Professor Samson Oak, not to be confused with his cousin, Professor Samuel Oak, straightened his collar in anticipation of the coming week. Today would be the first day of the annual boot camp for promising beginner trainers. Beginner is of course a generous term, while some of the trainers this year haven't had a pokémon partner at all until a month ago, others have had a team for years. What all of the trainers in this boot camp had in common was little combat experience and the recognition of talent to own a Z-Power Ring. And this year especially, it had shaped up excitingly, with five different trainers all signed up.
Samson clapped. 'Don't get ahead of yourself old man,' he thought, 'the day has just begun.' With a stretch to remove any errant cricks in his back, he left his home just a block away from the school campus to get an early start to the day. He had a cup of coffee in the break room, a quick review of the lesson plan, and a lovely bit of small talk with his fellow teachers and school staff.
This, more than anything, was what Samson considered to be the quintessential difference between himself and Samuel; While Samuel buried his nose in his research, from when he first became a trainer to all his days since getting pokédexs into as many hands as possible, instead Samson sought a balance between his passions and the people around him. The environment and people always played a role in how the complexities of the world developed, that was Samson's belief. How could he not believe that, when he studied the very differences in form those environments produced, from the littlest Cherrim to the beasts of ultra space?
'There goes your mind wandering again!', he chided mentally, 'The only environment I have to worry about today is those kids' learning environment.' He chuckled to himself, before entering the courtyard where this boot camp would begin. Only one trainer was already present, Ilima's student Mikala, all prim and proper, but the rest would either show up soon or be removed from the program. It'd be a shame, but not the first time it happened. With the rise to power that got you into this boot camp came a matching rise in ego, and it wasn't particularly uncommon for trainers to think they were too good for it. Guzma had been one of those trainers.
Fifteen minutes before the scheduled beginning of class, the second trainer arrived, the Aether Foundation's Junior Branch Manager, Lillie. Alongside her was her assistant, Faba. Their clothes were utterly ridiculous, the girl in a massive shroud of black while her assistant wore bright white and gold, but since the two had been staying at the school a while, Samson was used to it. Lillie gripped the sides of the folding chair she'd taken opposite Mikala, pushing down a ball of stress. With them present, the two non-trial-goers had arrived for Trial-goer Boot Camp. The name was more of a formality anyways.
Nearly exactly on time, two more students arrived. Selene, a promising young trainer from Kanto that Kukui had recommended, darted her steely grey eyes around nervously before she sat next to Lillie. Both Lillie and Selene were far from the usual examples of putting up with whatever clothes someone chose for you, but their awkward postures made clear that was what was happening. The two's quiet demeanors collectively dampened the atmosphere.
The other was Kau'i, Kahuna Hapu's delinquent foster sister, ex-Team Skull grunt, and the only dedicated type specialist in this class. She sat next to Mikala on the left side of the chair arrangement. Her unbrushed tangle of hair bunched in front of a pair of shifty amber eyes that stopped on each of the people here, but she seemed unwilling to start a conversation on her own. The other girls all stayed silent as well, for one reason or another.
Samson did not begin. He didn't foresee his last student ever fully skipping the event, he was too humble to do that. Instead, Samson waited while the trainers who had arrived twiddled their fingers. Finally, a good six minutes after the intended start of the boot camp, Hau, the grandson of Kahuna Hala, skipped over and sat down in the middle seat. "I hope you didn't wait just for me.", he said, sheepishly smoothing out the muddy swimtrunks he was wearing.
Samson cleared his throat from the small podium that had been set out for this little opening ceremony. "Hello, hello, and alola to all you young trainers.", he started, "Today is the beginning of this year's Trial-goer Boot Camp, where talented beginners like yourselves are given the special attention they need to balance out their unwieldy growth. You'll all be learning to use Z-Moves, manage larger teams than most people ever train, and get the advice you need to find what form you'll take when all that potential is unleashed."
