Calem's Alola Adventure

Chapter 24

By: Gandire Alea

Calem follows Lillie onto the trail at the back of Iki Town that leads to the Ruins of Conflict. Once they're in a more quite place, he answers her question. "I don't hate parties or anything. I just get bored of them really fast."

Lillie says, "Well, then you might be glad to hear this, but I think Tapu Koko is waiting for you. I heard from Kahuna Hala that the bridge has been fixed, so this is a perfect time to go greet it."

Lillie stops as they reach the hanging bridge. "Now this really takes me back. I was so desperate at the time, I could barely think about anything… But thinking on it now, it really was Lunala… I mean it was Nebby who brought the two of us together, wasn't it, Calem?"

Calem chuckles, "Life really is strange. We both had to face a bunch of hardship to have that meeting. Some of them… If only one thing was different, we might have never met."

Lillie smiles and says, "You're right! Come on! Let's go!" They both rush across the bridge and up the path to the ruin's entrance. Lillie stands before doorway as she says, "The Ruins of Conflict… I wondered for a long time why Tapu Koko helped us that day… Was it because of some connection to Lunala? Was it to return you to being a trainer? But now, I realize it doesn't matter. I'm just glad that it did."

"It might have just been looking out for the island."

Calem and Lillie enter the ruins and walk up to the altar atop of a platform. Lillie says, "This reminds me of when Hapu become the Kahuna of Poni Island. My heart is pounding in my chest… Is it because of the sacred guardian? Is Tapu Koko here with us?"

Calem says, "No, but Tapu Koko is watching us."

Lillie almost jumps at Calem's words, but stops at the last moment. She takes heart at what he said and stands in front of the altar. "Great Tapu Koko… it was because of your help that Cosmog lived and was able to become Lunala. Please allow me to thank you on its behalf. Thank you so very, very much!"

Lillie steps away from the altar and Calem takes her place. He reaches out and touches the statue decorating the altar. From it he hears a voice in his head. The voice says, "It is time!"

Tapu Koko appears behind Calem in the center of the room and roars.

Calem grabs his mega-necklace as Mawile appears from her premier ball. She intimidates Tapu Koko with a fierce glare as a rainbow light emits from her body. Once the light fades, Mega-Mawile leaps off the platform with poison fang.

Tapu Koko zips out of the attack's reach and electrifies the terrain. It then surrounds itself with electricity and rams Mega-Mawile with wild charge.

Sucker punch won't be able to redirect the attack, "Iron defense!"

Mega-Mawile hardens her body and catches the attack. She grits her teeth, and upon hearing, "Iron head!" slams her two mouths against Tapu Koko's shelled body. She then attack with poison fang again, but Tapu Koko dodges the attack.

Tapu Koko creates after images of itself as it circles around Mega-Mawile.

Mega-Mawile, instead of trying to keep track of the pokemon's location, shuts her eyes. "Iron head on your right! The left! Step back! Iron head above! Behind! Duck down! Iron head to the front!" One of her two mouths connect on the last one.

Mega-Mawile opens her eyes as Tapu Koko crashes into the ground and lunges with poison fang.

Tapu Koko blocks one of Mega-Mawile's mouths with a shielded hand, but is too slow to prevent the other mouth from chomping down on its body. Tapu Koko releases bolts of electricity from itself as it cries out in surprise.

Mega-Mawile ignores the pain and bites harder. Then, at "Seismic toss!" uses her mouth to fling Tapu Koko around and slam it into the ground.

Tapu Koko glances towards Calem and disappears. Calem imagines the legendary pokemon flying off into the night sky the same way it did when they first met. Something clatters on the ground behind Calem. He turns around and finds a Z-crystal by his feet. The same voice from before says, "Tapunium Z!"

A Z-crystal, yet he no longer has a Z-ring. He muses what it could mean as he picks it up, "Maybe I should try and collect them all?" But decides he can worry about that later. He jumps down to Mega-Mawile's side as she returns to normal and rubs her head. "And that's another win for us."

"Maw!"

Lillie says, "Tapu Koko… It may have lost that battle to you, but it looked very satisfied."

Calem says, "We were an opponent Tapu Koko could go all out against. I bet it's been waiting years to have this match."

Lillie says, "I'm sure that the two of you will met in battle again someday!" She takes a breath and says, "But I'm so glad we could come here. It had been weighing on my heart… Come on, Calem. We should get back to the village. If we don't return soon, everyone will realize that we slipped away from the festival!"

Calem says as they walk out, "I'm pretty sure at least two people have already noticed that we're gone."

Lillie gives a nervous giggle, "Lana and Serena… You're right. There's no way they'll over look me taking you from the festival like this."

