Chapter 21 - Arc 2 (Akala Island) The Mind Jumper

Despite remembering she had asked to speak to Elio the evening before, Selene was honestly glad she had fallen asleep too soon and spent the next morning avoiding discussing it with him. She felt silly! Without knowing a thing about that Gladion, how did she know for sure she was even seeing his memories? And, sure, something was up—she had definitely seen something about Gladion and his weird pokémon, but she surely had to have heard his name and Null's before he had said it at the end while he and her brother and Hau had been arguing. It simply made no logical sense, for the landscape around her to melt and her to see stuff other people have lived through! Besides, she couldn't know for sure until she tested the legitimacy of her 'memory jumps,' however certain she was they were false, on Elio. She and her brother were close, weren't they? Elio had told her practically everything. She knew she certainly told him everything… Well, of course, she hadn't told him about this yet, but that was the only thing! And that was beside the point!

Even if he left out a few details, surely, she would recognize any such memory it decided to show her, if that was what was going on? After all, the memories she had seen so far seemed like big events, something someone would tell somebody else. Then, with that sorted, she could maybe sit down with him and talk about what was bothering him with the Ekans incident so he and Hau would hopefully quit butting heads, she'd apologize to Lillie for implying they'd have been better off without her, then they'd catch some more pokémon and take on the other two trials, then to Konikoni they'd go—where they'd find their parents. Well, she didn't know that last part for sure, but could it hurt to be hopeful?

"Selene, slow down!" Elio whined as he darted after her on Route 5. Hau and Lillie jogged behind him. Panting, her brother frowned at her. "Why are you in such a rush?"

"Why aren't you?" Selene retorted playfully. "Faster we get done with these trial things, the faster we head to Konikoni."

He scowled at her in a way that all too clearly meant: That's not what I'm asking about, and you know it. Why won't you talk to me?

And to that, Selene innocently twirled on a heel, facing the beaten path leading down to the steppes interlaced with pools of water visible between the trees below. "So, is this Brooklet Hill?" Selene loudly asked.

"Ah, are ready for?" Hau asked concernedly, picking his way up next to Selene. He raised a brow at her. "I… know we do together, but… just got Sandshrew, and Miltank still egg, and other have Bowtie… Ikehu Electric-, but bab, and other have Popper…"

At Hau's implication that he apparently wasn't enough, Bowtie ruffled his feathers and flared his wings indignantly. Rolling her eyes and reaching a hand up to pat his side to calm him down, Selene, a little too squeakily, said, "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine! Bowtie's good… he's, uh, he's got the advantage, anyway… Grass- over Water-type and all that… Are you ready? I know Ikehu's a baby pokémon, but I'm sure with her advantage, she'll still do well…"

"Ae…" Hau answered dryly, gaze sinking to the ground. "True…"

"I might be up the creek without a paddle," Elio joked halfheartedly, "'cause Macho and Mudbray are outta their element down there, and my Vulpix… I can barely get her to come outta the Poké Ball, much less fight whatever crazy Totem thing they have hiding down there."

"You can still use Status moves, can't you?" Selene questioned him, though she failed to meet his eyes, not wanting to give him the opportunity to press her to talk again. "Bowtie has the advantage. If you guys can just wear whatever it is down, then maybe he can take care of it?"

As if to answer for her, Bowtie puffed out his chest and flicked that grassy blade from in front of his face dramatically. Elio sighed. "Yeah, that sounds good…" Turning around, Elio put his hands on his hips and frowned at Lillie. "I really don't wanna leave you out here alone. Like, last time, crazy people in spacesuits showed up."

Lillie opened her mouth to reply but was cut off immediately by the sound of someone puffing for breath and the distant slapping of sandals against dirt. All four of them looked up and saw a blue-haired girl sprinting toward them from the steppes below, carrying some kind of stick at her side. Selene squinted as she drew nearer. Or maybe it was a fishing rod… It was thin and handmade if it was, though.

