After another visit to the Mount Hokulani Pokémon Center, for which the receptionist gave me an amused eye roll, it was quite late in the evening. I walked back down the mountain as the sky turned to a star dappled black, alone with my victory. Minior and Beldum drifted overhead, relishing in the starlight.

  Suddenly, but inevitably, the craggy mountain gave way to Route 10's dinky dirt road. The pokémon here were less passive than the ones on the mountain, so I let Kumī out to follow along. It was the most I could do to make up for the utter lack of a role he'd played against Sophocles, not that he cared. He was a goals oriented pile of slime.

  After only a short walk, the end of Route 10 came into view. Gladion, Eva, Rich, and Will also came into view. I looked up, and sure enough, Gladion's Noctowl was tracking my position. Those other grunts must've blabbed. I wasn't going to walk right into the waiting arms of an ambush where I was outnumbered, but I was drawing a blank on what else I could do. It reminded me of fighting the swarm of Vivillon.

  Outnumbered by wild pokémon off route, now that was a workable idea! Honestly, Gladion never had a chance, the poor sap. I'm a Poison-Type specialist, the two situations I thrive in are meticulously plotted maniacal schemes and complete improvisation! I took an easy turn to my left, walking through the tall grass and past the treeline.

  Once I was out of sight, I released the rest of my team and began my walk and talk. "Kumī, harass them, Disable and Acid Spray, et cetera. Toma, join up with the wild Poison-Types, get them to help us keep the 'outsiders' out of their territory. I need to resupply soon anyway, so they can have all my food. Kawami, problem solving, you know the deal. No need for directions, I don't think. Waiola, personal guard. Careful with any Fire-Type moves, mess up the forest and the wild pokémon turn on us."

  With a final clap I burst into a run and shouted, "GO!" With no urgent problem problems, Kawami airlifted Toma deeper into the forest to get those negotiations underway post-haste. Waiola stayed at my side, providing dim lighting in the dark shadow of the canopy. Kumī sloshed across the ground to meet our guests, who were no doubt on their way to intercept me.

  I wasn't too worried about them "capturing" any of my pokémon, since they'd either "mysteriously escape" or we could plan a fake rescue mission instead of a chase for once. Gladion had really stacked the deck in my favor by commandeering the three Team Skull members least likely to betray me for his attempts to capture me. May I repeat, poor sap.

  Just as I spotted my first wild pokémon, an Ariados with a web adorned by a quick doodle by Toma of a thumbs-up, I also heard the first contact with our pursuers. As always, Type: Null was up front and ready to crush my bones. The mysterious legendary pokémon was fast, and that was the least of their abilities. Maybe not they weren't as fast as Kawami, but they were certainly fast enough. I rolled under the Ariados web, bracing myself with my forearms rather than my braced up hands, and got up with a clumsy, improvised maneuver.

  Type: Null was not so lucky, finding the opening I'd used had been blocked by the wild Ariados's String Shot. I kept moving while they were held up. Weavile was next, cutting a hole just wide enough in the web to jump into, which Noctowl followed him through. Both of the newcomers had the haggard look of having been hit by Kumī's Acid Spray. Waiola warded the Ice-Type off with a few dismissive Flame Bursts that lit up the dark forest, but with the threat of Noctowl she couldn't spare the time to outright finish him.

  I clicked my tongue as we ran, choosing to spare my hands the effort of signaling Kawami. My beautiful Crobat ripped out of the canopy, getting the drop on Noctowl with an impressive Crunch that fought with the silencing foliage to be heard. A Poison Fang followed, not missing the opening from Noctowl flinching, and with a hiss of pain and searing flesh, the Flying-Type retreated. It wasn't a moment later that Waiola finally finished off Weavile with a Fire Lash.

  I didn't see Gladion anywhere, and soon I brushed through a much less thick web out onto the other side of the Ariados's territory. The trees here, rather than being shrouded in silk, were marred with deep cuts, some of them chopped down to open the forest to the sky. That didn't seem like anything the local Poison-Types would do, so I ran towards the thicker forest on the shortest path available.

  Right as I was getting under the shade, I saw Dustin the Archen get knocked out of the sky by a Skarmory. Rich was on my tail. A Stench filled the air around me, and it wasn't Cavendish's waste of Poison Gas. This was wild Trubbish territory. My feet crunched on trash the Trubbish had stockpiled and they waved at me through the struggling undergrowth as I passed. There were so many of them!

