Hope was the first one to notice the Team Skull grunts. She moved to the side of the group to block Lillie's line of sight, just in case, then she signed me about their presence.
"Criminals. Three. Nine o'clock."
We took a hard turn to the right as we walked through this dusty, ranch town, and I glanced towards the trio out of the corner of my eye as we did.
Immediately, I felt something stir in my chest.
The three Team Skull grunts were familiar; they were the same ones Lillie had beaten before. There was the blue-haired one, the pink-haired one, and the short, heavy set guy. Each grunt had their Pokémon out or were gesturing wildly at a cornered Vulpix. The white-furred Alolan variant had its side pressed against the wall, and it was baring its teeth in defense.
“Definitely join my team! We’ll be the strongest in the world!” the blue-haired grunt said.
“Don’t listen to him! You’re too cute to get corrupted like that! Join me and I’ll make sure you stay utterly safe!” the girl with the pink-hair said.
“Please,” the heavy one said with a scoff, “I know what you want. Come with me. I’ll make sure you never go hungry again.”
Each one of them stepped an inch forward, and the Vulpix pressed itself even tighter against the wall.
“Do we move in?” I whispered.
“Lillie should take care of them again,” Hope replied.
Lillie suddenly looked up at us and glanced around. Her head tilted to the side in confusion.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
We gestured towards what was going on, and Lillie’s expression immediately hardened. Nothing else needed to be said before she pulled Nebby out of her pack and stared unerringly forward.
“I can handle it,” she said without a trace of emotion in her voice.
Lillie crouched down on the ground to whisper something to the floating Cosmog. He also tilted his head to the side, but when Lillie finished speaking, Nebby gained a wide smile and giggled.
“Ready when you are,” she said.
Nebby didn’t move; instead, he used Teleport to shift locations. From our position on the main, dirt road of this town, our group had an easy line of sight to where Nebby appeared behind the offending Team Skull trio. There was a moment’s pause, and then every single grunt and their Pokémon completely disappeared.
Did she just...?
The wild Vulpix went stock still when all of its aggressors suddenly vanished. The street around it now seemed completely and utterly silent.
That is, until Hope burst into laughter.
“Lillie!” she managed to squeak out through her giggles. “You can’t just do something like that!”
Hope pressed a hand to her stomach and wiped tears from her eyes with the other one. Nebby soon reappeared at Lillie’s side, and he looked up at all of us curiously.
Lillie's face turned bright red.
“We could have beaten them!” she said defensively. “But this was quicker, and Nebby could do it without getting hurt, so I thought it would be better to help Vulpix.”
I admit it was amusing to have seen those members of Team Skull handled so well, but my reaction to the event was a lot more subdued. “Just so you know, using Pokémon moves on unsuspecting trainers like that is technically illegal, so try to avoid doing that again.”
Lillie went pale, and I briefly asked where Nebby sent them. Apparently, according to Lillie, he had sent the grunts to the outskirts of town at her request. It’d be several minutes before they returned, and that was only if they ran.
The Vulpix, now realizing it was alone, finally processed the fact that this was a chance to get away. It started to run, and I eyed it carefully. It had no collar nor any signs of ownership about it, and, even more, it lacked anything to keep it cool in Alola’s hot environment.
“We have to help Vulpix, now. It’s too hot for an Ice Type to be comfortable around here on its own," I said.
“I agree. Lillie, any thoughts?” Hope asked.
Lillie looked like she wanted to run after the Vulpix, but I held an arm out to hold her back. Chasing it would only cause it to panic since we’d be following it just like Team Skull did. Instead, while Lillie was thinking, I sent out Whimsicott and bid him to follow.
(Now that he didn’t have to follow Lillie again, I planned to keep him on the team for a bit so we could travel together after spending so long apart. I missed him.)
As Whimsicott flew off into the sky to track the running fox, Lillie rubbed her chin.
“I think... you talked about this, right Alex?” Lillie asked. I nodded my head. “You said that knowing a Pokémon’s personality is key when interacting with them, but a species can influence behavior, too. Given what you said about the environment and how it was reacting to Team Skull...”
Lillie hummed and looked up, expression turning serious.
“It’ll probably be going to a dark place to hide and cool off. But I don’t think we should personally approach it either.”
After that, she looked around in confusion, finally noticing the Vulpix had run off.
“Wait! Where did it go?”
“It left, like you said. Don’t worry. Whimsicott is keeping an eye on it.”
Lillie nodded again, and she searched the sky, quickly locating where Whimsicott was hovering over Vulpix’s new location. He was a few buildings down, flying in a circle to point out one building beneath him.