"No, they'll understand exactly what happened once they see Tapu Koko soaring across the night sky."

Calem and Lillie return to the festival to find a Battle Royal taking place between Kahuna Hala, Kahuna Olivia, Kahuna Hapu, and Royal Mask. To everyone's surprise, Fletchling lands on his shoulder and announces his intent to battle with a tweet. The small pokemon looks even smaller compared to Tauros, Probopass, and Mudsdale.

Lillie says, "I think even my mother would have smiled and laughed upon seeing this… if she could have come… I think… my mother is getting a bit better. She actually tried coming tonight… I've been trying to help her understand what she did wrong. Gently, of course. But she needed someone to scold her. But in the process I think I've discovered what I have to do next. What it is that I can do."

Calem picks up that Lillie is hesitating on whether she should continue or not. He says, "Lillie, that's great news. If you choose to do something because you think it will help, then don't regret it. You're a trainer now, too. Keep pressing forward."

"Thank you, Calem…"

Kiawe is the first to fall asleep as the night continues. Calem's mother yawns upon seeing the young boy sleeping on the stage and decides to return home. As the islanders return to their homes, the other attendees claim spots for themselves and drift to sleep.

Calem awakens shoulder to shoulder with Serena. Both of them rub their eyes as they stand up. He takes extra care not to bump Lana. Although they're not physically touching, she is still lays quite close to him.

The moon showers them with pale light. At best, they've only slept five hours, but it'll do. They take care not to step or trip over any of the others as they search the bags for a pokemon ride-caller.

Serena finds one and calls for a pair of Charizard. Their destination, the pokemon league. Calem and Serena share a pair of knowing smiles. Everyone has been telling them that the ride pokemon can't travel that far, but in truth, they're really underestimating the true potential of pokemon.

…..

Professor Kukui awakes to a phone call. He suppresses a yawn as he says, "Kahili, what's going on, yeah?"

"That boy you mentioned earlier, Calem. He and the Kalos Champion, Serena, just touched down in outside the Pokemon League. I was going to ignore it, but they look like they're about to have a battle. I'm forwarding you security footage now."

Professor Kukui jolts awake at the news. "Thanks, cousin!" He then shouts to everyone still sleeping, "Wake up, yeah! There's a major battle going to take place, woo! If you don't wake up, you're going to miss it!"

He runs up to Sophocles and shakes the boy awake. "You've got your computer, yeah? Hurry and turn it on. We need the screen, woo!"

As everyone gathers, the laptop screen displays Calem and Serena watching the sunrise. Calem looks around snowcapped mountain and says, "This place isn't bad, although, I kinda wish it had a bridge."

Serena laughs without reservation for her image, "A bridge? We would be coming full circle with that. How old were we back then, four, five?"

Calem rubs his face, remembering where she punched him. "More or less. It was our first match and my first loss." His expression hardens as he grabs Rapidash's quick ball. "We've come a long way since then."

Serena looks to her fist. "We really have… What was that fight about? All I remember is rolling around in the dirt until my dad pulled us apart."

Calem makes a face. "You said you were better than me because you had a dad and all I had was a mom."

Serena cringes. "Sorry…"

Calem shrugs. "I could find out who he is if I wanted too. I've even narrowed it down to what race my mom met him… Well, that doesn't matter. That's neither here, nor now."

"Your words are true…" Serena grabs her champion's mantle and throws it open. A breeze catches it and makes it flutter behind her. The mantle glitters underneath the morning rays as she says, "Calem, I, the Final Champion of Kalos, accept your challenge. Go, Vaporeon!"

"Rapidash, wild charge!"

As Vaporeon dodges and counters with scald, Serena says, "Are you looking down on me? You did beat me last time, but would you not agree that starting with Rapidash is a bit much?"

Calem shrugs, but keeps a smirk on his face. "Not in the slightest. He wanted to start us off no matter what." To the after images Rapidash makes with double team, he says, "Hypnosis."

"Blizzard!" Vaporeon stops trying to target the real Rapidash with scald and generates a storm to block the psychic attack.

Calem grins as Serena does just what he expected. Then again, what he's about to do should applies to her as well. "Wild charge!"

"Hyrdo pump!"

"Double team!"

"Surf!"

"Sunny day!"

"Rain dance!"

Each move counteracts the previous one. None of them touch the other. Yet, even without the attacks hitting, Rapidash is taking recoil damage. Serena full well knows that she tire them out just by playing defense. She knows that the same way she knows Calem wants her to know that as well. The question is whether she knows what he's planning or if she knows what he wants her to think he's planning. Calem says, "Alright, agility!"

