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With the excitement of STAK’s arrival having come and gone, Tsuki figured he had one last bit of business in the HQ before he headed back to Paldea. Classes were about to begin again and, despite his plans to take online classes next year, he was still a full time student at Naranja Academy. He scooted past Cera and Crystal and headed back to the office space where he knew Sub to be, the child somehow being the only one uninterested in probing through Darts’ mail. Which was a shame because that whole situation was funny.

Tsuki peeked inside of where he had gotten the HQ’s wifi password and saw that Darts and Sub were having some kind of meeting at the moment. So, he decided to stand out of sight by the entrance and wait for that to be over first. He felt like what he needed to know might be generally uncomfortable to say the least knowing the team and it might derail what they were going on about. Was he just trying to delay that conversation? Probably. But he was right.

Sub would lean in to get a better look at the screen of Darts' SNAG and the map it was currently displaying. Upon examining it he would note the localities were both in Alola. "Alola huh? A good place for someone like them to hide." He said as he pulled back to relax in his seat once again, giving himself a second to think some more on this. "I wouldn't doubt they are receiving help hiding. That said they got far. Especially without teleporting. I'm certain GRAY would have picked up on such a unique chi signature the moment they teleported. At the very least giving us a general area but so far not a blip." The man said, pursing his lips and tapping them in thought for several seconds before sighing and returning his face to its normal arrangement.

"Bah, it's no use. You did what you could, Darts." Sub said. "As much as I'd like to find them it doesn't look like they desire the same. Maybe one day we'll get something of a proper lead, I find it hard to believe someone like they can hide forever. For now I'm relieving you of this assignment."

It was not too long as the trio of Sol, Tristen, and Aden spoke to each other, Doc Owl would finally make his way back into the room. “I thought I heard more clamoring than I would have expected. Welcome back to the world of the living, Aden.” Doc said, pushing up his glasses. “Your father apprised me of what got you in your condition and I must say, you are quite lucky. How you managed to unleash an inferno with the injuries you sustained by Ms. Aile was quite a feat. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the pressure I am sensing from you hadn’t necessarily improved really either. I do have to ask of you, Aden, just when did you learn how to use Burn Up. Not that I imagine anyone here is complaining, but I deduce that is what you performed in your final act in Paldea.” He asked Aden. “Your father stated that the most you should have been able to perform is a Heat Wave attack and he was under the assumption between Reno’s aid and your father’s blade you, excuse the phrase, burned yourself out.”

“Burn Up?” Tristen asked Doc Owl. “I…don’t think I’ve heard of that one before. Blizz hadn’t told me about that one.”

“Sounds about right, because to him it would be one of those more reckless maneuvers that one would command a Pokémon to do that he’d probably shy away from if he could help it.” Doc Owl said to him. “It’s a rather potent fire type move, known to cause extreme damage, surpassing in a lot of cases a Fire Blast attack. However, the power doesn’t come without a price. It comes at the expense of a Pokémon’s fire typing. If albeit temporarily.” Doc explained to Tristen. “One would suggest that there were advantages for using such an attack, such as Fire types no longer being weakened by Water, Rock, or Ground types, but…win some lose some as it were. Speaking of losing some, it seemed for the time being it has done a number to Aden’s grass typing as well. In any case, it’s the only explanation that I could better come up with which fits the symptoms of what you are going through. Though probably being stabbed several times is not doing you any justice either. I do suspect the effects of Burn Up may run its course and your traits may come back, but well…this is where I find myself in uncertain territory. You can blame Aden’s parents for that.” Doc said.

With the explanation given for his new ride GRAY, or rather STAK in this moment, would begin to leave the main area, deciding that they wanted to explore more of the HQ. GRAY had chose not to activate STAK while the team was away, just in case things went awry, so this was the first time he could actually test STAK out and so far so good. Upon leaving the main area STAK would enter the kitchen, looking around as GRAY examined the place from a new point of view, a mobile one instead of from a fixed security camera. He would have trouble explaining to these people how it felt so different but it did, he felt like he was an actual presence in the room and not like he was just looking out a window.

Upon spotting Terashi in the kitchen the miniature Stakataka would turn to the man and GRAY would speak to him from the kernel on STAK's back. "Greetings, Terashi! How are you doing?" He asked, trying his hand at small talk. GRAY was being uncharacteristically kind since he activated STAK, must have put him in a good mood.

My first instinct was to disregard STAK's inquiry, assuming GRAY was the one talking. I typically avoided interacting with the AI as much as I could, as I wasn't fond on his attitude. That said, Rala and I had agreed by now that we were both to blame for the Black Hole Incident, and while Stakataka was the reason, it wasn't at fault.. So, in case the remains of Stakataka that GRAY had commandeered had a mind of its own, I decided to not leave a bad first impression, so I placed my hand on the top of STAK and patted it. "I'm fine, thank you," I said politely, not showing too much appreciation in case GRAY was the one talking.

Keiko, who had been focusing on Yuna up to this point, saw me do what was as close to headpatting as one could do to a piece of a Pokemon, and reacted typically. "Aww, that one's kinda cute," Keiko said before nudging me gently. "When did you catch this one?"

