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When Crystal started complaining about not being let in on the S-22 search, I ignored it. I, for one, was grateful for not being involved, and Darts put my reasoning for that into words perfectly while he was firmly and loudly accosting the hybrid woman. I didn't need him to re-affirm my loyalties, but I'd be lying if I said his 'speech' didn't make me grateful to be on the lower end of the totem pole of Snagem. But yeah, Sub has a history of putting the team first, and this wasn't any different. If anything, it just made me wonder why Crystal thought this situation would BE different. Though I was distracted by sensing Keiko's guilt. Had SWIPE threatened to take Yuna and Serena away form us while they were questioning her, she could have happily told them everything she knew, as little as that was, to prevent losing our daughters. Were I put in that situation, I doubt I'd have any other option. I didn't say anything, but I put an arm around her to give her some comfort so that thought didn't lead to anything darker. A smile from her proved it was appreciated.

As the elevator doors opened, I put a hand on Absinthe's shoulder to distract her. Given her emotional state and the look on her face, it was clear the young Deathrage was about to instigate an actual fight between Darts and Crystal. Not only was that an incredibly stupid idea given what the two are capable of, we didn't have time to deal with that. Not to mention it would grab SWIPE's attention and give them a reason to cancel the meeting we came here for - the one ray of hope this team had at the moment. Abby didn't appreciate me stopping her, but she went along with it and entered the elevator with us. I have to admit, I was surprised to see a fellow Snagem waiting for us at our destination, but I let Freth and Blizzard focus on welcoming him back. It wasn't my place. Though, was he the only one waiting for us here? Weren't we meant to meet with someone else?

"So that's what it was," Sol commented after Sub finally revealed the truth of the mission Darts was sent on while the team was in Paldea. "I told you a few days ago that believing you was never in question, and that stands true now. But I will apologize for my conduct following our arrest."

"Mew mew mew, mew mew-" This finally saw Cera speak up, starting to ask what would possess Sub to actively look for S-22 in the first place.

"No, I can see where he's coming from. Even if everyone was tight-lipped about it, there were still other matters to attend to, other mysteries we've still been trying to unravel. Hell, I had to talk Sub into letting me keep up with the Shadow Pokemon hunts alongside finding any leads on where Aden's gone. If he had his way, I'd have been doing even less of them. Probably also why he didn't say much about sending you off to Almia."

"Still, w-why? I know he was freed and all, but wouldn't it still be dangerous!?" Amaranth asked, breaking her silence in turn. "What if he attacked anyone!?"

"Then better it's someone who can fight back and call us in. Besides, if you had a big group of people all showing up at once to check in on you, no matter the reason, you'd be pretty defensive too."

"I guess that's true... but look, I don't know Sub as well as you and some of the others. Or... a good few of you, and if we're going to just keep things-"

Amaranth would get shut up by matters boiling over, and getting her second dose of watching Crystal and Darts have at it. Back at Kitakami, the whole thing had been awkward enough, being the unwitting third party when everything boiled over back then. Even now, it was still awkward, and she couldn't really say if Crystal was right or wrong about her assertations. Darts did have a point with his words, though; things would've almost definitely been way worse if everyone was aware, either out of traumatic responses or knowingly abetting with the two SWIPE really wanted at present. Unlike last time, however, when the storm swirled out of control and she did her best to stay out of it, maybe she did grow a bit from her stint as a coordinator. Though, it also gutted her knowing that stint was probably over now, let alone the pictures memorializing those efforts being ransacked. She found her voice this time, cutting through the storm in whatever way she could.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, glaring forward and squeezing Cera a little tighter than she thought she was in the moment. "This isn't the time for us to be fighting ourselves, not in the position we're all in, so just shut up! At least until we're safe. Okay?" She found herself glaring at Crystal longer that she did at Darts despite not wanting to take a side, otherwise quietly going towards the elevator after Mully reappeared. Cera, unsure of what to say (and knowing it'd just be more 'mew's anyway), had gone back to her relative silence.

Sol, on the other hand, would make a hard sigh at the fight and look around at the others, then Darts, before finally settling on looking towards Crystal. "...I would rather not see an encore of what happened to Clare, but if you'd like to take your chances with SWIPE like they did, compromise us that much more, then by all means," he'd say as he tiredly gestured at the door. "Otherwise, if we're done bickering at the worst possible time and giving SWIPE the satisfaction of fighting amongst ourselves, then join us in the elevator."

