I stuffed another coco puff into my bag as I continued chewing on the green mochi donut. It wasn't super clear to me whether it was supposed to be matcha or green tea flavored, but their texture in the transitional zone between doughy and chewy never let me down.

  "That is a great story Kau'i!", Hala decided. Hau nodded along with him, watching us. I shrugged. "I would hope it's a great story, I could've died there.", I replied, referring to my near-death experience with the Dugtrio in Vast Poni Canyon. Then I swallowed the mochi and started on a glazed poi donut. The other grunts hadn't been kidding, even by Alolan standards, Melemeleans took their fried pastries seriously.

  "I should get going to Ula'ula as soon as possible.", I said, "I sorta bluffed my way into distracting a Team Skull Admin for everybody." Hau gave me an amazed look, still not choking on his food as he did, while Hala just laughed and nodded. "I did hear about that. It has become a matter of security that you succeed. You have assisted more than you would believe by taking that risk, though not all the kahunas are as optimistic about your involvement as I am!", he said with aplomb.

  I didn't like the sound of that. Was Hapu hoping to stick it to me again? Did Nanu hate me that much from watching me through his Meowth? It only cemented the lingering regret at how I'd handled that whole situation. Why did I have to be the one to deal with the angsty gay teenage terrorist with the legendary pokémon when there were Ace Trainers and Kahunas and everyone else?! "I could come with you, lighten the mood between all that and the ultra beasts on Ula'ula.", Hau offered.

  Right. The ultra beasts. Shit. As one of only a few who could claim a direct encounter with an ultra beast (thank you UB-06 Adhesive) I didn't like the idea of being around more of them without an island guardian around. I kept my mouth shut about that though, since I didn't particularly care for the advice of people who weren't willing to break a few laws to get things done, and Hau didn't seem the type sitting next to his "I help make the laws" grandpa.

  "I'll think about it," I finally said to Hau's offer, lying through my teeth and the donut in my mouth, "but either way, I'd like to Fly on Kawami's back to get there." "I heard about that desperation to ride your Crobat. I know a good riding harness shop in the city, they should have just what you need.", Hala exhaled, adjusting to the weight of another malasada in his gut.

  "Did Hapu seriously tell you about that?", I grouched. "No, no, Kahuna Nanu told me.", he replied. That would make more sense. Hapu was too much of a prude to tell anyone about that, but Nanu didn't have those compunctions. I seriously needed to talk to people more.

  "Well, I know my plans for the most part, I think. I should go.", I said, tossing one last donut into Waiola's mouth behind me. The resulting clack of teeth was very satisfying. "A few things before you go.", Hala said, waving me over to his side of the booth. He pulled out a stamp and yellow inkpad from somewhere and gestured. I grabbed my trainer passport and he officiated the completion of my Melemele Island Challenge.

  Then he handed me a sheet of notepad paper and told me, "For that harness or any other supplies, follow this list. Let my experience be useful to you." I took it, but I didn't expect to actually use it for anything. "Bye Kau'i!", Hau shouted, waving to me and Waiola as we left.

  "How quick can you get the Stolen Booty II to Hau'oli?", I asked without greeting. Rich was used to it, though not as used to it as he had been before I left for two months with no guarantee of returning. "Kau'i.", he greeted, more to confirm than out of any need for pleasantries. "Damn right.", I declared.

  "You're coming to Ula'ula cause of what you said to Gladion, right? Do you know how much fuckin' shit I got after that? What the fuck was that!?", he pressed, incredulous. "Yeah, I mean, that's improve.", I replied, vocally shrugging. He sighed.

  "Alright, first off, how've ya been?", he sighed, resigned to his fate. I answered jokingly, "Challengin' islands, beatin' kahunas, gettin' my hands shredded; You know, the usual." That finally broke the ice. We laughed together, and it didn't suck like I'd worried it would.

  "You'll explain that in detail when I show up, but I need to make us visiting Melemele look like an actual supply run first. You willin' to part with some things to sell this?", Rich asked seriously. I quickly answered, "Totally. I could actually give you guys stuff you'll use too. You wouldn't believe what people will throw away."

