"We're here!"
Angel scrambles out of Cynthia's arms once they reach the Lumiose City gate. She catches her fall with her hands before springing up from her crouch and running up the street. Cynthia gasps and runs after her when the girl barely misses being skimmed by a passing car.
"Angel! Stop! You're going to get hit! Angel! Garchomp stop her!" The ball is hurled into the air and releases a white glare.
The purple beast burst from its pokeball and soars ahead of Cynthia. It reaches down and grabs the child from its position in the air. It makes a u turning flip back to Cynthia and places the squirming person into the adult's arms gently.
"Hey!"
"You can't just run off. You almost got hit by a car!" Cynthia screeches as she tightens her grips. She places her on the ground (mostly because her ribs were starting to bruise from the excessive kicking), but keeps a firm grip on her hand while she returns her pokemon to its ball. She tries to ignore the yanking that tries to dislodge her shoulder and arm.
"I've lived in Lumiose for a long time. I know how to avoid a car Cynthia, stop worrying." The child whines before pulling at the champion's arm. She pouts when the professional doesn't even move.
The adult smiles patiently for the girl's excitement to deflame before she leisurely starts leading them toward the large building that could only be the Pokemon Lab. The excitement only swells inside the little girl once more and she starts hopping while she walks to vent the increasing energy. She notices a young couple smile at them as they pass by one of the patches of trees.
"Professor Sycamooorree!" Angel screeches as she pries her hand away from Cynthia's iron grip. The young girl stops at the gates as the professor and his assistant step out of the building. Angel stops to bow her head at the professor.
"Ah. How are you doing? I just got word from Sophie this morning that you entered the Junior Cup. So Angel's your name?"
"Eh… That's the one Cynthia put down for the tournament. She basically forced me to enter." Angel pouted.
"Don't act like you didn't enjoy the Cup, Angel." Cynthia chided as she approaches the group.
"Champion Cynthia!" Sophie gasps as she quickly bows before the trainer. Cynthia raises a hand in greeting.
"Well, I think Angel suites you. Your other pokemon are waiting in the sanctuary. Why don't you go get them?" Sycamore suggests as he motions inside the building.
"You have more pokemon?" Cynthia asks.
"Yup. I actually found the two of them half a year ago in the Winding Woods. They were abandoned by their previous trainers so I asked if they wanted to come with me! I asked if they wanted to come with us to Pledging Day, but they said it was a thing between Calamity and I. I brought them all something though!"
Slate eyes look at her in confusion, "When did you manage that?"
"Yesterday."
Sycamore laughs at the face Cynthia gives his young charge. He pushes her towards the sanctuary doors before turning to Cynthia, "Thank you for taking care of her and bringing her back to the lab."
"No problem. Actually I wanted to talk to you about her."
"Oh? What about?" He questions as he leads Cynthia inside to sit down. Sophie places two cups of tea before them before excusing herself to get back to work.
"I have asked Angel to come back to Sinnoh with me. She says that she needs your permission, since you're her guardian." The champion explains as she sips at her tea.
The professor smiles in understanding, "I see. I can get the documentation for you to complete shortly. This would mean that you would become her new foster parent. Do you realize this fact?" He asks as his smile is replaced with a more sober expression. "You haven't even asked yet, about her history I mean. And I would be surprised if she had said anything. I've been fostering her since she was five, but she went off two days after the paperwork was signed to go on her journey."
Cynthia looks at her cup and runs a thumb along the rounded rim. She looks at the direction she saw Angel run off to. "I admit I subconsciously knew she was probably an orphan. Not many parents want their six year old going on a journey. My grandmother just about broke into tears because her baby was growing up when I left at ten… Could you tell what you do know about Angel."
