Lillie half collapsed over the crease in the concrete that acted as her finish line, clutching her knees for support. Physical training was the least enjoyable part of becoming a fearsome trainer, but Faba insisted it was necessary. "If you won't have so many Psychic-Types to make up for it, you'll need to be in shape young lady!", he'd said.
From the side, Faba came to stand over Lillie's side. "Just that got you in such sorts? Pull yourself together miss Junior Branch Manager.", her ever-present aide said, emphasizing her ridiculous title to straighten her spine. A bit frantically, she pulled her specialty jacket from its sloppy position tied at her waist and properly onto herself before adjusting the dozens of other little embellishments to sell her otherwise miniscule stature.
Custom tailored for the Aether Foundation's one and only Junior Branch Chief at the request of Faba, Lillie's clothes seemed completely otherworldly even by the standards of the Foundation's futuristic aesthetic. White and gold brightened the ends of an angular garb of obsidian black cloth that shrouded Lillie from head to toe. The jacket's massive hood and covering all the way up to her mouth made her look like a space monster, with claws to match made of more cloth hanging from the odd sleeves, which hung from rather than enveloping her pale arms. The outfit had one benefit, it always hid her embarrassed face.
"Onto the next part of your training, Miss Lillie. I'll be driving your ship to Melemele, where you'll be learning practical battle skills at the school. As much as I do not wish it, theory will only get you so far.", the Aide to the Junior Branch Chief informed her. "Ok... Let me, um... tell my team.", she choked out. 'If I had realized the president's daughter was so easy, I would've gotten rid of Lusamine myself!', He thought delightedly.
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I grabbed my knees, stabilizing myself on the edge of the bridge as I shouted after the fleeing Murkrow, "WE HAD A DEAL!", though none of them cared to turn around. When I looked back, Lycanroc had disappeared over the shortened horizon and I was alone on the bridge. "Well I guess that's that.", I mused. With the dangers of the canyon, physical training was an absolute necessity, but it was over either way now.
Looking down at myself, I saw the Team Skull sweatpants in tatters across my legs from "stray" attacks from the Murkrow and all the spelunking. Sighing, I returned to the web awning that we'd slept under the night before, stuffed the sweatpants into my 'needing repairs' pocket, and changed into something more fit for the canyon. When I released everyone, Kawami just stared at me. "You just got those eyeballs, don't wear 'em out! Have you guys seriously never seen me in overalls?", I postured defensively. Toma gave me his patented 'This hasn't happened before but of course I support you!' look while Kawami continued wearing out her eyeballs.
The dingy browns and grays of the jacket and the overalls on top of it covered any high contrast leftovers from my grunt days. Rather than a strangely young thug, I seemed to be a strangely adult orphan. Both were true at the end of the day, so it didn't bother me, but my team had known me as a grunt for three years and struggled to reconcile the two sides.
"We're not stopping here tonight! There's plenty more canyon to go, we've gotta get a move on!", I announced. Grabbing the egg, I motioned for Toma to tear the webs down and we were on our way over the bridge and into the next unnavigable cave.
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The crystal blue water stretched out from every side of the boat as they traveled ever forward. Faba stood at the helm, handling the craft cunningly with navigational help from his pokémon. It had been his ship as Branch Chief, so he knew his way around it.
"Mr. Faba... when are we going to... get there?", Lillie begged. "It should be just after sunset.", he replied distractedly. Lillie whined a bit, leaving to find a place to rest for the trip. Lying down on a deck chair, fittingly on the deck of the ship, she released a few of her pokémon to keep her company. Nebby left her hood to puff cheerily, Ribombee used the flash of red light to surprise a passing employee with a Pollen Puff in their mouth, and the regional variant of Slowpoke Faba had gotten for her appeared beside her lazily. Ribombee and Cosmoem flitted around eachother giddily while Slowpoke basked in the sunlight.
As Lillie leaned down to pat the Galarian pokémon's smooth yellow head, a spray of water hit her face as a Shellder jumped onto the deck. "Faba! There's a wild pokémon on the deck!", Lillie cried. "I know Lillie, I let it on.", Faba replied expertly. "What!?", she gasped. "Your Slowpoke has his Galarica Wreath on, correct? He'll be evolving today.", he explained in a taciturn manner.
While she stood in mesmerized silence at Faba's plan, Shellder made their move. They sent out a weak Water Pulse to drive Lillie and the rest of her team away, and as their mouth watered, they bit down on Slowpoke's well seasoned head. As the Slowpoke and Shellder began to glow white, Lillie stammered, "Wha... And you... With the wreath..?"
