Rock 4.6: Trial By Fire

  Kekoa

  March 1, 2020

  Your social media feed is filled with one story today. Some billionaire named Peter Steuben fled the island the moment he got a chance. His mansion was left empty. Some poor Kānaka Maoli families from the countryside came to the city during the mandatory evacuations. They stayed behind because they loved the country and couldn’t bear to leave it. At first, they were fine in the evacuation shelters. Then the governor closed those to help bail out the hotel business. The families couldn’t afford a hotel room and the wilderness still seemed too dangerous, so they decided to squat in an empty mansion.

  The lights came back. One family discovered their home had been eaten by a guzzlord. They refused to leave the mansion Steuben abandoned. He called the cops to have them evicted but scores of Team Skull members sat on the home’s lawn and dared the cops to advance.

  They didn’t. They’ve just barricaded off the property and trapped everyone inside. Trying to starve them out. That won’t work out for them. Skull can have flying types airlift supplies in for as long as needed. And every day it goes on is a day that the struggle of your people is in the news.

  Plumeria did great work. It’s illegal, but effective. Between her and the florges you’ve been questioning the hell out of what you’re doing here. If your path has any meaning. You think it still does. There has to be something Selene could do that she isn’t doing. People fawn over her as the savior of Alola. She’s been in press conferences with the governor and the military. If you had a champion who cared to talk about the things that matter, who would show up against the cops and military instead of for them, that would matter. You’ll talk more to Kanoa about it when you see her again. Soon you’ll be just by her family’s ranch and can just walk over to talk.

  You turn off your phone and look up at Kupuna. The carbink continues to stare at it. They were always supposed to be a short-term ally. You can’t turn them over to die so your only real options left are to keep them on the team or release them. Next trial VStar wants you to do is the fire trial on Akala. Kupuna will be really helpful for that. Then you’ll have to talk to them and see what they want. If they want to go you can have Cuicatl call Kukui and arrange for a release.

  *

  March 12, 2020

  You linger awkwardly at the edge of the arena while the crowd thins out. Kiawe’s in the middle talking with the eleven or twelve-year-old haole girl who won. You’re just far enough away that you can’t hear what they’re talking about. It gives you time to focus on the captain. Kiawe seemed like a giant in more when you lived in Paniola. He was always a skilled trainer for his age. Went on to beat the Island Challenge when he was eleven, became a captain at twelve. He looked good, too. Thin and as muscular as any thirteen-year-old. Kanoa had a crush on him. You thought you did. Thinking back on it you’re pretty sure you were just jealous that he got to be a boy. Guys don’t really do it for you.

  He’s still a captain years later. You wonder what he’ll do when he ages out. Go to college? Try to break in to the professional training world? You doubt it. He’ll probably stay at home and handle the family business. When the adults weren’t praising him for his training abilities, they were praising him for his ‘responsibility,’ whatever that meant.

  Kiawe pats the challenger on the back and starts walking over. When he reaches you he claps a hand on your shoulder and smiles warmly. “Kekoa, right?” He’s not wearing a shirt and he’s been sweating from the heat.

  Maybe you were jealous and crushing on him.

  “Yeah. Um, Kanoa tell me about you?” You look up to his face. Way up. He’s got to be, like, ten inches taller than you. Definitely still jealous.

  “Yes, she did. Good to see you again. Nalani still talks about you sometimes.” His younger sister. She’d been the third member of your little friend group with Kanoa. Neither of you were about to tell her what you thought of her brother. “You going to visit Paniola while you’re on the island? I’m sure my family would love to host you.”

  They wouldn’t care for you when you were kicked into foster care, but now they want to sit you down for dinner and act like nothing is wrong. Typical. Just like Jabari.

  “I’ll see if I can,” you tell him.

  “Good.” He removes his hand from your shoulder and steps back. “How are you doing these days?”

  “I’m fine.” You don’t really owe him more detail. “This will be my fifth trial.”

  “I saw.” He smiles. Not wickedly, because he still seems friendly, but you don’t think the smile means good things for you. “The dances will be a lot harder tomorrow. Kids on their first trial, whatever, the difference is that a hiker jumped in. You’ll be in for it.”

  You aren’t sure if making a joke out of your traditions, even for kids, is a good idea. He isn’t kidding that tomorrow will be tough, though. His matches are almost all filmed by somebody. There are detailed threads online breaking down the differences in dances each time. He has at least twenty differences he can pull from and a bag of tricks for distracting from the changes. Most people can’t tell the difference between the two dances at least two of the three times.

  Really, it’s impressive how much attention he’s made challengers pay to old marowak dances. Maybe he can afford a joke match here and there.

  “How was the park during The Blackout?” you ask. You still aren’t sure if you plan on helping Cuicatl with her capture mission. Might as well figure out how much damage you’d be doing.

