Chapter 10

Kukui's Lab

Back at Mikey's house, Meowth was sleeping soundly in the kitchen/living room, but its ears perked when it heard a key in the lock. Now awake, Meowth stretched and stood up, seeing Mikey's mother enter through the door.

"Honey, I'm home!" she called out, and Meowth responded with a loud meow and ran over to greet his owner, and she lovingly gave him many pats and scratches.

Only a few minutes later, Mikey stepped through the door, much to his mother's surprise

"Oh, Mikey! You're back already?"

"Yeah, I love a good party, but I felt we all needed a good night's rest too."

"I thought you'd want to stay in Iki Town longer… Especially right after that great Pokémon battle! Ooh, I was just captivated to see my own boy fighting in such perfect synch with his partner! Maybe it would be a good idea for you to try that island challenge thing… It's something you can only do in Alola, right?"

"It sure sounds like it, and I think I will."

"That's great! But right now I've got a date with my bed. I danced my feet off at that festival! Night-night, sweetie. You get some sleep, too!"

"I sure will…" he yawned.

Having said good night to his artificial mother, Mikey walked into his room, and before getting into bed, he let out Jun and Chloe from the Poké Balls, so that they could sleep more comfortably, something that they deserved after all their hard work, and the involuntary sacrifice they had made when they were pulled into the game.

Morning came, and Mikey greeted the sunrise together with his mother out on the porch again, enjoying the Alolan climate. Jun was by his side, while Chloe had been returned to her ball.

"What beautiful weather! I wonder what today will bring me?" his mother said as she basked in the sunlight.

Like the day before, the moment was interrupted by the doorbell.

"A visitor! If it's Kukui, he'll probably let himself in without even waiting for us to open the door!" she said with a smile

"Sounds about right." said Jun.

Despite that possibility, Mikey went to open the door, Jun following him. But rather than a certain professor barging in, they actually reached the door without any uninvited guests, which made the turtle and cat look at each other and shrug.

Mikey opened the door and looked outside, only to spot Lillie standing there, and they both assumed that Nebby was still in the bag that she carried.

"Lillie?"
"Oh. Um…" she looked down at her feet for a moment. "The professor said…" she steeled herself, and gave her best impression of Kukui, which wasn't very good and had a lack of enthusiasm. "'Hey there, Lillie! Bring me that great new Trainer. Woo!'" she sighed before continuing. "So I'm here to show you the way to his Pokémon lab, if you'll come with me."

"Okay. Lead the way."

"It's, um… It's this way." she said, and began to turn in the direction they would be heading.

But before they could leave, Mikey's mom and Meowth came out from the house as well.

"Mikey!" she called out. "Here. A little pocket money for you. Don't go wasting it on anything too silly!" She handed Mikey a fairly large wad of banknotes.

"Woah! Thanks, mom!" he said quickly counting them, his eyes widening before putting them in his wallet.

He wasn't sure how much one of these Poké Dollars were worth, but he did know how much of them he had. Including what he had won from Hau and the other trainers, his wallet held money worth 5408 Poké Dollars, which he had assumed was quite a lot, until his mother gave him his so called 'pocket money', which was actually thirty thousand.

While Mikey was trying to wrap his head around if he was actually rich or not, his mother noticed that Lillie was standing only a few feet away from him.

"Oh! Well done, Mikey. You're already making friends, aren't you? And what a cute little friend you've found!" She said, making Lillie blush a bit. "I knew Alola would be a great place for us. We just keep meeting wonderful people here!"

"M-me? Well, thank you… My name is Lillie. It's very nice to meet you." Lillie responded, trying to regain her composure.

"A pleasure to meet you, too." she said, then turned to Mikey. "Looks like it's finally your time to shine, sweetie! Enjoy yourself out there with Litten. And don't be gone too long!"

"Don't worry, I promise." Mikey said and gave her a thumbs up. Mom nodded and headed back inside together with Meowth.

"You… have a very nice mother, don't you?" Lillie said, but she almost seemed a bit sad, and quickly changed the subject. "We should get going. I'll show you to the Pokémon Research Lab."