  Rich and Gladion came out of the trees behind me, covered in no small amount of webs and followed by Trevenant and Rich's pokémon. All the Trubbish except Cavendish were looking at me for directions. I guessed they got along well with other Poison-Types. I pointed at my pursuers and shouted, "Get 'em!" Cavendish tried to hold off his fellow Trubbish, but only succeeded in taking a Pound to the face.

  From there, the Trubbish consumed Gladion's attacking force, washing them in a tide of Acid Spray and Sludge while the ground in my wake was covered in Toxic Spikes that blended into the trash coating the floor. Talk about pollution, these little bundles of garbage took the whole "inhospitable environment" part of the Poison-Type very seriously.

  As the smell started to fade behind me, I came face to face with a towering Garbodor and the Stench came back in force. It growled like the rumbling crunch of a garbage truck compactor as it stood in my path. With the refuse under my feet I was able to stop my momentum pretty fast. I could guess what it was trying to communicate, but I wasn't sure how to express my response. I decided on a supplicative bow, and when Waiola didn't join in I had to grab her head and push it down as well.

  After another rumble like the shattering of an industrial sized vat the Garbodor stepped aside to let us pass. We continued on, running right into Eva and her team, who all looked pretty beat up from wild pokémon already. There was also the telltale mark of Kumī's involvement. "Hey. Rough my team up some more, huh?", she requested. Minimal effort, maximal results. I couldn't blame her for the tactic, so instead I agreed by calling, "You heard her!"

  Waiola and, to my surprise since I assumed he was still busy, Toma worked together to scratch them up nicely with Embers, Infestation constructs, and a light application of Poison Gas. I just kept running towards where Malie City should be. My legs were burning, sure, and the hiking trip I'd taken right before all this certainly hadn't helped, but in spite of that my hands still hurt worse. I'd need to thank Doctor Grace for everything she was doing for me.

  Between Waiola and Toma catching back up to me, Will jumped out of the trees right onto my back, tackling me to the ground. Waiola freaked out in that way that showed the anxieties she was always trying to hide, flicking Will off of me with her tail. They rolled across the dirt and hit their head on a thick tree root, chuckling and coughing in equal measure. Then my vision went white.

  I recognized the Flash and put a hand on Waiola's side to keep her from attacking blindly or just boiling over again. The Flash accounted for Misty, but I still had no clue where Chewie or Buddy were or what they were doing. Will clearly wanted some form of actual fight, so I'd give it to them. My eyes finally started to clear after a moment, and I was back on my feet.

  Will and their Morelull were gone, and the way forward was clear, but I wasn't an idiot. I turned to the north, further into the woods and parallel to Malie City. Misty was around the corner so she could Flash me again whether I went towards Malie or not, but I expected that, my hand blocking the burst of light. Buddy the Wimpod was next, darting around me to send a Sand Attack into my eyes. That one worked.

  I was putting the pieces together on this plan pretty fast. Will had intentionally shot straight north from Route 10 to catch me on an intercept course, then they would slow me down by blinding me and whittling away my team's health with their Raticate to give Gladion a satisfying confrontation. I wasn't having it. "Gas mask please.", I requested Toma, holding out a hand. Before more of my team could be blinded, I had a full face covering.

  "Point at Buddy.", I told Toma, who was still attached to my backpack, then creaked open my eyes to spot where he pointed. He tracked the Wimpod just long enough for me to clear the grit from my eyes, which earned me another Flash for my troubles, but it didn't matter. I closed the gas mask over my face, peering through the tinted lens as my vision cleared once more.

  I patted Waiola on the back and returned her to her ball before breaking back into a sprint. Will still hadn't entirely failed, I could hear more feet approaching from further away. More Sand Attacks came our way, Buddy's skittering speed helping it hit both me and Toma on my back, but we were still well equipped enough to avoid Chewie's Hyper Fangs. Toma reported that Will was carrying Misty with them to keep her in the fight. He was starting to lose his ability to fight back after so many status moves.

  Unfortunately for Will, it seemed to be my lucky day after all. Ahead of me was a rolling fogbank of purple smoke, a massive cloud of Poison Gas from a spill of Grimers all working together, and I already had my gas mask on. I couldn't help laughing a little, even through the heaves of my breath. I ran into the cloud with Toma in tow, got a good couple dozen yards in, and turned to gloat.

