had burned that bridge, that much was clear, so why worry about it?). I'm so much better now. I'm a good guy. I'm the big brother. I'm the funny guy. I'm fantastic. I capture pokémon in all their beauty on film so there are fewer stupid kids like me, and I fight FOR pokémon now, not just WITH them! Mom and Dad didn't leave 'cause of me, that's stupid. Nobody knows. Nobody has to know…
I'm Elio. I'm the good guy.
Honestly, between the fight on Route 6, the picnic and chatting to the ranch hands, and exploring the ranch, Selene was exhausted and ready to turn in for the evening once they were finally nearing the end of the ranch. It was so, so hot, she felt as if her entire body were caked in sweat (spoiler alert: it was, it didn't just feel that way), and the thick, heavy tension between her brother and Hau felt as gross and suffocating as the very humidity in the air. It made trying to talk to either of them feel like a chore, unpleasant. She wanted to try to talk to Elio once they made it to the Pokémon Center Lillie and Hau assured her was in Paniola Town just beyond the ranch, but of course, there was no guarantee that would work out. Elio could be so squirrely… His earlier blowup at Hau was testament to that.
Before they could escape the ranch, though, they ran into a young couple getting harassed by yet two more Skull Gang members. Hot, frustrated, and overall pissed off at seeing them, Selene found it disturbingly easy to decide she hated these Skull jerks. What Ilima had said back in Hau'oli helped, sure, but dealing with them alongside Hapu and Elio earlier, and now, seeing them harassing two young folks (apparently to steal their pokémon; go figure, she had thought, you Team Rocket wannabes)… it just made Selene's blood boil.
Without discussing it with any of the rest of the group, she marched up to the two Skull members and snapped, "Hey!"
The couple—a young man and woman, both brunettes with the same, pale but still darker skin of most Alolans—as well as two Skull grunts who, same as the two from earlier as well as back in Hau'oli, were mostly indistinguishable save for the color of their eyes, all jerked their heads to look at her uncertainly. Putting her hands on her hips and tapping her foot like an irritated mom, Selene groaned. "So, is there a reason you Skull guys are harassing them, or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" Squinting, she huffed. "You two look like the same from earlier!"
"Yo, back up, Kanto," the first grunt, a woman, sniped at her with a sneering edge. "This ain't concern you. We got biz with these two numskulls, y'hear? A-B convo, C yaself out."
"'Biz!'" the male half of the couple scoffed, dirtily scowling at their attackers. "You want to steal our pokémon to sell like the hustlers you are! Get on somewhere, we worked hard to breed these pokémon!"
The other Skull grunt snorted. Selene could practically see him curl his lip at the other through his mask. "Ya worked hard, huh? Real hard from ya cozy couch while they got busy in a backyard in some cages, right?"
"How dare you!" the woman, who Selene realized then was clutching a pokémon, bristled. Her arms were wrapped around a sphere of white, which Selene had honestly thought might have been a bag or something. She was shocked when it unfolded and… it looked like a Sandshrew, but… it was snow-white! Sandshrew were gold, or more of a copper green if shiny! How was it white? Was it albino?!
"What do you two think you're doing, exactly?" Elio's husky, growling tone wrenched her out of her fascination with the icy Sandshrew ahead of her. Glancing to her brother, he rolled his shoulders and curled a lip as he advanced on the two Skull grunts. "Thought we already kicked two of your buddies out of stealing a pokémon earlier. What hole do you guys crawl out of, anyway, trynna steal someone's pokémon like that? No better than Team Rocket. The whole lot of you."
"Look, B, even if we knew what you was talkin' about," the male Skull member scoffed—
—"Which we don't," his female counterpart interjected—
—"It wouldn't matter. Stealin's just what we gotta do, knucklehead, so get lost, wouldja?" The male grunt puffed out his chest and approached Elio fearlessly, despite easily being an entire head shorter than him. "Not that you would get that, huh, Kanto? Got everythin' handed to ya, had ya whole life together, and for some reason, y'all's stupid asses came down here to Alola!"
His female companion giggled uncontrollably. "Big G be havin' a field day wit' you fools. Leavin' Kanto for Alola! Ain't they precious?"
"Oh, look, they do got Hala's kid wit' 'em," the male curiously picked up, sidestepping Elio to glance to Hau, who all but shrank under his stare. Turning his attention to Lillie then, he snickered. "An' that pretty girl, too. Maybe they ain't made such a bad choice, after all. Don't make 'em anywhere else like they do in Alola, ay, do they, Kanto, huh?"
"For the love of the Tapus and the Sun Beast above the stars," the woman holding the white Sandshrew dramatically groaned, "would you two put a sock in it? Bitch and moan, bitch and moan, cry me a river, would you?"
