Dawn and Ash arrive at a pokemon center, and after battling a lot of trainers on the route, Ash decided to heal his pokemon. After Nurse Joy healed up Ash's pokemon, the decided to head on. On the way though, Ash noticed some fruit. Pikachu went to go pick a berry out, but a pokemon appeared.
"Wow! Who's that pokemon?" Ash asked.
His rotom dex came out. "Crabrawler, a fighting type pokemon. It guards its weak spots with its pincers and attacks when it finds an opening!"
The crabrawler used Rock Smash on Pikachu and sent it flying.
"Should've kept your guard up, Ash," Dawn said.
"You okay, Pikachu?" Ash asked.
Pikachu quickly bounced back up.
"Alright, let's catch that Crabrawler!"
"Pika!" Pikachu shouted as he nodded.
Pikachu used Thunderbolt as Crabrawler was busy gulping down the berries. Once it got hit by Pikachu, it got angry and hit Pikachu with a hard Rock Smash. Pikachu got up and spin dodged it to catch it off guard, than used Thunderbolt again and Crabrawler fainted. Ash then tossed a pokeball at it, and after it rocked back and forth a bit, the ball stopped and dinged.
"Yes! I caught Crabrawler!" Ash shouted.
Pikachu jumped and cheered.
"Now we really will be ready for Ilima's challenge for sure."
They quickly healed up again and went to look for Verdant Cave.
They soon saw Ilima standing in front of a cave.
"Oh, so you made it! Great, right pass this gate is where your trail will began. After you enter, you cannot exit until you complete the trail," Ilima said.
"Alright, well I'm all ready!" Ash shouted.
"Great! Then let's head in."
They all headed inside the cave. "To continue on to the next area, you must defeat three pokemon here. Otherwise, you won't be able to go on."
Ash and Dawn noticed there was a guy on the other side blocking the way to the next area.
"And you will not be allowed to catch pokemon here until you complete the challenge. With that said, you're on your own now, so good luck."
"I'll be right here cheering for you Ash!" Dawn said.
"Right, thanks!" Ash said. "Let's go Pikachu!"
"Pika!" Pikachu replied.
They slowly approached a small hole in the cave wall and looked in it, and a rattata came out.
"Woah! That rattata looks a lot different than the rattata I've seen!" Ash shouted.
His rotom dex poped out. "This Rattata is a Alolan form. While other rattata not from here are usually Normal type, these rattata are Dark type!"
Alright! Let's go Crabrawler!"
Crabrawler came out and used Brick Break on rattata, and it fainted. Ash then continued on exploring the cave, and a rattata came up to Ash and attacked. Crabrawler took care of it too.
"Alright! One more to go!" Ash shouted.
Pikachu and Crabrawler cheered. Then they all heard a loud sound, and when they looked around, they saw a pokemon scurry in a whole.
"Hey! Let's go get that rattata!" Ash shouted.
Pikachu and Crabrawler both nodded and headed for the hole that the pokemon went in. But when they cheeked in the hole, nothing was there. Then they heard the noise again, and they saw the pokemon head into a different hole. They dashed across some boards to that hole, but it wasn't in there. The noise came again, and they saw the pokemon go into another hole. But this time, Ash cheeked a different whole. It still wasn't in there.
"Agh! Would you stop being a coward and fight me, you stupid rattata!" Ash shouted.
Then the guys that were at the docks showed up.
"Payback time, kid!" a guy said.
Ash gave them a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
Both their eyes got wide.
"Oh, I get it! This guy got confused cuz we switched places, yo!" one said.
They then switched places from where they were standing.
"It doesn't matter! Let's just get em!" the other said. Then he sent out Drowzee. "Yeah! We can a new pokemon to take care of you, kid!"
Ash sent out Rowlet, and used Astonish, which made Drowzee flinch. So Then Rowlet used Razor Leaf, and got a critical hit on it, and Drowzee fainted.
"Woah! This kid is crazy strong, homie!" the guy said.
"Totally man! Let's beat it!" the other said.
They started to run away.
One stopped, which made the other one stop.
