It had been a long time since Angelo had been Mantine surfing with Nereid. Longer still, since he'd had the dream that had nudged him towards the activity, coasting and defying gravity on sun dappled waves.

Participating in Mantine Surfing was a reprieve from the hustle and bustle that had become his life. Although there's no doubt simply being in attendance would be good for business.  

“Okay, Nereid. Shake off that rust.” Angelo gives his Mantine an encouraging pat on the head, before smoothly rising to stand. As if the art of balance had never left. “How about a Starmie 720 to warm up?”

(It was the Wingull that was snoring, Johanna Joy ! Obviously!)

Angelo's head hits the pillow long after many of his fellow Pinkan Island adventurers have crawled to their tents, and is one of the first to emerge in the morning. After years spent getting up at the first light of dawn, routine is not about to be broken.

He's drinking a coffee outside with whatever other early birds are in attendance, when Zinnia and the captain unleash their alarm.

“And when're we scheduled time to explore the island?” He asks Zinnia with a lopsided smile, scooping up an equisitive pink Joltik puff in his palm. Shameless in his desires and his nudging as he tickles the little bug with an index finger. “If you're worried about me making a mess, I could go for a guided tour.”

If he doesn't get it soon, Angelo would be very tempted to wonder off alone. Maybe when everyone is busy with their chores...

First things first, he'd have to at least do some work. Even if it's just for a little while.

Angelo picks the game trail.

Orion bounds towards one of the trees blocking the path, teeth CRUNCHING into a long, thin branch with a crackling of bark beneath the pressure. As the pilot hefts a chunky log onto a broad shoulder with a grunt, his energetic canine takes off, lumbering with her... lumber. 

“Orion! Shit - hey, Dragon girl! Behind you!”

Poor ol' Andrea Vaneau had better watch her legs. There's an excited dog with a comically long stick on the loose!



notes;

- when do we get the full tour, zinnia? i can go alone if you're too busy no problemo
- clearing the game trail
- LYCANROC is 'helping'

Trailed by a hitchhiker flame, Angelo makes for the next island undeterred. No matter its whispered timbre shadowing him, following the north star in the Soul Dew remains the pilot's resolute priority.

It's become routine now. As soon as Angelo lands his seaplane upon merciful tides, feet splashing through the shallows to venture into the island's depths, his eyes are keenly lured towards discovering remnants of memories.

Blue meets blue after a short walk. As if they were both seeking one another, the wisp overtakes his vision eagerly and with his treasure found, Angelo welcomes it.

Pain rushes to greet him in a crunching handshake.

Locked in the memory's grip, agony blooms as the islanders fixate the blame of their circumstances on them - him - with blind bloodlust. Unleashing arrows and mortar, fear and wrath, as a familiar reflection determinedly races towards the devouring mouth of the sea.

It's seeing his host try so hard however, guided by the burning compassion to save them all, that breaks Angelo's heart most.

Even if he'd been met with nothing but contempt and brutality, Latios tries. Oh, he tries.

For them, he even risks a precious piece of himself.

(Angelo doesn't need to relive his memories, to understand with nostalgic familiarity, why he'd be compelled to do so.)

Between outstretched claws, Latios brings forth his soul and Angelo feels his breath still in anticipation, daring to hope, as hungry tides begin to calm against the Eon pokémon's will.

Their next breath never comes. Hope choking on a pool of blood, gathering in a pierced throat.

Cold, they turn to face their slayer. Only there's no anger as they meet Marno's frightful expression. He's just a young, scared boy, powerlessly clutching his bow in the looming shadow of death.

There's just crushing sadness.

He fought. He'd fought for them. Until his soul couldn't give any more. Angelo feels the legendary's resolve die like a doused flame, gravity taking them down.

Letting that hungry sea take them, also.

At least, beneath the tempestuous calamity that rages on the surface, the ocean deep is quiet...

Peaceful...

And so together, they fade...

...

“Latios!”

Breath painfully frantic and desperate, starved, Angelo wakes up collapsed on his knees. Drowned senses suddenly awaking with overwhelming clarity, bringing him back to a once doomed island now thriving and at rest.