"Please!" the girl begged as she stopped in front of them, leaning over on her knees and panting. "I need your help! Something's attacking the trial site!"

Hau perked up and blinked rapidly in shock. "What? Who?"

"Just, just follow me!" the girl exclaimed, digging her heels in, and turning on a dime to sprint back down and deeper into Brooklet Hill. "My name's Lana!" she haphazardly tossed over her shoulders.

"Is Captain," Hau called to the others before he tore off after her as well. He might have looked funny, carrying his Brionne and a Pichu clinging to his head, if not for the sudden urgency. Yet, along with the dread at realizing they were about to be plunged in yet another high-stress situation, Selene felt a rush of… adrenaline, and suddenly, her feet were moving of their own accord. She was racing after Hau, Bowtie flying after her, completely unsure of why she felt so compelled to assist now—but determined to do so anyway.

Lillie felt something of an ache in her chest as she saw Elio panic after Lana, Selene, and Hau vanished into Brooklet Hill. He hesitated, clearly wanting to follow, and turned a nervous glance to her. "Are you—"

"Go, Torchic," Lillie told him with a resigned, forced smile. Go help your sister. I'll be fine.

Still, he was reluctant. It took a second or two until he dipped his head. "Be careful, Lillie, please. Holler if you need anything." With a hop into the air, he beamed, that seriousness from a moment ago melting away all at once. "Your Torchic in shining armor will be back to save the day like last time~"

"Yeah, with a few camera clicks, the world shall tremble at your feet," Lillie sarcastically teased, mildly irritated by his desperation to play the hero, as he darted down the hill and out of view. Honestly, it was nerve-wracking to be alone again, but part of her wondered if she should have just… gone into the trial site. She was fairly certain the Water-type Totem was some pokémon that couldn't leave the water, so what did she have to fear if she hid somewhere inside on dry land? Then again… She grimaced as she surveyed the landscape of the hillside. There were pools of water everywhere and she had forgotten what Lana's 'gift' from the Tapus was. For all she knew, she thought contemptuously, it was some sort of teleportation.

Deciding to hole up against the tree line near the trial site, she was relieved by the shade, and sat her bag to the side. Finally, she allowed Nebby to leave it, and she idly played with him as she made sure to have her meager defenses ready—her trusty pepperspray and heavy-duty repellant. She rolled her eyes at it and wagged a finger in front of Nebby's face, who batted his cloudy little arms after her. "Maybe Elio and Selene are onto something with that strategy of theirs, with the Status moves and then finishing it off at once, if they can," Lillie reluctantly admitted. "I just… so many pokémon that came to Aether that were all kinds of messed up from battles… I mean…" She sighed and cocked her head at Nebby. "I know pokémon battling isn't bad. A lot of pokémon enjoy it, but it really depends on the trainer, if their trainer is good to them, and…" I don't know if I can trust myself to be the kind of trainer most pokémon deserve. Especially not after seeing Gladion again…

Nebby seemed to pick up on her shift in mood and he squeaked at her, drawing her to playfully bat her hand back at him, but he didn't react. She swore he was frowning at her. Chuckling sadly, Lillie shook her head. "I just… I just realized back there, seeing him again, that I abandoned him. I was so caught up in my own head and thinking I couldn't trust him that I just… abandoned him. Who knows what happened to him that led to him having that… that thing he has with him, or to joining the Skull Gang?" She bit her lower lip. "I haven't left Melemele often before this journey, but even I know that Melemele is probably the tamest of the islands when it comes to the Skull Gang, except for maybe Poni… I can't even imagine what he has to put up with on a daily basis… And… and I did that." Lillie slowly brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself, rocked to the core by that thought. "I did that, didn't I…?"