With Lillie leading the way, they started walking down the southern path towards the beach.

The beach was sort of separated from the rest of the island thanks to an elevation that left a small cliff ledge, roughly two meters tall in average, leaving the beach lower than the main part, but one could easily just walk around the ledge, if one was okay with going through the tall grass that grew there.

"You can reach the professor's lab by treading through the tall grass here. He says he can research moves better when he is so surrounded by Pokémon." Lillie explained.

"The guy is a loon." said Jun.

"Since I'm not a Trainer, though, I have to rely on using Repels all the time." Lillie continued.

"Repels?" Mikey asked, scratching his head."

"You do know that using Repel keeps Pokémon from attacking, right?"

"I do now." he said sheepishly.

"Ah, good. A-and about Nebby… Oh. I mean… Cosmog. Cosmog seems to be a very rare Pokémon. It came from far, far away."

"Pew!" Nebby agreed through the bag, or at least they think it did.

"It seems to have a very strange power…" Lillie continued. "It used that power to save me once when I was in danger. But some… other people want Cosmog for themselves, to use that power. That's why only the professor and Kahuna Hala and other people I can trust know about it…

Can you keep a secret?"

Mikey and Jun looked at each other. Back in the real world, they were living secrets, of course they could keep a secret.

"Of course I can."

"Can you not tell anyone else about Nebby or what happened on that bridge? Please…"

"Don't worry, I promise. And I never break my promises."

Lillie smiled and nodded as thanks, then turned around and looked further down the path, first at the grass, then at the nearby ledge.

"Oh… Mikey? Do you want to know something neat?" She lead him to the ledge. "You can reach the Pokémon Research Lab without having to go through any patches of tall grass if you jump down from this ledge. Just like this."

"Hyup!" she exclaimed as she jumped down. "If you'd like to take a shortcut, I suggest you try it, too. It's a one-way trip, though, so keep that in mind. I'll be heading to the lab now, so see you there!"

Mikey and Jun waited a while Lillie walked on, towards the lone house on the beach that Mikey had seen the other day. Once she was out of hearing distance, Mikey couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What's so funny?" Jun asked.

"Sorry, I know she's supposed to just be a human girl, but this?" he gestured to the ledge in front of him. "This is nothing to me! My brothers and I have jumped across buildings for decades! 'One-way trip', huh… not for me! I can jump up and down these like it's a low fence! Here, watch!"

With great confidence, Mikey jumped down the ledge and quickly turned around to jump up it, only to instead jump face first right into the rocky surface, and then fall back onto his shell.

"Ow…" he groaned.

"Guess the fence was a bit higher than you thought." Jun commented, looking down from the ledge with a wide smile at what he had just seen, though internally he was laughing.

"I don't get it." Mikey groaned as he rubbed his sore face. "Even if I got the body of eleven year old me, I could do these kinds of jumps in my sleep at this age. I once did, actually, dozed off during training and was actually 'sleep training' before master Splinter woke me up, by smacking me on the head with his cane. Now that I think about it, that might have been the first time."

"Seems like you have to follow the rules just as I and Chloe do, and your rules are that of a human child." Jun said, jumping down next to Mikey. "Nowhere else to go then than forward, unless you want to walk back, around this ledge and through the long grass."

"Let's go on. I mean, we're heading in that direction anyway."

The duo continues towards the house.

Back when Mikey first saw it the day before, he would never have thought that it was some kind of lab, it looked too plain and… un-lab like. But as they got closer, it looked even less like a lab, and not too good as a beach home either. Just from the left and front side of the building, they could see that there were plenty of large holes in both the roof and the walls that had been boarded over, rather sloppily at that too.

Lillie waited for them near the entrance to the lab, and as Mikey and Jun joined her, there was suddenly a great ruckus heard from inside the lab, like if an entire school class was rough housing, with Kukui's voice cutting through all of it.

"Oh yeah, Rockruff! Let's go! Give it everything you've got! My body is ready! Woo!"

"That… sounded suspicious…" said Jun, looks very uncomfortable.