Salt touches his lips still. Tears having pooled and cascaded over, long before he'd awoken in his grief.

Quickly pushing them away with the heel of his palm, Angelo watches transfixed as from his hand, the Soul Dew cries, too.

Watches as from his palm, his blood and sweat and tears, Latios is reborn. Latias's joyful chime at her brother returning to them, is worth every long, navigated course they'd taken on their journey.

Angelo meets both with open arms.

“We did it, Latias. We did it.” Comes the wet, muffled laugh into feathers as the pilot clutches at the Eon duo's necks, the three of them embracing one another in celebration. Clinging tight, as if gripping onto a weightless dream.

“About time,” he eventually lets out on trembled breath, damp eyes dried beneath the warmth of a heartfelt smile as hands frame the dragons face. “We've been waiting for you to wake up. Didn't know you'd be such a heavy sleeper.”

Deep beneath the surface as their foreheads touch, an intangible but brilliant, inexplainable thread intertwines their souls.

It doesn't matter if it has a name yet.

For now, there's no contemplation about the flame that makes itself a home in the Soul Dew shell.

For now, there's no sadness over Latias's eventual departure down a path of her own choosing.

All that matters in that moment, is that the three of them are together.

A family found.

---

prompt: Locke Jamison has been chosen
prompt: conflict one, two, three (2/3 rocket)
prompt: discuss the red flame

“Shit. Hold on!”

Through the chaos of screams and lunging, clawed fingers, Angelo's voice barks out unwavering. Leaving the thundering of his heart a concert for one, stuttering in his ears.

Arms snatch around Locke Jamison's chest, just as a pair of gnashing teeth leap up towards the arm that had launched out of the screen.

“Good job, snappy! Don't let go!” He praises Isaac Merlo's Totodile, teeth grit together in a similar fashion as he yanks at the postman.

Midge, meanwhile, sneaks away from Angelo's shoulder. The little THIEF looking to stick a tiny, sticky paw in digital Locke's pockets.

Everything in the background is a whirlwind of noise and chaos. Even though the Porygon had appeared to cease in their indiscriminatory fire, other members of the large group continued to run.

Every man for themselves had kicked in.

Too preoccupied to look at the notification that blinks in the corner of his eye, Angelo calls to skyler dross.

“You get the honours! Which way are we going?” Although he words it as if a favour had been teasingly bestowed, the motivation behind the nod to take action is one Angelo has no doubt his wife shares:

they sure as hell weren't going to be last.



notes;

- with skyler dross and Locke Jamison
- helping locke
- ribombee uses THIEF on digi!locke
- totodile are the best
- will be going to TERMINAL 01

Only skyler dross would call him a 'fuckin' idiot' in the middle of an apocalypse and make it sound like a confession, uttered like secrets. In the midst of calamity, for a soft stolen moment as his wounds uncomfortably stitch together, Angelo dares to chuckle.

“Just figured that one out? And I'm the idiot?”

Light draws his attention then.

Hundreds of bioluminescent stars fall from the inky void that is now the sky, creating icy blue contrails. All of them gather towards a single point up high, where a familiar figure holds a north star between its outstretched claws.

From Latios's chest a sphere emerges, glowing ghostly hues and energy pulsing out like waves, escaping the orbit.

Angelo had seen something like this before, long ago, in a memory. Only this time, as Latios unleashes the power of his soul, he's not alone.



Hundreds. Thousands. Countless glassy, translucent shapes join him. Past Latios who's spirits live on, gather towards their successor.

With their own power they feed into his Latios's assault, enhancing it with the souls of eon's past to greater and brighter reaches.

One half of a 1,000,000,000 YEAR BOND, crashing towards Necrozma in a pillar of light.



Awe disappears down Angelo's spine like a frigid bead of water had slipped beneath fabric, when his gaze diverts just ever so to the side.

“Skyler.”

Fingers follow a deceptively calm breath, tightening the link between them on a newly iridescent arm, as the woman cited stares near drowned with ghostly greys. Consumed beneath a looming shadow.