Though he floated nearer to her at first, Nebby seemed to get distracted by something else, perhaps a scent in the air. He paused and then waved his arms excitedly, tiny squeaks and pews rapidly firing from him as he whirled around and started to hover away. Confused, Lillie unraveled her arms and cupped her mouth, calling for him, but he seemed completely uninterested. Panicking slightly, Lillie snatched her bag and her pepperspray, and hurried after him. When he noticed her following, he squealed, and sped up, as if they were playing a game of chase.

Lillie groaned, "Nebby, this isn't funny!"

She chased him a bit until they were behind a Pokémon Center, and finally, Selene understood what had gotten Nebby so interested. She yelped as she saw him float right into a trap. The steel cage was large enough so that it didn't seem to concern him, but the moment he hovered inside and started to curiously eat out of the cup of honey in the center, the gate poised over the front of the cage slammed shut, trapping him inside. Cursing to herself, Lillie skidded forward and landed on her knees, rattling the cage as Nebby started to panic inside of it.

"Nebby," Lillie complained, "I love you, but sometimes, you can be really, really stupid. Aren't you mostly gas? Can't you just get out of there?"

He crossed those puffy arms at her and indignantly pewed at her a few times, as if to say he didn't appreciate her tone and that no, he couldn't. Still believing the trap to simply be that of a local that was trying to passively catch some pokémon along Route 5, Lillie deftly traced the mechanics of the cage, hoping to disengage it without damaging it, but… well, it had been a long, long time since she had assisted Aether with opening up forgotten traps with pokémon locked inside.

"Lillie Rae Aether. We must speak."

Lillie froze and licked dry lips. "So, this isn't just someone's trap, is it," Lillie quietly mused, daring to look up slowly. Dulse and Zossie, as she expected, stood patiently just to her side. Once the momentary surprise was over, Lillie possessively hugged the cage and curled her lip at the both of them. "Back off! You two didn't get him last time, and aren't getting him this time, either!"

"Please… we really do just wanna talk," Zossie chimed in, smiling warmly. "I promise!"

"Talk about what? How you're both falling for my mother's nonsense?" Lillie retorted. "Because I'd love to chat about that! I don't know where you two come from or why you're helping her try to kill a pokémon for her weird Ultra Space experiments, but you're not only wrong for it, you're stupid, too!"

Dulse and Zossie shifted uncomfortably, and then Dulse tilted his head ever so slightly. "What… what do you mean, Miss Aether?"

"Kill a pokémon?" Zossie echoed confusedly. "We're not trying to kill Cosmog…" She frowned and scratched her head, which made a grating, metallic sound given her gloves and helmet. "We want Cosmog to protect people and pokémon both, silly! Where did you get that idea?"

Blinking, Lillie felt all the strength in her arms fade, and she set the cage down. "You… you two have no idea, do you?"

"I grow impatient with this," Dulse irritably interrupted. "Explain your understanding of the circumstances and then we shall explain ours, and then we will go from there. So, Lillie R—"

"It's just Lillie!" Zossie complained, throwing her head back. In a fit of giggles, she groaned, "We know who you're talking about Dulse, she's right there!"

"…Lillie," Dulse started again after a moment of regaining his composure, "please explain your take on the situation with this Cosmog."

They… seem way more willing to compromise than I think I ever gave them credit for… Lillie was stunned, then felt guilt start to gnaw at her chest. Just like I thought I couldn't talk to Gladion, did I jump the gun and assume these guys were beyond reason, too…? I mean… there's still no telling where the hell they come from, they still freak me out, but… Maybe, maybe if I can make them see my side… What if I could get Aether off my back? She steeled her nerves and nodded. "Listen… settle in. This one's going to be a ride, you two…"

Once Selene, Hau, and Elio reached the bottom of Brooklet Hill, Selene was dismayed to find there wasn't truly anything wrong at all! In fact, as they reached the bottom, through the assistance of a Lapras Lana had apparently trained to help trainers traverse the area, Lana (who Selene had no idea how she had gotten there before them and on foot) cackled madly from the rocky shore of the ocean inlet. "Hehe, I got all three of you good! All three of you passed my trial gates and so now, you'll face Wishiwashi!"

