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For Tsuki’s addition to having his room being raided, SWIPE members wouldn’t find as much. A closet full of clothes, thrown around as they looked for anything of note that wasn’t there. His laptop, full of assignments and classwork, was confiscated and taken. Posters of his favorite bands, torn off the walls. Et cetera. He stayed silent the entire time, stewing in silent anger as he was arrested a SECOND time and had one of the few spaces he could call a home soiled again. Again. From how little his face changed from it, it was like he didn’t even hear Sol’s apology over his actions while Lavana had a grip on his mind- but he knew it was her fault firstly. It was Dim Sun’s fault for having that kind of tech and using it like that. But despite trying to stop them, despite being the good guys AGAIN, it felt like it was never good enough for the people with power.

He laid on his back, staring hard at the ceiling of the STR. “Four years out and it’s just like Pewter City all over again.” Tsuki said aloud to himself. His Pokemon were all in their Pokeballs, presumably not taken because those SWIPE guys had enough of those collars to make any of their threats a mute point. He even still had his artifact, a little gem pendant on a string that resembled an eye. Maybe it was because they didn’t seem him using it and it didn’t look all that noteworthy? The channeler wasn’t fully aware of it’s tainted nature so it not catching their eyes
seemed like a bit of luck before being any kind of foreshadowing.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Tsuki said to Amaranth. “, I think that SWIPE just likes pointlessly swinGING THEIR TINY-”

The rest of that sentence was yelled, presumably to the chagrin of anybody else in earshot of the angry teenager.

Tsuki listened to the big heads of Snagem talk about what SWIPE, that WHITE character, and Looker had been asking them about. A part of him was a bit relieved that he was still a relatively unknown factor- he had been in and out from a young age and never around that often. So the odds were good that there was no worry about them asking probing questions about his past. “But she’s got a point: we get approved by the Indigo Alliance and I assume they sent them to investigate and shut us down a year later? There’s no way we did anything to warrant that.”

Unless one of the sketchy former mercenaries turned criminals turned mercenaries, turned whatever the Alliance turned them into did something not so secretly. But what were the odds of that?

Once Ulla was taken back to the common rooms, she stood where she was left for a moment as she had to settle what she just went through. Save me? What exactly was Snagem hiding? Then again, she is just a kid. And she joined right when she became a trainer. So in anyone's eyes, they would obviously have suspicions.

"You can call them your family, your friends, but the truth is you don't know what kind of lives these people lead."

"You can be thankful to your friends here for all they did for you, that's okay. And I understand why you might want to protect them but please, Miss Ulla. Do not go down with this ship."

Looker's and Emma's words started to ring in her head. The small child started to think about Ter and Keiko. She wondered what their plan was after this, their top priority is their children now. What once was a safe haven, isn't so safe now. "....What do I do?" She said as she was broken out of her thoughts hearing a Pokemon. She looked around as she noticed a Castform. It looked familiar, it looks like the Castform was trying to tell her something. "You're...Odds? Odd Aritfact?" She said softly as she started looking around for the artifact. A Channeler not having their main source of channeling was obviously a big no no. As she started rumaging around throught the rubble.

Ulla looked around long and hard as she sensed something familiar. Before she went towards it, she looked around. Unsure how S.W.I.P.E would react to her grabbing an Artifact. They haven't taken hers, but then again. They didn't have a reason to. She knelt down as she spotted Odd's Artifact, she sighed of relief but wasn't sure how she was going to grab it. That's when her Hisuian Zorura that was popped out of her bag and sat right next to Ulla. Distressed, he plopped down after all that's happened. The Fairy Child ran her hand across it's back and pointed under the bookshelf.

