"…how?" Sirius demanded as he stared at Harry, face twisted in utter befuddlement.
"Mewtwo."
His godfather his glowered at him. "Throwing out the name of a legendary Pokemon is not an answer."
"In this case it is," Harry pointed out.
"He does have a good point," Remus stated somewhere in the background.
"Oh, not you too!" Sirius complained, throwing his hands up as he pushed the dex away so that Remus was now visible. "He was supposed to be heading to the top of the world and instead he's now in fucking Alola!"
"Language!" Remus snapped.
"Yeah, watch your fucking mouth around the fucking kiddos!" Tonks declared, pushing Harry over so she could join in on the chat. "And you are just mad you aren't here!"
"…maybe," Sirius admitted. "Though you are ruining my fantasies of being able to oogle all the nicely tanned Alolan bums when you are wearing that, Tonks."
Harry's cousin reached down, wiggling her bikini-clad boobs. "Come on, you should be happy that the Black family genetics breed so well! Bellatrix had me worried I'd be flat as a board!"
"She actually had rather nice breasts back in school," Remus commented idly. "But I imagine her stay in Sevii… shutting up now." He shrunk down a bit as Sirius and Tonks both glared at him, though Harry wondered if Sirius knew the REAL reason Tonks was upset.
"My demented cousins titties aside," Sirius said, "and it is a sad day when I can say that and it makes sense… how did you end up in Alola?"
Harry ran his hands through his hair. "Apparently Mewtwo wants to study me. Make his own Pokedex."
"Luna is already calling it a Harrydex and she is annoyed she didn't think of it sooner." Tonks frowned. "Which might explain why she leapt in on me while I was going to the bathroom, took a photo and said "this is going in for sure!" and ran off."
"…please find her Harry and destroy that photo before it ends up on the web," Sirius complained.
Tonks though waved him off. "Too late for me not appearing online, Sirius. I'm sure at least 20 pics of me in this outfit are online already. Not getting as many hits as those deepfakes of Lily-"
"WHAT?!" Remus, Sirius, and Harry all screamed.
"You don't know about that?" Tonks asked. "They are all over the place. Her servicing all you guys, her giving a boob job to a Machamp, her spreading her-"
Harry covered his ears and began to sing 'I Wanna Be The Very Best'.
Tonks finally smacked him on the shoulder. "Come on, it's not that bad! Not like the deepfakes of you, Harry."
"…what?" Harry said quietly.
"Tonks…" Sirius warned.
"It was a case, not me searching on my own!" she said quickly. "Pedophiles making doctored photos of Harry. That stuff was disgusting."
Harry just stared at her. "I changed my mind, Voldemort is no longer our biggest concern."
"I'm leaning towards agreeing with you," Sirius growled.
"They were all arrested, okay?" Tonks complained. "Let's get back to the matter at hand. We are staying at a hotel in Alola-"
"A five star one you used my credit card to buy!" Sirius roared.
"You gave it to us for emergencies!"
"You spent 500 dollars on a mani-pedi!"
"Do you know what those boots I wear do to my cute little feet? I need to pamper them."
Harry rubbed his forehead. "Mewtwo is studying me, most likely to determine if I am worthy to enter his domain. As such he is sending me off on Research Tasks and monitoring the entire thing."
"So you need to jump through his hoops."
"Pretty much," Harry admitted.
Remus spoke up. "Any idea what Mewtwo wants you to do?"
"He only gave me a single phrase. Said he was inspired by Luna."
Remus and Sirius shared a look.
"Yeah, I am worried too," Harry muttered. "He said 'Save the Cheerleader, Save the World'. I have no idea what that even means."
Sirius sighed. "As much as I loathe going down the Lopunny hole… what did Luna say when you asked her about it?"
"That I should be careful if Mewtwo wants to cut my skull open and take my brain."
"…admittedly that is good advice?" Sirius said with a weak shrug.
"Thanks, big help guys, A+ effort," Harry grumbled.
"Come on, pup!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his arms out. "It could be worse! At least you are in paradise!"
"With Voldemort still solidifying his hold on Avalon," Harry pointed out.
"Dear Arceus you need to get laid," Sirius muttered only for Remus to smack him upside the head. "What?! It's true!"
"I heard he already has," Tonks said with a sinister little smile.
"Don't you…" Harry warned her.
"Jasmine and you got rather kinky in her room after Hogwarts, didn't you?"
"…hey Sirius, Remus and Tonks are fucking. Have to go."