  Gladion, Rich, Eva, and Will all stopped just outside the toxic haze. I stood in the miasma, hands on my hips even as my skin tingled and my body ached. "Great work everybody!", I joked to Gladion, and to Rich if I was honest, but I meant it sincerely for the rest, "It was an excellent chase, as always, but I have other things to do! Toodles!" Gladion blared, "Toodles?!", in disbelief with his arms outstretched, but he was powerless to stop me walking away into the cover of purple mist. I cackled the whole way back.

  I should not have cackled the whole way back. My lungs, my legs, and, of course, my hands hurt like they were melting from the inside out. I hadn't even done much to hurt my hands, just general overexertion and keeping myself balanced, but they still throbbed with blood that seemed to do more harm than good. Each beat of my heart hurt. I let Kawami guide me back to the Pokémon Center, but the exertion kept me wide awake. Toma was busy distributing my food to the wild pokémon as promised.

  With nothing better to do, I went back through the day's events. The chase that morning had gone off without a hitch, no notes there. The trip up Mount Hokulani was problem free. Sophocles's trial was a challenge, but I thought I handled it well.

  The fight with Sophocles afterwards was textbook as far as my strategies were concerned, maybe moreso, since my notes were all in the margins of an actual textbook. It was the second chase that was grabbing my attention.

  Was there a better way I had to get out of it? No, I was sure there wasn't. Going back up the mountain would have just got me cornered, I couldn't maintain a chase on a straight away like that for long enough to make it to the pokémon center. Breaking through Gladion's battle line at the end of Route 10 would be obviously moronic. The forest was the best option.

  Was it my execution? Maybe slightly, I could've done a better job getting guidance from my team instead of going in blind, that Skarmory could've gutted me, and my approach with the Ariados's territory clearly wasn't flawless. I wasn't those wild Trubbish's trainer either, they could've done some terrible things to Rich, and Gladion I guess, on my say-so. But all of that wasn't what was nagging me either.

  The avoidability of the whole fiasco wasn't it, I'd helped those grunts, and if they wanted to throw it back in my face that was their own damn fault. It wasn't anything I had done, it was my friends. Not Eva, she was free to take advantage of our ruse to get out of an obligation, not Will, who had honestly provided a decently interesting challenge that might help me as a trainer someday, and obviously not my team. Rich.

  He'd sent Dustin out front without any support, and while the Archen might've been fast he was also incredibly fragile. He should've stuck with the rest of Rich's team and opened the fight for them, instead he was knocked out by a wild pokémon before doing anything.

  Howie wasn't much better if I was honest. All that training and Rich couldn't call for a wide ranging Psychic-Type attack to deal with the Trubbish, nor did the pokémon himself think to work around his trainer's troubled decision-making.

  But worst of all was poor Cavendish. By all measures he seemed to be a decently high leveled pokémon, but Rich had consistently and utterly failed to train him to do anything. We'd been doing this for over a week, but the Trubbish had still learned nothing. He was still leaking Poison Gas, couldn't perform any moves but Pound to a combat standard, and was tragically unprepared in even the basics of said combat.

  Frustrated, I slowly pulled the textbook from my bag and opened it to the tabbed page of compiled details on Trubbish. I still hadn't filled in the egg and TM moves or anything else that wouldn't be in this old book, but it was something to go off of.

  Best stats; Defense, special defense, speed. Stench and Sticky Hold, Aftermath as the hidden ability. The thought process felt like a desire path in my brain, carved through roughage by impatient curiosity. I wasn't going to be able to give this up. I felt like I should give it up. In the end, I fell asleep on top of the textbook, still fruitlessly debating with myself.

  "I need to get out of Malie already!", I complained, "Gladion is already not fun for me to be around, but getting into these fake chase sequences is really getting old." Doctor Grace continued watching my hands as I handled the tweezers clumsily. Eva chuckled from the corner at my expense.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "Well good luck getting out of Malie and keeping up your bargain with the League.", she sneered, her snooty accent only compounding her gut punch. "How would I even begin!?", I fumed, "I have to somehow get some giant chase going across all of Ula'ula and keep Gladion's attention on me the whole time so he can't touch base in Po Town. That's not a plan, that's a pipe dream!"

