The next morning, Ash woke up with Nebby sprawled at the foot of his bed, and chuckled.
"Morning," he said. "And good morning, Pikachu!"
"Morning, Ash," Pikachu replied, stretching. "Phew. That was a busy day, yesterday."
"And it will be a busy day today!" Rotom agreed.
"It will?" Nebby said, a bit groggily, then shook his mane out. "It will? What's going to be happening?"
"There is the wedding of: Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet this afternoon!" Rotom told them. "Did you forget?"
"I don't think we got told in the first place," Ash admitted. "Congratulations to them, then! I'll get my Pokémon to help out, they've got experience with helping with weddings!"
"I don't, but I'll help out too!" Nebby agreed, and turned to the door.
Looked down at himself.
Looked up at the door.
"Ash?" he asked. "Is it still okay if I ask you questions and things?"
"Of course it is!" Ash agreed. "What do you want to know?"
"Would it be better to go through the door by teleporting, by making Ultra Wormholes, or by just turning back into Cosmoem to fit through?" he asked.
"I think Ultra Wormholes might be overdoing it a bit," Ash advised. "But either of the other two would work fine!"
"Got it!" Nebby said, then reverted to Cosmoem and floated out through the door.
"I feel like Nebby probably could have worked that one out themselves," Pikachu mused. "But guessing wrong might have been bad for the structural integrity of the building, so… you know, no complaints or anything."
"This brings back memories," Lokoko said, watching as the wedding preparations took place – with an extra injection of enthusiasm from several members of Ash's team, who now Had Experience with that sort of thing.
Fortunately, they also Had Experience with not breaking something someone else had already set up, so it seemed to be going all right.
"So, what do you think?" she added, glancing at her wife. "Anything you need to get involved with?"
"Mostly no," Absol replied. "Ah, hold on a moment."
She cleared her throat. "Don't plug anything else into that socket, it'll damage the fuse."
"Huh, really?" Sophocles asked, then counted again. "Three, four… yeah, there are too many things plugged in. Thanks!"
"My pleasure," Absol said. "It's one of the nice things about being an Absol charged with managing safety… you get all the credit, and you don't need to do most of the inspections."
"It's wonderful to watch," Lokoko smiled.
"So, what's it like, having evolved?" Litten asked.
"Well, I can shoot out more leaves at once than before," Dartrix replied. "Downside, I'm bigger, so I don't fit in Ash's bag quite as well."
"Or at all," Litten countered, then reconsidered. "Actually, that is quite a big bag, and you do seem to compress well. Have you tested it recently?"
Dartrix nodded. "It was fun! My blade quills spring back into shape nicely, so-"
"Wait, they're called blade quills?" Litten interrupted. "That's a neat name. Do you have any other things with names that cool?"
Dartrix considered, raising a wing to his beak.
"...nope, don't think so," he decided.
"Well, blade quills are still neat," Litten summarized. "Actually, we should see if my being on fire means I can just ignore grass type moves… later, though, it might annoy the people here for the wedding."
"Ash, do you have a moment?" Lusamine said.
"Oh, sure," Ash replied. "I don't really know how to help out with getting things ready at this point, so I'm mostly waiting for the wedding itself. It was a lot easier when I knew both Pokémon involved, rather than knowing Kukui much better than Burnet."
"Fortunately, I do know them both," Lusamine replied. "Albeit, I know Burnet better than Kukui."
She sat down next to Ash.
"I've said thank you already, Ash, but I want to say it again," she said.
"It's what I'd do for anyone in trouble like that!" Ash replied firmly.
Lusamine nodded. "You know, I believe that," she said. "But, at the same time, I want to say thank you anyway. To you, and all your Pokémon, and to Nebby. And that's for helping my children, as well as for rescuing me personally."
"Thanks!" Nebby said, currently in his Solgaleo form again because there wasn't really anywhere sturdy enough to dangle from as a Lunala.
"There's something else I wanted to discuss, though," Lusamine went on. "I wanted to make sure I wasn't springing it on you as a surprise. You see… while we now know that a lot of the incidents we detected over the last few weeks were Nebby, and that the Nihilego attack was partly Faba's fault… the fact remains that there are Ultra Beasts that might come to our world, and that we might not be ready for them."
"That's definitely a good point," Pikachu said. "If Nihilego had come after just about anyone else, anywhere else, we wouldn't have known about it."
"So, how do we get ready for them?" Ash asked. "Is that something Nebby can do?"
"Sort of, though I don't think they're necessarily required," Lusamine said. "It depends if they want to get involved."
"Oh, I should mention," Ash realized. "Solgaleo is male and Lunala is female, while Cosmog and Cosmoem aren't either. So you can say he if Nebby's Solgaleo, and she if Nebby's Lunala. We talked about it last night."
"Thank you," the director said.
She looked across to where Gladion was, with all his Pokémon out – Silvally, Lycanroc and Umbreon – then back at Ash. "What I was planning on doing was forming a team of Pokémon trainers to respond when Ultra Beasts show up. Because that way the trainers know what they're getting into, they're already aware that Ultra Beasts might be hostile or just confused, they're in touch with us at the Aether Foundation to sort out the problem, and it would be very, very cool."
"Coolness is an important consideration, so long as it does not become coldness," Zygarde opined. "We do not want there to be too much Ice."