All the while, Selene, Elio, and Hau were still on the back of the Lapras. It was a bit of a tight fit for all three of them, and they had been forced to recall all their pokémon due to space limitations, but that was quickly forgotten as restless waves and bubbles in the water suddenly rushed at them, and a dark shape took form below the Lapras. It was all happening too fast for any of them to react to the revelation Lana had played a trick on them. The Lapras panicked and whirled away, throwing the three of them onto the shore, while the beastly aquatic pokémon that was chasing them breached the water afterward, showing off its true, mighty form before splashing back into the water in a glorious shower of seawater.

Not that Elio appreciated it. The ocean spray seemed to focus on him in particular, and he yelped, backpedaling and slinging water from his arms. "Watch the camera!" he hissed, checking on his pockets just then.

"Put it in your backpack, idiot!" Selene laughed at him. "You did realize we were coming to a Water-type trial, right?"

"Ae, bigger fish to fry!" Hau called to them both. When Elio shot him an incredulous stare, as if he couldn't believe Hau had just made such a pun, Hau flashed him a cheeky grin. "I know some Galarish!"

The Wishiwashi, as Lana had called it, lingered near the surface of the water and Selene was fascinated by its appearance… It looked like dozens of smaller fish pokémon joined together by a glowing aura, similar to Ilima and Hala's pokémon during their trials. Her Rotom Dex and Elio's both took in its data before retreating to their respective backpacks to avoid the watery crossfires, and just like that, the battle was on. Elio sent out Macho, Selene went with Bowtie of course, and Hau released Ikehu.

"Ikehu, Nuzzle!"

"Macho, Fury Swipes!"

What's he doing attacking? Selene thought, momentarily puzzled. I thought we agreed on the Status moves—oh, whatever… "Bowtie, um…" …Shit. All this talk about Status moves, and I think the only one Bowtie knows is Growl, but… most Water-types are special attackers… Damn it. "Bowtie, Razor Leaf!" Oh well… I mean, if Elio attacked…

While the pokémon acted, Selene thought back to her plan with Elio. She briefly glanced to her brother while Ikehu darted from the stony shore to the Wishiwashi, landing on the part of its school that was sticking out of the water and rubbing its face against them. The Wishiwashi made a horrible noise as electric sparks arced over its body, then a torrent of water from some of the smaller fish pokémon within knocked Ikehu free of its body. Yet, when Selene raised her hand to touch Elio's shoulder, she started to get cold feet and instead, merely hovered her palm near him without touching him just yet.

She heard Macho hiss and skid to the edge of the shore, swiping long claws angrily at the pokémon again and again, then jumping away to expertly dodge some errant streams of water. Bowtie flew up into the air and flapped his wings wildly, firing a barrage of bladed leaves down at his target.

Gritting her teeth, Selene decided she just had to do it. She clamped her hand on Elio's shoulder and focused on him—hard. On the day before, on everything he had told them, on all the weird behavior he'd exhibited since moving to Alola, thinking over even the smallest of details, like how she had noticed he had been so, so dejected upon not finding anything about their parents back in Heahea.

She wasn't sure if she was thrilled or horrified when it worked.

As usual, the scene around her dissipated, and the humid moisture in the air was traded for a dry warmth, familiar to her. The stony shore below her feet was replaced with asphalt and she was flanked on either side by a few boys she didn't recognize. They all looked young… ten at most. She had a stick in her hand, and she realized she was poking an Ekans ahead of their group with said stick. The pokémon was rolled over on its back, panting madly against the heat, and it couldn't seem to find its way back to its stomach to slither away.

"What's wrong with it?" one of the boys asked in Kantonian, wrinkling his nose. "Is it stupid?"

"It's an Ekans, Mrs. Hatsuka said they have a brain the size of a pea!" another giggled.

