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"I see. For a Co-Leader you don't appear to know as much as one might think a person of your standing would. Just a curious observation." Looker sighed as he flipped to the next page in Reno's folder, glancing up at the Snagem as Reno asked his own question, Looker exhaling from his nose and leaning back in the chair while he folded his arms. "We're very much aware of the Cipher technology that has made its way into the Paldea regions, among others. Though I must say I find it interesting you bring that up, as well as S-22. Is there something you would like to share on those topics, maybe?" Looker asked, unfolding his arms and then bracing his hands on the desk in front of him.

While Reno distracted Looker in the physical realm he was taking a mental dive into the mindscape of the 'man' named WHITE.

As the scenery of Sub's office faded into darkness and the darkness parted open it would reveal a realm of pure white. In this realm of white Reno would find himself standing in front of a towering wall of white marble topped with glistening gold barbed white. The wall stretched on endlessly to the right and left, clearly with the intent to keep anyone from proceeding forward. From beyond the wall Reno could detect a consciousness, distant and without discernible detail this far away but it was there, somewhere on the other side of this wall.

"Besides today?" Lykas asked as Odd held his Artifact tight to his chest and tried to feel normal again, as best he could with the suppression collar on. "No. I'll give you that. But I did spend 14 years as a fractional hybrid slowly dying of chi poisoning from the genetic mess I never asked to be, unsure if I'd even live to adulthood. So I know what it means to fight the odds." He retorted back at Deo. "So when I call you a defeatist, believe that I know what I'm saying and I mean it. That said. You called yourself that. I called you a useless furball. I won't deny the allegations on your behalf, though." He pointed out, smirking at the oversized feline hybrid. "You are not defined by your circumstances, Deo. Get out of your head and look a what you can do in the moment rather than what you can't and you might find yourself being useful in a pinch." This was a problem he had noticed with Deo ever since the hybrid had joined the team and was part of why he rarely interacted with him: Deo was still finding that his will to do was lacking when it mattered and Lykas being the strong-willed and hotheaded person he knew he could be had been trying to avoid hurting the other man's feelings. But this was no time to be feeling down and beaten and he wasn't in the mood to just let it go when presented with that kind of personality quirk.

~~~

Clare nodded to Lu as she offered her services as a training partner. "I'd be happ to accept the help. Spectra hasn't had a lot of experience training with another Pokemon so this will be good for her." They responded, watching as Lu ttook up a position. "Far warnining Spectra's practicing Acid Spray and her ability is Corrosion so it might still sting." The extraddimensional hybrid warned Lu as Spectra paused, looked at the Lucario then twisted her neck around to look at Clare as if confused for a moment. "Glim?"

"It's alright, Spectra. Lu is a Steel-type, I believe. Your poison shouldn't be able to hurt her much." Clare informed the Glimmet, recalling having seen Brian at the Academy with her when Snagem had attended classes together for a bit. The name they'd heard used for her only just came to their mind, however.

Spectra nodded and turned back to face Lu, taaking aim at her and attempting to fire a ocused spray of poison. The result was less a focused spray of mist and more like the stream setting on a spray bottle, the flowe3r-like Pokemon focusing too much pressure and trying to narrow the stream too far by mistake.

Lu gave a nod in response to Clare's words. "If I remember correctly, Acid Spray does not cause poisoning, merely damage and a chance to lower Special Defense," she said. "Thank you for your concern, but I should be just fine. And yes, I am part Steel-type." When Spectra fired her Acid Spray, it wasn't hard to dodge, Lu merely sidestepping to let the attack sail past her. "Try putting a little less pressure into it," she said.

"Mmmm...." Darts paused again, seeming to toss something back and forth in his head a little bit as they continued the conversation.



"I'm just going to say that if I were a betting man, and you know I once was, I would lay heavy money that this isn't S-22." Again the jacketed hybrid emphasizes heavy with his voice. "And yes, it took all of us to DEAL with him but you and I fought him on more than one occasion. I just didn't say successfully. Lest we forget the fight when he first turned up in Gateon Port or on the rocket in Mossdeep. I sure didn't." His voice left little idea there were scars, in his pride or otherwise, where it came to the Sharpedo hybrid. He seems to reconsider, given their situation, and glances back at the Articuno hybrid. "Can you keep a secret?" He asks, abruptly.

