"Dude, did you hear those gunshots?" said Basil as he roused Gladion awake with a few nudges.
"Nnh..." Gladion sat up, his eyes pointing to the Type: Null. "Someone's shootin' a gun?"
"Yeah," answered Basil. "And I saw something flying up in the sky, some kind of creature. It was really big."
"What color was it?"
"Blue and gold."
"Whoa..." A Legendary Pokémon? No, that was too great an assumption. "How many gunshots didja hear?"
"Four. Did you hear any of them?"
Gladion turned, his legs hanging off the side of the bed. "I was sleeping, Basil." The rain pelted the roof of the motel they were staying at, thunder clapping from far away.
Gladion looked quite strange—he had gone to bed with no shirt, and his unstyled hair hung in messy clumps. He looked at the alarm clock; it was 7:42. "Wonder what Lillie's up to..." He scratched his head. "It's pretty early, but I guess we oughtta go get something to eat."
"Hell yeah! Now we're talkin'!" Basil's tailfin wagged as he shook his rear.
"Come on." Gladion took Basil into the bathroom. "Ugh..." He combed his hair, but not before pulling on a white shirt and a blue zip-up jacket.
Gladion dropped some coins into a plastic zip-top bag. "This should be enough change for breakfast." He looked out the window. "Good Arceus, it's rainy as hell. We gotta get an umbrella or something."
The malasada shop was open as usual, though the sign was starting to flicker a bit and the wooden door and window frames had worn.
Basil waited outside under the sunshade. He didn't want to be seen by any of the workers.
Once Gladion was inside, he took out the bag of coins. "Two malasadas, please. One for me and one for my Pokémon." Gladion tossed the coins out onto the desk, counted them to make sure there was enough, and slid them all forward. "Keep the change."
"Coming right up." The cashier turned around and called, "Two regular malasadas!" as Gladion put the empty bag back in his pocket.
"Your malasadas, sir!"
"Thanks." Gladion took the malasadas and left.
"Here you go, pal," Gladion said as he tossed a malasada to Basil.
"YEAH!" Basil ate it like it was ass. "You know," he said through a mouthful of the bread, "I'm kind of wondering what your sister's doing too."
"Yeah..." Gladion slowly nibbled at his malasada. "We'll get in touch with her soon."
Then something caught his eye. It appeared faint, dark and shadowy in the rain. It seemed to take the shape of a human, though crumpled and laying on its side.
"The hell is that?" He came closer, then knelt down to see the strange, unmoving thing.
It was a blonde girl, dead, blood leaking from her neck and staining her clothes.
His sister.
"LILLIE!" He laid a hand on her face. It was colder than an Alolan Ninetales' breath. He shook her, as if there was the smallest chance she would wake up. She had probably been there a while. She was dead. There was nothing Gladion could do.
"No... No, no, no, no..." Gladion wept, the rain washing away his tears. "Lillie..."
Gladion dug two fingers and a thumb into her neck, then pulled a cold object out of the wound. It was a silver bullet with a golden endplug, the Aether Corp logo engraved on its side. Lillie had been killed by a member of her own mother's corporation.
Gladion examined the bullet, then produced the empty bag from his pocket and placed the bullet inside, the rain thundering down in sheets on him, on Basil, and on Lillie. "Aether Corp's gotta end."