[IC] A Trainers Ambition [SporkoBug and Calle]

[SporkoBug]

Soul opened his eyes as Penalopy got off him before he seemed to settle when she returned.
"They are almost here." Soul mumbled quietly, swaying his tail. "The Arcanines went after them not too long ago."
He lifted his head up slowly, his ears flicked softly.

Gavin smiled and moved his hand slightly closer to Mindy, "I... think there's a... p-prettier flower around though." He weakly said, his face flushed red before he dropped his hand and moved to cover his face. "I'm sorry that was stupid."
Fez watched with a grin before he frowned at Gavin's flaking. "OH COME ON YOU WERE SO CLOSE!" He yelled out.

Niccia glanced back at Michael as he called out her name but kept running along. She got to the back of the Pokecenter before she looked around excitedly, she noticed Gavin and Mindy but paid them no mind, seeing James she sped over and lifted him up happily and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"James!" She coo'd in her Pokemon language, spinning him around before she stopped. "Where's Pen?"

Li looked towards Bear as he didn't seem to move ahead. His tail swayed slightly but he kept his eyes on Michael before scanning the area. He slowed a little and perked himself up, trying to pick up on any sound he could.

---

Frosiien leaned against the table as Andy left, her eyes on him as he walked to the counter.
"FROSIIEN." Mitch suddenly yelled, calling his Legendary back to the current time. She looked at him with a furrowed brow.
"what." She asked coldly.
"You can't be falling in love with a Human! What would your father say?" Mitch huffed.

Varina watched the other two before she looked to Kim, still confused. "I don't understand what's going on." She started, almost scared.

[Loksfjoer]

Mindy blushed when Gavin stuttered his line, did he just... compare her to a pretty flower? That was... the loveliest thing anyone had ever said to her. The moment broke when Gavin covered his face. "It wasn't..." Mindy muttered.

Mabel looked at Fez. "I appreciate you are trying to help them, but have a little patience. I'm sure they will get there, at their own pace." Being taller than the others she noticed Niccia first and turned to the small Pokémon with her. "Niccia is back," she told them.

James wasn't prepared to be picked up and spun around and looked more afraid than anything else at first, but he quickly regained his composure and pointed to Soul. "She's there, miss Niccia," he said politely.
But he had barely spoken the words when Penalopy revealed herself and almost slammed into Niccia. "You are here!" she said, grabbing Niccia's face with her hands. "But you aren't pink and small. Why aren't you pink and small?"

Michael reached the Pokémon Center not long after Niccia, and Bear followed Michael. He saw the Meloetta, and Mindy and Gavin were sitting together on a bench, both looking very awkward. Maybe it was a good thing his uncle wasn't here yet...

---

Kim turned to Varina. "I can only say that it looks like Andy and Frosiien are interested in each other," she whispered to her, "they were flirting as humans call it. And apparently Mitch doesn't think it's a good idea."

Andy paid for their consumptions and turned back to the table to see if everyone was ready to leave. Frosiien looked beautiful, even from a little distance. Maybe he had to think about the implications of pursuing this, but then again, she was in a human form now.
When he reached the table he moved to pick up Varina. "Everyone ready?" he asked.

[SporkoBug]

Fez looked to Mabel as she spoke about being patient. He nodded slightly, "Right. Patience." He said before he waved to Michael and Niccia as they returned.
Gavin pulled his hands from his face when Mindy spoke to him, a small smile on his face before he looked over to Michael and Niccia.

"Penny~" She said happily as she gently places James on her shoulder before she gently wrapped her arms around Penalopy. "I've missed you!" She said before she frowned, "Arceus Turned me Human." She said solemnly, "It's to keep me safe from Darkrai."
Soul looked to Benny with a gentle nod, "Welcome back." He started, "How was it?"

---

Varina looked to Kim and have a hesitant nod before Andy picked her up. She let out a small squeak before she looked back to Andy with a smile.
"Oh!" She said as she realized it was her new trainer.