  I was finished moving things around at that point and was just ranting. The good doctor cleared her throat. "I have good news," she announced, and I shut up to listen, "you're not backsliding anymore. You are making progress, even if it is slow. Keep using those braces." I commented, "It really doesn't feel like it. My hands were killing me after yesterday, and I'm gonna have to take the day off."

  Grace sighed, "Healing isn't a linear or easy process. It's going to hurt more at some times than others, and that's not always a sign of lost progress. Of course, you should call if it gets really bad and you can come in for an emergency check-up.", then she huffed, "Honestly, they should be giving you hazard pay, it's utterly irresponsible!"

  "You're the medical expert, if you say she deserves hazard pay, they can't argue.", Eva states like it's obvious, because, well, to an extent it is obvious. "Definitely do that then.", I said, eyes glimmering with the thought of even more hard cash. Before we could distract her any more, Doctor Grace waved us out of her office.

  "We were supposed to plan for tomorrow's chase.", Eva reminded me as we passed the people and pokémon dealing with less small-scale physical therapy in the main room. "I thought about maybe faking a rescue for Kumī yesterday since I left him behind on Route 10. He got back to the center this morning, but we could still do that.", I said, bored.

  "This isn't actual theatre, Kau'i. Just because that makes a good story doesn't mean you have to do it.", she hissed. I rolled my eyes, "Welp! I already had the idea, so... shut up." The routine really was getting to me. It wasn't that I necessarily hated routines, I just hated this routine.

  "So I'll come back to base with your Grimer faking being unconscious and you'll rescue him tomorrow? Sounds good. I'll update you where we stow him away like usual and you finally get to wait around for the right signal instead of me. I hate just sitting around.", Eva remarked. "Liar.", I accused. Sitting around had to be in Eva's top five favorite things to do. She just rolled her eyes.

  We walked in silence for a while, then Eva started looking at me as if to say, "Why are you still here? We're done." "So... Rich's Trubbish...", I started cautiously. Eva threw her head back in an even more dramatic display of disgust, then spat, "Just fucking steal it from him! Arceus, you are annoying sometimes!" "Steal it?", I asked, dumbfounded. Eva barked, "You, of all people, do not need to be told what stealing is! He's a grunt, the ball is unregistered! Just take it!"

  I chewed on my lip for a moment. 'Could I steal Rich's pokémon just cause he sucks at training him? Should I? I mean, I would train Cavendish better. I would name Cavendish better! But would Cavendish want that? I mean, I would in his situation, but I'm not a Trubbish. Best way to find out is to just... ask I guess. But then how do I ask that without Rich around?'

  "You have to steal Cavendish either way if you want to confirm whether he wants to go with you or not.", Eva said, as if she was reading my mind. If she actually was, it would be quite strange of her to have chosen to be a Poison-Type specialist, but I guess you never really knew with Eva.

  "Alright! Okay! I'll steal the damned Trubbish!", I griped. "You will steal the dusk ball that is linked to the Trubbish.", she corrected snidely. "I'll steal both!", I snapped back. "Yes, but one precludes the other, does it not?", she doubled down smugly. I shot back with a simple, "Fuck you!", to which she replied, "Fuck you exactly the same amount, thus canceling you out."

  Bitch.

  The "rescue mission" had been a success, and I was raking in my hazard pay. I just had two loose threads, two things to figure out; How to get Gladion to continue focusing on hunting me down while still getting on with my island challenge, and how to steal Cavendish.

  I'd taken another day off getting chased to try and figure it out. So far, I'd only tried. Halfway there, yay. In all seriousness, it was quite the challenge, and I couldn't pull it off with some half-assed scheme. There were just so many small social calculations to make, and there were no Kukui equations for social manipulation.

  I rolled over in my hammock again and looked down at the bed where most of my team was still sleeping, tucked safely around Waiola's warm scales. I hadn't bothered to wake them up, not that that had stopped Toma from staying up for me. I patted the spider on his head and twiddled around his mandibles with my thumbs.

  "Get me a snack?", I asked, exhausted but not tired. He nodded and pulled a stray string of silk I almost wouldn't've believed was there. A roll of sweetbread floated up into the air on the other end of the strand. He had read me like a book, if you ignored that he couldn't read books.

