Chapter 8: To Clear a Name

The rain lashed down upon the two siblings as they flew on the back of the Charizard towards Po Town. They had to find Guzma and call off the hunt before things got ugly. "Stay near me, Lillie." he said to his sister as they climbed off Gladion's Charizard. Po Town was still a dangerous place, despite most of Team Skull having vacated the run down town.

Gladion pushed open the gate to the town, without trouble, considering the lock was busted, and stepped inside with his sister to the confined town. There were still a few Team Skull members lurking around, sitting to the side, watching with an opportunistic eye. Gladion scowled, and called out Silvally, who dutifully stood beside the siblings.

Most of the members lost interest as soon as the intimidating synthetic Pokémon was called out, Lillie noticed. All but one. Sitting on the porch of the Shady House was a familiar looking woman with yellow and pink hair. Plumeria.

"Gladion." "Plumeria." The two Ex-Skull members looked at eachother and greeted.

"What's up, Dummy?" she said, a faint smile on her face. Lillie looked on confused. "I'm good, look, we need to see Guzma." Gladion inquired. "Boss's gone to tackle a trial. I dunno, one of the old ones." "Old ones...?"

"Oh! I know about those!" piped up Lillie, who had mostly been silent. "I read about them, There's a trial for every type here in Alola, although some of them are not as well known as the others." Plumeria and Gladion looked on, interested. "If I know Mister Guzma, he would've gone for the Bug Type trial. It's actually not too far from here." she spoke enthusiastically.

Plumeria smirked. "She's right you know, it's down in the Ula'ula Meadow."

"Well, come on then Lillie. Guzma's not patient." Gladion said, as Lillie briefly waved goodbye to Plumeria, and the two left Po Town, beginning to make their way down Route 17. Lillie noticed how Silvally was still out and walking, so she decided to let Kartana out too. Gladion was a little bit unnerved at the Ultra Beast, still in disbelief that she had even caught it.

Nontheless, The Kartana happily floated along as they made their way into the meadow, passing by Nanu's Station as he looked out to see the two siblings on their way. "Lillie, what did the book say about Totem Pokémon?" inquired Gladion as they entered the meadow.

Lillie thought for a moment, whilst Silvally watched Kartana move off to play with some Oricorio. "I think it was an Ariados." she said, noticing a few Spinarak scuttling through the flowers towards a concealed opening in the distance. The two siblings then began to tread their way through the red sea of flowers, trying not to stand on any unfortunate bugs. Upon making their way to the clearing, they could easily hear the sounds of battle inside.

"We should go, stay close, it's dark in here." Gladion commanded to his sister, as she, Silvally and Kartana made their way into the trial site, past the trial gate that was covered with plants. Gladion was right, it was dark, however there was a distinct light from the bottom of the webbed cavern, where two figures were fighting. The siblings eyes adjusted quickly however, and were able to slowly but surely make their way through the cave.

But they had come to a choice, the only safe way down to the next level was a choice between three webs they had to climb down. The tablet next to them read that it was survival of the fittest, so Gladion could only assume that they had to find the strongest web to climb down. Gladion chose. And chose poorly, because as soon as he put all of his weight onto the web, it snapped, causing him to fall. "Gladion!" screamed Lillie. Thankfully, Gladion responded. "I'm fine, Lillie. Although I'm stuck in a sticky web." he said sheepishly. Lillie sighed. "Kartana, go free brother, please." she said to the Ultra Beast, who happily whistled before slicing the teen free from the sticky webs with its razor blade arms.

"Thanks, I guess." Gladion said as he picked himself up off the floor, picking the web strands still stuck to him off his hoodie. Lillie then climbed down the correct webbing, having grabbed it beforehand and noticing it not move at all. "Come on, lets go, I wanna see Mister Guzma win." she said excitedly.

Silvally lept down from the ledge above, and let out a cautious whimper. Gladion sighed and returned him, knowing the Pokémon was probably too big for this trial. Then the siblings continued deeper into the trial cavern.

"Golisopod, beat that overgrown bug down with razor shell!" Guzma commanded his trusty Pokémon, as the lumbering isopod grumbled threateningly at the spider, before one of its shell plates extended into a blue glowing blade, and slashed at the Totem Ariados who let out a pained hiss, its orange totem aura flickering as it was hit.

The Ariados then promptly fainted, as Gladion and Lillie (And by Extension, Kartana as well) slid down a slope into the pit where the Totem awaited. Golispod let out a victorious cry, as Lillie approached. "Mister Guzma!"

Guzma turned around, after Golisopod made its way to the pedestal for the Z-Crystal. "Yo, Whatchu doin' here, Kids? And why dy'all have an Ultra Beast with ya?" he asked, more surprised than afraid.

Gladion then urged Lillie forward who suddenly looked nervous. "I... It's a long story, Mister Guzma." Guzma squatted down, ready to hear it. "Go on then. I got time." He said, as Golispod jumped in surprise first at the Ariados coming to and scuttling away, and then noticing the Kartana.

"It wasn't a Team Skull member who injured me, it was the Kartana there." Lillie said, gesturing over to the Beast who was playing with Golisopod, the isopod gurgling happily at it, "You see, I got lost one night whilst travelling, and had frightened it when it was hiding. It only attacked me because it was lost and confused. I lied to protect it." she explained. "I hope you'll forgive me for the trouble i've caused." she said, worried on how the Ex Skull Boss would respond.

Her response was uproarious laughter from the Bug Type trainer. "Kid, you've basically done what my numbskulls did on a daily basis. They'd lie, cheat and backstab to get their way and do basically anything back when we were the hardest gang around!" he bellowed on, before roughly patting Lillie on the back.

"Point is, I forgive ya, kid. You'd make a helluva Skull Gangsta if we were still around, Hah hah!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's fine and all, maybe we should go Lillie, We've got other people to own up to." Gladion intervened, not thrilled on the idea of Lillie being part of Team Skull. "Oh-ohkay! Bye Mister Guzma, come on Kartana!" she called out, flustered. Guzma waved back with a grin on his face before turning to Golisopod.

"Kid's alright, Buddy. I'll give her that. We gotta battle her sometime." Guzma spoke. Golisopod only gurgled lightly in response.