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Deo looked up from his plate as he heard the new kid ask about his Applin. From there Deo would use his X-Ray vision for a second and then respond, "Second Drawer to the right of the sink, Lower part, in the pots." from there, he would enjoy another bite of a waffle. He looked again to see the new kid. "Welcome to the team kid, names Deo." His tired eyes went back to his food. As he enjoyed his waffle and some chocolate milk, his mind went to simpler times where he had less to worry about and where his grandmother was there smiling and peace was all in the house.

Breakfast was served in the med lab eventually, where I just silently ate, still waiting on Tristen. I’d eventually manage to eat the meal…slowly. I was basically going through the motions, if I could be honest. I think at one point I’d completely blank out, but when I came back to reality, the breakfast meal was gone. I suppose I am too far distracted. I have tried yesterday for instance to go distract myself somehow. Get some training with the team that I had taken through the gyms in Paldea a little more, train myself some, get some exercise since the most I had done was basically walking with the occasional running when wild Pokémon get uppity, but it was just more going through the motions really. On the one hand I felt like lashing out on something, but oddly, I found myself in a situation where I just…didn’t have too much of a will to do so. This was depression, wasn’t it? Ugh…I might need someone to talk to at this point. But do I really want to?

A couple of knocks on the door, I perked up, seeing Freth there at the door, hovering an inch off the ground before planting her feet down at the door. Freth still had a couple of bandage patches around her forehead from her incident in Area Zero, probably the last of what remained of her injuries from that trip. “Hey. Doing okay?” she’d ask.

“I don’t think so…” I said to her. “You know. The usual. The usual answers that I get should I even say anything about them. And all the while still wishing Tristen will be up sooner than later, wondering if what happened to him is had caused lasting, if not mortal, damage.” I said to her, sitting the breakfast tray on a nearby counter where I sat. “I keep being told to have faith but then I have things happen again which spiral out of control, which…on any other day should frustrate me, but right now, I am just…burned out. I am completely…burned…out.” I sighed for a second.

“You need to get up out of here, Blizzard.” Freth said. “This isn’t doing you any good. Since after that meeting with Clavell and Geeta, you’ve been in here about 80% of the time. Tristen is going to get up when he gets up. I know you want to be there for him, but he spent ten days without you already. And if nothing else, Doc is watching him; he’ll know better than you will.” That may have been true, I thought, but I felt as if I still needed to stay here. For as all I knew, Tristen could be up at any second. I wanted to be here for him. Freth would watch as if I slumped in the chair ever so slightly, crossing my arms, content on staying where I was at. It was not going to fly with her, however. Freth reached out and I felt a harsh tug on my shirt, I stumbled, completely caught off guard, as I was effectively pulled towards Freth until she physically grabbed my shirt. “You need. To get out of the med lab. And let Tristen rest.” She reiterated.

“You know, I haven’t realized until now just how much you with telekinetic power is going to be really precarious.” I said.

“Bear in mind, this is just the start of it, and I’m still learning to do more. If you don’t want me to experiment on you, get out of the med lab. Blizzard, I know you care a lot, I do too. But sitting there moping isn’t doing anything.” She said. “Why don’t we go out? Just…wherever. We hadn’t really spent any time with each other since getting back from the academy, and God knows we didn’t while there. You need time, Blizzard.”

Resigned that I wasn’t going to win this one, amongst a lot of these kind of ‘battles’, I just conceded. “Anywhere in particular you want to go?”

“Just. I don’t know. Out. But before we do, I need to go see Sub real quick. Something that I didn’t bring up during that meeting the other day.” Freth said.

“Something else? Anything that also threaten to pull out the proverbial knives? You remember the tension in that meeting room, holy hell.” I told her.

“No, no…while I didn’t get one of those weird Pokémon, I didn’t leave without some sort of souvenir of some kind.” She said, pulling out from her bag a crystal with its ethereal glow. “It’s a little bit of that Tera Crystal that was in a bunch of patches all over Area zero. I got this when I was in that broken down building I told everyone about that was deeper in the cavern.”

I took the crystal from her for a moment to get a feel of it. While I did sense some sort of pressure of it, it wasn’t all that great, let alone have any sort of distinct feeling like I felt from raid dens or anything of that sort. “…is any of this useful? Or is that why you got it?”

