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Aile nodded at Sub’s response, frowning. “Understood.” She watched Darts leave with WHITE, making a note that Ulla didn’t return either. Now it was time to see what was going to happen to Darts, whether he’d return or not. The way Darts was practically Sub’s far reaching right hand, they probably could pin so many things on him as well. So, Darts’s fate would determine how she narrowed down the situation. Rolling back around to the state of planning, she would get back to thinking about her contingency plans… or lack thereof once Sub mentioned they even asked about Citadark Isle. “They even asked about that? Merde… There’s one more place out.” Inside, her stomach practically dropped. It was her fault that the team was there in the first place… If she had just been smarter about some of the side jobs she took, that whale thing probably wouldn’t have happened. Quite the scene in Gateon once they came back, after they all nearly died on the island from that trap. “Speaking of that… I still don’t understand. Why come get me when you all knew I was bait, and especially after what I had done in Kalos?” She really didn’t. But, that was one mark of shame on her own honor that probably was never going to be rubbed fully off, and was going to continue to get under her skin. Arceus, could she make stupid decisions.

“Goooon.” The Flygon’s tail slapped once on the ground, looking annoyed her trainer had asked that question.

“What? It’s still bugging me a little.”

“Fly fly gon.”

“I’m pretty sure the question’s already out there, so a little late on that.” Aile would just get an eye roll from her Flygon as a reply.

—-----------


Crystal frowned when Reno told her that they were in the STR, and HQ got ripped apart. “Wonderful, wonderful… So, we’re ten meters up creek without a paddle is what it’s sounding like. Black City, though? Weird…” She would go ahead and take a small bite of her own malasada, listening with a tilt of her ears. “Huh. You use the shadows almost like a back door. Interesting. Wait, my form?” The hybrid would look down at her hands, finally noticing the golden nails. Or more like noticed the purple fur on her hands, instead of the white metal with built in orange wristbands. She paused before spinning around to catch sight of her tail, tails, actually. She reached up to feel her ears right afterwards, finding them to be larger than she was expecting. And then she reached up to her forehead, now expecting the ruby stone on her head, only to find a flat forehead. Furred, though, not glass. “Right. Huh. I… suppose I never paid any attention. I was too busy trying to find a way back, probably.” She would grab her braid then, taking a look at it while taking another bite of her bakery treat. “I wish my hair would grow this long again.”

"Well I mean... that could be ANY Giratina hybrid..." He says, attempting to deflect. It was a picture of Darts hoisting Blusix by the nape of his neck while flashing a peace sign in front of Phenac City's fountain, looking full on directly into the camera while he does so. "I was out there taking care of a little old pain in our neck, as you can see clearly from the photo." He explains, waving a hand at it dismissively. "We're legally allowed to operate in Orre, unless y'all have forgotten that." Teacher would have loved to give the Giratina hybrid an earfull of this one, he thought blithely. C'mon, you're even looking at the camera! "Any other questions or am I free to go?" he asks, making like he was going to stand up only to be shoved down by Essentia.

"You go when we SAY you go." She insists, leaning in close.

Lykas let out a small sigh, looking over to where Odd was curled up with Sphynx, the fully-blind-at-the-moment Channeler carefully supporting Libelle as the large cat’s tail twitched in front of her, the baby grabbing at it as Sphynx smiled with her eyes. The large feline had taken a liking to the tiny human over the last year and would often stay out of her Ball to help watch her as needed. “Papa…” Libelle muttered, looking up at Odd, pale and weak as he was a the moment. “Papa…nappy?” She asked, remembering the word her fathers used when it was time for her own naps.

Odd grinned. “Yeah… Papa needs a nappy.” Odd replied, yawning. He was definitely feeling tired at the moment but it wasn’t in the “I need a nap” way. He could feel his life trying to slip away and was fighting to hold onto it with his Channeling stripped away.

