Moon watched with a mixture of fascination and weariness, as the legendary Pokémon Tapu-Koko himself was doing what could only be described as consulting Hau's popplio. Looking around, she could see that the population of Iki Town was just as speechless. Hau in the meantime looked like he was about to fall over like a statue, from the way his body was tensed up. Tapu-Koko in the meantime didn't notice the stares or more probable he ignored them in favor of Popplio.

"Koko. Tapu. Kokoko," the legendary pokémon spoke.

"Popplio…pop, pop," the water-type replied, holding his head down.

"Tapu? Koko, ko, tapu."

"Lio, lio. Popplio."

"Ko. Ta. Pu, pu, koko."

Tapu-Koko got to Popplio's level and put a reassuring hand on the other Pokémon's shoulder.

"Tapu-Koko, your local legendary consultant. Sign up now, for only 9.99 the first month," Moon joked aloud, getting the attention of everyone in town, even that of the Pokémon. Popplio looked up fearfully, while Tapu-Koko's expression didn't change. After a moment, he just shrugged off the human's comment and turned his attention back to the frightened Popplio.

"Koko, tapu, tapu. Ta. Pu. Tapu-Koko." The legendary Pokémon gestured towards Moon and Zeveon. The water-type looked up and involuntarily flinched a little when his gaze fell on Moon.

("What are they talking about?") Moon thought towards Zeveon, who answered immediately.

("It appears as if Tapu-Koko is trying to convince Popplio that you are not a threat, princess.") Zeveon thought back.

"Go figure…" Moon mumbled to herself. Although she had already thought that something along those lines was happening, it still surprised her to some degree, when she got the confirmation.

As Popplio and Tapu-Koko continued their "session", whispers began to arise among the villagers. The hybrid didn't listen to them, but instead, she walked over to Hau, who up to this point had been staring at the two Pokémon. Zeveon followed her closely. Hau looked at Moon when the girl arrived right next to him.

"M-Moon! What's going on?!" the boy exclaimed.

Before Moon could give him an answer, the two were suddenly face to face with Tapu-Koko himself.

"Whoa!" Both of them exclaimed when the Pokémon seemingly out of nowhere appeared in front of their faces. The legendary looked at Hau, who in return was in a state of shock.

"Popplio." The small water-type announced himself and crawled towards his trainer.

"Popplio, are you alright?" Hau asked worried while picking his Pokémon up.

"Popplio…" the Pokémon replied, looking sadly at his trainer.

"I guess your Pokémon is suffering from a bit of stage fright," Moon said with a grin while putting her arms behind her head.

"Huh? Stage friend?" Hau repeated.

"Why else do you think Popplio ran away? Unless he's scared of Zeveon of course. She does look a little scary."

"Zee!" The bug-type looked up to her princess, acting as if it was offended. Moon bend down and ruffled her Pokémon's back affectionately. This appeared to please Zeveon, as she let out a sound that was supposed to be purring but sounded like something else entirely.

"Is that true Popplio?" Hau asked his Pokémon. Popplio, who was still in Hau's arms, looked down at both Moon and Zeveon. He almost automatically flinched when his gaze fell upon the hybrid, who at this point was solely focused on her own Pokémon. Seeing the fear in his pokémon's eyes, Hau assumed that Moon was right in her second assumption. And truth to be told, he couldn't really blame the little water-type. Zeveon looked a little scary that much Hau could see. He could only imagine how scary the bug-type must look in the eyes of such a small pokémon. And although he had been really looking forward to this day, the last thing the young boy wanted to do was make his pokémon feel uncomfortable.

"So, should we cancel the fight?" he asked his water-type. He himself had to flinch when he heard several gasps and whispers coming from the crowd. After all, this was not any big occasion. This was a tribute to their guardian deity, who was still flying right next to Hau. The people of this town naturally were afraid they would face some kind of retribution from Tapu-Koko or worse, abandon the town altogether. The young boy did his best to turn out the whispers and fully focused on his pokémon. To his delight and slight surprise, Popplio shook his head vigorously and exclaimed. "Popplio!" The water-type had determination written all over his face.