"WHAT?!" Sirius roared, Tonks eyes going wide while Remus began to stammer excuses. Harry, for his part, headed out of his hotel room as quick as he could, the door slamming just as Tonks began to scream his name and declare she would have her revenge.
Harry made his way through the halls of the hotel frankly feeling like he was naked. As much as the cold weather of Avalon bugged him the oppressive heat of Alola was just grinding him into dust and making him want to find a freezer to live in for the next few months. He'd been forced to get rid of most of his clothing and buy all new, meaning he was wearing a t-shirt that he hadn't broken in yet (you needed to wash it at least two times to get it at the proper softness), shorts that only showcases how utterly pale his legs were, and sunglasses that lacked all the tech his glasses did. At least he'd found clothing that was red and yellow in color so he could represent Gryffindor but even that wasn't enough to help him when he wilting in the heat.
Stepping out into the lobby he glanced to his right towards the pool before shaking his head, firing off a quick group message that he was going for a walk before slipping out onto the streets of Heahea. The big island was one of the biggest tourist areas in Alola, thanks to being near the Lush Jungle, Wela Volcano Park, and Brooklet Hill. Neville had already declared that he was heading off into the greenery to let his Pokemon relax after the stress of dealing with weatherproofing them and their pokeballs and he knew that a lot of people liked to climb the volcanic peak to see the fire dances or visit Brooklet Hill to see the Wishiwashi swarms.
Harry though wasn't in the mood to be a tourist. He wasn't in the mood to do much of anything. He honestly just wanted to leave the island and head right back to Avalon and take the fight to Voldemort… preferably by turning the guns of the Ghost-
He stopped, shutting his eyes. No… no, he didn't want that at all. The memory of the Ghost of Olivine firing on Hogwarts and knowing Jack was consumed in that fire still haunted him.
'And even if I did try that Voldemort would just escape,' he thought darkly as he shifted to the right to avoid a family that was hurrying to catch the next ferry. 'You can't kill what is already not alive. Voldemort… there is something wrong with a foe that no matter what you know there is no way to truly knock them down…' His mind drifted to Mewtwo and what Harry prayed he had with him. 'Unless there actually is a way.'
That was what they were pinning all their hopes on. The Master Ball. Containing a piece of the Keystone that was linked to the bastard. With that there was a glimmer of a chance that they could capture Voldemort and contain him. Place him in a prison that he couldn't escape from.
'Of course what we do with the ball is another question entirely,' Harry though to himself, shuddering at the idea of someone getting ahold of the Master Ball and trying to use Voldemort like one would any other Pokemon. Would they be able to break him to their will? No… he didn't think so. Pokemon accepted trainers who caught them because all Pokemon, even the most skittish and scared, respected strength. To be able to capture them showed you were strong and worthy of being their trainer. But Voldemort didn't respect anything but himself. He would turn on his trainer the moment he could and kill them or try and possess them… could a human hold their own Pokeball? Well, not their own… Ron had gone on and on about how a Pokeball had to use apricorns because the structure of the ball caused the defense mechanism in a Pokemon that caused them to shrink to activate against their will, thus allowing capture.
He sighed. Arceus above he wished he could talk to Ron right now and ask him about it. He wanted to give his sunglasses to Ginny and have her tinker with them and make them better. He knew they were out there, held out hope they were alive, same as Snape and several members of the Hogwarts staff… but he knew others had given up hope and that made it harder and harder to cling to the belief that he would see his friends again one day, safe and whole.
'God I'm tired of all this,' Harry thought as he found a bench and slumped down on it, rubbing his face with his hands.
"Tough day?" someone asked and when Harry looked up he thought, just for a moment, Jasmine had surprised him by showing up.
But no… while she had the same sun-kissed hair as his girlfriend at once he saw the differences. Her skin was far more fair than Jasmine's and while her tresses were blonde they were more natural (Jasmine had often commented that she'd been born with pale brown hair that had lightened to a sun-kissed blond due to spending so much time in the sun at Rogue's End, reveling in the ability to play outside with Jack as her dad). She had a leaner build, reminding him more of Diantha than Jasmine; his girlfriend wasn't stout by any means and was rather graceful but she was muscular, especially after their dynamaxing during the Ministry attack. Jasmine looked like a pro wrestler while this new arrival looked like a model.
She was wearing a white business suit despite the fact that Harry was pretty sure she was around his age, and her long hair had been tied into a rather professional looking braid. Still there was something very open about her despite how she dressed and presented herself. Others in such an outfit would look cold and determined but she somehow made white feel like the warmest, softest color there was in the entire world. Like a baby blanket fresh from the dryer.