  Kiawe shrugs. “Fine, really. The volcarona up north provided light and the fire-types on the mountain kept it warm. I spent most of my time keeping Paniola safe.” Oh shit. You really hadn’t thought about the damage there. Figured they were fine since there were two captains living in the town. He winks. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Kanoa and I kept everyone safe. It amounted to some property damage and lost livestock. Nothing that couldn’t be replaced.”

  Good. That’s good.

  “I won’t be keeping you much longer,” Kiawe says. “I have to get back home for the night. Good luck tomorrow.” He smiles. It’s a little less threatening this time, but not by much. “Can’t wait to see what you’re made of.”

  You shoot him your own cocky smile. “I won’t disappoint you.”

  “That’s my man,” he claps you on the shoulder one last time before heading off.

  My man. Hearing him of all people say it makes your stomach warm. The most masculine boy in your hometown thinks you’re a man. That’s cool, right? Yeah. It feels cool. Your spirits are lifted high enough you barely even notice the hike back down the mountain to the Center.

  *

  The beach by the Center is oddly empty. There are still a lot of people who haven’t returned to Alola yet. The tourists are also staying away for now since there are stories of rampaging predators. The plants died and a lot of herbivores are sick or dead. That leaves the carnivores desperate enough to think about attacking humans. It’s fine in northern Akala because of the volcarona. You hope that it’s calmed down a little bit before you get to the southern part of the island. Or that Cuicatl can send the predators away like she did the pangoro on Ula’Ula. Or just catch them. She loses a keokeo and immediately gets to work on getting a golisopod. At least she has the money to support her pokémon’s diet now.

  Your eyes wander over to her by the waterfront. Coco and Ihe are challenging the waves. The bird shrieks at the water like he can scare it into staying away. He’s rewarded by a wave crashing over his talons and digging them deeper into the sand. The tyrunt isn’t really fighting the ocean as much as splashing around in it. She swings her tail and a spray of water strikes her trainer on the beach. Cuicatl just laughs.

  She’s loaded now but she still wants to work for VStar. You can’t understand that for the life of you. Figured she would’ve started soapboxing for Plasma the second she could afford to do it. Instead, she’s doing the complete opposite. She turns back towards you and gestures for you to come on and join her. You don’t really want to take another shower today and you’d have to if salt water got on your legs. Even feeling water running along all your curves is better than feeling crusty all night.

  You still have to talk to her. You’ve put this talk off long enough. After a press of a button Kupuna appears beside you. You nod to her and start walking towards Cuicatl. A glance back shows that she’s drifting along behind you. “Hey,” you call out when you reach the edge of the surf. Cuicatl looks towards you and smiles.

  “Finally joining us?”

  “I’d rather not get wet.”

  She nods and turns back to the waves. Suddenly Coco jumps out of them and lunges for Ihe. The rufflet jumps into the air and flutters back before screeching at his surrogate sister. Coco lowers herself to the ground and starts growling at your pokémon. You’d be worried if she wasn’t wagging her tail behind her like a puppy.

  You’re not stoked for this. It was easy enough to get the inkay to leave. They were homesick and didn’t want to leave the island with you. Good. You really didn’t want a malamar and even the little inkay was more trouble than they were worth. Carbink’s more your speed. Doesn’t need a lot of attention. You’d miss them.

  “Do you mind translating for me?” you ask. “Beach is clear.”

  “Which pokémon?”

  “Kupuna. The carbink.” You aren’t sure how much attention she pays to your team. You’d hope a lot but she has her own to manage. And her pokémon are a lot more high-maintenance than yours. Except for Noci. The metang is fine. They’ve even stopped trying to spy on you while you piss.

  “I can do that, yeah? She out?”

  “They,” you correct her.

  She just shakes her head and smiles. “You know she doesn’t care, right? She’s a rock.”

  “Yes, that means she has no gender. They/them.”

  “Fine. They out?”

  “Yeah.” Kupuna flaps her ear tuft into her body as her own little ‘yes.’

  “Alright, one second.” Her face scrunches up in focus. Weird. She usually doesn’t need to prepare at all for translations.

  “She doesn’t have any idea what sex or gender are,” Cuicatl says. “Doesn’t care what you call her by.” Come on? She’s trying hard to justify misgendering a Pokémon. Cuicatl’s seemed cool about you being trans since the last time you were on Akala, but now you’re wondering if she’s just been acting polite about it. Cuicatl glances in your direction. “I don’t care about trans people. I just think you’re being silly about this.”

  “About the carbink?” you ask. She’d better be saying you’re being silly about the carbink and not about being trans. And it’s always a little creepy when she literally reads your mind.

