The New Adventures of Raptor Trainer

Bones to Pick

"Well, to sum things up, it turns out using Hyper Beam to try and counter an oncoming Thunderbolt wasn't the best idea."

"Man, you should've seen the CRATER that made!" Professor Kukui continued in response to Molayne's conclusion. "And the shock wave the blast generated...I can STILL feel it, after all these years."

"You're not the only one, old friend."

"Ghee...Can you imagine something like that going down in a battle between you and Hau?" Rotom asked. "I wouldn't wanna get caught in the middle of something like that! I'd be petrified! Bzzt!"

{I can picture it,} I answered. {...Though feeling the blast for myself doesn't seem like something I'd like to imagine.}

"You'd be right," the professor nodded.

We'd decided to kill some time by taking the route back down Mount Hokulani on foot, and by now we were entering the Malie City limits again. it was still a bit early to go searching for dinner, so I figured it would be best to stop by Malie Garden one more time to see if I was lucky enough to find Hau anywhere. The professor wanted to locate Lillie himself and ensure she was doing alright, so we figured it best to head back to where we started.

All in all, the stories the two of them had told of their own adventures during the Island Challenge from years past were certainly something interesting...I was still thinking about how Molayne had described catching his Skarmory; according to him, it'd been a team effort between him and the professor just to get it calmed down enough to aim a Poké Ball at, and they'd gotten a good number of scratches from its sharp wings as it kept diving in to attack them.

"Ah, man...Good times, huh Molayne?"

"They were among the best, that's for sure," he replied. "...It's always fascinating to look back and compare them to where we are now, isn't it?"

"Sure is...Didn't think we'd be the ones guiding the next generation of trial-goers at the time, did we?"

"I didn't consider becoming a trial captain until a few years after we'd finished the challenge."

"Say, Echo, that brings up the question. You got any plans for after you complete the Island Challenge yourself?"

I didn't answer him. In fact, I barely even heard what he'd said at the time.

...I was too focused on what was crossing the golden bridge, coming towards us.

"...Echo?"

"Uh...Professor? We've got company at twelve o'clock," Rotom buzzed, finally prompting him to look ahead.

"Yo, Mr. Kukui! Hol' up!"

You have to be kidding me...

Everything had been going just fine, but now that Team Skull had shown up again, I could practically feel the scowl pulling down the corners of my mouth. I was NOT up for another battle after having just defeated the Totem Vikavolt.

"Ho boy...Molayne, how about I catch you tomorrow?" the professor said to him. "This might get a bit hairy."

"True...And I should probably check up on Sophocles' progress with the Charjabug station, among other things. Let's try to meet up again tomorrow while you're still here!"

With that, he turned out of the garden and left the scene. Team Skull didn't seem to care much about him; they were focused on the two of us.

"Kukui," one of them addressed. "We've been hearin' around that you wanna make a Pokémon League. You got rocks in your skull, or somethin'?"