"No way! I don't want to go like this! There's some strong pokemon up ahead. The other pokemon are even too afraid to come out. Let's let that kid face that pokemon."
The other sighed. "Whatever man."
"Go stand over there!"
"Alright."
Then they ran to a hole in the wall and started shouting at the hole for the pokemon to come out. This made one hole for Ash to go and cheek. Once he did, a raticate popped out. Raticate used bite on Crabrawler, and Crabrawler used Brick Break. Raticate used Bite one last time before Crabrawler knocked it out with a Brick Break. Crabrawler was panting.
"Nice job Crabrawler. Take a break for now!" Ash said as he returned him in his pokeball.
Ash went into the next room, which was a dead end. In it, had a statue with the Z-Crystal. Ash slowly walked up to it, and tried to take the crystal, but then a huge raticate jumped down and prevented him from taking the crystal. It then started glowing with some strange power. Ash sent out Rowlet and he used Peck, but it barley did anything to the raticate. Rowlett then got slowed down a lot with Scary Face, and Raticate used bite to make Rowlet flinch. Raticate hit it with another Bite, but Rowlet was able to pull off a Leafage. Raticate called for help, and a rattata came. Rowlet used one last Leafage on it, before the Raticate and Rattata teamed up on it to knock it out. Crabrawler came out next, but even though it's Brick Break was super effective, it did little to the Raticate and was easily knocked out.
"It's all up to you, Pikachu!" Ash said.
"pika!" Pikachu shouted and jumped off Ash's shoulder and into the battle. Pikachu started off with Thunderbolt. Raticate then used Scary Face again, and Rattata used Tail Whip. To gain some speed, Pikachu used Quick Attack, but Rattata used Quick Attack itself and slammed Pikachu on the ground, and the Raticate hit Pikachu with a Bite. But then Pikachu used Thunderbolt once Raticate bit Pikachu and fainted. And Pikachu managed to dodge Rattata and knock it out with a Thunderbolt. After that, the raticate scurried away, and Ash grabbed the Z-Crystal.
Ilima and Dawn came.
"From the looks of it, you've defeated the Raticate and got the Normalium Z. And I trained that Raticate so hard all by myself. Now, I shall show you the dance to use the Z move you for Normalium Z. It goes like this." Ilima did a little dance and pose. "Did you get that?"
"Yeah! That's so cool!"
"So now that you completed the challenge here, you can catch any pokemon you like. I shall be waiting for you outside." Then Ilima left.
"That's so cool! I wish I could do a Z-move!" Dawn said.
Ash was checking it out, and saw that multiple pokemon could use it.
"Hey, maybe you can!" Ash shouted.
"What?"
"I just set Pikachu to be able to use it, but it seems other pokemon can learn it too!"
"But… I'm sure you'll need the crystal to use it…"
"Yeah. But I see no harm in us sharing them!"
Dawn smiled. "Alright! If that's fine by you, then its fine by me!"
"Right! Then let's get going."
Ash and Dawn exited the cave.
"After completing my challenge, there is something else I can do for you." Ilima said. "Look over there!" He pointed to a barrier. "Only someone escorted by a strong trainer or someone who has passed my challenge can pass through there. And so I now can let you go through!"
And so a guy came and took down the barrier for them.
Then Kukui came down passed it. "Hey Ash! Did you complete your trial?"
"Yeah!" Ash shouted.
"Great! Just know that Z-Moves drain you physically that you and your team can only handle to do a Z-Move once per battle. So, it's important to use it at the right moment."
"Makes sense."
"Anyways, I've seem to have lost Lillie. Have you seen her around by any chance?"
"No, we haven't," Dawn said.
"I'll go check the cave in case she wondered in there," Ilima said. He then went into the cave.
"I'll go back to check if she's close to Hou'oi City!" Ash said. Ash then ran off.
"I'll go and look for her too!" Dawn shouted. After that, she ran off and everyone was frantically searching for her. While Dawn was continuing onward to the next route to find Lillie, she found a path that spilt into two, but took the lower path. Dawn kept going and saw an interesting place up ahead, and went there.