  {Yes, about the carbink. And if you’re thinking that loudly about me while I’m right here I will overhear it.}

  You’ll let it go for now. Still don’t like how much effort she’s putting in here.

  “Whatever. Can you ask if they want to stay with me after the trial tomorrow or if they want to go home?”

  “Yeah, give me a second.” She doesn’t say anything else. Probably doing it all in her head for some reason. Not sure why. You already told her there’s no one here. “She’s—they’re confused,” Cuicatl finally says. “They said that you just caught them. Why do you want them to go back already?”

  “I caught them weeks ago. Not yesterday.”

  She’s quiet for a while longer. Coco and Ihe end their hissing match and bound back towards you. Ihe hops to your side and Coco stops right in front of you. Does she want a treat or something? “Don’t have anything. Sorry.” Cuicatl looks over to you. “Was talking to Coco, not you.”

  She keeps on looking at you. “Alright, I’ve talked to Kupuna some more and, uh, it might as well have been yesterday for her. For them. They’re a rock. Time works differently for them.”

  You look at Kupuna. Really look at them. Their crystals have little nodes of light in them that look like dim stars. Is that just a trick of the light? What even are they, really? Birds, bugs, mammals, you kind of get them. Rocks and ghosts… you should really try to learn more about how Moe and Kupuna think. Could save you trouble down the road.

  “Do they want to leave after the next trial, though?”

  Cuicatl closes her eyes. If you didn’t know better you’d think she was just relaxing to the sound of the waves. “No,” she says. “They want to stay for a little bit longer. Humans have strange things they want to study.”

  Strange things to study. You can work with that. Show them some more electronic devices. Maybe even a TM machine. Just have to make sure they don’t break anything important. So far Kupuna’s been fine observing without touching. Hopefully that continues.

  Out of the corner of your eye you see Moe drifting back. You’d trained this morning and given her the afternoon to feed. You wave her over for your evening check in. She can do whatever she wants when you don’t need her, but she always comes back at dusk and dawn. Sometimes she sticks around for a while.

  Something seems off about her as she gets close. The colors are a little bit wrong. That might just be the light. No. Up close you can see the real change: she’s a little bit bigger than you were expecting. And if she’s growing, that means that she’s going to evolve soon. Pride fills your heart. She’s doing great. And you helped. You hold out your hand for a high five. “Way to go.”

  She stares at it awkwardly before drifting over and nudging her body against it.

  *

  March 13, 2020

  It’s weird having a trial in front of an audience. The bleachers are maybe a third of the way filled. Makes it easier. Maybe even a good lesson in fighting in front of crowds. You can do this. Kiawe stands in the center of the arena with his arms folded across his chest. Beside him is a tall, fit man in athletic clothing. His assistant, officially. The internet isn’t sure if they’re a couple or just friends. Three marowak surround them. The mime sr. that keeps the arena safe is lurking awkwardly at the edge of the makeshift arena. Just like you were yesterday. The bleachers and surrounding ground are hard rock. In the center of the arena is a wide patch of soft volcanic soil. You don’t know if it was always like that or if years of earthquake attacks have worn it down.

  Kiawe raises a hand and the chatter in the stands quiets down. “Good afternoon.” He doesn’t have a mic but his voice carries just fine. “Thank you for attending the second trial of the day. My name is Kiawe and I am the trial captain of Mauna Wela. Joining me are my assistants. The marowak are ‘ōla’i, Lehu, and Pae ?āina.” Each marowak raises its bone as its name is called. There’s a little clapping. Not too much. Kiawe gestures at the man beside him. “And this is Dave.” Someone whoops enthusiastically. Family? A friend? A fan? Dave blushes a little and clasps his hands behind his back. “He’ll be helping me test our challenger.”

  He looks towards you and waves you over. You walk to the edge of the dirt with your head held high and eyes locked forward. Cuicatl cheers from the sidelines and you glance her way. Lyra’s just looking at you with a smug smile and her arms crossed. Is that doubt?

  You really can’t wait to show her wrong.

  Kiawe goes through his usual speech about you. Name, hometown, trials. You use the time to look at his marowak and try to take in the slight differences. One seems to be taller. There’s a tiny crack behind the eyehole in one’s skull. The other one doesn’t have any clear differences. Maybe his flames are a little brighter?

  “Alright, onto the trial. My marowak are going to perform a traditional dance. Each round will have two dances with one difference. The challenger has to pick out which marowak was dancing different or, if they all were different, what that difference was. If he gets it wrong, he gets a warm up battle. Oh, and thank you in advance for letting the challenger solve the puzzle on his own.”

  It’s not like you could even use the help. Lyra and you don’t hate each other now, might even be sort of friends, but you don’t put it past her to try and trip you up. Cuicatl can’t see the differences anyway. The rest of the audience might give you a wrong answer just to troll you.

