Further along the Poni Canyon, the teens found themselves at the entrance of a trial, but there was a small stone monument with faint letters that could be barely made out.
"I can hardly tell what it's saying." Ash complained. That's when Rotom came out.
"Allow me!" Turning towards the monument, the electric/ghost type was able to translate, "Ahead lies a sacred ground of trials. None who do not take part of this trial will be allowed to walk upon this earth. Those lacking the courage to defeat the totem guarding this land will be denied entry. But those who believe in their Pokemon and walk beside them shall gain great power!"
"Hmm, I don't see anyone. So I don't see how anyone could prevent entry." Misty pointed out.
"Well, I'm willing to accept it anyway!" Ash stated, rearing to go. Running ahead, that prompted his friends to follow suite.
"Haha, we sure like following each other running!" Hau laughed at how frequently this happens. What they failed to realize though was that they were under a fierce gaze of the totem Pokemon. Upon finding the pedestal where a light blue Z-Crystal was, Ash was about to get it when from above, a nearly 8 foot giant dragon dropped down from above, crashing into the ground with enough force to send dirt flying, forcing the humans to shield their eyes. This dragon called Kommo-o is very scaly, with said scales looking like round shields, which started to rattle together loudly as the dragon/fighting type shook its body and legs as it roared, then causing the teenagers to cover their ears from how loud it was.
"OW! Ugh, I... can do this. I can do this! Primarina, I choose you!" Sending out his water starter, he gave his command. "Use Moonblast!" However, before she could deliver on that order, Kommo-o gave a very noble and mighty roar, which she had to cover her ears. But even during that she tried singing over the roar as she formed a pink sphere with the moonlight. After the Scaly Pokemon was done with its war cry, Primarina fired the Moonblast. Kommo-o tried to use its scales to defend against it, but its 4X weakness to fairy type moves did it no favors as when the attack exploded, the Pokemon groaned as it fell over, defeated in one shot.
"Wow, that was so easy!" Lillie gasped.
"Eh, these Totem Pokemon never really were hard." Ash shrugged after he thanked and returned his starter. "With the exception of Araquanid, we've been either able to one or two shot them."
"That just shows how awesome we are!" Hau laughed as he placed his hands behind his head.
"I might have trouble with Pokemon that aren't weak against water." Misty surmised. "Like that Araquanid and whatever electric Pokemon is used by Sophocles."
"Well, I wish you the best of luck Misty." The blonde girl encouraged her friend, whom smiled.
"Thanks Lillie. Well, let's get the crystal and move on." Nodding to Misty's suggestion, Ash took the Dragonium-Z Crystal, and after getting complimented by Rotom, reached the Alter of the Moone, which shined somewhat from the waxing crescent moon. Hapu also caught up with them.
"Hey guys. So, our history tells us that the Vast Poni Canyon trail was the first ever trial to be held. You did a fine job clearing it Ash, just as expected."
"Thanks Hapu."Ash chuckled.
"You're now up to seven completed trials. That's so cool." Lillie giggled. "We've all been training hard, but you keep pushing beyond your limits and became a pretty great trainer, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I've really changed, have I?"
"You're certainly better than the bumbling newb that I first mentored." Misty gave him a thumbs up.
"You just keep getting stronger and stronger!" Hau praised his friend. Ash was feeling pretty good about himself. "And all your Pokemon would agree since they're stronger!"
"Look at you all." Hapu laughed. "I think this might just work out. No, I'm quite sure of it!" She nodded with a big smile. Mudsdale neighed in approval.
"The flutes of the sun and moon... if we both sound together... let's go Ash!" Lillie cheered.
"Race you up the stairs!" Ash challenged as he ran up.
"Wait for me!" Lillie cried out as she chased after him. After 20 seconds of stair running, Ash handily won, if a little winded.
"Woo, I win! Yes... hah... hah." He panted as Lillie caught up to him about 10 seconds later.
"No fair... I'm not... good at running." The blonde haired girl complained as she rested her hands on her knees. Raising her face towards the sky, Ash could see her face glisten with sweat from the moonlight, which made him blush. "I can feel... the strong power of... the moon. Nebby, before I can return you to your original form, I've got to find my mother. I have to... I have to tell her how I feel. And then we will find a way to fight against Necrozma together!" Taking out her own flute, Lillie grasped it confidently. "The Sun Flute, it feels like it was made to fit my hand. I think I can play it."
