Chapter 13

Double the Fun

Mikey and Jun walked down the streets of Hau'oli City, with the former feeling very much like a tourist, and the latter more like a pet on a leash. Rotom had decided to rest in Mikey's backpack, so it was just the two of them.

Even though they and Hau and Lillie had split up a little while earlier, it didn't take very long before they ran into each other again, spotting Lillie outside a clothing store, and she had a very thoughtful look on her face as she looked at the window displays.

"Hey, Lillie. Find anything you like?" Mikey asked.

"Oh. Mikey… Tell me, do you pick out all your own clothes?"

"I guess, so yeah." He answered, trying not to look or sound sheepish, since he didn't really wear clothes normally, being a mutated turtle and all.

"Of course… Most people do, don't they…" Lillie sighed, and looked down a bit. "I… I've always just worn the clothes that my mother wanted me to wear. I don't really know what kind of thing would suit me…"

"Okay… well, I don't think I'll be much help to you with that." Mikey admitted.

"Oh! But that's not why I stopped you." she shook her head and forced a smile, holding out a small case. "I meant to give you this, Mikey. I received it inside the apparel shop here. I didn't even buy anything, but they said I was the 99 999th customer to visit the store… But I already have the same one, so I thought that maybe you might… might want it?"

Mikey took the small case, it fitting neatly in his palm, and opened it.

"Contact lenses?"

"It looks like we have something in common now, don't we, Mikey? Hee…" Lillie almost giggled, then left to carry on with other things she wanted to do.

"Was that even necessary?" Jun asked as he watched Lillie walk away.

"What do I know. Could have been part of the plot, maybe?" Mikey shrugged, putting away the lens case in his backpack. "Now let's check out the store."

"Don't you have something more important to do, like getting us out of this mess?!" Jun objected.

"Nah, we're in no rush. Narnia effect, remember. Besides, I got lack of orange on me right now, and that is so my colour."

Jun sighed deeply, and reluctantly followed Mikey.

As soon as they stepped inside the shop, they were greeted by an old lady wearing a green and yellow dress.

"Welcome to the scarf! Er… no… I mean, welcome to the apparel shop! And here, have this scarf!"

She handed Mikey a small scarf of silk, all white and smooth.

"A Pokémon with a Silk Scarf will find its Normal-type moves have more oomph than normal."

She explained in a light sing song voice.

"Told you it would be worth it." Mikey said as he put away the scarf, and Jun rolled his eyes.

While Mikey scoured the shop, Jun laid down in an armchair provided to let customers rest, seeing as he wouldn't be able to move on before the turtle was done.

There were plenty of clothes to choose from, including orange ones, so Mikey had no problem finding something that was to his liking.

In the end, he had picked out a tee, a tank top, and a Hawaii shirt with white flower print, or Alola shirt as they called it here. He had also seen a few pants in orange, but he didn't like the style of them.

"So, what do you think, Jun?" he asked as he presented his choices.

"I think this is a waste of time." Jun muttered.

"Come on, dude. I don't know these things, because… you know…" he leaned in and whispered, not wanting others to hear. "I don't wear clothes normally. Please? Pretty please?"

Again, Jun sighed deeply, but Mikey was asking kindly. He took a quick look at the choices.

"You can't go wrong with a tank top, but you've always given me a surfer vibe, so the shirt would be a good pick for you."

"Thanks, dude!" With a wide grin, Mikey bought the shirt, and was allowed to use the changing room to change into it.

"I make this look good." he said in his new shirt.

As they stepped outside the shop, Mikey and Jun saw that the sun was setting.

"Man, day has really flown by, hasn't it?"

"And we're still nowhere near getting home." Jun sighed, again.

"You sound tired, dude. Maybe we should head back home and get some sleep. What do you say?"

"If only it was our real home… but after the day I've had, I won't say no to some sleep, and some food, actually."

"Cool, then let's go."

A short walk later, they arrived at Mikey's house, but as Jun went to the door, Mikey stopped, his eyes not really focusing on anything at all.

"Hey, you coming or what? I can't exactly open doors like this. Mikey?"

"Hmm? What?" Mikey shook his head.

"You okay, man? You zoned out for a while there." Jun said as he walked back to Mikey.

"I… I, um, think so. I just had this strange feeling… it was almost like… like right before we found Chloe."

"Wait, you're saying that there's someone else around here?" Jun looked around. "Where? And who?"

"No clue on who, but I think it came from… right past the house. Close to where we found Chloe, actually."

"Hmm, better have a look, just in case."

They made their way back onto Route 1 and were about to search the place, but they didn't have to, as they heard a very familiar voice.

"Heeeelp!"

"I know that squeal! It's Rattletrap!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Seriously? Out of all the people, it had to be that disaster?" said Jun.

"Come on, we've got to help him!"

"Hard pass. Whatever is going on, it's almost guaranteed his fault."

"Um, well, you've got a point… but still, we need to save everyone, right? You said so yourself."

"I know… But I'm sure no one would mind if we happened to… 'miss' him."

"That's… actually another good point."

"Heeeelp! Giant spider!" Rattletrap's voice echoed again, this time far closer.