Lillie ran. We followed. It didn’t take us long to move down a street to where Whimsicott waited. When we approached, he floated down to us and motioned for us to stop. This structure was slightly raised over the ground, and a gap in its foundation revealed a covered, empty space within.
“So, what’s the plan here, Lillie?” Hope asked in a low voice.
Lillie pulled out her marked Pokéball to send out Popplio and crouched down to better speak with the Water Type.
“Popplio, I need your help,” she said. In response, Popplio puffed up her chest, signaling she was willing to act. “There’s a Vulpix under that building, and we want to see if it's okay. If not that, we have to bring it out. The Vulpix won’t be comfortable in this hot weather, so we have to return it to its home. We have to help it.”
Popplio saluted her with a fin, and after a few more seconds of quiet discussion, the Water Type pulled itself along the ground to move under the house. We stayed back as the Pokémon entered the darkness, only resorting to whispers as we waited.
“So the town seemed kind of empty,” Hope commented.
“Probably Team Skull. I’ve noticed people try to stay away when they’re around,” Lillie said.
Minutes passed. Nothing changed. At one point, I heard a faint, echoing groaning that was likely the Team Skull trio returning only to find Vulpix gone. They didn’t approach, and we didn’t leave this space between the buildings to reveal ourselves. Eventually, we finally got a sign of progress.
Popplio came back out, but Vulpix wasn’t at her side.
“That’s not good,” Hope mumbled.
I sent her a glance. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what we could do now. I agreed with Lillie’s estimation that having a Pokémon interact with Vulpix was the correct choice, but if Vulpix was still intimidated enough to keep hiding, I wasn’t sure what steps we could take to convince it to leave.
“I think we should call the Aether Foundation,” Lillie suddenly blurted out.
It took all my effort to not shout “What!?” out of complete surprise.
“They... they’re really good at helping Pokémon,” she said quietly. “They provide therapy and other aid to Pokémon out of place like this. They don’t just work on cross-region species projects, they initially started as a rescue foundation before they expanded. It’s what they primarily did when I was really young.”
Lillie’s lips pressed together, and I caught the barest hint of a hardened gaze in her eyes that spoke of belief in her words, even though she had her doubts. Her mother, Lusamine, literally ran the foundation, and it was the organization Lillie had fled from because their research division planned to subject Nebby to cruel experiments.
But, when it came to helping a “common” Pokémon like this Vulpix, the Aether Foundation had no true competition. In a way, they were even better than Pokémon Rangers, since if a Ranger was here, they’d likely collect Vulpix only to drop it off on the appropriate mountain with only the occasional follow up.
I turned to Hope as Lillie stared off into the darkness under the house. An icy mist left the space, likely Vulpix using an Ice Type move or two to cool the place down. Hope sent me a look that told me she agreed, and while I didn’t trust the Aether Foundation in the slightest, I had to accept that Lillie, surprisingly, actually knew more about them than I did. She had the background to make this informed decision.
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“Okay,” Hope said, speaking for me since I didn’t trust myself to. “We’ll give them a call. But since they’re after you, we don’t want you to be here for that. Are you willing to go somewhere out of the way with Alex?”
Lillie nodded her head, and she picked up Popplio to hold in her arms. As for Nebby, he teleported up to sit in her backpack again. She didn’t even need to tell him to get in the bag.
“We’ll move to the edge of town to get some training in. Hope will stay here to make sure everything goes okay,” I said.
Lillie nodded a second time, and I mouthed “Thank you” to Hope. Hope picked up her Holo Caster to make a call, and Lillie and I moved down the road, heading to the edge of town to find a space to keep to ourselves.
----------------------------------------
Cutiefly, Eevee, and Popplio were all practicing together while Togepi and Tinkatuff sparred. I smiled as Tinkatuff easily used a recently learned Play Rough attack while Togepi rolled onto her back to dodge. Off to the side, that initial set of three Pokémon were using one another as target practice. They also had their independent goals, with Popplio attempting to turn Water Gun into Bubble Beam, Eevee working on the aim of his Shadow Ball and ranged moves as a whole, and Cutiefly working on getting another move in order: Stun Spore.
Everyone else with me stood on the boundary of this space between the trees, keeping an eye out just in case. Ninetales was pretending to sleep, but her head always pointed out towards the town, and Altaria and Whimsicott were practicing flying at high speeds close to the ground, but they were truly on patrol around the edge of the clearing. Florges was the only exception to this—she supervised the weaker Pokémon, ready to step in to heal if needed.