Raindrops can wash away blood, but dread is a cast stone.

And the ripples had long been stirred on days past.

“Hey. Wake up, sunshine. This isn't over yet.”

This isn't over yet.

tldr;

- latias is with Locke Jamison (pooka controlling)
- latios is MEGA EVOLVED (2/3)
- latios uses 1/2 of 1,000,000,000 YEAR BOND
- wake up loser, you're not a whale yet
- pooka is a graphic genius LOOK AT THESE

Gravity sinks its claws in.

No matter how much Angelo has cheated and evaded its constant pull, he's at its mercy now. Poison tainting whatever blood still remains in his body, numbing rebellious wills and eroding 'catch me if you can' smiles.

He's too weak, cold, to fight it. Perhaps this was the earth's retribution for him laughing in its face.

Vision spinning, tornado swept, the pilot slumps. Blurry eyes catching sight of Ankaa and Shrike crumbling to the ground, their opponents flooring them with fire and psychic.

With failure his final coherent thought, he'd like to think he'd have done something, if only his awareness wasn't threatening to drift away like a balloon on the wind.

Latios is his only tether.

He doesn't leave his side. Hadn't really, not since a lost soul had found its way into warm palms under a canopy of hopeful stars, one February night last year.

Wouldn't, when the one he'd entrusted had journeyed to the ends of the earth to piece him back together. Intertwining their souls together in the process.

Now, Latios was the one who was going to save him.

Ever so gently, gingerly as if their pain was one, the dragon nudges the bloodied man beneath his body.

Now that their main threat had fled, Latios hoists his partner onto his back and rises, ruby eyes burning towards the rest.

An authoritative roar is a signal and command in one.

It was time for this to end.

Ankaa is the first to push herself from the ground with a stern flap of wings, blood and dirt muddying her angelic feathers as she barrels towards the Gardevoir with sudden EXTREMESPEED.

The Togekiss leaping into battle first sees smoke billowing from the white drake's nostrils. Ever the bull-headed, competitive one, purple wisps of DRAGON PULSE furl from between her blood-stained fangs. Shrike snapping her head up towards her charcoal counterpart's belly, from where it had knocked her down.   

Last of all comes the smallest of them, the two Dreepy that had sheltered in Angelo's jacket braving the battle again.

Like an arrow, Blinky launches himself towards the intimidating shadow of the Aegislash with a SUCKER PUNCH, tiny and furious while Inky presses against her trainer's neck wound with a concerned warble. 

Their battle prowess may not be honed sharp and mercilessly drilled, but all of them fight until their last to see Angelo safely home.

“Thank you...”

notes;

- charizard and togekiss are hurt
- latios rallys the troops
- charizard uses dragon pulse on charizard
- togekiss uses extremespeed on gardevoir
- dreepy uses sucker punch on aegislash
- angelo sleepy time

“Sure. As you do.” Comes his response, without missing a beat. Sounding less sarcastic and more so amused by how casually the subject had been dropped, the corner of Angelo's mouth twitching into a smile he can't quite contain. “Nothing like taking part in a doppelgänger tournament on a Friday night. Glad you made it out.”

Much like Locke Jamison, Angelo was often guilty of attempting to lighten the mood. This situation was no exception.

It hides a flicker of concern as he listens to Locke's brief story about the blue Latias, a puzzle piece clicking into place in his head. Being sent to an alternative universe was not a common pastime, even though he'd somehow crossed the border twice at this point...

“Sounds like you saw a Latios while you were there.” Said legendary's sister leans into the scratches as Angelo talks, enjoying the attention. “They're usually siblings, the blue one is Latios - Latias's brother. Back in Alto Mare, the pair of them are seen as guardians. Protected our island a long time ago.”

Which would explain why he knows about them.

But that didn't seem important in the wake of Locke revealing where - or rather, how - he'd seen the eon pokémon.

“Y'know, as someone who's had experience being unjustly tricked into going to an alternative universe,” carefully, Angelo picks himself around the admission he had yet to share, throwing them a line of solidarity. “I'm all ears if you ever want to talk about it, Locke.”