“Well…sort of? Like I mentioned, this stuff was growing all over the place like moss or grass. Maybe Sub can figure out there is something to this and if there would be cause for alarm. I didn’t go there to not find out if anything was wrong, after all. Barring that, as much as I hate to admit it, Geeta might have been right about one thing; that place is a proverbial treasure trove. In what way, I don’t know, though. Maybe it could be used to fashion those Tera orbs like they have in Paldea? Or…something else. Hopefully Sub might figure something out.”

“Do we really want to give Sub another science experiment to work with?” I asked. “Honestly, can we just stop at Dynamaxing for God’s sake? I didn’t even care for that one.”

As Freth and I continued to discuss the sparkling rock, Tristen started to stir in bed. “Unnngh…” The Manetric hybrid coughed furiously for a couple of seconds.

“Tristen!” I made my way to his bedside, looking down at him. “Freth, go get Doc. Tristen, I’m here.” I said to the teenager as Freth stashed the tera crystal back in her pack then hovered off down the halls in the hunt for Doc Owl.

“…Blizz?” Tristen spoke up. Tristen winced several more times, then started to look around. “Is…this…are we back at the headquarters?” Tristen said, wincing again. “I thought…wait…” Tristen tried to push himself up, wanting to get a look at himself, but was having a hard time trying to shift his weight around to sit up.

“Tristen don’t do that. Just relax. Here…” I reached down the side of the bed and raised the top half of the bed a little bit. I then reached over, grabbing a pitcher full of water, putting it in a container and capped it off with a straw. I then reached over and allowed him to sip on the water. Once he was done, I sat the water back down at the bed side.

“…I’m alive?” Tristen said, trying to gather his thoughts. “But…I thought…”

“You mega-evolved. We all know. Cera ended up telling us.” I said to him. Tristen would reach up, feeing about his face, his still canine face. He managed to pull his arms from out from under the sheets and took a look at them. Not any where near as muscular as they were when he mega-evolved, let alone the large amounts of spiked out yellow fur. But he was still a hybrid. The same one. “Doc had been trying to check everything about you since this mega-evolution was forced like it was for Leslie. Though, rather or not what comes of it has yet to be determined yet. You might have dodged a proverbial bullet because while you had a chi converter doing that sort of thing, Leslie had Ambrosia draw out latent power which probably what ended up burning her out. But truthfully, that’s all guess work. Hopefully Doc has a answer for all of us sooner than later.”

Tristen was silent, his head sinking back down in the pillow but then realized…he was uncomfortable. He then reached down at his sheets and pulled them up. “Why does……..oh.”

“…hm? Oh…well, it wasn’t like you were getting up to the rest room while you were in a coma.” I said to him. “Doc and Orderly will take care of that at some point.”

“So he’s awake.” Doc Owl said as he walked in. “Well, good morning. Another day of heroics leading up to my care again, hm?” Tristen couldn’t bring himself to answer. “Tristen, I’m not saying it to belittle you, I understand you had a great undertaking and given our conversations over that week, I have to admit you performed admirably. But let’s get down to business…we’re going to have a lot to do for a little while and explain to you what we may be up against while you try to recover.”

“Blizzard.” Freth said, reaching out and tugging my sleeve. She gave a nod down the hall, signaling me to leave the doctor to his business. I would follow her out of the med lab. As we walked down the halls, she looked back at me. “Feel better now?”

“A little. We’ll just have to see for the next while, won’t we?”

“One day at a time, Blizzard. Anyways…go get cleaned up. I’ll be seeing Sub real quick.” Freth then said to me. Once we left the med lab, Freth broke off to go find the Snagem leader.

It had been a few days and Reno was still awaiting a new replacement for his prosthetic. Unfortunately, adding a lot of the material to try and prevent such a severe thermal shock from occurring wasn't exactly a common and easily gathered resource. Apparently wanting actual quality took time compared to how he used to deal with things like this when it was hoverboards he was accidentally junking every other week. Either way, it left him more time to do what had apparently become his passtime for this particular moment, at least until he felt he had managed to run into a significant dead end: continuing to run down what he could locate of mythology and other bits of ephemera related to the Dark One. His last attempt had been a little focus on the modern cult that he had heard mentioned by Robin at the time, but this time he was going for more historical reference to anything related to the title. It wasn't liable to turn up any smoking gun, but who knew if he might get lucky and find something familiar-sounding? And if there was nothing, at least he could say he tried.