"Slow down, you nitwit!" another voice called.

"Was that… Hacker?" Jun wondered.

Mere moments later, a Rattata burst through the tall grass, followed closely by a Bug Pokémon that had a green body and head like a spider, with a white horn on the head and black eyes with white pupils and red mandibles. There was a pattern of black lines and dots on the back that looked a bit like a face and a ring around the end of the abdomen, and it had six yellow legs with black bands on the middle.

"Rattletrap? Hacker?"

"What the!? Mikey?! Is that you?!" Rattletrap exclaimed, being so shocked that he stopped dead in his tracks, which caused Hacker to run right into him, which in turn caused both of them to end up in a pile in front of Mikey and Jun.

"Well, this will be interesting." said Jun. "Now we got ourselves a computer nerd, and the biggest disaster since the Hindenburg."

"Jun? You're here too?" Hacker wondered as he untangled himself from Rattletrap. "Wherever here is?"

"Oh boy, do you have a lot to catch up on." Mikey sighed. "Time for another round of explanations. If there are more of them out there, perhaps I should write all this down for them to read."

Some twenty minutes later, once Mikey had explained the situation, as best he understood it, and Rattletrap and Hacker had had their respective reactions, with varying degrees of panic, Mikey added them to his team.

"Do we have to?" Jun groaned.

"Got a problem, Jun?" Hacker wondered.

"Not with you, man. The rat."

"Ah, right, yeah, I think I second that."

"Some friends you are." Rattletrap muttered.

"Hey, play nice, or I'm putting you all in time out." said Mikey. "Now, let's see what Rotom has to say about you two."

He reached into the backpack and pulled out Rotom, who was giving of a gentle snoring sound.

"Huh, must be in sleep mode. Hey, Rotom, wake up."

"Hmm? Whuzzat, bzzt?" Rotom answered sleepily.

"I just caught two new Pokémon."

"You what?! Zzrt!"

"Someone's sleeping on the job." Jun chuckled.

"Juzzzt, um, give me a sec…"

"Rattata. The Mouse Pokémon.

It shows no interest in anything that isn't fresh. If you take it shopping with you, it will help you pick out ingredients."

"Mouse?" everyone said, looking at the rat, or mouse.

"Spinarak. The String Spit Pokémon.

With threads from its mouth, it fashions sturdy webs that won't break even if you set a rock on them."

"That… wasn't as helpful as I had hoped." Mikey sighed.

"And I'm a 'mouse'? Seriously, what part of me is a mouse?! I'm a rat! This pockmon even got 'rat' in da name!"

"Don't blame me, bzzt. I just read what otherzzz write." said Rotom, and the others could swear it shrugged.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to keep check on your types, stats, and moves, and train you up to the same level as Jun and Chloe." said Mikey, "Heh, if this had been a comic or cartoon, I bet this would all be a training montage."

"I wish, then I could skip it all." said Jun.

The training would have to wait until the next day, as it was getting even later, and both Mikey and Jun were tired from the long day.

So the training started the next day.

Jun and Chloe helped in a specific way that was called 'switch training', which meant that the player sent out their weaker Pokémon first, and instantly swapped to a stronger one, letting them split the experience points earned evenly.

Despite the complaints from Jun over the lack of logic with that method, and a lot of other things, it did indeed work, letting the lower levelled Hacker and Rattletrap close the gap a bit before having to fight on their own.

During that training, Chloe mastered a brand new move, Confusion; a Psychic attack that assaulted the target's mind, possibly leaving them confused, fittingly enough.

After defeating one of the Alolan Grimer found near Hau'oli City, an item called Black Sludge was left behind. According to Rotom, if held by a Pokémon that wasn't a Poison-type, it would cause continuous damage to then as if they were poisoned, but a Poison-type would instead be continuously healed by it.

Mikey remembered that Hacker, being a Spinarak, was a Bug and Poison-type, so he gave the spider the sludge to hold. And while he was at it, he tied the Silk Scarf around Rattletrap's neck, giving the Normal and Dark-type rat, or mouse, a significant boost to his Normal-type moves.

By the time lunch rolled around, the group was ready to continue with their adventures, or misadventures, and quest to free themselves from their video game prison.

And so we have two new members to the group. Place your bets on how this will go.

Gonna go on a small side note here, just to explain a few things. Firstly, I am playing the actual Ultra Sun game and taking notes of all relevant things that happen, including the Pokémon.

So, whenever a new member can be added, I just catch the first matching Pokémon of the right gender and don't put any more into it than that.

However, with Hacker and Rattletrap, I was a bit lucky, in a sense. You see, most Pokémon can have one of two Abilities, not counting Hidden Abilities that are more or less even exclusive and generally not obtainable through normal gameplay at this point in the series.

Fittingly enough, Hacker got Insomnia, which as it sounds prevents him from falling asleep, and he is known for staying up late by his computers with energy drinks.
Rattletrap on the other hand, got Hustle, which increases his Attack, but his accuracy for physical moves suffers. This makes him a bit of a disaster as well, for he will not always hit, but when he does, it hits hard, not unlike how his real attempts to fix stuff usually results in lots of damage.