Pokémon Ultra Luna.

by Lieral

Chapter 11- First trial

'Through attempting the trials during the island challenge, one can exceed his or her own limits!'

Some pretty words that should prepare the ones doing their Island Challenge for whatever is coming...

"That is not funny," I gave a step back as I look straight to the black mass in front of me. "That is not funny at all!"

Staring back at me is a really giant black mass. Its fur is mostly black with a brown, leaf-shaped patch on its belly and brown inside its ears. Its hands, feet, cheeks, and tail are a whitish-cream color, and its hands are much smaller. It has large, puffy cheeks with four whiskers under its chin and two sprouting sideways from the top of each cheek. Its large incisors are still as visible as its shining red eyes.

But this is not a surprise, I faced Raticates before, but they are generally not taller than my leg... Unlike this one that is not only taller than me but even taller than Lillie and probably even taller than Kukui!

And that burning aura around him is not helping.

Everything started half an hour ago. I entered the trial site after speaking with Ilima and he explained the trial for me. He had said that the pokemon in Verdant Cavern are usually quite fierce and my challenge is to find three Ratata that were hiding in their dens and then face something called Totem pokemon.

After I defeated the Ratata (and finished observing the nice view that was that cavern) I reached the deepest part of the cavern where a pedestal lies in the middle with a shining stone on it. And as soon as I was going to take my prize... SURPRISE, a giant black rodent with super Saiyan aura!

I instantly sent out both Moon and Midnight that also were not expecting such opponent. "I will definitely kill Kukui for not telling me anything about this," I murmured only loud enough for me to hear and assumed a combat posture too.

I researched enough to know that is not usual for a trainer to get into the fight with a wild pokemon, and getting into the fight against another trainer's pokemon would be very rude and low, but the thing is, there is not a TRUE rule saying that we cannot get into the fight, most trainers are just not strong (or stupid) enough to do so

But against a giant Saiyan with an army of minions? Sounds fair to me.

"Midnight, rock throw, Moon, aqua jet!" Both of them moved as soon as my orders were given and the battle started. Rockruff's neck shone with the familiar light and sent out a wave of hard rock against the many Ratata surrounding the Totem and Moon instantly got covered in a veil of water and attacked the Raticate with both speed and precision.

Midnight's attack created a heavy mist of sand and still hit a lot of minions with strength enough knock them out and Moon gave a certain hit on Raticate, a nice start, but not enough yet. "Water gun and tackle!"

Moon was still close when she used her water gun on her foe, and Midnight hit it with his head with almost the same strength he used against me... Almost...

But what actually matters is that Raticate lost its balance and fell almost smashing its partners.

Midnight went back to my side and howled once, but Moon did not have the same luck. When she was going to get back a wave of Ratata stopped her and the Raticate stood up with impressive speed for something so big. "Midnight, rock throw again!" I ordered but as soon as the many rocks were going to hit the totem something I did not predict happened. A lot of Ratata simply jumped in front of it and received all the attacks.

What is this? Mafia?

While I was distracted two Ratata held Moon as a hostage. I grinned my teeth and searched for a strategy, but nothing is coming to my head.

The Raticate gave a ridiculously huge jump and it took me too much time to understand what it was going to do.

With a heavy slam, it fell using all its weight and strength on top of both Ratata and my little Moon.

The shock controlled me for some precious seconds. With eyes and mouth wide open I observed as the veil of sand slowly faded away showing both Ratata out of combat and Moon using all her strength just to keep her eyes opened.

That was exactly when the rage took complete control over my body. With a guttural scream, I closed the distance between me and the Raticate faster than it's minions could even notice and punched it with all the strength I could gather in my moment of rage.

The Raticate yelled in pain as it flew meters away a lot faster than it is capable to move while breaking piles and piles of rock with its heavy body until it crashed violently against the wall creating a really big hole in it.