Figuring he could use some air instead of pouring over endless information to try and somehow find something new that sparked an idea with his new grains of knowledge, Reno would find himself in the awkward position of accidentally eavesdropping as he could hear Aile talking with her Flygon. And apparently, she was still doing just as bad as she had been in the nurse's office back in Paldea. Possibly worse since she'd had all the time to run through those thoughts and let the worst portions of them all stew. And while he couldn't be called out as having the richest inner life. the talk of all the voices and of the solution being bury the problem and just take the quick route to make it vaguely okay struck a chord. Perhaps it was time to try and do some actual managerial duties for his co-workers like a Co-Leader should.

"I'll say this as someone who tried that route after the last mild trauma involving the Ziton, drinking to shut things up and burying things because you think your problem is minor is not a solution." Reno said, striding out onto the little archery range to be in Aile's view. "Now, normally I'd try to make light and make some joke at my own expense but...self-deprecation and looking a lot at your worst tendencies seems like it's partially why we're both here."

Taking a seat, Reno would attempt to present himself as openly to Aile as he could manage. Which mostly amounted to sitting cross-legged on the ground and extending his one arm outwards. "So....have at it. Actually talk about your problems, out in the open, with me. I promise I will listen and won't judge. And I say this as someone who stayed in his higher-up leadership position for a time out of a severe worry that he would have to instigate a team rebellion. So....lets hear what's weighing you down."

Odd sighed once again, shoulders dropping slightly. "I know." He said in response to the offers of aid if he ever needed it. "I'm trying to get used to this but the hardest part is what I can see. I have no depth perception now so I can't tell what's nearby and what's not."

"You still haven't really explained that, even to me." Lykas noted, sounding more curious at this point.

"It's weird... I think associated with my channeling? I can see souls clearer than ever but they're all just...floating in a void. And I don't seem to need to focus on doing it now?" Odd replied. "I can't really put it into words."

Lykas nodded to himself. The difficulty in explaining made sense. It sounded like something that would be hard to understand without experiencing it for yourself. Libelle was nearly done with her bottle by this point and the young man took it away from her for the moment, letting her settle for a moment as she grabbed at his hair. "Ow..." He yelped as she grabbed a handful and tugged. "That's attached, you know." He told her with a small laugh, carefully prying her tiny fingers free and letting the infant grab his finger instead.

"Pulling your hair again?" Odd asked, a small laugh escaping from his lips as he smiled for what felt like the first time since getting back.

"Yeah. Dunno why but she's fascinated with it." Lykas replied. "You want to visit your other dad?" He asked the infant playfully, bouncing her gently for a moment as she giggled, reaching toward Odd as he turned her to face him. "I thought so."

Odd reached out, carefully, and took Libelle into his arms. The baby wriggled around a bit as he adjusted her and once settled, immediately proceeded to do the same to Odd as she had to Lykas. She found his braid and immediately began to tug on it. "Ow! Guess it's my turn." The Channeler laughed again, a laugh that truly masked his pain as it was replaced with joy for the moment. "Never thought I'd be happy to have a baby pulling my hair." he admitted.

"Sorry guys. She's already proving to be a handful." Lykas apologized to their friends. "Where were we, again?"

"Believe me, we know the feeling," I said with a smirk as Yuna began to tug at my tie with both hands. As she started laughing, one of her ears curled up and the other curled out - something that happened autonomously due to the type of hybrid Yuna was.

"I think we've dwelled on it enough by now," Keiko said when Lykas asked for a refresher on our previous conversation. She wanted to change the subject, but didn't really know what to change the subject to, hoping that either of the lovers in front of us would have an idea to that effect.

Monique came back from Paldea after managing to convince academy leadership that becoming the first Claydol-empowered commuter student in Uva-Naranja's however-long history was good for them, good for her, and good for Snagem. Clavell had kept talking about things like "accreditation agencies" and "realms of teaching and learning" that she wasn't quite sure she'd heard of, but he apparently felt that having a Snagem student would do wonders for "alumni relations" and "institutional advancement". Whatever that meant.

She'd come back to a stack of mail—not as formidable as some members of the team, who had been in this reality longer and were more well-known for their deeds than their (projected) body unlike she was, but she got some spam of her own. Some company in Castelia wanted her to be a model. One in particular made her raise her eyebrow. It was a gaudy, metallic gold-trimmed flyer showcasing a couple that apparently called themselves the Glitterati—complete with matching outfits and highly reflective aviator glasses—and advertised "Paldea's Most Exclusive Properties", which all looked like lush country estates. Even the flyer had glitter, some of which stuck around in Monique's paws, much to her chagrin. What were they thinking? The only person she knew with enough money to purchase those properties was a certain King Faba. Disgusting, she thought. Apparently they had a market.