As Popplio managed to unleash a stream of bubbles, a successful demonstration of its intended move, Lillie silently stepped closer to me, with Nebby still in her arms.
“Do you think Vulpix will be okay?” she asked softly, staring intently at her Pokémon.
The Cosmog was pressing close to her body; it was clear he was trying to comfort her. Lillie kept looking over her shoulder back to the town, as if trying to see if she could make out any details of what was going on. However, we weren’t high up, and a combination of trees and the backs of buildings blocked any inward view.
“With what you said earlier? Definitely. When it comes to taking care of wild Pokémon, the Aether Foundation has the reputation as the best for a reason. I trust them to take care of this,” I lied.
I nodded my head, pretending to have faith in the Aether Foundation. Lillie didn’t need to hear my doubts. As it stood, with her worries, she needed to hear someone tell her that Vulpix would be alright.
Our training continued, with me encouraging Lillie to take a more direct role in giving Popplio advice. It worked; she ended up getting properly distracted. Minutes passed, nothing happened, then finally, I got a call.
When my Holo Caster rang, I stepped to the side and retrieved it from my pack, answering the call. I had expected Hope to come here personally to update us rather than call me directly, so I was a little caught off guard. When it clicked to signal the connection was made, a hologram of Hope’s face appeared above my wrist. She didn’t have any obvious emotion visible in her expression, but there was a look of mild worry to her eyes.
“Alex. Vulpix is fine, but I’m bringing a... guest your way.”
“A guest? Should I be concerned?”
“No, no.” Hope shook her head. “I actually think this might be a good thing?”
I frowned at her words, and the image of her face shifted slightly in what I could only guess was a shrug. There wasn’t any implication or hidden message in her words telling me I needed to get Lillie away. It seemed that this truly was more of a heads up than anything else.
So, I waved Whimsicott and Altaria over to ask for their help.
“Can you two guide Hope over here?”
I didn’t want to reveal our location over the call.
Both Whimsicott and Altaria saluted me before flying off. On the call, Hope thanked me before hanging up. A faint voice rang out from behind Hope, but everything cut off before I could tell who had spoken. It sounded like a woman’s voice, but I wasn’t sure exactly who.
“Ninetales,” I called out quietly. “Florges, too. Keep an eye out for anything untoward when our new guest arrives.”
They gave me subtle signs of acknowledgement as I moved back to Lillie’s side. As I did, the girl looked up at me, confused.
“Hope’s coming back, and she’s bringing someone with her,” I said.
“Who?” Lillie asked.
“I don’t know.”
Both of us turned towards the town at this point, waiting for Hope and whoever she was bringing to appear. It didn’t take long for them to arrive, and Lillie’s expression immediately brightened when she saw who it was.
Hope’s companion was unexpected; her companion was a higher-up of the Aether Foundation. The woman wore the classic Aether gold-and-white, but she had a custom, pastel pink turtleneck underneath. Upon seeing us, she adjusted her wide-framed glasses and sent a smile Lillie’s way. Hope hung back as the woman walked forward, taking steady, high-heeled steps into our clearing that caused her deep purple hair to bounce as she moved.
“Miss Wicke?” Lillie asked in surprise.
“Lillie. It’s good to see you.”
Unsure of the woman’s objectives, I moved to step in front of Lillie, but she shook her head.
“Miss Wicke helped me leave with Cosmog. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have met Professor Burnet.”
“And it seems that was the correct decision, too,” Wicke interjected. “I’m proud of just how much you and Nebby have grown.”
Lillie’s face went red, and in her backpack, Nebby held out one of his puffs and waved.
“And you must be Alex,” Wicke said. “Thank you for taking Lillie in.”
Wicke bowed her head. I slowly held up a hand.
Honestly, I was a little confused.
“It’s okay, there’s, uh, no need to thank me. Anyone would have done what I did if they were in my shoes.”
Wicke smiled at my words and moved closer to let her and Lillie talk more easily. Behind her, Hope looked absolutely bewildered, an expression that mirrored my own. I personally schooled my face upon realizing what I must look like, but Wicke had obviously already seen my initial reaction.
“How have you been, Lillie? I’ve been worried about you,” Wicke said.
“I’ve been amazing, Miss Wicke! Nebby is becoming stronger every day, and Popplio is great as ever! Oh, I have Popplio now, and Alex took me in as an apprentice!”
Lillie’s smile was wide, and Wicke looked satisfied with that explanation. However, Lillie almost immediately frowned when she finished talking, and she looked to Wicke in confusion.