Frosiien stood slowly, moving to lift Mitch up with her. "Mitch and I are ready." She said with a gentle smile, "Thank you so much again for buying me lunch." She said politely, "I have to pay you back sometime." She said with a wink towards Andy.
Mitch facewinged in response.

[Loksfjoer]

Michael went to Gavin and Mindy, but he looked at Niccia greeting the Meloetta.
"How was the gym?" Mindy asked.
"We won." He lowered Lytse to the ground and took Marie from his shoulder. "We saw a Dunsparce in the gym too, it knew a nasty Rollout. But if you ever go to the gym, watch out for the Miltank. That one was hard to defeat."
Mindy took her Dunsparce back from Michael. "I will keep it in mind," she said.

Benny flew over to Soul. "They did great! They worked together well and defeated all the Pokémon of the gym leader. Niccia has some strong Pokémon and Michael may need to train a bit more with his, but he was good."
He landed next to the Absol. "Was everything okay here? The Arcanines came with disturbing news."

Penalopy scowled at the mention of Darkrai. "That meanie," she sighed. "But we are together again! We should..." She noticed Michael. "Ohhh! Is he the Michael Soul mentioned? The guy you fell for? He is cute!"

---

Andy grinned at Frosiien's remark and went to the door with the Keystone of Varina under his arm. Kim followed him outside and they waited for Frosiien to join them before walking back to the Center.
"Are you close with the other legendary Pokémon?" Andy asked her.

[SporkoBug]

Gavins' face was deep red and he looked away when Michael headed over. He stayed quiet as he listened, he looked over to Penalopy and Niccia with a tilt of his head.
Soul looked down to Benny as he rested, "I haven't seen any." He said quietly, "Bar my brother earlier, but that was before the Gym. I haven't seen any Mightyena's yet." He looked towards Michael and trailed his eyes to Niccia then over to Li, who was still a bit away from the group.

Niccia smiled towards Penalopy before she looked over to Michael, her face flushing almost the same pink as her fur colour.
"Yes, that's Michael." She said, "He's more than cute, he's amazing. I love him." She said quietly.

---

Li was away from the group, his head upwards into the air as he listened, his ears twitching slowly.
"Come out." He snarled as he looked around, he could hear a heartbeat but he couldn't see anyone. "I know you're there."
His eyes slowly moved to the shadows of the pokecenter. Li lowered his head and bared his teeth, feeling anger rattle through his bones and slight-scaled skin.

The pair of yellow and red eyes watched Li closely, looking towards the group before looking back to Li. The figure didn't move, only watching for a moment before looking up to the sky and seeming to disappeared.

---

Varina cozied down into her keystone as Andy carried her. She was enjoying this, she could definitely get used to it at this point.
Due to her being comfortable, the aura around her was claiming, as it slowly leaked out and around her.
Frosiien gave a small shrug to Andy's question. "It would depend on how you would define 'close'." She started slowly, thinking of her words carefully, "Of course there are my brothers, Prezzleflame and Thunderk, Moltres and Zapdos respectively."

"Then there's my mother," Frosiien sighed happily, "Nyari, Or as you know her- Lugia. Of course there are the Beasts... We get along but we're not exactly close." She pondered to herself with what he asked her. She hadn't really thought of exactly who she was close with.

[Loksfjoer]

"Yes," Meloetta whispered. "But have you seen that Cyndaquil? Now that is a cutie." She paused, floating in the air as she watched Michael and his companion. "I'm going to greet him!" She floated to him without waiting for an answer of Niccia, or anyone else for that matter, and almost collided with Michael, going around him just in time and she grabbed his face with her two arms. "You have nice eyes, I see why Niccia likes you~"
"T-thanks..." Michael said, unsure what more he could say about that.