Every year, the reaction to that little speech was just as different as his delivery of it, but Samson knew to pay attention to that reaction by now. Hau leaned over his seat, excited to take on the challenge. Kau'i sent a dubious glare right at the professor, trying to figure out whether this was all a waste of time. Selene didn't do much of anything, letting it all just happen to her. Lillie held a firm look, a determination that couldn't have come from the quiet girl, given to her by someone else. Last was Mikala, focused and taking notes on everything. Selene and Kau'i's reactions were the most worrying, for opposite reasons, but he would have plenty of time to give all of them the help they needed.
"We're going to hop right into it, since I find introductions tend to just make everything more awkward. How does everybody feel about learning to use Z-Moves?", Professor Oak prompted the kids. Hau shouted affirmation, Kau'i was already digging through her bag for something, and Selene seemed to focus ever so slightly. The other two simply became more intense while doing the same things as before. 'A real mixed bag these five.', he thought, moving in front of the podium for the demonstration. Now properly in the rhythm to teach, he began the first lesson, "Remember, this is just practice, you'll need to get the movements of each dance down before you try it with the Z-Crystal in your ring. Make sure your ring is empty, then we can continue. We don't want any Z-Power getting let loose without anywhere to go, that could be dangerous."
"Ready?", he asked. After five nods, he instructed simply, "Watch what I do, then we'll go step by step." Muscle memory guided him as Samson Oak performed the Normalium Z dance. His posture straightened, he puts his arms up in an X across his face, pushed out and down in oval shape with his fists, brought them out in front of himself, the left atop the right, swung them down to just below his right hip, opened his palms while drawing his left hand up his arm and chest to make a diagonal shape across his wingspan, and finally bent his elbows, right then left, inwards to create a Z shape, and once again closed his fists.
Samson let his arms fall and addressed his students, "I want you to try to recreate the dance based on just that demonstration. Give it your best shot, but don't be disappointed when I come to correct you." Hau's hand shot up to volunteer on reflex, "Oh! I wanna try!" "Sure Hau, let's see it.", Oak responded, waving the kid out of his chair where the group could see. Hau skipped the initial steps, putting his fist out in front of himself and spreading his arms in a diagonal with the wrong arms up and down, but brought his arms in correctly with the proper stance. "Not quite right, you're missing a few things, but the stance was correct and that is the foundational point.", the professor said, "Now, let's get someone else to try. How about... Selene! Come on up!"
Hau walked back to his chair and patted Selene on the back to encourage her. Selene stood up and entered the focal point of the little field set aside for the boot camp, no emotions obvious on her face. Samson watched in shock as she perfectly reenacted the z dance and sat right back down. "Amazing Selene! That was exactly it! Your mind is like a steel trap!", he praised, and she deserved it too. The other students stared, Hau clapped a little, but Selene just smiled tightly and lowered her head. It was an odd reaction from the one and only person to ever, to the best of Samson Oak's knowledge, perform a z dance perfectly on their first try. He fought to keep himself on track again, 'This won't be the last weird thing to happen this week, best to move on Samson.'
"Now let's see the rest of you give it a shot.", he said. The other three each tried to recreate the dance, but did the usual thing and failed in little ways. Mikala got all the major steps, but missed little details like the opening and closing of the fists and the order of the arms bending inwards. Kau'i was sloppy, her stance was too loose, her movements didn't keep the necessary rhythm, and she cut corners in several places. Lillie was anxious, pausing to try and correct herself in the middle of each motion and often switching from the right step to one she made up in her fervor. Over the next few hours, the lesson became less and less formal with less and less prompting from Samson. He would go from person to person, straightening backs, correcting off course motions, and repeating steps over and over until finally, every last one of them was ready to use their first Z-Moves.
