Cynthia ignores the crowd surrounding the Amity Square ruins and instead runs a hand over the the uplifted engraving. She looks over her shoulder when she heard quick footsteps approaching from behind.
"Here Mama." Angel whispers as she pushes a triple scooped cone toward her parent figure; violet eyes glance at the crowd beginning to murmur behind her. She nervously licks her ice cream and scoots her body closer to her when negative words begin to drift through her ears. Her first outing away from the Pokemon League since she arrived a few weeks ago. She had just gotten use to living with four other people and the mansion itself, now she's dragged out halfway across country to sedate Cynthia's sweet tooth for ice cream and anything that seemed older than a millennia.
"Thank you Angel," She gives her foster child a pat on her head and looks down when the girl buries her face away from view. Gray eyes notice the whispers.
"Look here Angel." She points at the ancient unown writing.
The violet eyes glance the text and her lips move as she processes the letters. "When every l-life meeks another life, something kill ceborn. Uh? I think I read it wrong."
Cynthia's shock is pushed aside by laughter, "You got most of it, Sweetie. It says, when every life meets another life, something will be born. How can you read this?"
Angel looks up and smiles, "I met a group of unown and they thought it was funny to write out their thoughts."
"Only you Love. Don't let your ice cream drip."
Angel goes to catch the dribble and digs through her pocket to reveal a handful of coins, "Here's your change Cynthia."
The champion pockets the coins and raises an eyebrow at the use of her name and looks to the area the scattered violet orbs keep spinning towards. She gives her ice cream a thoughtful lick before she smiles at her thought.
"Angel, let's have a battle." Cynthia declares loudly and notices the immediate uproar from the crowd.
"What?" Angel exclaims as she turns to the champion and tries to shrink away from the challenge.
"The champion's going to battle her?" Someone murmurs and Angel grasps her wriggling pokeball.
"A battle. Come on it'll be fun. Call your pokemon."
"Calamity, curtain call!" The luxury ball is spun outward and Calamity springs forth. Angel tilts her head in confusion when Cynthia releases her gastrodon. The pink and brown slug extends its neck to tower over the crouching red pokemon. Calamity lets out an intimidating growl.
"Who does this kid think she is?"
"Gastrodon, Muddy Water."
Brown liquid swirls around the sea slug in a vortex and rushes outward when Gastrodon flexes its neck towards Calamity.
"Calamity Stone Edge, around you!"
The blue stones form a fortress around the pokemon that barricades from the waves. The water bounces away before dissipating into a foggy mist. Gastrodon gives out a startled cry when it's thrown backwards by the stones obscured by the fog. People gasp as the slug is propelled backwards and forces its sticky body into the ground to prevent further skidding.
"Then we'll use stone edge too!"
Gastrodon summons the stone from the earth and circles the breaking pieces arounds its body before shooting them outwards at the absol.
"Send it back Calamity. Night Slash!"
The creature's scythe glows purple and rebounds the stones like a bat before it flips away from the incoming shards. Gastrodon tilts its head up and shifts to avoid the approaching rock before quickly squishing its front to its back when a Mega Horn hammers into the now empty space. The slug slams the pokemon into the ground when ordered to Body Slam. Calamity moans in pain.
"Calamity!" Angel tightens her fist when she hears a snicker, "Shadow Ball."
The ball of plasma is released into Gastrodon's face, which causes the pokemon to recoil enough for Calamity to crawl away from its sticky hold.
"Go Calamity, Future Sight!" The absol's ethereal eyes shine with a blue haze before returning to normal. When nothing happens, Cynthia calls out a command.
"Water Pulse."
Calamity jumps to dodge the incoming water balls. The red pokemon bounds off a tree and collides with one of the incoming Water Pulses. The pokemon grunts as it skids into a pillar.
"Eh! Are you okay?" The absol jumps to its feet. "Good. Hyper Beam!"
A beam of light forces the slug back and blinds the on lookers. Cynthia holds an arm to her face as the wind created by the explosion blows in her face before lowering it and smiling when her gastrodon slunks up.
"You left a mark, but now you're defenseless. A dangerous thing for a sweeping pokemon like Calamity that, in comparison, has rather low defenses."
Her gray eyes widen when Angel gives a knowing smirk, "I think you're forgetting about something." Two swirling portals appear beside the pink slug and it pivots its head between them in panic. Balls of crystallized power assult the trapped pokemon. From the smoke a final ball of water plummets into Calamity.
As the smoke clears both pokemon remain standing. Calamity stumbles over her paws and Gastrodon droops its head from fatigue before both collapse on the ground.
"It's a draw!" A girl shrieks in disbelief.
Cynthia returns her pokemon to its ball before speaking reassuring words of comfort to the sphere, "Good job Gastrodon. Great job. Well done Angel."
"I need to work on counter shields." A red beam erupts from the luxury ball and envelopes the fainted pokemon. "That was wonderful Calamity. I'll do better next time, promise." The ball is returned to her belt. The girl grimaces when she notices the melted ice cream covering her hand, "Aw man."
Cynthia laughs. Apparently Angle wasn't as good at eating ice cream and battling at the same time. "Oh my."
Angel blushes redder when she notices the crowd still hadn't dispersed. She yelps quietly when Cynthia picks her up.
"Let's get you cleaned up."
Angel pushes away Cynthia's hand as the champion attempts to wipe the sticky residue from her face. The pokemon center's bathroom white tile reflect the action.
"Quit it Mama!"
