Alola to a New Journey!

Down to the Depths

"So, what's the deal? With Lusamine, exactly? She went nuts after Mohn was taken? She was really nice when I first met her!" Ash yelled to Gladion over the wind.

"She usually is!" Gladion yelled back. "Losing Pops took a toll on all of us, but Mom had shut herself in for a month after it happened! We thought she was better when she came back out, and she acted normal and everything, too!"

"That stuff doesn't matter right now! We need to hurry!" Lillie shouted. "We already lost Dad, I don't want to lose Mom too!"

"Right..." Gladion said. "We aren't too far now." He pointed to the Aether Paradise in the distance. "It's right there."

"Step on it, guys!" Ash said. His Pokémon increased their speed as they raced towards the artificial island. Ash grabbed Lillies hat as it flew off her head from the high speeds. The Pokémon lowered themselves onto the island in front of the main doors, and let the trio down. Ash thanked his buddies and returned them.

"How do you have more then 6 Pokémon on you right now?" Gladion asked.

"We'll, you're not strictly limited to 6 at a time. Only in official battles you're allowed only 6. I figured that 3 more backups couldn't hurt." Ash said.

Gladion nodded. "Okay. Couldn't hurt to have a back-up squad. Anyways, when Faba got rid of the Wormhole, he put the machine in the basement. He didn't do anything to get rid of it, he just moved it. That's probably where Lusamine is now."

"Then to the basement we go!" Ash said, barging into the building. Workers gave him quizzical looks as he marched down the hallway, but looked away when Gladion and Lillie passed by chasing after him. "He's way too excited about this." Gladion muttered as Ash waited for them by an elevator. Lillie giggled. "Just another adventure for the legendary Ash Ketchum."

"Ya coming or what?!" Ash yelled to them, as the elevator doors opened. Gladion and Lillie followed him inside, and Gladion pressed the bottom button with a large B imprinted in it. "The basement is massive, and it's really hard to find your way around it. Mom had to put up maps of the basement all over because employees could be missing for days if they came down here unprepared, and were not used to the layout." Gladion said. "One employee was caught down here for nearly two weeks because she got locked in the port. She survived off rations in the speedboats until someone finally found her. She quit three days after, and no one was surprised. Mom almost faced a court case."

"Holy Arceus..." Ash muttered. "How are we gonna find Lusamine down here then?" The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Gladion looked at Ash. "With a shit ton of walking and a shit ton of luck." Gladion stepped off the elevator, and Ash and Lillie followed. Gladion calling the basement massive was a huge understatement. Ash swore that the place was bigger then the island above. The place looked more like an abandoned lab and storage area then a basement. Tarps covered old technology and equipment, shelves were overflowing with boxes full of old junk, the lights hardly shone any light at all, speedboats and trucks lined the wall nearby the enormous bay doors that stood on the wall opposite to the elevator were they came from. "This does not look like a basement..." Ash muttered. "It looks like a massive workshop."

"I remember some of this old crap." Gladion said as he ran his hand along an old white jeep, his fingers leaving trails in the layer of dust. "Mom showed me this jeep a long time ago." Gladion said. "This was Dad's. So was that speedboat over there." Lillie looked under the tarp covering a rectangular machine. It had six ball shaped slots in the table. Lillie noticed it resembled the machines in a Pokémon Center. "Is this Pokémon Center equipment?" She asked.

"Wicke used to be really into medical care for Pokémon. Used to pretty much dissect those machines in her free time. She knows those machines better then Nurse Joy does, I bet." Gladion said. "Faba and Dad were both vehicle nuts. Probably why Faba keeps most of these old trucks and boats."