"Ha, wouldn't that be anti-climatic?" Ash chuckled. "We come all this way through all this effort, only to fail because neither of us knew how to play flute?" Lillie however was far from amused.
"I'd rather not think about that. Just go stand on that platform there."
"Right, ok." He nodded quickly to get over his awkwardness from the failed joke, and went to stand in front of a moon statue while Lillie stood with the sun. "Wait, how is there running water this high up?" Ash wondered. "This must be some high-tech plumbing."
"Ash, focus." Lillie lightly scolded him.
"Right, sorry." The boy shook his head to get all serious. Taking out his flute, the two teenagers nodded to each other before beginning to play. Only to realize they really can't play flute and thus the adventure comes to the end. Lillie's sad, and that's terrible. Fin... (A/N: Nah, just joking, lol. No more interruptions.)
Playing the first few notes, the two played in harmony which the others near the top of the steps thought sounded beautiful.
"I've never heard such wonderful music from flutes." Misty gasped. Eevee was at a loss for words.
"Wow." Hau was starstruck by how good they were playing. The water surrounding their platforms glowed as the whole monument began to shake, stopping their playing. The energy shot through the trail of water until it reached the top where a circle in the middle opened up from four triangles sliding apart to show an orange circle. Rainbow energy grew in the circle like a bubble before shooting a line that hit the center of the area they stood around. Lillie's bag shook around before it flew off completely, the girl reaching for it but was too slow as it rose about 20 feet above her head. Heading into the stream, Cosmoem got out of the pink backpack and began to absorb the energy. Lillie stared in awe as it spun around a few times before shining brightly, prompting everyone to cover their eyes and groan if they were too slow.
With a flap of its new wings, Lunala appeared, resembling a bat with a small body and head but massive wings with golden half-moon edges and deep blue skin with what appeared to be stars in them. Lillie smiled from how majestic the Pokemon looked.
"Nebby... th-thank goodness. You're alright." The girl sighed. She then went all stern, surprising the legendary Pokemon. "Please don't you ever do that again! You made me worry so much!"
("I guess there's some part of her that still hasn't changed.") Ash awkwardly chuckled to himself, seeing that Lillie still acted like a stern mother if Nebby did something perceptibly reckless.
"I never would've imagined sounding the flutes would give you so much power... or let you evolve into the legendary Pokemon!" Lunala just cried out as it stretched its wings. "Not in all of my readings... never did I come across any hint that you would evolve into Lunala. Please, Lunala-" Lillie shook her head. "No, Nebby please, I need to go to where my mother is! I want to protect Alola, but there's no need for her to try and catch Necrozma on her own!" To her delight, Nebby nodded in approval. The girl smiled gratefully. Lunala floated to Lillie and Ash while the others walked up to the two.
"So this is Lunala. So... cool." Hau loved Nebby's newest form.
"I never thought I'd see a legendary Pokemon." Misty said with her wide open eyes. Eevee gulped as she retreated into Misty's bag.
"Now we can finally go after Mother and-" Lillie was inturrupted when Guzma dropped out of nowhere onto his back, grunting from the impact. "M-Mr. Guzma?!" Lillie gasped from his arrival. Guzma grunted when Lusamine herself landed on Guzma. "Mother as well?!" The Ultra Wormhole that dropped them opened up wide to reveal a Pokemon jagged as crystal, and black as obsidian. Necrozma has arrived.
"Ch-children." Lusamine whispered, very weak at the moment. "R-run away. That thing... is a monster!"
"Mother!" Lillie said before looking up at Necrozma.
"Lillie, run from this place! You can't do anything! It repelled everything we tried! Its rage is too great!"
"No, we can fight!" Ash objected. Necrozma though noticed Lunala, and the two Pokemon gave great cries upon meeting eye contact. Lunala charged at Necrozma to defend its human friends and bashed it into the monument before the two took to aerial combat, bashing against each other surrounded by pure darkness and nightly light. However, Ash and Lillie were pushed out of the way when the two crashed in between them, with Necrozma holding Lunala down, absorbing its power.
