Angelo came to his senses slowly being prodded in the side by something. He yawned noticing a yellow arm poking him slowly.
"Hey, Angelo. Are you alright?" the Dragonite asked.
"Yah, just tired. What's up?" the gray and white Flareon stirred.
"You have visitors. Your grandparents." Lancelot said, "They're arriving in a little while."
"My... My grandparents!?"
Angelo bounced from his lying position and faced the Dragonite.
"I have grandparents!?" Angelo said, "And they're coming!?"
"I didn't have much warning either." Lancelot huffed, "Yes, on your mother's side. I haven't caught the breath to tell them about you yet. I'd prefer to break the news to them slowly."
"Ok." Angelo nodded, "Do I look alright?"
"Well, you always do." Lancelot shrugged, "It's a wonder... Just wait in here, and I'll knock if they are coming in."
"Understood." Angelo said, "But, what're you going to tell them about?"
"Everything. They've been as distraught as me about it... "
The Dragonite suddenly held his arm up to himself. Angelo noticed he had a gold and hard to see Nightlight gadget bound on his arm.
"Sir, jewel robber running off in an electric carriage!" a voice reported, "Straight down Laurel!"
Angelo was looking around his room while he listened. He was confused as to what time of day it was.
"I'll be back in a while. Stay in the building." Lancelot ordered.
"It's too fast for most pokemon." Angelo sighed, "Let me go too."
"I'm keeping you from public eye." Lancelot said, "It's better for you that way."
"And what about for them?" Angelo replied.
"There's no time to argue." Lancelot insisted.
"Yah, I know."
Angelo grabbed onto the Dragonite's arms and climbed onto his shoulder. Angelo wrapped his tail around the Dragonite acting like a scarf.
"Hang on tightly." Lancelot ordered.
"Uhm...?"
Angelo's stomach dropped seeing a part of the hallway glowing red with opening walls.
"Uhm, aren't we like, very very high up!?"
Angelo's mouth dropped as the Dragonite took a simple nosedive downwards. the sight was unlike anything Angelo had ever seen. He saw slight curvature in the horizon and had the feeling of free fall while hugging the Dragonite's neck tightly. He couldn't hear if he was screaming over the wind.
Slowly, the Dragonite leaned more and more upwards until they were eventually traveling completely horizontally. They were still flying over the tops of rather tall buildings, but Angelo's adrenaline wore off somehow.
"There are pokemon gripping the top of it." Lancelot reported, "It's going to be a ranged battle until we get in close. Just keep around my neck."
Lancelot descended quickly and swerved upwards . They were still a good distance from the fast-moving ground, but Angelo was confident he could jump and be fine at any time.
I'm going to guess it's the absolute crazed one that's the robbers?" Angelo asked.
"Yuuuup..." Lancelot huffed.
An electric carriage was barreling down the street as quickly as possible. The pokemon on the streets were constantly clearing the path, but there weer screams as it continued at a decently high speed.
"I can't just make it explode jewelry all over the place. What do we do?" Angelo asked.
"We need to take off its front two wheels." Lancelot said, "We're going to-"
"Dad, look!"
Angelo pointed to a group of pokemon standing in a wall formation. A Grovyle Angelo recognized from the apartment building stood in the center readying a solarbeam.
"We're going to get a good position on the situation." the Dragonite sweat dropped.
The Dragonite slowed and gained a vantage point in a nearby taller building over the road. The Grobyle fired the solarbeam as they landed and cut out the bottom of the carriage. The carriage scraped with a horrible sound on the ground as the Grovyle and pokemon surrounding it moved swiftly to the side.
The electric carriage didn't have enough speed to flip over and stopped upright with a completely torn bottom.
"Stay here unless it's an emergency." Lancelot ordered, "Understood?"
"Yah." Angelo said.
The gray and white Flareon jumped off of the Dragonite's back swiftly. The Dragonite wasted no time in taking another nose dive straight for ground.
"They aren't paying much attention to the carriage. What would they want..."
Angelo watched as the Dragonite landed intimidatingly close to the group of pokemon. Although Angelo admired the style, not a single one of them flinched. He pulled out his necklace and called Kite.
"Kite." Angelo said, "There's something wrong over here."
"Where are you?" Kite's voice asked.
"I'm with my dad." Angelo said, "These pokemon are acting too confident. I think we need backup."
"If you get into sight lines, it could be fatal for staying under the radar." Kite warned.
"I know, but it's way too off." Angelo sighed, "Not overconfident or scared. It's a bad sign."
"Backup will come in two minutes." Kite said, "Stay safe."
