Chapter 13 | Lab Accident

By using Cosmog's body, Lusamine started the process of opening the portal to the rumored Ultra Dimension. A bright blue-ish light emitted in the middle of the facility, almost blinding the present people. Strange noises that sounded Pokémon-like echoed through the laboratory as the Wormhole had finally revealed itself.

"Finally..," Lusamine whispered, astonished by the massive size of the portal as she stood still to admire the work she put so much effort into.

The wormhole appeared very interesting and picked up everyone's attention. It had a weird white grid pattern inside of it and was the color of the cloudless sky, it almost looked like the stairway to heaven, although the screams coming from it destroyed the illusion immediately.

(This is where I make most of the dialogue up to give this book my own spice ;))

"...Nebby!" Lillie screeched, dashing forward on the ground to catch Cosmog, which had been trapped in a deep slumber. A sigh of relief escaped her rosy lips when she successfully caught the sleeping Pokémon. Instead of being a fluffy space cloud, Cosmog's appearance changed drastically, it looked like a polished evolution stone with a face carved into it.

"Now, come with me, Guzma, [Name]." Before letting herself be engulfed by the portal, Lusamine made sure to get a hold of her Poké Balls, just in case of an emergency. "Outta my way, kiddos!" the familiar voice of the leader of Team Skull exclaimed, roughly pushing the speechless teenagers to the side. He quickly made a huge leap and vanished into the hole before it could close.

Meanwhile, the machine that contained [Name] started to malfunction due to the Ultra Wormhole's strong presence and released little sparks of electricity endangering the female's life. According to the president's plan, [Name] should have been healthy and immediately follow after, but that sadly had never happened. Having paid no attention to [Name] during her chat with her apparent family and the Island Challengers in the secret laboratory, Lusamine thought the machine would only extract the special 'blood' she injected into [Name] while finishing her up.

But no one seemed to notice.

Right after the wormhole had closed, everyone fell into silence, speechless from all the events happening so quickly. Well, everyone except for the clueless Hau, who seemed to be still confused about the situation.

"Is it the end? Will everything still be okay?" Lillie whispered out, clutching the sleeping Nebby tightly as she stared at the floor in horror. Millions of questions swirled in her mind, ready to trouble her thoughts anytime. Sun, who had witnessed everything as well, at first shook his head in denial, he couldn't believe it. Although it didn't affect him as much as Lillie did, he still was speechless from the fascinating Ultra Wormhole. He tried denying the fact that other Ultra Wormholes could appear in Alola and disrupt the peace the people shared.

"Solgaleo and Lunala can still help get to the Ultra Dimension," Gladion spoke, facing everyone. "But that's not an easy task." Upon hearing her sibling's words, Lillie tensed up, her firm grip on Nebby tightening.

"We have to save Mother... She can't be gone forever!" Lillie begged her dear brother, her hat falling off when she whipped her head around. The gem, aka Nebby was dropped onto the cold floor.

"The Altar of Sunne and Moone... You could start there," Gladion, despite his sister yelling at him, calmly stated, placing his hands on his hips. "I can't join you though."

"I will go."

"Hm?" Gladion turned around, glaring at the determined looking ravenette. Sun looked as pissed as ever as if he was ready to take on a strong Bewear in a hand to hand combat. "The Island Challenge continues on Poni Island anyway. I can do it."

"Wait Sun, I'll come with you!" Lillie exclaimed. "I... I want to be able to do something too. Just like when I first gathered all my courage to steal Nebby from the lab. I want to experience that warm feeling again." Lillie held a sad gaze.

Sun gave her a smile of acknowledgment, picked up his Starter Pokémon and stepped onto the green teleporter pad, vanishing from their sight. Lillie carefully then cradled Nebby in her arms, silently apologizing for dropping it earlier and left after Sun, bidding goodbye to her sibling and the green-haired boy.

"Hey you guys, wait for me!" Hau hurriedly ran after them, almost dropping his bag full of Malasadas in the process and vanished from Gladion's sight.

He let out a relieved sigh, finally free from the idiots. He enjoyed the silence for awhile but decided to leave for his own reasons as well. One of them being the goal of getting stronger.

