Rock 4.15: Bulwark
Olivia

April 20th, 2020

The hike to the Ruins of Life is lovely. There's a trail that runs just above the coast. In the morning you can catch a good breeze and some of the best views of the sea on Akala. It takes two hours to reach the battle site, but the walk is worth it. Sometimes you need time to yourself with nothing to do but put one foot in front of the other. You miss your time on the island challenge. Two friends by your side, new places every day, and a steady string of friends to meet and challenges to beat. You can remember the glorious feeling of finally beating Hala with a team full of rock- and steel-types. That year taught you things about yourself it might've taken decades to learn otherwise. How to manage money. How to deal with people and pokémon, even on bad days. How to plan around obstacles. How you naturally react to stress and conflict. How to keep going no matter what.

You don't hate your next challenger like Hala seemed to. Yes, she's become a public face of a company that endangers the 'aina. No, you don't like her employer much at all. But they exposed a problem you'd been trying to point out for years: the island challenge is increasingly pricing out kids who could benefit from it the most. Everything on the islands is so expensive these days. Even if lodging is usually free, food and supplies are not. No one crafts their own balls anymore and homemade medicine can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Unless you go out of your way to learn those things you won't have a clue how to do them. Public schools just don't teach them anymore. And since the kahunas and totems have access to TMs and specialized training, challengers feel the pressure to buy those things, too. And pokémon can't just forage and hunt for food like your ancestors did. Too many (justified) restrictions.

You've heard arguments that with a low-cost team and good budgeting you can make it on limited scholarships, occasional tournament prizes, and a couple odd jobs. How well a low-cost team would actually do in the late stages of the island challenge is never discussed. And it feels unfair to pitch the whole thing as a collective bonding experience for all races and classes where only skill matters and then turn around and tell kids born to poor families that they can't use most of the pokémon and they'll need to get very, very good at budgeting very fast.

Then the government cut the island challenge budget during the last recession and haven't found the money to increase scholarships since then. Something like this was inevitable. Frankly, you can imagine worse alternatives. VStar rips off the kids, sure, but there are much worse ways they could be exploiting them.

You aren't mad at Cuicatl Ichtaca. She's getting paid. Given her team in the video with Hala you're guessing that she needs money for tutoring for her Class IV and V and a great deal saved up for feeding her tyrunt when she evolves. And you don't want to be the one to tell the kid not to train dinosaurs—dinosaurs are great. When you were her age you desperately wanted to train a tyrunt. Ideally the government should be subsidizing her food budget and offering a free mentor pairing program. You've pitched both. The governor told you he couldn't find the money. Now you're seeing if you can sell something like it to the Pentagon. Girls with giant dinosaurs are a defense asset, after all.

And none of that requires ruining a child's dreams on camera.

Your arena is a rectangular depression in the earth with stone pillars at every corner. In a higher level match, there would be a mime sr. guarding the edge to make sure nothing flew out. Second trials are usually fine since the pokémon are usually aiming at each other, ten feet below the spectators. The floor of the arena is mostly loose sand and gravel with a small, shallow pond in the middle. No plants for grass-types to manipulate. Just enough water that a kabuto, tirtouga, or lileep can be comfortable in it.

Cuicatl's already standing on a stone slab on her side of the arena. There's a green scarf or ribbon hanging from the left shoulder of her dress. Three pokéballs are nestled into pouches in it. There doesn't seem to be one in her hand. Odd. Very odd. Most VStar members come with at least a full team, even if they have to use one of their recent captures to fill a space. But it seems like she only has the vulpix, metang, and tyrunt from her fight with Hala. Not the worst lineup, but not nearly powerful enough to forgo using a fourth pokémon.

You glance up at the bleachers as you walk towards her. There are more people in them than you'd expect for a second grand trial. Her two teammates, a few bloggers, your sister and niece. All of that's expected. Some of the others you recognize, old challengers or neighbors from Konikoni. About five or so you don't know at all. Then there's a team from Channel 4 News. They're allowed to film these matches but the press never shows up for anything but a fourth grand trial.