"Are you sure?"

"Popplio!"

The young boy smiled and nodded at his pokémon, before turning towards the legendary pokémon, who was watching him and his pokémon. Hau was still taken aback by the fact that the guardian deity himself was floating right in front of him. The legendary pokémon looked like it was waiting for something and the townspeople held their breaths, as Hau talked to the electric and fairy-type.

"Uh...thank you for cheering up Popplio, Tapu-Koko."

"Koko," the guardian deity nodded, accepting the thanks. He briefly turned his head towards Moon and Zeveon, who both regarded the guardian deity with curious yet at the same time suspicious gazes. Ignoring those two for the moment, Tapu-Koko returned his attention to Hau.

"Koko?" the deity asked and pointed at Popplio.

"Lio! Pop, pop!"

Hau smiled at the declaration of his pokémon, even though he could only guess what his water-type had said.

"Yeah, we're doing this," he told Tapu-Koko.

"Tapu!" The guardian deity flew over to Hala and took a position right next to the man. Hau's grandfather did his best to keep himself composed and failed miserably. He was just as surprised as anyone else to see the guardian deity placing himself right next to the Kahuna, having involuntarily taken a step back.

"Tapu-Koko…" Hala breathed out. The pokémon in question glanced over to the Kahuna and gave him a curt nod, before returning his attention to the field in front of him.

"So, wait. A pokémon is going to be our referee now?" Moon asked aloud, tilting her head. As if to confirm her suspicion Tapu-Koko screamed: "Ko!"

Moon looked over to Hau, who in return had a bright smile on his face. "Isn't that awesome?! Tapu-Koko himself is going to watch our battle personally!"

Apparently, the crowd agreed with Hau as there were various whispers among them as to how great of an honor it was that the guardian deity himself had decided to watch over this battle personally.

Moon gave the legendary pokémon one last look before she silently decided to return to her position on the battlefield, with Zeveon doing the same, placing herself in front of her princess. Hau and Popplio quickly followed and although the latter still felt more than just nervous, Tapu-Koko's presence alone appeared to have calmed him down significantly.

"Tapu-Koko," Hala spoke up, silencing all of the whisperings among the crowd. "It is a great honor that you grant us today."

"Ko." Tapu-Koko simply nodded and then turned his first to Hau and Popplio, after which he looked at Moon and Zeveon. Moon had her arms crossed and was once again glaring down at Hau as if he was her mortal enemy or something.

"Tapu…" the legendary pokémona raised both arms. "KOKO!" both arms were slammed down, like an actual referee would do with his or her flags, indicating the beginning of the fight.

"Quick attack!" Moon shouted automatically, having had the words on her lips for quite some time. Although this had been a bit of a gamble since she had still no idea what kind of attacks Zeveon was actually capable of. This time she had gotten lucky and Zeveon executed the attack just as fast as it was named. Hau's eyes had trouble keeping up with the bug-type, before it crashed into Popplio, sending the screaming water-type flying.

"Popplio!" Hau shouted in shock, as the water-type crashed down in front of him. However, Popplio immediately got back up again, glaring over at his opponent.

"Yeah, let's counterattack!" Hau declared. "Water Gun!"

("I don't need to tell you to dodge, do I?") Moon talked to her underling telepathically. She always found it ridiculous how trainers needed to tell their pokémon to dodge an attack. Popplio took in a quick breath and spit out his Water Gun attack. Naturally, Zeveon jumped out of the way, but Popplio was far from stupid too. He simply readjusted his aiming and hit Zeveon in mid-air. And while certainly, the bug-type was being pushed away, once she landed, she firmly held her stance, until eventually, Popplio stopped the Water Gun. The bug-type appeared to be unaffected, aside from getting a little wet.

"Again Popplio!"

("Do you have any ranged attacks yourself?") Moon asked while Zeveon ran in a circle in order to avoid the water. In response, Zeveon opened her mouth and shot out a green substance out of her mouth. However, due to her running, her aim was a bit off. The green stuff hit the ground right next to Popplio, who was surprised to see the wood right next to him disappear. White haze rose from the place Zeveon hit and once it disappeared, it revealed a hole in the wood.

