Pokémon from Galar

"Zaobo? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

Lusamine lowered her head slightly, lost in thought, her expression troubled. It wasn't until this point that Gladio finally calmed down and noticed something amiss.

"You really don't know anything...?"

"Well……"

Rosamina, resting her chin on her hand, suddenly had a flash of inspiration and stood up abruptly.

"I remember now! Attribute: Empty was the name of a project that Zaobo developed before! And I seem to have received a report of the project's failure."

"Failure? How is that possible! Attribute: Empty... Silvally once saved Lillie and me!"

"Saved you? What's going on, Gladio?"

Seeing Lusamine and Gladion's expressions gradually turning serious, Mari thought for a moment, then secretly tugged at the sleeve of Miss Biko, who was also motionless beside her, and whispered:

"Miss Biko...should I excuse myself?"

If I'm not mistaken, what's coming next might involve some very personal matters for Lillie. Miss Bick might be okay with it, but I've only known Lillie for a few days, so it's a bit inappropriate for me to just listen to it like that.

"Well..."

Miss Biko was also a little embarrassed. This was clearly not a good time. Moreover, she was also concerned about what young master Gladio had said. Since this matter was related to Zaobo, it would most likely involve the Ether Foundation, rather than being limited to Lusamine's family conflict.

"Wait, if what Gladio said is true, Miss Mary, has Lillie been acting strangely lately?"

While listening to Gladion's concise explanation, Lusamine suddenly remembered that Lillie's classmate was sitting next to her, and this question drew Gladion's attention to Mari.

"From what I understand, Lillie probably saw Silvally last weekend, which caused her previous symptoms to flare up again, preventing her from seeing White Roll."

"Oh, I see... I've never heard of any of this..."

Chairwoman Lusamine was clearly shaken; such a big thing had happened to her daughter, yet she only learned about it from others two days later.

"Where did you find out about this? Was it from Ash?"

"Yes, I wasn't there last weekend, so I only found out about the situation from Xiaozhi yesterday."

Gladion explained quickly, and Mari, who was standing next to him, also inadvertently learned about Lillie's forgotten past. So the four of them immediately decided to go to the research area in the underground level, where Zaobo had a personal research room.

Upon arriving at Zaobo's personal research room on the underground floor, Mary stayed by Miss Biko's side and did not wander around aimlessly. Instead, she stood guard outside the door, mainly to avoid suspicion, as there were many documents inside that Mary could not freely browse.

Mary glanced at the worried Miss Bick and remained silent. She decided to keep this to herself; to put it bluntly, it was a case of deceiving superiors and subordinates, secretly using company resources for research, and even attacking the chairman's children—it had escalated to the level of the entire Ether Foundation.

Mary, who thought the matter was over after hearing the arguments and cheers inside, suddenly heard an alarm.

beep - beep - beep -

"Miss Biko?"

"Someone pressed the alarm! Someone's hacked into this place?!"

This seems to be the first time this has happened. Miss Biko's face was full of surprise. What has happened today is really chaotic. She was just thinking about how to deal with Zaobo's matter, and then the test area was invaded.

"what happened?!"

"Bike, let's go take a look!"

"Ok!"

Chairwoman Lusamine called Miss Bike and ran out first. If something really happened in this experimental area, it would be a huge blow to the entire Ether Foundation.

The group ran around the area until they reached near the center, where they unexpectedly spotted a figure that shouldn't have been there.

"Lillie?!"

Lusamine gasped in surprise as she watched Lillie being held in mid-air by Alakazam. Marie and Gladion's expressions darkened, and they both turned their gazes toward Zaobo over there.

“Glagio…Mari…”

Ash, who was also restrained, couldn't move and could only watch the two people's actions.

"Go! Sildenafil!"

"Sneak attack to save lives."

Unlike Gladion's actions, Marie immediately hid Baloo in the alternate dimension as soon as she released it, silently hiding behind Silvally's entrance, thus not attracting much attention.

"Attribute: Empty. But I am the one who created you and gave you life."

"Roar—!! (So what?)"

As Silvally gazed at Lillie in mid-air, its emotions grew increasingly agitated, and even the mask binding its body began to crack.

"Silver Companion, go save Lillie!"

Crack! Snap!

Following Gladion's instructions, Silvally's mask was completely destroyed, revealing its proud head.

"Roar—! (Let go of Lillie!)"

With a roar, Silvally stomped its limbs on the ground and leaped up, revealing its terrifying power. Its sharp front claws were raised high and aimed at Alakazam, which was unable to dodge in time because it was controlling Lillie, and it bit down!

Baloo seized the opportunity, his massive figure suddenly appearing behind Zaobo and the Hypnos. A terrifying Ghost-type energy erupted, slamming into the Hypnos solidly, and Ash's control was released in the process.

"What?! When—"

"Hmph—(Behave yourself.)"

Instead of immediately leaving, Balu wrapped his claws in dragon energy and pressed them against Zaobo to prevent any further accidents.