As Gladion was about to leave the chaotic lab, the glass wall of the machine shattered, releasing the strange liquid everywhere. [Name]'s limp body impacted with the ground, some of the sharp glass shards piercing into her delicate skin.

"H-He-...," she called out, weakly raising her almost limp arm. One pair of eyes was on her, shocked that she was in fact still here and didn't follow after her creator to the Ultra Dimension. [Name]'s arm gave out, colliding with the puddles of liquid on the white marble floor. "-m-me..."

From [Name]'s blurry point of view, she could only make out the familiar crimson red sneakers slowly turn around, squeaking on the ground.

"I thought you left with Lusamine?" Gladion didn't even bother to help her, instead, just watched her suffer in the burning liquid puddles and glass shards. "To be honest... I'm not quite sure if I can trust you."

Although she was in immense pain, [Name] understood his reason to be wary of her, Lusamine did create her in order to get her dear Ultra Beasts. She wasn't even sure if Lusamine truly loved her or faked everything to make her trust her.

A ting of sympathy pricked Gladion's heart. It was cruel of him to do this, but [Name] was an associate of his mother after all.

Somehow, this situation reminded him of his meeting with Type: Null.

Weak. Injured. Forgotten.

Another successful project that malfunctioned.

All of those things applied to her.

Gladion clicked his tongue frustratedly and approached her at a fast pace, moving the shards to a place where she couldn't get hurt anymore. He offered her his assistance, or help rather, and with a strong pull, [Name] was up on her feet, gratefully beaming at him. "...Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, thank y-y-you."

Somehow, that idiotic smile of hers irritated him greatly. How could she smile, even though she was hurt and physically broken? 'Get your crap together Gladion..,' he thought to himself, lending her a hand to assist her in walking.

After a few steps on the marble floor, [Name]'s knees gave out, letting her stumble a bit. Luckily, Gladion, being the gentleman, grabbed her wrist in time.

"Why are you smiling, even though you just nearly fell to your death?" Well, not literally. Gladion used rather... strange ways to express himself. "Whatever, stand still for a bit."

"...O-Okay?" [Name] questioned his actions, tilting her head to the right side while trying to balance herself. This injured feeling was new for her. It wasn't like any other feeling she had experienced before, all the known ones were warm, fuzzy and comforting inside.

As [Name] was about to question Gladion's motives, he suddenly swooped her off the floor, earning a scared squeak from her. "W-W-W-What are you doing?!" she yelled, flustered from his close interactions. Never has anyone ever done this to her, her face grew hot and she could even imagine some smoke coming out of her head.

"Don't let it get it to you, I'm only doing this for your h-health," Gladion tried to sound calm and composed saying this but failed as he slipped on one word. "Don't you think it's embarrassing for me too..?" he muttered, barely audible. He cleared his throat to avoid more slip ups.

"Now let's get you to Wicke."

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"Oh my, young master Gladion, what do you think you're doing to this poor girl?" Wicke worriedly placed her hand on her cheek and stared at the white-haired girl. "Shut up, Wicke."

"Don't use such vulgar words."

"...Sorry."

Gladion carefully placed [Name] down on a white mattress, took a last look at her and bid goodbye to Wicke, permanently leaving the secret lab to head towards his chambers.

"Poor [Name]..," the assistant branch chief whispered out, applying the disinfectant on [Name]'s bruises with care. She visibly winced at the contact with the smelly liquid but continued to stare Wicke down as she applied some more.

The spectacled young woman's eyes softened. It was like taking care for a daughter, her own child. She had never experienced this before because of her hard work at the Æther Paradise. A genuine smile formed on Wicke's lips as she moved onto putting on the bandages over the disinfected spots.

[Name] observed the chief's movements with an intense gaze. Her pupils moved to wherever Wicke's hands moved. The way she cautiously lifted her arm to prevent any sudden pain to just even a tiny smile on her features. 

"Don't worry [Name], you'll skipping down the hall in just a minute!"

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So I updated... I hope you guys like it. The romance with Gladion starts from here, I guess..? I'm not sure how to put him down to words due to his mixed personality, but I'll try my best!

-soyoo