Welcome to Gaia! ::

Reno would narrow his eyes at the mention of more stolen Cipher technology. Given the source of the last influx of Cipher nonsense and who had been directly involved there, it seemed like it was about to become a very interesting time for his own little investigation and the half-mothballed boards and string. "I get why maybe the majority of us weren't sent, what with the whole very well known appearance stuff, but who the hell would rank as our best operative for this?" Reno asked, blinking a few times as he heard the response from Ogerpon. Pointing towards the Pokemon, he added, "Also, I agree with shortstack. We keep saying that team name and I'm just gonna want lunch."

Listening to the conversation, Beau would shrug and turn on his heel. "I'll go get my social media coordinator. That way if we cause another international incident, we can try for some PR spin." He said, dialing up Aria as he did so.

There would be a bright pink flash as the team Claydol teleported back with a passenger, an object the size of a small sedan perched on her shoulder. "Whats wrong!? Are we finally doing something major again!? School is making me stir-crazy!" Leslie crowed, her newest iteration of her hammer coming into focus as she glanced around the room. While it was still the same large size as it had been when it ended up forgotten from the Kitakami trip, the actual look of the hammer had been spruced up from the pure grey metal to now resembling the dual horn mouths of a Mega Mawile with the handle mounted in between the two horns.

"Grahhhh...." Lifting a newly-formed cudgel as its mask changes from Grass to Fire at Reno's words, Ogerpon would be intercepted from behind as Darts nonchalantly reaches forwards and holds it back from swinging forwards and dashing Reno's skull like a fragile egg. She spins towards him, protesting the insult to her honor.

"Grahh pon!"

"No."

"Pyon pon pon!"

"Fair, but still no."



"Ohh, it was Cera." The Giratina hybrid hadn't thought back to her Ranger days in quite a while. But it made sense, she knew the territory, she knew the people, and would probably have the best chance of blending in. Still, with hypnotism in the mix and Cipher tech this Dim Sun team was trying to establish themselves as a heavy hitter, clearly.



He glances in Monique's direction, the lack of pizazz almost as startling as any crazy visage she could dream up. "Yeah, these Ranger Unions were a thorn in our side from nearly day one. Used to be little tyrants of their own fiefdoms and making us out to be criminals, generally trying to drive us underground and snuff us out. Not our favorites, to say the least. Cera here," He gestures at her as she prepared to give the news. "Was one once upon a time, a long time ago. Until the corruption got too much for her to be able to conscientiously keep working alongside them."

Lykas huffed and puffed quietly in the corner after Sub mentioned their "best operative" on the job. He could only think of one or two people who might be any good for something like this but neither of them was the person who arrived a few moments later. He fumed at the sight of her but it wasn't because of her, directly. He'd always seen her as being the most child-like member of the team and it felt wrong to send her into the thick of all this. But it made sense. He hadn't thought about her early days, having come to join Snagem from the Ranger Union in the first place. And it wouldn't have been the first time she went to infiltrate their ranks to gather intelligence for them. As he fought his rage back down, the black glow that had begun to swell behind his eyes dulled and finally, after a very long few moments, extinguished as he mentally convinced himself that this was fine. Sub wouldn't have forced her to go if he thought she would be in real danger, after all.

"Are you sure sending a Pokemon to investigate a team hypnotizing Pokemon into being brainwashed minions was wise?" Odd asked as he turned toward the kitchen, Libelle beginning to fuss as he had delayed fetching her lunch.

"Good point. Normally, I wouldn't question your decisions but this just feels like it wasn't the most well-thought-out." Lykas replied as Odd disappeared into the kitchen. "It's not like she's Larry. She's strong and she's got enough brains to actually cause issues if they affect her mind." The hybrid pointed out, dogpiling on Larrimore along with several others.

"I think I've missed something..." Clare remarked quietly as the Larrimore hate-train picked up more and more passengers as it circled the room. As Cera arrived and delivered her findings, Clare simply watched quietly for a moment. They didn't recognize the Mew in her transformed state. They'd be lucky to say they'd seen it more than once or twice and it had been over a year since the last time they could recall having noticed Cera at all with them being at the Academy for the last several semesters.