Seems the girl has a bit of a following. Poor dear. The spotlight can burn if it gets too bright.

You wave to the crowd but otherwise ignore them. Cuicatl stiffens up a little when she hears you approach. "Good morning," you great her.

"Morning," she replies with a lot less enthusiasm. She fidgets and her fingers slide past each other, grabbing for nothing in particular. Nerves. You remember those. They went away when you realized that it didn't really matter if you lost or not. But at that age, with fewer failures under your belt, every one can feel catastrophic.

"Just remember: the worst that can happen is you need to wait two weeks for a rematch." She relaxes a little. Good. "Now, do you only have three pokémon today?"

She nods before pressing her lips together. "That's allowed, yes?"

"It is. You can have up to four."

On the way over you considered asking her to swing by your shop tomorrow with her tyrunt in exchange for something good. An ice stone, probably. You've only been able to get close to a tyrunt once, and he was a right bastard the entire time. Hers seems tame. There are even videos of her acting as a guide pokémon for her and doing reasonably well. A little excitable, very prone to flashing her teeth at anyone who comes near, otherwise well behaved. You'd love to see how much of cranidos, archen, and shieldon care applies to the apex predator of the Cretaceous. But offering in advance might sound like you want her to like you. She might think that you'd thrown the match, even if she genuinely won. That might hurt her ego after how the first grand trial went. You'll just have to ask after the battle. Maybe a day or two after the match, even.

A shadow crosses the girl's face. You look over to see her companion's carbink floating beside you. "Hello," you greet them.

The carbink wobbles in place in a strange imitation of a curtsy.

"Can I help you?" No answer. Not that you were really expecting one.

"She's been very interested in your rock-types," Cuicatl says. She drops down to a whisper: "Might even want to leave Kekoa for your team. They're working through that."

It wouldn't be the first time. The surface carbink were priests for centuries. Many of them still remember that. When they see a kahuna who specializes in rock-types they often want to hang around her.

"I would be honored to host them if that's what they want. Or give their trainer advice if they want to stay." The carbink continues to hover in place. You smile at them and gently press them away. "I have a battle to fight. Maybe we can talk in a few days?"

A few days is nothing for carbink but gives the trainers some time to get their thoughts and things in order. The carbink wobbles again before floating back towards the stands.

You walk back to your side of the arena and stand on the stone slab that marks your spot. It didn't used to be there, the last kahuna just stood on the grass, but Tapu Lele moved some rocks around for you in the middle of the night. Thought it looked better.

You nod at Elliot and he clears his throat. "Today's match will be a four-on-four singles battle between Kahuna Olivia Rodriguez of Akala and Challenger Cuicatl Ichtaca of Anahuac." He looks away from the audience and towards Cuicatl. "I'm to understand that you waive your right to a fourth pokémon?"

"Yes."

There are some murmurings in the crowd from those who didn't pay enough attention to her sash or assumed she had another ball tucked away somewhere.

"Understood. The rules are as follows: a pokémon is disqualified when they are knocked out of the arena or deemed unable to battle by myself or the nurse on site." Erica waves to the crowd. "The challenger may switch out her pokémon once during the match. The victor is the trainer who last has a pokémon on the field. Are the rules clear as I have stated them." Both you and Cuicatl nod. "Kahuna, send out your first pokémon."

You reach down to your belt and send out Alexia the lileep. She's old enough to be able to sponge some hits without being untouchable in a second trial. This also lets Cuicatl have a neutral type matchup with her vulpix, since she'll need one in a four on three with an ice-type.

She reaches for a standard pokéball ball and sends out her metang instead. Huh. Not how you would have played that. No way for her to know if her vulpix will be at all useful later on while the metang almost certainly will be. Oh well.

"Begin," Elliot calls. As soon as his lips close the metang is already rocketing across the field, arms tucked to the side and underneath her. Take down.

