The stars shone down over the dark nightscape, cheap lights of all kinds strung up between the nonfunctional fixtures built with the foundations of the stolen town. The graffiti coated walls of Po Town loomed, concealing the revelry of Team Skull's base. Rich walked me along the rotting dock, twisting around upturned nails and broken boards, until we reached a metal gate. The fencing had clearly once been all shiny and fancy, but had since been bent, twisted, and tarnished by its new custodians. Leaning into a dip in the gnarled gate, a Pancham copying him beside, a Team Skull grunt eyed us.
"Rich, who's the kid?", the grunt questioned. "Adam, Kau'i. Kau'i, Adam. She's a new recruit, was living in my spot on Poni; I told you about that spot, didn't I?", Rich explained. "Huh, well big sis is sleepin', you'll wanna visit big bro in the Skull House to get her up to speed.", Adam said. "Gotcha, will do.", Rich responded. Adam seemed satisfied, but his Pancham still looked ready to gut punch me at a moment's notice.
We walked through the gates of Po Town's docks and down the colorfully spray painted sidewalks and streets of the stolen suburb toward the Skull House. Along the way, we passed other grunts who greeted Rich, houses lit by house parties going on through the night, grunts passed out in the street with their pokémon out of their balls caring for them, and an entire assortment of pokémon.
There were plenty of Zubats, Golbats, Drowzees, Hypnos, Ratatas, Raticates, Salandits, Fomantis, and Spinaraks but what caught my eye were all the ones I didn't expect to or had never seen. A small blue frog and a floating pustule of gas danced with a boy at a party. A jack-o-lantern with ephemeral dark violet leaves and a cute face stood guard over a young woman asleep in the bushes. A strange, purely purple Grimer and a small blue and pink floating squid followed as their trainer snuck up behind another grunt to prank them, mischief on all of their faces. While they were distracted by a Kakuna using String Shot at them, an adorable but malicious cat swiped the wallet from one grunt and brought it back to its master. All the new things filling my brain and the lack of sleep I'd had since being in Malie made me dizzy; I was still young and full of energy but even kids have a limit.
Rich practically dragged me past the sights of Po Town. Before I realized it, I was pulled through a sprawling and trashed estate to the doors of the Skull House. Rich simply pulled the door open and walked in. I cleared my head for a moment, then followed him. The already eclectic home had had its contents scattered, as if a tornado had blown through only the inside of the house. With the moves some pokémon could use, I was sure that was at least close to the truth. A grunt was asleep on a couch laying on its back in the foyer and another stared distantly at their reflection in a cracked mirror. My friend guided me through the maze of a mansion, up the stairs, down a littered hallway, and moving furniture out of a blockade to carve a path for our visit with the big bro. The whole way we saw other grunts in variable states of unconsciousness. Finally, Rich approached a grunt guarding a door with a scowl painting his face.
"You know the deal bro, passwords.", the grunt said. "Dude why do we still do this shit?", Rich complained. "What's the boss's favorite ability?", asked the grunt, unbothered. "Intimidate.", came the first answer. "Who's his most hated kahuna?", the grunt went on. "Hala.", Rich matched. "How's the boss fix a problem?", was the grunt's last question. "Give it a nice hard smack!", Rich answered. The grunt took on a taunting look, "You sure about that?" "Of course not!", Rich responded. I looked up at him, shock evident on my face. Then the grunt laughed, "Come on in boneheads, no yes men here are there?" Rich chuckled, "There totally are, they just don't get to see big bro Guzma!" The two fistbumped, and the grunt stepped aside, giving a comedic bow as we passed into the room of Team Skull's boss, Guzma.
"Big bro! Brought a new member back from Poni, she needs to get up to speed.", Rich explained immediately, taking a familiar and friendly tone with the boss of his Team. Guzma clearly understood his favorite ability, he loomed over the room in a purple velvet chair, his outfit making him appear as if both the silhouette and the blinding light that casts it. The big bro of this town of outcasts lowered his head from the confident upturned position it had been in to look down at me.
"What's ya name kid? You tired?", Guzma asked me, because he cared. "Kau'i, and yeah I'm tired.", I told the man. "Alright Kau'i, you'll show your stuff tomorrow to stake your claim as part of the Team. You got a pokémon, yeah?", he asked. "A Zubat, Kawami.", I answered. "Good, good. For now, howzabout you go down the street to our big sis's place? Should be a good place to sleep there.", he finished. I nodded, already losing the focus I'd forced on to meet Guzma. Guzma leaned back in his throne, threw an ultra ball up into the air and let it fall back in his hand. "Good luck, kid.", he said before Rich turned and we left the room.
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When I woke up, a girl around the same age as Rich was squinting at me less than a foot from my face. I recoiled back into the couch cushions, and the girl chuckled. "So you're the new kid Rich was speaking of? I do not see it.", she said in a strange accent that I only recognized after a moment as Kalosian. She had long magenta braids sticking out of the sides of her head and a ratty outfit in the classic Team Skull white and black.
"Kau'i. Nice to meetcha.", I said dryly. "Eva.", she replied in a similarly astringent tone. I lifted myself from the couch and released my partner to accompany me. "A Zubat? He said you were from Poni, are the Golbat colonies there not as fearsome as I heard?", Eva said, just a bit impressed. I ignored her and walked out to the streets of Po Town, but Eva stayed next to me, examining Kawami.
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"Where am I supposed to go? I'm still not technically in, and big bro wasn't clear what I'm doing to get in.", I asked, since Eva was following me anyway. "You're not in, Guzma isn't your big bro yet.", she said, then sighed, "There are fields behind the Skull House for that. Just go there." I traced the half-remembered path from the big sis's lodge to the Skull House, Eva breaking away down the correct path when I missed it. The streets of Po Town were much less hostile in the daytime, though still clearly the territory of a Team of thugs. The more friendly members of Team Skull tended to stick to a typical diurnal schedule.