  "I would, I'm a nostril just like you were, and I've been one longer too.", he rebuked. "I'm telling you dude," I told him, "the kinds of trash you see lying around at the bottom of Vast Poni Canyon would make you grow tits from the sheer emotions they provoke." We laughed again. The exchange was as easy as moving my eyes, a reflex as much as a purposeful action.

  Rich cleared his throat and said, "We'll be there tonight around ten at the private docks." "I'm sure that's very inconspicuous.", I commented sarcastically. "The way we do it, absolutely.", he retorted with an excited grin carrying over the mic. He had some new trick he wanted to show me. "I'll see you then.", I said, my own grin matching his.

  I waited, kicking my legs off the side of the roof of some random warehouse. Kawami and Toma had figured out a way to airlift me short distances without relying on my hands, otherwise I would never have gotten up onto the slats of corrugated metal. Ten pm had come and gone, and the Stolen Booty II was still nowhere to be seen. As I stared out at the glittering black waves, I realized that that was the point.

  Slowly, much slower than I knew the stolen speedboat could go, a fogbank of dark mist approached from the water and broke against a ratty abandoned loading dock. Our Team Skull boat, properly adorned in actual boat paint unlike her predecessor, stowed away in a retrospectively obvious gang hideout. "Our ride's here.", I told Kawami and Toma, "Get me down from here."

  Another ride where I was strung up like a marionette and attached to Kawami's wings later, and I was walking to barge into the Team dock to meet Rich again and take my well deserved ride to Ula'ula before anyone was the wiser (except maybe Nanu, I didn't know how fast his spy network communicated). I'd stolen that boat too, it was a crime all its own that I didn't get to take the girl places.

  I kicked the rusty old door for a dramatic entrance, but sadly it was not so rusty that a ten year old could finish it off, so I then had Toma do a quick Swords Dance and smash it with a Fell Stinger. The metal crashed to the floor and I stepped through with my arms wide. I began a sarcastic speech immediately.

  "Behold! The sworn rival of Team Skull Admin Gladion, successor to the betrayer Plumeria, so poisonous she makes reality sick, the scariest little girl you'll ever meet, Kau'i!" Rich clapped from the deck of the Stolen Booty II. "Don't clap at me!", I yelled, still sarcastic and now pointing at him, "That's ableist!" He raised his hands in mock surrender and said in the quivering voice of a centuries-past Galarian peasant boy, "I mean no offense miss."

  "Are you two done with your stage production?", a familiar Kalosian voice complained from the other side of the boat. I sputtered, "EVA'S HERE!?", and ran around the water, Toma and Kawami in tow, to meet her. "Hello Kau'i.", she greeted me dryly as she looked for something in a mess of rotten cardboard boxes, but I knew the difference between her sneers and smirks. Will popped out from inside the boat and announced, "I'm here too, in case you couldn't put those immensely fuckin' obvious pieces together."

  We spent the next few minutes shooting the shit while Eva looked for whatever it was she needed in the now defunct Team Skull hideout. Even if I hadn't broken the door down, Nanu's tails would've followed me to it and reported it back to him. Not that I disapproved. Every one of these spots that Nanu knew about was turned from a hot bed into a refuge for ex-grunts, because no one but us and maybe wild pokémon would use these places.

  Finally, having found the old Z-Crystal case she'd apparently been looking for, Eva allowed us to leave for Malie City. We piled onto and into the Stolen Booty II and Rich got behind the yolk to start driving us out to sea. The haze of light pollution bouncing around Hau'oli faded into the background as we took to the water, Howie staying on guard duty and Kawami running off to go look at random patches of water.

  After looking through all the drawers and compartments under the deck, including getting a good look at the engine purring behind a secure panel, I finally sat down in one of the thinly padded bench seats. "So, I know none of you guys's pokémon should know Haze or Smokescreen or anything like that, so how about we take turns showing off what's changed with our teams?"

  Will shot me a glare and said, "You only ever say that sorta thing when you're about to shit on everyone else's progress, and your saying that after already showing us that both of the pokémon we already fuckin' knew about evolved in the two months you were gone." "Are you saying you don't want to?", I Taunted. Will sighed.