Angelo put his necklace back into the fur of his neck. He continued to peer over the edge of the building to see neither party had moved yet. The Grovyle maintained an aggressive stance while pokemon were starting to crowd around slightly.
Angelo jumped at the pokemon around the Grovyle fired different concealing attacks. Smoke erupted so quickly Angelo had to pull his head back after a short moment. He saw rays of attacks and heard chaotic fighting below. The smoke cleared quickly letting Angelo slowly peered his eyes to see the ground again.
The Dragonite was surrounded and looked like he had some wounds. The Dragonite continued to get pressured from attacks as Angelo quickly whipped out his necklace again.
"Kite? How far?" he asked.
"They were held up another minute." Kite's voice answered.
Angelo put away his necklace and took a deep breath.
"I can't do a lot of different things with my energy yet, but dad can use it somehow."
Angelo was at a height he had already tested before, but was a little more tense jumping straight into a larger battle. He aimed for a space near Lancelot and jumped feeling wind pick up as he sent energy pulsing through his muscles to strengthen them.
Angelo approached the ground while accelerating. His landing caused bricks to bounce up off of the ground charred black from his bio-energy and brought attention to him. The first move Angelo made was swiftly climbing onto the Dragonite's shoulder.
The Grovyle gave a hand gesture and the group used another huge smoke attack. Angelo closed his eyes and tuned in his hearing to hear them moving away.
"They're running." he said, "What do we do?"
"Nothing. Focus on the thieves." Lancelot ordered, "That bunch is too fast."
The Dragonite flapped its wings viciously to get rid of the black smoke. Angelo turned around on his shoulder to see a small band of pokemon leaving the carriage quietly. The group was an Arbok, Weepingbell, Pignite, and Golduck.
"Dad, there!" Angelo said, "They're leaving the carriage."
Angelo turned around to keep his line of sight aligned as the Dragonite turned and looked.
"Hold it there!" Lancelot called.
Angelo jumped down from Lancelot's shoulder when he saw the pokemon gain a battle stance. He slammed his energy filled right arm into the ground for balance and let out the most vicious roar he could. The heat from his energy burned the ground around him and sent pressuring hot winds at the group. They guarded themselves with defensive moves only to have them broken as the roar ended.
The group of pokemon noticed while they were reorienting themselves that the front of the electric carriage had turned black as Angelo scraped his arm from the ground and detracted his claws.
"Angelo," Lancelot called, "They're done! Mission accomplished."
Angelo took a deep breath and wiped his forehead. A group of pokemon came from behind the thieves and took them very easily into custody while Angelo watched to make sure none of the thieves tried to move. Angelo just then realized his heart was pounding from the stress while he continued to stare for a couple of minutes.
"Okay, okay. We're good, it's done." Angelo huffed, "All set."
A soft wind blew from the side as Angelo slowly turned around. He finally noticed a crowd behind the Dragonite that was being held back by a line of pokemon. The Dragonite walked to Angelo with a smile on his face.
"Well, that was a bit visible..." Lancelot laughed, "At least it was a nice first impression."
"I just got worried about you." Angelo frowned, "Sorry."
Angelo finally had a second to wake up and notice his surroundings more. The space they were in had less buildings than he initially realized with the only tall building being the one he jumped off from. The softness and direction of the sun showed that it was early morning.
"You look tired. Ready to head back?" the Dragonite asked.
"Yah, but who are all those pokemon back there?" Angelo asked.
"Reporters." Lancelot answered, "This was a pretty high alarm with them trying to steal jewelry. I sent Damien after the Grovyle just after they ran."
Angelo got close to jump on the Dragonites's arm, but his back had a tinge of pain when he reached up.
"I'll carry you." Lancelot offered, "We'll check on your back as soon as we get back."
Angelo embarrassingly let the Dragonite carefully pick him up off the ground and hold him close to his chest. The Dragonite took off slowly and was flying much more calmly than before.
"Ugh, I think I must've messed it up when I jumped off the building." Angelo said.
"Well, I wasn't aware that you were able to do that at all... It takes strong muscles to use bio-energy more and more efficiently for stunts like that. It causes stress overtime." Lancelot explained.
"So, if I got stronger, how often would I be able to do it?" Angelo asked.
"Well, all pokemon use it when they're using their muscles." Lancelot said, "Your body simply needs to scale up in muscle so that you can use it to the fullest. It works like a scale. More energy needs stronger muscle or it won't work or cause pain."
"I'm not getting any bigger." Angelo complained.
"It's not being big." Lancelot chuckled, "You just need to eat more, honestly."