"Is everyone ready for an early rest?", Oak asked, getting them all back into a line for the end of the first day. "Whaddya mean? We still haven't actually used a Z-Move.", Kau'i pushed. "Exactly my point! Mikala, surely you can answer this one.", he replied with a dopey smile. Mikala pushed her glasses up her nose, answering matter-of-factly, "The vast majority of trainers collapse from exhaustion after they use their first Z-Move. This fact has been corroborated by multiple studies from Professor Kukui and his contemporaries." "We're going to fall asleep after doing it?", Lillie asked meekly. "Nah, more like pass out.", Kau'i replied. "I've never passed out before. Might be interesting!", Hau commented absent-mindedly. "You won't like it.", Mikala and Kau'i said in unison before looking at eachother funny.
"If everyone's on board, please take out your Normalium Z-Crystals and a strong pokémon that knows a Normal-Type status move. Using an offensive Z-Move is more dangerous when untrained, and also would need clean up, so we'll save that for the next few days. I'll go grab the mattresses.", he said, giving the students an affirming smile before he turned to go inside and grab the aforementioned mattresses. "Aaww! With it being a boot camp I was hoping to sleep in a cot again.", Kau'i groaned as he stepped through the door.
He came back out, his Kantonian Exeggcutor helping to drag the beds over. "Let's be more orderly this time, left to right now, do your first Z-Move." "Your left or our left?", Mikala asked. "My left.", he clarified. They all got up on a mattress and Mikala began. Her Buneary stood ready in front of her, the Z-Crystal held in her watch style Z-Power Ring. "The power may be a bit overwhelming for both of you, but I know you can handle it!", Samson advised. Mikala closed her eyes, took a long breath in and out, and began.
"Z-Splash!", she screamed. Her hands shook slightly as she went through the dance in, out, forward, down, across, and back in. Mikala was covered in bright yellow light that rushed out of her and into her Buneary. The rabbit pokémon leaped several stories upwards, landing in a new crater at the same time as her trainer lost her battle with the exhaustion of Z-Moves and fell face first onto the mattress. The Buneary rushed over to his trainer with the drastically increased power from Z-Splash, making sure her glasses weren't broken. "Kau'i, you're next!", Oak ordered.
Kau'i rolled her eyes, and stepped up with everything in order. She looked to her Crobat and grinned venomously. "Z-Screech!", she called, performing the dance as instructed. The yellow light came again, rushed to the Crobat, and then the noise began. A near imperceptibly high-pitched Screech echoed off of every surface, reverberating inside of the professor's head as everyone but Mikala, who was still unconscious, and Kau'i held their hands to their ears. Samson registered Kau'i's industrial earmuffs and stupid smirk as she collapsed into a ball on her mattress. Finally, the sound teetered out and the Crobat breathed in. Samson waited for his ears to stop ringing before he said, "Hau, it's your turn."
The boy blinked, stared into the middle distance, and asked, "What am I doin'?" Professor Oak understood a bit of confusion after the Z-Screech, but this kid was seriously out of it. "Your Z-Move, if you would.", Oak reiterated. "Right, yeah, okay.", the Kahuna's grandson said distantly, before getting into an unsteady stance. "Z-Play Nice!", he wailed to his Pikachu, going through the dance with a complete lack of confidence. Hau quivered, moving in jerky stops and starts that mangled the release of Z-Power. Trainers messing up their first Z-Move certainly wasn't uncommon, but it didn't usually go like that. The Z-Power aura flared and Hau fell to his side before the power moved to his pokémon. Luckily, Oak's comment at the beginning about uncontained Z-Power was just for motivation. When some of the loose Z-Power got to Hau's Pikachu, he frantically took to caring for his trainer with the power of a Z-Play Nice, if an incomplete one. The professor sighed.
Moving on to clear the tension, he faced Selene. "Your dance has been perfect from the start, show it to us with Z-Power." Selene stayed serene while she spoke for the first time Samson had heard. "Z-Foresight.", she strictly ordered her Rowlet, before doing that same perfect z dance again. Yellow energy roiled off of the girl and into the bird as they faced eachother. Her Rowlet's eyes sharpened, Selene's eyes closed, and the Rowlet caught her head and laid her gently down on the bed.