Marie breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Silvally slap Alakazam away and then turn around to catch Lillie as she fell. This artificial Pokémon was pretty strong, and it seemed to like Lillie quite a bit.

Suddenly, Gladion pulled out a disc from somewhere, flicked it, and it flew accurately into a disc that was sticking out from Silvally's ear. Then, Silvally's body suddenly turned black and became Dark-type.

"Multi-attribute attack!"

"Roar--!!"

Silvally suddenly unleashed a powerful burst of Dark-attribute energy and leaped up again to pounce on Alakazam. While Baku was defeated in one move by Pazu, Alakazam could continue. At this moment, Zaobo was controlled and was defeated in one move.

Meanwhile, Zaobo, who was being held captive by Balu, was sweating profusely. He only had two Pokémon, and now that he was being captured, he was doomed.

Lillie sat on the ground, staring blankly at Silvally's back. Her expression had lost all trace of fear. Recalling those long-buried memories, she naturally remembered Silvally, who had saved her twice.

“Lillie! I’m sorry, Lillie! I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry…”

Completely flustered, Lusamine rushed over and hugged the still-dazed Lillie, apologizing profusely. Gladion's earlier outburst and seeing her daughter in danger had even made her lose all motivation to draw her Pokémon for battle.

Holding Lillie's petite body, she gradually broke down in tears.

"Mother."

Lillie hugged her mother in return, then said with a smile:

"Thank you, Mother, and then..."

Rising from her mother's embrace, Lillie turned and walked towards her Silvally.

"I also need to apologize to you. I'm sorry, Sildenafil. It was all my fault. You were the one who saved me then and now..."

As she spoke, Lillie suddenly opened her arms and hugged Silvally's neck.

"Thank you, Sildenafil."

Sure enough, once Lillie remembered her past, she was able to touch Pokémon normally again. Marie smiled and called Palm back. Since Miss Beeko had already arrived with her people, Palm no longer needed to guard her.

The matter is temporarily resolved. Next, it'll probably be time for the Ultimate Beast to appear, Mari thought, patting Pazu's head.

P.S.: Almost there! Nihilego is about to appear, and the most important storyline in Alola is about to begin! Mari is also going to get stronger again!

Chapter 135 A Gift for Yuri

The next day, Ether Paradise.

In Rosamune's office, Miss Bee and Dr. Barnett were gathered around Chairwoman Rosamune.

"Have you found Zaobo's men?"

Miss Biko shook her head in distress. Late last night, Zaobo secretly slipped away from the guardhouse and hasn't been seen since.

"I'm sorry, we've searched the lab, Zaobo's house, and all the places he usually goes, but..."

Rosamina didn't blame her subordinates; that wasn't the right thing to do.

"Send more people to continue the search and expand the search area to the entire Alora four islands."

"I see!"

Upon hearing Miss Biko's answer, Lusamine suddenly sighed, appearing somewhat dejected.

"Even now, I still can't believe that Zaobo actually opened the Ultra Gate four years ago and summoned an Ultra Beast. If it weren't for Silvally, Lillie would probably..."

They will disappear into the Ultimate Hole, just like Lillie's father.

The second half of her sentence remained buried deep in her heart; it was a painful memory she dared not mention.

"It must be really scary, Lillie-chan..."

“I can’t forgive myself for not realizing all of this. I’m not a good mother, just like Gladgio said…”

Rosamina lowered her head, revealing her vulnerability to her most trusted subordinate in this office.

A brief silence fell over the office. Dr. Barnett crossed her arms and changed the subject:

"However, now that we know that there are dangerous Ultra Beasts, we need to be more cautious in our future research on Ultra Holes."

"Yes, we do need to readjust the research plan."

Lusamine nodded. Research on the Ultimate Hole has always been a key project for the Aether Foundation and the goal of a significant number of investors. It's impossible to stop it now; it can only continue.

……

On the other side, at the Pokémon School.

Dr. Kukui suddenly had a brilliant idea and pulled out a long jump rope, saying that the first lesson of the day would be to jump rope with Pokémon.

Well... Marie does understand that Professor Kukui wants to enlighten Mallow and the others about coordination with Pokémon, but while she understands, she is, after all, someone who graduated from school in Galar. Seeing this kind of playful teaching again makes her feel rather awkward.

So Marie thought about it, asked Professor Kukui for a short leave, took the Ice Ninetales egg she brought back yesterday, and ran to the Pokémon Center set up at the school to make a video call to Yuri, who was far away in Galar.

"Hey, good evening, Yuri."

"Ha... Good evening, Mary. What's going on? Why did you suddenly tell me to come to the Pokémon Center right now?"

Yuri, who was on the other side, covered her mouth and yawned. After all, what was morning here was midnight in the past. Yuri, who was about to go to sleep at the hotel, got dressed and went to the Pokémon Center after receiving Marie's message.