Angelo rested cozily while the Dragonite flew higher and higher. He didn't feel the height or wind as the Dragonite's arms were larger than him.
"Geez, dad's strong. I wonder how much he eats..."
"How much do you eat?" Angelo asked.
"A lot." Lancelot smirked, "Especially for my size. I don't mean to brag, but I'm quite the juggernaut."
"Tch." Angelo smirked, "Yah, okay. I saw that tiny salad you ate the other day."
"That was a snack." Lancelot said.
"Uh huuuuh."
Angelo was lightly surprised when they reached the tower in a short time. Lancelot continued to carry him as he went back inside the hallways through to his room again.
"So, what happens after we just leave? Who takes them away?" Angelo asked.
"We leave that to silver and gold rank agents that happen to be in the area." Lancelot answered, "The backup you asked for was great for dealing with the crowds."
Lancelot continued until they reached Angelo's room.
"I want you to continue resting and I'll have Hannah check your back." Lancelot said.
"Hannah?" Angelo asked.
"She's knows plenty of massage techniques and is learned in how muscles work. She'll help you when she has a moment."
"Ok."
Lancelot set Angelo gently back onto his bed.
"I'll be dealing with the media." Lancelot sighed, "See you in a short while."
Angelo started to feel sleepy again shortly after the Dragonite left. He was starting to nod off slowly thinking to himself.
"I just screwed up a whole lot. That Grovyle probably couldn't tell what I looked like in the dark before, but now everyone does. If I'd thought about it... I could've just attacked from a distance till backup came... Dad was fine, he's beyond tough enough for that."
Angelo heard a quick knock on his door. It opened slowly as a Cinccino went through looking a bit frantic.
"Angie? Are you alright?" she approached.
"Angie?"
"My back just hurts a bit. I'm fine." Angelo assured, "Did you just wake up?"
"Yeah, I rushed right over." she said," Would you like to go to the couch?"
"Yah." Angelo nodded.
"Thinking about it now, it's really weird to just have a bed close to the center of a wall. I should probably check the news, too..."
The Cinccino sat slightly closer to the back of the couch than Angelo and right next to had found the remote and turned to television on before searching through the channels.
"Whatcha lookin for?" Hannah asked.
"Just the news." Angelo said, "Although stuff that happened in the morning usually shows at noon or so..."
Angelo jumped when the Cinccino touched his back and awkwardly started to slide off. The Cinccino leaned forward and caught him and frantically pulled him back up.
"Thanks." Angelo said.
"So soft. Oh man." Hannah's voice quaked intensely, "Oh, sorry."
Angelo blinked as his arms tensed in surprise.
"She never sounds like that. I've never seen her lose her composure even a little bit... It's not THAT soft, is it?"
Angelo started to blush as the Cinccino cleared her throat quickly.
"So," Hannah's high-pitch returned, "I'm just going to check your back and make sure it's all set to heal up well."
Angelo tensed his back again as soon as the Cinccino touched it. He relaxed slowly as she simply started to pat different areas of his back lightly.
"So, I know about it and all... But what exactly is popular on tv?" Angelo asked, "It looks boring from what I've seen."
"Weeell..." Hannah thought, "I guess it just depends on your preference. My favorite is a little cheesy, but I like romances a lot. What do you like to watch?"
"I've only ever watched one movie." Angelo recalled, "At least, the whole way through. I think it was called Rose Incense?"
"Yah, that's a romance one." Hannah nodded, "That one's pretty good. It's sequel is actually my favorite movie."
"We should-"
Angelo paused.
"Hmmmm?" Hannah said.
"Uhm, I guess you're busy." Angelo said.
"I'm actually free tonight." Hannah suggested, "If you're asking for my time, that is."
"I won't bother you." Angelo sighed.
"I can make the time." Hannah said, "I was going to stay up late anyways, tonight."
"There are better uses of time..." Angelo said.
"I could use a break..." Hannah sighed, " I'll get us snacks, pillows... It'll be fun!"
"Ok." Angelo accepted, "Where do we watch it?"
"I have it in my room, and we could watch them in there." she suggested, "What are you doing during the day?"
"Not sure. What about you?" Angelo asked.
"I was taking the day off, just lounging." she said calmly, "I've heard you have trouble sleeping sometimes. Wanna talk about it?"
"I sometimes just can't get my adrenaline down..." Angelo said, "It's, uhm, hard after stuff."
"I can show you some stuff." she offered, "Just come to me, even if I'm asleep. It'll help me too."
"..."
"Uhm, what do you want to show me?" Angelo sweat dropped, "You're not going to use sing again, right? That only works to make light naps..."
