With the WCS coming to a close and Leon successfully defending his title the day prior, Jason, Lillie, Ren, and Runa were waiting at the edge of the beach, watching as a helicopter flew in and landed on a floating helipad a few tens of meters from the shore.
"Korrina? Luca...?" Ren asked, placing her right paw on Jason's back and looking up at him.
"Afraid not. But we can video call them later," Jason responded, keeping his gaze focused forward as he caressed Ren's head. The helicopter had touched down, and from the door that had slid open on its side, a person in a white flight suit helped Ellaine, Maeve, Nanahoshi, Bianca, Seren, and three others disembark.
'I don't see Wicke. She must have returned with Lusamine to the Aether Paradise...' Jason concluded, his gaze focusing on the trio accompanying the group he had anticipated. There was Iris, whom he had thought would first need to return to her own region before coming over. Next to her was a slender woman who stood a full head over her, with fair skin, ginger hair fixed into a wavy side ponytail, and large blue blocker sunglasses.
'Sonia Magnolia...'
Though she naturally looked different from how she was portrayed in the anime and video games, Jason recognized the model-like woman as the granddaughter of Professor Magnolia. That suggested that the elderly woman with somewhat swirly, extremely muted red hair and glasses who alighted from the helicopter after her was her grandmother.
Ostensibly in tune with Jason's thoughts, Lillie commented, "That must be Professor Magnolia and her granddaughter, Sonia. It's my first time seeing either of them in person, but I recognize Professor Magnolia from TV and various magazine covers."
"They must be here for a tour of the facilities or to help get things set up for the joint research project," Jason supposed. According to the timeline he was aware of, construction wasn't planned to begin until the end of the second month, Bulba. If he was right, then Professor Magnolia was there to help determine what needed to be added.
"Then you can entrust showing them around to me. In the meantime, you can catch up with Professor Burnet and the others," Lillie proferred with a smile.
"Mmn. I shall entrust them to your ever-capable hands," Jason affirmed, meeting Lillie's gaze and reciprocating her smile.
"Maeve! Nana! Over here...!" Ren exclaimed, pulling Jason's gaze as she stepped forward into range of the gently breaking waves while excitedly waving her paws overhead. Then, gazing out at the floating helipad, he noticed that Ellaine, Maeve, and Iris were stripping down to the swimsuits they had under their clothing.
'Leaping into the water like that after a long flight must feel incredible...' Jason thought, exhaling faintly from his nose before meeting Lillie's gaze to his right. She immediately nodded, so without further consideration, he jogged forward and dove into an approaching wave before swimming out to intercept the group and return alongside them...
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"I see that you've more or less made a full recovery. And how have you been enjoying your and Lillie's cohabitation...?" Ellaine asked, exiting the water alongside Jason, attired in a dark grey one-piece.
"Ellaine...!"
Preempting Jason's response, Ren raced up to and gave Ellaine a strong squeeze, producing a faint cracking sound and causing a slight groan to emanate from the mature woman's throat.
"Oh, wow...that's quite the powerful hug you've got there, Ren. And that swimsuit..." Ellaine remarked, her right brow rising slightly as Ren backed away from her, giving her a better view of her outfit. She had insisted on wearing big girl swimsuits, so in place of a one-piece, she was wearing a creamy beige bikini top and cobalt-blue bottoms that matched the hue of her chest and thighs.
"Ren is a big girl~" Ren chimed, closing her eyes and smiling happily.
"Now that she mentions it, she is tall for a female Lucario," Iris observed, watching the exchange with crossed arms—her slender frame adorned with a sporty, salmon-pink two-piece. Ren was even taller than her, and while that wasn't saying much, considering she was only 150cm tall, most freshly-evolved female Lucario were between 120-130cm. Ren was closer to 155.
"She trains hard and eats well..." Jason stated, his gaze turning to Maeve and the dark purple, pink-trimmed sports bikini she was wearing, focusing on her distinctive pink eyes. Even after knowing each other for months, he was still flabbergasted by her beauty. And as she stepped toward him, he could feel his heart quickening in his chest.
"Has Skyler given you a clean bill of health...?" Maeve asked, sliding her hands along Jason's sides, wrapping her arms around his muscular torso, and leaning into him.
"For the most part..." Jason confirmed, enveloping Maeve's comparably slender but exceedingly well-trained body. There was a non-zero chance that she would try to throw him, so while getting drawn into her eyes, he steeled himself for whatever might come.
"You can relax...we'll begin your self-defense training tomorrow..." Maeve muttered, a faint, slightly amused smile adorning her lips as she stood on the tips of her toes and tilted her head to the left. Jason's heart felt like it was doing flips in his chest, but he did his best to appear calm as he gave the pink-haired beauty an initially chaste kiss. When she took the initiative to part her lips and lick his, he readily reciprocated, resulting in a brief but dizzying make-out session.
"Wow. Talk about bold. Aren't the two of you embarrassed to behave so lovey-dovey in front of other people?" Iris questioned, eyeing Jason and Maeve as if they had lost their minds.
"Technically speaking, everyone here except for Champion Iris and our Pokémon are Jason's romantic partners. And as this site is designated as a private area, it's not subject to the League's guidelines on public morals and decency," Lillie contributed, approaching the larger group with Runa in her arms.
"Everyone? Does that include the other researchers...?" Iris questioned, her eyes wide and brows raised in shock.
"I meant everyone here, specifically," Lillie corrected, her smile gaining a hint of wryness as she conceded, "Though, if Jason were willing, there are quite a few among the research staff who are interested in getting to know him on an intimate level."