"You're the last one Lillie. Show me and Faba what you've got.", Oak said in a friendly tone. Faba joined in, "You'll do exquisitely, I just know it." Lillie shot them both a strained smile before focusing her eyes on her Sylveon. "We're gonna do a Z-Calm Mind, alright?", she consulted the intertwining pokémon. With a nod from her partner, Lillie took her position. She crossed her arms, made an oval, rested her fists on top of eachother, swung them down to her right, stuck her left arm up into the air, and then brought it all together in that Z shape. Sparkling yellow light bounced from Lillie to her Sylveon, and the Fairy-Type closed his eyes and absorbed every last bit of the energy around him, looking refreshed in spite of the lingering effects of Z-Screech on everything else. Lillie's smile became genuine for a brief moment, then turned sour as she dropped onto the cushion.
"Do you mind helping get these kids into the dorms?", Oak asked the Junior Branch Manager's aide. "I'm quite busy actually.", the man replied, releasing an Alakazam that lifted the mattress Lillie was on into the building while he walked away.
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Lillie rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She had really hoped that she could stay awake after using the Z-Move, but it seemed she fell short of her hopes once again. Her assistant, Faba, was already up, sipping on a cup of coffee at the desk in the corner of the dorm room. Nebby the Cosmoem laid, still asleep next to her. "Are you ready for your second day, young lady?", the enigmatic man prompted. "Yes Faba.", she replied. Faba did not leave the room as she went through her daily routine of changing into her "signature outfit", as he called it. He said it would make her stand out even among the Aether Foundation and help her make connections, but it didn't feel like that to her. Still, he'd never steered her wrong before, right?
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Nebby nestled into the obelisk shaped hood of her jacket, and her and Faba left the room to meet the other campers for breakfast. 'You'll need more than just Faba with you to help Necrozma and all the ultra beasts. Time to make those connections!', Lillie hyped herself up, putting on a brave face. As she entered, she saw most of the others already eating. Kau'i was guzzling eggs with her Poison-Types, Hau was laying into a bowl of cereal while his team ate some kibble, and Mikala and her pokémon were all patiently chewing on bowls of berries and oatmeal. Selene was still in line with the regular students. Lillie got in line behind her while Faba stood over the spot at the campers' table where he wanted her to sit.
Selene got her own bowl of cereal and moved along past the pokémon food without grabbing anything. Lillie freaked out a little, holding up the line with her indecision. "Tuesday is waffle day, just get those. It's not hard.", the boy just behind her griped. Lillie choked out a small, "Okay...", and picked up a waffle for each of her and her teammates. When she sat down in front of Faba with the tray and released her pokémon for them to eat, the crowd gawked. Sylveon and Brionne, both quite rare pokémon, were joined by three more that the others could see, the fully evolved Ribombee and Alolan Marowak, and one pokémon very few in Alola had even heard of, much less seen, Galarian Slowking.
While everyone else was impressed, Kau'i and Mikala gave her dubious looks. "Your team's a mess, the composition is totally off balance.", Kau'i commented. She chuckled politely, "That's what the instructors have all told me. Faba wanted me to be a Psychic-Type specialist... but it didn't really work out." "Did you plan to evolve that Sylveon into an Espeon?", Mikala asked astutely. Lillie responded cautiously, "Yeah actually. After that went wrong, I started taking care of more pokémon I just... found interesting... and it spiraled out from there. My biggest goal right now is to... uh... well, to make it work I guess."