  “Let’s get on with it, shall we?”

  You try to focus on the dance as a puzzle you need to memorize. It doesn’t quite work. The marowak move beautifully, weaving around each other and spinning their bodies and bones in a way that’s almost hypnotic. In the end you get some of the details memorized but not enough. This one’s probably a lost cause.

  For the second one you try to focus less on the beauty of the dance and more on the movements. It succeeds, sort of, but there’s just so much going on. By the end you have no idea what was different. You still have a one in four chance of guessing so you point to the kind of generic one.

  “You sure?” Kiawe asks.

  “Yes,” you lie.

  Kiawe smirks and looks over to Dave. “You sure?”

  “I’m sure he was wrong,” Dave says. There’s a wave of weak laughter as the assistant walks towards the battlefield. You know it’s part of the show and you had no idea what you’re doing. You still hate being laughed at by strangers. His magmar appears on the dirt as the mime sr. rubs his hands and prepares to put up the barriers. This fight actually doesn’t matter much. Kupuna shuts down magmar pretty hard. You let the carbink out and watch as the barriers close between you and the pokémon.

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  “Flame burst!”

  “Light screen.”

  The carbink all but ignores the fire that washes over them as their crystals begin to glow. The air around them glows in response as a weak barrier forms.

  “Keep at it.”

  Dave has his magmar go for a smog. You don’t like losing sight of the battlefield. It’s still probably worth setting up a stronger screen. Then you order an ancient power. With a light screen up and carbink’s naturally strong armor there’s not a whole lot Dave’s magmar can do to you while Kupuna whittles it down. At the end Kupuna stands strong when the magmar collapses.

  Kiawe looks at you intently as the marowak walk back onto the arena. “Withdraw your pokémon, please. The second dance is about to begin.”

  Shit. You’d been hoping to keep Kupuna out with their light screen and energy boosts from ancient power. Looks like he isn’t letting you keep those. “Good job,” you tell the carbink before withdrawing him.

  The next dance you’re focused from the start. You try to focus less on the pretty, mystical flames and more on the marowak themselves. That helps. The dance is less cooperative than the last one. It’s more the three marowak slowly walking in a circle and performing their own shows with their bones and flames. You can probably rule out all three doing something different, then.

  The second time around the change isn’t the hardest to spot. One marowak abruptly reverses the direction he’s spinning his bone from clockwise to counter-clockwise. You’re pretty sure he didn’t do that last time. The slow pace of the dance makes it easy enough to keep track of which marowak did it.

  Kiawe nods when you give the right answer. “Good job. Alright, on to the third dance.”

  You can barely track this one the marowak are moving so quickly. This one’s probably going to be another battle. Usually with one of the marowak on the third round. On the second dance you get a lucky break. One abruptly lunges away from the group and pretends to be videotaping the other two as they do a duet. Which marowak is that? You take a few steps to the side to get a better view of his skull. There’s not the crack on it. Is he the taller one? Soon enough he jumps back into the fray for another quick dance. You try to keep track of him but it’s nearly impossible with how quickly they’re exchanging positions, bones, and balls of flame.

  “Alright, challenger? Which one was different?”

  Your gut tells you to point at the tallest one. Kiawe raises an eyebrow.

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  He nods. “Good, because you’re right.”

  Relief washes through you. You’ve made it to the totem without taking any real damage.

  “I do have one final dance for all of you, though.” The marowak file out of the arena as Kiawe takes a few steps back and to the side. “This one is a bit less traditional. I think you’ll enjoy it all the same. Everyone—” He holds up his hand and lets the word hang in the air. “Give it up for the totem of Mauna Wela, marowak!”

  A low rumble comes from behind a boulder near the stadium. The totem jumps up and stands on top for a moment before jumping back off and charging straight into the arena. As soon as she hits the dirt she stops on a dime and stares at you. She’s huge. Almost as tall as you are and a lot broader. Muscles ripple beneath her armored hide. A higher pitch growl rings out behind the totem as a cubone makes his own charge into the arena. It’s a lot less impressive, but the totem still beams with pride as the younger pokémon takes his place. Supposedly the cubone is her baby. He’s not the strongest of supporting pokémon, that’s Kiawe’s salazzle, but his mother always fights harder when he’s on the field. Cubone can also deal with the rock-types that his mother struggles with. Like Kupuna. Maybe it’s best that they got withdrawn.

  You let Moe out without a word. Hopefully she can end things quickly or at least put a dent in the marowak. As soon as the barrier slips into place the totem and her son throw their bones in unison. The marowak’s glows with eerie green light. Shadow bone and bonemerang.

  “Phantom force.”

