"yeah," she says, "i don't blame you." if anything, she should be the one to apologize to mico. she could have recognized him (though she'd seen him in brief flashes since his evolution, drunk on the terrifying lack of blood in her own body). she thumbs his ball thoughtfully and adds, "let's keep the fact that he was on the loose between us."

his cheeky grin isn't met with the same enthusiasm. there are other salamence, but none of them have resonated with her quite as well as she and lyune. ori comes closest, but when lyune lends his power, she feels his heartbeat. his flesh, his soul, is hers. 

"i can't. er, we can't. alex's crutch allows him to fly, but it's...strenuous. he still can't technically fly on his own." and so he has no power to lend, no wings of his own to bless her with. 

"let's head back," she says instead. "before they send out search parties for me."

Isaac Merlo

☉

it had saved her when she needed it most and then it had abandoned her while she bled out into tapu fini's waters. isaac had come shortly thereafter, yes, but it hadn't known. it couldn't have known, right? 

and why run?

she raises a hand and micolash cocks its head, but does not flit away. then comes the other hand, tugging the gauntlet off so she can place her palm against the dragon's bulbous hide. it recoils, only slightly, and then accepts her touch gently. 

"thank you. for saving me." she says it with a frown, still troubled by its departure and sudden reappearance. the blood along its front is also still cause for concern. what have you been up to?

after the last of its surface wounds close, courtesy of isaac, freya experimentally holds its ball out. half of her doesn't expect it to willingly go inside, but it does, and silence lingers when it's gone.

she shakes her head. "thanks. and thanks for reacting so quickly. don't think i've met this one before," she says, smiling at zephyrus. "those wings - i hadn't thought it possible."

a touch of envy colors her words.

Isaac Merlo

☉

lyune had watched that day, as interested as his mistress, when navy fought, soul to body, with shuwen against their stubborn dragon. maybe then, freya wonders, lyune had seen the bonded strings between them, those same ones that can be pulled into the physical realm and made real.

used, in the form of sygna suits.

navy takes a comfortable seat and she stays standing. a shift to her side is mimicked by lyune, their breaths synchronous in anticipation of the fight ahead. 

"not my style, but i've been called a hermit before," she says. 

Michael Navidson

☉

the venom isn't unfounded, but freya's all too curious why the words are steeped so thoroughly in acidity. she'd wondered the same of the others, and of the rest of the league. nomi's genuine demeanor hadn't swayed freya in totality, but so long as eva fights on her side...

there's little choice to be had. 

"maybe the drk triad will bite too," she says thoughtfully. 

and they'll end up spun into another reality or worse. 

"if there are things to be learned down here, we'll find her. and if we don't, they will."

PENELOPE LIVY

☉

this is a man who nearly died running from his past. who was saved, in his final hours, by a deity who deemed him worthy. she's never trusted the reasons the gods choose their worthy, but now she feels she watches him as suicune might have. 

this is not a final stand, but he fights with a tenacity swathed in gravitas. calcifer burns away the toxic projectiles, but he dare not get between isaac's david to the naganadel's goliath. 

the ultra beast chitters in its alien tongue and next isaac and luck & pluck advance, it dodges. zephyrus and calcifer are fast, but neither expect the venomous dragon to completely ignore its engagement and plummet toward them. 

not them. 

freya twists, fingers skipping over the hilt of her sword and to the empty ball on her belt. empty, but registered. and when she wrenches it free, the naganadel stops suddenly. its warbling sounds like laughter. 

"after all this time," she breathes, "and it's been down here?"

Isaac Merlo

☉

proper training or not, the roaring moon displays incredible control as it attacks the fallen gouging fire. the sweltering heat subsides and both she and june are left looking more or less like wet rats. she shakes out some of her hair with a grimace, raising a brow when she offers her a pokeball. 

it's knocked out. she can't just leave it if she's offering her the capsule like this. 
 
"first lesson's free," she says as she swipes it from her hand. 

june sleigh

☉

calcifer can't activate her sygna suit, but she can't worry about that right now. she's seen how fast these creatures are and besides, isaac is already leaping into action like some sun-blessed paladin. 

awe skitters over her as he sails, impossibly so, up and to the waiting beast. its eyes flash, head tilted, and when it slashes at the air where it expected isaac to be, she realizes it's not looking at him at all. 

it's looking at her. poison sprays towards her just as zephyrus' draco meteor rocks into its side. she fingers her cape, dragging it in front of her, but is spared the worst of the spray by calcifer. the charizard swoops down to take the brunt of the attack, maw dripping with angry fire. 

he spits back and the air turns smoky and sour. 

"this doesn't make sense," she seethes. "there are paradox pokemon, but i haven't seen any wormholes. they're - " how did it get here? recovering quickly, the ultra beast shakes its head and looses a thick, pulsing beam of draconic energy in a wide sweep. 

"isaac, watch out! cal, knock it down!" 

Isaac Merlo

☉

her lips curl. she's not good at jokes on the best of days and in the heat of the moment like this, mood soured after the rest of her time spent down here, she has to bite back the urge to um, actually when it comes to taming.

"don't worry about it. the draciary will be there if you want to stop by." she steps back a few paces and gestures for june to do the same. that oppressive heat returns dramatically as the pseudo-entei slams into the ground. 

lyune flares his wings from above, casting a shadow while slowing his descent. freya looks towards june's roaring moon and reaches for a pokeball at her belt, cursing when she realizes she doesn't have any left.

june sleigh

☉

ever since finding micolash, freya has been on edge around the naganadel. there are only so many hours in the day and her follow-up to the startling epiphany surrounding Yuina Higashi and her naganadel has been brought back to the forefront, though has consequently made her realize just how thin she's stretched herself.

so a small part of her is here for answers. petra is an added bonus - too many brilliant minds have abandoned hoenn and if one is so willing to come back to their ranks, in any capacity, she welcomes it with open arms.

"very," she says. her sygna suit is dormant, but it still adds a necessary layer of protection. 

the last time she was here, Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki was made a monster. 

she won't allow that to happen to anyone else.

"we think it's abandoned of megalopolans, but we can't be too careful. micolash should be able to steer us clear of any of its kin."

PETRA MONROE

34. allow a nihilego or poipole/naganadel that you own to guide you safely through the realm

☉

when the call comes, she mourns the loss of one of hoenn's best. only recently has she begun to cast aside any what if thoughts that try to needle her, but this one is not so easily discarded. if angelo and skyler hadn't left, would the seas have been so merciless? would this toxicity have spread?

the trainers around her are exhausted and some are worse off than others, faces who've no doubt answered every distress signal they could while she turned away to other duties, safely confined by four walls. 

her teeth grit. 

lyra's goo is dribbly. her life dew waters have been spent on some of the ailing, but now she squares off against the latias. some measure of trust must have been granted, as the latios pays them no mind save for a scant, frustrated wail. 

they don't fight this battle with fire and teeth and claws. lyra distracts, defending against blow after blow, viscous poison flinging about, while moxie slithers closer. when the dratini finds a moment, she strikes. her glittering scaled body wraps around the latias' arms; healing wish burns away scraps of the toxic chain. 

it breaks free all too quickly and freya catches moxie when she falls. 

POISON PATROL - LATIAS
+3 mochi

☉