"Brine!" There's nothing else to do. Mega drain and leech seed won't find purchase in the metallic pokémon, she can't out recover the damage taken, and ancient power wouldn't deal nearly enough damage. Brine might at least corrode the metal a little.

The metang rams into Alexia and keeps going into the wall. The hit shakes the earth beneath you and you almost lose your balance. Your pokémon is struck between a stone wall and a metal predator. She's durable, but there's only so much of this that she's taking.

The metang floats back a little and then raises their claws. They gleam in the sunlight before tearing into Alexia's armor. She spits out saltwater that flows off of the metang as they move. Good. That spreads the corrosion a little. After two powerful metal claws swipe into Alexia the metang rears back again before pointing the claws inward, forming a small fist made of blades. Just as Alexia hits the ground they rear forward again and hit her with a punch. A weaker punch. Then another and another and another and another. A non-stop barrage of bullet punches.

"Keep up the brine!"

The lileep spits again but the metang doesn't react at all. After maybe fifteen hits they pull back away from the lileep as her stem falls to the slide. The armor is dented but the stem itself seems okay. She'll recover. They're hardy Pokémon. Even if the stem was severed she'd probably be fine in two weeks.

"The Kahuna's lileep is unable to battle. Send in your next pokémon."

Only one of your two walls has anything to deal with metang. Obvious enough which you're sending out first here. You release the clasp on Dorian's pokéball and the pupitar materializes in the pit beneath you.

"The Kahuna has sent out her pupitar," Elliot announces.

"Good job, Noci. Let's give Coco a chance." Cuicatl reaches for her scarf and the metang dissolves in a burst of light. A tyrunt takes its place a second later. A little bigger than you had expected. Even from a distance you can see the muscles tense beneath leathery skin as she takes in her foe. Excellent plumage. What a wonderful specimen.

Still, you were expecting her vulpix. Not using her against a grass- or ground-type is very strange. You certainly wouldn't have sent in a rock-type against a pupitar when you had a vulpix on hand. She's lucky that Dorian isn't quite well-trained enough to use ground moves without bringing the arena down. Still mostly wild at heart. Hopefully that will be long out of his system by the time he evolves again.

You see Cuicatl say something but you can't hear it from the other side of the battlefield. Using her tyrunt's excellent hearing to her advantage? Come to think of it she didn't give orders to her metang, either. Telepathy? Just letting the metang do its own thing? Not important right this second.

The tyrunt starts rushing across the field towards Dorian. "Rock slide," you order. The gravel beneath Dorian begins to shift before it starts surging forward like a wave.

"Rock slide V," Cuicatl's order is just audible this time. The tyrunt's roar is much louder. No. Not quite a roar. It's a low, choking sound. Something like a cross between the hiccups and a growl. The gravel in front of the tyrunt moves. Not in a broad, slow wave like Dorian's attack, but in a narrow V-shaped strip. One big clump of rock with a wake behind it. The tyrunt keeps running the entire time, just a little more slowly. The rock slides collide and Dorian's breaks through the tyrunt's wake, but the two cancel each other out at the tip of the tyrunt's attack. The dinosaur has to take a moment to regain her footing before she keeps charging again over the newly mixed gravel.

Defensive rock slide. You've seen it before, but not often.

"Screech."

Dorian lets out an unholy wail of rocks scraping against other rocks. The tyrunt stumbles but catches herself. Before long she's made it all the way to Dorian and clamps down with a powerful bite. A thin layer of frost billows out from the hit. Dorian doesn't waver. You can see his armor begin to softly shimmer and glow as he uses iron defense without being ordered. The tyrunt just bites harder in response. You hear a soft snap but neither gives. Probably just a lost tooth.