"Ahh… There they go again…" Lillie sighed, then turned to Mikey, feeling that she needed to explain what was going on. "The Pokémon Research Lab has its own unique charm, as I think you might agree."

"Not how I would put it." said Mikey.

"I've actually been, um, imposing on the professor here for the past three months. I'm not much of an assistant, but it's the least I can do to pay him back for letting me stay. Maybe I'd be more help if I were a real Pokémon Trainer, too…

"Raaaa-oooooohhh! Raff ruff!" was heard from lab, sounding rather similar to the Rockruff the professor had used when he showed how to catch Pokémon the day before.

"The professor…" Lillie sighed, shaking her head and looking down. "He never stops researching moves. Not even… inside the lab itself. Looks like we'll have to patch the roof again… And I had just washed his lab coat and finally gotten it clean, too. Now it'll be in shreds… and I'm no good at mending clothes… so he'll just have to buy another new one…"

"I feel really sorry for her." said Jun.

"We should probably go in before he does any more damage…" Lillie said, looking back at the lab.

"Not sure if it's safe… but sure…" said Mikey.

The inside of the lab reminded more of a home than a lab, with only the really big fishtank near the far wall looking even remotely like it belonged in a lab, especially since it had a large glass pipe, even larger than the manholes back in the real world, going down through the floor and into the basement.

The rest of the place was very spacious and open, there was a living area with two couches and a big TV, and a large dog bed behind that, and near that was a kitchen corner. Next to the kitchen was a ladder that led up to a loft, which was located over two other rooms, the doors of which faced the fishtank.

To the right of the entrance were a set of stairs that lead down into the basement. And Kukui stood nearby together with Rockruff, both of them looking rather roughed up, as did parts of the interior of the lab.

There were also two other Pokémon, one being a pink, bipedal bulldog looking one with large blue polka dots on its torso, and a grumpy face. The other was a quadruped with a pink body and head, and dark brown legs, somewhat resembling a bear cub, with a short fluffy tail. Upon seeing Mikey enter, they both ran off and hid behind the TV.

That caught Kukui's attention, and looking at the door, he greeted his guest in very good spirits.

"Hey there, Mikey! Thanks for getting him for me, Lillie!"

"Of course. However I can be a help… I am supposed to be your assistant, right?"

"Rockruff's moves were just so stylin', and I was making good progress with my research. Say, Mikey, lemme see your Pokédex for a second, yeah?"

"My Pokédex? Okay, sure, here you go."

"So what do you think of the place? Not bad, right?" Kukui asked as he took Mikey's Pokédex. This left Lillie a bit confused, for this could not have been the reason she had to fetch Mikey. "But that's not why I called you here, eh?" Kukui continued. "Here! It finally arrived!"

"'It'…?" Lillie, Mikey, and Jun wonder in unison.

Kukui raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong, Lillie? Don't make me do all the talking!"

"He seems to like it, though." said Jun.

"See, there's this Pokémon inside your Pokédex called Rotom…" Kukui told Mikey.

"Rotom?"

"Oh, I can tell you about Rotom." said Lillie. "It is a peculiar Pokémon, with a body made up of something like electricity. It can take up residence in machines."

"Yeah, buddy! And to put that crazy skill of Rotom's to work…" said Kukui. "It's the next generation of Pokédexes, but it's only complete once Rotom has gone into this body specially developed for it! A whole new way for people and Pokémon to communicate! Woo! And there's only a few of these beauties out in the world so far! And now if I power up your Pokédex with the parts that I just got in…"

Kukui tinkered with the Pokédex for a bit, accidentally causing a small surge in it, which caused a small creature to pop out of it, looking surprised. Its body was a dark orange, almost red, spherical in form with a smaller sphere underneath and a pointed top on the top of its head. It had white and blue eyes, and all of it was covered in an electrical blue plasma, with some of it protruding into a pair of lightning bolt shaped limbs.

"...Kzzzt?"

"Hey now! Sorry 'bout that, Rotom. Guess I surprised you?"

"Zz-zzt…" Rotom seemed to sulk a bit.

"Rotom!" Kukui called out to get its attention, holding out the upgraded Pokédex. "Here, boy! I powered up your favourite 'Dex! Give Mikey a Helping Hand, yeah?"