Benny nodded as he watched the Meloetta holding Michael's face. What he wanted more was to go and find Andy, but someone had to stay with Bear. Even though he had his temper under control these days, there were always things that could make him lose control.
He looked at Li, the Pokémon looked around as if searching for something. Maybe he would have to check with him, but he decided to keep an eye on the situation from here. With his Compound Eyes he could see very clear.

---

Andy nodded as Frosiien spoke. "With "'close' I mean that you spend time with them, that you like spending time with them, and that there is a mutual trust or a form of caring." He hoped he would get close to Frosiien too, he definitely liked spending time with her, but it was too soon to establish the mutual trust or a form of caring.

Kim followed after Andy, listening to their conversation. She had her eyes on the keystone, where Varina was staying.

[SporkoBug]

Niccia gave a gentle smile towards Penalopy. She stepped towards Michael and stood beside him with a gentle smile.
"Michael, this is Penalopy." She started politely, "I'm sorry that she's so... forward." She said with a chuckle. "She's a very old friend."

Li glanced to Benny as he felt more eyes on him, before he returned his eyes towards the shadows with a low rumble. He stepped towards the group after a moment, his tail swaying slowly. He moved over towards Benny and settled down beside him without a word.
He waited for a moment, keeping an eye on everything before he opened his maw to speak.
"I saw something in the shadows." He stated quietly.

---

Frosiien gave a gentle smile towards Andy as he explained things.
"Well, Of course I'm close to the boys and my mother." She started, "I trust Arceus but I don't hang out with him a lot. We have the cousins from overseas but we don't see them often." She gave almost a shudder before she smiled, "All Legendaries tend to have a mutual trust but there are others that we hang out with, but we tend not too."
Frosiien smiled happily as she spoke, thinking to herself quietly, "We often speak to Ho-Oh, The beasts we see on occasion."

Varina listened to the conversation, slowly slipping out of her keystone to look down at Kim with a gentle smile.

[Loksfjoer]

"It's nice to meet you," Michael said.
"It is, isn't it?. You take good care of Niccia, you hear? I will lift you up by your ears and throw you in the sea if you hurt her."
"Okay," Michael replied. "I will keep that in mind." A smile broke through. "It's good to see Niccia has such a good friend." He turned to Niccia. "Right?"

Benny nodded to Li, turning his face to the shadows. Right now he didn't spot anything, but he believed Li had seen something. Maybe it was worth keeping an eye on. With everything that had happened so far, it was better to be safe than sorry.

---

"I see," Andy said. "Sound like family. Or colleagues at work. There are always some you like to hang out with, others you'd prefer to ignore. And there are those you only see once a year." He looked at Varina as she poked her head out of the keystone. "Have you been in contact with Niccia or Gavin lately? My nephew crossed their path and now they're travelling together." He had a smile on his face. "I guess enjoying the company of a legendary Pokémon in human form runs in the family, but I'm certain I met the prettier one."

Kim returned the smile when she saw Varina, but looked at Andy when she heard his final sentence and sighed.

[SporkoBug]

Niccia's face flushed a deep red when Penalopy threatened Michael.
"Penny please!" She said with a wave of her hands, "He's a great guy. He loves me, I would never intentionally hurt me." She smiled before she paused, "Where... Is your sister?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

Li watched everywhere he could, he tucked himself down so his wings were tucked around his body and his legs, his tail draping around the outside, making him seem a lot smaller than he really is.
Another moment of silence passed, "It wasn't Darkrai." Li suddenly spoke, not looking towards Benny, but it was obviously directed to Benny. "I don't know who it was, but it wasn't him."

---

Frosiien nodded, "Yes, More like family." She said with a gentle smile, when Andy mentioned about Niccia or Gavin a frown appeared over her lips.
"Sadly no, Niccia was always in hiding and Gavin was... Never really talkative when I was back in Kanto." She started, Before she was visibly surprised at the mention of Gavin travelling with someone. "Oh? Gavin is travelling with humans? Interesting. Last I heard of him he was in Alola."