"Goals are good!", Hau said automatically, "I have some people I wanna prove myself to, that's my goal." Mikala joined in again, "Goals are a great boon to productivity. I am working to be the next trial captain of Verdant Cavern, of course." Kau'i added her perspective, "I just know being a trainer is something anyone can make a living off of if they're good at it, and, well, I've already got three pokémon so I'm in it now. Gonna complete the Island Challenge and get some sorta job bein' a trainer." "Pretty much the same here.", Selene whispered while she pulled out specially prepared meals for each of her teammates, "I'm good with pokémon."
Faba laughed mirthfully. "Now is a good time to be an up and coming trainer in Alola.", he said, "The League is coming in, creating more jobs, even hoping to establish a circuit of Pokémon Gyms. I've heard some buzz abroad about bringing over Pokémon Contests as well, but some trainers your age, with talent in the field to boot, would have to show a great deal of interest to get any money moving on that. I suspect that, if everything goes to the League's plan, specialists in particular will be in high demand, what with the gyms and Elite Four roles needing filled."
"Good news for you poison girl!", Hau said. "I'm not a Poison-Type specialist.", Kau'i bit back in a poisonous manner. "You should be.", Mikala stated. "Do you see what happened to Lillie's team when she tried being a Psychic-Type specialist? It's a disaster.", Kau'i spat. Mikala didn't back down, saying, "Lillie doesn't have what it takes to be a Psychic-Type specialist, I don't have what it takes to be a Normal-Type specialist, that's why that path hasn't exactly worked out for either of us.", she gestured to her own team then, two Normal-Types and the Rock and Flying-Type Minior, "You have more than enough aptitude to be a Poison-Type specialist, any trainer with a brain could tell you so at a glance." By the end of her tirade, Mikala's tone was sharp and frustrated, even as she continued to be concise and coherent in her words.
"You don't get to make decisions for me!", Kau'i shouted and made a show of stomping off. Her Ariados stayed behind, drawing a pictogram of a stick figure bowing with spider silk before scurrying away to catch up with his trainer. "Did you need to... push her like that?", Lillie asked Mikala. Mikala shrugged, answering frankly, "Probably not, but she should hear it before she tries to become a generalist and messes up her team just like you did." Lillie couldn't muster up anything to say to that, so the table went quiet. After a dozen minutes of awkward chewing, everyone else had finished and left to get to the day's class.
"I'm just... saving this for later...", she made her excuse even when no one could hear her, then picked up the seventh waffle, returned her pokémon that had poké balls, and walked back to her dorm room with Faba close behind. She closed and locked the door, pulled her hood up, and lifted the plate for Nebby to eat from. "Are you doing okay up there? I hope the boot camp is exciting enough, it could be really bad if you popped out in front of important people like them.", she chattered. Nebby floated down in front of her face, after swallowing up the waffle in a moment, and smiled brightly, squeaking reassurance to its closest friend. She wished she had more time with the legendary pokémon, that their goals weren't so important, but it was a stupid wish. Lillie hugged the Cosmoem tightly to her chest for a moment, before letting go and placing it back in her hood.
With a forced smile so weak it barely showed, she joined the other campers in the same courtyard as the previous day. "Now that everyone's here," Professor Oak announced, "how're you all feeling?" Kau'i grumbled next to Selene, having moved seats to be opposite Mikala, who Lillie was now sat next to. "I'm good.", Hau said from the middle chair. Mikala cleared her throat to explain the situation to the professor, "Kau'i and I had an argument over her being a Poison-Type specialist." Oak went right into a lecture, "Mikala, just because specialization didn't work out for you doesn't mean it can't work for Kau'i." "I'M NOT A POISON-TYPE SPECIALIST!", Kau'i shouted furiously, her mop of colorful hair bouncing along with her outburst. "Oh.", was all Professor Oak said in return.
Lillie was confused, concerned even, over the girl's conviction that she wasn't a specialist. Faba had just talked about how being a specialist fit perfectly with Kau'i's goals, but something about the idea seemed to agitate the scary girl. Lillie tried to think through what made Kau'i act like that, 'She seems... scared. But why? What's scary about being a specialist? Everyone else already sees her as a specialist, what's different if she agrees with them?', she thought, but it got her nowhere.