"What was that?" Hau exclaimed.

"Acid Spray," Hala recognized the attack.

("I guess that's what the three sacks on her back are for.") Moon realized. ("Any bug-type attacks?")

Once again Zeveon didn't answer verbally, rather she stormed directly at Popplio with her mouth open and her teeth glowing in a white light.

"Out of the way, Popplio!" Hau screamed at his water-type. The problem here was that the water-type's body shape didn't allow him to move fast out of the water. As a result, while he was running, he got bit in his fish-tail, making him scream in pain.

("This doesn't taste so bad.") Zeveon thought to herself, but Moon heard it none-the-less and had to suppress a laugh.

Popplio in the meantime didn't take too kindly into his tail being bitten. He turned around, growled at the bug-type and began hitting Zeveon with Pound over and over and over again. It almost looked like he was using Double Slap over and over again. While it was hilarious to watch Zeveon simply enduring the onslaught, Moon didn't plan on doing this.

"Acid Spray!" she shouted.

"Oh no!" was all Hau could shout before the acid directly hit Popplio's tail. The acid entered the wounds caused by the Bug Bite, causing the water-type to scream in agony, the pain seemingly being unbearable to him. Popplio lashed out with his tail, swinging Zeveon around in the air. The bug-type let go of the tail and was flung into the air. She managed to land on all fours, seemingly no worse for wear, despite being constantly pounded by Popplio earlier.

"Are you alright, Popplio?" Hau asked his pokémon as said pokémon was busy blowing air over the wound, in order to decrease the burning feeling on the bite marks.

"Popplio…" he whined but nonetheless turned back towards his opponent.

"Alright, let's show Moon and Zeveon what we're made off!" The boy enthusiastically declared. "Use Growl!"

Moon knew what Growl did or at least was supposed to do. It was supposed to make oneself appear cute and as such make the opponent less wary, causing his physical attacks to become less effective. The key word, in this case, was "supposed". The concept of morale was quite frankly foreign to the Zerg, or to be more precise to the 99% that didn't have a will on their own. Zeveon belonged to that 99%. Is it cute? Kill it. Is it cuddly? Kill it. Is it both? Bring it to the princess. That was the simple logic most Zerg worked on. Long story short, Growl had no effect on Zeveon, although it wasn't really obvious.

"Acid Spray!"

"Water Gun!"

The attacks collided in mid-air, both pokémon pumping out their respective fluids to the best of their ability. Popplio drew the short stick in this situation and got a direct hit in the chest by the green stuff.

"Liooooo!" he screamed, as the acid did its work on his body.

"Oh no!" Hau screamed.

"I was afraid of that." In the crowd Professor Kukui was standing right next to his assistant Lillie, having a small frown on his face.

"Afraid of what?" Lillie inquired.

"The battle," Kukui answered. "It's completely one-sided. Zeveon has obviously more fighting experience, due to her coming from the wild. Popplio, on the other hand, was raised to be partnered up with an inexperienced trainer. He barely has any fighting experience himself."

"Oh." Lillie looked at Popplio worriedly, who barely managed to get back up.

"Finish him off!" Moon ordered her pokémon. Zeveon took this to heart and charged directly at the opposing water-type. But before she could hit Popplio, Tapu-Koko decided to intervene. The guardian deity got directly between Zeveon and Popplio, with the bug-type barely being able to stop herself from running into the legendary pokémon.

"Zee!" she shouted at the intervening deity, who shook his head.

"It seems Tapu-Koko has decided that the fight shall end now," Kahuna Hala spoke up.

"You heard the man, Zeveon," Moon called out to her pokémon. "Come back here."

Zeveon growled at Tapu-Koko but obediently walked over to Moon at a leisure pace. The hybrid bent down and gave her pokémon a few strokes on the back. The eevee-evolution leaned into the touch, visibly enjoying.