Selene leaned forward and poked the pokémon harder, on the head, and it lashed out at the stick, snapping its fangs around it. Finally, the pokémon seemed to right itself. Squealing in overstimulated excitement, Selene shook the stick to try to shake it off. The Ekans let go after it was rattled a few too many times against the pavement, then curled into a tight ball, still appearing to be having trouble remaining upright. It slowly moved its yellow rattle in front of its face and struggled to shake it warningly at them all. When Selene moved with the stick again, the pokémon hissed and bared two sharp fangs for her.

"Hey, Elio," a guy to her left said, "we should see if we can move it! It shouldn't be here, so maybe if we can get it off the school, Mrs. Hatsuka would like that!"

Selene felt her eyes roll of their own accord. "Such a teacher's pet, dude." With that, he leaned forward with the stick, bravely smacking it against the pokémon's rattling tail, thrusting the rattle in front of its mouth. The pokémon lashed out at the stick, but caught its own tail instead. It fell over and started to writhe again, as if not realizing right away that it had caught its own tail rather than Elio's stick.

Despite dimly being aware she should have felt horrified, Selene merely delightedly laughed, prodding the pokémon a few more times. It let go of its tail at last, but she pushed the tail back in front of its jaw, and it did it again. "What a genius this one is!" she cackled in her brother's voice. "Mmm, snake stew."

"Elio, gross!" one of the other kids laughed, shoving Selene on her shoulder.

"U-uh, it's not letting go…" another of the boys pointed out, starting to step back a bit. "Elio, please… Can we just… can we just let it go? Or go get Mrs. Hatsuka…?"

"Alright, alright," Selene dramatically muttered, "but you're all wusses." With that, she knelt next to the pokémon and tapped its mouth with the stick. "Hey, dummy, knock that off." Yet, to her command, the Ekans only swallowed a bit more of its tail, the rattle disappearing entirely in its mouth. Its fangs started to scrape hard along its smooth scales, then caught between some and started to sink in. Starting to feel a bit of a sense of panic, Selene dropped the stick and grabbed the pokémon's mouth and tail in either hand, pulling hard with both to try to stop it.

Yet, the Ekans stubbornly chomped down harder, swallowing more. Blood leaked from around its fangs then and Selene yelped, scrambling away from it. She heard one of her friends go running and shouting for Mrs. Hatsuka, who she somehow knew was her teacher, and after a short delay, she saw a thin woman in a black dress and heels hobble perilously over the asphalt to them, as she was being dragged by said friend. He paused just short of the Ekans and yanked on her arm a few times, pointing at the Ekans. "Look, look! We need help!"

"O-oh, it… what?" Mrs. Hatsuka asked, alarm in her voice, as she gawked at the Ekans. "Where did this come from?"

"We were playing with it!" the boy at her side exclaimed… Kuno. That's his name. Yanking her arm again, he whimpered, "But now it won't stop… and it just… it's acting weird! Can you help us?"

"Er, I'm going to call the school ranger," Mrs. Hatsuka explained, reaching into a pocket for her phone, "but what on Earth happened?" Eyeing the stick on the ground as well as a few scuffs across the Ekans' body, she narrowed her eyes crossly at the boys gathered around her. "Who did this?"

Without skipping a beat, in a blind panic, Selene blurted, "He did! K-Kuno did!"

Kuno's brown eyes widened in shock and his mouth fell open. "Wh… what?" He shook his head and looked up at Mrs. Hatsuka. "He's lying! He did it! I came to get you 'cause he was hurting it! I promise!" He whipped his head back to Selene then. "Elio, why are you lying? Jerk, you did it! You were poking it and I kept telling you to stop!"

"No way," Selene replied through a mouth of sandpaper. She glanced nervously at the other boys around her. "It wasn't… wasn't me. I was just trying to get it to stop!"