Monique was almost done going through the envelope when she heard a noise. As a thank-you gift for their trouble, the Snagems had all received Pokémon eggs, with no clue as to their contents. She'd set the egg down on the floor in her room while sifting through the mail when it started to rock and crack. Suddenly, a slightly thick, sweet-smelling liquid rushed forth as the shell burst open. A small, eight-inch-tall bubble floated in front of her in place of the egg (and its liquid mess, which she'd soon have to clean up).

Milcery. Fairy. The Cream Pokémon. This Pokémon was born from sweet-smelling particles in the air. Its body is made of cream.

It looked adorable, but Monique sighed at hearing its type. Fairy. What a reminder to go get my iron prescription fulfilled, she thought. All she could do was hope not to sneeze.

"Yea, I'll make it." Freth said, hovering her way to the chair Sub presented and sat down in it. "I wanted to bring something else up; I figured if I had broke this one out as well, it was going to make things worse in that meeting than what it had been. Honestly, that Geeta woman was making it real tough to say 'screw it, I'm whistleblowing this'. Anyways..." she took off her pack and pulled out the Tera crystal, leaning over to set it down on Sub's desk. "I figure that you might want to try to study this a little bit. Frankly, I don't think I can trust the word of ambiguous professors allegedly still in that hole. At risk of sounding like Blizzard, I think we might need to get to the bottom of what makes these Tera crystals tick. Unlike Blizzard's bias, though, to toying with this sort of thing, I'm looking at it as there's a reason why that crater is off limits; I might buy that Geeta didn't know anything about those weird Pokemon, but that's about as much as I can stomach. There's probably something more going on that we're not seeing. If there's nothing then, whatever. At the very least, maybe you might be able to make use of the rock somehow."

“Hey, its what I do. I’ve always been pragmatic, more than Blizzard even.” Freth said. “And it was probably just as well I took a dive in that hole anyways, given what I heard about that Ziton thing lately. I already had one unfortunate experience not having any manner of control over myself in Celcius, I’d rather not do that again.” Freth said.

“That’s not getting into just kind of a meal you’d probably make for it. Or…more specifically…us.” Eris spoke up within Freth’s mental airways. “And the more powerful you get in your psychic prowess, the more of an enticing meal you’d make.”

“I’d rather not think about that…” Freth said in reply, keeping the conversation private. With a sigh, she looked back towards Sub as he mentioned the weird Pokémon, especially the violet-colored electric one. “Yea, that one…I don’t know how that thing is content with just staying down there, or why.” Freth said to Sub. “I don’t know whatever Geeta has in mind, but I doubt whatever she did have in mind, it’s not going to be enough. Its like…this is the future version of a Legendary Pokémon, and you know just on a normal day, barring the science-fiction sort of things, they’re not something to be screwed with. This one really showed it. It only served to tell me that while I am at it, I need to double down trying to figure out my Psychic prowess a lot more. Trying to re-learn Agility will be of a great help, at least. Either way, if we do go down into Area Zero again, with or without Geeta’s say so, I am not going alone. I barely got out with what I had on me, and if I wasn’t careful enough, Alakazam wouldn’t have gotten me out either. If you go down there, Sub, bring the entire team or at the very least, the tougher members we have here, you tell them they go in expecting the absolute worst. I did anyways, and still felt rather unprepared for it. Just one of those weird Pokémon was a handful, and that purple one was poised to make sure that you guys never saw me again, and there’s no telling what else is down there. Or why for that matter.”

“Tell him what I said about them.” Eris mentioned. “You didn’t mention it in that meeting.”

“Yeaaahhh…uh, one clue that I got, namely from Eris, is that those weird Pokémon are from supposedly two different time frames. The purple one or those robotic looking Pokémon are apparently from a far distant relative future that we may end up being in. The other half, the more organic looking ones, supposedly lived along side the Aerodactyls, Armaldos, Kabutos, and so on that we knew about back in the day well in the past. Eris is suspecting considering the formulas that we saw in the Professors abandoned lab in Cabo Poco that the Tera phenomenon allows some form of ultra space travel, in the degree of it looking like time travel, something that the professors were trying to exploit. Eris doesn’t know, however, if they knew what they were getting into. Only that they knew something was up. Considering what I saw down there, however, probably something they regretted when they dug too deep. I don’t know.”