Welcome to Gaia! ::

Darts was midway through his pile of mail but the annoying beeping quickly caught his attention. He set aside a third very formal looking scroll sealed with an insignia of a Rayquaza wrapped around on itself biting its tail to take a minute to at least look, hauling himself to his feet and out into the main room. As soon as he sets eyes on the thing, one hand snaps into his jacket to pull out a Pokeball, his Shelgon's capsule rolling to the forefront of his hand as he ascertains the threat in front of him. He had been around for the Stakataka last time and he had bumped into some of the Ultra Beasts Snagem had run afoul of elsewhere, so if another rift had opened it was going to be bad news. He hears Cera's confusion and cocks an eyebrow inside of his crest as he hesitates, watching Zwei and Rhyme interacting. GRAY? How did that even make sense?

"Rhyme...." He says, keeping his voice as level as possible without relaxing in the slightest. "What's this about GRAY?"

Crystal had some mild alarm at sensing another Stakataka, but she was a lot more calm about it. Mostly because she could tell at a glance(so to speak) that it was considerably weaker than a normal Stakataka. She’d still follow Cera out, though, in part to be able to continue the conversation, and partially to see what was going on herself. Apolla would follow as well, curious about what was going on. At least, if Crystal was calm, she was going to stay relaxed. Enough, at least.

Following her up, she’d cross her arms underneath her shawl once she saw the little mini Stak. “Huh. No, I haven’t sensed anything, and I can sense a wormhole open from quite aways away. We’ve hopefully stabilized for now… At least in this area. Alola, at least, has a thinner barrier to Ultra Space to begin with… But that’s another story aside. These bricks must have been left behind. GRAY, did you make friends with these guys? Because this mini Staka is actually kind of cute,” she chuckled.

“Mistress Crystal!” Kairos would race up to her, the Chingling happily chiming. “Please, I am not equipped to take care of younglings!” He pleaded with his trainer, turning to offer her the small bell. With a chuckle, she pulled out a simple Pokéball and poked the Chingling with it, drawing it in. Once it was off of him, Kairos visibly relaxed, seemingly breathing a sigh of relief. ”Mistress, thank you, I-”

“Kai, I hate to break it to you, but that little Pokémon is still going to see you as its parent. There’s no getting around it,” she chuckled, interrupting the Sigilyph. “You’re going to have to deal with it.”

“But, I have no idea how to take care of a child! I was an attendant for full grown humans, not little ones who do not know how to fend for themselves,” Kairos panicked, suddenly shooting a leer over at Apolla, who was laughing now.

“Oh don’t worry, Apolla can help. Or Demon Wing, but you can ask Apolla first. She might be the better one, since Demon Wing likes to fight a lot. And Chingling’s also a psychic type, so you guys can help show the little one moves to learn!” It was Apolla’s turn to leer, only this time at Crystal.

“Hey, why am I getting volunteered?!”

“Simple. You’re another psychic type, and you were also laughing at Kai’s situation,” the galactic catwoman replied, smirking. “It sounds to me like you might be willing to help out, with that laughing. Like it sounded like a fun situation.” Crystal’s ears then caught onto a familiar voice, ears twitching as she turned to look at Darts. “Hey Darts! There looks like a little dataserver or something on top of this one. That’s what’s up.”

“What the-? Awhhhh, it’s a lil guy!” Tsuki said, gesturing to the Pokemon he had NO hope of identifying. It looked like a little preevolved Pokemon, maybe a steel and psychic type like Bronzor? He pointed at Snapdragon and squinted his eyes, as though silently telling him to behave only to get the slowest blink in the world as a response. Knowing he probably couldn’t trust him not to each the entire pantry, he returned the now newly evolved Dipplin to his Pokeball.

Tsuki tilted his head at the chaos brought in by the Yamper and Pachirisu hybrids. They were probably also Team Snagem members if they were in the HQ but I didn’t remember them from before or from their time in Paldea. When Cera and Monique came barreling in ready to fight, he looked around back and forth at what was going on. “Hey, I don’t think that Pokemon is a threat. And- that’s what GRAY looks like?” He asked, turning back around to look down at the Stakataka. GRAY actually had a body? Oh, this was GOOD if that was the case. Tsuki had years of promises to put fridge magnets on him to keep.

Wait. “Did you say wormholes? What the hell happened while I was gone?” Tsuki asked. Last he remembered in his time here, they had sent Archie off to water world and that Ein clone had been turned to stone.

