Although Lillie made it to the boat sheâd prepared without incident, she didnât allow herself to relax until Aether Paradise had disappeared over the horizon behind her. Her escape attempt was far from finished, she knew. Even if no one had noticed her leaving with Nebby, they would quickly realize that it was missing, and it wouldnât take a genius to connect the dots between a stolen experiment and the girl last tasked with guarding it. But at least she had made it this far.
And maybe sheâd be able to stay one step ahead of Team Rocket from here on out. After all, her brother and Type: Null hadnât been caught yet. She assumed they hadnât, anyway. Surely the news would have traveled back to Aether Paradise if they had. Back when Gladion had first left and the sting of abandonment still burned, Lillie sometimes secretly wished that he would be found, just so that she could see him again. But now that she was following in his footsteps, she felt like she understood him a little better.
She wondered whether her brother had told anyone where he going, or that he was going at all. Certainly not their parents. But Lillie had considered telling Wicke, who only seemed to have stayed at Aether for the sake of her family. Ultimately she had decided against it, not out of fear that Wicke would report her, but that she might try to talk her out of the danger she was putting herself into.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Lillie turned her attention to the next part of her plan. Making sure the boatâs course was still directed at Melemele Island, she left the helm to search through her duffle bag.
Nebby was still hovering, silent and motionless. She hoped that she would be able to help it eventually, but in order do that, she needed to keep from being found. Reaching deeper into the bag, she pulled out a Rocket grunt uniform and a pair of scissors.
She had stolen the uniform piece by piece over several months, so that they seemed to have gotten lost or mixed up in the wash. While she might not pass as one of the elite grunts at Aether Paradise, there were also less esteemed positions for grunts running the stores and Pokemon Centers around the region. She was hoping to blend into the background at one of those spots until the search for her had a chance to die down. But simply donning a uniform wouldnât throw them off her trail.
Wielding the scissors with unpracticed but resolute hands, she chopped off the majority of her hair. The long blond strands sunk into the ocean behind her. Her cap hid what remained on her head, helping prevent the distinctive color from giving her away. She had wanted to get her hands on a dye kit, and even some colored contact lenses, but she hadnât convinced her parents to order any into Aether Paradise. Fortunately, they dismissed her requests as an part of a fashion fad not worth following, and didnât suspect her true motives. Hopefully she would be able to pick up a set from a beauty parlor once she reached the city.
She folded up her scientistâs clothes and placed them in her bag. They might useful in the future, and were hardly more incriminating than what else could be found there.
âDonât worry. Weâre going to be alright.â
This was becoming a habit, wasnât it? Well, itâs not like she had anyone else to talk to. And maybe it could hear her in there, even if it wasnât visibly responding. She just hoped it knew that she wanted to help.
Lillie crouched in the bushes beside the trail to the Ruins of Conflict, trying to come up with a way past the grunts guarding the entrance. She could try walking up directly to them and bluffing her way in, like sheâd managed to bluff her way into working at the Pokemon Center in Hauâoli City. But the security for a legendary Pokemonâs location was likely higher than that at a random Pokemon Center.
If she could just draw their attention elsewhere⊠Lillie picked up a rock and hefted it further down the path. It felt a bit childish, but it had a better chance of causing something to happen than sitting here for the last few hours had.
After weeks of having his grunts search for the stolen PokĂ©mon and the girl who was undoubtedly behind it, Giovanni was fed up. While he had been personally overseeing the investigation, he could not be in every location at once. The reports he had received from the other islands were inconclusive at best, and at worst read as though his team could hardly be bothered to do their jobs correctly. It was why, upon hearing a rumor concerning someone suspicious at the Hauâoli PokĂ©mon Center, Giovanni had flown in to investigate as fast as he could.
News of his arrival was met with an update on the situation: one of the grunts stationed in the city had reported that theyâd seen a member of their team with a large duffle bag leaving the city and heading north toward Iki Town.
The tiny town to the north was nothing special, but its proximity to the Ruins of Conflict was caused Giovanni to follow in that direction. The pieces were beginning to come together now. A grunt, they said. So, was that how she had hidden from them for so long? A stolen uniform? And none of his grunts had found this new arrival strange in the slightest, even when they were meant to be on the lookout for suspicious individuals.
Well, that was hardly surprising.
Giovanni arrived at the trail, following it upward to the location his guards were meant to be stationed, only to find... no one. The grunts meant to be watching over the end of the trail were gone, and Giovanni seethed with anger before he heard a rustling in the nearby trees. He stormed over to the source of the noise and found both grunts thoroughly inspecting the bushes just past the tree line.
âWhat is going on here?â he demanded.âš
They both stood at attention at the sound of his voice, pale and frightened looking. âSir!â The braver of the two spoke up, offering a salute which the other quickly imitated. âWe wereâweâre investigating some um, suspicious activity.â
âThere was a noise,â the other added, visibly gulping as Giovanniâs gaze turned to him.âš
And they both needed to investigate? Giovanni kept the question to himself, not wanting to bother voicing it aloud. All he would get in response was more stuttering and useless explanations.
âGet back to your posts, and do not leave under any circumstances. In the future, should something require your attention I would expect that one of you would be competent enough to handle it without the other completely abandoning their duties.ââš
âY-yes, sir!â they stuttered before scuttling off to their places at either side of the trail. Giovanni would properly deal with them later, but for now he preferred not to waste any more time. If the girl was here, sheâd obviously managed to evade his grunts. Whatever business she had at the ruins, He quickly hurried along the rest of the trail toward the ruins, arriving at the top of the steep trail and the clearing that opened up before the bridge not long after.
As he approached, he could see the figure of a black-clad grunt with a large duffle bag over their shoulder standing before the bridge. A cap covered their head, but as Giovanni drew closer and it became obvious that they were smaller than the average grunt,
With one hand wrapped around the purple Master Ball in his pocket, Giovanni approached the girl and spoke up, voice carrying clearly even over the sound of the massive waterfall. âSo, here you are. Iâll admit, Iâm impressed with how long you evaded my men. But you must have known your luck would run out eventually, Miss Lillie.â