--



As soon as S-22's name is brought up, Kess bristles again a little. Any time Cipher gets brought up, it seems to pluck away at something inside of her, not necessarily in a good way. "The way you all fought so hard to save that monster, and didn't lift a finger to help Zera..." She hisses, wishing she would have been able to say some parting words to Aile on her way out of the room. "Just does nothing but solidify what we've been finding out here throughout all these investigations. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Reno had been winding up to answer, already having brushed past the attempt to grind in the derision of his status and his mental well-being. Looker was attempting to tap a well that had long since run dry with those jabs, nothing that he hadn't said to himself or had to deal with already when it came to Sub. Then Zera slipped in her own little jab and that struck an actual nerve. Attempting to clench his right hand into a fist underneath the desk, Reno would only manage to restrain it enough to avoid fully forming the fist. Taking a breath as he kept his gaze locked onto Looker, Reno would muster a cloying smile.

"That situation isn't bookended. Not until I find the man behind it. It'll bug me too much otherwise." Sparing a glare towards Kess, he would take a deep breath beforw continuing. "As for the 'monster' as your colleague so callously put it, I made the personal call not to pursue him unless otherwise required. After deprogramming so that he could make his own choices, it seemed hypocritical to immediately start hounding after him. If he had started actively being malicious and word got back to us, I would've been the first to go after him. But he got to finally make the choice of what he wanted to do." Looking towards Kess again, he finished with, "Zera had made her choice, multiple times over. I don't like how things ended there, but I would be lying if I said she acted like there was something there worth looking deeper into."

Facing towards Looker again, Reno would match the detective's lean. "Why is S-22 the more important matter? And what does it have to do with Darts?" Reno whispered, keeping his eyes locked onto the detective's.

WHITE's mind had a similar defense to S-22, that's why it felt familiar. But with how much effort and power it had taken to deal with this level of mental defense before, it wouldn't be prudent to go ramming his way in. Determining discretion was the better part of valor, he would remove himself from WHITE's mind.

---

The now-distinctly Reno-shaped head would c**k itself to the side as Crystal spoke, a confused expression crossing Rome's face as he listened. "Hmm. No, I cannot recall anyone named Reno." Bobbing for a moment, something would catch with him. "Oh wait. Asado. I believe I have heard some mention of it in literature from Hisui. Are you perhaps confusing what I have done with your own personal readings?"

On her way down, Aile would pause as she went past her room. Door was open, and it looked like some sort of windstorm had blown through it. Clothes from her drawers were on the floor, her bed was thrown apart, even cut into, and the bedspread was everywhere. Some of her more simple sci fi memorabilia was on the floor, but she noted that most of it was gone, as well as all of the books that were on her bookshelf. They were all just sci fi books about a group of people in starfighters, all going on some crazy missions. The ones following a group called Wraith Squadron were among her favorites, and probably wouldn’t have been a bad thing to have to get her mind off of this. But no, all of them were taken, probably to see if she had hidden any sort of information in them. Jokes on the police, she barely let them get dogeared, just worn spines at most, but it still hurt. Some of those would be a b***h to replace. She sighed as she turned to look to her desk, seeing that nearly completely broken. Probably wanted to make sure she didn’t have anything in some sort of secret compartments. Whiiiich she might have had a couple in that desk, but those held some old, sentimental things that she really didn’t care to have Snagem see as a whole. Things that reminded her of the road she walked to get here. Silly, considering she considered her path full of bad choices, but they were reminders. “This place is damn near unlivable. Great.” Losing Regirock, quite possibly getting arrested, and all of her stuff getting taken. What a wonderful day. “How the hell did things take such a wrong turn?”