---

As the trio joined the others on the elevator to the penthouse office, there'd be a little tension as they looked around and, eventually, to the executive chair turned away from them. A sigh of relief came from Sol as it spun to reveal Tristen, the grin coming from the Manectric hybrid a sight for a lot of very sore eyes right now. "Yeah, see, we wanted to get a gift for la ceremonia, but wouldn't you know it, you got us."

"Mew mew mew mewmew!" Cera was more than a little grateful to have another that could understand her amongst the others, and especially that Tristen was alright.

"Wait... if there's bugs on us, that... means they know about Phobos, don't they?" Amaranth asked, having a bad feeling about that potential detail.

"Even so, definitely was a good failsafe. Still, it's good to see you, Tristen. Truly. Though, I do also have to ask..." Sol would look to Sub for a moment, after his explanation of Phobos and Hoopa's ring. "How on earth did you come across something like that? More importantly, where... did you think it'd lead?"

Cera would just give a shrug, having no idea herself.

Ulla merely nodded as Sub made his small speech. Not only did she listen to his words, she also looked at everyone's expressions. "I don't think I need to speak about your sincerity Sub. We can't see any reason why you would lie to us now. Especially...After what happened to Clare." She said as she heard Blizz and Ter agree that they didn't need her to confirm the Dark One's sincerity. That's when Crystal spoke up and started yelling her frustration. Something that Ulla was sure, Crystal has been holding in. "H-Hey Crystal hold on. Let's just-" Before she could get any word in, Darts piped up and made his own statement. Both had good points, why couldn't they trust us? But also, the more we would've known. The more we would've been in danger.

Why...why couldn't they tell Mom and Dad tell us what they were researching...?

Ulla remembered when both her and Leon found out what their parents were studying. So, she couldn't blame Crystal or Darts for arguing. Her parents kept what they were studying secret to protect their children. "Darts. Crystal. Please, this isn't the time for this." She said as they were being escorted now to a different room. As they did, she looked around in the office as it held many different rare objects. That's when the Fairy Child was fixated on the person that was sitting in the chair faced away from them. An old face that she didn't even realize was missing when she first came back. Tristen.

"It has been quite sometime now. You sure have aged." She said with a soft smile after all that has happened so far. This was all she could pull off for now.

Aile would stand by and awkwardly watch the exchange herself, Darts once again chewing out Crystal after she decided not to control her tongue. She had heard about what happened at the festival in Mossui, but didn’t actually get to witness it, so she could only imagine how bad it felt when they were unlocked, as it were. Personally for the woman, she couldn’t care that she was left out in the dark. Considering her history, she expected it. The only question she had was, what else were they leaving out? All of this only for just attempting to locate S-22? No, this felt almost too drastic for just that. Either way, she would give a final glance over to Crystal before following the others into the elevator, unsure of what else to say.

Crystal grinded her teeth more as Darts once again chewed her out, so far shaping up to be very similar to the events at the festival in Kitakami. This time, she didn’t feel like she wasn’t completely in the wrong for thinking this way, but once again, she had no good points at all, and was completely shut down. The fact that his little backpacking imp was joining him as well wasn’t helping her mood in the least. She would have attempted to retort, opening her mouth to do so, but between the usually mild mannered Amaranth yelling at her to shut up, and Sol running her down slightly as well, she would shut it, clenching her fists even tighter and digging her nails into her palms now. She did have a choice now, either that SWIPE had some sort of mercy, or fight back against their predicament. She waited and thought about it while everyone passed by her, either ignoring her or giving her a disdainful look. The way everyone else seemed to react honestly did speak volumes to the hybrid, and, hanging her head and with her tail nowhere to be seen under her skirt now, would finally follow everyone else into the elevator, keeping herself somewhat to the side of the group now. At least she hadn’t completely flown off the handle and punched someone this time. Yet.

—-------

When everyone finally got into the c-level suite, Aile would look around, impressed at the decoration. That desk especially, hoo man! That was one heck of a piece. That piece had to be quite the pretty penny…

All thoughts of how much stuff in here might have cost went out the window when the chair swiveled around to show Tristen, causing Aile to laugh heartily at the dramatic reveal. “Oh my goodness, drama much? Oh Arceus, it’s so good to see a friendly face. Guess I should say another one, actually. Sorry, Mully.” She would listen to Sub’s explanation about this Phobos program, chuckling at why he had given it to Tristen. “Oh, so I see. Some of us spend time away from HQ, and we don’t get the blink of an eye, but Tristen goes to regular school and gets a special thing to get him out of dodge,” she chuckled, winking and sticking out her tongue for added emphasis that she was just trying to joke. “Seriously, though, that’s fortuitous. Wait, does that mean?...” She raised her eyebrows at Sub, giving a poignant stare while pointing down. Did that mean that SWIPE never was able to acquire Korriban? Was GRAY here?