And there Aile finally went. Once Aile heard those words and felt Reno put his arm on her, she started bawling her eyes out. All of the emotions she was holding back, everything she kept bottled up for however long, it all came out in an ugly cry. That crying would continue as she put her arms around both Reno and Tati, holding them as tight as she could. Tati, at the very least, would reciprocate by also hugging Reno, making sure all three of them were in a tight embrace.

Aile would continue crying for probably a minute or two, but it felt like forever for her. What felt like years of bottled up sadness, frustration, misery, as well as breaking an internalization of not showing any sort of sadness or ‘weak’ emotion, as she heard anxiety, sadness, and worry be called by her mother. Just years of sadness and misery from events where she probably should have paused and let herself process those events then, but instead just kept forging on past them. All of that was finally being let out into the open, and off of her chest. As her wailing died back down into sobbing, and that even slowed, she realized that she left… relieved in a way? Maybe tired was more like it, but she was just glad that it was out there in the open. With that, she would also realize that she had her head on Reno’s shoulder, while she was clinging tightly to the both of them still. Also, she was standing, but didn’t remember getting up. But that was the least of everything. She just assumed that Tatooine probably stood her up.

Finally, she lifted her head up and took a small step backwards, rubbing her face with her sleeve. “s**t, sorry. I didn’t mean… That was maybe a bit excessive. Sorry,” she chuckled, wiping her eyes. “I…” A sheepish, embarrassed grin was on her face, looking between Reno and Tatooine again. “Arceus, I don't know what to say. Thanks, I suppose, to start.” She sniffled, not really able to breathe very well now through her nose. “God… Did you really do similar? That seems… Well, maybe not so odd, considering the chaos Snagem gets into, now that I think about it. Bit interesting that it happened multiple times to the group, though.” She wasn’t going to ask for details in case Reno didn’t want to give them. But that was an interesting note.

Monique breathed a massive sigh of relief and looked in awe at what GRAY had done. Taking pieces of an Ultra Beast, taming them, rehoming them, and fixing the whole "missing command module" problem? That was impressive.

"You scared me there, STAK." She was still trying to come down from the emotional high of what she thought was another Ultra Beast encounter. "You are kinda adorable, actually." She decided to finish her thought toward Tsuki that she'd held back. "You know I came from an Ultra Wormhole too, right?" she asked the kid.

Upon hearing his teammate's explanation and the soliloquy from the pile of bricks walking around Darts was no closer to understanding what exactly that meant but from the expression on Monique and other's faces after, he took it to heart that it was no longer a threat and straightened, putting the Shelgon's Pokeball away in his pocket. He smiled his thanks to Crystal, nodding a little. She couldn't see his mouth as usual, but his eyes made a happy upwards sort of motion so it was pretty obvious. "Thanks for the heads up." he replied, moving to the Solgaleo hybrid to give her a gentle fist bump. They had been on good terms since he had apologized for the way he had been acting back at the academy with his whole mood, and was a sight for sore eyes with so many new members or members he hadn't come to know so well. "Is Sub here?" He asks her, straining his head to look and see if the light was on in his office, craning to catch a glimpse that confirmed it was. "Ohp, it looks like he is. Let me take a second here before he runs off somewhere. Can you keep an eye on my mail?" Darts raises a hand, pointing his slender finger over to the table piled with labeled manila folders, carven tubes in various shapes and imprinted with various seals, and stacks of other envelopes heaped in a big pile on the table. "Want to make sure it doesn't walk away...." He eyes the Stakataka tottering around the main room. "Like some of the things around here. Kay thanks byeeeee!" Some things never change as he doesn't give her a chance to protest, wooshing away with his jacket streaming behind him to head to the Leader's office. That was a lot of very curious mail...

Even given his lacadaisical approach to protocol, Darts still knocks first. It was only proper given the hierarchy and all. Especially considering the things that he needed to discuss with him. "Heyyyy...." The Giratina hybrid says, in an effort to be casual as he looks at Sub brooding out the office over steepled fingers, left with his thoughts only temporarily. "Got a second?"

Darts kicked the door shut casually with a swipe of his foot as he took the indicated seat, adjusting his jacket appropriately so he could sit upright, as opposed to his usual lazy lounging style, while they discussed business. "Well Sub, I did what you asked me to. I cut out of the academy early to go pursue that other mission you had for me. But I'm sad to say... I wasn't entirely successful chasing that particular lead. I found bits and pieces here and there as I went, but I couldn't quite complete what you asked me to for better or for worse. I think I got close once or twice but... ultimately I'm back to tell you I couldn't get it done."