Emerging from the light was a Galarian Slowking, the Shellder having attached themselves to her pokémon's head. His countenance was entirely different from before, wizened and thoughtful. The Shellder formed a towering crown of spines and splotches. What had been yellow turned a sinister violet, giving Slowking a malevolent air. "That", Faba said, suddenly right next to Lillie, "is the kind of pokémon you should be training."
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The murky gray water covered every inch of the cavern, from a slimy coating to pools of a dubious nature. Echoing throughout was the sound of slowly dripping liquid. I cuffed my pants and overalls to just below the knees and continued forward. With the guidance of a Golbat we wouldn't get lost, but I was already mentally preparing myself for slipping on the wet stones alot.
As my legs went numb from the extremely cautious way of walking I'd been using for hours to not fall and my arms grew tired from protecting the egg through all the times I did fall, I began looking for a place to rest for the night. To the side was a small outcropping of relatively dry ground surrounded by a deep pool of cave water with only a slim path to it at wading level. Ushering Kawami back to me I ordered, "Keep me from falling in. We're sleeping there."
I crossed without trouble, presumably because I'd tripped and slipped enough earlier. When I leaned down to clear the ground of sharp stones however, a spray of water flew across the pool right at my face. Standing over me out of the water was a Golduck. The wild pokémon glared at me expectantly, and Toma jumped onto my unsteady head. He seemed to know what to do as the Golduck pierced me with a gaze that said, 'Protect yourselves so you don't cause trouble in my pond, or get out.'
I stood in silence, a bead of sweat rolling down my cheek, and allowed the Spinarak to make his move. Rapidly, with his usual vim and vigor turned up to eleven, Toma shrouded the whole slice of ground with thick threads. The Golduck seemed to be mollified by just that, using another Aqua Jet to propel themself across the pool, but Toma continued. Decorative A-frame struts, a chandelier, several paintings made with his mastered thread shading technique, and a faux-window that showed the scene outside using the same technique. As he darted around the now room, Toma glowed white.
When the light reflecting off of the pale webbing dissipated, Toma's evolved form lingered over my head. His green carapace had turned an aposematic red, his presence somehow exactly as cheery as before despite the drastically more frightening figure. Two of his legs turned upwards for easier three dimensional movement and his mandibles and horn grew longer and sharper. His pattern was no longer a proper face, only able to bend the dots on his rear into different shapes, yet still his wide smile was as obvious as a blinking hazard sign. "That", I announced to the room, "is the kind of training we need to be doing."
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Lillie moved quickly off the boat, relishing the stability of dry land after the rocking motions of seafaring. Emptying out her stomach, she gave a pleading look to her Slowking. "Dump it out!", she shouted to her teammate. Slowking swished the noxious potion left and right before reluctantly pouring it into the seawater. After retaking the reins of her physical health, she followed the rest of the Aether Foundation employees into the private dock.
"What's he doing here!?", an employee yelled from across the water, having put down a bag of fertilizer to point at Faba. "What did Mr. Faba do?", Lillie muttered under her breath. "Haley, darling, could you get that man's name?", Faba asked an employee following close behind as if it wasn't an order. Haley marched over to interrogate the man posthaste. Rather than letting her speak for him, he stopped what he was doing to join her and confront Faba directly.
"I'm Employee Yoshi, I work in environmental protection and foreign species introductions. Former Branch Chief Faba, I believe you are the epitome of everything wrong with our organization.", the man said concisely. Faba smiled, as if his knuckles hadn't turned white the moment his former position was brought up. "Aid to the Junior Branch Chief, Faba,", he replied, his tone magically clean of emotion, ", I'd like to know what makes you say that."
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"The crimes you've committed against pokémon are truly despicable.", Yoshi answered coldly. "Crimes, yes. But to say they were against pokémon is slanderous! I was charged with complicity but did no such thing myself, as you would know if you read the publicly available court record! The orders came from the president, I simply followed!", Faba debated, leaking fake panic into his voice. "Don't give me that shit,", Yoshi said sharply, "you did plenty of those things yourself. Getting to walk around to do whatever you want, even staying in the Foundation, without anyone watching you; It's a farce."
"I'm... Um, I'm watching Faba. I'm the Junior Branch Chief.", Lillie squeaked. "Or is he watching you?", Yoshi pondered aloud as he leveled her with a withering glare. The employee's fury bubbled over and out of him before he finally turned and got back to the bag of fertilizer. "That's not... not true, right Mr. Faba?", she cowered. "It's not.", Faba said automatically. "Now let's get on with it.", he added darkly.
As they passed Yoshi on their way to the exit, Lillie found some courage. "That's a very mean thing to accuse someone of doing. I'm sure if you knew-", Lillie started, but Yoshi cut her off with a scowl, "I don't need to hear it miss, not from you." Lillie's emotions went a bit haywire in response to Yoshi's statement, but in the end she just kept walking.