"That was great Popplio!" Hau called out to his water-type. "You deserve a rest." The Kahuna's grandchild took out his pokéball and recalled his pokémon. While he was putting his ball away, Tapu-Koko flew over to Moon and stopped only a few inches away from the girl. All attention was now on the foreigner and the island's guardian deity. Moon herself felt more than just a little anxious upon having the legendary pokémon up front and close to her. Zeveon growled from beneath but was ignored by both parties.

Tapu-Koko stretched out his right arm and it was then that the redhead noticed that the guardian deity was holding a white sparkling stone. Understanding the motion, Moon held out her hand. A second later Tapu-Koko dropped the stone into Moon's hand. She mentally noted that it felt somewhat warm, meaning he had probably been holding it for quite some time.

"What's that?" Moon asked, inspecting the stone. She noted that there was a small part hollowed out, making it look like something was supposed to be inserted there.

"This is…!" Moon heard the Kahuna exclaim, but Tapu-Koko once more demanded her attention. For now, he held out his left arm, which contained another stone. Just by looking at it, Moon could see that it was somehow green glowing. It also appeared as if it had been broken off from something. Now really curious as to why the legendary pokémon had not one, but two gifts for her, she held out her other hand and accepted the gift, which was dropped into her palm.

Moon turned the stone in her hand and the first thing she saw was that the green glow came from a triangle shape crystal or gem that was attached to the side of the rock. She raised both of her eyebrows after seeing this, as this stone was probably worth a fortune. Turning it one more time, she found out that one part of the stone was flat with curvy engravings on it. After three seconds of staring at the engravings, Moon's expression turned from curiosity into a mix of shock and anger.

"Where the hell did you get that?!" she shouted at the electric and fairy-type, shocking everyone in town. Tapu-Koko for his part had a smug grin on his face.#

"Koko, koko. Tapu."

Moon looked down at Zeveon, who looked back up. The two faced each other like this for a total of five seconds, before Moon turned her attention back to Tapu-Koko.

"Are you fucking serious?" she growled, keeping her voice down.

"Tapu-Koko?" The guardian deity tapped at the white stone.

"Koko-Tapu." The legendary pokémon tapped on the green stone.

Moon glared at the guardian deity for a few more moments. At this point, the townsfolk was actively talking to each other.

"Did you hear how disrespectful the girl has been to Tapu-Koko?"

"How dare she? And after he gave her those gifts to her."

"I believe one of those stones is a Z-Stone, isn't it?"

"I need to check this," Moon suddenly said to Tapu-Koko. And afterward, without any warning, she ran off. Many people were surprised, when all of the sudden both Moon and Zeveon took off, ran around the crowd and took the quickest way out of Iki Town.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Hau shouted after Moon and was about to chase the girl when Tapu-Koko came in the boy's way. Hau nearly crashed into the pokémon, if it weren't for the legendary flying a little backward.

"Hey, what gives?!" Hau shouted, but Tapu-Koko just shook his head.

XXX

Moon ran faster than was humanly possible. She didn't even follow the path that travelers usually took when walking to Iki Town. Rather she crossed through the woods and even went as far as to slide down slopes, whenever they came up. Zeveon easily managed to keep up with her mistress. She ran right beside Moon, whenever the terrain allowed it. She only occasionally needed to dodge a tree or jump over a bush.

In around twenty minutes the two arrived at their still relatively new home. It appeared as if Moon's caretaker had already taken care of the broken door and had it replaced. The hybrid girl wondered just how Delaila managed to get a new door so fast, but this train of thought was quickly forgotten, as there was an envelope lying right in front of the said door. It was addressed to her. Recognizing Delaila's handwriting, Moon quickly opened it and read the contents.

~Moon, please don't destroy any more doors. I am grocery shopping right now. The new key is hidden at the usual spot.

Mom~

Moon rolled her eyes in amusement, after reading the letter. "The usual spot, huh? That would be…" she said aloud, while already walking towards the garage. The so-called "usual spot" turned out to be nothing special. There just a bunch of empty flower pots stacked on top of each other and the key was underneath all of them. After retrieving the key, Moon opened the house door and walked in, alongside Zeveon. They found Meowth sleeping soundly on the couch in the living room and pretty much left the normal-type alone. The hybrid walked straight into her room and after Zeveon was inside, she closed the door and locked it. While the bug-type made it herself comfortable on Moon's bed, the girl in question headed over to her closet and started rummaging through it.