Varina looked up to Andy as he seemed to continue flirting with Frosiien and then looked back to Kim as she heard her sigh. She frowned slightly, was this not normal? Was this not good?

[Loksfjoer]

Penalopy turned to Niccia and thought about it. "You know... I have no idea~" She giggled softly. "The last time we saw each other... it was a sunny day, in a meadow. Lovely flowers. Yellow and purple. We sang and we danced~" She hummed a gentle melody as she danced on the grass. "But that was... I don't know, could be last week, could be last year~" She giggled again. "Who keeps track of time, right? Except for humans, they seem fascinated by it! They hang time on their walls and everything!" She floated up to face Michael. "You have to tell me what your fascination with time is!"
"In short," James said to Niccia when it was clear Penalopy had gotten sidetracked again, "we do not know where miss Anylia went to, she didn't say."

Michael blinked at the question. "Erm... we... erm..." he sighed, scratching the back of his head as he thought about how to answer that question. His uncle would probably be able to come up with an answer on the spot. Penalopy staring at him didn't help to find an answer to the question either. "Maybe you should ask my uncle..." he said.
"And who is that?"
"He's on his way, he'll be here soon."
Penalopy nodded. "I will wait for the uncle then," she said.

Benny nodded. "That is good." He glanced at Michael. "Michael has been taken by him before. Do you reckon he is at risk of being a target again because he managed to slip away from Darkrai twice?" If this had become a matter of pride for Darkrai, it would be a problem.

---

"Gavin still isn't really talkative," Andy said. "But he's a good guy. I like hanging out with him." He checked his phone again; Michael hadn't sent anything new after his last text, but he knew his nephew wouldn't send a text like that without good reason.
He turned into the street that led to the Pokémon Center, the long road gave a good view of the building ahead of them. He didn't see any familiar Pokémon yet, but it was possible they were either inside or on that field behind the center.

[SporkoBug]

Niccia listened to Penalopy before she looked to James, the words that the Mime Jr. spoke caused her to frown.
She didn't listen to what Penalopy and Michael were on about, she knelt down in from of James as she listened. "And her guardian?" She asked, her tone suddenly serious as her ears drooped back.

Li swayed his tail as he listened to Benny's words.
"Its a difficult question." He rumbled as he moved to give a bit of a yawn, "He is with Niccia, and as he is close to her he will always be a target." He grimaced with a glance towards Benny. "He doesn't care how many times he takes someone. As long as they are in anyway helpful, he will take them."

---

Frosiien gave a small frown at his words before she nodded. "Of course." She said as she looked around.
Mitch followed quietly, keeping an eye out before he hesitated, looking into the shadows as he watched a pair of eyes watch him.

The eyes followed Frosiien before settling on Andy, narrowing slightly as he saw the keystone. The figure slowly lifted their hand and shot a small ball of shadow towards the stone to smack it out of Andys' hand.
The Keystone was hit square-on with the small shadowball; it fell and clattered against the ground with a bit of a bounce.
Varina popped out of her stone with a worried expression, who and why would someone attack her? was it someone from Darkrais' order??

[Loksfjoer]

"Her guardian was with her the last time we met," James said. "I assume they are still together." He turned to Penalopy, who lay on Soul's back again, burrowing into his fur with a happy smile. "Everything was well when we parted," he added, guessing Niccia would want to hear that.

Michael watched the Meloetta settle on Soul; she was probably one of the most forward Legendary Pokémon he had met so far. Since Niccia was talking with Mitch, Michael went to Gavin and Mindy. "Did you find what you need?" he asked them.

Benny nodded and looked at Michael. That meant he had to keep an eye on the boy whenever he was with him.

