As we labored our way down the Ancient Poni Path, taking a long detour to avoid the immediate area around Hapu and Hama's Ranch, I chit-chatted with Rich. He gave me advice about battling, something Hama and Hapu refused to do once I actually had a pokémon. When I told him what moves Kawami knew already, he was very visibly dumbfounded. "You'll be gambling on getting your opponent to hit themself or flinch. Kawami is going to have alot of trouble in battles, you'll have to train her mostly out of battles to get her to a decent level of power.", he explained to me. "I can do that, no problem!", I said to him, but he just shook his head and kept walking. We talked more about what to do in battles, basic training, and strategy. Even though he wasn't the most experienced trainer, his advice had given me a leg up I didn't have before.

We had just started talking about Rich's early days with his Drowzee, Howey, when a wild pod of Exeggcute rolled in front of us. Seeing this, Rich tried to move around them, but they wouldn't have it. The psychically linked seeds floated up into the air, forming a Reflective screen to block our path. While Rich fumbled for Howey's pokéball, I called for Kawami to move in.

The Zubat positioned herself between the Exeggcute and where me and Rich had stopped on the trail. As she flapped defiantly, one Exeggcute swirled the liquid in its cracked open shell, Absorbing Kawami's energy. She staggered, but at that moment Rich sent out Howey and dragged away the attention from the frazzled bat. "Poison Gas!", Rich called out to his partner. The Drowzee spewed a cloud of Poison Gas from his nose out at the eggs and they began to retch and choke. I hesitated, but Kawami took that moment to swing through the ineffective cloud and shriek a Supersonic at the Exeggcute. She went wide, missing her targets and being forced to flee. Tired of the exchange of weak attacks, Howey wagged his fingers and twisted the space around the Exeggcute with Confusion, causing them to fall to the ground. The Exeggcute spun in place, not confused but again Absorbing energy, this time from Howey. I called out and Kawami swooped down once more, right at the Exeggcute, Astonishing them. The supposedly super effective move barely did anything to the pod of hardy seeds.

Howey was bored, he could defeat this enemy easily. He looked up at Kawami, trying her best to deal with the enemy, and a mischievous grin cracked his face. He stepped forward and wagged his fingers to and fro in the Exeggcute's faces, and the assailants fell under his Hypnosis. Rich chuckled, "He wants Kawami to practice on the Exeggcute. He'd win anyway." Kawami and I lost our composure for a moment before I shook my head and told my plan to my partner, "Astonish repeatedly, Supersonic when it wakes up Kawami." Kawami flung herself up and down through the air, flinging Astonishing energy at the Exeggcute with each dive. After the second dive, Exeggcute stirred and tried to send a Confusion at its attacker, but the move was counteracted by Howie's own Confusion before it was put to sleep once again with Hypnosis. Kawami had no time to act on the second half of my plan. The fight continued like this, for almost a minute Kawami dipped down to Astonish the immobile or impotent Exeggcute until finally the seeds rolled onto their sides, unconscious.

I wrapped Kawami in a hug and Rich patted me on the back. Howey just stood there snootily looking down at the fainted pokémon, basking in the victory he was able to secure almost entirely through the damage of a low level Zubat's Astonish. "You're first battle with me and you won!", I congratulated, "Gambling my butt, that was strategy and skill. We can totally make you an opponent worth fearing!" The comment caught Rich in the chest, but he recovered quickly. "She should be better at handling her moves now, but she's still a fresh catch. You'll need to train her positioning and movement if you want to make that strategy work without your opponent being in a coma. Even then, I think a Komala has a damn good chance against her.", Rich explained. "Thanks Rich, now let's get going!", I yelled excitedly while Rich hopped on one foot, fumbling in his bag for a potion.

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We snuck through the Seafolk Village in the dark of night, past the hearty tree at the village's center, to a somehow even more poorly maintained pier jutting into the waters. Rich grinned down at me as I took in his vessel. An otherwise quite impressive speed boat floated, painted black above the waterline in what was clearly not boat paint. A sloppy, graffiti styled skull and crossbones marked the side of the boat, cut off at the bottom by the improper paint being washed away into the sea. A colorful tag across the stern marked it as The Stolen Booty.

I met Rich's grin with a concerned frown. "I have several questions.", I said. "I was hoping you were done with questions.", he sighed. "First, what's with the paint?" He sighed again,"Look, boat paint is expensive. Hell! Normal paint is expensive! Team Skull isn't exactly flush with cash." I looked at him disbelievingly, "It's a speed boat.", I stated. "Po Town used to be a rich people's gated playground. Anything that got left behind when we took over, they got paid their insurance money for and we got to keep. Now, it's Rich's people's gated playground.", he answered with a smug smirk. "Okay… final question about the boat; Why The Stolen Booty?", I asked. Still with that obnoxiously smug look on his face, he said, "Is it that hard to put together Kau'i?"

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The Stolen Booty pulled quickly out of the village, rocking the ships around it. Off the side of the ship I spotted a trainer riding atop a Magnezone, using Flash to illuminate the dark Poni Wilds. I looked back at the Seafolk Village, and a familiar man riding a Honchkrow landed on the rickety settlement. Neither of them looked my way. A prescient feeling of worry gripped me.

I entered the helm and hopped up into the seat next to Rich. Rich held the controls in one hand, resting his cheek in his other hand, elbow propped on the nearest surface. He turned slightly to look at me. "Just a couple of hours, we'll be on Ula'Ula and you'll meet the Team!", he said. I released Kawami and dragged her down to hug, then mouthed out the words, "I saw people looking for us. Hapu and Hama are gonna keep looking for us." Kawami could hear the tiny sounds of my mouth moving, and gave me a serious nod to show she understood. I just held her closer.

