Angel clasps her hands together tightly in anxiety. She'd pray if she knew whom to pray to, but when coming up blank she favored twisting her fingers into uncomfortable positions just to release the anxiety causing her veins to pulsate uneasily.
Despite her twitchiness as she packs her travel bag with jittery fingers, a sinking feeling settles in her stomach like a rock. Potion medicines and containers of berries are carefully tucked away into the abyss of the bag while travel canisters of pokemon pellets make its way into a separate saddle bag that will wrap around her arcanine's torso. The child stands and her body sways unsteadily as it gets used to the added weight on her back. Small legs lumber forward out of the villa's bedroom and into the wooden hallways.
Angel makes her way to her backyard and notices her pokemon tense up at the subtle creak of the door. Heads lifts from resting places and the morning dawn casts a soft red glow across the crests of their heads. Calamity flares brightly in the morning, her abnormal coloring shimmering more than usual as she stretches and rolls her muscles.
The Swords make their way out of the wooding at the sound of N greeting the child. Keldeo paws at the ground, kicking up dirt in his anxiousness to get on with their plan so he could ram his horn into the top of that ice dragon's skull. Steam snorts from his nostrils as he prances in place behind Terrakion.
Angel turns from where she was by the side of the house, hand limply holding the hose dousing Destin in his daily shower as the gooey pokemon absorbed the water to maintain his healthy slime. Her hair twirls around her torso, the time spent in Unova had proven lengthy enough for a healthy inch or two to lengthen the locks down to her mid back.
"Morning Mama," Angel greets mellowly as she turns off the faucet.
"Good morning Love. You're up early for the second time," Cynthia comments and pulls her own traveling bag higher up onto her shoulders.
The prodigy hmms in agreement as she takes a good look at her goodra, gauging its slime quality before sending it away to rest under the shade.
The prior day had consisted mostly of tracking the legendary quadrant. Giratina hadn't been able to make contact with the four before the sun climbed too high in the sky and had to return without company. The serpent dragon had murmured its apologies and went back out on its quest once the cover of night had settled. Angel had been awakened in the middle of the night, or perhaps more accurately the first hours of the morning, to a pressure against her head and the light sound of one of her claws against the window of her bedroom. Angel's heart had just about ripped itself out of her ribcage at the thought that something had come in the night to harm her only to see the large eyes of her dragon peering through the glass pane to inform her that its duty had been completed.
Angel drops her bag unceremoniously onto the brick ring that created the fireplace and runs to her mother to give her a hug. Cynthia tightens her arms around her waist and lifts her into the air with a spin.
"Mornin' everyone," Skyla yawns with a weary voice as she drops into a lawn chair, looking ready to curl up against the wood and fall back asleep in the comfortable summer heat.
Elesa follows close behind, plopping gracefully into the neighboring chair and dropping the shawl she had been loosely clasping around her elbows as she speaks a hello. Caitlin waves drowsily, used to sleeping the majority of her day and nods off against the cushion of the swinging sofa.
Are we going to talk or sleep? Keldeo snorts.
"Relax Keldeo," Angel sighs; half fed up with the pokemon. She had met worse pokemon in her day, but it was too early in the morning to deal with the hot headed legendary.
"Our plan shall be formulated by the end of the day," N confirms and smiles reassuringly at the child.
"Let's start with what we know," Cynthia begins as she shifts to drop Angel to the ground only to regain the weight when she sat down and her daughter dropped into her lap with a cheeky smile.
"Giant ice dragon is slowly freezing over the country," Skyla pipes up first as she slouches into her chair.
Angel and N both turn simultaneously as the rambling nonsense of pokemon speech penetrates the air. Cynthia admits that even she finds it a tad unnerving. The way the two turn like clockwork to tilt heads in the direction of Cobalion with eyes akin to hoothoot, wide and curious about what the legendary had to say. She watches as Angel twists in her lap, folded arms pressing into her shoulder as Angel takes in the pokemon's words.
"It's a very volatile pokemon; the slightest change in tone or wrong wording can be taken as a challenge and it will pursue until the battle is concluded," N translates.
A laugh jumps up Angel's throat as Virizion pipes up for a moment and her palm jerks up to cover her inappropriate loss of control.
"Virizion compared it to a male refused a date until the female has to knock sense into 'em," Angel explains with a slight smile.
Cynthia let's the giggles erupt for a moment with a bemused look before shifting her daughter away from the pokemon behind her and back towards the humans on the other side of the campfire circle.
"Our best plan will be taking him by surprise. A full frontal attack," The platinum suggests.
The child turns with a drooping face when Cynthia shakes her head in disagreement.
"We can't waste all our energy on the first blow. We can't take it down in one blow. It's not a trainer's ace Love," The champion bites her lip at the look she's given. "I'm not trying to hurt your feelings Angel, but we can't afford to mess this up."
"Yes Mama… Me and Giratina should start though. So we can't KO it, but we can knock it around a little. If someone could burn it that'd help a lot," Angel starts again and slides towards the ground to take a spare twig to scribble some representative x's into the soil.
Caitlin takes responsibility for burning the dragon and Elesa and Skyla debate the best way to utilize the later's flying based team so not to burden the others who would have to be closer to the dragon.
"I say we start with you, Angel," Cynthia starts. "Shake it up a bit. Then we'll send in the fliers to distract its headspace. Caitlin will burn it and grounded pokemon will attack the base."
"What about getting the machine out?" Elesa brings up.
"I'll do it. Giratina is the only one who can take multiple hits and I have the master ball should worse comes to worse," Angel insists.
"No way. You are not doing that Angel…"
"Mama…"
"It's a death mission Angel," Cynthia hisses irritability.
"You're putting me down before we even start the battle. I'm not a worthless trainer who's just going to be baggage!" Angel screeches in return and surprises even herself when she doesn't back down when her mother gave the look.
Cynthia sighs, shoulders slumping with it, and kneels to be at the same height as her daughter.
"You have to be careful," The champion relents. "I don't what I would do without you."
"Yes ma'am."