Crystal would once more bring up the tail end of the group, the elevator ride being a test in keeping her shaking under control, which she was failing. It gave her time to think, though, let her replay everyone’s words to her that actually acknowledged her. And, in the fact that she was sowing discord when she shouldn’t be… they were right. This wasn’t the time or place. Not that she was going to admit that right now. Probably, they didn’t want to hear anymore from her right now anyways. When she finally entered the room, the woman would find herself staying at the back wall, sliding down almost unconsciously into a curled up sitting position, bringing her arms under her knees. Anything they others were saying drifted past her ears, which were firmly flat against her head now, her gaze just on the floor directly in front of her. Once more, she made a fool of herself, now in front of even more Snagems. If anyone hadn’t thought less of her before, they almost had to now. Light… was she really just a petulant child at this point? She was too old for this! At least… at least when she compared her age to everyone else around her. The amount of times she had been called a child by certain others, even when she was fully evolved, there were more times than she cared to admit. And she hated that they very well might have been right. Just like Darts was right, both back in Kitakami and now. Just like Amaranth was right. Just like Sol was right. Ulla, too. Light, it burned her to admit it all. Was she just not compatible with Snagem now? Was she just not compatible with a group setting in general? She found herself unable to tell, with just how she was starting to make her friendships implode. All she wanted to do was break down and cry at this point, but…Well, this wasn’t the time for that sort of thing, right? They all had to bulldoze ahead, tamp down any emotions that could get in the way, right? Especially her, with her ability to tear apart the fabric of reality, as Darts so kindly pointed out. Now if she could only get her shaking to stop.

Mully preps herself to answer Tsuki and Monique, raising a hand before a gruff voice interrupts, cutting her off before she can speak.

"I don't know that she can, but I may be able to." The sound of another door, just off to the side out of view from the main door accompanies the appearance of the office's owner, Mister Joseph Stone. He's smiling a genteel smile as he rounds to face the group, clad as always in his dark purple striped suit, pressed immaculately. He looks older than the last time they saw him, giving them the information that they had become an officially licensed operating team.... and paying their rent, for that matter. "Mister Locke," he addresses Sub with a courteous nod, clearly having been entrusted with the Snagem leader's true name after all they'd work through together. "The boy, Tristen here? Smart as a whip, polite, clearly raised correctly. He let me know, upon his arrival here a few days ago, that you all seem to be in a spot of trouble. Being that we've had mutual business dealings for quite some time, and you saved our region here and all, I thought it expedient to use some of my contacts to do a little digging."

The old man frowns then, his salt and pepper hair that's trailing off into snow white marking his age alongside the wrinkles in his face as he does so. "I've got people everywhere, Mister Locke.... Sub." He confides, trailing off as he walks over and picks up a remote, clicking a button. Part of the office which seemed to be solid wall begins rising up, a straight partition of windows revealed behind it to let in the setting sun as it goes down off over the edge of the port. "And still, it was no small feat to get the information I did. SWIPE is very well protected, very secretive, and very much does not want this information getting out before they want it to." Mr. Stone pauses, struggling a little with what he's trying to communicate. "I don't know if you've seen it," He turns to the rest of the team, giving them a sad look. "Or if you all have not. But it's damning." Letting the statement linger, Joseph slowly makes his way over to one of the chairs in front of his desk, as his chair was currently occupied by Tristen, and lowers himself down. Mully takes a couple steps forward to help him and he waves her off.

"Everything they say you all have done, they have hardline proof. Videos, audio recordings, pictures... If they've shown you any of it, it's one thimble of what they have in their possession. Dossiers that prove Ein, along with Sub, S-22, and the Ho-Oh hybrid, Sol, was it? The accusation is that the four of you were founding members of Team Cipher too. Not only that, they have logs showing Sub in communication with that mad scientist, collaborating on the creation of S-22, collaborating on the creation of Shadow Mewtwo, and communications, by Sub and by all of you, that asserts that Team Snagem is just a shell company of sorts. A front for a bigger plot by you and Ein to destabilize the world government and seize power together. That everything you did here and abroad was nothing more than part of a greater scheme and all that happened at the end of it was you betrayed Ein."