"Well, I hope you're feeling good enough to do some guided training and practice battles, cause that's what we're doing today!", the professor said cheerily to clear the air from the awkward situation. Lillie wasn't expecting this to be much different from her training with the tutor she had been working with before boot camp, but she prepared herself anyway. Leaving his podium, the professor began walking and talking as he led the campers to the poured asphalt training fields at the front of the school. " Everyone but Kau'i and Lillie, please release your full teams, and I'll discuss the methods the school recommends to further your teams' effectiveness", Professor Oak explained.
Once everyone had followed his instructions, the professor first approached Lillie. "You've been with us for weeks Lillie, you know what we think of your team.", he told her in that familiar tone that said he was about to get right to the point, "What you haven't done much of is actually battle. You'll be working with Kau'i, whose main two pokémon are at around the same level as yours, and she'll be giving you the practical experience you need while she bounces strategies off of your team."
Then he moved over to Kau'i. "Ilima tells me you have a penchant for rapid growth, which is why I want you to slow down.", he said. Kau'i looked furious, but waved her hand for him to continue like she was Taunting him to start throwing punches. "You have great potential, but if you push yourself and your team without taking the time to think about what's right in front of you, rather than building healthy muscle your growth would be more like a cancerous tumor. I've heard the reports on you from both Kahuna Hapu and Kahuna Nanu, too often you run straight into your next challenge without a care, and that needs to be fixed."
Kau'i snarled under her mess of hair. "Why do you think I'm here?", she sneered. Lillie hung her head to avoid the conflict, but the professor didn't flinch at the girl's display. "Well I'm glad you were aware of that flaw, it should make this much easier for both of us.", the professor replied, showcasing a level of obstinacy Lillie had never seen from him before. Kau'i huffed, then laughed a bit and said, "Alright, fair enough. I'll do it." Lillie had no idea why the exchange had calmed the girl's combative attitude, but she was thankful that it did. She did not want to face Kau'i like that, not yet.
Professor Oak moved on to the others, explaining what sorts of roles their pokémon could fill and what pokémon they should consider for their team going forward, which he had strangely left out of his talk with Kau'i. Finally, he moved the three lower leveled trainers to the side to practice new moves and stood facing the entire training area while he waited to referee the fights between Lillie and Kau'i.
Lillie was full of nerves, bouncing on her heels in anticipation, but Nebby rested comfortingly on her head to cool her down. "Two pokémon each, no restrictions, you ready?", Kau'i asked after turning from her whispered strategy meeting with her team. "Yeah... I guess...", she answered lamely. "Okay, let's do this!", Kau'i cheered herself on. Lillie didn't actually feel ready, but the countdown from Professor Oak came all the same. "Three," he said, making eye contact with Lillie, "two," he met Kau'i's gaze as well, "one!", he declared finally, looking intensely out at the field.
The first thing Lillie noticed was that she had no plan for dealing with Kau'i's Ariados and Crobat, and by extension she had no clue what pokémon to use for this battle. As Kau'i's Crobat took centerfield, Lillie panicked inside. 'Well Psychic beats Poison and Poison resists itself so!', she rushed before throwing out her Galarian Slowking, Merlin. Kau'i's glare grew concentrated, and she ordered right away, "Bite and keep Biting!" Lillie called for a move too, "Future Sight!"
The Crobat descended on her pokémon, clamping herself onto Merlin's arm. Unperturbed by just another thing Biting him, in spite of the super effective damage, he succeeded in foreseeing the Future Sight attack. 'Now to get Merlin's special attack even higher for when it hits!', she thought, proud of herself. "Nasty Plot!", she directed. Kau'i looked at her, confused and slightly annoyed, while her Crobat continued Biting her Slowking's arm. 'Why's she looking at me like that?'