“Please, hurry, Arcus…” Lykas muttered, turning back to Sub now. ‘I was afraid you were going to say that. Even worse, i’m sure they’ve bugged this place. It’s funny you’re the only one they’ve brought back here so far.” The hybrid noted as they came for Darts next, Ulla not being returned the same way Blizzard hadn’t been. “I’m willing to bet they think you’ll talk and they can get whatever they want from you thinking you’re safe here.” He admitted, trying to look around for any signs his suspicions would be right. “Don’t tell us anything you don’t want them knowing.” He warned the leader.

~~~

Nacrearcus floated through the ventilation ducts of Snagem HQ, peering through the vents as he found them until he found the main room. There were so many people that didn’t belong here all over in every single room he passed, he noted. It was going to be challenging to find anything at all and be able to retrieve it without being spotted, he realized. As he went, he spotted Blizzard and, shortly thereafter, Ulla. Wait a second… Was that the main room he saw her in?!

“Form!” He called out to her quietly. She wouldn’t understand him, but maybe he could get her to help him somehow?

“Form for, cas cas forcas!” He exclaimed, trying to explain he was looking for Odd’s Artifact and it should be somewhere in here.

~~~

Clare was trying to stay out of their own head at this point and, after a certain point, around the time Darts was taken, they had to stand up, beginning to pace around the STR. “I’m going crazy… Since they seem to have left us with our Pokemon and not much else, would anyone like to train their Pokemon with me for a bit? It’ll help us pass the time while we wait for whatever they’re doing.” They asked, pointing out that passing the time was something they all seemed to be struggling with right now.

“Alternatively…” They paused and looked at the door to the training room. “I might be able to get us out of here?” They added. “But I feel like that’s probably a really bad idea at least as long as these collars are on us…” They pulled a Pokeball from their belt, releasing a Pokemon that hadn’t been seen on them before, though those who’d gone on the Kitakami trip might recognize it as being the same shape as the flower brooch they’d been wearing after the Festival of Masks - the same one that Perrin had given them. “Spectra here has the Corrosion ability. Anyone willing to see if her poison is acidic enough to eat through their collar besides me?” The hybrid asked. They were going to be taking any chances on starting a fight but getting people out of their collars and feeling normal? They were willing to try that, at least.

"But Looker, my vacation in Alola is waiting on me." He says sarcastically, rising from his chair and shaking himself free of Essentia as she shoots him an equally nasty look. "I don't know what you all think are going to shake out of the tree, but Snagem's made of a bit sterner stuff than you might imagine." That ominious statement made, he trails out of the room into the main room, Agent WHITE coming with him to head to the STR for another member. The Giratina hybrid has his head on a swivel, trying to keep an eye out for the other members who were let free for the moment.

--

Back in the room with all the discussion going on the doors hiss open, and Agent WHITE indicates Amber with one slow point, waving her forward that it was her time to face the music.

Convinced that I wasn’t going to make any sort of headway, to the kitchen for the moment in the hopes that at the very least the fridge did not get raided in any capacity for the sake of evidence. A Coke was in order to muse over the going-ons. Fortunately, that was not the case…for now. Getting a straw and sitting at the counter, I couldn’t help but to just watch from the kitchen the busywork that every SWIPE member was doing, still trying to figure out what they were all after. WHITE would eventually have came back, more than once at this point. Ulla apparently was allowed to roam for the moment, and then Darts would get pulled from the training room. Oh, that was going to go well…

I sighed for a brief moment sipping, time started to tick on by, left to my thoughts. I should have just left. I should have just left the team finally, went back to Mahogany. Sure, keep Tristen in school in Paldea, since he was already there. Freth could do whatever in the meantime. But I should have just went back home. Then again, it probably wouldn’t matter. Being asked stuff about Black City and such, they would have easily grabbed me right out of a gym defense without a second thought, putting effectively any ordinary trainer in danger in the name of ‘public safety’. The more that I think about this, the more that I am frustrated. I can’t seem to win for losing. Even more frustrating is that I ended up trying to work hard still, training Pokémon, training myself…and still I got someone like Kess beating the hell out of me. Ugh, there’s no end to this!