  With a flash, a chipper bundle of mushrooms appeared at Will's side, a Morelull. "This is Misty. I caught her when we went to Akala for a heist." I snorted, "First you name your Wimpod Buddy, then your Raticate Chewie, now this? Were you cursed by a hex maniac to only use awful baby names that end in 'ee'?" They scowled at me. "They're good fuckin' names!", they exclaimed, "Also! The names seem innocent when I call for them to do something in a crowd."

  I rolled my eyes and turned to Eva, who was lying on top of the kitchenette across from us. "How 'bout you?", I asked her. She sighed with no bit of performance, she really was just that much of a bitch, then pressed the button of an ultra ball on her hip. "Squint the Whirlipede.", she introduced the living wheel of hard purple carapace blandly. True to his name, the belegged ball kept his eyes fiercely focused wherever he looked.

  I ignored her naming scheme, since we'd debated about that plenty of times in the past, and skipped straight to my second question. "How'd you get another non-native pokémon?", I asked. "Squint is from Alola.", she answered acidly, "We went off-route for the heist, stuck our feet up the asses of a volume of Venipedes on the way, and I recruited their leader as a reward. That's also what got Misty on board."

  "No other big changes with you guys's teams?", I continued. "Not ours. Rich has really kicked off training since you left though, might give you a run for your money.", Will explained. "If you find this elusive money I supposedly have, tell me.", I joked, "Now Eva, take over driving for Rich so I get the grand reveal at the end." Eva rolled her eyes at me, but still followed me and Toma up onto the deck.

  Rather than explaining, Eva just hip checked Rich in the head and pushed him out of the driver's seat while he was dazed. "Shit, ow...", he grumbled as the floor rocked against his cheek. "Show me how you're team's grown.", I ordered. He groaned some more as he got off the floor, but did comply. "Have Kawami do lookout," he said, "Howey's first."

  I whistled to grab her attention and Kawami burst from the sky to hover over my shoulder. I asked her, "You heard him didn't you?", and her face scrunched up in thought, then she nodded in that full body way of hers and flew off again. "Damn she's fast.", Rich mumbled. I ignored him and shouted towards the front of the boat, "Howey, that's your cue!" Sure enough, the Hypno came plodding along back to us.

  "Kau'i wants to see all the shit our team can do. Show her.", Rich commanded, confident in a way I hadn't seen in him before. Howie swung his pendulum strangely for a moment before Rich turned to us and declared, "Toma's highest powered move is Fell Stinger. You haven't taught him Bug Bite or Sucker Punch yet." "You trained Forewarn! I always heard that was tricky.", I noted. "That ain't all of it.", he boasted.

  Howie began twiddling his fingers and swinging his pendulum again. The pendulum glowed a vibrant pink, light bent in the air in a spherical shape, and with a sudden whump, that sphere imploded under Howey's invisible grasp. I blinked hard, finding my eyes dry from staring, and unclenched my hands, which began shaking again. Kawami was hugging me, so I hugged her back. She'd done a good job looking out for problems.

  Rich and Howey were staring at me. I was staring at that spot in the air. Eva, ever observant and, even moreso, brazenly pointed, said, "The Jynx that attacked your hands, it used Psychic, didn't it?" She was being rhetorical, but I felt the need to respond somehow. "Just don't use it again, alright?!", I spat. Rich held out a hand to placate me, but Eva just scoffed at my reaction. Oddly, the scoff helped me calm down much better.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  "Get on with it!", I insisted. I shook out my hands at my sides to get the blood flowing more normally. He hesitated at first, but Rich did continue, "Uh... all the non-Psychic-Type moves then Howey." At his fluttering command, Howey stepped away to demonstrate.

  First, the recognizable vapors of Poison Gas emanated from his nose and the scruff of white fur around his neck, then flowed away from him into the ocean. Next, Howie waved Kawami down for a demonstration. He waved his pendulum back and forth in the familiar pattern of Hypnosis that let Kawami learn the move years ago, and Kawami stared at it excitedly. After she predictably fell to the ground, asleep, Howie loomed over Kawami and grabbed her head. A shadow fell over her closed eyes, and Nightmares racked her mind.