"I'm just going to show you how to relax before you sleep." Hannah laughed.
"..."
"It's still pretty early." Hannah said, "And your back looks like it was just strained a tiny bit. Usually hurts a lot for a short term, but it looks like it's fine now. Want to just stay in with me?"
"Agh, I want to... I'm so tired. Feels like muggings happening while I'm in the area is becoming a running gag..."
Angelo looked back at Hannah still formulating an answer. Done with her task, she scooted to be more on the side of him.
"It's so annoying not being able to tell if you're just being friendly. I wish you'd just tell me. I can't stand not knowing what others are thinking anymore. It's... Exhausting."
Angelo's jaw tensed looking at her.
"What is it?" she asked, "Is something wrong. Angelo?"
"No... Just, uhm." Angelo shook his head.
"Tell me exactly what you're thinking." Hannah said, "It's alright."
"I wish you'd just tell me what you're thinking." Angelo blurted, "You keep playing around with words and how you act so I don't actually know you even though I talk to you every day. No different from everyone else. The only ones who actually act normal around me are dad and Blue."
"Zen has been relaxed too." Hannah argued, "It's... Complicated."
"A lot of good that did..."
"Your dad doesn't want me coming on strongly, but... Since you want me to be honest, I guess it's alright?" Hannah questioned herself.
Angelo nodded with a curious expression.
"I've been, uhm, reprimanded for how I approach conversations with you." Hannah's flinched, "I can't be as, uh, 'real', as I'd prefer."
"It's not up to my dad to choose how you talk to me." Angelo's said, "Just be yourself."
"I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable." Hannah said, "I mean, I've been told I'm really creepy before when, uhm, talking to certain people."
"I've seen the worst of creepy." Angelo retorted, "So I can handle an actual conversation, believe it or not."
"Heh, alright." Hannah smiled.
The pair turned around hearing the door sounding its opening. The Dragonite stood on the other side of the door with his arms crossed.
"Angelo, you've got a few things to do with Charlotte today now." he said, "We need to decide what to do about this morning's incident."
"Incident?" Hannah asked slowly.
"I went out this morning." Angelo sweat dropped.
The Dragonite approached the pair with a tired strut. He rubbed his neck tiredly.
"He jumped off a building when I was surrounded by high-grade bandits and media. I can't even move around the Association without being swarmed..." Lancelot sighed, "So, I have no other choice than to either answer the questions or let Angelo do so himself in a way that he can. I don't want to tell about him to the public myself, but I promised that it would be before the end of the day."
"How much do I have to say, exactly?" Angelo asked.
"I'll be explaining how I lost you, and then you'll explain how you've lived from there." the Dragonite said, "They don't need a history lesson... Especially since meddling with legendary pokemon is against international law..."
"Oh... Oh geez!" Angelo exclaimed, "Dad, why didn't you tell me that?"
"I didn't want to stress you, but you need to know just how much stuff we're actually pinning on Gordon." Lancelot said, "That Haxorous is the pokemon to take the blame for all the necessary actions, but he wants for us all to keep all of the heat on him for you 'kidnapping' from the building. We need to stay focused on finding the Grovyle and more about the other group that invaded the building."
"What exactly is, uhm..." Angelo's voice trailed, "My uncle pinned for?"
"The basic things." Lancelot said, "Treason, kidnapping recently..."
"Would you like help to come up with ideas, Angie?" Hannah asked, "I'm good with crowds."
"Better than me..." Lancelot nodded, "There are may ways to go about it. Charlotte will be coming up to discuss it with you."
"And I'm here too." Hannah smiled.
"Another note as well." Lancelot said, "You have quite a few family members from both your mother's side and mine asking me about you. From my side, it's my cousin and his son, and from your mother's it's her parents and Charlotte's cousin and her family. They'll be arriving around noon."
Angelo blinked at his dad's excitement. Although he could tell he didn't notice, he was bouncing on his toes a bit.
"Hannah, let's go make preparations and let Angelo get ready." Lancelot gestured, "We'll all be upstairs whenever you're ready."
Angelo nodded as the Cinccino pushed herself off of the couch. She followed the Dragonite back out of his doorway.
Angelo noticed the Cinccino turn her head back around as the door was closing. She blew a kiss with a wink just before the doors finished closing. Angelo felt his face and ears heat up quickly.
"Uhm... That answers that."
Angelo went back to his mirror set up along the wall close to his bed. He looked over his whole body as his face started to slowly get less red.
"It all depends on how I want them to see me for what I do next. And I want them to, well, see me as me."
Angelo frowned.
"Feels like the first time ever that's up to me..."