As we jetted on across the seas of Alola, I did not doze. The events of my first trip to Ula'Ula were still fresh in my memory, and it shocked me to think this all had happened over the course of a few days. One day, I was hopping houses like normal and before I knew it I had a pokémon at my side and was joining up with the no-good Team Skull. My eyes drifted across the open water, seeing the glimmer of countless aquatic pokémon's glinting scales. 'Didn't Gerald have pokémon to escort his boat so wild pokémon don't attack?', I idly thought. Suddenly, the boat lurched.

An awful sound echoed below our feet. Rich's arm jerked out from under him and his face slapped into a flashing panel of warnings and controls. I sent Kawami forward like a street performer with a Pidove, except that Kawami was significantly less elegant. Rich groaned and tapped his pokéball to release Howey, then slipped down off the chair and out of view. Upon coelessing from the red light of the ball, Howey immediately snapped his head down to a spot on the floor, as if peering through the ship into the water below, and shivered in fear. A translucent, haunting figure slipped upward into the air from the side of the boat, Howey's head tracking its ascent. What looked to be a humanoid jellyfish approached, its form melting into the air from the lack of the usual miles of water it lived under. The pale, ghostly blue Frillish let out a blubbering wail that made my body shiver uncontrollably.

I stammered, attempting to give Kawami a plan to combat the pokémon I didn't recognize, but Howey stepped in. He was shivering too, but he wouldn't stand down so easily. A Poison Gas moved toward Frillish, but it just sent its own almost invisible Poison Sting through the cloud. Howey pressed on, unbothered, while the Frillish gurgled unnervingly at its poisoned state. I regained a bit of composure, seeing the Drowzee's march forward, and called to Kawami, "Supersonic!" She tried to confound the ominous intruder, but it only made the thing more angry. It spun its body around, dripping with the dark determination of an abyssal creature, and the sky formed dark billowing clouds that summoned forth a chilling rain. For just a moment, Frillish's anguished expression turned to a frightening glee.

As Howey again ritualistically twirled his hands for a Confusion, Frillish just stayed in the warping of space that was formed. Although it looked hurt, Frillish wasn't any less determined, and the reason why soon became clear. As Howey's Confusion ended, the energy left his fingers and he looked down at his hands in disbelief. Because of Frillish's Cursed Body, Howey could no longer use Confusion. Again I called to Kawami, "Astonish it!" She dove again, low and then pulling up right in front of the Frillish's face. The Astonish struck true, but its target didn't flinch at the sudden attack. The Frillish stared at the pesky bat that had dared attack someone clearly out of its station, and seemed to glow. I yelled, "DEFLECT THE ATTACK!" as a Water Pulse tore through the air at Kawami. She spun in a frightful motion and let out Astonishing Ghost Type energy at the rain enhanced Water Pulse. It deflected to her left, clipping her wing and dealing significant damage. Any other pokémon would have flinched, but Kawami just glared with a look of Inner Focus and soared in for another attack. It was at that moment that Howey won us the fight. Stepping forward, his eyes glowed a sharp blue as he Disabled Frillish's Water Pulse. As Frillish frustratedly writhed in the hold of Drowzee's Disable, trying to use Water Pulse again, Kawami screeched a Supersonic into the back of its head. It thrashed out, confused, only hitting itself with its barbed tendrils. Now it looked bad. "Astonish it.", I told Kawami simply, and she did. The poison having wracked its body from the start of the fight, the damage it had taken was too much. Again it flailed, knocking itself unconscious.

A clang sounded and Rich popped out of a hatch near the controls, covered in sealant and drenched up to his knees with seawater. He looked over at me, Howey, and Kawami and hoisted himself out from deep within the Booty. "That little shit tried to sink us! Ugh!", Rich cursed. I gave him the stink-eye. "How was I supposed to prepare for a Frillish coming up from its freaky trench and attacking us!? Stinkin' Ghost Types.", he defended himself. "Frillish? Huh.", I murmured. He stomped back to the warning lights, still mostly blaring but somewhat reduced it seemed, and called to Howey as he stuck his face into the paneling. "Get the water out of the boat, will ya Howey? I know you can handle it.", he said, more like it was a necessity that Howey would handle rather than a belief that he could. The Psychic type huffed out of his long nose, cracked his knuckles like a stressed pianist, and lowered himself into the hatch.

I grabbed Kawami's leg, tugging her close to me, and exploded, "You did great! Your Astonish was great, I mean that deflection wow! And how'd you not flinch from that Water Pulse? It was amazing! Supersonic was perfectly timed! Well, the second one was. Still, what you did right here can become what you get right in every fight! We'll work on getting your enemies to flinch more, also your positioning and dodging. Wait. HEY RICH WHAT OTHER MOVES CAN ZUBAT LEARN?" Rich hummed a thought in the distance before I heard a crash and he began to swear. Kawami was flying skiddy-wonk around me with her battered wing, not understanding everything I'd said, but already trying to position herself better against an invisible enemy. My blood ran thick and hot.

After an hour repairing the ship and another hour sailing, Rich had brought us to the docks of Po Town. I had spent the rest of the journey animatedly talking with my favorite Zubat about our training plans, planning to learn two new moves, Hypnosis and Absorb. The levies and concrete walls towered over the dock, surrounding Po Town proper. Very soon, I'd be a Team Skull grunt.