"Okay, where did I leave it?" the girl asked aloud while throwing random pieces of clothing out of the closet.

"Not here, not here, not there… what is my mom's underwear doing here? Not here, not here…"

This went on for around ten minutes, in which Moon almost completely emptied her closet. When she finally found what she was looking for, she stretched her arm out, holding an electronic device in her hand. It had vaguely the shape of a Game Boy, only it was overall larger with more buttons and a larger screen.

("What is this Terran device, princess?") Zeveon asked.

"A PIG," the princess rep

("Pig?")

"It's an acronym for some fancy words or other," Moon explained dismissively while throwing her clothes back into her closet. "It's a device with which you can do a lot of things. For example, check if the water is poisoned, a certain fruit edible and lots more stuff. These things are standard equipment in every Terran flying vehicle. The Medivac in which I was brought in had one too."

("I see. But why do you require this device? Our bodies adapt to every poison we're exposed to.")

"I'm not using it to look for poison," she told her pokémon while jumping onto her bed. The two rocks she had received from Tapu-Koko were lying on her pillow. Zeveon placed herself right next to the princess, so she could get a good look at the stones. Moon in the meantime turned on her PIG and watched as the screen lit up. After all the functions were available to her, Moon was busy going through all of the options the PIG offered to her. Since it had so many functions and it had been months since she last used the thing, not that she used it much anyways. Though that might change in the near future.

The first thing Moon did was calling up some old images that were basically public record in the dominion and had been downloaded onto the PIG at some point or other. Specifically, she searched for the topic "Xel'Naga". Now, of course, Moon personally had more knowledge about the ancient alien race than even most archaeologists. But she wasn't interested in what was written about those pictures, she just needed them for comparison. To be more precise she compared the writing of some Xel'naga that was found with the rock she had gotten from the legendary pokémon. And after some checking, it turned out some symbols matched up and some others looked pretty similar.

"It's a real Xel'Naga artifact," Moon whispered to herself, looking away from the screen and onto the stone. "Where the hell did that pokémon found a Xel'Naga artifact?"

("We could always extract the information out of him.") Zeveon offered, to which Moon pressed the pokémon's face on the bed for a couple of seconds.

"No, stupid. Mom specifically forbid me and by extension you to infest other things and go into someone's brain without them saying it's okay for me to do so."

Moon let out a sigh, closing the pictures. "So, Tapu-Koko said he'll give me more parts of this thing if we do the Island Challenge. Did I get that right?"

("Indeed, princess. That is exactly what he said.")

"It's like he already knows what we are. But how the everlasting fuck does he know that? If there were any other Zerg on the planet, I would know it! Can this fucker read the Xel'Naga language or something?"

("I wouldn't know, princess.")

"That was a rhetorical question," Moon deadpanned at her pokémon. "Tch, great. What am I supposed to do? I can either accept and go on this Island Challenge," Moon cringed, just thinking about how trainers would send their pokémon out against her, only for said pokémon to either run away or charge directly at Moon. She doubted Tapu-Koko would be there every single time in order to save the situation. "Or I can refuse and potentially lose my only chance in finding out what the hell the Xel'Naga were doing on this planet."

Moon found herself being torn between her bad experience with pokémon and her curiosity about the race that was responsible for creating the Zerg in the first place. She placed her head on the pillow, contemplating the situation, which resulted in both rocks hitting her head on both sides. Feeling both rocks on her hair, the hybrid actually found herself reminded that there was one more thing she originally wanted to do with the PIG. Figuring that it wouldn't hurt to go through with her original plan, Moon used the PIG's scanning function and used on it on the white rock she had received from Tapu-Koko.

After a couple of minutes, she got a general result of the stuff what the stone was made off. Quite frankly, Moon hadn't even heard of many of these things that were listed in front of her. After all, chemistry and physics were topics that weren't covered until later in the school system on this planet.

"Okay, that's weird," the hybrid noted. "The stone is giving off some kind of energy, but the PIG can't tell me what exactly it is."