  I unwrapped the delicious morsel and scrolled through my recent texts, like that was going to help me solve the problem. The confirmation with Eva about my day off was at the top, then Hapu hounding me about being safe, then other scheming exchanges with Will and Rich, then a conversation where I'd fucked with Gladion to pass the time, and a string of other texts from oher people; Mikala, Hama, Ilima, Plumeria, Hau, Gerald, Evander, and a number of other Skull grunts.

  With no other ideas forthcoming, I scrolled back up to Gladion's contact and messaged him.

  "how can i make u mad @ me ,':}", I asked

  As soon as I got the read receipt, he was typing, "I am mad at you"

  "how can i make u MORE mad @ me , ':}", I clarified helpfully.

  "This is working", he answered.

  "u no what i mean >:{", I bantered.

  "Betray my Team", he sent, but he was still typing.

  "Waste my time"

  "Work with my greatest enemies"

  "Whatever you told Evander about me also didn't help", he concluded.

  "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm", I typed, smiling as I sent it.

  "th@s very helpful %))", I decided.

  "What?", he replied.

  "how did u not get th@ im tryin to piss u off & weird u out from everything i just said ,':|", I asked rhetorically, then turned my phone onto do not disturb and put it away.

  I was starting to get it, I thought. Gladion was defensive, possessive, reactionary, and greatest of all, stupid. In short, he thought very highly of his own moral abilities. If I could attack him or something he thought of as his, and I did it just right so as to push his complexes, he would chase me to the ends of the Earth while grouching the whole way.

  But what did I actually have access to that could hurt him like that? Obviously Evander, but if anyone deserved not to be dragged into this shitstorm, it was him. Aside from him, I wasn't about to "kidnap" one of my friends just for Gladion's sake, both because it was a ridiculous plan on the face of things and because if Gladion ever caught us unawares, the jig would be up.

  I sighed and turned my brain to my other, much easier problem, stealing Rich's Trubbish. Then I shot straight up in my hammock, hit my head on the roof, winced backwards, fell out of my hammock, and, of course, caught my fall with my hands. The litany of swears and curses that followed was anything but creative.

  At least, I consoled myself from the slightly whimpering pile on the ground that was me, I had solved my previous problems. My pokémon gently surrounded me, helping me to my feet. I had a heist to plan, so I was going to need their help... and probably another day off with a visit to the doctor. It felt like my hands would never stop hurting.

  Gladion was antsy... nervous... tense... he didn't know exactly how to put it. He was on an edge that seemed to dig into the soles of his feet. After taking her Alolan Grimer back from where he'd had it locked up, Kau'i hadn't shown her face for two whole days. He knew, logically, that that was only one more day than her previous breaks, but it drove him mad regardless.

  She had to be planning something, he thought, maybe she'd even already left the city behind and headed straight for Po Town. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He picked it up right away. "Hello.", he said seriously. Eva responded with exactly what he didn't want to hear, "I've got a report from a grunt that Kau'i is on the southwest side of the city, near Route 10."

  "I'm with Rich now, we'll be there. Get on your way here and tell Will to join as well.", Gladion administrated. This was the worst case scenario. She'd found another opening in their watch rotation and was going to use it to get out of Malie City. After that, all bets were off as to where the slippery snake ended up.

  He turned to Rich and ordered, "We're going to Route 10.", then picked up his pace. Null joined him at his side as they jogged towards the latest confrontation with that cowardly trash girl. His head was on a swivel, snapping towards any sound that might’ve been her sneaking off. He didn't like it, and Not came out of her ball as well.

  Even having his Type: Null and Noctowl at his side, he still didn't feel prepared. They stepped through a street corner right across from Route 10, and that feeling was validated. Not flew in a spiral to try and intercept the sudden appearance of Kau'i's Crobat, but failed to block the Screech that shook Null next to him. Like a blur, her Ariados came out of a haze of darkness, Night Shade, to strike Null faster and harder than he'd ever seen with a Fell Stinger.

  Behind him, Rich shouted something and he spotted Kau'i running right from in-between them, a flash of bright red and dark purple hair. He turned away from Null only for a moment to see Kau'i waving a dusk ball above her head like a golden trophy. "Give back Cavendish!", Rich growled. When he looked back to Null, they were unconscious on their side.