  Moe blips out of existence just as the bones hit where she was. Mother and son twirl around and press their backs to each other as they wait for the ghost to reappear. That coordination could be a problem. You snap and Moe reappears in a burst of shadows. The totem recoils before lunging in a fiery tackle. Moe bounces off the hit without too much deflation, but you can hear her hissing now.

  Trap sprung.

  The fire has ignited her core. She’ll be a lot more powerful before she faints. You’ll have to make the most of it.

  “Shadow ball.”

  Moe’s shadow balls are usually about the size of a softball. The one she forms is almost as big as her and rockets across the field. The totem is sent flying back before she can catch herself by digging her bone into the ground.

  “Again.”

  Another ball is launched but this time it collides with a dome of white energy. Protect. Shit, you didn’t think she’d be using that with her son on the field. Now she can stall you out.

  “Just keep doing it.”

  Another two strike in rapid succession. Cracks are appearing in the dome but it hasn’t shattered yet. A bonemerang strikes Moe as she’s focused. It knocks Moe to the side. She seems fine enough. Just a little deflated. Good, you can keep going. Should you attack the cubone instead? It would stop the protects and piss the mom into going on the offense. No. You’re so close to breaking the shield.

  “One more! All you got!”

  An even bigger shadow ball materializes in front of Moe as the cubone catches his bone and prepares to throw it again. As Moe’s attack streaks through the air the marowak’s shield crumbles. Inside the totem is in a familiar stance. Two legs, back straight, bone held behind her back shoulder. Oh no. As soon as the shadow ball gets into range the marowak swings her bone like a baseball bat and lands a perfect hit. Moe’s own attack crashes back into her and sends her sailing straight into the barrier. It ripples around the hit but doesn’t break. Moe floats to the ground with a lot less air than she had before.

  You withdraw her immediately. She’ll be fine as long as you can get her to food. It’s your strategy that’s in shambles. You got one decent hit on the marowak and wore down her shield. The cubone is untouched. You were hoping that you could get the marowak seriously injured. Now you need to shuffle everything around on the fly.

  “Challenger, send out your next pokémon,” Kiawe asks. Fine. You can do this. Here’s hoping.

  You release Kupuna without a word. The carbink surveys the field before subtly turning back towards you. The cubone was supposed to be taken care of before they made their entrance.

  “Change of plans,” you mutter. “Start with a harden.”

  The carbink glows as they channel rock energy into their body to make it even harder to break. They ignore two bonemerangs striking them on each side. This is going to be a long round. Might as well set up first. Another two bonemerangs strike the carbink and they wobble a little in midair.

  “Rock polish. Try to dodge.”

  This time the carbink’s glow is less bright, more of a shimmering rainbow just above the surface. When the next bonemerangs come they manage to rise above the cubone’s before the marowak’s clips them. They wobble again but hold strong. Carbink don’t go down easily and bonemerangs aren’t the strongest attacks. Nothing on an earthquake or even drill run.

  “Ancient power. Like we’d planned.”

  Some of the loose stones on the ground begin to rise into the air and revolve around Kupuna in a lazy spiral. A bonemerang sails through and only manages to pulverize some of the stones. It misses the carbink entirely. More stones join the others and form into larger, sharper, clumps. Kupuna is getting faster, too, easily dodging the cubone’s attacks and some of the marowak’s.

  The totem seems to get what’s happening. She growls and starts rushing down the field, flames wreathed around her, before leaping into the air. You snap twice and the ancient power field surges forward to meet her. Several seem to lodge inside her armor or score shallow cuts before the totem connects, blasting Kupuna back into the barrier while she lands on her feet. A bonemerang from the cubone strikes the carbink while they’re stunned.

  Doesn’t seem to do too much, although Kupuna’s flight is noticeably more unsteady.

  “Keep moving and attack.”

  They do their best to right themselves and start flying around the edge of the arena. The totem gets her bearings and prepares another bonemerang when the carbink spins around and shoots out a storm of shrapnel at her. A hasty protect flickers into existence that the cubone dives behind. It barely holds for two seconds. Would’ve been enough for a single hit, but a barrage? No. More stone fragments rip across the marowak’s skin and your pokémon is only getting faster and stronger as the fight goes on. You hadn’t planned on keeping Kupuna long term but, damn, they put in good work.

  Cubone charges forward. The stones part around him in waves. Rock slide? Damn, that’s bad news for your remaining team. You try to call but can’t quite do it in time. Kupuna’s attention is still on the totem when her son strikes them with a bone wreathed in darkness that launches them into the barrier. Another strike causes the entire barrier to ripple as the mime sr. does his best to press his hands together and keep the field protected.

  Dark energy. Too much knockback. Knock off, then. You can work with that.

  “Flail!”

