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Captured!... R.A.T.T.A.T.A. Versus Moon Child... A New Deity Is Named

Tapu Koko lay wheezing at Moon Child's feet.

"Nice job, Salazzle!" Moon Child said. "I knew you could do it."

Tapu Koko rolled one bloodshot eye, the one that hadn't puffed completely shut, toward the feisty young trainer. It huffed a breath in, then let it out. The eye slowly closed.

"Poké Ball, go!"

Moon Child whipped a Poké Ball at Tapu Koko and struck the defeated Pokémon on the arm. The ball bounced off, drew Tapu Koko inside, shook three times, and clasped.

"Bzzzzt!" cried Moon Child's Rotom Dex. The Dex tumbled out of her bag and swung itself up to hover in front of her face. "Wowzers, friend!" it exclaimed. "You just caught the guardian deity! Err, are you sure that's wizzzze?"

"Why wouldn't it be? I'm on a Pokémon adventure," Moon Child replied.

"I guess that'zzzz true. Well, what should we do with Tapu Koko now that it's your legal property?"

"Hmm. Send him to the PC, I guess," Moon Child decided.

Rotom looked worried. "You're not even going to uzzzze him on your team?" he asked.

"Nah. Alolan Raichu is my electric guy. Alolan Raichu for life!"

"Well, uh… zzzzzt," Rotom said uneasily, and zipped back into Moon Child's watermelon bag.

Something felt wrong. The air itself seemed to have changed since Moon Child had gone into the Ruins of Conflict intending to dethrone Tapu Koko. As she exited the mouth of the ruins, a bolt of lightning ripped down into a nearby tree and transformed it to a splintered charcoal stump. Moon Child covered her face as flaming debris flew past her. "Dang!" she shouted. "What a storm!"

Far below, along the island's shoreline, she could see the tide starting to take the wreckage of Professor Kukui's Pokémon laboratory out to sea. People and their Pokémon raced around in a blind panic, nothing more than black dots from this altitude. A siren situated somewhere near Hau'oli City screamed into the wind and rain. It sounded like one of the World War II air raid sirens Moon Child had learned about in history class before she had dropped out of the fifth grade to become a Pokémon trainer.

"Zzzzt, hey, buddy?" Rotom asked sheepishly, springing once more out of Moon Child's bag. "Maybe we'd ought to put Tapu Koko back. What good is he going to do you inzzzzide the PC, anyway?"

"Get back in the bag, Rotom!" Moon Child yelled. She stuffed Rotom back in. "The Professor told me to catch as many Pokémon as I possibly could. You don't want to disappoint the Professor, do you?"

"Moon Child has got to be stopped," Professor Kukui thundered the following afternoon, bringing one clenched fist down upon the surface of his podium with a hellacious bang. Assembled before him at the Iki Town square were members of the newly formed R.A.T.T.A.T.A. force: the Righeous Alolan Trainer, Teacher, and Thug Alliance. Members from every segment of Alolan society had jumped at the chance to help organize an anti-Moon Child army. Numerous Pokémon Professors were there—Professor Kukui, Professor Oak of Kanto, the unsettlingly handsome Professor Sycamore from far off Kalos, and even timid Professor Elm, who had chartered a private plane to bring him from Johto to Melemele late last night. Countless trainers of all stripes and colors stood around the square, menacingly tossing Poké Balls containing their most fearsome Pokémon up into the air and then catching them again. Ex-members of the notorious Teams Rocket and Skull had decided to put aside old grudges and join up for the sake of the greater good. There were employees of the Aether Foundation, desperate to prevent further damage to the Alolan Pokémon ecosystem. Red and Blue, the battle legends of the Kanto region, had turned up and brought Brigette, the scientist in charge of maintaining the Pokémon Bank system, with them. Even Lillie and Hau, standing together near the front of the crowd, were primed and ready in their sleek black R.A.T.T.A.T.A. combat uniforms.

Professor Kukui, at the podium, leaned forward and clenched his teeth as he looked over the crowd.

"Moon Child is just a kid, ya? But she's off her damn chain!"

The crowd roared in agreement.

"Catchin' a buncha Pokémon is one thing. But when you catch the guardian deity and turn the whole island upside-down, that's quite another, ya?"

A few members of the crowd turned and looked up the hill to the site of the ruins, where Tapu Koko had been caught. Nihilegos now swooped merrily through the sky above it, free to wreak whatever havoc they chose. Lillie shuddered.

"We gotta stop her before she destroys Alola!" Kukui roared.

"Let's put her in jail," Officer Nanu said with a crooked grin.

"Bury her in Mudsdale dung!" Hapu added.

"Take all of her Z-Crystals and Mega Stones and throw them in the garbage," said Mina. She blinked as people turned to look.

"Put her in the PC!" Professor Oak screeched angrily. Bill, the Kanto computer scientist who had developed the PC system of Pokémon storage, gave Oak a sagely nod. Suggestions soon began flying every which way.

"Turn her into a Meowth!"

"Break her Wii-U!"

"Give her back to the hospital where she was born!"

"Shoot her off into Ultra Space!"

"Let's take an ad out in the paper that says, 'Moon Child is the worst,' and have an unflattering picture of Moon Child next to it."

"Put her in the washing machine!"

"Calm down, cousins," Professor Kukui scolded from the podium. "We can't hurt no little kid, even if she did ruin Melemele Island and shame her family forever and ever. But we can definitely beat the pants off her Pokémon, ya? They're not people, are they?"

Blue, from Pallet Town, stepped forward. "Hell no they aren't!" he shouted.

"But before we get around to that, we have to appoint a new guardian deity, seeing as how Moon Child locked ours in the PC. We've had expert hackers working 'round the clock to bust Tapu Koko out, but it's pretty slow going, ya? Turns out Moon Child's firewall is pretty much invincible."

"I nominate Rattata," a boyish voice said. The crowd gasped and parted in the middle to reveal the one and only Youngster Joey, fresh from his savage journey to the Celadon City department store. He stood with his blue ribbon Rattata wriggling in his arms. Rattata bared its teeth and added, "Rattata."

"Good. Put Rattata up there in the ruins, where it can guard us," Kukui told him.

"De, ity, Rattata!" the crowd began to chant. "De, ity, Rattata! De, ity, Rattata!"

Lillie and Hau looked at one another warily.