You don't think this is a winning matchup for Cuicatl. Tyrunt could break bone, but pupitar's armor is really hard even before iron defense boosting. Eventually her pokémon will exhaust herself without you having to do much of anything. The steadily growing layer of ice isn't even much of a hinderance pupitar barely moves. What's the problem with a frozen joint that's used once a decade? They're mountain creatures. Freezing weather isn't fatal.

Cuicatl orders something you can't hear. The tyrunt lets go. There's a trickle of blood running out of her mouth and she spits out a few broken teeth. Whatever she's trying you don't want to see it completed.

"Dark pulse."

The air around Dorian flickers and cackles as the shadows in the pit lengthen. The tyrunt slams through the pulse of cold and darkness and bites back down where she had before. This time embers rain out from her mouth and you can see the armor around the impact site darken as the frost begins to melt. Fire fang. Pupitar are forged by high heat and pressure deep in the crust. What's she playing at?

"Again," you call.

Pupitar don't have the deepest elemental wells, but those attacks will add up. Eventually. With rock-types you can usually afford to play the long game. Another ripple of darkness slams into the tyrunt. The dinosaur just snarls and clamps down harder in response. Almost all the frost is melted now. From above you can see the meltwater seeping down deeper into your pokémon's armor. You'll have to dry him out later. Jeremy's kiln should do the trick.

The tyrunt lets go. Did Cuicatl order something? It doesn't really matter. The tyrunt presses through yet another dark pulse and lands another bite. A weaker bite. Strange. A new, thin layer of frost begins to form on Dorian's armor.

Your pokémon begins to squirm. Why? Frost shouldn't—

In the autumn rains water seeps into the small cracks between rocks. Then winter comes and the water freezes. As it freezes it expands, creating a bigger crack. Then the next year the same thing will happen over and over again until water and cold can cleave a mountain in twain.

You smile from ear to ear. You can't help it. Good play should be recognized. "That's enough, Dorian." You withdraw the pupitar before he can get too hurt. Rock-types are durable. But when they do get hurt enough to feel it they tend to surrender pretty quickly. Leaving him in longer would only serve to lose his trust. And when he evolves you'll need all the trust you can get. "Well played, Cuicatl. Did you come in with that strategy or come up with it on the spot?"

It's hard to tell given the distance between you and her skin color, but you think she's blushing. She certainly lowers her head a little and looks to the side. Not used to compliments? Thinks she's being embarrassed in public? "On the spot," she sheepishly admits. Like there's anything wrong with that. Quick thinking is hard enough when you can see the match unfold.

"Good work. Let's see how you deal with this."

"The Kahuna has sent out her carbink."

You see the carbink in the stands vibrate in place in excitement as your own takes the field. Moku slowly rises above the battlefield and looks down at the tyrunt below. You're curious how her tyrunt, a classic melee fighter and grappler, deals with something that can float above her and shrug off hits. In the meantime, you'll set up for later in the match.

"Rock slide U."

The gravel under the tyrunt stirs like the bubbles of boiling water.

"Reflect."

Unless that's a really powerful rock slide it shouldn't really do much to Moku. You're proved correct when maybe fifty pounds of rock shoot up like a geyser towards your carbink. They don't even bother to dodge. Most of the rocks can't even make it all the way up to them in the first place. Those that do bounce harmlessly off of her and fall back to the ground. All the while a shimmering barrier of light forms above Moku's body, shielding them from future hits. It probably won't be enough to keep them entirely safe from the metang. Still better than nothing.

Another plume of rocks sails towards Moku. They don't even seem to notice as they continue reinforcing their shield. If Cuicatl's smart she'll withdraw her pokémon soon so Moku can't set up freely for as long as you want. She doesn't. Instead, she has her tyrunt fire off another rock slide. And another.

The reflect's pretty secure now. You'll move on and see if she gets the hint.

"Stealth rock."

More rocks begin to rise from the pit's floor. Not as many or as concentrated as the tyrunt's, but Moku's stay suspended in the air after rising up. They won't really slow down the metang much. The vulpix, though? Lycanroc can charge straight through without really being hurt. Vulpix don't have that kind of armor. She'll be pinned in place, unable to use her speed to the fullest.