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I relished the feeling of dry ground beneath my boots after the days of waterlogged passages. Emptying out my wet boots, I hung them from a loop on my backpack to dry and equipped some flip flops. "Forward march!", I shouted to my team, angling the egg left and right as if it was walking in the air on little feet. In my defense, the long journey was affecting my mental state. Before long we reached a new bridge.
"Get out of here!", two punks shouted from across the bridge at a Team Skull grunt attempting to get to the other side. "WHAT'RE YOU DOING?", I called to them. Turning his head to look at me, the grunt asked, "Who are you?" While he looked away, the punks walked across the bridge to bring the confrontation to the fore.
"I'm Kau'i, and you all are?", I introduced myself. "I'm Kogan, those two won't let me pass cause I'm a Team Skull grunt.", the teen at my side answered in kind. "I'm Adam, this is Anna. We're ex-grunts. We of all people would know how the plan was the worst of Team Skull all bundled up. We're not letting this guy just waltz around like it's fine, yeah?", said the older man, nearly an adult at this point. "She's just a kid, why tell her about the plan?", the other punk whispered to her accomplice. "Adam?! Hey, you remember me right?!", I said excitedly. Pulling the skull cap from my bag, I put it on to help jog his memory. Adam had been the gate-guard when I first moved to Po Town, the first grunt I properly met after Rich.
"Wait you're that Kau'i!? You went with Plumeria's group for the plan right?", Kogan asked, shocked. All three of them were staring at me now, what had been some random trial-goer kid they now recognized as the unofficial little sis of Team Skull, stupidly rumored to be Admin Gladion's rival. "You were part of one of the assault teams!? Arceus help me, I'll strangle you kid! Have you seen the ultra beasts running around Ula' Ula' because of Team Skull's bullshit?", Anna accused.
"Have you done anything about that yourself?", I responded, "I have plenty of friends still in Team Skull that are doing more about it than me or you! I did my part when I stepped in to help Tapu Fini, and even then I needed a wake up call to do it. It isn't black and white." Adam and Anna huffed, but they were clearly thinking about what I said. "It's not true right Kau'i? The ultra beasts can't be Team Skull's fault!", Kogan stammered. "No, that's totally Team Skull's fault. I saw an Ultra Beast being contained by Tapu Fini with my own eyes, lucky they were a weird one and didn't go on a rampage.", I said, twisting the knife where he had expected reassurance. "I mean I'm not a grunt anymore for a reason, come on man.", I added playfully.
As I passed the three to continue my trip, Adam spoke up. "What are we supposed to do then?! Fight ultra beasts?!", he asked. "I don't know. I'm just getting back to my life, I'm the last person you should be asking. You can think for yourself can't you?", I told him plainly. All three seemed to be caught in a sudden flow of emotions from the barrage of bombshells I had dropped, but I just kept walking.
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After a short commute, Lillie and Faba had arrived at the Pokémon Trainers' School. Through the trudging footsteps of the student body, Faba led them over a babbling canal that flowed out from the school's Water-Type training pond and around the various facilities of the complex. Passing the battlefields, the two entered the sturdy brick of the main building. After treading a path through the halls a ways, Faba grumbled derisively under his breath, "Now to deal with Asuka."
Taking a moment to check his resolve, Faba swung the door to the principal's office open. "Stay quiet.", Faba whispered to Lillie. The principal, whose name plate read Principal Asuka, stared down her nose as the Foundation members entered. With a click, Alakazam appeared next to him and a Light Screen, Reflect, and Barrier encased the room. "Apologies, but I can't have anyone hear me say what I'm about to say. Lillie, I trust you can keep a secret?", Faba explained himself. With a quick nod from Lillie, he was ready.
'Take caution Faba,', he warned himself, 'with Lillie present I'll need to tread lightly.' "I would like to hold you to the favor you owe me, Asuka, and get the young miss some expert training.", Faba opened. "Favor!? I don't owe you anything Faba.", Asuka replied tersely. 'Here's the gamble, but if it fails, what's one more accomplice thrown under the bus? Especially one so uncooperative…', he schemed internally before realizing the scheme aloud. "Oh, don't say that!", he drawled, "We did so much for eachother in that farflung golden age, worked on some many groundbreaking and unprecedented projects together, if anything it feels like I'm still doing so very many things for you." Lillie stayed sheepishly quiet in the corner as Faba's veiled threat sank in. "Alright Faba.", the Principal said through clenched teeth, "She'll get the royal treatment."