---

Suddenly the keystone fell out of Andy's hands, as if it were pushed. He quickly bent down to pick it up and looked around, but he couldn't see the culprit. "You okay, Varina?" he asked as he cautiously stepped back and then turned around to continue to the Pokémon Center. "Did you see who it was, Kim?" he asked his Furret.
Kim shook her head, but she looked worried, because she had seen it was a shadowball.
After a moment of contemplating he took Merlin's Pokéball and called the Noctowl to his side. "I hope you rested well. I need you to keep an eye on things from the air. Something happened and Kim looks worried."
"Someone shot a shadowball at Varina's keystone," Kim quickly filled him in.
Merlin nodded, glanced only briefly at Frosiien and lifted into the sky. "Go to the Pokémon Center," he told Kim. "I will guard your backs."
Kim took the lead and as she walked to the Pokémon Center at a quicker pace then before, she looked back to see if Andy was following her.
"I'm with you, princess," he said as he followed his Furret.

[SporkoBug]

Niccia gave a small nod at James words, "At least they're hopefully together." She said as she frowned, "I just hope they're safe." She turned her attention to Michael, Mindy and Gavin.

Gavin glanced up towards Michael, his face still deep red; "Y..Yeah." He stammered before nodding, "We found some pretty good clothes, We didn't run into much trouble either... Well, Penalopy and Dausiin found us."

Li flicked his tail before his ears pricked up, focusing on the sound of footsteps getting closer. He pulled himself up out of his loafing position before he saw Kim and Andy. He relaxed before he noticed Frosiien and Mitch.
"Andy has brought a friend." He stated towards Benny.

---

Frosiien followed Andy with a worried look on her face, she looked down to Mitch before she seemed to nod to him. Mitch stopped in his tracks and walked back to where Merlin was and readied himself.
Varina looked to Andy as he asked if she was okay and slunk into her keystone a little bit, indicating fear.

The figure who sent the shadowball watched Mitch and Merlin, watching Andy leave with a furrowed brow. They stepped out of the shadows and revealed themselves to the two bird Pokemon. It was Marshadow.

[Loksfjoer]

Andy followed Kim and tapped Varina's keystone. "Don't worry, I won't let anything bad happen to you."

As Kim went around the Pokémon Center, so did Andy, and soon he saw Michael, Niccia, Gavin, and several of their Pokémon. "We're back!" he said, going straight to Michael, "about your text..."
Before getting there a Meloetta almost flew into his face and grabbed his face with two hands. "Are you the uncle? What is your fascination with time?"
"What?"
"Time, what is your species fascination with it?"

When he heard the greeting, followed by the question, Michael was about to answer his uncle when Penalopy rushed in. He sighed, but waited for his uncle to address Penalopy's question first.

"I... well..." Andy barely had time to even question where this Meloetta had come from or why she asked such a random question, "we have a limited time-span so our time matters. I think a lot of our fascination with time comes from that. But we do seem to care more about that than other sentient beings, like Pokémon, probably because we evolved and progressed in a way that we added so much to our lives that it's hard to do everything, so we have to plan a lot more. We have to keep track of seasons for farming because we left behind a foraging life long ago; we plan classes at schools and meetings at work to let everything happen in an orderly way; we want to be social and we have to work for money to buy the things we need and we have to make time to eat and we have to sleep, and we like doing hobbies or other activities to relax, doing everything requires some planning of the day, and we can't do that without knowing the time. I think that's it in a nutshell, but we can have a more in-depth discussion about that later."
Penalopy nodded and floated away. "Thank you~"
"My pleasure." Andy looked back to Frossien as he tried to remember what they were there for. "Right, there was some trouble. What happened?"

Benny examined Frossien, something about her reminded him of Niccia and Gavin, she looked human, but something was off. And she looked familiar in a way. Kim hurried over to Benny and Li.
"We met Articuno, Frossien, in the library." Kim looked over her shoulder to the legendary Pokémon in human form. "They have been flirting..."
Benny chuckled. "Can't say I'm surprised."

