Okay, it's official! I changed the name of this series to "Sheltering Path." I hope it doesn't confuse the heck out of people (including me)

Polaris-Ponyta, Mia-Alolan Marowak, Marin-Primarina, Lunick-Midnight Lycanroc, Twine-Fomantis, Zetty-Rotom Dex

Chapter 10: Fixing a Hole

We stepped off of the ferry, looking around in bewilderment. The docks were in a cavernous warehouse-like room. The rest of the Aether Foundation must be above us.

Unfortunately Faba was there to meet us. He escorted us to the elevator, and up to the Conservation Area. He talked the whole way, with an air that said we should be incredibly grateful to listen to him. I wanted to learn more about Aether Paradise, but it was hard not to move away.

The elevator emerged into the middle of a forest, complete with hills and ponds. Our mouths fell open. Raised pathways snaked through, providing viewing areas while giving the resident Pokémon space. Looking at the human-made island from the outside, you would have no idea what it contained. A giant harbor, as well as a forest. Who knew what else? Luckily Faba had places to be and things to do, and we were low on his priority list. He left us in the Conservation Area. I let Mia out to explore. She was one of my smaller Pokémon, and wouldn't get in the way. Zetty bobbed around as well, examining everything with interest.

"Whoever built this place is incredible," Ben said, in awe.

"It's nice," Hari said. "But why is it all inside? Pokémon like to be out in the fresh air."

"Maybe they're worried about storms?" I suggested. "I don't know how things work on a man-made island. But I hope they take the Pokémon outside sometimes."

Mia trotted back and forth along the paths, looking at each of the Pokémon. Hari's Grovyle looked unimpressed. Like Hari, he preferred to be outside.

As we walked through the pathways, we tried talking to the Pokémon. Some were shy and nervous, not wanting to come close. But others were willing to chat. They liked it here, and said they were well taken care of. I was glad that they had a safe place, after being injured by people like Team Skull. Thinking that made me think of Julio, which made me angry again. Although any time I see a hurt Pokémon, I want to fight the person responsible. Even if I know logically that fighting only leads to more fighting.

Mia leaned through the railing, hanging her club at her side. The blue flames made a nervous Togedemaru squeak and flee.

"Mia, try to hold that out of the way. I think some of the Pokémon have had bad experiences with fire."

She looked embarrassed and tried to hide her bone behind her back. "I wouldn't hurt them."

I smiled. "I know you would never. They've just been badly treated. They can't help it."

Mia's expression became pitying as she took a closer look at the resident Pokémon.

Hari leaned over the railing. "Oh, that poor Starmie! Its gem has a huge crack."

"Yes, Team Skull broke off some the gem. There's a black market for Starmie gems." We all turned to see who had spoken. A woman with long, blonde hair and a white dress was approaching, her high heels clicking along the pathway. "Welcome. You must be Cara. And you're Ben and Hari."

"Uh, yes. Nice to meet you." This woman must be the one who invited us, if she knew our names. So she was…

"I'm glad you could make it. My name is Lusamine. I'm the president of the Aether Foundation."

"Thank you for inviting us," Ben said.

"Thanks," Hari echoed.

"It's my pleasure. I've heard about you, trying to help Pokémon wherever you go. And Hari, you can even talk to Pokémon?"

Hari nodded. He and Ben shot me a quick glance. I almost never told anyone I could talk to Pokémon. Hari didn't exactly broadcast it, but he did offer his skills for people that needed a Pokémon translator. (I'd do that too, but I left people guessing about how it worked. Hari didn't have any sort of devious streak, so he kept to the flat truth).

"Well, Hari," Lusamine continued. "If the Pokémon have any messages to pass on, I'd love to hear them."

"So far they all seem happy to be here. The ones that are settled in, anyway."

"How wonderful! I feel like the mother to every Pokémon here, so I'm glad they enjoy their stay."

I knew what she meant. My Pokémon were like my babies. But something about the way she said that struck me as odd. She seemed almost possessive. Although a lot of people think that way about their Pokémon. I tried to address that in my lectures, though it was still a minority way of thinking.

Lusamine

Knelt and held out her hand to Mia. Mia hesitated, then decided to be polite and walked over to greet her. My attention shifted to Hari. He was glancing back and forth, looking confused and a little unsettled. I gave him a questioning look. "Do you feel that?" He asked.

And I did. A faint rumble.

"It's coming from the floor," Hari said.

"I feel it," Ben said.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Lusamine said. We have a lab underground. They work on various projects, like crafting new types of Pokéballs."

"Really?" I asked, distracted. "What kind…"

I shuddered and dropped to one knee.

"Cara!" Ben rushed to my side.