Leaving the school with a schedule in place, Faba leaned down to whisper in his supposed boss's ear. "Lillie, you need to remember one thing; Although no one knows it, Cosmoem is your ace. A legendary pokémon has decided for you to be its trainer, that is an undeniable opportunity. As much as you can, train with Cosmoem. Until it has mastered Teleport it will not evolve! I am your aide but also your mentor, you are my boss but also my successor. I want what's best for you."
Early the next morning, Lillie's teacher Emily opened with a harsh lecture, "Your team is unbalanced! Your Cubone is your only physical attacker, your Sylveon doesn't have the bulk to be the special wall you need, your Slowking, I'm told, has no way to make use of his Poison-Type, your Ribombee isn't taking his support role seriously, and your Brionne does not have the range to cover for all of these weaknesses. You will either put serious time into correcting these flaws, or you will fail as a trainer, do you understand?"
The training began in earnest from there, drilling new moves and fighting practice battles in each pokémon's role. Although the mishmash of pokémon Faba and Lillie had each insisted on adding to her team was unfavorable, through charging into the problems over and over their outlook turned ever brighter.
After a week of hard training, Lillie's aide appeared at her door early one morning as the sun rose. "Excellent work these past few days my trusty protege!", he greeted. "More… training?", she asked tiredly. "No, no. I do believe you and your team have earned a treat. Not everyone is gifted with my unerring drive, some frozen dairy should keep your spirits high so that we might save those poor ultra beasts.", he told her. In no time flat, the group had obtained and retreated with their prize under an awning where the sun didn't reach. Lillie was pensively eroding a cup of oran berry frozen yogurt and observing her pokémon enjoy themselves. 'I would say it's a shame other people of my like don't use positive reinforcement as I do, but then I'd have more competition. Regardless, I will reap the rewards.', Faba thought as he sat back and chewed on the minty desert he'd picked for himself.
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Now in the northeast corner of the Vast Poni Canyon, I trudged through the reedy plants and muddy ground of the second wettest part of the massive geological formation. A slow and small river poured down the adjoining mountainside and into the canyon, creating a wetness that permeated through the soil and dispersed into the rest of the canyon's ravines and cave complexes. Passing under the dead roots of a large tree, I grumbled, "How big is this stinkin' canyon!?"
Kawami swung back to me with another progress report, the murder of Murkrow we had trained with days before was perched on another dead tree. "Toma, Spider Web.", I whispered. As we watched from below, Toma enclosed the tree in innumerable invisibly thin threads, keeping the Murkrow from escaping. At our success, I approached. "You still haven't filled your part of the deal!", I called up to them. They immediately scattered, almost all being caught in Toma's web while a few stopped themselves before running into it.
"You're not getting away with it this time!", I roared triumphantly. The young Murkrow that made the deal with me initially flew down to face me. Sheepishly, they offered a wing with their head bowed, which I shook. "Alright, get organized and plan, we'll be doing the same. You're guiding us to the trial at dusk and we can keep training there.", I said to the Murkrow before turning to my team.
"Toma, Kawami, today we'll be getting you used to the roles you'll take as a part of the team in the future. I've thought alot about this. Kawami, you're fast, you're hard to hit, you can hit hard, and you're immune to Ground-Type moves that the other Poison-Types have to worry about; You're our problem solver. With Infiltrator and Haze, in the future you'll deal with any bullshit the opponent sets up. If a new strategy or idea comes to mind that you've never tried, I want you to try it against the Murkrow to learn to solve unexpected problems."
"Now Toma, you aren't as versatile. You specialize in a few things, a few things that everyone on the team will thank you for. You'll be our setter, trapping a bad matchup in the ring with you with Spider Web, boosting your stats up and passing the boost along with Baton Pass or even taking them out yourself to do it again. You'll be learning a bunch of status and support moves down the line, but today we need the foundation. Go out there and listen to your new instincts, you'll be training Swords Dance and Fell Stinger."
We went right into training from there, Kawami failing over and over as each new strategy gave her enemy a new opening to take her down. I gave her advice about strategizing, but it was an uphill battle. Toma lost repeatedly as well, in the worst case scenario for a setter over and over since his only opponents were Murkrow. The "trainer" Murkrow had a twinkle in his eyes the whole time, and I worried I had unintentionally created a new terror for the travelers of the Vast Poni Canyon.
As promised, we were guided to the entrance of the trial site at sundown which we camped in front of. Another day of training and mounting successes was capped with Kawami complaining about a sunburn. I gave her an oran berry and told her to shrug it off as I went to sleep. I woke up to a stinging pain across my head, neck, and arms. "Ow! Ow! Ow! What the fuuuuck?!", I groaned as I lifted myself. Immediately the pain shrunk in places where the sun didn't reach. "Mother fucking... Arce's Judgment...", I swore incoherently as I retreated into the cave that was the ancient trial site.