"They don't need to do that," her friend, who Selene realized was also holding a white pokémon, but this time a Vulpix, chortled. "All they gotta do is bust a wall down of Po Town. Half the region'd flood! Probably raise the ocean level some!"
The grunts turned back to them and advanced on them sharply. The male grunt barked, "Shut your trap 'fore I break your jaw, numskull. Those Ice-types o' yours'll fetch a pretty dollar out there, y'know. Thanks for doin' all that hard work breedin' 'em for us!" He rolled his piercing, blue eyes. "Since I know that was so exhaustin' and all!"
Selene shared a quick exchange of looks with Elio, and then they both called forward their starters. Macho and Bowtie hardly had to threaten the Skull grunts before they threw their hands up and started to back away. The male grunt growled despite the telltale tremble in his voice. "The only reason you winnin' today is 'cuz we can't afford to get hurt!"
"And what did you think we were going to do?" the man holding the Vulpix retorted with a snort of amusement. "Bend over and give them to you? And here I thought you had something up your sleeve worth being worried about!"
"Should've known better than that," his friend laughed obnoxiously, startling the Sandshrew in her arms slightly. "Skull doesn't ever have anything up their sleeve but bad puns and rainwater, maybe."
"I got an idea!" Elio cupped his mouth and jeered after them sarcastically. "You could try catching some pokémon! Pretty sure you can still sell those! There are plenty of Yungoos for you to lob Poké Balls like losers at back on Melemele!"
The two Skull grunts muttered something among themselves in Alolan, and with a flick of the wrist at Elio and Selene, they slunk away. When the brother and sister turned their attention back to the couple they had helped, Selene couldn't help but squeal and clap her hands. "That Sandshrew and Vulpix! They're white! Oh, my Arceus, that's amazing! Are they albino?"
In her excitement, Selene entirely missed the way the two Alolans seemed to almost screw their noses up at her use of 'Arceus.' Yet, they kindly smiled back at her and held their respective pokémon up. "Haha, no! These are Alolan Vulpix and Sandshrew!" the woman proudly exclaimed. "They're Ice-types! We heard that in Kanto and other places, they aren't anything like they are in Alola." As if to emphasize the point, she encouragingly crooned something to the Sandshrew in her arms, and it cautiously craned its tiny head to look at her. The man did the same with his Vulpix, but it more openly stuck its head out far to sniff at Selene and Elio. Selene awed at the Ice-types. Regional variants! She had only ever heard of those! But mostly from Galar… She frowned briefly. How many did Alola have and why hadn't she ever heard about them?!
"I know we were just fighting those guys not to give these pokémon up," the man sheepishly started, "but… to be honest, we were going to sell these pokémon ourselves. We had five each on us to sell. See, Paniola's big on breeding, and since a lot of Island Challengers pass through here on their way to the trials up north, we go there every now and then to see if any are interested. But seeing two Kantonians accepting the Island Challenge and willing to send those idiots from Skull packing?" he cackled and held up the Vulpix to Selene, stunning her momentarily. "Here! I'd be honored if you'd take one of my Vulpix!"
"And you," the woman chuckled at Elio as she raised the Sandshrew in her hands, "you might want something cold to temper all that heat, boy. What's your name?"
"Uh… Elio," he uncertainly responded as he awkwardly accepted the Sandshrew. Selene took the Vulpix offering as well, but… it just felt so odd to be given a pokémon like that! Sure, back in Kanto, eggs were frequently and freely given away, but actual pokémon themselves…? She almost couldn't believe it, but then the two breeders presented them with the Poké Balls to match their new friends. In a whirl of conversation Selene barely kept up with, the Alolans soon waved goodbye, offering their gifted pokémon a few words of encouragement before taking their leave.
"Alolans do a lot of breeding pokémon," Elio commented idly as he surveyed the Sandshrew in his arms. It seemed weirdly apathetic, uninterested in him, and curled back into a ball after a little bit of relaxing in his hold. Selene frowned at her Vulpix. It was equally as lethargic and disinterested. Maybe they're just tired after all the excitement, she thought to herself, satiating her worry. Elio, however, seemed to bite and gnaw his lower lip, and his arms seemed to start to shake after a delay…
As Lillie chimed in and suggested they check into a Pokémon Center hostel in Paniola Town just ahead, Selene found herself barely listening, instead, focusing wholly on her brother. Determinedly narrowing her eyes, she came to a decision.