I breathed heavily. My thoughts were still a turmoil, as half of me want to attack that thing to the point where it will never be able to move again and half of me want to keep myself in control, not my madness.

I looked back at Moon. She was weakly trying to stand up, so fragile I lost most of my reason. How many times had I been like that? Fallen without being able to do nothing.

But not this time!

I barely noticed Midnight fighting against the army of Ratata all by himself as I turned to face the totem pokemon again. It was trying to stand up again. "You better be prepared, I am not going to be so gentle again!"

The Raticate yelled again, but this time I immediately noticed that this is a different thing, but just too late I understood. It is calling reinforcements! Just like a wave of plagues, even more, Ratata and smaller Raticates appear from their dens. Dozens, hundreds and even more than that.

I grinned my teeth.

This is bad, this is really bad.

At first, I thought that the fact no one was seeing the fact was an advantage for me since I would be able to join in the fight and no one would be there to judge, but now I am not so sure.

I can see that this is not a usual thing. Kukui said it is normal for pokemon of Alola to call comrades to fight by their side, but they always call one by one. I think it took me like a personal issue.

I retreat until I am at Moon's side. Midnight clearly is in a bad spot too, he can fight a few dozens of Ratata, but hundreds? We are in disadvantage? BADLY.

Within a few seconds, we were surrounded by a giant wave of darkness. "We need a miracle," I said to myself while searching for any possibility, but I do not find any.

I took a knife I had hidden in my boot. Quite frankly, I survived TWO She-Demons attacks, evil Sirens and even a living forest, and I simply refuse to die by the small hands of rats.

And that was when the miracle happened.

A blue light just where Moon is has blinded me as I tried to watch what exactly is happening, but just when the light faded away I noticed what happened. Where the small Popplio had been is now a pinniped pokemon with three ruffle-like growths around its body. The first ruffle is just under its front flippers, while the last is shortly before the tail. The ruffles alternate white and pale blue. Its long ears are made up of three segments that lighten and increase in size towards the tip; the first segment is ovoid, while the latter two are spherical. It has a long, conical snout with a white tip, a spherical pink nose, and large dark eyes with pinkish pupils. Its front flippers are much longer than its tail flippers, although both have white tips. There are three digits on the front flippers.

Moon evolved into Brionne!

I have read about evolution at the pokemon school, but this is my first time watching it happening in first hand, and I could not stop a smile from appearing in my face.

With renewed strength Moon sang creating more balloons than she ever did and sent them flying creating a massive rain that hardened the view of the enemies and then she made a strange sound, a disarming voice that seemed to deeply hurt simply ALL the enemies.

The totem Raticate gave a step back trying to hold its ears tightly. And of course, I did not let it go unnoticed. "Midnight, rock throw, Moon, bubble beam!" With this single order, the Ratata decided that the smarter thing to do is to flee from the battlefield, leaving their leader behind to be finished by both powerful attacks.

Another veil of sand covered all the place as it fell with a loud noise. "Had enough now?" I asked the fallen pokemon, but it slowly stood up again. "All your allies fled, why do you not give up too?"

It roared challenging us and used its huge claws to dig into the ground and sent a huge sand wave toward us. "BASTARD," I cursed while covering my eyes, it is using the same attack I used against Hau, and while we were distracted I did not saw when it closed its distance and used its really huge incisors to hit Midnight with what I presume is an attack called hyper fang.

I grinned my teeth again as both Midnight and moon seem to be in really bad shape. "Bubble beam again," Moon shoot her attack aiming Raticate's face and it hit with enough strength for it to give a step back again, but this time I am not going to waste my chance. "Rock throw on its leg!"

Midnight gladly hit its leg with a torrent of hard shaped stones and I decided it is time to finish it all. "Disarming voice again!"

This time Moon's attack was so much more powerful I literally could see as a pink wave of sound was formed and hit Raticate with the strength of a cannonball and sent it flying again until it hits the wall.