  With a heavily resisted Wake-Up Slap, the Nightmare went away. Kawami was much less pleased and cooperative after that display, but Howie put together a Nasty Plot to get her back on board. They exchanged a quick conversation, Kawami asking clarifying questions as Howie laid out some idea I couldn't follow. Then, she used a Curse to empower herself and he Psyched himself Up to match her.

  They each whipped out with simple attacks aimed away from the other to show their success with the moves, then another gas poured from Howey's mane. The cold plume of Haze rolled over the ship, eliciting a barely annoyed swear from Eva at the controls, and when it dissipated, like actors at the end of a stage play, they bowed arm-in-wing in unison. It was nice, but I couldn't get into the performance.

  "On to your new pokémon then.", I murmured vaguely in the direction of Rich. Rich caught my strained words, shooing Howey away to clear the space for another pokémon. Howey and Kawami both looked at me like I'd pissed in their kibble. I tried to show a smile to ease their emotions, but I was too angry to do a good job of it. Kawami would forgive me soon enough. Howie could suck it up.

  Emerging from a shiny new poké ball in front of us was the prototype for birds as a whole, Archen. Small teeth poked out of his beak, claws adorned the ends of his wings, and his body shape barely seemed flight worthy. "This is what that heist was for, isn't it?", I probed. "Dustin's worth it.", Rich assured me proudly, perching the revived fossil on his shoulder, "Rock and Flying-Type, strong as shit, nothing not to love!"

  I leaned over to look past Rich at Eva. She was chuckling derisively, at his expense. "Archen have only one ability which can't be trained out of them; Defeatist. Their attack and special attack get cut in half when they're hurt too much.", Eva explained. I looked back at Rich, giving him the world renowned, 'You're my friend but you're also a fucking moron.', face.

  "Dustin's worth it!", he defended himself. "Is he trained for fights or stealing yet?", I asked. "No...", he admitted. It seemed that Dustin was actually a perfect match for Rich, since they both had shrunk under the pressure of me and Eva's words in the same way. Defeatist indeed.

  "Just show her your last pokémon already.", Eva ordered flippantly. Rich gave Dustin the Archen a gentle rub on his scaly head and reached for a dusk ball with a massive scuff on its surface. Appearing on the ground was a waddling bag of living trash. He smelled, and with my recent research into Poison-Types I knew he shouldn't smell that bad. Even if he had Stench trained, this was not what I expected.

  "Cavendish the Trubbish.", Rich introduced the poor thing. "Cavendish?", I asked, shocked. "Cavendish.", Eva confirmed. "Couldn't think of another name that rhymes with Trubbish, alright!?", Rich cried. "Trish!", I shouted at him. "Hamish also would've worked.", Eva said. Will popped their head out of the door below deck and added, "I like Tavish personally." "His name's already Cavendish.", Rich griped under his breath.

  "And he's not trained for anything yet either.", I stated. No one argued, which could only mean I was right. "Will, I'm honestly disappointed you thought this would out do me.", I remarked idly, then tossed my level and luxury balls over my shoulder and walked down below deck saying, "Toma, you introduce Waiola and Kumī, I'm done." I pushed past Will and laid down on a bench to take a nap.

  Gladion had sent word to the rest of Team Skull about Kau'i's plan, then set up where he expected Kau'i to land on Ula'ula. He had grunts he trusted at other possible docking points and even watching the skies, but he was in Malie City. Kau'i would never make it straight into Po Town, they both had to know that, and she was working with Nanu. Before he'd been a deadbeat on Route 17, Nanu had worked out of Malie City.

  Even further, Kau'i couldn't be expected to take down big bro Guzma at the level she was at, so she would look to get stronger by continuing her island challenge and catching more Poison-Types. Malie City was home to the sole recycling plant in Alola, operated by dozens of Poison-Types which, with her connections to two kahunas, she might be allowed to adopt. It all made sense.