"I didn't," I said gently, "GRAY did." Upon hearing the AI's name, Absinthe focused on us and, by extention, STAK. She hadn't yet learned to distain the AI, due to her interactions with it being limited, so she didn't show any interest int he situation just yet. But she DID watch for now.

"You're talking about Ein, right?" Sub asked after considering Tsuki's question. He took a second or two before responding but he knew instantly who the boy was referring to and instead considered how he would answer the question rather than who the boy was asking about. "No, he's alive." The Snagem leader said plainly, letting that declaration linger for a second or two before speaking again. "Or is he dead?" He asked, scratching his cheek. "What I mean is I do not know." The man verified for the boy. "I could find out if I wanted, but instead I choose not to." The man continued before leaning forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his desk.

"Ein is currently bound to a chair with welded metal restraints inside of a welded metal cube which is floating off somewhere, or everywhere, in the endless expansion of the Distortion World. I'll save the long spiel but it's a dimension that acts as the shadow to our own reality where time and space do not exist. Unless something kills Ein in there, or he discovers space or time do exist in there to some degree, like if his prison collides with something or he ages, then the mad man will exist for all eternity. The only thing he has to keep him company is a screen displaying the images of every last one of his victims, at least the ones I was able to document." Sub said, deciding he really needed to explain in detail what went on with all of that.

"Sure, it would have been easy to kill him, he definitely deserved it. Heck, I more than anyone know the extent of the horrors he unleashed. However when I finally found him he was an old man relying on the miracle of life supporting machines, without them he'd die almost instantly. Now instead he will live without the machines, in pain and suffering of which the machines relieved him of, and while he suffers he will know a fraction of the pain he inflicted on the faces he is forced to stare at for all of time." He said, leaning back once he finished his explanation.

"I know what you're thinking now, and what you might say next, some of our teammates had the same thoughts and feelings. You can disagree with my decision if you would like to, I totally understand why you would. But death would have been too good for Ein, in fact in the end I think he wanted it, he deplored the sorry state of his own body, what age had down to him, it disgusted him. That's why he relied so much on plastic surgery to keep up the appearance of youth and when that didn't work anymore he used body doubles, holograms, you name it. So to me this was the best punishment for someone like him, the best a mortal like me could deliver unto him. I do not regret my decision." He said firmly. Now Tsuki may react as he would, Sub would bear no ill will towards the boy for anything he said.

Judging by the sounds that STAK made before GRAY spoke up, it seemed like the Ultra Beasts remains had a mind of its own. I had to wonder if Stakataka had a hivemind instead of being a single entity, but GRAY took me off that train of thought with its inquiry. Hearing the AI be this cordial was certainly unusual, but it wasn't unwelcome. I'd be far less adverse to interacting with him if he was always this agreeable. I had to admit, though, that I didn't believe this would last. Either GRAY wanted something, or this was just a hiccup in its personality subroutines, and the AI would back to its normal surly self in due time regardless of which was the case.

Unsure if GRAY knew about human empathy, I decided to educate him on the subject. If it was already aware of what I was about to discuss, its normal surly demeanor would surely resurface, if only for an instant - assuming this wasn't some minor glitch. "All humans can detect emotions to some minor degree. Usually in the form of facial expressions, body language, vocal tone, or the words used in a conversation. More often or not, a combination of some, if not all of them. My ability to sense emotions is best put to use when people or Pokemon are trying to hide their emotions, or to just sense who's around without using my other five senses - say, if I'm preoccupied with something. That said, I don't have access to that ability right now, as I don't have the Betyl Stone on me."

"Wait, what?" Rala spoke up telepathically before teleporting to my side. "Where did you put it? I don't sene it anywhere around us."

I knew this conversation was coming, so I decided to focus on it. "While you were recovering from our injury, I remembered that the only reason I pursued Psychic Channeling originally was out of curiosity, and thought that if this was the end result, then I didn't really deserve to consider pursuing it. Before you say anything, I know we agreed that we're both at fault for that, but at the time, I blamed myself. To be honest, I don't know how I feel about continuing to pursue it."

"Master..." Rala sighed mentally. She left it at that for now, but it was clear to anyone around that she wanted to to say something about it. Keiko realized that my focus had shifted, so she motioned for STAK to waddle to her side so she could headpat him while I was focused on Rala, though she kept an arm to herself so she could continue to hold Yuna. Absinthe had realized what STAK's deal was, and while she thought it was really cool that GRAY had commandeered a Pokemon, she didn't say anything so as not to interrupt the other conversations going on around her.

Aile nodded then raised an eyebrow, surprised about the question. "I... It's something I picked up as a kid," she replied, looking maybe mildly embarrassed. "One of the few things I could do that made my mother... not criticize me. And It became something I was proud of. I got lessons growing up, and I kept practicing. And then... I made some stupid, rash choices, and.. I stopped doing anything with it. " She looked down at the quiver on her side, sighing. "At least until now. So, that's me rusty." She jabbed a thumb at the tree. "It's like riding a bike, but after a really long time. It's also been helping get used to having a second arm again."