Merlin began to meander around the field, twiddling his claws behind his back as he Plotted for the coming Future Sight attack. Crobat spat out the Slowking's left arm and Bit down onto his right, wearing down the hexpert pokémon further. Kau'i just raised her eyebrows like she had expected something obvious that wasn't coming. 'What am I missing?', she worried, but she didn't have the time to think on it. Before another Nasty Plot could compound onto the previous one, Kau'i's Crobat used one last Bite, no, one last Crunch to take down Merlin. Then, the Future Sight grabbed hold of the Crobat as she seemed to be crushed into a ball by thin air. Both pokémon collapsed and Lillie finally understood.
An unboosted Future Sight had easily taken down the Crobat. She could've ordered another Psychic-Type attack, like Eerie Spell, after Future Sight and taken out Crobat and Ariados! Kau'i knew that, but tried to win anyway. Lillie slumped. She may not have lost yet, but it already felt like a loss with such a massive blunder under her belt. Kau'i's Ariados was already waiting for her second pokémon, and she wasn't sure what to send out. With another panic driven decision, Lillie went for her Sylveon, Espy. He knew Stored Power and Swift, so he couldn't be a bad option, right?
Kau'i smirked in anticipation, ordering her Ariados, "Puppet master!" Lillie matched the mysterious order with a more direct one, "Espy, Swift!" Before the Swift stars Espy shot from his ribbons could hit the Ariados, their target had dropped into the floor with Shadow Sneak. Unable to course correct in time, the attack cut uselessly into the asphalt. Now on the complete other side of the field, the arachnid began shooting threads out of the field confines onto the fences, walls, and trees nearby to create a massive Spider Web stretching over the entire battle ground. At Lillie's hurried call, Espy pushed in, trying to disperse the Night Shade cloaking his enemy with a Fairy Wind, but the Poison-Type just shrugged off the attack and finally lifted himself up into the canopic network above the field.
Then, the Infestation began. Tiny spiders made of webbing trickled down from the ceiling Kau'i's Ariados had installed, surrounding Espy in moments. Kau'i was eyeing Lillie, waiting to see what she would do, if she would make a mistake again. "Quick Attack!", Lillie sputtered under the pressure of her gaze, not wanting to repeat her previous mistake. Espy pushed between the falling spiders at her command, taking scratches from each construct as he jumped his way up the onslaught with paws and ribbons. Before the Ariados could respond, Espy had struck him in his midsection.
"Dance then Sting!", Kau'i yelled up at the two, turning away from Lillie. Ariados stopped directly puppeteering his Infestation and began a swinging Swords Dance away from the invader and into his web. Both pokémon ambulated strangely around the nets of silk, turning over their own bodies as they stepped through all three dimensions available with their multitude of specialized limbs. With the acceleration of another Quick Attack, Espy crashed into Ariados, doing everything he could to keep up with the Bug-Type before he could crawl away. The Infestating constructs hadn't deteriorated yet, still clawing at Espy's smooth fur. The Ariados swung himself up a bit of thread and, like a trained Sniper, spat out a Poison Sting right at Espy when his mouth passed the right spot. The poison took hold.
Lillie knew this was a losing battle. She couldn't see where she'd gone wrong, but it was too late to recover. The only thing she could do was hold out for something lucky, so she went for the highest damage move Sylveon had, "Swift!" The stars sliced through the webs straight towards Ariados. "String cocoon.", Kau'i declared with a dramatic snap of her fingers. Between the approaching stars, String Shot out of the Ariados's mouth again. All at the same moment, both pokémon hit the ground and were hit by the other's attack. Swift buffeted the spider's shell, but didn't take him down, while the ball of silk threads exploded and Conricted around the ethereal creature Lillie had tried to lead to victory. The poison wore him down, and with one last cry as the constructs bit into him, Espy fainted.
