Chapter Text
Selene was good at noticing stuff. It was kind of her thing. In battle, she analyzed her opponent’s every move. Off the field, she caught details others would have missed without batting an eye.
Which was why she immediately knew that Hau had added another to his roster when she spotted the extra Pokeball at his belt. This should be fun.
Selene was all for an even match. Currently, her team consisted of her choice of first partner, a Rowlet who she had nicknamed Robin, and a Grubbin she’d snagged after assuring Professor Kukui that she was perfectly able to catch a measly Bug Type, thank you very much. She wasn’t sure what to call her yet, but she was thinking about Elesa, after one of the best Electric Type Gym Leaders in the world. (Just behind Kanto’s own Lt. Surge in levels of awesomeness)
“Ho!” Hau hopped from one foot to the other at the top of the village stairs, Popplio in tow as usual. “Howzit, Selene?”
“Not bad.”
“Man, I thought you’d never make it!”, he said. “Me and Marin’ve been waiting for ages!”
“I got a little sidetracked,” she explained sheepishly, swallowing down the last of her alarm at a possible alien invasion. Changing the subject, she crouched down to scratch Popplio behind the ears. The little seal snuffled a wet pink nose into her hand. “Is that what you’ve decided to call her?”
“Yep! Cool, right?”, Hau grinned, but Selene had her attention directed elsewhere by the approaching Kahuna Hala, who was making his way through the crowd of drifting people like Kyogre parting the Equatorial Sea, narrowly ducking under the wayward tail of a passing Exeggutor that had to be tall as a house. “Hi Tutu!”
“Ah, Hau.”, he boomed. “I see you have found our other star of the show.”
Selene squinted at him. “What do you mean, sir?”
Hau looked up in shock from where he had. “Hold on… Didn’t anyone explain to you about tonight?!”
“…I figured it out.”
Hala stuck his thumbs in his huge rope belt and laughed. “The Alola region is made up of our four islands, and each island has its own guardian Pokemon.”, he explained. “Our festival today is held to express our thanks to these great Pokemon guardian deities for always remaining by our sides.”
“Ohhhh…”, Selene put in. “So it’s kind of like paying respect to the Legendary Dogs like they do in Johto.”
Hala nodded thoughtfully. “In a way, yes. We may call it a festival, but it’s just this little thing you see here.”, he chuckled. “There may not be many of us, but at least every last one of us here goes all out.”
Privately, Selene thought it was pretty impressive for such a small scale event, taking notice of another two people approaching them. A huge white sunhat trailing after a certain shirtless Professor announced the arrival of Kukui and Lillie, the former with a massive smile on his face and the latter peeping nervously at her from under her hat brim.
Lillie was nice, Selene supposed. Very kind and polite, but so shy that she couldn’t really get a handle on what sort of person the other girl could be. She didn’t act or even dress like anyone else Selene had met since moving to Alola, and she realized that Lillie was still wearing the same knee-length white bell dress, now innocent of mud, that she had on the day before, up Mahalo Trail. Her entire ensemble from her ridiculous hat to her dainty powder blue flats could only be described as perfect, platinum blond hair hanging loose to her waist with the same double half-braids still woven in front of her ears, not a strand out of place. Selene was as bewildered as she was impressed, pretending not to notice when her duffle bag jumped slightly, held back by her tightly clasped fingers. It was the only thing that didn’t fit in with the white and blue of this odd uniform.
That and her eyes. A striking shade of apple green. Selene didn’t realize she had been staring until Lillie blushed and ducked under her hat to hide. Embarrassed, she averted her gaze with burning ears to the Professor, who, as usual, hadn’t bothered to finish getting dressed.
“Oh yeah, right on time!”, Kukui exclaimed, with a nod to the Kahuna.
“But to what, exactly?”, Lillie spoke up, twisting the straps of her wriggling bag.
“A full powered festival for Pokemon Battling! We battle in the name of Tapu Koko, pitting our best moves against one another in friendly competition to please our guardian. Woo!” Kukui sounded more excited than Hau and Marin combined, and seeing as Hau was practically vibrating in place and his partner clapping her flippers after a particularly extravagant backflip, that was a high bar to top.
Lillie almost smiled, something Selene hadn’t seen her do before. “So, you two will be taking part in the battle?”
“Yeah!”, Hau cheered, and Selene shrugged her shoulders in feigned nonchalance. Play it cool.
“Sure, why not.”
The other girl nodded, smoothing out her dress. “I don’t like seeing Pokemon fight one another, since they so often end up getting hurt. But…” She pushed her hat back on her head and offered them all a real smile this time. “I’ll be sure to watch you both.”
“That’s the spirit!”, the Professor chimed in.
“Selene,” Hala intervened. “I assume you are ready for the main event?”
Am I really? Selene retrieved Robin’s Pokeball from its place in her bag and regarded it for a moment. “Yeah, I think so.”, she concluded.
“Then let us begin.” Hala turned on his heel and made for the big wooden platform in the center of the village that Selene had seen yesterday. She had rightfully assumed it was used for battling, given the painted court lines.
“So Hau,” she said. “You gonna tell me what you caught for your second team member?”
“Nope!”, the boy responded cheekily. “It’s a surprise!”
Selene smirked. “Fine. Guess mine’ll have to be a surprise too.”
“What?” His eyes darted to the two spheres she held between her fingers. “Aw, no fair!”
She threw her hands up in mock defeat as they climbed the platform’s steps. “It’s a surprise.” He stuck his tongue out at her and took his place on the opposite side of the court. The crowd had started to gather around, and internally she felt a little nervous. I am not getting stage fright right now.