I perked up eventually, looking away from my soda once again, and I watch WHITE go to get yet another Snagem out of the training room. Huh, that was short. Kinda expected knowing Darts. Though they’re going to run out of Snagems eventually to question for whatever. I was running out of time…what the hell do I do? How do we get out of this?

Were the situation not so dire, Amber would have snorted derisively at the greeting she received. Not like she had a choice in the matter. "I joined shortly after my sister's passing, roughly... five years ago?" she said, thinking back. "No, I was a human when I joined, I'm actually Ghost and Ice, and no, I didn't become a hybrid because of Snagem. I became a hybrid because a Froslass took pity on me when I got lost and nearly died in a blizzard near Snowpoint City a couple of years ago. And before you ask, no, I wasn't there because of a mission or anything of that nature. I have friends in Snowpoint City that I hadn't seen for a while, so I wanted to see how they were doing. The blizzard wasn't planned for, and I was under-prepared." She paused for a moment, then spoke again. "As to why I joined, I'd heard about the problem with Shadow Pokemon and I wanted to help," she said. "Nobody should be allowed to use Pokemon like tools." Her mind went back to her first meeting with Spooky.

Essentia clicks her helmet off, revealing the long brown curls and soft face she had shown Ulla a couple of interrogations ago, 'Emma' coming back to the forefront as she kneels near the girl. "You didn't feel pressured or... maybe forced in some way to become a hybrid?" She asks, seeming to be genuinely concerned about the well-being of the little Froslass hybrid. "You can tell us dear, we know..." There's a moment of hesitation as she considers her next words. "We know that some of these people have done... bad things. Bad things they aren't telling us about, so we need people like you to be brave and step forward, be brave like you were in that blizzard." She locks eyes with her, serious again. "Okay?"

Crystal would stare at the thoughts bubbles as they popped up, rather confused with the ideas popping up. “I… I still have hair outside there… My body just hasn’t changed since I evolved.” She sighed and took another bite from her malasada. “Citadark… Don’t even mention those missions. Really, don’t. I don’t want to think about that b*****d.” The hybrid would grab at her braid and pull on it, as various memories of her spats with Darts over the year came back, as well as some of the words he said back in Kitakami, the sky darkening along with her thoughts. Shaking her head damn near immediately, she would bring her thoughts to the next few things Reno mentioned, causing the sky to lighten somewhat. Darts and Amber were next up. She didn’t have… much sympathy for Darts. But Amber. She didn’t know her too well, but she hoped that things didn’t go poorly for her. “So, if I’m picking things up right, Sub’s the reason I’m stuck in my head. Great. That sounds like a kindness right now, your thing.” The skies would darken again, but at least there wasn’t the threat of a storm yet. She was just annoyed, maybe a bit pissed. That collar probably hit her the hardest out of everyone on the team, and this was because the leader was pulling some shady stuff, with Darts in tow. Of course.

—-

“Gon. Gyon.” Tatooine looked down at her trainer, who would leer back up at her partner.

“Fine. For now.” Aile grumbled and crossed her arms. She wasn’t sure if that was the whole story, she probably wasn’t a friend for some of them at that point, but whatever. Maybe it was just something she wasn’t going to come to terms with. She turned her attention to Sol and the others, going back to listening to them. Everyone was pissed at him, probably fairly, but at the current point, she couldn’t justify herself getting angry. That emotion, at least to her, wasn’t needed here. Currently, she just had to figure out some plan of action, which needed a clear head. Probably just wait out this interrogation phase this moment, but then after this, should she not just be straight up arrested, was what the hell to do after this. Maybe this even might be useless, but it was something to keep her mind active and not focusing on what had happened to HQ.

Aile would also note that Darts never returned, either, with the next person being called Amber. So, this left the idea that they were after Sub, like he had said, and he was brought back here so they could keep an eye on him. Probably. But at that point, they should probably stop talking about this whole debacle until the point where they’re not in an opposition occupied space. Ugh, this whole thing was a s**t show. And the paddle got burned in a volcano near Boyleland. Arceus help them all. Or smite them. One might be simpler to deal with than the other.