lyune is taking some time to rest. her eyes are light with her previous victories, her dragons exuberant after a chance to show their strength. echo crawls along beside her and trills lowly, signaling their approach. 

a familiar voice makes the draconic bat settle back down. it shuffles its wings in agitation and looks peculiarly at freya's partner. freya clicks her tongue and echo hops up onto a rock, head on the swivel, tail fanning teasingly in front of the other dragon. 

"don't cause trouble," freya chides and ducks into the tent. she smiles as greyson pushes brazenly through any pleasantries. 

"conners." she peers over the map and raises a hand, dragging her finger along their nearby coast. "this area's been removed of all rockets." her lips twinge. "they've shifted north to the north and south, but my dragons at least have this part of the island under control."

Greyson Connors

☉

the smile wanes. "i don't want a repeat of what happened in dewford. we can't let them win this time." 

she follows his gaze to the crudely drawn outline of the mist. the winds weren't that bad, but they have maybe an hour to mobilize an evacuation. which will be a waste of time. 

"then we'll have to overrun it with paradox pokemon." pokeballs sway at the turn of her hip, their dreamy blue capsules etched with the names of her roaring moons. "gear up, conners. the longer we dally, the closer they get. i'll follow you out."

Greyson Connors

☉

echo bares her back and freya mounts. triangular wings fling outward; her inherent levitation helps lift her from the ground. the noivern has to slow for them, but they cover distance quickly and it's not long before the rolling pink cloud of mist comes into view. 

seeing it like this, in broad daylight, unsettles her. seeing it out of the distorted realm makes it more real...reminds her of something else. 

the cloud ruptures. paradox pokemon rear their ugly heads and freya looks up, shooting greyson a wily grin before tossing four pokeballs around her. 

the roaring moon emerge and shake the air with the force of their roars. echo shivers involuntarily, but freya soothes her and then they dive. 

Greyson Connors

☉

freya is above them, calling shots. the mist skirts echo's toes. the paradox pokemon draw in their feathered wings and dive, one after the other, into the fray. there is the sound of ripping and snarling, explosive bursts from down below. 

echo's wings flutter quickly. a whistling sound reverberates around her, rippling over the mist, carrying commands laden in draconic from freya's own lips. 

the mist thickens, as though reacting to their assault. "oh, no you don't," she mutters and bellows for lathliss. the roaring moon claws back to the surface of the cloud, flaring glowing wings. heat radiates off of her in waves; her sunny day thins the mist, slowly penetrating it and allowing greyson and her dragons more visibility. 

"cailleach," she calls next and rejuvenated by the power of the sun, flames billow from her mouth towards scream tails, brute bonnets, and more. 

Greyson Connors

☉

the rest of her roaring moons react in kind. the thinning mist reveals their adversaries. some of their bodies are only half-formed, abominable things. rib bones, stark white against crimson, crash into the ground as malformed jaws twist in pain. 

this, she looks away from. 

to greyson, astride his noivern, ripping through his own foes. the snapping jaws of a mechanical hydreigon - iron jugulis, she remembers - narrowly miss the agile bat. locked into its target as it is, it does not notice the shape above it. 

echo and freya collide and metal shrieks as her claws rake down its side. dragon, rider, and adversary go tumbling down towards the ground. sharp rocks burst upward as they near - echo's earth meets their wounded foe, puncturing wing, foreleg, and one neck clean through. 

freya tosses her head back. that's one of greyson's tails down, but the other still follows him relentlessly. 

"i got this one," she calls up to him and whistles. melusine and lathliss converge on the writhing pseudodragon, a futuristic doppelganger, pinned beneath her. 

Greyson Connors

☉

they make quite the team. and this far removed from the rest of the league's encampments, she gets to witness the sheer, unadulterated strength of her roaring moon. they scour the skies, casting pink light on the fog below them. she exhales quickly out of reflex, but reminds herself, again, that this is just the dream mist.

infinity energy, not the ghosts of her past. 

she wipes sweat from her brow as his noivern and her dragons whisk away the rest of the mist. echo lends her back again and freya soars the short distance over to greyson, where her silhouette falls over his face. 

grinning down at him, she offers a hand. 

"we should team up more often. i think you and i could singlehandedly take down rocket."

Greyson Connors

☉

freya glows at the praise, grunting as she hauls greyson back up to his feet. she stares out at the roaring moons as they pick at the battlefield, teeth and claws stained with blood as they tear into their fresh kills. 

normally the heat of battle wanes rather quickly. the ache comes back over her bones and she is returned to her own spinning thoughts, but with someone beside her to appreciate what they've done, she does not lapse. 

echo hops around in the grass, relaxing her wings for the moment.

"i can spare a couple more salamence. i think i may still have some the rangers are used to. we can set up another base here. it's closer to the mountain, at least."

where teams, at this very moment, are attempting to claw their way into its center.

Greyson Connors

☉