Angelo's own venture with Father Winter still sat heavy on his mind, although his burdens were more self-reflective, than anything else... But that hadn't made it easier to talk about.

“Help has arrived.”

True to word, Angelo appears not long after his message pings across to its recipient. Sliding off the back of a Salamence, slinging his pack over one shoulder as the dragon is returned. 

“Hey. Did you manage to fend De-De off?” Striding over, Angelo brings a hand atop the Delibird's head for a quick ruffle, clearly not really put out. He'd had the sense to provide some food for the picnic, too.

After the events of the Darkest Day, putting them together in the kitchen with Sammy had been a slice of peaceful, mundane life he'd missed.

“Oh. We've got some tag-alongs. Hope that's not a problem,” not looking too shameful for springing this on poor ol' Locke, he whistles a distinct tune into the verdant canopy.

When it's revealed who exactly Angelo was meeting up with, two shapes shed their invisible guises, shimmering feathers catching the sun as they descend.

Delighted, Latias beelines towards where the postman waited, chirping in greeting.

Latios, unlike his sister, stays back some distance from the picnic site. Although he does give Locke a slow blink in acknowledgement, head tilting towards them in quiet greeting.

Angelo smiles privately to himself. Unbeknownst to his friend, Latios wasn't much of a people person.

The significance behind the gesture is bittersweet for the pilot.

He's more than happy to oblige the request for more, fingertips scratching paths upon lovingly traversed skin where he knows she likes. Seeing Skyler greedily arch into the trail of his touch, was satisfaction in itself.

Angelo would have been happy to leave it at that, to drown out the past with the anticipation of fingers debating whether to dip beneath his waistband, had the glint of steel not caught him.

His deceptively featherlight advance up the back of her neck, ready to ensnare blonde curls taut, stills.

Thin threads of intertwining tension unravel as they shift but Angelo doesn't mourn its departure. Welcoming his wife illuminated by soft moonglow, returning her faint kiss, with seeing her hair gently brushed back behind her ear.   

"…"

Anticipation shudders in his ribcage of a different sort, silence weighing heavy.

Giving voice to troubles of his own had never been Angelo's forte. It would be so much easier to bury curiosity with his lips unto hers - with a lie.

But in the end, Angelo finds no reason for him to do so. After so many silent chasms between them lately, he didn't want to squander the opening she'd presented.

Even if navigating through the thick air between them was hard, he tells himself he'd weathered worse.

"Do you remember when I was looking into islands that are inaccessible for a client?" He traces the shell of Skyler's ear in absentminded restlessness. "I flew past one of them on the way home, saw something getting through. Must've been a pokémon but... It was weird. I've never seen anything like it before."

...

"Anyway, I followed it." Because of course he did.

For a (technical) Johtonian, Angelo's travel credentials of the region were shamefully slim. His only recollection of venturing to the mainland from his small, island city had been an educational school trip when he was around ten years old to Cherrygrove City. His memories blurry, aside from the swirling rain of pink blossom petals and daring his friends to poke a Beedrills nest in the middle of the spring festivities.

Seeing the rolling landscape roll by beyond the barrier of a car window, suspended in an oak coloured time period, so distinct from Hoenn and Alto Mare, was a true test of strength for the man fuelled by wanderlust.

Angelo had to remind himself that this trip wasn't for himself.

So it's when Rowan Wrynn nudges him with an announcement of their arrival, he's all but ready to go.  

“Thanks,” he casually calls to the driver as they depart without looking back, Angelo already absorbed in soaking up his time-locked surroundings as he throws his backpack over his shoulder.

“Nice to hear Ecruteak's naming conventions are on the nose,” finding the Burned Tower, it turns out, would not be much of a search. Even though Angelo smiles and gives Rowan a beckoning tilt of his head, it's a silent shame.

He'd have to scratch the exploration itch later.

“Yeah. What about you? Ready?”

Ready to see if we can find your elusive friend, is what he means with a private smile.