“For all life on our islands…”, Hala boomed, loud enough to be heard from beyond the village limits. Selene pointedly ignored the metallic shine of otherworldly armor coming from the treeline and instead scanned the assembled faces, spotting her mother among them, to her surprise, in a clean white blouse with her sunglasses propped up on her forehead. Since when did she get here?
“And for those who undertake the Island Challenge with joy in their hearts…”, Hala continued, oblivious to the bright speck of ginger hair watching them from up the hill. “We pray for your protection… for them and all Melemele.”
The old Kahuna was backlit by the crackling bonfire behind him as he commanded the attention of the crowd. “May this Pokemon Battle be an offering to our island’s guardian deity – Tapu Koko!” He turned to Hau, gesturing with the red paper fan he kept folded in his belt. “Before you stands Hau Hara – grandson to the Kahuna.”
Hau stood with a purpose, puffing out his chest and setting his hands on his hips. “Let’s have fun with this, Marin!”
But Hala wasn’t finished. “Before him stands Selene Mizuki – one who has met with Tapu Koko.” Selene snapped to full attention at the murmurs of surprise from the village that surrounded her. She was pretty sure she heard her mother calling out for Rowlet to take care of ‘my little Selene’. Her ears were probably bright red.
Bless Hau for distracting her. “As long as we both have a good time, then I think we can call it a great battle, eh?”
Now this is more like it.
“Selene! Hau!”, Hala shouted with far too much fanfare. “Bring forth the power of your Pokemon!”
And they were off.
Hau opted for his first partner as soon as possible, letting Selene make the easy decision to counter Popplio with Rowlet. Robin burst into existence in a flash of red light and fluttered gracefully to his preferred perch on her forearm. “You ready for this bud?”
He offered a soft hoot in response. Selene rested her free hand on her knee and egged Hau on with a smirk. If he made the first move, she’d have immediate advantage.
Her challenge was accepted. Marin quickly spun to support herself with her front flippers and let loose a stream of water from her nose, aimed directly at Robin. Selene ducked, throwing up her arm to give her partner a boost into the air. The water narrowly missed him, and he circled the battlefield, fluttering just out of reach. Selene however, ended up with a soaked sleeve. “Really?”
“Whoops!”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and Robin retaliated with a bombardment of leaves, spiraling down into a direct hit and knocking Marin sideways with a startled yelp. “Good job, buddy! Knock her out!”
Robin reared up for a strike with his talons, barreling down on his opponent, but was caught off guard by an expanding water balloon blocking the hit. The little owl’s best attempt had it bouncing off the balloon and tumbling away, and Marin detached the bubble from her nose, flipping to smack it with her tail and sending it towards her opponent like a projectile.
Selene remained unphased. “Finally, a decent match.”, she muttered under her breath as her partner evaded the bubble, regaining altitude to hover anxiously over her head. Popplio was pretty sturdy, all things considered, but Rowlet had a vast speed and Type advantage. “Robin, Leafa*ge, outmaneuver!”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. In a matter of seconds, he had positioned himself behind Marin, sending down another small cloud of leaves. This time, she didn’t get back up.
“10 down!”, Hala roared from the background. “Popplio is officially unable to battle!”
Hau hurried to his partner’s side. “You did a great job, Marin!”, he said reassuringly as he recalled her. “I’ll take over from here.”
Oh right. They both had two Pokemon.
Hau’s lack of apprehension at grabbing his second Pokeball prepared her to recall Robin if necessary. It was likely he’d found a counter to her chosen Grass and Flying Type. Selene hurriedly returned the Rowlet to his usual storage compartment and introduced her second to the field of battle. She hadn’t spent much time with her Grubbin, but she had reason to hope this might be a decent first bonding experience.
She was correct in her assumptions as she found herself facing down a small, yellow Pichu. Grubbin weren’t fast enough to make biding your time an effective strategy, so Selene crouched down beside the round little insect to make her intentions clear. “Listen,” she began awkwardly, and it inclined a beady eye in her direction. “I’m going to ask you to follow my direction here.” Pichu scrubbed its cheeks with its paws, and Selene knew she didn’t have a lot of time.
Grubbin clicked its mandibles in disinterest, and Selene had to fight back her frustration. “Can you bite Hau’s Pichu for me? As hard as you can?”
No such luck could be had. Grubbin had lost the train of the conversation and began crawling in the opposite direction to inspect the boards for food. Pichu sparked threateningly, and Selene suddenly had an idea.
“That Pichu insulted your mother.”
What Grubbin lacks in speed, it makes up for in the sheer strength of its jaw, and unfortunately for Pichu, it was bite sized.
That’s gonna leave a mark.
As Hau recalled his last Pokemon, Selene regarded her new team member, somewhat fried from Pichu’s adverse reaction to being gnawed on, but overall in great shape. “You tanked that Spark like a champ, girl!”, she praised the insect nibbling cheerfully on her fingers. “You’re definitely gonna live up to your name.”
“Another great battle this year!”, Kukui exclaimed from somewhere in the background. “I’ll bet Tapu Koko liked it too!” Selene caught Lillie’s eye from where she stood clapping politely behind him and grinned.
“Phew!” Hau pushed a strand of dark green hair away from his forehead and stuffed his Pokeballs back into the deep pockets of his flowery board shorts. “That was awesome, Selene!”
Selene could agree with that. This was a local custom she could get behind.
“I had a blast fighting you… even if it lost!”
“It was a good battle,” Hala agreed. “And I think you both are ready for these.”
Hau and Selene stood shoulder to shoulder on the platform as Kahuna Hala slipped identical black bracelets adorned with white ‘Z’ symbols onto their wrists, and she didn't think she'd ever been happier. It was nearly enough to let her forget about the aliens and the almost dying.
Whatever this Island Challenge threw at her next, she’d be ready for it.