With that hanging in the air, Mister Stone shakes his head sadly, closing his eyes. "But I don't understand it... That's not how I remember things going. Some of the details they had in these files are all wrong, I know they are. You and I... all of you, fighting to keep this region safe from Ein. Helping us manufacture the Shadow Vaccine, doing everything in your power to stop that madman and restore peace. I may be old..." His voice quavers at the admission, his eyes focused and set as he stares out the window at the last rays of the setting sun. "But my mind's not going just yet... I couldn't believe it... I CAN'T believe what they said about you all. Maybe I'm a fool, but I am choosing to put my foot down. I won't let them slander the greatest group of heroes Hoenn has ever had. Maybe the world has ever had." Rounding back on all of them, swiveling in his chair, he looks once more at the Snagem Leader.

"Even as a fool, I can only do so much in the face of irrefutable proof. They have it on ALL of you, if what my inside person tells me is true. Mountains and mountains of records that show without a shadow of a doubt you all are responsible for the Shadow Virus and everything else that happened in the past. If you go to court without some kind of evidence that what they say is false, they will find you guilty either by your direct actions or by association. You all, and I, can be as sure as the night is long that it's all fake. But it won't matter in a court of law if you don't have some evidence to the contrary." Putting his hands on the armrests of the chair, he hauls himself to his feet with a grunt, circling the desk and lightly pushing Tristen aside as he reaches into his desk drawer, clicking the hidden compartment open with an expert tap of his gnarled thumb. Inside, he pulls out a strange-looking black device, almost as twisted as his hands and holds it aloft for all of them to see.

"This is the most I can do for you, Snagem. This is my debt paid." Mr. Stone points with his free hand at the device. "An old friend of yours, Professor Cozmo, would have loved to have been here to see you all again but unfortunately had other business to attend to. He made this device. It is a skeleton key for the locks on those ghastly collars, reverse engineered from the schematics that my man gave me in addition to all the damning evidence." He grumbles the last bit, still halfway unsure if he was doing the right thing but pressing forward all the same. "If it works, and we are very certain it does, the least I can do for you all is give you a fighting chance to clear your names. Something you absolutely will not be able to do from inside a prison cell."

"Mully talked to you all, at my request, about how we've jammed all communication from inside of this building. We have, because we know exactly how these collars worked." He continues, coming around alongside Blizzard, holding the skeleton key aloft. "But we still haven't tested this on an active, ready-to-be-detonated collar. It's a risk, but, I think at this point it's between a rock and a hard place." His eyes meet Blizzard's, asking permission, and, finding no trace of fear in the hybrid's eyes he presses the key to the connecting point on the collar, in the center of the Snagem-esque symbol that had wound shut back in Boyleland. There's a brief pause, the room holding it's breath until...

Ba-beep! The neck-based murder weapon lets out an anxiety-increasing beep before clicking open, falling off the Articuno hybrid's neck and clattering to the ground. Mister Stone has an amazed, almost child-like grin quickly spread across his face and he actually hugs Blizzard openly, so thankful he hadn't just ended the man's life. This was Snagem's ticket out of here, and it looked like the tables were maybe, finally, starting to turn.

Ding!

The elevator slides open behind the Snagems and another agent moves into the room, dressed nigh identically to Mully with a labcoat and light brown slacks. His gel-moussed hair winks a little in the cozy office light as he pushes a drink cart into the room, every Snagem's preferred beverage clinking lightly as it tumbles forwards (even the iced coffee.).

"There you are hon," Mully sighs, moving forward to give the new gentleman a kiss on the lips, laughing gently. "What, did you forget where we were?"

"Haha! No, no nothing like that. I had to brew all the coffee and ice some of it. You'd be surprised how remarkably complex a process like that is." Bulder chuckles as he starts passing out the beverages to the gathered Snagems. "Okay, who wanted a lemonade?" He asks the assembled group, cracking open a cold bottle of the stuff and beginning to dispense with their drink orders.

Darts, for his part, had gone from elated at the prospect they were going to have their collars removed to one of abject, pit-of-stomach slicing horror. "A-agent Bulder, correct?" He asks, his normally confident and stable voice shuddering and wavering as he tries to get the words out.