"Scald!"

Rapidash evades the torrent of water by running around it. He reaches the water pokemon's side and jabs at her by kicking out with a hoof and then with his horn. Vaporeaon regains her balance and unleashes another scald.

Rapidash snorts and escapes by leaping into the sky where he uses sunny day. Vaporeon, unable to clearly target the fire pokemon due to the bright light, unleashes another blizzard. Rapidash surrounds himself in silver flames as he uses flame wheel. The chunks of ice melt before they can reach him

Serena says, "Great, we got him now Vaporeon!" She then pauses as she realizes that Rapidash made himself too easy of a target. She looks back at Vaporeon. The water pokemon is trembling. She recalls her pokemon while saying, "Poison jab… Mizzy, you made us go through all of that just for one attack."

Rapidash neighs as he lands. Calem pats the fire pokemon's neck and says, "Yeah, like it?"

Serena chuckles and says, "And here I was thinking this was a setup for wild charge. You really are a good rival. Let's go, Altaria! Dragon pulse!"

Rapidash dodges the attack and charges the dragon pokemon with his horn. Altaria evades by flying up and drops down from the sky with sky attack. Rapidash neighs as he gets hit, but also releases a blaze from his back.

The flames dissipate with a piercing cry from Altaria. The dragon pokemon throws herself against the ground to use earthquake. While Rapidash tries to regain his footing, she defeats him with dragon rush.

Calem calls back Rapidash, "Don't worry about it. Taking out Vaporeon was the first step to victory." From a luxury ball comes Noivern. "Boomburst!"

"Hyper voice!"

The two attacks hit and negate each other. Noivern flies forward with steel wing. Altaria uses cotton guard to block the attack and while Noivern disentangles himself, "Moonblast!"

Noivern dives underneath Altaria to dodge again and sinks his teeth into her with hyper fang. Altaria cries out and responds with dragon claw to tear the pokemon off of her side and fling him away.

"Dazzling gleam!" defeats Noivern before he can regain his balance.

Calem recalls Noivern and, "Mimikyu, let's finish this!"

"Mimikyu!"

Altaria uses dazzling gleam again, but when the attack ends, Mimikyu is revealed to have vanished. Calem says, "Play rough!" and Altaria cries out in pain. Mimikyu somehow got onto her back and now thrashes about.

Altaria flies up and loops upside down, but Mimikyu keeps a strong grip upon the dragon pokemon's back with a shadowy claw. Altaria spins, twirls, dives, and loops around to throw off her stowaway, but Mimikyu holds fast to the dragon's back. From there she unleashes pointblank rounds of psychic and shadow ball.

Altaria cries out and dives towards the ground. She flips around at the last moment and smash her back onto the snowy ground. Mimikyu chirps from a distance away, having dishoarded without no one noticing. While Altaria digs herself out of the snow, she rushes forward with shadow claw and play rough.

Serena calls back her dragon pokemon and, "Chesnaugh, wood hammer!"

Mimikyu slips underneath the attack and from behind him and uses, "X-scissor!"

Chesnaugh whips his arm around as he drops onto a knee, but misses Mimikyu due to her low height.

Calem says, "Shadow claw!"

Chesnaugh blocks the attack and throws his arm forward, "Wood hammer!"

Mimikyu takes the attack head on without flinching. Calem's smirk implies that even this was planned. Serena gasps upon seeing Mimikyu's 'head' limps to the side. Her shock is a clear indication that she was expecting something else.

"Mimikyu, play rough!" Chesnaugh swats at Mimikyu, but is unable to touch her due to the height difference. The grass pokemon gives up and stomps his foot against the ground to create an earthquake.

Mimikyu stops in order to keep from falling over. Chesnaugh uses the opening to attack with a second wood hammer, but misses as Mimikyu's "thunderbolt" hits his eyes.

"Shadow claw!"

Chesnaugh falls as he takes the hit. Calem and Serena both call back their pokemon. They stare each other down while walking around in a circle. They both complete a half circle, stopping where the other started. Both trainers grab their mega-necklaces as they call out their pokemon.

"Mega-Mawile!"

"Mega-Absol!"

A/N: And we're here! There were no battles last chapter, but this one has 1.5 battles to make up for it. Now, I know this is late, and there's two reasons for that. The first is for my one story, which you can read at my wordpress, American Faux, if you're interested. The name of the story is The Wandering World. Now, the second reason this is late is because of my recent job application. I'm applying to teach English in Japan and this past month has been one large preparation for the performance/interview. Everyone loved my skit. Anyway, now that that's over, my life is starting to return to a sense of normal. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Leave a review,

Gandire Alea