The shivering spasm was so strong that I could only clench my teeth and shake my head in response. It felt like ice melting along my back, and electricity crackling inside my ribs. I could hear the others, but my head was buzzing loud enough to drown them out. After several seconds, the worst passed and I was left shaking and shivering. I took a deep breath, braced myself, and raised my head. Everyone was staring, but not at me. There was something behind me. I could feel the source of the creeping sensation that chilled through my bones. I forced myself to turn. There was a hole, torn into the air itself. It shimmered blue and radiated crackles of energy. I knew what it was. And why I was reacting so strongly to it. It was a hole to a different dimension. And something was moving inside. Ben kept glancing back at the hole, but he lent me an arm and pulled me to my feet. Hari backed away, as did Ben who towed me along. Lusamine stood transfixed.

The shape inside the hole was growing bigger. It was round and amorphous, like an amoeba. It rose up before us: A huge blue jellyfish with an eerily human quality to the shape of its tentacles. It floated, tilting its bell-shaped head as though taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. So, this was what Burnet had called an Ultra Beast.

"Did you come from another world?" Lusamine said in a breathless whisper.

The Beast seemed to look at her even though it didn't have eyes. Then it continued its agitated examination of the area. It locked its gaze on me and froze. A renewed chill ran through me. There was a moment's pause, and then the thing gave out a keening warble and lunged.

Mia stood frozen for a moment in front of this ominous arrival. Then she snapped to action, hurling her bone. It whirled through the air, aflame, and struck the side of the Beast's bell. It barely flinched. How did I fight this thing? I'd been to another world, but there hadn't been anything like this. What moves would work against it? Fire didn't seem to do much. The Beast slowed and turned to face Mia. She threw her bone again, although the first attack had done almost nothing.

"Mia, use a different attack! Try ghost type!"

The Beast seemed to be thinking of how to react to the little Pokémon that was throwing stuff at it. But when Mia hit it with Shadow Bone, its call changed to something more menacing. The ghost type attack had done damage, but not enough. And that was one of Mia's best attacks.

Mia turned and bolted. The Beast followed, swinging its tentacles and knocking Mia off her feet. She rolled onto her back, using her bone to deflect the flailing tentacles. One tendril gripped the bone, then let go as the flames bit at it. Then the Beast turned back toward me. Mia charged after it, vaulting off of a railing and landing on top of the Jellyfish's bell. She slammed her club down. The jellyfish wailed and snaked its tentacles up, wrapping them around Mia. She cried out as the poisonous surface of the tentacles tightened around her.

"Bone Rush!" I shouted.

With the last of her strength, Mia struck with her club. It reeled back and let go, but Mia collapsed from the poison. I returned her and sent out Lunick. Maybe the Beast was a poison type. But only Mia had any ground type attacks. And none of them had psychic moves either. Then something about this Ultra Beast felt familiar. Its aura flared in a similar way to the Totem Pokémon. Why?

But I had no time to ponder that now. Lunick eyed the Ultra Beast, baring his teeth in a sneer. He leapt on top of his opponent, crunching his fangs into the bell. It thrashed, slamming Lunick against a tree. He tumbled free, crashing through the branches. He grabbed a nearby rock and hurled it. It missed the Beast, but crunched through one of the pathway railings. I didn't want to cause damage, but there were more pressing matters right now.

Once again, the Beast turned toward me. Lunick snarled and charged, He grappled, trying to avoid its tentacles. But one wrapped around his arm. As the venom started to sink in, Lunick began fighting fiercely, tearing at the tentacles with tooth and claw. It sped up the advance of the poison, and Lunick began to fade. The Beast wrapped the rest of its tentacles around him, prying his jaws off and hurling him against a tree. He crumpled. I returned him and sent out Marin. After Lunick's furious onslaught, our foe was starting to tire. Marin bombarded the Beast with Bubble Beam. It screeched and shrank back.

"Keep going!" I shouted to Marin. "It doesn't like water!" He kept the deluge going, and the Beast started to retreat. It gave out a keening cry and shrank toward the hole in the air. It hesitated, then slipped inside, disappearing to a different dimension. The portal sealed up behind it.

I sank to my knees beside Marin. He nuzzled me, crooning in reassurance. I hugged him, trying to calm myself with deep breaths. Ben and Hari ran over.

"That think looked like it wanted to kill you!" Ben was about to pull me to my feet. Instead he sat on the ground next to me. Zetty had been sheltering with them. He nudged up next to me, wanting to know that I was all right.

"What was it?" Hari asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know. I guess one of those Ultra Beasts Burnet's studying."

We'd all forgotten that Lusamine was there. She remained staring at the spot where the wormhole had disappeared. She seemed to come to her senses at the mention of Ultra Beasts. Dream-like, she said, "a Pokémon from another world. It was drawn to you."

"Drawn to her?" Ben exclaimed, indignant. "It attacked her!"

"Why?" Lusamine asked, curious.

I shook my head. "I'd never seen anything like it before." Pokémon would come to me more readily than to other people, because I could understand them. But so could Hari, and this Ultra Beast hadn't spared him a second glance. Which was good. Hari was a healer, not a fighter.