Oh? Cuicatl said something. The tyrunt stops what she's doing and turns to stare at Moku. Then she opens her mouth and a wonderful, terrible sound pours out. It's more organic than Dorian's screech but still has the feel of things grinding against each other. A low rumble more than a shriek. Less coherent than the roar in Jurassic Park, but more impressive from the small shaking in the ground and in your bones. It's perfect. You can't wait to hear (or feel) what it's like when she evolves.

Moku freezes in place upon hearing the roar. Another rock slide attack slams into them without doing much of anything. Then they go back to setting up stealth rocks. Cuicatl crosses her arms and tells her tyrunt something before red light rushes across the field and snaps the dinosaur up.

"Challenger Cuicatl has forfeited the round. Send in your next pokémon."

Her metang appears above the battlefield. Wrong move.

Cuicatl doesn't give an order. Her metang just tucks their arms in to their sides and charges across the battlefield. You wait a moment. Moku can take the first hit and you need the element of surprise for this to work right.

"Smack down," you order just before the metang makes contact.

Some of the nearby stealth rocks move to close in on metang. The steel-type lands a nasty hit on carbink that causes the reflect to shimmer and waver. It doesn't break. When the rocks hit metang they falter and begin to slowly sink down. Cuicatl crosses her arms and grimaces. Then the metang lunges forward with claws extended and slams them into either side of Moku. The steel-type plummets straight down, the carbink held firmly in their claws. Oh. Taking the battle to ground.

The metang breaks just above the surface but lets go of Moku so they hit the ground in a shower of pebbles. Then the metang closes their fist and smashes a metal claw into Moku. Their other fist hits right after in another attack. Still metal claws. Not the faster but weaker bullet punches. The reflect holds after both attacks. You aren't sure how much it has left, and then Moku probably won't want to stay in against an opponent who can actually harm them.

"Keep going with smack down. And get up!"

More pebbles fly up and strike the metang's shell. Every one sends them lurching further down. Moku's first attempt to escape is met by a hard metal claw spiking them back down. Now the reflect is translucent. Just a hazy pink shimmer instead of an unbreakable red barrier. The second time they try to fly away the stealth rocks close in on them in a continuous barrage of strikes, hemming them in and forcing them back down into another metal claw. Telekinesis. Should have expected it.

The next bullet punch shatters what's left of the reflect. Time to call it. The metang is already barely three inches above the ground and you aren't going to do any meaningful damage. "Excellent work, Moku."

"The Kahuna has withdrawn her carbink and forfeited the round. Send out your final pokémon."

You clip Moku's ball back onto your belt and reach for a scuffed and worn pokéball. The red paint has faded and the white is stained yellow by many misadventures. You remember getting the ball nearly two decades ago when you adopted your starter. She's getting up in the years for her species now. Taken her share of hits, too. It's been two years since you came to the agreement to take her off of your highest-level teams in favor of her son, but every now and then she still likes to come out and fight.

You press the release button on the pokéball and Wendy forms up beneath you with a wild howl.

"The Kahuna has sent out her lycanroc."

There's a wave of murmurs from the stands. Your niece cheers. It isn't often that you use Wendy in one of these battles. But even if she's slowed down in her old age, she's far from slow. "Stone edge."

The ground moves between Wendy and the metang as spikes of rock erupt from the earth. The metang tucks their arms in and charges straight through the waves of stone with hardly a scratch. They raise up a glowing, closed fist and you can see Wendy shift in place. She knows what to do. The blow lands true but the lycanroc holds strong. She leans back a little before shoving forward with energy-wreathed fists. The metang goes flying back to the other end of the pit and crashes into the wall. Wendy howls again as the steel-type pulls herself out and turns back around. After the fire and ice play earlier you'd have expected Cuicatl to play around counter. A little disappointing that she didn't.