"Would you like to be part of that team, Ash?" Lusamine said. "I'm not announcing it until after the wedding, but I wanted to check with you first."
"Sure!" Ash agreed. "I'd love to help!"
"So would I!" Nebby declared.
"And me!" Mew said, zipping out of Ash's bag with a few blade quills dangling off his tail, then frowned and turned into an Alolan Meowth. "Whoops, forgot my disguise."
"You're still floating," Pikachu said.
"So?" Mew replied. "Alolan Meowth, of which I am totally one, can have Pickup. I'm just picking up myself. That's my story."
"Was that a Mew?" Lusamine asked.
"I thought so, too, but he says he's an Alolan Meowth," Ash said. "So… who knows?"
Nebby began giggling.
"But seriously, I want to check these ultra beast things out and see what I can learn," Mew added. "Should be fun!"
"So, did you think this was going to happen?" Burnet asked.
"When you say this," her new husband began. "Do you mean specifically or in general? Because I definitely thought something like this was going to happen in general once the Move Kahuna got to Alola."
He smiled. "Or, if you mean what happened between us… no, I had no idea. It's all been an adventure."
"I'll take that," Burnet replied. "But, actually I meant what happened yesterday. And what's still going on today."
She waved vaguely over at the other side of the wedding reception, where Ash and an Alolan Meowth were talking Nebby earnestly through how she could use Steel Wing. "I mean, really. How do you even cope with something like that?"
"I think you mostly have to learn not to mind about most of it," Kukui judged. "That's a guess but it's my story and I'm sticking to it."
He hummed. "Do you think it's okay to discuss work here? Or would you Block me from doing it?"
"I'll allow it," Burnet decided.
"What are you going to be doing about Ultra Beasts?" Kukui asked. "Is there anything?"
"Well, Lusamine already talked to me about something she has planned," his wife replied. "To be honest, she's so enthusiastic that I think it's good for her. I know she wasn't gone for long, but it must have been a nasty experience."
She sighed, then smiled. "But, well… I heard she wanted to ask Ash if some of his Pokémon wanted to evolve here, in Alola. She's got something planned for them… I've never seen her so enthusiastic."
About half an hour later, as Dragonite and Dragonite were clearing away the tables and chairs while Noivern hummed a song about clearing things up, Lusamine steepled her fingers and looked at the group in front of her.
"I spoke to each of you about the idea of the Ultra Guardians," she said. "I know you've only had a little while to think about it, but how did it sound?"
"It sounds like it'd be fun," Lana announced. "I'd need to check with my parents, just to make sure, but… it's helping out people and Pokémon in need. Or Ultra Beasts in need, if they're just lost. And that's important anyway, so it's the right thing to do."
"Right," Mallow agreed. "I need to check with my dad, myself, but I don't think he'll disagree about how important it is."
"How would it work?" was Kiawe's question. "Would we have to be there all the time?"
"Not at all," Lusamine said. "We'd want you to come to the base I'm setting up for coordination, but that's only when there's an alert."
"Do we get cool uniforms?" Sophocles asked.
"Why would I go to all this effort without doing cool uniforms?" the Director asked. "Of course there are cool uniforms. I'm trying to get some ride Pokémon lined up as well… actually, Ash, I wanted to ask."
"Oh, sure!" Ash agreed. "What is it?"
"How many Pokémon do you have who are, one, birds," Lusamine began. "And, two, can use the move Thunder in some way?"
Ash counted off on his fingers. "Zapdos is one… Noctowl knows it, so that's two… Swellow can turn moves into electric moves, does that count?"
"That's three," Lusamine replied.
"And I think Zekrom is an honorary bird," Ash concluded. "So that's four… oh! And Silver can use Thunderpunch."
"That sounds excellent," Lusamine decided. "If you could bring all five thunder birds to the base, that would be great."
"I'd like to join in," Lillie said. "What about you, Gladion?"
Gladion nodded.
"I'm sure Silvally wants to," he said.
"This is going to be so much fun," Lusamine declared.
"Wait, before I forget!" Nebby realized. "Ash, do you have a spare Pokéball? And is it something meaningful?"
"We are working on a Pokéball for Ultra Beasts," Lusamine contributed. "It's going to be keyed specifically to Ultra Aura. But that's not something available right now."
"Well, uh…" Ash frowned. "There's a Moon Ball and a Dusk Ball, both of those are to do with the night, but that might not really fit… maybe there's a Cherish Ball?"
"Ooh, hold on!" Mewowth said, and swiped at the air with her claws before jumping in and teleporting away.
"Was that an Ultra Space Meowth or something?" Sophocles asked.
Mewowth reappeared a moment later. "Got it!" he said. "I got one of these ready just in case – here, it's a Dream Ball!"
"I love that choice," Nebby said, unfurling her wings. "Let's do this!"
About half a minute later, Professor Oak looked up as a Legendary Pokémon materialized.
"Ah, good morning," he said. "Ash, I assume?"
"Luuu," Nebby confirmed with a nod. "Lalala!"
"Sorry, I can't understand you at the moment," Oak apologized. "If you're new to meeting Ash, I can give you the orientation?"
Nebby shook her head, then teleported back to Alola.
"Well, at least I don't need to get the slides out," Oak said cheerfully. "Now, the Exeggcute should be finished with their questionnaires…"
AN:
Lusamine didn't like being controlled by that Nihilego, but a different sort of puppet is entirely okay with her.