“Wait, but how did you find us?” she asked.
“Lusamine and I watched the livestream of Alex's lecture back when you were in Melemele. We noticed you were there. It wasn't hard to put the clues together after that."
Lillie’s frown deepened but she nodded all the same. For me, I went stock-still while Hope stiffened a few feet away.
That was a warning, right? Lusamine was watching my lecture before she knew Lillie was there. That means she either knows about me or has an interest in me that’s probably spiked given recent circumstances.
Why? Is it just because she's keeping an eye on the League's representative? Or...
Anabel told me the Aether Foundation has records of what I revealed back on Sea Mauville. Lusamine definitely knows. Is that why she was watching the stream?
All of those thoughts slammed into my head in an instant as my mind ran a mile a minute. I was stuck frozen in place just going over, and likely overthinking, Wicke’s casually spoken words.
"Officially, I came here to oversee the retrieval of Vulpix, who we've been trying to locate for the past several days," Wicke explained. "She’s an improperly released Pokémon that the locals tried to catch themselves. Unfortunately, those attempts only served to scare her even more, but with your assistance locating her, the Aether Foundation will be able to help."
Lillie let out a sigh of relief. "That's good," she said.
"But truly, I wished to visit you to make sure you were safe. But, also...” Wicke smiled. “I have a gift for you to mark the start of your journey."
Wicke reached into a pocket in her skirt's side to pull a small object out. When she opened up her hand, a reduced Pokéball grew to full size.
"I noticed you haven't expanded your team," she said.
Lillie's eyes went wide.
"But— That's— I can't—"
Wicke stepped to press the ball into the palm of Lillie’s hand.
"This is the daughter of Lusamine's Clefable. Clefable would want you to be the one to train her little one."
Lillie went quiet. She stared at the ball.
"Clefable trusts me that much?" she whispered.
Wicke nodded. "She's your mother's Pokémon, after all."
Wicke released Lillie's hands to let her hold the ball on her own. Cautiously, Lillie tossed the Pokéball forward, and a small pink thing appeared on the ground.
A yawn. It blinked its eyes open and rubbed its head. The Pokémon almost looked like a perfect sphere, except it had two great, big, brown ears, a tuft of fluff on its head, and a puffy tail.
"A Cleffa," I said.
What I didn't say was how insanely jealous I was.
Lillie knelt down to interact with the Fairy Type Pokémon, who smiled when she approached. I could see Lillie’s heart melt in real time under the weight of Cleffa’s cuteness, and she beckoned both Cosmog and Popplio to approach.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch that scene for long. While Lillle was distracted, Wicke quickly moved over to take me aside. Both suspicious and curious, I didn’t resist, and Hope followed along.
"I’ll say it outright: Lusamine can track Nebby," Wicke said quickly.
I opened up my mouth to respond, but she held up a hand to stop me.
"She won't make any movements, but she plans to build up a case for custody. Legally, despite being Lillie’s parent, she doesn't have much of a case thanks to Lillie’s current standing as an active Pokémon trainer. Since she’s already registered, and now that she’s being escorted by a member of the League's elite, Lillie has the right to a level of independence few others can claim. However, if you mess up even once, expect employees of the Aether Foundation to move in. Please trust me. You won't want to mess with her lawyers if given the chance."
"Damnit," Hope swore. "It’s the Ultra Energy, right? The same stuff the Ultra Beasts are attracted to, she's able to track?"
"Something like that,” she said. “We have emergency systems that track Ultra Beasts that are also showing Nebby's presence. Lusamine has the data forwarded to her every hour,” Wicke said.
Hope swore again, and I did too. If there was ever bad news, that was definitely it.
"Are you on Lillie's side?" I asked.
"I am. What about you?"
I growled.
"I’ve been on her side since the start. I've only wanted good things for Lillie. Don't you dare imply I'm going to hurt her. Ask Kukui if you need to."
The glare Wicke sent me as I said that faded away, and she nodded, satisfied.
"Good," Wicke said, her expression softening. "I'm glad. For now, I plan to do my best to encourage Lusamine to focus on her other interests, instead. In the meantime—"
"She's insane, isn't she?" Hope asked. "This is the confirmation we were looking for."
Wicke’s mouth opened and closed, and she looked away, not willing to respond immediately. At this point, off to the side, a lot of the other Pokémon had approached the newly released Cleffa, and, of course, Togepi was the one leading Lillie’s new team member around. Lillie had a wide smile on her face at the sight of such a friendly chain of greetings, and we paused our private chat to watch for a few seconds before Wicke next spoke again.