Midnight and Moon stood side by side and I stood just a little behind them cracking my knuckles, something I did a lot in my life but does not have the same effect without my fingerless gloves. "If you want more, we are always up for a good brawl," The Raticate looked at us for a few seconds but in the end, it turned its back toward us and jumped toward a higher floor and disappeared into a big den.

I let go a deep breath and smiled as both my pokemon turned to face me with a wide grin each. "You guys were amazing," I petted both their heads. "I think we have a date with the pokemon center as soon as possible, but for now we are done," I offered their Pokeball and they hit the button and entered it with the usual white trace.

I turned toward the pedestal and stretched my left hand toward the sparkling stone.

"What an incredible trainer you are," A voice I heard only twice before caught my attention and I turned to see Ilima walking toward me. "For you to be able to defeat the Totem pokemon I trained to such powerful a state, I don't know what I can say, but now, the Z-Crystal is all yours!"

"So this is a Z-Crystal, huh?" I took the stone from the pedestal, and as soon as I took it powerful multicolored flames covered my hand without burning me.

"What you just received is the normalium Z, the proof you won your first trial," Ilima's eyes flared to life as he suddenly made a REALLY strange dance with his arms and hips until he stopped with his arms creating the form of a huge 'Z'. "All you have to do is to strike an elegant pose like this on, then you will be able to turn a normal type attack into a Z-move,"

I stared him with what I really hope is a blank expression... If this is necessary to perform a Z-move then I will probably never use one.

"Ah, yes, I forgot to mention," Ilima undoes his ridiculous pose and spoke again. "The Totem pokemon! In every locale where the captain holds his or her trial a powerful pokemon just like the Raticate you just fought,"

"Is there any other Captain on this island?" I asked.

"Actually, no. Now, all that awaits for you here is your Grand Trial, that is, the battle against Kahuna Hala," He answered with a wave of his hand. "Now, do you want me to take you to the pokemon center?"

"Please, do," I said without thinking twice. Both I and my team deserves a little rest.

---

As soon as I stepped outside the bottom of the cavern I felt two very familiar presences. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply once. "Ilima, do you mind if I stay behind a little?"

"Huh?" He looked at me intrigued. "Sure, did anything caught your attention?"

"You can say so," I said and waited for him to disappear from view and turned to face those who are getting closer to me.

"Ho, so she claimed the Z-crystal with the aid of her pokemon," The strange man with the mustache said with an interested tone.

"So, the people of Alola overcome those trials willingly to obtain this mysterious power, to gain access to Z-power, is that it?" The woman by his side asked.

"Depending on no one but herself, what a fine aspiration, quite different from our tendency to solve all our problems with our technology," The man said while playing with his mustache.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Soliera," The woman said.

"And I am Phyco," He looked at me expectantly.

"Luna," I said while I sighed. "And what are you two doing here in Alola?"

"We are investigating the Z-crystals found here in Alola for our own particular reason," The woman answered. That is certainly a standard answer.

"There is not a way where your reasons led me back to my world, there is?" I asked even if I already know the answer.

Soliera and Phyco exchanged a sad look. "Unfortunately our mission here is of utmost importance, and we cannot help you with that," He said and I put both my hands on my pocket before walking away from them toward the exit.

"Is that so. Thank you anyway," There is no reason to talk with them anymore.

"Perhaps we will find a reason to work together sometime in the future," Soliera said but I did not look back at them and silently walked.

I think I should be crying right now, and indeed I am feeling down, but there is no reason to cry after receiving an answer I already was expecting.

---

I walked away from the verdant cavern with my hands still inside my pockets.

"If you keep frowning like that you'll get wrinkles early," Huhui's voice is loud and full of energy as always. "But judging Ilima's expression I'd say you cleared your first trial, yeah?" I nodded and kept walking toward the pokemon center. "Hey, Luna, Did something happened?"

"I will explain later... Just let me heal my pokemon,"

Kukui and Ilima exchange some glances but neither of them tried to stop me.,