She had told herself that the visions she'd had when grabbing Lillie's arm or touching Hau's shoulder had just been that, visions, but… well, perhaps it was the heat getting to her brain, but Selene thought that maybe, just maybe, on the off chance it wasn't all hallucinations induced by ungodly heat or stress but rather from the fabled abilities she had learned Tapus could grant via Z-Crystals like the one she had been gifted upon saving Nebby, she could try to focus hard on her brother and get a flash of imagery from him… Of course, when she had gotten such a vision from Lillie and Hau, she had needed to touch them, and she had been feeling strong, turbulent emotions. With Lillie, she had been angry; with Hau, excited in a way only that battle had seemed to ever bring from her. She certainly didn't want to fight with her brother, so…
That's it! During the Water-type trial! I'm sure that's gotta be exciting! I'll grab him during it and if it really is something freaky going on, maybe… maybe I'll get a vision. And since I know so much about him, I'll be able to prove that it's true, that it's real!
Satisfied with that plan, she felt much better and more confident as they strode to the Pokémon Center (even if she and Elio ended up switching so that he had the Vulpix and she had the Sandshrew… Selene had noticed Elio kept glancing at her Vulpix and ultimately, she had decided that having a Sandshrew in lieu of a Vulpix didn't bother her that deeply). Regardless, she'd figure out what was wrong with her brother, and they'd all be a stronger group for it on their quest to find their parents. After all, what good was finding Mom and Dad if she and Elio were at odds, or perhaps the entire group was at one another's throats? They'd never even make progress that way! And if Selene were actually just going crazy, imagining things in places of these so-called 'visions,' then she decided she'd just have to take the opportunity to start a dialogue with him about what he was thinking.
She just… couldn't know, otherwise. And they all needed each other on the same page more than ever right about then!
Gladion had been relaxing with Makua atop a boulder along Route 5 as they waited for the grunts to return from the tasks they had been assigned across the island for the day. He idly played with and comforted Null as needed, continuously searching and fiddling with that pokémon's helmet. Despite knowing every nook and corner of the mask like the back of his own hand at that point, that never stopped Gladion from idly looking it over in his downtime. It seemed to relax Null as well; rather than him digging at the painful, inhibitive device, he was able to relax as Gladion did that for him.
Yet, in that moment, the peace was shattered as two grunts came careening around a corner of the route, and one of smacking into the green sign giving directions to travelers down the route. Gladion raised a brow at them while Makua didn't even bother raising his chin to glance. "Why ain't you two watch where you're goin'?" Makua asked with a scoff.
"Man, it was that group o' Kanto kids and Hala's brat and that girl again! Cost us ten flawless pokémon! TEN!" the female grunt complained as her male comrade groaned and plucked himself off the metal sign.
"Who put that fuckin' sign there?" he huffed at it, brushing himself off once he was back on his feet.
Snorting at them, Gladion smirked slightly. "How rude of that sign to spawn there, yes…" Idiots.
"Hey, wise ass?" Makua called over his shoulder at him. "Go deal with those kids that keep messin' them up. Meds are nice and all, but we can't leave Akala with just that. Ain't even gonna pay for what we gotta spend in fuel to get the boat to go from here to Ula'Ula."
"He ain't even wearin' Skull colors," the female grunt whined, "what's he gon' do?"
"I'm sure they'll still figure out I'm…" Gladion frowned. Saying it out loud seemed so strange. "I'm sure they'll figure out that I'm Skull all the same, you… uh… numskull."
The two Skull grunts blinked at him, and then broke into fits of laughter. "Aw, his first 'numskull!'" the girl shrieked and cackled.
"Look, look, do it 'gain!" her male friend beamed. "I gotta get a vid o' that!"
"You're all awful," Gladion growled at them flatly, though it took everything in his power to conceal how badly he wanted to laugh along with them. But his stubborn pride wouldn't let it happen. That just sounded awful coming out of me, 'numskull.' How the fuck do they all say that all the time? Grimacing at the clumsy way that had rolled off his tongue, he patted his side and clicked his teeth to get Null's attention. "Null, we got work to do. Coming with?"
The pokémon trotted ahead of him and eagerly 'barked'—a warbling, metallic cry, really—and Gladion nodded in approval.
"Good. That's what I like to hear…" We'll handle this together.
Hey look actual story progress got made this chapter! Bonus points to anyone knows what the chapter title references btw lol.
So, we finally broke open Elio, Selene's got a plan to crack him even more, Hau's got an Electric-type that might out him, and Gladion's gonna go give the crew a piece of his mind. Surely nothing can go wrong with any of that :D
by the way kids don't write chapters on an all-nighter, I am just forced to pull this garbage because I got a new job and my parents are still treating me as if I am a deadbeat bum with nothing to do all day and therefore am free to be their slave. I'd go into a rant about it but honestly I'm tired, and I'd rather complain vicariously through my characters lol. But yeah I had to hastily edit this because I realized I broke the whole flow of my story with the VERY FIRST SENTENCE :D so if you read this within minutes of it going up, yeah, sorry, it said that Hau caught Ikehu at the start of the chapter and like, no, that throws the whole fuckin chapter off, agh