("Is it dangerous?")

"I have no idea. I guess I have to ask Hala or Kukui…" Just mentioning those two humans, caused Moon to involuntarily flinch again. No doubt they and everyone else had questions about Moon's sudden escape from the scene. She had not been thinking clearly at this moment, being way more interested in knowing whether this was a real Xel'Naga artifact piece or just a random stone that looked awfully similar to what the Xel'Naga had constructed. And now that she had the answers and calmed somewhat down, mostly from doing all the running, she realized that she would have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions very soon.

"Urrgh, this is gonna be a pain," the girl groaned. In an attempt to distract herself, she actually tried to understand the multiple pages long text about the white stone that her personal PIG had spat out for her. Emphasize being in this case "tried". It didn't matter that her Zerg brain caught up to thinks a lot faster than that of a Terran. She simply didn't know even a quarter of the stuff that was spelled out in front of her. But it passed the time, somewhat. At some point, Meowth made himself vocal from outside of her door and she decided to let him in. Meowth then went on to have a chat with Zeveon. Moon only listened in for a minute or two, as their talk seemingly resolved around which berry tasted the best.

After even more time had passed, Moon eventually decided to shut down the PIG and hide the device once again. There was no need for Delaila to accidentally stumble upon the device and find out about Moon's true heritage. Just as she was about to place the PIG back where she found it, the doorbell rang all of the sudden.

("I can smell Lillie and Nebby outside the door.") Zeveon informed her immediately.

"Crap." Having no time to properly hid the PIG, Moon simply put it under the covers of her bed and quickly headed towards the new front door. After she opened said door, it was revealed that indeed Lillie was standing in front of Moon, with her huge bag hanging from her shoulder.

"H-hello Moon," Lillie greeted the hybrid nervously. Moon in return couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Come in," the redhead motioned with her head and opened the door further, allowing Lillie to step in. As soon as the sound of the door slamming shut echoed throughout the house, Nebby took this as her cue to jump out of the bag, letting out a happy squeal. The pokémon did a little "air dance" around Moon.

"Hihi, she really likes you," Lillie commented.

"I noticed," Moon responded. After three rounds around the redheaded hybrid, the psychic-type settled down right next to Lillie.

"So...umm… are you alright? Your wounds haven't reopened, have they?" the blonde asked, causing the hybrid to almost laugh out loud.

"I'm fine, don't worry. You're probably wondering why I ran like the entire Golden Armada was after me."

"Golden Armada?" Lillie asked, blinking confusedly.

"An alien space fleet," the hybrid waved off dismissively. "Anyways, come with me. I've got to show you something."

Moon led Lillie and Nebby into her room, where they found Meowth and Zeveon wrestling each other in a mock-battle with the normal-type clearly losing. Nebby decided that this looked like a ton of fun and decided to join, by making the best mimic of a Body Slam she could muster. The three ended up rolling over the ground and entangled in each others body part.

The redhead carefully stepped over the pile of pokémon and picked up the green and black stone from her pillow, which she then proceeded to show to Lillie.

"Do you know what this is?" the hybrid asked in a rhetoric fashion.

"Uh…. no, not really." The blonde shook her head, after inspecting the stone for some time. "I have never seen those symbols."

"I see," Moon nodded. "Well, it would have really surprised me if you would have seen anything like this before. After all, this thing was made by an alien race, known as the Xel'Naga."

"A-a-alien?!" Lillie repeated, holding both hands in front of her mouth.

"Yup, an alien race by the way that was technologically so advanced, they created two other races. The Zerg being one of them."

Lillie found herself dropping onto Moon's chair upon hearing this information. She thought she had heard it all when Moon revealed herself to be half human and half alien. Well, apparently she had been wrong.

"Xel'Naga… they created an entire alien race?"

"Two," Moon corrected. "The Zerg and the Protoss."

"You… mentioned them earlier today, didn't you?" the blonde asked, to which the redhead nodded.

"Yeah, but I'll tell you another time about them. You see, after Tapu-Koko for some reason decided to give me this stone, I… I needed some time to digest everything. You know, it's kinda a big deal for me."