  He didn't have time to dwell on it, slapping Rich on the back as he rushed after Kau'i, who was running off into the brush on the south side of Route 10. She would have a hard time getting back to Malie from that side, but maybe, he thought, that was just what she wanted. Her pokémon followed her into the dark. She'd hurt his partner and stolen his subordinate's; He was determined not to let her get away with it.

  She must have been getting assistance from the wild pokémon again, going by the sheets of spider webbing that partitioned the forest like a human building as he entered. Kau'i's entourage passed through a flimsy sheet that became the platform for a thick mat of silk after they were through. Gladion didn't hesitate, throwing out Vile's ultra ball in front of himself.

  The Weavile knew what to do, cutting through the Spider Web to rush ahead. The sheet was sealed behind Vile, and their way was blocked again. Gladion didn't see the point of such a move. Then, there was a sound on the other side, like a thump and a rush of air. The moisture in the air leached out with a shocking rapidness, forming a layer of precipitation on everything as the immediate area around the webbed enclosure got very hot very fast.

  In a flash of even more heat, the webs around them burst into embers and ashes. Kau'i's Salazzle stood tall on the other side, Vile at her feet, Fire Lashes coming from both hands, moving with an Agility she shouldn't have. 'How!? How'd she get so strong!?' It was a very unproductive thought, and he clamped down on it, instead sending Thump out to help Not in fighting the monster.

  Before either of his teammates could so much as fire off a move, the Salazzle had already cracked her Lashes deep into his pokémon. Kau'i and her Ariados were stood behind the beast, smiling devilishly. Rich was frozen in the middle of the unworldly heat. Gladion wasn't going to just stand around.

  He ran forwards, right at the traitor. If there was ever any doubt that she was his rival, it was gone now. He'd do whatever it took to be better than her, to stop her. It wasn't a desire, it seemed, but a need. With an almost casual sidestep that was contrasted by the sheer speed it displayed, the Salazzle blocked his path. Then her Ariados stuck his shoes to the ground with a String Shot.

  His momentum carried him forward, and he left his shoes behind, continuing toward her with just his socks between him and the thorny underbrush. What did it matter that there was a fully attack and speed boosted Fire-Type in front of him? He was going to stop that fucking rat from ruining what little he had left, even if he had to use his own fists to do it!

  He slammed his fists into the bastard lizard, hurting his thumbs and knuckles, and when he pulled back for a moment to shake off the pain, the giant salamander moved. Kau'i was strapped to her back with a harness of spider silk. His rival gave as proper a salute as she could manage in her position, mocking the informal Team Skull salute.

  "Admin Gladion, if you need me, I'll be in the Haina Desert!", she declared with triumphant, venomous glee. Then, like one of her whips, the Salazzle snapped into motion, disappearing into the forest faster than Gladion could blink. Rich reached out a hand towards where she'd been stood, like he might still hold her back for one more second, saying uselessly, "Cavendish..."

  Waiola slowed to a stop along the northern ridge of the Haina Desert. I released Toma again to unwrap me from her back and slumped down onto the rocks. "Good performance?", I asked my ever-reliable spider wingman. He nodded approvingly. "Good, cause that fucking hurt."

  With a sigh, I moved to face the now distant Malie City instead of the waves of sand, then pressed the button on the dusk ball I'd grabbed. "Hey," I greeted, "I wanted to talk.", I told the Trubbish who hopefully wouldn't be named Cavendish soon. He looked around, confused. I decided to get ahead of the problem.

  "I'm leaving Malie City. Rich is still in Malie City.", I explained, pointing at the city, "Before I leave, I wanted the chance to ask you something important." Cavendish looked at me, then back at the city, hesitating. He was a meek sort of guy, and clearly felt pretty pressured so far away from the trainer he'd grown used to having his back.

  This was bad. I wasn't going to outright steal Rich's pokémon, I was going to offer a change, a better trainer to take care of him, and let him decide. As it was, Cavendish was both anxious to get back to his trainer and feeling pressured by me, which was not a conducive environment to good decision-making.

  "Ok. I shouldn't be the one to give you the pitch, that wouldn't be fair.", I said, mostly to myself, "Just know that if you don't like my offer, you get to go right back to Rich, or even back to the wild if you prefer. I won't stop you, and I won't let my team stop you either." Then, I let out the rest of my team and shooed them off to talk to Cavendish while I looked out at the landscape.