  So he formed a schedule to be awake for both the daytime rush of ferries into the city and the middle of the night when she might try to sneak into town. Rather than relying on Not the Noctowl to actually spot the traitor, he had her watching Nanu's network of trained spies. They'd clustered around Kau'i on Melemele as a priority, and they would do the same once she got to Malie.

  After almost a week of waiting for her, Kau'i finally arrived in the middle of the night. Not couldn't use her Psychic-Type moves to locate the Dark-Type Meowths, so they'd had to train her Keen Eye ability and Foresight to keep track of them instead. After all the work, he thought she might even be getting close to using Tinted Lens. They were all pretty mundane detection methods, but in combination they were very effective. Case in point, Not had spotted Kau'i right outside a Team Skull boat after following the Meowth.

  As soon as he heard the report, Team Skull Admin Gladion was rushing through the empty cobblestone streets of Malie City with Null at his heels. Cutting through street corners and finally jumping over a decorative wall, he skidded to a stop between Kau'i and the Team Skull grunts. "You're done.", he declared. She stared at him with a raised eyebrow and an amused smirk, but he knew better than to fall for her taunting. "Don't think I'll let you harass these Team Skull grunts!"

  Kau'i, with the same audacity that she had when she'd outright told him her plan to release Tapu Bulu, just laughed at him. Cackled, actually. Chortling and giggling also applied to parts of her spluttering fit. Before Kau'i could cure herself of her laughter, a grunt came down from the boat and stood beside him. Any lingering paranoia about these grunts helping her schemes left him at that moment.

  "That little bitch stole most of our haul!", they said emphatically, pointing at Kau'i. As if to prove the grunt's point, the poisonous snitch whistled a signal and two of her pokémon, a Salazzle and Crobat, carried her bags back to her. "And it was easy too.", Kau'i boasted, pulling her backpack on. Kau'i and the grunt's eyes were locked for a silent moment, as if they were communicating telepathically.

  Before Gladion could think to chase her, Kau'i returned her Grimer and was running away from the ship as her Ariados spit Spider Webs between her and Gladion.

  "SHIT!", he swore, "Not! After her!" His Noctowl obediently threw herself forward to track Kau'i as she escaped. He tried to run after her as well, through a parallel path rather than the one she'd blocked off on her way out, but the grunt at his side grabbed him before he could go. "Don't bother," they said, "she'll get away."

  He pushed their chubby face away, but it was already too late. Kau'i had gotten too far away, all he could do now was track her down. He sighed out a cloud of angst and turned on the grunt. "Who are you to decide that!?", Gladion demanded. They explained, "I'm Will, Admin Gladion. Kau'i used to be...", they stopped for a moment, complicated emotions passing over their face too fast to parse, then resumed, "our friend."

  "Your friend, maybe. Rich's friend, sure. But she was never my friend.", a voice spoke up from behind them. Gladion recognized that accent, the coastal Kalosian filter over the loveable mess that Team Skull made of the Galarian language. "Eva? You're in logistics, what are you doing out here?", he asked. "It's 'braincase', Mr. Admin sir. You could take the pompous part out of your rich boy reputation, if you just put in the effort.", Eva chided.

  Gladion glared up at her shadowy face from the concrete slab that passed for a dock here. Inexplicably, he missed the rotten wood of Po Town's docks. "That doesn't answer my question," he insisted, "why're you here?" "As you call it, logistics.", she replied smugly, "With the league knocking on our door and Tapu Bulu trying to get free, we have some weird shit on the grocery list."

  Eva continued, "I know these two, and Kau'i, from before I was stuck doing project management. I did a bit of stealing myself, but they're the best we have that will listen to me. So, we go to Hau'oli with the best of the best, in my book, and check off that grocery list and more. Weird shit galore. Until we ran into our fucking traitor of a fourth."

  Gladion was about to ask who the other grunt was when he helpfully walked over to the rail of their boat and said, "What shit are y-", before Eva clapped a hand over his mouth. "Quiet, sewer clog, the adults are speaking.", she hissed at the new arrival. Gladion could relate to her in that moment, having had to shut up his fellow Team members plenty of times himself. "Yup," Will dogpiled, "you need to shut your fuckin' mouth."