Keiko breathed a sigh of relief when Sub mentioned that she could just snag back her Pokemon if they got hypnotized. She just hoped that technology didn't work on hybrids. But she snapped herself out of that train of thought and let Claydol teleport her alongside the rest of the team.

"More like I'm surprised Spenser hasn't tried to stop her," Sol remarked.

"About that..." Cera started to remark, only to groan at the remark about Sub's hopes of Spenser showing up. "If anyone's going to show up, it's probably gonna be him somehow. But keep the Snag Machines ready, yeah. Had to be careful around the machines, even use the Styler a couple of times when the hypnosis tried to set in on Pichu here. Still, let's go, I can't guarantee how much time we'll have." She'd be quick to get back outside, already as geared up as she could be.

"Guess if anything, this will be a good chance for Liepard to be around. Maybe AychKay... ehhhhh." Sol shook his head. Though he felt HK might be resilient towards being hypnotized itself, he still wasn't sure about running that risk. He'd head back to his room briefly to get ready before coming back out.

"Er, I.... don't have any Dark-types?" Amaranth commented, feeling a sense of dread... and then sighing before making a note to go get her Snag Machine on the way out.

Tsuki was there in the common area, listening in with increased interest in the group when Sub began to talk about Almia and the Ranger Union. Snagem’s crossing with them years ago had been what had made him first join years ago, so one could imagine the anticipation of getting to relive that experience for himself. Were they taking advantage of Shadow Pokemon? Kicking babies? Having Shadow Pokemon KICK babies? But no, they were apparently reformed and useless at that. A part of him felt disappointed, but it wasn’t like Sub to gather everyone here just to waste their time.

True to his gut feeling, Tsuki was right. The Rangers were allowing via incompetence some new team to handle Cipher tech. “Honestly, after this last year, I’d like to break some of Cipher’s s**t. So I’m in.” He said from the back, a grin working up on his face. Who cared if the Ranger Union didn’t want them around? One way or another, the plan to go in hot and fast, blasting through Team Dim Sun’s defenses and destroying whatever legacy Ein left was something Tsuki was always going to be up for. By his side, his ever present Magby nodded in agreement. She had been training just as hard for something like this.

s**t, he didn’t even care who this operative was. Tsuki acknowledged Larrimore when he came in, but it was clear as day to anyone that saw him that the teen was like a person waiting to be allowed in a rage room. “A dark type to resist hypnosis? I have a Hypno, so he should cover that well enough. Hypnosis is their specialty.” Tsuki said, pulling out his phone to access his PC right there. Three of his Pokemon were already decided then: Maggie and Baja like always with Grumps there for sleep support. He’d need his old heavy hitters for this one, so Coffee and Terra were also welcome. Add in Snapdragon, because between his Scorbunny and the other (currently not retconned in) Pokemon didn’t have as much training personally under him.

Hopefully that’d be enough. Regardless of that, Tsuki walked towards the Claydol and took the teleport.

Silence and nothing more, the poor hybrid that once was strong and brave, now left inside his head. The collar giving Deo flashbacks, to the experimental chambers, to the room with the table. That table where humanity was ripped from Deo and his monstrous form forced upon him. Inside, he screamed and yelled for help and mercy from within. On the outside, he shivered in a fetal position with his fur turning cold and wet. This was not ideal for Deo, he could be in serious medical issue if this kept up. His catatonia was not helped as he was reliving every. single. horrifying. incident that happened at that lab where he was forced hybridized.

He slowly came to in the training room, his emotions were so wild that he backed into the corner and there he stayed, just rocking back and forth slowly. What he saw were the doors were made of bars, and the room was black and dirt was all over the floor. He did not see the fellow members, he did not see light. All he saw, was the holding cell he was in. What everyone else saw was a hybrid, trapped in his mind and his eyes giving a thousand yard stare.

It happened so fast.