"Kzzzt…" Seemingly slightly more excited, Rotom jumped back into the Pokédex, causing the device to physically change.

The screen that came with two extensions at its top in the shape of a pair of bunny ears, where now filled with Rotom's eyes, its mouth appearing on the main screen. The plastic hull deformed and sprouted simple limbs to replicate feet and arms with hands, though they looked more like paddles.

"Uh, hey there!" it say, shocking Mikey and Jun. "P-pleasure to meet you! I-I'm not nervouzzz or anything, OK?!"

"Check it you, Mikey! Now Rotom can talk right to you!"

"We noticed!" both Mikey and Jun exclaimed.

"It may take it a little while to get used to its new job, but I'd say Rotom's taken a liking to you!"

"And this will help how exactly?" Lillie asked.

"She took the words out of my mouth." said Jun.

"Mikey hasn't been here in Alola too long yet. So I decided to give him this special Rotom Dex to help him navigate around." Kukui explained.

"Oh, I see. Thanks. And nice to meet you, Rotom!" said Mikey. The Pokémon gave a small buzz of appreciation.

"You can see where you're headed just by looking at Rotom, and if you give it a little tap, you can even check out the Town Map!"

Suddenly, Rockruff turned towards the door and barked a bit. There was a quick knock on the door, and before anyone could even answer, it opened and Hau stepped inside.

"A-lo-la!" he said loud and drawn out. "The salty breeze sang to me and brought me here to you!"

"He's clearly lost, in more ways than one." Jun mumbled.

"Whoa-ho-ho!" Seeing the inside of the lab, Hau's eyes widened as he started to look around all over the place, impressed at what he saw. He checked out the big TV, the kitchen area, even the ladder nearby. "Is that a loft?! That's awesome!"

He attempted to go up, but Lillie ran in-between him and the ladder, blocking his path.

"No, it's not! It's private! The professor has been kind enough to let me us it…"

"If you see a person or a Pokémon who needs help, you just help them…" Kukui said factually. "Right, Mikey? Hau? And that's why I'm letting Lillie stay up there in the loft. So, Mikey, I'm leaving this Rotom Dex in your hands! Rotom, you look after Mikey, yeah?"

"So that's the Rotom Dex, eh?" said Hau. "It's kinda cute." An embarrassed buzz escaped from the Pokédex.

"All right then, Mikey! You too, Hau! Get a move on!" Kukui said with a grin, gaining everyone's attention.

"Um, what? Where to?" Mikey wondered.

"To the Trainers' School!"

"School?!"

"You've gotta learn the basics of being a Pokémon Trainer through Pokémon battling. It's a long road to become the island challenge champion, and the Trainers' School is the first step!"

"I must have missed that part of the contract…" Mikey sighed.

"What about you, Hau?" Kukui asked.

"I'm good. I just wanna play with my Pokémon!" Hau responded, putting his hands behind his head and giving a relaxed smile.

"Can't I do that too?" Mikey asked.

"No can do, cousin. Just like you need to train your Pokémon for them to get stronger, you've gotta train yourself to become a great Trainer! Woo!"

"The island challenge…" Lillie mused. "So this is how the people of Alola connect with the world around them. And then there's the way that you and Litten chose one another. And now with Rotom helping you out as well… Even Nebby likes you! I guess there's something about you that makes Pokémon feel comfortable when they're by your side."

"Lillie! You take care of Mikey, yeah?" said Kukui. "Until he gets used to Rotom, help him find his way around!"

"Feel free to have a little poke around! Zz-zz-zz!" Rotom said, as it floated in the air near Mikey.

Mikey has gotten a new partner, of sorts, in the form of his upgraded Rotom Dex, but now it's off to school. Can't imagine that he will like that.

On a smaller note, the ledges in Pokémon games are weird. They look like they are just a few feet tall at times, and yet you can't move up them, even if you happen to have a giant rock snake that's 8 meters long. Only very few Pokémon can actually let you move up them.
In any, case, made them significantly taller her, to make it a bit more believable. A bit.