  Gladion's mind was running through possibilities, and the grunts kept silent to allow him the space for it. 'This is how Team Skull thieves fight, running and chasing. I'm not suited for that. Evander was right, I should've worked harder on my own fitness. But these grunts have the experience to actually fight Kau'i into a corner, and just like she cornered them by dropping her pokémon on their ship, I can corner her.'

  "I'll call some grunts over to get the rest of your haul home. I need you three's help taking Kau'i down a peg.", Gladion commanded. The third grunt, Rich if he remembered correctly, shouted with commendable Team Skull fervor, "FUCK NO!" His two friends followed suit with a, "NO SIR!", and while the young man seemed angry, they were just smug.

  Gladion ignored the honed nonverbal communications that proved they did really know eachother that well and sent a text to Eva asking for their phone numbers. He would get back in touch. With his business in order and a battle plan for stopping Kau'i's sabotage, Gladion began walking back to his den in the city. He was still angry, more angry than before in-fact, but he was also confident he could succeed.

  "Soooo...", I began once Will's phone stopped ringing and picked up, "Gladion is here, hunting me down." Will laughed. "Not just fuckin' Gladion, he recruited us to help him after that shitshow of improve you left us to.", they explained. "What?!", I choked, "That's great!" I heard a mumbling from someone else farther from the phone, then Will's end of the call went to speaker.

  "This is a fucking nightmare for me, Kau'i.", Eva spat acidly, "Deliveries to ex-grunts will never make it out if I'm not in Po Town constantly surgically removing people's heads from their own asses!" "I mean, sure, that sucks, but silver linings right?", I offered. "No, Kau'i, not silver linings. No one benefits from this apart from you.", she hissed bitterly.

  After that, I heard Will and Eva struggle over the phone for a second before speaker mode was turned back off. "It mostly just affects Eva and the ex-grunts actually. She's just being a cunt, you know her. Me and Rich will have hella fun with this, I think.", Will comforted me. Rich chimed in faintly, "I'll figure out something."

  "So we're, what, tricking Gladion into thinking you guys will actually help him catch me? Just one giant confidence scam stage play?", I asked. "Yup, that's the shit we've found ourselves in.", Will agreed. "Do you know how he fuckin' found me in the first place? We should plan out any time he goes after me if we have any say in this at all.", I plotted. "On it!", Rich reported.

  Moments later, I got a text from him. It was a screenshot of his own texts with Gladion.

  "howd u know she was here?", Rich had asked.

  "Shes too small to track"

  "I track the movements of nanus meowths"

  "Shes always at the center", Gladion explained.

  "good shit boss", Rich then complimented.

  "Alright," I said after I was done reading, "I can get in contact with Nanu and get him to lay off me I think. I've gone through two islands and caused no trouble, I think I've earned it." "Ok, well all of us have you in our phones as Agarta now, so play along with that in texts.", Will said, "We'll use Po Town locations instead of ones in Malie City, shittily lined up north to south and east to west, and times set 12 hours late to schedule these dumbass chases."

  "What fuckin' pokémon does Agarta have again? I'll use those as code to tell y'all what pokémon I'm bringing.", I hashed out. After a second conversing with Eva away from the mic, Will answered, "A Skorupi and Gastly. No fuckin' clue what a Skorupi is, but you're both Poison-Typers so I assume that means something to you?" "Shit, okay. I'll specify Skorupi's Bug-Type for Toma, Gastly's Ghost-Type for Kawami, then Skorupi Poison is Waiola and Gastly Poison is Kumī. Got it?", I concluded. "Got it.", Will agreed, "See you tomorrow dickhead."

  They hung up and I heaved a sigh of relief. I looked around the Malie City Central Pokémon Center. No one was looking at me strangely for the conversation I'd just had, not that many people were in this quiet corner of the center. I gave Kumī a pat on the head to calm myself and left the center to get in contact with Nanu as promised. It was a good thing we'd trained Poison Touch or Kumī wouldn't have the control of his internal makeup to let me pet him like that. His liquidy body never strained my hands.