Its paws or claws—or at least that was the closest thing to them, they were weirdly all over the place—pounced on Monique, flattening her with more force than she thought was possible. It was a massive beast, weighing more than she did and towering over her by some 30 centimeters, sending her reeling enough to make her drop her Illusion. Her Malamar was attacked, packed up, put back in its Poké Ball, and neutralized.

And, for that matter, so was she. The Trainer of that weird, beastly Pokémon proved that he had just as much force. The collar, black and shiny and all too familiar an object in her time, was fastened, tight enough to make her know that it would not come off of her own will but not so tight as to choke her out of existence.

It felt like someone put her life on fast-forward for a moment. She was part of a line, shuffled in chains out the door; packed like cargo into a helicopter, its body encased in ebonite. As its massive blades whirled, the vessel lifted into the air, the fast-forward turned to slow motion. Mt. Kaʻanaʻana had been soaked like a Camerupt being bathed, its fire turned into a massive column of steam.

But that didn't mean it couldn't smolder as she closed her eyes, looking for a little rest and at least grateful to be out of the sweltering volcano.

~~~

It looked like any other night at Sub Rosa. There were patrons, there was dancing, and there were drinks. Monique saw herself twirling around the pole in the corner. Just like old times.

The din of the music was suddenly broken by an alarm noise. The lights immediately shifted from their soft and dim pinks to harsh, pure white, the house lighting. "Your attention please," a female voice came over the PA, metallic and cold. "Your presence is required in the Assembly Hall."

Monique was not a resident of Flower City, which was unusual for someone who worked in Flower City. She was one of only a handful of commuters. This had happened once or twice, and she had never had to go to these impromptu assemblies—nor would she have been allowed. They ruined the night's pay, but she just had to sit there or go home early.

But this time, she saw herself file out with the rest of them, almost listlessly. For nightclub patrons, they suddenly seemed subdued, single-minded. Theirs was but to do or—well, not die, but do. Everyone was shuffling up elevators and toward a massive auditorium, large enough to house every Flower Citian, filling the seats and waiting quietly, the murmur of a crowd more hushed than it might otherwise be.

Then, he walked out. King Faba took the stage and everyone stood and bowed in deep adoration. Monique was overcome with the same desire and felt her body forcing itself to bow, to make a gesture of reverence to someone she regarded as a tyrannical scumbag.

W-why? Monique thought to herself, her gaze finally catching something as she raised her head. A glimmer of black in the auditorium light. A glimmer around her neck, encasing, controlling...

~~~

She awoke from the nightmare in a start, unable to move much, still restrained and guarded. She looked around, down at the collar on her neck, and at the helicopter.

They don't know what these lead to, she could only think in the noisy cabin. And if they do, then this world should be afraid.

***

Monique found herself sitting, uncuffed but collared, in the darkened volume that was the Super Training Room, still smarting from the force of Type:Null's tackle. The lone lights sat up top, occasional sparks catching her eye from the side from the wires they cut.

Quietly, she thought about what she knew. This outfit called itself SWIPE, which was probably some acronym for something she had yet to know. They wanted to question Snagem for some reason, and they had gone to great lengths in search of "evidence" and had "questioning". In other words, they were acting like a law enforcement agency of questionable moral authority and apparently quite considerable resources.

She'd never heard of SWIPE, and that was why she refused to comply at first. Preemptive obedience never got anyone anywhere when the call was to obey someone you didn't trust or couldn't trust. She'd have done the same thing if some outfit calling itself Team Revolution or Team Aquos or some random name turned up and said "surrender to us". The Sheriff of New Po had to earn her keep and her authority. It wasn't handed to her on a silver platter overflowing with florins like it would be to a member of Faba's royal guard. They wouldn't have had to deploy that chimera of a beast if Monique had been able to trust them.

A Gholdengo's hoard of florins was not enough to grant Faba moral leadership, though it granted uniforms and soldiers and equipment that to some made it look like he was a leader. SWIPE had a hoard of florins, by the looks of it, that was the size of an entire region. But they still needed to prove they were worth trusting. And, right now, they were far from doing that.