  Waves of white light pour off of Kupuna as they vibrate. Each one is an echo of a previous hit she took. And she’s taken a lot of hits this fight. The cubone turns to run but he isn’t fast enough. He trips over one of the waves and gets slammed again and again by the others.

  Marowak growls again and summons her flames. Her hind legs flex like a cat about to jump.

  “To the side!”

  Kupuna starts hugging the edge of the barrier while moving at full speed. Hopefully that makes the jump harder. But this isn’t the totem’s first or tenth or thousandth fight. She leaps towards where Kupuna is headed and slams straight into them. Both fall to the ground amidst a vortex of rock shards. They tear into the marowak but she doesn’t care as she keeps slamming a green-glowing bone into Kupuna’s side. She slows down with every hit as more splinters lodge inside her hide and more cuts bleed more blood, but Kupuna can’t escape either. Eventually they make a low, horrible ringing sound. Their surrender cry.

  You withdraw them before another hit can land.

  The totem stands back up. She’s quivering all over. She glares at you one final time before turning around and stumbling towards Kiawe. The barrier parts before her and she collapses in a heap on the ground. She growls when Kiawe reaches for her ball. Apparently, she still wants to watch her son fight.

  You have three pokémon to deal with one cubone. His confidence seems shaken and he was hit hard by Kupuna’s flail attack. This shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

  Cuicatl cheers you on. You look and see that even Lyra is smiling. Happily, this time, not smugly. You’re pretty sure she rolls her eyes when she catches you looking. Hard to tell at this distance.

  You send out Ihe. The rufflet makes a war cry and spreads out her wings to intimidate the cubone. He just narrows his eyes in response.

  “Tailwind.”

  Ihe whines but complies. He hates that he’s always tailwind support but he just isn’t strong enough to fight. The winds start picking up. In the stands you can see people clutching their hats and loose items. The cubone stomps and most of Kupuna’s fallen rocks surge forward towards the rufflet.

  “Hold!”

  You don’t really need him to land an attack. Cubone isn’t strong, but Ihe really isn’t, either. He’s best off giving Mahina have the best chance of winning.

  Ihe does his best to hop over the wave of rocks but isn’t quite good enough at flying. Some still snag his talons and batter his thighs. The rufflet loses composure and stops boosting the winds in favor of trying to beat back the rocks with his wings and pull himself free.

  You sigh and adjust your plan. A few steps to the side help you get a better view of Ihe’s position. “Pull your left leg back a little.” The rufflet does. “Good, now jerk it up!”

  Ihe finally frees himself. Just in time to see cubone running forward. That’s a bad strategy. He could’ve kept throwing down rock slides at range. His mother seems to agree as she slowly shakes her head from side to side.

  “Wing attack!”

  The rufflet caws and charges forward himself, wings at the ready. He dives in with his beak and takes a hit from the cubone’s club on the back. He just goes in for another peck anyway. The two dance, clubbing and pecking, but the cubone is barely bleeding and Ihe is clearly getting worn down. He spars with Coco all the time, sure, but that’s just posturing. Coco barely even tries to bite him.

  He’s outclassed and the winds are already starting to fade. Time to end this.

  “Great job, Ihe! Come back now.”

  He protests but does break away from the fight. The cubone doesn’t stop him. You ruffle his feathers as he steps through the barrier. Then you withdraw him.

  Time to finish this.

  “Mahina, let’s go.”

  It takes the trumbeak a few flaps to adjust to the winds. Then she lets out her own battle trill. It’s very musical. Almost more like a song. Actually, there might have been the beat from a pop song in there. Will the videos of your battle will get copyright claimed? Questions for later.

  “Supersonic.”

  Mahina lets out a terrible high pitch screech that sounds like a mix of dubstep and the internet in old movies. The cubone flinches back and almost drops his bone in confusion. Good. That should hopefully keep him busy.

  “Rock smash.”

  The bird races through the powerful winds and dives down to just above the dirt. The cubone raises his bone to defend himself but swipes too slowly and in the wrong direction. Mahina bowls him over with a strong strike to the chest. You think you can make out his armor cracking a little. Good. Cubone are tough but rock smash can wear their armor down.

  “Circle back and do it again.”

  The cubone tries to throw a bonemerang at Mahina but it gets lost and flies wide in the strong winds. It hits the dirt and doesn’t fly back. Mahina strikes the cubone again and again on the head. The cubone lands a weak fire punch to Mahina’s chest but the bird ignores it entirely. There’s a small spiderweb of cracks on the ground-type’s skull by the time Mahina has to take off to avoid a fire punch to the head.

  She’s getting stronger and her supersonic has improved. Maybe she’s close to evolution, too. There are usually a lot of evolutions around this point in a journey.