The air around Wendy begins to shimmer and the lycanroc snarls. Confusion. Lovely.

"Get in. Thunder punch."

Wendy stumbles forward and starts cautiously advancing towards the metang. She knows to go slowly when disoriented. The metang keeps up the confusion but doesn't make any attempt to move. At least Cuicatl's caught on to counter now. Maybe overcorrecting. Counter's hard to aim when confused. Once Wendy gets close you see sparks begin to fly from her firsts. Just as she lunges the metang rears forward and sucker punches her in the chest with a bullet punch. Wendy growls and slams both of her fists down onto the steel-type. Sparks fly and the metang freezes in place before striking Wendy again and darting away as quickly as they can while forced to hug the ground.

A machine with thick metallic armor is still vulnerable to electricity.

The air around Wendy shimmers again but the lycanroc is already moving. The metang pivots around to face her dead on. Just as your pokémon advances they charge in with a take down. They don't even slow down when they hit the lycanroc. The thunder punches slamming into their body don't deter them. They only stop when they hit the wall at the edge of the pit, pinning Wendy between them and the stone. Then the metang slowly sinks to the ground and goes still. Wendy presses herself off the wall and roars victoriously. There's a bleeding gash on her chest to go with the old scars but she doesn't act like it bothers her. Truth be told she's taken harder hits before and kept going.

"The Challenger's metang is unable to battle. Send in your final pokémon."

The crowd cheers alongside Wendy as Cuicatl cradles the metang's great ball before gently putting it back into her sash. She reaches for her final ball, a net ball, and palms it. But she doesn't release the pokémon inside. Does she not have her vulpix anymore? It would be strange to keep one in a net ball. Usually those are for birds and bugs.

Either way, a bad matchup in to lycanroc. At least some of the more experienced trainers in the crowd seem to have caught onto that to. Cuicatl looks directly at you (or probably intends to, she's off a little to the right).

"Just let him think he did something, alright? Then I'll forfeit."

A very strange plea. Not one you're sure how to answer.

She kneels down and lets the pokémon out beside her. You can't really see what it is as it's too low to the ground. After a few whispered words the bug begins scurrying down the cliff face and makes its way over the loose gravel of the arena. It's a wimpod. Suddenly her request makes a lot more sense.

Someone in the stands laughs. Someone else boos.

She brought three pokémon and one of them is a wimpod. That's not how VStar trainers work at all. What happened to the vulpix? Hala's hit shouldn't have been outright lethal with quick medical attention.

The wimpod stops maybe ten feet away from Wendy. He lets out a clacking, hissing display and waves his mandibles around. Your starter shifts uneasily on her feet, unsure what to do in a battle against something that obviously isn't a real threat.

You don't want to battle him. There's no point and Cuicatl made it sound like she just wanted to let the bug feel like he participated. Thankfully you can end things without landing a hit.

"Roar."

For a moment you imagine what the wimpod must be seeing and hearing. Wendy towers above him, old battle scars lining her body. Nocturnal lycanroc are naturally intimidating with their blood red fur and faintly glowing eyes. When they rear up and roar even you can feel a hint of anxiety—and she's your pokémon!

The wimpod immediately turns around and dashes back to his trainer. He clears the field twice as quickly as when he first entered it and starts darting straight up the side of the pit. Then he slows. And stops. Cuicatl's already taken the ball back out and has her finger on the release button when the wimpod does something incredible: he turns around and goes back into the pit. You have no idea what's going on in his head. Wimpod are famously cowardly and Wendy just took out a metang. There's nothing he could do even if he wanted to. But something draws him back into the arena. He stares down your starter for ten full seconds as you try to figure out what to do about it.

And then he glows.

You find yourself grinning again as the small crowd goes nuts. You've still probably got this one in the bag, but it certainly just got a lot more interesting.

