Fee-Fee finally appeared to have noticed Chou-Chou's odd behavior. The Milotic was spending less time looking for treasure and more time circling the disguised Latias suspiciously.

Latias, for her part, seemed to think it was some sort of game. She looped around and up and under Fee-Fee a few times, tangling the poor Miltoic up in himself again and again while Locke tried to ignore the pair long enough to find something worthwhile.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

"Th-That's alright!" Locke tried to console his Aipom. "That was just a practice throw! Here-"

He handed Pom-Pom another ball.

"Try against this guy!"

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

"A real champ in the making!" At least, that was what an old battle announcer he used to watch would say about the young prodigy.

Locke gave the earth one final pat down to ensure the sapling was secure, then stood up and dusted the remaining dirt from his hands. "Sort of?" he continued as he made his way back to his bag. "There's this whole thing, with these charms-hang on, lemme find it."

After taking a moment to rifle through his things the courier produced a Pokéball and the Unusual Charm he'd found months ago. He passed the latter to Matias to inspect, and released his Piplup from the former.

"Give that a little squirt Pip-Pip," they gestured to the Gracidea before returning their full attention to the other man. "I got that back before the Soiree, after I spotted a weird yellow Pokémon in a garden I was working in. Trouble was I couldn't remember that's how I got it, cause of Uxie's whole-"

They made vague wavey motions around their head.

"Except I could remember, but only whenever I saw one of the charms given to someone by Mesprit. Turns out those had given a whole bunch of em away, while Azelf went around given people prophecies. But cause Mesprit did a similar thing to the people it gave its charm, nobody could really talk about." A slightly more concise summary than they'd been able to give angelo vestri, but in their defense they'd had a pretty stressful day then.

"But then back in January, Martín del Mar-he got visited by Azelf, so he could talk about and investigate this stuff unlike most of us-he got the bright idea to gather up as many of us as he could in one place! And when we did, the whole Lake Trio turned up too, and after they gave us all a buncha prophecies, suddenly we could remember and talk about all the stuff that'd happened so far."

Locke conveniently skipped the part where they, Martin, and Eris Halla all made trips to the emergency room afterwards, but their expression grew uncharacteristically grim as they continued. "Between that what me, Martin, and Eris remembered from when we met up in September…"

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke whooped as they landed their second trick, hugging Manta-Manta close during the small breather between waves.

"They'll only get easier from here, right? Let's keep going!"

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Surprisingly, Latias was just as fast in the water as she was in the air. It took all of Locke's strength to hold on to the dragon's back, disguised as his Lanturn as they combed the sea floor together.

Hopefully no one would notice the lack of light coming form her angler...

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Where Pokémon allowed? Apparently so if skyler dross's scruffy-looking Meowth could earn the captain another crown.

Locke fished around in their bag for one of their own Pokémon, summoning an Aipom who immediately lit up at the ball being handed to her. "Aim for that target there, Pom-Pom!"

The little monkey didn't need to be told twice, wrapping her tail around the ball and Flinging it as hard as she could.

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The attack connected, blasting the Shaymin into the air where it suddenly stopped, trapped mid-air by some Psychic aura conjured by Latios. Surprised, Locke turned to Angelo again in excitement. "I didn't know they could do that! Are they both psychic-types?" He called back to his own partner, "Latias! Is that misty thing a psychic move? Can you do it again?"

Latias preened under the postman's attention, chirping back with a smug look. Another Mist Ball formed in front of her, but a Seed Flare crashed into it before she could launch it, causing the sphere to explode in the dragon's face as she reeled back with a sour look.

"M-Maybe if they can't see you first?" they tentatively suggested to the pouting Legendary. Latias paused to consider it, then vanished from sight, the whipping wind of her departure the only sign of her having moved. Occasionally Locke could swear seeing a ripple of light skirting above the flowers, only for it to disappear in the blink of an eye.

At last Latias reappeared behind the Shaymin, invisibility fading as the refracting light was drawn upwards at her mouth before a final Mist Ball struck the pair of hedgehogs at close range.

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

He nodded. "If it was the real Uxie, then it'd make sense it showed up for me and Hideo Kino."

Doro-Doro snorted as she rejoined her trainer, leaving behind a plot of freshly-tilled dirt for Locke to use. Grateful, Locke retrieved a bowl from his bag and poured half the water in for the Mudsdale, taking a chug for himself before picking up the Gracidea again.

The planting process distracted them from Matias' gradually increasing interest, but not enough to stop them from absentmindedly answering the older man's question.

"Oh, well Hideo was there like I said, but I didn't really catch anybody else's names. They're probably all in the proper report if you can find it again."

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke watched the Seed Flare land, half-expecting it to burst into a portal like before-before remembering that had only been under special circumstances. It burst next to the Gracedias, protected only by Doro-Doro shielding the flowers with her body from the outer edge of the explosion.

Though it only grazed her, the Mudsale still reeled back from the blow-close enough to stepping on the blooms that her trainer was forced to hastily return her. "Even in this form they're pretty tough, huh?" Shaymin's power hadn't been much compared to the other Legendaries in the other world, but against normal everyday Pokémon…

"W-Well, let's do our best!"

De-De cheered and hopped forward, only to be intercepted by another flash of red and white. Latias hovered between the Delibird and the Shaymin, looking at Locke with an eager expression.

"Huh? You wanna fight? Is that really okay?" They looked over to Angelo, only turning back to the Eon Pokémon after getting their friend's consent. She flipped around to face the Shaymin alongside Locke, ready to begin a test of her own for the courier. "Alright Latias! Use-um…"

The dragon peeked back at them expectantly.

"…I don't actually know what moves you have."

Amusement brushed against the back of their mind as Latias returned her attention to the hedgehog. She raised her head for them to see-as if telling them to watch carefully. Light began to gather at her mouth, swirling into a rushing sphere of Mist that she launched in the Shaymin's direction.

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

The universe came crashing down to humble him once again, knocking the energized duo back to the bottom of the sea where they belonged.

Looked like they'd need a few more tries again...

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

He sighed, reaching out a hand for the invisible Latias to press into. "If ya wanted to play too ya coulda just said so..."

Fee-Fee's head stretched out of the water to stare at his trainer's odd behavior, before dropping his catch next to Locke and diving back in.

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

What kind of luck does a guy gotta have to end up with 37.5% winrate at a 50/50 chance huh?!

---

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz

Locke could only shrug. Theories like that were what got them mixed up with that trouble in Granite Cave in the first place.

"Went to the museum, found a weird lab in a another dimension-I think? Got out and attacked by a bunch of white-haired guys," he summarized, thinking for a bit before adding, "Also Uxie showed up to help, but I dunno if it was the real one or not? That bit was kinda hard to follow…Ah, they attacked everyone instead of just Avatars that time though, unless everyone was one and I just didn't know."

It was at least evidence that the assassins and their Unown weren't above targeting civilians, so maybe the Soiree had just been some kind of mix-up?

[attr="class","wizzcred"]❤ wizz