Sycamore puts his empty cup down and crosses his legs, "I can tell you what I know. Angel, when she entered the program at age two and a half, refused to speak to anyone. Eventually people stopped trying to speak to her. The other children wouldn't play with her and adopters couldn't connect with her. She started talking to me once she got Calamity because she wanted advice on how to take care of her and agreed to let me house Calamity when the orphanage found out about her absol. When she turned five, the people who run the orphanage started to think she was unadoptable. I may have gotten her to speak regularly, but she wouldn't let anyone bond with her. I became her guardian so she could live here free of the system until she decided to become a trainer. I didn't really expect her to leave so early."
"Does she really not have a name?" Cynthia asks as she takes a candy out of the bowl resting in the middle of the table and untwists its ends.
"She probably did once upon a time. Nothing is known about her parents or if she even had both with her at the time. Only photos of her and the father were found. When police found her she was alone in her apartment after a neighbor had said they didn't see either parent nor child for days. The police has declared that they're most likely dead. If she had a name she never told me."
Conversation leaves the room so the only sound filling the void is the crinkle of Cynthia's candy wrapper as she fiddles with it. She pops the sugary ball into her mouth and waits for Sycamore to divulge the thought still banging against his skull.
"Angel is… very untrustful. The walls have been built high since her abandonment and self inclined isolation. I never seen her so willing to be with someone. I ask that you take caution in your actions when they concern her."
Cynthia smiles around her candy, "I'm pretty sure my Garchomp would hit me over the head with a Brick Break if I so much as made her downcast her eyes. She's a little angel"
A sigh of relief escapes the professor's mouth as he stands and motions towards the glass doors. One could barely make out the child's moving silhouette behind the foggy barrier. The champion rises and waits for the doors to open before she steps into the grassy wildlife enclosure. Her slate eyes land on the hoard of pokemon surrounding the young trainer.
"Guys, get off!"
Calamity opens an eye before sending a haze of ice at the mob forming a pile on their friend. The professor's pokemon disperse, but two pokemon jump away from the spray before releasing angry cries at the pokemon.
"Now, now, don't fight." She sees Cynthia standing at the entrance, "Alright boys line up and meet Cynthia. She's taking us to Sinnoh!"
The pokemon form a line before their trainer and sit on or hover above the ground. Angel smiles and looks over her shoulder at the champion, "These are my friends! Mystic is the hydreigon and Diadem is the arcanine. They're quite the handful because they're boys and love to fight." She turns toward her pokemon, "You should've come with us boys. Calamity won the Junior Cup by herself."
The two pokemon roar in surprise and growl at the red pokemon. Calamity rises and begins gathering energy into her mouth that starts to crystallize into ice. The two larger pokemon back off. Angel laughs to herself before pulling two pokeballs off her belt. One a regular pokeball and the other a dusk ball.
"Alright you two, we know who the boss is. Back in your balls before Calamity pummels you both into the ground," Her joking tone becomes more serious, "Mystic, Diadem return."
Red beams enclose the two scowling pokemon as they dissipate into their capsules. They are reattached to her trainer belt and Angel runs up to Cynthia. The blonde rubs the platinum locks affectionately. Two smaller arms wrap around the champion's waist and a blinding smile is thrown her way. Cynthia reaches down and coils her arms around the child's torso to heave her up onto her hip. Angel buries her face into her neck.
"I surprised Calamity allows you to do that. I picked her up once because she sprained her ankle and had an angry absol snapping at my heels all the way back to the lab." Cynthia turns to see Sycamore enter the room with a stack of papers in hand, "I had the paperwork faxed to my office. I need a few signatures."
"I'm going to the playground on Route 14." Angel declares as she shimmies down from her perch in the champion's arms. Her dusk ball flashes in the sunlight before it spirals into the air.
"Mystic, curtain call!"
The brutal pokemon bursts open from its capsule and roars with all three heads and hovers next to his trainer. The little girl crawls onto its back and clasps her arms around its main neck and tightens her legs around its shoulders.
"I'll be back later okay?"
The dragon and his mistress zoom out the door.