"No!" Lillie cried out before she had to shield her eyes from intense light as the Prism Pokemon took on a new form. Black prisms surrounded the now light blue wings as Lunala was now Necrozma's Dawn Wings form. "Nebby?" She asked with fright. Giving off a shriek, five Ultra Wormholes opened up. On Melemele, a Wormhole opened up in front of Kahuna Hala as a living tower fell through. He wasn't alone though as Tapu Koko came to help fight against the Ultra Beast. Olivia meanwhile looked up towards a predominantly white, anthropomorphic femininely humanoid cockroach. Nanu stared into the gaping maw of a massive, black colored Ultra Beast that was more mouth with claws than anything. This still didn't get him to react outside of apathy as he scratched his head as it roared out of hunger. Even an Ultra Beast made from eletrical wire and sparks appeared nearest to Hapu.
"Come on Mudsdale! Let's ground this Ultra Beast!" The young kahuna told her partner, whom neighed while stomping her feet.
"Salamence, I choose you!/Noivern, go!/Go Gyarados, my steady!" Ash, Hau and Misty yelled as they sent out some of their strongest Pokemon. Necrozma didn't stick around though as it took to the air.
"Come on guys, let's go after it!" Ash got onto his Dragon Pokemon and took to the skies to follow the Ultra Beast.
"I'm right behind you!" Hau agreed as he hopped onto his Sound Wave Pokemon and followed Ash.
"Staryu, Slowbro, help out!" Sending out her two water types, she climbed onto Gyarados's head and ordered, "Both of you use Psychic so we can follow them!" The two glowed blue as they floated onto Gyarados before he too started to glow as the Atrocious Pokemon roared before being levitated off the air.
"Don't hurt Nebby!" Lillie cried out to them. Catching up to the boys, the trio of teenagers began their aerial battle with Necrozma.
"Noivern, use Dragon Pulse!" Hau commanded.
"Gyarados, Ice Fang!" Misty requested. With Noivern charging up a rainbow colored sphere and the fangs of the water/flying type glowing blue, the two attacks combined in that when Noivern fired its attack along with Gyarados, the dragon type move became covered in cackling blue energy which exploded powerfully against Necrozma's back, sending it splashing into the water. Undeterred though, the Prism Pokemon created multiple orbs of rainbow energy, and fired them all at once and in rapid succesion, trying to bombard them with Prismatic Laser. Ash and Hau had to back up, but the lasers were too many for the much larger Gyarados to dodge and thus was blasted by the attack, the recoil being enough to knock Misty off and thus she started falling to the sea.
"Misty!" Both the boys called out in fear for their screaming friend. Even her Pokemon cried to her in shock.
"Salamence, catch Misty!" Ash pleaded as the Dragon Pokemon took a nose dive. Swooping underneath her, Salamence caught her.
"Hah... hah... thanks Salamence!" The redhead complimented the dragon/flying type, whom grunted in response.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks so much Ash."
"How's Misty?!" Hau called to them.
"I'm fine Hau!" Misty told him as her Pokemon got close and she jumped onto Gyarados's head. Seeing Necrozma come close, Misty was red hot mad now.
"You think you're so tough?! I'll show you! Hyper Beam!" Charging up an orb of orange energy, the Atrocious Pokemon fired a powerful blast, but it simply fazed right through the Pokemon. "No way!"
"It must be part ghost type!" Ash assumed, given how it no selled the attack. Coming in with a physical attack against Misty, Ash ordered,
"Counter with Dragon Claw!" Flying in between the Ultra Beast and Misty, Salamence created a claw made of green aura and protected Misty. That however caused Ash's Pokemon to take a hit since he was not strong enough and groaned as he was knocked away, but that did allow Misty to gain the advantage.
"Gyarados, use Ice Fang!" With glowing neon blue fangs, the Atrocious Pokemon bit down hard on the Prism Pokemon, and for a moment, it was stopped as it was frozen over in frost and ice. However, the Ultra Beast glowed red to gather the strength needed to break out of its frozen state, pushing the water/flying type away. It was about to unleash another barrage of Prismatic Laser against Misty's Pokemon at point blank range, the shocked Misty frozen in amid its blindingly bright attack, when Salamence's Dragon Claw slashed it off course enough to fire into the ocean instead, causing parts of it to explode.