---

Merlin looked at the Delibird that joined him and then at the figure in the shadows, who revealed themselves to be a Marshadow. "Why did you attack?" Merlin asked. While he hadn't witnessed it, he believed Kim when she said a shadowball had been fired, but it still had to be determined if the attack was focussed on Varina and had hit, or focussed on Andy and had missed. Either way, this Marshadow was a potential threat to Andy and Merlin could not accept that.

[SporkoBug]

"Penalopy." Frosiien growled when the Meoletta grabbed Andys' face, "Leave the man alone." She said with a furrowed brow.
When they got to the Pokemon Center she looked over at James and Niccia, smiling happily before Niccia ran up and gave her a hug.
Frosiien spun with Niccia in her arms before putting her on the ground with a small laugh.

"Hello sweetheart." The Articuno started, Niccia only babbled something quick and fast in her native language. Frosiien listened before nodding slowly. "Interesting."
She looked back at Andy with a small smile, Niccia blinked and noticed the look in her eyes.
"My dude." Niccia uttered quietly, getting a glare from Frosiien.

Varina slowly poked her head out of the keystone, looking around before she noticed there were even more legendaries.

---

The Marshadow hesitated when Merlin spoke to them, they looked towards Mitch with widened eyes.
"Why are you... Defending Darkrai's Guardian?!" He yelled before he pulled himself into a fighting stance.
Mitch blinked slowly before he sighed slightly. "Right. Of course." He started before he looked to Merlin, "My apologies, he's a bit... Left out."

[Loksfjoer]

Penalopy was blissfully ignorant of Frosiien's anger when she took Andy's face, but not James. He made a mental note to inform miss Penalopy about keeping a respectful distance to this man, although experience had thought him such requests were often ignored.

Michael brought his uncle up to speed in a few words, who nodded to show he understood. Then Andy took Michael by his arm to drag him to Frosiien.
"This is my nephew," he said. "As you see, he clearly inherited his good looks from me. Michael, this lovely lady here is Frosiien, more commonly known as Articuno."
"A pleasure to meet you," Michael said politely.

Mindy could hear the conversation from where she sat and she stared at the beautiful woman. "That is Articuno?" she whispered.
That legendary Pokémon could take human forms shouldn't come as a surprise anymore, she had already met Mew and Mewtwo like that, but still. It was hard to get used to it.

As Andy introduced his nephew to Articuno, Meloetta appeared in front of Varina. "You're usually not in the company of cute humans. Why are you here? You're not tricking this cute man, are you?" She pointed to Andy when she said that and James hurried over so he could let Penalopy know she should be less forward with him. After watching Frosiien react to Penalopy holding his face he was fairly sure she didn't want to hear things that could mean competition from Meloetta.

---

Merlin silently took in the information and nodded. "So it seems. The percentage of Legendary Pokémon who know is very small compared to the percentage that doesn't know. I will assume he saw Andy carry the Keystone and thought Andy didn't know who resided inside, thus trying to separate them in a misguided attempt to save him." His eyes rested on the Marshadow. "Is that why you attacked?"

[SporkoBug]

Frosiien's eyes narrowed more towards Penalopy as she seemed to call Andy cute. She held back her angry sounding words before she breathed in and looked to Penalopy, closing her eyes slightly before she smiled.
"Varina is a friend." She started, looking down to the Spiritomb.
"I...I." Varina said before she slunk more into her stone. _{"He's my trainer now I don't want to hurt him."}

Gavin looked up and over to Frosiien and Andy before his eyes widened. "Frosiien!" He called out, moving to stand up with a small smile.
Frosiien looked over to Gavin with a tilt of her head and a happy smile. "Gavin, a pleasure seeing you. Who's this beautiful girl you're with?"

Niccia looked to Michael, then to Andy. "Harry and Saruya were ambushed by Mightyena." She started, "Apparently they were after descendants."