"I'm trying to clean your face Love." The pseudo-mother states as she pushes the wet paper towel closer to the child's face.
"I can do it myself." Angel complains as she pushes the prodding hand away and pouted in annoyance.
"Stop the lilipup eyes. I let you try to wipe your face and if anything you made it worse by spreading the ice cream on your hand into your eyebrows. Just let me do it and then we can go grab Calamity."
The bribe works as the girl stills and lets the blonde wipe the wet cloth over her face. She smiles at the kiss to her temple and eagerly jumps off the bathroom counter and into the Pokemon Center's lobby. The amused adult laughs to herself at her foster child's antics. She bombards Nurse Joy and her chansey when she returns with a small tray holding two pokeballs and takes both. She bows and gives thanks before scampering back to Cynthia. The champion murmurs a thank you and takes her pokeball from the small hand. It's placed back into her jacket.
Angel tilts her head in confusion when she hears the buzzing from the other blonde's pocket. She sticks her hand in the fabric compartment and pulls the vibrating phone out of her pocket when the champion takes no notice and instead is focusing her attention on the television. The platinum shoves the seziureing device toward Cynthia, who blinks at it in slight stupor before grasping it and pressing the talk button.
"Hello? Oh, Grandmother! How are you? Meet you at Lake Verity? Why? I see. Okay, I'll see you soon." The call is cut off and the cellular device placed back into her jacket. Gray eyes meet violet ones, "Well, Love, we're going to Lake Verity to meet my grandmother. Apparently they're have been some odd readings on the machines and Grandmother wants us to go meet her there."
…
Angel finds herself once again hidden in Cynthia's coat with her arms wrapped around her legs in nervousness when the old lady in a white lab coat approaches. She feels no comfort at the familiar gray eyes straining to steal a glance at her. The platinum hair moves to cover the girl's face.
Professor Carolina lifts an eyebrow at her granddaughter and huffs in amusement when Cynthia subtly attempts to gently dislodge the child from her leg.
"It's alright Cynthia. Leave her be. Though I must asks: who is she?"
"This is Angel, Grandmother. She's under my care now as my foster daughter. We met when I went to Kalos for the expedition match. She won the cup. Angel's really a sweetheart, honest. She's just a little… shy." Cynthia explains as she moves her coat aside to try to drive Angel out of her hiding spot. The little girl eeps at the sudden revelation.
"No need to be so guarded young child. It's not fitting for one not part of reality yet."
"Pardon me ma'am?" Angel question, respectful enough to show her full face.
"Be a youthful child while you still can. Come you two, look at our research." The old lady moves to guide them to a machine with two satellite dishes pointed at both the sky and water.
"Mama, what are they doing?" Angel whispers.
"I'm not sure. Grandmother, what is going on?" The champion asks as her grandmother turns away from the machine her assistants were surrounding.
"There have been odd currents of unexplainable energy waves. We feel it might have something to do with Mesprit." Carolina explains.
The champion looks on with curiosity. The lake guardians hadn't been sighted in the last three years when Team Galactic attempted to create the new dimension for their delusion master.
"You don't by any chance have Lucario with you? Since it can read aura we thought perhaps it might be able to pick up the waves better than our machines."
The blonde shook her head in disappointment, "I'm sorry I don't."
"Oh well, nothing we can do. Angel have you ever heard of Mesprit? Angel?" Both family members look down to see the little girl nowhere near the champion's legs. Cynthia immediately panics and scans the area, but sees no white hair.
"Angel? Angel!"
"Where would she go?" Carolina asked her granddaughter.
Thoughts swirled through the blonde's head before she hurried over to the machine. "Grandmother can you get an isoline map up of the area with the readings you've been receiving?"
"Yes, a foggy one, but why does that matter?" The graying haired woman asked as she brought a map onto the screen. The area pulsating a light green as the isolines glowed every few moments.
"Angel can emit a slight pulse that calms pokemon. I believe it's aura. Perhaps she can feel it too. and went looking for the source. But the source…" Two pairs of gray eyes focus on the water and a sinking feeling settles in Cynthia's chest when she sees nothing break the water's surface.
"Gastrodon, rise from the seas!"
The slug lands in the water and Cynthia immediately shoves the oxygen piece into her mouth before stripping off her coat so she was only in her undershirt and pants. She clutches her pokemon's neck and is dunked underwater. She glances around before pointing toward the center of the lake and waits impatiently as her gastrodon slinks along the bottom of the lakebed. Her desperation grows when no signs of the small girl are seen. Gray eyes glance down when her gastrodon turns its head toward the right. A deeper analyzation reveals a small cave opening.
Cynthia pulls the breather out of her mouth when she breaks the water surface of a cave. She glances around and sighs in relief when she sees Angel staring up at the small opening in the top of the underground cavern. The champion is followed by a puddle of water as she crawls onto the rock floor and approaches the girl. Steam seems to erupt from her skin as her worry fades to anger.
"What do you think you are doing?! You can't just wander off. Especially into a lake! What if you lost your oxygen piece? Then what?" The champion hisses and moves to turn the girl when she doesn't answer.
Cynthia stops and looks at Angel with newfound concern when she notices the child's dazed expression.
"Angel? Are you okay? Love?" Anxiety began flooding her senses again as she looked Angel in the eye.
"She wants us to leave the area. Your machines are scaring her." The voice came out with a gloomy tint.
"Who are we scaring Angel?"
"The pokemon who lives here. She said her name was Mesprit. She wants you to leave."