"Lusamine isn't insane,” Wicke whispered hesitantly. “She's just.... obsessed?”.
"Obsessed with Ultra Beasts? Obsessed with beauty?” I asked. “Did you bring Cleffa over so she wouldn't cryogenically freeze her like other Pokémon she likes?"
Wicke's gaze snapped towards me, an appraising look over the information I just provided. She did her best to keep her expression neutral, but she was clearly wavering at my words.
"I can't answer that," she said. "But believe me, I'm doing my best. I mostly came here to warn you, but I also have a request."
"Yeah?" I asked.
"There's a boy—one with blonde hair kept pushed to the side. He wears black clothes more often than not."
"Gladion. Lillie's brother," I identified.
Wicke bit her lip.
"He won't approach if Lillie is here, but if you see him, can you do me a favor? He has a certain species of Pokémon with him—"
"Type: Null," I specified, much to the continued harm of Wicke's fraying nerves.
"Yes, and it needs some help. I managed to look into the files on its development, and I noticed you have something that might be able to help them." Wicke took in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second before opening them back up. "You have the Fairy Plate. You showed it off back in Sinnoh. I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to temporarily loan the item to Gladion and his Pokémon—"
"Is this because Type: Null was designed based on Arceus?"
That question proved to be the final straw. My third and probably the most extreme reveal served to cause something in Wicke to break. Her entire body slumped, and she rubbed her head. A long yet quiet sigh left her mouth, and she seemed to reluctantly accept whatever nonsense was going about me.
"I don't know how you know secrets like that, but if you haven’t publicly revealed it, it’s a point in your favor," she said. “How much have you ever shared?”
"Well, I did warn the League about Lusamine a few years ago."
That almost seemed to cause Wicke to deflate even further.
"W-well,” she said, pulling her skirt tight and doing her best to stand up straight once more. “Yes. The design was based around the Original One. Due to that connection, I hoped the plate could help Type: Null and therefore Gladion. I want him to know he has people that support him, too, and the plate is a powerful enough artifact that Type: Null should definitely react."
As it stood, Gardevoir currently wielded the plate, so I didn't have it on me. I’d have to ask him if he was willing to share, but knowing him, I doubted he would refuse upon learning of Gladion and Type: Null’s current circumstances. As it stood, there wasn't any weird teleportation going on with the Fairy Plate anymore, so temporarily handing it over was something definitely within my power.
"I'll think about it,” I said. “One of my Pokémon has it, and he'd have to be the one to decide whether or not to give it up. Alternatively, I could just tell Gladion Type: Null evolves with high friendship. That should be enough to help."
Wicke sent me a blank look, and she just shook her head.
"It’s revelation after revelation with you, isn’t it?” she said, sighing yet again. I pointedly ignored Hope nodding her head in agreement with Wicke’s words. “As it stands, there's only three Type: Null out there, and none of them have ever shown any sign of evolution. Why do you think they can evolve?"
I shrugged.
"I'm a Fairy Type specialist. It's my job to know esoteric things."
Wicke had nothing to say in response. In fact, she chose that moment to walk off, returning to Lillie’s side and refusing to speak to me further. I didn’t fail to notice her robotic movement and the way she almost strained her neck to not look my way.
"Lillie,” Wicke said. “My time here is up. I’ll need to return, now. It'll be suspicious if I'm away for too long."
Lillie looked up from where she was petting Cleffa, suddenly shocked as if she had forgotten Wicke was still here.
"Oh! Um, yes! Thank you!" Lillie shot up to her feet and brought herself down into a full, ninety-degree bow. "I promise I'll treat Cleffa well!"
Both Popplio and Cosmog imitated her movements, or, at least, they tried to. Popplio ended up falling flat on the floor, and Cosmog, only really being a head, just tilted in the air to float at a similar angle.
The sight was humorous, and Hope laughed. Wicke finally seemed to relax after everything else that happened. Walking forward, she smiled softly and brought up a hand. Lillie’s hair was rubbed affectionately, and her face gained a bright red blush.
"I know you will,” Wicke said softly. “You're quickly becoming a wonderful trainer."
Then Wicke turned to leave, and Lillie touched the part of her hair that was messed up. The Aether employee didn't say anything else to Hope and I, merely sending us a single glance, and she soon disappeared back into the town.
I clapped my hands once she was in town.
"So, a new Pokémon means new training methods. How about I talk about my experience raising Pokémon from a young age?"
Lillie stood at attention, more than willing to listen in, and I started another lesson to pretend that everything with Wicke hadn’t just happened.