  It truly was scenic. It was a shame this spot was off-route, it rivaled Mount Hokulani in wide open vistas. Hokulani and Lanakila fought to dominate the sky, and the winner was clear. Lanakila stretched upwards, covered in sharp rocks, carpets of beautiful green, and a cap of permafrost and cloud cover.

  Haina Desert was a haze of sand, briefly revealing buried majesties through the near-permanent sandstorm created by the basin it sat in. To the east of it was the burnt orange rock of Route 12, hidden by Blush Mountain's still awe-striking third place finish in the game for Ula'ula's sky.

  Then there was Malie City, Route 10, and the greenery that wrapped around them. From this height, the city was laid bare, a forest in its own right made of greys, blues, and violets. Beyond all that, wherever the horizon spread wide enough, was the ocean. Wide. Shimmering. Endless.

  Just as I was starting to feel like an all too tiny drop in a much too big ocean, my team came back over to bring me back to reality. "So, aheghm hgm... what'dya decide?", I asked, coughing for... normal reasons. Toma drew a quick shrug, a doodle of that thinking man statue, and a clock.

  "Really?! You're okay staying with us for a while?", I asked. I had half expected Cavendish to just want to go back to Rich as soon as possible. The motion he responded with was less a nod and more a sloshing or jiggling of his head, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

  "Well, I can't keep calling you Cavendish without feeling terrible. It's no name for a trash bag such as yourself.", I segued smoothly, "I have been sort of planning this, so I have some names in mind." I gestured with my head for Toma to build us a safe way down into the Haina Desert as I spoke.

  "I was thinking of something with a 'P' sound at the beginning," I told the Trubbish as I lowered myself onto the first rope ladder, "maybe Peneki, or Pi'ilani, or Pōmaiki'i... I didn't actually decide on one." Though he didn't respond, he followed me to keep in earshot of my rant. As his rumply bottom was lowered above my head, I was surrounded by the smell he still gave off with Poison Gas.

  I took a rest on the next landing for a number of reasons. "On second thought," I heaved, trying to get good air in my lungs, "your name should be Pelapela." He hopped down onto the ground and tilted his head at me, producing a crunch of plastic snapping. "It means to be nasty or make something nasty, or to just emit a smell. Not necessarily a name, but it fits.", I explained.

  I did a hand exercise to ready myself for the next climb, thinking, 'Maybe I should just get Kawami to airlift me down.' I watched the Trubbish sort of wiggle on his base like an embarrassed schoolgirl in response to my name idea, then bring one trashy arm to his... neck?.. and begin "nodding" again. "Pelapela it is then.", I said confidently, hyping myself up for a long trip. 'A bit of team bonding can't hurt!'

  Team Information:

  Kawami- (Poison/Flying Type, Female She/Her, Hasty Nature +Spe/-Def)

  Abilities: Inner Focus, Infiltrator

  Moves: Supersonic, Astonish, Absorb, Hypnosis, Poison Fang, Wing Attack, Confuse Ray, Bite, Air Cutter, Curse, Frustration, Screech, Swift, Quick Guard, Crunch, Cross Poison, Tailwind, Toxic

  Toma- (Bug/Poison Type, Male He/Him, Jolly Nature +Spe/-SpA)

  Abilities: Insomnia, Sniper, Swarm

  Moves: Poison Sting, String Shot, Absorb, Constrict, Spider Web, Infestation, Scary Face, Shadow Sneak, Acid Spray, Swords Dance, Fell Stinger, Baton Pass, Night Shade, Substitute, Toxic, Agility

  Waiola- (Poison/Fire Type, Female She/Her, Lonely Nature +Atk/-Def)

  Abilities: Corrosion, Oblivious

  Moves: Scratch, Poison Gas, Fake Out, Ember, Dragon Rage, Smog, Sweet Scent, Flame Burst, Toxic, Fire Lash

  Kumī- (Poison/Dark Type, Male He/It, Relaxed Nature +Def/-Spe)

  Abilities: Gluttony, Poison Touch

  Moves: Poison Gas, Bite, Poison Fang, Acid Spray, Toxic, Harden, Disable, Assurance, Shadow Sneak, Mud Shot

  Pelapela- (Poison Type, Male He/Him, Bashful Nature +Neutral-)

  Abilities: n/a

  Moves: Poison Gas (Developing), Pound, Amnesia (Developing), Recycle (Developing)