"Leave her alone!" Ash shouted. "Iron Tail!" The Dragon Pokemon's tail glowed with a grey shine to it as Salamence did a front flip to bash the Ultra Beast away.
"Use Dragon Pulse!" Hau ordered, and the Sound Wave Pokemon fired the same attack at the disoriented Pokemon. Sensing that defeat was possible, Necrozma opened an Ultra Wormhole and retreated into it. "It got away!" That wasn't all though as a black vortex began to swirl in the night sky, covering the stars and moon. Going back to Lillie, whom was now accompanied by the Ultra Recon Squad, the teen flyers got off their Pokemon.
"Guys, what happened?!" Lillie inquired with worry.
"Necrozma disappeared. I'm sorry Lillie." Ash shook his head with disappointment.
"Necrozma, the one that wields light to its will... it would steal all of Alola's light!" Captain Phyco exclaimed.
"Necrozma wants to take back all the light that it once lost." Soliera added.
"But what are we to do now?" Lillie asked them. "It seemed to me like that beast... like Necrozma was also suffering somehow. It seemed to hurt without its light." Lillie's mother stood up with a groan, holding her arm as she walked up to the group.
"You would worry even for Necrozma?" Lusamine asked before sadly chuckling and shaking her head. "You are too kind, Lillie. Far too kind. That is why you took Cosmog too, isn't it? You foolish, sweet child. Captain Phyco, Soliera, we'll need your help. We need to be able to travel in between worlds using Lunala's power, just as you are able to."
"You presume much." The captain scoffed. "And despite that, it is true that you are trying to take care of things in your own way. Should I praise your sense of responsibility as one charged with the protection of Pokemon? You egotistical woman!" Even though she was already looking downward considering she towered over everyone, Lusamine lowered her gaze even further out of shame.
"Please Captain Phyco, leave it be." Soliera suggested.
"Hmph, it is as my subordinate says. Sparring with you now will change nothing. And there is something I am much more interested in pursuing. Something I noticed in that aerial battle just now. Necrozma was distracted by you kids. It must be the crystals and bracelet you posses. It seems to desire the light given off by the sparkling stone set within it."
"You mean it wants Z-Crystals?" Guzma asked.
"It's true that Ash and Hau have a rather large amount of Z-Crystals after coming so far in their island challenges." Lillie said.
"Yeah, they've got more Z-Crystals of all sorts of types than the captains and kahunas combined!"
"It is not in our power to fight with Solgaleo." Soliera told the teens. "But we do borrow its power to travel through the Ultra Wormholes. You have shown us what you are each capable of though, by summoning Lunala to this place. Perhaps you can ride on our Solgaleo."
"If you hope to follow after Necrozma, you must make it through the white warp hole it creates." Phyco stated. "If you enter any other warp hole, you'll find yourself in another world altogether." Looking between each other; Ash, Hau, Misty and Lillie nodded.
"When do we start?" Ash asked, ready for the next challenge.
A/N: Well, managed to incorporate more of the anime in. That was certainly more interesting than a normal Pokemon battle. Anyway, I've determined the new group for Ash. While I have the boy and girl determined, the only thing I'm wondering about is if I should include Goh in the group as well from the Journies anime. I could take it or leave it with that kid due to his flaws. Not that his flaws make him a bad character, but he has the kind of mindset I can't easily replicate. Which is weird because due to having autism, I pretty much had all his flaws myself. I was a a kid whom was stubborn, anti-social, not liking new ways of trying things or doing anything that's difficult. And yet despite the early similarities, I can't think on how to fit him in and feel good about it. Then again, maybe he doesn't have to be the same. After all, I always age the characters up not just for pragmatic romance, but also because being a young adult is more believable of being a world savior than as a kid. So maybe he can be more like me. Flexible but still likes his way the best, tempered confident but occasionally misjudges problems, understanding but is still lost on certain social cues frequently and hard-working but somewhat lazy.