Shaking her head, she’d make her way over to the kitchen, looking around before she found a bottle of water. Grabbing it, she’d walk out to see Darts and Blizz talking. She had half a mind to go up to them, was about to, but then shook her head and walked off, taking a drink of the water and finding a wall with a view of the main HQ doors. She wasn’t handcuffed, and she didn’t have one of those damned collars on. In theory, she could make it out. In theory alone. There were still others that had the collars, and the officers and agents here probably had no qualms with using them as a way to keep the others in line. Trying to play on the morality of the members. At least towards their teammates, if the agents wanted to believe the whole idea that they didn’t care about anyone else. Looking at her hand, she considered the idea of trying to sneak some of the sand onto her teammates and attempting to pop the collars that way, controlling the sand of her artifact in that sort of fashion. However, she’d want to make sure everyone wearing them had the sand on, and that they all popped off at the exact same time. Not a feat she was exactly comfortable with yet, and if she made one mistake, it could still be deadly for someone.

She could try to make a run for it here. She had Kuat, his Mega Stone on his body, and her Key Stone was buried in her left arm. She could have Kuat dig a hole. But again, what would happen to the others if she managed to successfully make it? And where would she go? They know about Orre, Kitakami, and Paldea, and hiding in the one place she vowed not to return to for any notable time, Kalos? Well that was out as well, considering she wasn’t believed at all about avoiding her home region like it was a plague. She wouldn’t have anywhere to go, and she’d probably have to keep looking over her shoulder. And that’s not accounting for a failed escape attempt. She’d probably be arrested on the spot, minimum. All of her Pokémon might be taken away at that point, she could get one of those collars, and have a bum left arm that would unbalance her. And again, that would only be stuff that affected her, not counting what they might do to the others if she tried anything. This was just so….

Aile would look up from the door to see Ulla walking around HQ, sighing. Arceus, how old was she? And she wound up tangled in this mess as well. This had to be some cruel joke of fate. Sighing, she’d get up and move over to the young girl. “Hey, Ulla. How are you doing,” she’d ask, trying to give her voice some sort of softness and confidence. The adults were supposed to be the confident ones that had it all together, right?



"The... Wait, in tomes from Hisui? And you really don't know Reno?" She began pacing herself, pulling on her braid. The wind would begin to pick up again as she paced, trying to understand what on... mental earth is going on. "Okay, so, let's run this down," she started, more talking to herself as she kept one hand on her braid. "Reno jumps his way in with his psychic shadow stuff. Clearly bypassing any defenses I have set up. Reno gets called for interrogation, leaves suddenly. Just a little bit afterwards, this pink mist showed up, not of my creation, and was eventually formed into Reno's head, and appears to be some sort of consciousness. He's calling himself Rome, though, doesn't know Reno at all, and is talking about tomes from Hisui containing information about a desert from Paldea. And somehow confusing..." She turned back to Rome, even more confused now. "Rome, this is the first time I've met you. How would I have even confused anything you've done with my own personal reading? I don't even..." Crystal would flop down into a sitting position on the beach, turning her head to watch the waves of the mind ocean while she slid her hands down her braid, thinking. "...Rome, what were you doing before you suddenly showed up here? Do you remember?"

Aile raised her eyebrows, rather impressed that Ulla caught onto why they were separated. "I really shouldn't underestimate kids..." Shaking her head with a small grin, the woman replied, "Someone's got to have it out for us. Someone pulling strings somewhere. I have some thoughts, but we don't exactly have the proof yet." Aile would pull out Poggle's Pokéball and toss it up and down, the Nincada standing in for the person who deposited the bug Pokémon in her staff. "I'm glad I have him now, but-" The orb would open to bring out the tired little insect, surprising her as he flew up to her head. "Did you hear me talk about you? You know, you could have had a much better path to get here." Aile would give Poggle some gentle head rubs as he sat on her head, chuckling. "Ulla, I don't think you've met my Nincada yet? This here's Poggle." Aile would pick up the rather large cicada and bring him down to Ulla's level, in case she wanted to pet him herself. Despite looking quite tired, maybe a bit hurt from the volcano, he seemed rather cheerful, waving one of his small limbs at her.