"Sylveon has fainted, Lillie has no more pokémon that can fight, so Kau'i wins!", Professor Oak announced. Lillie sighed and returned Espy to his ball. Kau'i walked over and began talking, "Oak's right, you do need more battle experience. Your Sylveon knows Stored Power right?" The professor didn't like his title being dropped. Lillie was confused by the question. "Yeah... Why?", she asked. Kau'i explained herself, "One Calm Mind boost and Stored Power could've destroyed my Ariados, though your Marowak probably would've done even better." Lillie hung her head, hiding her distraught expression that would've been clear with even just her eyes visible above the mouth cover of her jacket.
"You tricked me into setting up when I should've attacked and attacking when I should've set up.", she accused listlessly. Kau'i considered her words for a moment before saying, "Maybe the second time, sure, but the mess up with Future Sight was all you." Kau'i's words did not make her feel better. "Don't worry Lillie," the Professor chimed in, "this is exactly the kind of thing you're here for. Making decisions in the heat of the moment is an important skill, and you need to improve it." She wasn't so sure about that, so she just handed the professor the balls containing her injured teammates and moved over to where Faba was waiting for her.
In the meantime, she trained her other pokémon, except Nebby, with Faba's guidance. Kau'i had her Ariados use his Infestation puppets as training for the others. Not too long later, their pokémon were healed and Lillie was having another skirmish with Kau'i. They agreed that Lillie couldn't use Merlin in their matches, since he could win against all three of Kau'i's pokémon all on his own when she didn't screw up her orders. With a bit more experience under her belt, Lillie took Kau'i's advice about Marowak and pulled out a victory for their second match. A bit more training, a bit more waiting, and their third match came around and into full swing.
Her Ribombee, Ribbon, had gotten lucky with a Silver Wind and taken out Ariados without much trouble, but got revenge killed by the Crobat right after. Espy was now out to clean up the mess. "Calm Mind and Stored Power!", Lillie said, excited to win again. Kau'i wasn't scared though, biting her lip with her canine in excitement for whatever she had planned. Lillie didn't like it, but she was confident she wasn't going to fumble around and slip up this time. Kau'i's Crobat sent a Swift up into the sky without any input from Kau'i, not a good sign, while Espy used Calm Mind. Lillie began to bite her lip too, for the opposite reason Kau'i seemed to.
As Sylveon got into position for Stored Power, Kau'i screamed like a school girl who just got a great present, "ACID DOWNPOUR!" The girl cackled as she went through the Poisonium Z dance, Professor Oak staring on in shock. First came the basis for all z dances; Her arms formed an X shape in front of her face, then swung out in an oval, and back in to make the fist on top of fist pose. Then she turned to her left slightly and raised her left hand up while making wriggling claw motions and lifting her left foot, finally going into a deep lunge forward with her right foot and drawing her arms out as if ripping a piece of meat in half. The yellow and orange light cascaded out of her and right into her Crobat, and somehow, Kau'i stayed conscious.
Her Crobat's Poison Fangs shot a dark purple liquid out like cannons up into the sky and down in waves onto the ground. Professor Oak fumbled for a poké ball at his hip, an Alolan Exeggcutor joining him to hold back the tide from leaving the limits of the battlefield. Espy was not so lucky. The Acid Downpour scouring the Sylveon's skin was pouring down like rain as its waves roiled around, getting caught in his mouth and eyes. As the Z-Move dissipated, the poison stopping its endless flow from the Crobat's fangs, and Sylveon seemed to pull through to land a Stored Power, a cluster of stars fell from the sky. The Swift attack knocked Espy to the ground, and the fight was over.
"Lillie's pokémon can no longer fight, Kau'i wins!", the professor shouted as the psychic barriers fell away and the students watched in awe. Lillie stood still while everyone crowded around Kau'i, asking her about the Z-Move. Almost everyone did, at least. "Come now Lillie," Faba said, "you need some rest." With a sigh and an affectionate nuzzle from Nebby, she followed Faba back to her dorm room.