  You slot the normalium crystal into your bracelet and call out to Mahina to get ready. You go through the steps of the simplest Z-dance before feeling energy surge through and out of you, into your starter.

  “Fury attack!”

  Mahina dives down surrounded by a white aura. You realize too late that the cubone had acted while you were distracted, gathering up the rocks from Mahina’s ancient power and throwing them into the air in a rock slide. It’s too late to stop. The only way out is through. The trumbeak dives through the first layer with a pained screech and lands a tackle that launches the cubone back. He weakly raises his club and another rock slide surges forward. Mahina tries to take off with the tailwind but it just sends her straight into the upper layer of the rock slide. You see at least two shards strike her breast. When the rock slide ends Mahina lowers herself to the ground and looks back at you. She’s done.

  Damn it. You were so, so close. The cubone can barely even stand! Like, he has to lean on his club like a cane and everything!

  Still… you do have one more pokémon. She won’t be happy about this, but there’s barely any work left to do.

  You reluctantly send out Leilani the charjabug. (She’d agreed to stay after she started evolving). The cubone straightens up and takes a small step forward. He thinks he can still win this. He can’t.

  “String shot.”

  Leilani does what grubbin and charjabug do best: spit out wads of silk. The remaining winds carry it right to the cubone’s face and club before he can react. Now he shouldn’t be able to move. It’s over.

  At least until embers break through the silk around his hand and the string catches fire. Right. Shit. Fire punch.

  “Vise grip. Cut the line!”

  The charjabug clamps down on her own string and wiggles backwards away from it as the fire begins to spread. Your fear quickly turns to celebration as the flames spread around cubone’s body until they cloak his head. Dumbass won’t try that again.

  The totem surges forwards with her remaining strength before Kiawe finally finishes digging out the cubone’s pokéball and presses the recall button.

  “I think this is over.”

  The totem reluctantly agrees and lowers her bone to her side. She sends you a murderous glare for hurting her son before she reaches for her own ball and withdraws herself. The barriers fall down. You walk over to Leilani and gently stroke her back. “Sorry about that. Wouldn’t have done it if there was any other option. Or if I thought you’d get hurt.”

  She doesn’t say anything at all. You can’t tell if she’s angry or silence is just normal for a charjabug.

  You withdraw her all the same.

  *

  You’d go out to eat to celebrate, but food inside the National Park is stupid expensive and you want to stay close to your pokémon as they heal. Dinner today is sushi. You and Lyra tear into yours while Cuicatl slowly and cautiously eats hers. Probably not used to it since she’s from the mainland.

  “We should make plans for salandit hunting tomorrow,” Cuicatl says in one of her pauses between bites. “It might take all night.”

  Right. The VStar mission.

  “What if we didn’t?” you ask. “Didn’t go, not didn’t plan. It’s not like we really need the money.”

  Cuicatl puts her half-eaten California roll down and looks over at you. “We?”

  You sigh. She’s going to be an ass about this. “You just made three hundred g. Think you could spare some?”

  “No.” She seems entirely serious. “Earn your own money.”

  “Come on, what do you even need that much for?”

  “My mom’s pokémon.” What? “My father sold them. I need over a million before taxes to buy them back.”

  Lyra puts her food down and you follow.

  “He did what?” Lyra asks.

  “My mom was a pro trainer. She died. My dad sold her team for money. I grew up with them and want them back.” She says all of it tersely. As if that makes perfect sense. What even needs a million—right, the hydreigon she mentioned. “I still need to save. Do your own missions and make your own money, Kekoa.”

  You sigh and clack your chopsticks together in frustration. She isn’t budging. “It’s not like eight hundred dollars will even put a dent in that. You don’t really need to catch a salandit for them.”

  “My Father says that every tajadera counts. And eight hundred dollars was a lot of money to you a month ago. I don’t know what changed.”

  “VStar kills pokémon, you know? Hala told me. And for fuck’s sake they just got, like, eighteen people killed. You were there.”

  For a moment Cuicatl seems to falter. Then her face hardens and she feels around for the fork her food was on. “I don’t care. They have money. I need money. I’ll work with them until one of those things changes.” She takes a bite and slowly chews it while glowering in your direction. “You didn’t care about any of this a month ago. Why are you acting like this now?”

  You take a deep breath. One of you has to be calm. You don’t want things to go back to the way they were last time you were on Akala. “I talked to some people. Got my head on straight. It was always wrong. I get that now.”

  Cuicatl finishes chewing her next bite. “I don’t care how you make your money. I’m not paying your share until I have my mom’s pokémon back.”

