"Nice to meet you both! Hello, Hikari!" The onesie-clad woman squatted on her knees, reaching out to pet the little fox, if allowed. Her ears perked up at Harley's question. "'Starting out'? Jalapeño is. He's fought some battles before, but this will be his first time coming into his own."

Their chit-chat was interrupted by two wild ones falling out of a tree, the brunette handily dealing with one of them. "I think that Gliscor was angry because it'd just woken up from its nap. They're nocturnal Pokémon, after all. They usually sleep by hanging from their tail too, so if they fall off by accident, they end up hitting their head." Andrea mused, while watching the Tangela scurry away.

HARLEY VALLA //skipping

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With each scenario Josh came up with, his costumed friend grew increasingly horrified. "S-stop that, you're scarying me!" If the rulers of time and space were truly capable of such reality-breaking feats, what did it mean for the future of 820 now that illeana reyes was in kahoots with one of them?

"There have to be ways to use their powers without hurting anyone, right?" The dragon fanatic sat on top of an ancient slab of stone, the soles of her feet touching each other. "Besides, the fact that Palkia chose an avatar in the first place means that they still seek human companionship just like all other Pokémon. It's kinda sad when you think about it... If those old Sinnoh tales are true, they're two of the oldest beings in the universe, which means they probably spent millions of years being alone."

Josh Devlin //mission thread

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"Every Pokémon has a little something that makes it awesome. Legendaries take those qualities of regular Pokémon and make them even awesomer!" The eccentric trainer remarked. When viewed from that angle, Raikou was just a cooler, faster Manectric, while Groudon was just a bulkier Rhydon. "If you keep treating them as gods instead of living beings, how do you expect them to want to be your friend?"

That was perhaps a topic to elaborate on another day, when Josh wasn't so emotionally charged. For the time being, they both needed some time to process everything they had learned from the latest simulation. "Who knows, maybe we'll meet the real Koraidon someday..." Andrea wistfully mused.

Josh Devlin

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"Get ready, she's gonna attack us." Andrea warned her fellow trainer, a hand reaching for Chomper's Pokéball. "She has one of those purple chains that make people go berserk." That was where Jello came in. Would Nihilego's alien toxins be able to undo the Toxic Chain's enthrallment? Only one way to find out.

Curiously, when the tiny ogre was unmasked, there was no Toxic Chain to be seen. Zero, nada. "W-what?!" The dragon-hooded girl stared in disbelief at the tangerine-colored visage before them. "She's... cute!" And shy too, trying to cover its face while blushing. There wasn't a single berserk bone in that creature's body.

Unfortunately, the locals thought otherwise...

"I-it's the Oni!"

"Die, Oni!"

"Leave this place!"

The prejudiced crowd started cursing and heckling, throwing sticks, random trash, and even rocks at the poor, defenseless ogre. One of those rocks almost hit the creature in the head, but Andrea's Nidoking caught it in the air at the last second.

"What's the matter with you people?! Can't you see she's harmless?!" The young cosplayer yelled angrily at the mob, gritting her teeth until her gums turned white. No matter the excuse, trying to kill an innocent Pokémon was unforgivable.

The scenery glitched out, the crowd's bigoted cries growing more and more distant. As the simulation neared its end, the last thing they saw would be the ogre picking its mask off the ground, and running away with globs of tears in its big, yellow eyes.

Yuina Higashi

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One could argue that Andrea's dream was even more impossible. At least with Josh's dream, people had been deemed worthy by legendaries in the past, so they knew it could be done, but was mostly up to each deity's whims. Outside of folktales of questionable validity, no human in history had ever transformed into a Pokémon. Not that it stopped her from dreaming, of course.

"Yeah, I've seen Shalin's Sygna Suit." The dragon-costumed girl nodded. "She's not using it to feel more like a Pokémon, though. She's using it to be able to survive her own Pokémon's abilities." Anyone who thought Flygon's wings made for a comfortable seat deserved to be commited into a mental institution, but that was Shalin Nariya for you; always the thrill seeker and adrenaline junkie.

Eventually, the two trainers and their scaly caravan reached the peak of Mount Coronet. Above the clouds, bathed by a golden, blazing sun, stood one of the last surviving monuments left behind by the Celestica people--the Spear Pillar.

Upon touchdown, Andrea backflipped off Josh's Dragonite, taking a moment to fully take in their surroundings. "Whoa... This place looks beyond ancient! I can see where it got its name from." She observed, noting the sharp, pointy spires that reached towards the heavens. "It was probably built for the same reason every temple exists: To worship a god. Dialga or Palkia, if I had to guess--maybe both!"

Josh Devlin //mission thread

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One unforgettable (and nearly fatal) ride later, the racing-obsessed youth hugged Koraidon with tears of joy in his eyes, thanking the ancient beast for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With Andrea soon joining the fray, it became a wholesome group hug. "Thank you, Kora, for making Josh smile!" The PokéManiac added.

"Agias!" Kora responded by once again licking both their faces like an oversized dog. The paradoxical, past Cyclizar did not look weary in the slightest from the run, almost as if having just taken the two humans through a leisurely tour of its mysterious home.

Josh's entire dilemma of choosing Koraidon over Raikou as his new end goal seemed like a no-brainer to his costumed friend, who always preferred the simplest solutions to life's problems. "You're allowed to love both, Josh." Andrea gently placed a hand on the conflicted Gym Leader's shoulder. "Does kyle lopez's friendship with Ho-Oh, or Eva Morales' friendship with Lord Rayquaza, prevent them from caring about other Pokémon? Why should it prevent you?"

Josh Devlin

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