When we reached the fields behind the Skull House, a tall woman stood on a lifeguard tower. She had four long ponytails, one pink and one yellow on each side, coming down from custom skull shaped hair clips, an extra stylish set of black and white clothes, and a pink Team Skull insignia tattooed on her lower stomach. She yelled down at the grunts practicing on the fields with their pokémon, "WELL DUMMIES!? DO YOU THINK YOU'RE POKÉMON ARE READY FOR TAKING ON ME, TEAM SKULL ADMIN PLUMERIA?!" "NO BIG SIS!!!", came the response from the grunts, affirming their boneheadedness in the traditional Team Skull way.
Eva looked up at the big sis of Team Skull with admiration until I broke her out of her stupor. "So what do I actually do?", I asked her. She flinched, astonished by my words, then composed herself and said, "You shouldn't know until you're in the middle of it, but I can tell big sis that you need to do your initiation." I gave her a quick nod and she moved toward Plumeria's lifeguard tower. She shouted up, "PLUMERIA! WE HAVE AN INITIATION TO DO!" The admin looked down, saw Eva, then looked at me, and she cupped her hands into a megaphone around her mouth. "TAKE FIVE IDIOTS!! WE'RE HAVING A NEWBIE SHOW HER STUFF! YOU HEARD ME, CLEAR THE FIELD!", she yelled like a thuggish drill instructor.
The grunts scattered away to the edge of the dirt field, kicking up a cloud mixed with half finished attacks. Plumeria climbed down from her platform and moved through the crowd, looking for someone. I positioned myself at one end of the field in anticipation, hand prepared to command Kawami forward. Finally, she had found someone who met her mysterious criteria, and a blue-haired girl, just around island challenge age, in fresh-made Team Skull garb was pushed by Plumeria into the position at the other end of the field. "Now you kids battle.", the admin said, before we even knew eachother's names.
I was prepared for that, and Kawami was on the field in an instant, but my opponent was sputtering. Finally, she chucked her pokéball out and a Fomantis appeared on the ground, hesitant to move in toward my pokémon. "Supersonic!", I ordered. Kawami dived in and screamed out at the sickle grass pokémon, confusing it. The Fomantis just stood, wobbling a bit, as its sickles and eyes grew sharper. I didn't recognize its use of Growth, and continued ordering, "Astonish, Supersonic if it breaks out of confusion. You got this!"
Kawami once again dived in at the Fomantis, this time shouting and showing a grim snarl to Astonish it. "Leafage Fomantis.", the girl requested, and the Fomantis complied. A small swarm of leaves was launched from Fomantis's sickles, cutting into Kawami's purple fuzz.
I pointed down as she was struck and when she saw it, her fangful grin widened. This was one of the strategies we'd already worked out on the ship, a simple one. When she was hit, she would act out falling out of the sky, then swoop just above the ground towards the attacker to Astonish the enemy, which I hoped would result in a higher chance to induce a flinch or critically hit. Kawami did as planned, the purple bat went into a downward spiral as she was hit, then flashed across the field and released an Astonish right into the Fomantis's face, causing it to flinch. The plan had worked!
"Again! Take every opportunity you can!", I manically ordered. Kawami fit another Astonishing sweep into her flight plan before the Fomantis recovered. Its mind was still spinning with confusion, but its shock had worn off and it send forward another Leafage at its trainer's request. I didn't point down this time, so Kawami stayed in the air darting around her target after the leaves found their mark. Both sides were starting to look bad, but my precious Zubat looked just a bit worse. If neither side's strategy changed, Rich's analysis from the day before would become reality.
"More defensive! Astonish the leaves away!", I told Kawami, shifting gears. She bobbed an affirmative, then went in for another dive. Before she could get to it, the Fomantis snapped from its confusion and sent forward another Leafage between itself and Kawami. Acting on my new orders, she suddenly flipped upside-down mid flight, Astonishing the Leafage out of her way and striking the Grass-Type in the process. Another Leafage followed her ascent away, but again she deflected the attack. All the while, the Fomantis's trainer just stood across from me, cheering her pokémon on. It was infuriating.
"Another Supersonic, then back to it.", I updated Kawami on what needed doing. She scrambled to screech again in the mantis's ear, but a Leafage interrupted her plans. Several more times she tried to approach but had to send out a deflective Astonish. This dragged out to the point some of the crowding trainers had wandered away from spectating, until finally she pushed through at the right time and a wave of Supersonic sound splashed over the Fomantis once more. A quick Leafage sprung from the confused Fomantis, striking Kawami in the side from her position next to the grounded Fomantis. I pointed down.
Kawami fell over, face down on the ground. Some of the audience stirred, assuming the battle was over, but me and the other trainer both knew better. Fomantis took a stumbling step toward Kawami, then Kawami took her chance. She suddenly burst up and into the Fomantis's face, Astonishing Fomantis and again causing it to flinch. Kawami flew around the enemy, making a series of her most appalling faces to Astonish the Fomantis again. It raged, sending a Fury Cutter out, but stumbled and cut itself instead. It looked ready to faint.
Kawami swooped away, moving around the dazed pokémon until it lost sight of her. Then she struck with an Astonishing scream from right behind Fomantis, just as I had ordered with a subtle pat on my shoulder. The Fomantis cried out, then fell on its side unconscious from the critical hit. The blue-haired girl returned her partner.
"Congratulations Kau'i, you're now a sister of Team Skull.", Plumeria said from her referee position at the side of the field. I had been so entranced I hadn't noticed her there at all. Kawami saw my joyous face and wrapped herself around it. I ripped her away, spat out her fur, and offered a handshake to my big sis. She took it gladly.