  When I stepped outside I whistled as loud as I could, and Kawami came down to meet me. She'd already gotten some good loot on her own in the time I spent getting things sorted. I took the offered snackcake and ordered her, "Bring me one of Nanu's informants, one that he actually trained himself." I tossed the plastic wrap down to Kumī and ate the unnaturally sweet block of dough Kawami'd brought me while I waited for her to return.

  Several minutes later, Kawami came flying back to us, carrying a clearly well-fed Meowth. "I need to talk to Nanu, it's about Team Skull. If you have his phone number memorized somehow that would be great, but get him here in person if you have to.", I told the squirm cat. It mewled and hissed, but after Toma came down to assist with a Scary Face, it agreed and scurried off.

  Through the high mountains of Ula'ula a network of wild and trained Dark-Types passed along a message, hoping for the food rewards they knew were in store if they sucked up their rivalries and cooperated. Finally, after hours of transmission, a Meowth passed through the cat flap of Nanu's home in the abandoned police station on Route 17.

  The kahuna sat up from his comfortable position as the cushion for a dozen Meowths and took the time to receive the urgent report. Then he groaned and got up to leave for Malie City.

  After hours sitting in an alleyway outside the pokémon center, I was getting tired. Maybe it was the recovery for my hands, but my body just didn't have the energy I expected it to. Before I could pass out in the street though, a dark figure descended from the sky. Nanu, strapped to the back of his Honchkrow with a harness, landed in front of me and my team.

  "What's the issue?", Kahuna Nanu asked, as if we were already familiar with eachother, which we weren't. I knew next to nothing about the man. But, of course, he knew nearly everything that had happened to me since I left Kahuna Ranch to take the trial of Vast Poni Canyon. I decided to just ignore the overly familiar tone.

  "Gladion's trying to hunt me down because of that whole declaration thingy.", I told him, "I can handle him from time to time, but he's tracking me by your pokémon following me. Could you have them focus on him instead? I've been good, you know that." Nanu's eye twitched as I finished.

  "Aside from the serial thefts, yes, you've reached a standard of good that I can report to the other kahunas without lying outright," he said darkly, "but if that's the only request you had, then you should not have called me here in person. I was busy."

  The Dark-Type expert glared at me as he concluded with such hate and intensity that I would've backed away from him if at all possible. Regrettably, I was literally up against a wall. A second later he turned around, released an Absol, flashed a series of hand signals to the pokémon, and they both left. "That seems like a good sign.", I joked, then grabbed my things and went inside to get some more sleep just as the sun began to rise.

  Team Information:

  Kawami- (Poison/Flying Type, Female She/Her, Hasty Nature +Spe/-Def)

  Abilities: Inner Focus, Infiltrator

  Moves: Supersonic, Astonish, Absorb, Hypnosis, Poison Fang, Wing Attack, Confuse Ray, Bite, Air Cutter, Curse, Frustration, Screech, Swift, Quick Guard, Crunch, Cross Poison, Tailwind, Toxic

  Toma- (Bug/Poison Type, Male He/Him, Jolly Nature +Spe/-SpA)

  Abilities: Insomnia, Sniper, Swarm

  Moves: Poison Sting, String Shot, Absorb, Constrict, Spider Web, Infestation, Scary Face, Shadow Sneak, Acid Spray, Swords Dance, Fell Stinger, Baton Pass, Night Shade, Substitute, Toxic

  Waiola- (Poison/Fire Type, Female She/Her, Lonely Nature +Atk/-Def)

  Abilities: Corrosion, Oblivious (Developing)

  Moves: Scratch, Poison Gas, Fake Out, Ember, Dragon Rage, Smog, Sweet Scent, Flame Burst, Toxic, Fire Lash (Developing)

  Kumī- (Poison/Dark Type, Male He/It, Relaxed Nature +Def/-Spe)

  Abilities: Gluttony, Poison Touch

  Moves: Poison Gas, Bite, Poison Fang, Acid Spray, Toxic, Harden, Disable, Assurance, Shadow Sneak