"Y-yes, I can see that," Lillie nodded. "But why did Tapu-Koko give you this stone?" The blonde looked down at the pile of pokémon. "It was pretty amazing when he showed up and calmed Hau's pokémon down. And then he even personally refereed your fight! You should have seen the Professor, he barely managed to stand still."

"Tell me about it," Moon smiled back at the blonde. "Anyways, I know why Tapu-Koko gave the stone to me."

"You do?" Lillie blinked, surprised.

The redhead scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, you see, there are a lot of things I haven't told you about us Zerg. It's a lot to cover. You see, all Zerg share something that is commonly called a hivemind. Do you know what that is?"

"No," Lillie answered immediately.

"Basically, imagine every Zerg brain being an antenna. And that antenna is constantly sending and receiving information from other Zerg like a TV would from a station." Moon explained, causing Lillie's eyes to widen even further.

"Does that mean… you can read Zeveon's mind?" Lillie asked with excitement in her voice.

"And vice-versa," Moon confirmed. "The best part is, there is no real language barrier, because thoughts are...actually, I have no idea how this works, I never bothered asking." The redhead frowned, crossing her arms.

"That's amazing!" Lillie exclaimed, her face showing nothing but excitement. "That means Zeveon can work as your interpreter and tell you what a pokémon is saying."

The redhead simply nodded.

"Incredible! Quick! Can you tell me what Nebby is saying?" By this point, Lillie had jumped up from the chair and was looking with great anticipation. Moon couldn't help but smile at the blonde's enthusiasm. She quickly listened in to Zeveon's thoughts and said what she heard.

"That's not fair. You two are the ones teaming up on me. Because you're so freakishly strong!" Moon smiled sheepishly over to Lillie.

"I think I just translated what all three were saying."

"Amazing!" Lillie's eyes seemed to sparkle.

Indeed, Meowth and Nebby had teamed up on Zeveon and despite this, she was still dominating the two in their mock-battle. It was probably good that none of them used any actual attack but simply slammed their bodies against each other.

"This is… I can't even describe it! So that's how you could understand what Tapu-Koko said to you!"

"Yup." The redhead once again nodded. "I'm sure you want to know what Tapu-Koko said." Another sigh escaped her lips. "Basically, he asked me to do something called the Island Challenges. He promised me to give another piece of the complete… whatever this thing is," she gestured at the stone "every time I finish another challenge or something along those lines. I have no real idea what he meant."

"This is… big. So, are you going to do it?" Lillie asked, already expecting the answer to be "yes". However, what she got was a deep and long sigh coming out of the hybrid.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," the hybrid said with closed eyes.

"Not sure?" Lillie repeated.

"Remember? I never wanted to go on a Pokémon Journey and just this morning Delaila finally agreed with me."

"Oh… right," the blonde human spoke slowly, remembering the conversation they had this morning. "But why?" she inquired.

"...I… I have no real reason," Moon lied. "I just don't like going on a journey like this. I can't really explain it, aside from I just don't want."

"Oh…" Lillie was clearly dissatisfied with that answer, expecting some deeper reason.

"But," Moon opened her eyes "you know, it's a pretty attractive offer, potentially finding out more stuff about an alien race that died out who knows how many years ago." She looked at the green, glowing stone, thinking.

"Well… shouldn't you take it? I mean, if Tapu-Koko himself went as far as to offer this personally for you-"

"Yeah, see," Moon interrupted "here's another thing. How the hell did that pokémon know I would know what that stone is? I mean, does he know about the Xel'Naga? Does he know about the Zerg? The Protoss? Are pokémon another race that the Xel'Naga created? There are so many freaking questions, I don't know where to start!" Moon exclaimed.

Lillie took a moment to digest everything that went through Moon's head, in addition to everything she had learned these past five minutes. It looked like if she continued to hang out with Moon, she would have to get used to these kinds of things. There were a lot of things she had trouble understanding, things she would have to ask Moon to explain to her further. But she did know one thing.

"Well, you won't get any of those answers if you don't do the Island Challenges, will you?"