"What, didja forget about me already? After everything we've been through together?" The agent jokes, pouring some bottled water in a glass with ice. "C'mon Darts, I thought you had a better memory than that even without the coffee and all."

Darts' memory was just fine. Maybe, in this instance, too much so. Agent Bulder had met all of them last time they were in Hoenn taking care of business, just like Agent Mully. They were partners, and, judging from the kiss they had exchanged, budding lovers. Agent Bulder was a good man, dedicated to his job, his country, and to the betterment of the world. Agent Bulder was dead.

Monique listened to Joseph Stone's words with trepidation. Mounds and mounds of evidence, though again, she saw some personal silver linings in the clouds the president of Devon was describing. (Clouds that would make a Castform geek out, too.) It seemed the charges were describing events that she wasn't here for in the slightest. They were history in this timeline, not to mention to her home timeline which was 49 years ahead. It was just a matter of finding proof of her landing in this reality when she did. With awe, she watched as Joseph's key disabled the collar. She was going to have to ask who made them, but this wasn't the time.

Of course, not being here for those foundational events in Snagem history—real or as described by SWIPE's file—meant one other thing. When Agent Bulder slid out the elevator door effortlessly, he was just another man to the sheriff of New Po. She had never visited Devon or Rustboro. She had no knowledge that Bulder was dead. And Bulder would presumably not have known her.

So when Darts's voice wavered unexpectedly, Monique had no frame of reference as to why. "...Darts?" she asked. "Is something wrong? You look like—" You've seen a ghost, her mind concluded, but it occurred to her midsentence that Darts saw a ghost every time he moved any of his body into his vision. She looked at the Giratina hybrid with great concern. Was it a collar effect? Or something else entirely?

Leslie and Beau would be right in line for their own freedom from their collars, the devices having cut into both of them way too much for their liking. As much as she could be okay with not vocalizing some of her opinion these past two days, Leslie had hit her limit and wanted out of this constriction on her right to be obtuse. Beau would take a moment to stare over at Bulder and debate on grabbing a drink and faking that he had placed an order, but something....seemed off. So rather than plunge ahead with a potentially ill-advised robbery, he would keep his position next to Leslie for freedom from the confines of his emotional and vocational prison. He had been worried for days that if he even chanced to use what little Powder he had left, they would immediately decide to use it to blow his head off.

Reno would be too engrossed to do any responses to any of the happenings from the myriad Snagems. Not when this particular cavalcade of information was landing itself at his footstep. So SWIPE legitimately had some concrete proof behind them in order to justify this response? That certainly explained why it was that Looker had been swayed to this sort of witch hunt, but it left a few interesting holes in the story that still had him torn on which of the myriad loose ends that built up in their wake had decided to pull itself taut. After all, while they had this sourced documentation, it was also possible to doctor up such things. And it was also just as possible for some people to doctor a few memories in order to make those odd pieces of documentation fit into place more smoothly than they would otherwise. If he had anything else for evidence on what exactly was going on, it would certainly help to get things moved past the debate of a first step.

Hearing the elevator ding, Reno would turn his head with a snap to see who had arrived. It would be just their luck that Looker would decide that now was the time to blow through all the red tape and simply arrest them all again, just as the barest hint of freedom was offered. But no, it was simply a somewhat familiar, brown-haired scientist wheeling in the ordered drinks. Well, thankfully they would have a friendly face in Isaac for this moment. Beginning to turn back towards Mr Stone, Reno would say, "Thanks for the fair shake, Mr Stone. We'll be certain to take this opportunity to make sure the world remembers things how they used to be."

And then he would finally catch scientist man's voice. That wasn't Isaac. That....that had to be a trick of his ear, after this many days of tension. Turning back towards their drink distributor, Reno would be confronted with the very much alive visage of Agent Bulder. Now, Reno wasn't the type to doubt miraculous recovery in the face of incredible circumstances. His entire interaction with most of Devon Corp post-Cipher was absolutely proof of that. But between the multiple years, multiple visits to this place, and the absolute lack of even a cosmetic scar on Bulder, he...hadn't. He had never even encountered something on that level.

He was torn, whether he should openly confront what was wrong before his eyes or just simply keep quiet for the moment. Blinking a few times as he ran the thought through his head a few times, Reno would eventually just turn back towards Mr Stone and Sub before asking, "D-do you got anything else for us to go off of? Maybe something...odd in the videos beyond the obvious. Something that you d-don't remember there....before."