"Fascinating," Lusamine said.

"Had you ever seen a hole in the sky before?" Hari asked.

Lusamine didn't seem to hear. "Come. You'll want to heal your Pokémon."

I was relieved when we left Aether paradise and returned to Professor Burnet's lab. Lusamine's reaction to the Ultra Beast was unsettling. Though not compared to the Beast itself.

"How was your trip?" Lillie asked as we walked back into Professor Burnet's lab. She sounded almost too casual..

"Well," Ben said, "a monster attacked Aether paradise."

Lillie, Kukui, and Burnet all cried out in unison, "what!"

We explained everything. Professor Burnet took notes.

"When it went back into the wormhole," I concluded, "do you think it went back home? I didn't want it to get lost in a different world."

"I would think so," Burnet said. "That would be the most recently used path, and would probably still be open for the Beast to return through. I'll look into it."

"I don't get it though," I muttered. "A hole to another world. I thought only something as strong as Palkia could open those. How did it happen in the middle of Alola?" I shivered. "Those holes can be so dangerous." I thought of myself lost for months with no memories. And then there was this Ultra Beast that had tried to attack me multiple times. I wondered if my Pokémon would have a better perspective on this. I sent out Mia, Lunick, and Marin. Zetty settled down with them.

"Hey, guys," I said while the others watched. "Thank you for fighting the Ultra Beast. You did an amazing job, considering we'd never seen anything like that before. Could you understand if it was ever saying anything?"

My three Pokémon considered this question.

"It didn't zzzpeak in any way I recognizzzed," Zetty buzzed. "But I wazzzn't trying to lizzten. Maybe I could hear more if I tried more."

"It was angry," Mia said. "Like someone had dragged it there against its will."

Marin nodded. "It felt threatened. It thought everyone was a danger to it – trying to take it away from its home."

Hari translated for the benefit of the others.

"Smell," Lunick tilted his head, thinking, "Well, maybe not smell. It was more like it sensed something. It was angry about you because it sensed something familiar about you. It must have thought you were responsible for dragging it to this world."

"How could I be familiar?" I asked. "I'd never been anywhere with a creature like that."

Mia stepped forward. "You said you've been to another world though."

Hari stopped translating this part, because I still hadn't told Kukui or Burnet that I'd been to another world.

I responded in telepathy, "I have been to another world. But there were just Pokémon there – no Ultra Beasts."

"What if it's not the world it smells?" Marin asked. "What if it smells the place between worlds?"

The ultra wormhole. The space between worlds. When I fell through that crack, I hadn't landed directly in another world. There had been some kind of inter-dimensional space. A sort of nexus where the worlds met. Palkia's realm. Maybe the wormhole passed through that area too. So the Ultra Beast had somehow sensed that I had passed through that nexus. No wonder it had come at me. I smelled like the path home. It wanted to get out of this unfamiliar world and back to the place it had been torn from. Or maybe it just thought I was the one that had dragged it to this world.

"Thanks guys," I whispered. I turned to Kukui, and Burnet. "I think I'd better tell you. I've been to another world before."

Lillie tried to look surprised, although she already knew. Kukui and Burnet did look stunned. I could tell Burnet was bursting with questions, but she waited for me to continue.

I heaved a sigh. "I fell through a hole in space. It lead to Palkia's domain, where there are doorways to many different worlds. I fell through one of those doorways, to a land where there are only Pokémon. I, uh, well, I spent a few months as a Charmander. I even evolved. But I'd lost all of my memories. I really only knew my name, and that I was a human. It took months for Palkia to help find me and send me home. Luckily I also got my memories back before I came home. Anyway, my Pokémon think that the Ultra Beast was able to sense that I'd been to another world."

Professor Burnet still looked like she had a million questions. "I hope no one else is in your shoes, Cara. If another of those things appears and senses a faller, that person may not be strong enough to fight it off."

"Faller?" I repeated.

Burnet nodded. "It's a term for someone who has fallen between worlds. Now that I know when and where a wormhole opened up, I can get some important data."

"Can we build something that will track where another wormhole might open?" Ben asked.

"Hmm," Burnet murmured. "It's possible. It depends on how much data I can get. I'll bet the Aether Foundation would let us come visit. I can bring some equipment."

"Ben's quite the engineer," Kukui said. "He might have some good ideas."

"Well, they were all planning to go to Ula'ula island soon, weren't they?" Burnet asked.

We had, in fact, been planning to leave the next morning.

Professor Burnet continued, "We should see how far we can get before asking them to help. They've already done a lot for us."

I could see Ben fidgeting. This would have sounded like a fascinating project to him. But he also wanted to come to the next island with us. It was where I had visited with my family, and I was eager to return. Finally Ben said, "yeah, let me know if you need help. I definitely want to know how it works."