Once she got out of the meadow, she reached Route 17, and a light rain started. The first things she saw was the sign showing the route number, a police station, and... a Team Skull grunt standing outside of it. Why was he here? Alex walked passed the grunt, who surprisingly ignored her, and she opened the door to the police station.
Aside from the Alolan Meowths everywhere, there was nothing else inside. Alex slowly closed the door. "I guess that means I'm getting close."
The gray bricked walkway lead further north, and she could see another grunt ahead of her. Just beyond him, the walkway curved to the left, leading into a tall, concrete wall, and two more grunts standing at the gate built into the wall. That had to be the entrance to Po Town.
The two grunts looked over at Alex when they heard her walk up to them. "Yo, what's up? You wanna join Team Skull?" the male grunt asked.
"Hold up... Is that a Z-Power Ring?" the female grunt asked, pointing at the bracelet on Alex's wrist.
"For real?! You actually on the island challenge?!" the male groaned.
"All right then... I get it..." the female snorted. "Come to laugh at us losers who gave up on the island challenges, huh?"
"That's actually not-" Alex started.
"You showed up so suddenly and got the nerve to laugh at me?!" the male barked.
Alex had beaten them both. "No fair! I hate strong kids like you!" the female whined. "I'm not letting you in!" The two had opened the gate, rushed inside, and closed it tightly behind her.
Alex groaned. "Man, now what?"
"You there, girl?" an older, monotone male voice said behind her. She turned and saw a man with a police over shirt on. He walked up to the thick, concrete gate. "Seems to me like you're trying to get into Po Town. You sure you've thought this through? You'd better be ready if you're thinking of coming in here. Ready to live as Team Skull... or ready to take on Team Skull."
Alex nodded confidently. "Yeah, I have. I have to."
The man turned to face her again. "You really think you're ready for that?"
Alex nodded again. "I am."
"I guess everyone has their own reasons. I got my reasons, too, for doing what I do. I'll have them let you in. If you don't make it, I'll be sure your remains at least get back home."
Alex wrinkled her nose. Who was this guy? Was he part of Team Skull as well? He didn't look like he was, but she supposed you could never know. She walked inside once he got the gate open.
Immediately inside, there was a barricade, blocking off the walkway, the Team Skull symbol spray painted on it. Two more grunts were standing behind it. "Huh?" He stared at Alex when she approached the barricade. "What's this numskull doing here?" He glanced at his partner behind the concrete slabs. "What, oh what, should we do?"
"Forget about it! We've got this Barbaracle... I mean this barricade! Do you really wanna bother moving it out of the way just to take one kid on?" the second replied dismissively.
The first one nodded. "True, true..."
The second finally turned to Alex. "Go home! Go! You're not coming in here, got it? Not unless you find some path through here!"
Alex stared at them with an irritated look. "Fine, I'll do just that," she said, walking away from the barricade. There had to be another way in.
Off to the left of the barricade, she discovered a hole in the tall shrubs. She looked over to guarantee the two grunts couldn't see her, and crawled through the hole.
There was grafitti randomly sprayed on the walls and sidewalks of the town. The buildings she could see from where she was were in disrepair. She sighed and walked to the thoroughfare of the town.
Once she was out of sight of any shrubs, the two grunts behind the barricade spotted her. "Dude, are you hardheaded? Your skull must be rock!" the first shouted when he saw her. "You shouldn't come in here, yo. Now I'm gonna make you regret it!"
The grunt shrugged. "That barricade made us soft... There's something to regret all right..." the first grumbled.
"Hey, yo, barricade or no, we ain't lettin' you go!" the second barked.
"We needed that barricade after all! Come on, hold back a little!"
"No," Alex said bluntly, and walked up to the run down looking Pokemon Center.
There were a few more grunts inside, one of them standing behind the main counter. "Ready for fly rhymes in your ear, yo? But, yo, what're you doin' here, yo?" the guy standing in front of the counter started to rap.
"Yo, it's darker than Darkrai up in here, yo. I'm gettin' scared like I met with a Fearow!" the girl behind the counter continued. "Ain't nobody around. I'm feelin' kinda down, but I'm still holdin' it down here in Po Town! Hey, yo, spin it, Spinda!" She threw out her arm, pointing at the Spinda standing on the opposite of the guy.
The Spinda cried out, seeming to be enjoying itself.
"So listen up, intruder. So wants money, but it always eludes her!" the guy picked up the rap again. "Team Skull, represent! We can't pay the rent! Had a lot of fun, but our youth was misspent!"
"This Pokemon Center is where we cower, but we can't pay bills, so we got no power! If you give me 10 Pokedollars, we will help you out, by healing your team before your next bout!"