That's why Harry found himself speaking to the stranger.
"Rough day. Rough week. Rough year. The decade has been hit or miss so we'll have to see how things end before I can tell you how bad that is."
She laughed at that, a light and soft sound. "Maybe just start with the beginning?"
"A psychic pokemon teleported me half way around the world. Yesterday I was in the far north dressed for winter and then suddenly I'm stripping just outside of town because I'm about to overheat."
"Yes, that would be troubling."
"You are rather believing of that," Harry said, surprised that she accepted his comment without question.
"I've lived an interesting life," she said with a smile. "Have you been to another dimension?"
"Not that I know of."
The woman chuckled. "After that you aren't phased by much." She paused. "Are you okay? Got a funny look on your face."
"I'm not used to being the one who is the most normal of a pair."
That got another chuckle from her. "I have a friend who says normal is overrated. My brother says that there is no real normal, just everyone living their lives and having different levels of strangeness."
"Bet I can still beat you."
"Try me," she said and for a moment there was an intense fire burning in her eyes, one that showed that despite her kindness she could fight and win if she needed to.
Harry figured… why not? It wasn't like he was hiding out. His history was online… along with possibly pornographically altered images of him but that was beside the point… so why not play the game?
"From the age of 1 until I turned 11 I was raised on Little Surrey, a Pokemon hating Island."
"I was raised until I was 12 in a corporate office. Didn't' know what rain felt like until I went to school."
That was… admittedly odd. "My parents were killed stopping a terrorist."
"My father disappeared thanks to a wormhole to another dimension and we only found him a decade later with no memory, running Pokemon Vacation Trips."
"I won the Grand Trainer Tournament despite being too young to officially compete."
"I traveled to another dimension and then was tasked to hunt down their version of Pokemon, called Ultra Beasts, when they invaded out world."
"I studied under a Legendary Pokemon a lost Pokemon Art that allows me to talk to any Pokemon."
"I was saved from an Ultra Beast by a creature made by my mother in her attempts to replicate the powers of Arceus."
"I was nearly killed by MissingNo, a deformed clone of Celebi."
"I-"
"My friend also has a Celebi and I traveled back in time." He smirked, feeling rather proud that he'd beat her there. "I also have a legendary myself."
The woman merely reached into her pocket and sent out a mechanical Pokemon that Harry could tell all at once was One of A Kind. "Cute."
"…draw?"
"Draw," she said, holding out her hand and giving Harry's a shake before recalling her Pokemon. "My friend Ash still beats us."
"How bad?" Harry asked.
"Well he has a theory that he was stuck in a timeloop for a few years as that's the only way he can explain having saved the world… 7 times?... before he turned 12?"
Harry let out a whistle. "Eesh."
"Also his Pikachu can shock ground types."
"Oh come on, now you are just making stuff up!"
"Hand to Arceus!" the woman told him.
Harry shook his head. "And I thought my life was hectic."
"Don't worry, I won't give that patronizing speech about, "see, its not so bad!" because I get it… we all have moments that traumatize us. The important thing is to find people to help you… and not be so stubborn that you refuse to let others know that you need help."
"I guess…"
"No guess, no. Listen… things were… rough when I was growing up. My dad disappeared and my mom really didn't know how to handle me. She and I… were are opposites in the way. She's big and loud and loves attention and I prefer to be on the sidelines. She wants to be the star and I'm happy boosting people up. A lot of our problems though would have been solved if I had just learned how to talk to her and communicate. Let her know what I was feeling, what my problems were, what she could do to make things better. Yes, it would have been tough but not putting any effort into it wasn't the answer either. Just made things all the worse."
"That… is oddly helpful, I admit," Harry said with a shake of his head. "Thanks."
"No problem," the woman said as she stood up. "That's why everyone at work calls me to office cheerleader."
Harry watched her go, unable to say a word as what she said rattled in his head.
"oh fuck," he muttered to himself as he realized he'd just found who Mewtwo wanted him to save.
"Hey…" Neville said, jogging up to him. "You realize who you were talking to?"
"The cheerleader Mewtwo wants me to save?"
Neville blinked. "Not… what I was going to say…" He pointed behind Harry and the teen turned to see a billboard… with the woman he had just been talking to plastered all over it.
Lillie Aether. Head of the Aether Foundation.
"…as in those people that nearly tore the world apart a few years ago?"
Neville nodded.
"…FUCK!"