With the phone pressed to Mrs. Hatsuka's ear, she went silent, and Selene winced as she looked back at the Ekans and saw that it had quit moving despite still desperately attempting to swallow. She went to step closer to it and try to stop it once more, the blood dribbling around its fangs a horrid sight indeed, but Mrs. Hatsuka all but lunged at her and snatched her by the shoulder. Squeezing the phone between her ear and shoulder on her other side, she hissed at her, "Elio, don't you get near that! That is an Ekans, its venom may be weak compared to its evolved form, but that pokémon can still seriously injure you…" She quickly responded to the man on the phone and then swept a hard look over the rest of the gathered friends. "Alright, I just need to ask, who was the one messing with this Ekans before Kuno came and got me?"

Selene froze and felt a rush of guilt as she hoped against all hope her friends would choose to side with her. Yet, when they all slowly mumbled that it had been Kuno, she felt horrible. A dreadful, sinking sensation took root in her chest and she couldn't look up as Kuno sounded as if he were about to burst into hysterics.

"He's lying, Mrs. Hatsuka! He did it! He thought it was funny to jab it and make it bite itself! He was laughing!"

"That's enough, Kuno! This is no laughing matter," Mrs. Hatsuka snapped at him. Sighing to herself, she said, "The ranger's on his way. Come with me, all of you, we're going to give that pokémon some space and I'll need to call the counselor to come speak with all of you…"

The scene faded after that and Selene found herself on her rear back in Brooklet Hill. Elio had sank down next to her and grabbed her by her shoulders, shaking her. "Selene!" he cried, panic-stricken. When she blinked blearily and looked him up and down in confusion, he let out an audible sigh of relief, and then hugged her. "You scared the shit out of me! You grabbed me and then you just… hit the ground!" Clenching her shoulders again, he held her firmly and scowled. "Now, we need to talk! What's going on? What was that? Are you okay?"

"Ae, help!" Hau hollered back at them before ordering Ikehu to attack again in Alolan. Bowtie hovered awkwardly above the battle, waiting uncertainly for an order, while Macho dodged stray streaks of water that arced through the air, hissing and fluffing his fur up whenever any struck him. His flaming pendant seemed dimmer than usual.

Selene felt ill. Absolutely ill. She couldn't meet her brother's eyes and she stared firmly at the ground instead. Despite it not matching up with the story she had been told by him, it had felt too real, too detailed, too convenient to simply be false. That story about the Ekans… It was him who did it… And when he got found out, he didn't even care that he had hurt the Ekans… he was just terrified of getting in trouble, he even pinned it on his friend… I mean, he obviously felt bad about it in the end, they were all young, but… In an even more hopeless wave of despair, she realized something else. That means the visions can't be fake. They're real. I'm really seeing people's memories. Oh, my Arceus. Oh, my Arceus. What the fuck? What do I do about that? What does that mean? That can't be real. That just can't be! She shouldered him away harshly then, staggering to her feet. "Bowtie, Razor Leaf!" she shouted. She just couldn't believe it. Her brother, Elio, the guy who lived and breathed pokémon rights to the point it was irritating, had laughed and demeaned an ill Ekans and then ultimately caused its demise. Then, he had weaseled his way out of the repercussions with that enormous sense of self-preservation of his. She had always known her brother could be a bit self-serving… But that… that had been an entirely different level… He had been young, but… It was just so shocking…

As Bowtie divebombed the Wishiwashi again with a barrage of leaves, Elio desperately begged, "Selene, please, are you okay? What's wrong? What did you want to talk to me about last night?" Shaking his head, he pressed, "Why won't you talk to me?"

His pleading words were almost painful to hear. She shrank away from him. "I don't want to talk," she quietly said. "We're in the middle of a trial. Can we just battle now?"

There was a long pause where he stared wordlessly as the Wishiwashi bellowed, a long, loud cry that made the water all around them ripple. At last, Elio turned defeatedly back to Macho. "Macho, Bite…"