Alex blinked. That was certainly unexpected. "Uh... yeah, that would be nice," Alex said, placing the money on the counter.
"I knew we could count on you, yo! Thanks to you, we can make do, yo!" the guy rapped after the girl picked up the money.
"Cash makes us perky, so even though you were a bit jerky, I'll heal up your team so you can do work-y!" the girl finished the rap.
Alex still wasn't sure what was going on with those two, but if they were willing to help her, she might as well take it. Ten Pokedollars was a cheap price for having the enemy's help.
Further up ahead was another barricade. She sighed and used the same tactic: look for holes in the surrounding shrubs. Alex felt it was a little... stupid that it worked again. There was a third barricade, but she could see there was an opening in the surrounding iron fence leading to the mansion like building it was surrounding. That had to be where they were keeping the little girl's Yungoos. She finally reached the front doors and went inside.
The inside resembled the rest of the town: in disrepair and grafitti everywhere, with grunts standing around. Alex sighed. "All right, let's start..." she mumbled to herself. She had to now pester each of these grunts about where that Yungoos was.
All the grunts she had dealt with on the first floor and most of the second hadn't known anything about what she was talking about. On the second floor, a grunt was blocking the doors to the balcony.
"Greetings, visitor," the grunt said to Alex. "If you wish to meet with Master Guzma, then give the three secret passwords."
Master Guzma? That's a new one. Alex thought back to the slips of paper she found around the mansion. "All right," she said.
"Then tell me today's first password! Which one of these does our big sis like best?"
"Poison Jab," Alex replied without hesitation.
The grunt clicked his tongue. "Then tell me today's second password! Which of THESE does our big sis like best?"
"Bounsweet."
"Seriously?! Then tell me today's third password! Which one of THESE does our big sis like best?!"
"Tapu Cocoa."
The grunt repeated her answers. "Are you sure about that?"
Alex paused, remembering something on one of the slips with the passwords... "No!" she shouted.
The grunt let out a hearty laugh. "You know all our big sis' favorite things, and you even knew to say "no!" at the end! Yeah, you're one of us, bonehead!" He honestly sounded completely happy with her responses. He stepped to the side, letting Alex pass. "If you wanna have an audience with Master Guzma, then follow the path out on the roof."
"Uh... thanks?" His face had a pleased glow, like he truly met a new ally. She passed through the doors onto the balcony. Outside, there was a path made of planks over the railing that lead to an open window. "That doesn't look safe..." Alex mumbled to herself. She hugged the wall and carefully scooted along the planks.
She was on the other side of the second floor that had been blocked off by the collapsed chandelier. Another pair of grunts were standing side by side at a door at the end of the hall. Alex walked up to the door, eyeing the pair, who let her pass through without any hassle.
Inside, Guzma was standing on a raised platform. To his right, there was a grunt standing in front of a chest overflowing with crystals. Were those... Z-Crystals?
"The hated boss who beats you down and beats you down and never lets up... Yeah. Big bad Guzma is here!" Guzma announced himself. He put his hands on his hips when Alex approached him. "I don't get you, kid, but at least this is a change of pace. It's not every day someone comes straight to me for a beating!"
Alex snorted. "I'm not here for you, Guzma. I'm here for the Yungoos you guys stole from Aether House."
"No bone to pick with me, huh?" He shrugged. "How sweet of you to help out a sad little girl." He clicked his tongue. The Yungoos in question was cowering behind the grunt.
"And you came all the way here just for that, huh? Can't you just watch for your own Pokemon and stay out of other people's business?!"
"How about you leave other people's Pokemon alone, you jerk!" Alex snapped.
Guzma laughed. "You're one messed up kid! You wanna know what I do when some machine messes up? The first thing I do is give it a nice hard smack! I mean, most of the time I smash it to pieces, but hey, what can you do? Now let's see if I can't fix you!"
Guzma stood completely still, staring down at Alex. "Guzma, what is wrong with you?!" he suddenly shouted, grabbing onto his head. He whipped around to look at the grunt. "Yo! Give the Pokemon back to the kid! NOW!"
The grunt, looking intimidated, moved to the side. The Yungoos rushed over to Alex, and she scooped it up into her arms.
Guzma clicked his tongue again. The grunt, who was still being stared down by Guzma, rushed out of the room. "I'm gonna be you down one of these days! No matter whose help I need to do it..." he growled, pointing angrily at Alex. He shoved her aside and walked out of the room.
Alex let out a heavy sigh and looked at the jewels in the chest. "There's really are Z-Crystals..." she said to herself, picking up and examining one of them. Why did Guzma have so many of these? Where did he even get them from? She shrugged and pocketed one. "All right, let's take you back home," she said, turning her attention to the Yungoos.