The golisopod is moving the moment the evolution ends. He springs forward faster than should be possible with his body size and slams into Wendy. The lycanroc barely has time to prepare before the golisopod is going in with two more hits wreathed in brown energy. Wendy seems to vibrate a little when each one hits. First impression followed by rock smash. The latter weakens armor through strange vibrations. Thankfully nocturnal lycanroc don't have that much armor in the first place.

Wendy regains her footing and goes in with a strong thunder punch. The golisopod just turns around. Energy shimmers across his back as the fists useless slam into it. Iron defense. Just like Dorian earlier. Before you can get an order out the golisopod is already sprinting away towards the edge of the pit, stopping just before the walls and warily turning around.

He moves very well for having just evolved. Some special instincts? Perhaps evolution only occurs in life-or-death situations so there is no room for figuring out how to move a much larger body. You'll have to look it up later. Never been terribly interested in the creepy crawlies. Except for armaldo: armaldo are precious.

"Stone edge."

The ground begins to erupt in jagged spikes. The golisopod dodges the first but the second nails him in the chest. He rears up on his hind legs to minimize the area against the ground but one still grazes against him. The bug kneels down, does something with the ground, and whips forward. A stream of mud and pebbles flies through the air and nails Wendy in the face. Mud slap. Or mud shot? Hard to tell. This is why the four-move rule is useless.

Cuicatl hasn't given an order this whole time. Probably has no idea what the new golisopod can even do. Just as soon as Wendy can start brushing the mud off her face the golisopod is already moving again. Quickly, too. Another first impression takes the form of a full body tackle before the bug starts wailing away with rock smash again.

"Thunder punch, fast!"

Wendy doesn't bother wiping off her eyes all the way. She just starts swinging. The golisopod smacks her in the face. Awfully fast. Was that sucker punch? Oliver blows a whistle as Wendy connects.

"The challenger's golisopod has used five moves and is disqualified. The winner of the round and the match is Kahuna Olivia."

You cross your arms and raise an eyebrow at Oliver. Your 'angry kahuna' stance. "The pokémon just evolved and his trainer hasn't ordered any of those moves. That hardly seems fair."

"Rules are rules, ma'am."

He doesn't seem sorry. You sigh and turn back to Cuicatl.

"Be that as it may, I have the right to decide who gets my stamp. We're still going."

Oliver clears his throat. "Understood. The match continues."

The golisopod took advantage of the lull in combat to get as far away from Wendy as he could. Wendy just wiped her face off. Huh. Seems like there's a small puddle of mud in front of the golisopod again. He's going to do the exact same thing.

Well, time to break the cycle.

"Stand by," you order. Then you tap your Z-bracelet and begin to perform the hula of stones. Cuicatl shifts nervously before reaching for her crystal case and pulling one out. As you dance Wendy draws every stealth rock left and many pebbles together into an ever-growing boulder in front of her. Cuicatl slams a crystal into her bracelet and rapidly goes through the steps to the hula of fists. Bad idea. Rushing it makes everything worse. You slow down and call out to tell Cuicatl to do the same. Still, there's only so much you can drag this out.

With the final steps done, power surges through you and Wendy's boulder grows ever bigger. It races through the air at unnatural speeds towards the golisopod as his trainer finishes the last steps of her dance. Then he surges forward, too, leaping into the air with legs extended. He brushes into the boulder before slashing wildly with all legs. The boulder shatters into powder from the boosted rock smash and the golisopod sails through, landing right in front of Wendy before nailing her with a powerful punch that sends her back into the edge of the pit. The lycanroc slumps down in defeat.

You turn to acknowledge Cuicatl's victory only to see her sway. She catches herself but still has to slouch down to catch her breath. More dramatic than you were expecting, even if she was rushing the dance.

You withdraw Wendy and walk to the other side of the arena. Erica gets there first and says something to the girl. You arrive a few seconds later.

"You alright?" you ask.

"Yes. Just… glad I didn't… pass out this time."

"Has that been a problem before?"

"Yeah…" She takes a few progressively less shallow breaths before continuing. "First trial. Third trial. Fourth trial. Hasn't… happened… on Akala. Getting better?"

