Right away, Laguna landed face first right in front of a Celesteela. The massive titan seemed to be sleeping inside the giant warehouse of the hardware store, a place to actually keep its form shaded from the intense sun. And now Laguna was disturbing it. It suddenly twisted, its small head twisting on its massive body to look down at her. No eyes were visible, behind what she could only assume was hair, but Laguna smiled a bit sheepishly anyways. Marina also was deathly quiet, quietly gripping onto Laguna's shoulders.

"H-hey... Umm, sorry to break in. But we're going to look around. Is that okay?" She spoke up ever so quietly, her feet already taking a few soft steps trying to step around them.

Only for a huge gust of gas and flames to pour from its rocket arms, and Laguna let out a loud yelp, swiftly shifting into overdrive as she dashed away as fast as she could, only managing to get a few more minor burns. Now suddenly tucked behind many shelves in a makeshift cave, Laguna finally let out a long sigh, reaching over to pat Marina. "It's okay, hon. We're-"

"It was gonna eat us! Like Sheldon, and Hoppy, and-" Marina was suddenly hyperventaliting, and Laguna immediately felt her heart break.

She didn't realize how much that weighed on her, too.

"Shh, no no. It's okay, It's okay." She spoke softly, moving to hug the seal close and kiss their head. "Ultra Beasts are just... Pokemon. They're from a weird place, and they don't think like us. It's okay, just relax, I got you."

"... Okay." Marina shuddered a bit, but eventually relaxed in her trainer's arms. "Sorry I just- I panicked."

Laguna was careful to avoid the broken glass, and random assortment of screws and oddly product-placement filled power tools. How many people paid to have their name in this game? Only to find that it was half buried in sand, and in a ruined building almost nobody would find?

Hydance must be raking in all the dough.

"Have you found the flooring section yet?" Laguna spoke up quietly, speaking to the Brionne who swam upwards for a moment, peeked around, and then dipped back down to safety.

"Not yet. I did see a lot of weird bricks by the toilets though." Marina began, seemingly not aware of what that might be.

"... Weird, bricks?" Laguna suddenly pivoted, slowly making her way towards the plumbing aisles. "What did they look like?"

"Uh, Grey? Some had these blue dots in the middle. Doesn't make sense to me, you can't build a toilet with bricks. Can you?"

She chuckled, but immediately shook his head. "No no. If what you're describing is right, then you've found another Ultra Beast." Almost as soon as she finished saying those two words, she could feel Marina swiftly grow tense again.

"A-and why are we going towards it?" They spoke so hesitantly, fear audible in her tone.

"Because, we're going to try and befriend it." Marina looked incredulously at her, stunned silent, but Laguna swiftly continued. "I'm hoping Cygnus can help them learn to communicate with us. Or at least, understand how they think. They can handle corruption without being hurt... They would all be such powerful friends, and I'd rather make those than enemies."

Marina was quiet for a long time, before eventually nodding their head in response. It made sense, but they were still terrified. Laguna just wrapped her arms around the Seal, holding them against her chest as she continued forwards, stepping over broken pipes, shelves, and grills. Sure enough, she eventually found the toilet section, and a huge pile of stone bricks were resting in the middle of them all. All at once, the blue "dots" that she recognized as eyes seemed to glance over at her, but Laguna didn't move forwards any further. Instead, she just sat down, looking up at them quietly.

She said nothing. It said nothing. It seemed far more interested in some of its bricks sitting inside toilets, bathtubs, and digging around in broken plumbing, but its eyes all glared at Laguna with a silent look.

SKREEEEE

RAWR

Kronus stomped through the small city of sandcastles, chomping at crumbling parapets, his cries echoing off the metal as he terrorized the tiny town.  Orion sat cross legged in a chair formed from compacted silica sipping on a sizzling soda.  The little tyrant tike was having a veritable field day ripping apart his hard work.  Thus was the nature of a sandcastle, after all, beautiful but impermeant.  

Speaking of Beautiful, a ping flashed across Orion's vision alerting him that Laguna was in the nearby area.  

His mind flit back to when they'd last met, his hand clenching the can of cola tighter threatening to crush the flimsy aluminum in his fist.  He didn't know WHY she was here, but given the fact that fate loved to fling trouble their way, he found himself rising to his feet.

"Alright lil dude."  Orion cooed, gulping down the last of his cola and crushing it.  "Wrap it up, we're gonna go drop in on Blue."

"Buht!"  Kronus turned to look at him, sand dripping form his jaw like an hourglass.  "I Was just getting to the docks!"

"If it's still here when it's all said and done we can play some more."  Orion chided, booping the beast on the snoot.  "But comeon, family first."

"Okay..."

...

Of course she was in a hardware store, probably trying to snag some supplies for their makeshift base if he were a [Tangent=And his gramps DID own a casino so like, the house always wins motherfucker]betting man [/tangent] The door swung open with a loud creak, betraying any element of suprise he possibly had at all, forcing him to instead call out.

"Helloooooo...?"  He called out softly.  "Blue Ma cherie [Tangent=Where are you?]où es-tu?[/Tangent]"  He took a few careful steps, slinking between sands and stands that once held sandpaper sans the paper, past shelves filled with parts for shelves and racks for racks until he glanced down one path and found.

"Oh Fuck."

Orion had been ready to jump to arms, the moment the thing lurched forward he lunged forward to meet it half way, only to meet a crumpled pile of bricks, a soft whimper like grinding filled the air.  Skidding to a stop, his heart crumbled like a Jenga tower played ironically on a September day.  He watched as Marina went to work, a flash of red announcing Morpheus as he scooched up and began singing a soft metallic tone to heal it.  With a boop he tapped his ball to the beast, capturing his own mirrored mon before addressing the woman.

"I'll have you know, madame."  He cooed, sliding into that cheesy French accent of his as he strode closer, Kronus tottering behind him like a timid tike hiding behind his mother's skirt.  "I was here first, thank you much.  Well not here here, but like, I was in the neighborhood and you showed up on my proximity pings like a sneaky submarine trying to invade my coastal claims.  Lil man and I were playin in the sand having a landlocked beach day while I got my architect on, he got his Zilla goin."  Leaning down he would smirk back at her before planting a soft kiss on her forehead.  

"Though I do apologize, I had no idea that you were in a situation otherwise..."  he grimaced.  "That could have gone very poorly, I should have announced myself in a text but I wanted to surprise you."  His gaze flit past her, dancing along the various porcelain thrones and urinals on display.  "Shopping for the hotel are you?  I sure hope that we go for full sized toilets and not those silly European small ones, because let me tell you, lived at a place with those and they are a PAIN to sit on comfortably unless you are the worlds mightiest dwarf, or are not packing uh...extra equipment down south."  

"Hiya boss lady."  Kronus offered meekly.  "I was destroyin an industrial center real good earlier...shoulda seen it."

"Oh he was going hard, if I could record things he'd be a shoe in for the next Godzilla movie, probably fighting Gamora or something."

"I wanna fight Ghidora!"  Kronus protested.

"They already killed Ghidora buddy."

"Aww!"