  “Perhaps we could compromise for now,” Lyra says. “You told me before that Genesis kept the castform you caught and it counted as a mission completed. Perhaps Cuicatl and I can go on the mountain tomorrow and I keep the salandit. Just say Kekoa gave it to me. That counts as a mission completed and no pokémon are handed over.” Cuicatl huffs and folds her arms. It makes her look smaller and younger than she is. Lyra gently puts a hand on the other girl’s arm. “I can pay him $800, if that helps.”

  “Fine,” she grumbles. “Let’s just get it over with.”

  Lyra looks at you and flicks her head to the door. It doesn’t make sense that you have to leave with your pokémon still healing there, but you get the hint. Cuicatl’s prickly. Best let someone neutral talk her down. After putting your plate on the counter for dirty dishes you walk outside.

  At least the weather’s nice. Warm with a faint breeze. The wet season’s almost over and you can finally have nice, dry days on the beach. Not that you’re getting into the water. That would require a swimsuit. You can’t exactly make that work with your chest as it is.

  You still walk out towards the beach. Might as well enjoy the spring weather before it gets ridiculously hot. When you’re just a few steps away from the beach’s edge your phone rings. Could be about your pokémon. You check it just in case and see that Jabari’s calling.

  Just what you need right now.

  You decline the call and walk over the nearest bench. It’s been a long day. Looking at the beach and relaxing would be nice. Jabari ruins it by calling again. You decline, again. After a few moments of quietly sitting in the wind your phone buzzes. He left a voicemail. Might as well at least listen to the first few seconds before deleting it.

  “Hey, Kekoa. This is your brother.” Odd. You thought you told him that you didn’t have a brother. “I’m—I’m still sorry, okay. I’ve been thinking and it was wrong to leave when I did. I don’t think I could’ve cared for you; I still should have found you someone to stay with before enlisting. I’m sorry. I can’t undo what I did. I want to do better in the future. Give me a chance, please? Call me anytime. I can come visit within a few hours if you need me, no matter where you are.” There’s a very long pause. You wonder if he forgot to hang up. “Love you. Bye.”

  The nerve.

  You delete the message. He hurt you. Even if he’s figured out that maybe shoving a newly orphaned kid into the foster care system and fucking off to kill brown people abroad was the wrong move that doesn’t mean you will forgive him. You tuck your phone back into your pocket and stare back out at the sea. A few tourists come and go around you as you steadily relax more and more of your muscles.

  The waves come in. The waves go out. Your breaths get shallower and shallower until you nod off on the bench.

  *

  You wake up to someone flicking your cheek repeatedly.

  “Finally,” Lyra says. “Was worried you were dead.”

  You blearily look around. Everything’s dark. Shit. Slept too long.

  “How’d you find me?” you groggily ask.

  “Cuicatl’s metang tracked your phone.”

  That’s a little scary. You wonder if she can hack phones or just locate them. Not that you have secrets, really. Just a few searches you don’t really want Cuicatl knowing about. Same as any teenager.

  Unless she knows about your second phone. But. Cuicatl would’ve confronted you already if she did. So she probably doesn’t know about that.

  “How is she?” you ask.

  Lyra shrugs and sits down next to you. “Fine. Just don’t try to talk her out of working for VStar again. It won’t work and she’ll get mad.”

  “Still don’t get how eight hundred dollars is supposed to pay off a million.”

  “It won’t,” Lyra concedes. “It won’t help with the goal. But getting more money makes her feel like she’s making progress. Trust me, Kekoa…” Her voice goes soft and she puts a hand on your thigh. It’s more than a little awkward. Not that she isn’t pretty. Just kind of a bitch. Not your type. “…Kekoa, just let her have this. Please?”

  You shouldn’t just let it go. She’s catching pokémon she doesn’t need to sell them to poachers. And she doesn’t care. She said so and she seemed serious. Fits with her whole ‘I’m a predator’ speech she gave back on Melemele, too. Maybe you can’t win this. Not now.

  “Fine. She not sharing money, either?”

  “Definitely not.”

  You’ve been helping her not die in the wilderness for almost six months now and she doesn’t care enough to help you out when she hits the jackpot. If you’d won the lottery or whatever you’d be paying her bills. You’d thought you were good enough friends to be at that point.

  Without VStar there aren’t many ways to get money. You hate that she might force you back to them, at least for missions where the company won’t kill the pokémon you catch. There’s prize money, sure, but that’s not reliable. What other options even are there?

  Suddenly your phone feels like burning lead in your pocket. No. Jabari’s help is still VStar blood money and you’d have to let go of all your pride to take it.

  Still… you don’t like the idea of starving. And if Cuicatl’s really serious about all this you need money somehow.

  You could at least arrange a meeting.

  Just one meeting.

  See how it goes.

  Yeah.

  You can always just go back to poaching if that fails, right?

  Shit. Why does being ethical suck so much?