"And you keep using Z-moves?" Erica sounds as exasperated as you feel. "Why?"

"My pokémon get hurt. Why shouldn't I…" She trails off and yawns.

You consider admonishing Cuicatl further her for risking her own health on a stupid battle she could have redone later with more pokémon or better training with her golisopod but decide against it. Too public. You can talk to her later in private.

"Congratulations on clearing your second Grand Trial, Miss Ichtaca. It was a good display."

Before you can say more her golisopod scurries to his trainer's side and butts his head against her shoulder. She turns and embraces the bug while he awkwardly shuffles, unsure of what to do. He eventually cautiously wraps his upper legs around her.

"You did so well," Cuicatl assures him. "I'm proud."

The golisopod chitters something incomprehensible and the girl giggles. She slowly pushes herself away from the golisopod and turns back to you to accept her rewards.

Tapu Lele is waiting for you in the center of the Ruins when you arrive. You curtsy out of respect but she doesn't acknowledge it. You doubt she cares about human gestures at all. She's… strange. Even compared to her siblings.

She probably wants to talk about the trial. Even when you can't feel her presence she's always watching.

"She's an odd girl, isn't she? Coming in with two battle-worthy pokémon. Risking herself for their sakes. What do you make of it?"

{SHE IS AN HEIRESS OF THE HARBOR QUEEN. ALL OF HER LINE DISPLAY ATYPICAL BEHAVIORS. I BELIEVE THE DRAGONS ARE AT FAULT.}

The Harbor Queen? You're pretty sure that's the old-fashioned name for the first monarch of Unova. Does that make her related to N? Your eyes widen as you figure out part of the puzzle, however small. She was ordering the golisopod, just pretending she wasn't. Probably why he didn't run all the way out of bounds while falling back after his attacks. And it explains the odd stumble in the video of her fight with Hala. She was probably somehow helping the vulpix with psionic attacks.

And did Tapu Lele just make a joke?

{AN INFERENCE.}

You consider asking her if she cares about the girl's ties to VStar. Or the retiring captain's replacements. Or the tyrunt. She doesn't speak up about any of them even though she knows what you're thinking of. You take that as a dismissal.

Just before you leave the ruins she reaches out to you again.

{I WILL NOT ACT TO FREE THE GAGE HEIRESS.}

Oh. You forgot about that. She was probably diving through your memories since your last meeting. Good thing she caught it.

"Are the rumors true, then?" you ask her.

{YES.}

"Will you give me cover if I try to do something?"

{NO.}

Unfortunate. "Can I tell people that you confirmed the rumors?"

{NO.}

You feel a twinge of annoyance at your goddess that you don't really try to bite down. She already knows. Probably doesn't even care.

{YOU EMPATHIZE WITH HER AS A HOMOSEXUAL.}

At least she understands that much.

{I DO NOT CARE WHAT SEXUAL INSTINCTS YOU OR ANYONE ELSE HAVE. THEY ARE IRRELEVANT.}

"We assign a lot of meaning to them," you protest.

{I DO NOT CARE.}

And you won't be able to make her care. She won't disrupt politics or allow you to disrupt politics in her name because of something she believes is trivial. The argument is over.

"I'm coming back for a challenge in three days. See you then."

She already knows that, of course. You just like talking to her sometimes. Feels like she must get lonely, holed up in here. The Tapu doesn't protest that. Either it's true or she's willing to let you believe it is.

As you leave you take stock of the business ahead of you. Cuicatl agreed to meet up in two days so you have that to look forward to. A dream that began nearly twenty years ago with you and Wendy and a pipe dream is finally coming to completion.

Should you tell her that Tapu Lele could help her friend but won't? That you would like to but your hands are tied by a goddess who can read every thought someone has ever had but still doesn't understand humans in the ways that count?

No. You're guessing the girl has enough on her plate already. You'll try to keep things light.