---

Mitch nodded at Merlins words, "Arceus tends to keep things under lock and key, most Legendaries know that Darkrai just means trouble." He said before he looked over towards Marshadow. "Right Varidol?"
Varidol hesitated when the two birds spoke to him, he lowered his hand as he looked to the ground timidly. "Apologies." He started as he looked around and stepped towards Merlin and Mitch, "I was worried that your... Andy, was in trouble."

[Loksfjoer]

"Ohhh~" Penalopy replied. "Okay then~" She floated back, made a loop and then went to Frosiien. "That is Mindy, Gav-Gav likes her! And I like her too~"
Mindy felt her cheeks burn when the Meloetta, rather loudly, said how Gavin felt about her. She too stood up. "As Penalopy said," she said with a glance to the Meloetta, "I'm Mindy. It's a pleasure to meet you..." She wasn't sure how to greet the Pokémon, how did humans have to greet Legendary Pokémon? But since Michael had greeted Frosiien with those words it probably was okay to leave it with that.

"That is a problem," Andy said and he looked to the keystone."Varina, did you hear that? Do you have information about the Mightyena or do you think this has nothing to do with Darkrai?"

---

Merlin had his eyes on the Marshadow. "In that case I thank you for looking after Andy," Merlin said with a small nod of appreciation. "I will return to the others, enjoy your day, Varidol."
He nodded as a greeting and spread his wings, ready to fly back to Andy.

[SporkoBug]

Frosiien looked towards Mindy with a small smile, she held out her hand for Mindy to shake. "The pleasure is mine." She said as she glanced towards Gavin before looking towards Andy as he spoke. She hesitated before she looked back towards Mindy and Gavin, before looking towards Michael. "A pleasure to meet you as well." She said before she turned back to Mindy. "I'm hoping Gavin isn't being too awkward?"

Varina looked up to Andy as he spoke to her, she blinked as she thought quietly. "M...Mightyena after Legendary descendants?" She asked Niccia, who nodded once before she seemed to hesitate. She looked up to Andy and nodded once, "I believe Darkrai may be behind it."
Niccia frowned before nodding once, "Right." She looked up to Andy, knowing he couldn't understand her, "She thinks it could possibly be Darkrai." She mentioned to Andy, translating it for Varina.

Soul stood and stepped towards Kim slowly.
"How did everything go?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

---

Varidol nodded to Merlin, moving to bow in response before he looked towards Mitch. "I will see you at Starfall?"
Mitch nodded before he looked to Merlin and started back towards the pokecenter.

[Loksfjoer]

"Oh, erm, n-no, of course not," Mindy stammered in response to Frosiien's question.
"Of course he is!" Andy interjected with a grin. "But that is why we love him!"

Andy hadn't been able to resist, but when he faced Niccia again the grin faded and made way for a more serious expression. "Thank you," he said to her. "That means you two," he pointed to Michael and Niccia, "can't let your Pokémon stray too far from you. And I will stick around too. I can't leave knowing you two will continue to be a target for Darkrai because you are Mew and you both have descendants. Of course I will give you two privacy when you need it." He gave an elbow-bump to his nephew when he said that.

"That... is considerate of you," Michael said, avoiding to look at Niccia. He knew very well what his uncle was talking about and he wished he wouldn't bring that up like that.

Kim turned to Soul. "Pretty good. Andy didn't find what he wanted to at the library, but we met Articuno and went for some drinks and snacks together. They have been, erm, flirting and Frosiien's guardian doesn't like that. Oh, and someone knocked Varina out Andy's hands, but Merlin and Mitch stayed behind to take care of that."
She thought what else she should tell, but she thought she had covered everything Soul may find important.

---

"I'm glad it was just a misunderstanding," Merlin said as he soared above Mitch, beating his wings slowly to stay in the air. "Things are though enough as it is, the last thing they need is yet another adversary." He examined the Pokémon below. "Bring me up to speed; who are you and who was that female trainer with Andy?"