"Well, aren't you popular...?" Iris questioned, shifting her focus to Jason and unabashedly eyeing up his shirtless, muscular, well-tanned figure. All he was wearing at the moment was a pair of turquoise shorts. And since he had just emerged from the water, his muscles appeared glossy, almost polished against the backdrop of his tan.
"Thank you...?" Jason responded, feeling embarrassed but sticking close to Maeve and keeping his hand on her waist as he asked, "But I'm curious. I appreciate a Champion like yourself coming all this way, but weren't you supposed to arrive a few months from now?"
"That was the plan," Iris confirmed, approaching Jason confidently and giving his right side a poke with her left index and middle fingers as she teased, "But someone had to go and get themselves stabbed. Speaking of which, I have some news regarding your attacker."
"Were the League's investigators able to get any information out of him?" Jason asked, his expression turning serious.
"Is there a secure terminal nearby? There's something you should see before we discuss the matter in detail," Iris countered, leaving Jason at a brief loss as she casually reached down the front of her salmon-pink top and produced what looked like a USB stick.
"There's one in mine and Jason's room," Lillie revealed.
"Alright. Then, once everyone else arrives, I'll need to borrow this big lug for a few minutes," Iris asserted, her tone casual but strangely pressuring. She was, by and large, the most diminutive person present. But there was a certitude to her words and actions that made it difficult to argue against her decisions.
"In the meantime," Iris continued, unzipping the single-strap travel bag she was wearing and swinging it in a wide arc, unleashing a total of nine Poké Balls into the air as she chimed, "Come on out, everyone! I need you to secure this beach and the nearby forest!"
On Iris's cue, an impressive line-up of predominantly Dragon-type Pokémon appeared on the beach or in the nearby sea. The exceptions were a Lapras, a powerful-looking, mole-like Excadrill, and her Emolga, which performed a gliding loop around the group before coming to rest on Iris's right shoulder. The other six were her Ace, Haxorus, a three-headed, Hydra-looking Pokémon, Hydreigon, a ferocious-looking, crimson-headed, blue-bodied Drudiggon, a feathery, multi-colored, dinosaur-like Archeops, a crimson-winged, broad-bodied Salamence, and a deceptively adorable, almost pear-shaped Dragonite.
'As expected of a Champion...' Jason thought soberly, his scalp tingling and an involuntary tension filling his body due to the pressure generated by Iris's Dragons. He didn't question why she had nine Pokémon with her, as Champions were permitted to carry as many as twelve.
With the understandable exception of her Emolga, Emmy, the rest of Iris's Pokémon either ran off, rose into the sky, or dove into the sea to carry out her order. As they did, Iris turned to glance up at Jason, her arms crossed and a notably smug smile adorning her face as she asked, "Well, what did you think of my Dragons? Pretty cool, right?"
"Very..." Jason confirmed with a nod. He was a little confused about why Iris was asking him to confirm such a thing, but he presumed she simply enjoyed receiving praise and recognition.
"Later, I'll take you for a ride on my Dragonite~" Iris hummed, closing her eyes, puffing out her chest, and raising her chin.
"Before that, you'll need to have it registered as a Flying-Ride Pokémon," Ellaine reminded, pouring water on Iris's ostentation by reminding, "As a Regional Champion, you're naturally able to fly on your Pokémon at your leisure. But here in Alola, your Pokémon need to complete a series of tests and have safety equipment attached to them to give others rides."
"Mmn...sounds like a hassle. But if that's the way things are done here in Alola, I guess I don't have a choice," Iris conceded with a shrug. Then, as the group from the floating helipad had just arrived on the backs of a pair of spherically shaped blue-and-beige whales—Wailmer—she thoughtfully made way for Jason to greet them...
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Following his reunion with Ellaine, Maeve, Nanahoshi, Bianca, and Seren—and his subsequent introduction to Professor Magnolia and Sonia—Jason found himself nearly alone with Iris in his and Lillie's bedroom. With them were Ren and Emmy, the former observing them silently on the bed while the latter explored and sniffed around the room.
"Alright, check this out," Iris said, sitting on the chair in front of the room's secure, Foundation-provided PC while Jason waited silently behind her. A security program was activated when she inserted the USB stick, likely to ensure there was no irregular monitoring software installed on the device. Then, following a few mouse clicks, she opened one of several video files, revealing the interior of a room not all that dissimilar to the one Jason had been quarantined in.
"That's the guy who stabbed me...?" Jason asked, his brows creasing as the person on the screen, bereft of his Pikachu-themed hoodie and face mask, had the look of a homeless teen. His dirty blonde hair was matted and cut short, uneven. His skin was pale and clammy. And though he was being bathed in the same kind of lights used to prevent Ghost-types from turning incorporeal, his body seemed hazy from the neck down, like it was formed from fog.
"Questions can come later. Watch this," Iris said, tapping the screen with the long pink nail of her right index finger, indicating for Jason to focus on one of the room's walls. He was initially confused about what she wanted him to see, but things became clear when grid lines appeared on the wall. Then, all at once, the center of the grid collapsed inward, forming a tunnel that cast hazy, rainbow-hued light and caused bright white cracks across the wall. And from beyond the haze of light, multiple figures wearing very distinctive black uniforms with black flat caps and rainbow-colored R's on their chest emerged to kidnap the teen into what was very clearly an Ultra Wormhole. And the group's uniforms were unquestionably those of the interdimensional criminal organization, Team Rainbow Rocket...
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