Zorura sniffed the ground and noticed a ribbon. He started pawing at it until bit the ribbon and started pulling out what it was under the bookshelf. Ulla quickly grabbed the sickle off the ground and put it in her bag. "Great job." She said softly as she picked up Zorura and put him on her shoulder. She then started to wander what looked like aimlessly, but looking for a good spot without any eyes on her. That's when she noticed an open vent, perfect to hand over the artifact to Castform. Only problem, there was a S.W.I.P.E member just around the corner. "Zorura...I need you to do what your best at. Sneak." She said softly as she put Zorura back down and gave Odd's Artifact. The Fairy child tied it up nicely in it's ribbon as Zorura carried it in it's mouth and scurried off.

Ulla watched as Zorura went around some rubble as it started to make it's way up to the open vent. While that was happening, Ulla walked over to another part of the room and started moving some more stuff around. Zorura hopped up on a bookshelf and made a leap into the open vent to meet the Castform. He gently set the Artifact down for Castform to grab.

"I can understand that, and I do appreciate the concern," Amber said. Hearing questions about Brian, however, had her pausing briefly. She did remember him mentioning those incidents, but he hadn't gone into great detail about them. "You're correct in that I wasn't there for those incidents, and you're also correct in that both involved Shadow Pokemon," she said. "I believe the one in Jubilife involved a Shadow Kricketune that had taken over a flock of Kricketot and invade the city, and Snagem was called in to deal with the Kricketune and to get the Kricketot out of the city. From what he told me, he actually went partially deaf in his right ear when one of the Kricketune attached itself to his head and used Uproar." She had to think about the Mauville incident, as she didn't recall much about it. "I don't know much about the Mauville incident, unfortunately," she said. "We were called in by the Hoenn government about some underground gang believed to be trading in Shadow Pokemon. I know Brian came home with a Shadow Pokemon at that time, but she's since been purified. Other than that, I don't know anything about it."

Amber gave a nod and got up, nodding at both Kess and Emma as she left the office. Once outside, she let out a breath of relief. That had been more nerve-wracking than she'd let on. Thankfully, she was now free to roam the HQ, though not being able to leave for the time being would be annoying. Granted, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to be. Feeling a bit hungry, she decided to head into the kitchen to see if there was anything she could scrounge up, provided it hadn't been raided yet. She could see Ulla there, interacting with a Hisuian Zorua. Huh, she hadn't seen one of those since the team's foray into Hisui. Wondering what they were doing, she kept an eye on the pair, but didn't interfere, not wanting to draw attention to them. Speaking of Pokemon, though, she pulled a ball from her belt and let Spooky out again, the Shuppet immediately rubbing his cheek against hers affectionately. "Yes, yes, I know, I missed you, too," she said, chuckling lightly as she rubbed his head. "Don't do that again," he told her in a scolding tone. "I cannot protect you from inside my Pokeball. "I can't take the risk that they won't try to take you away from me, Spooky," Amber said. "So long as I don't give them a reason to look more closely at me, I will be fine."

"Ah, a Faller, well isn't this a treat, you're the third of your kind that I have personally had the honor to make the acquaintance of." Looker replied, revealing that he was familiar with Fallers, somehow. What were the odds? "Yes, we actually have a Faller on the International Police, a miss Anabel, found her on the shores of Poni Island. Poor girl has no real memories of her previous life so when we found her we took her in and gave her purpose. She seems happy now though, sweet lady. As you can imagine I'm slightly more acquainted with Ultra Space that the common man." Looker said. "Fun fact, I thought I was a Faller once after hitting my head during an investigation in Hoenn but it turned out to be plain old amnesia. Embarrassing." He chuckled.

"I won't ask you anything about the world you come from simply because, and there is no polite way of saying this, it's irrelevant to my investigation. Now with that said there are some questions I have for you that are relevant. Could you please tell me what you were doing in the Spikemuth underground and did it pertain to any mission given to you by Team Snagem? As you must be well aware Spikemuth itself is not the most savory city and its underground world is almost complete hidden to the outside. Seeing a member of Team Snagem poking around there makes one uncomfortable. You understand." He said with a smile.

"And another question; does Sub ever have you use your illusion abilities to replace people? I guess I should rephrase that. Does he have you use them often? Maybe important persons? I see you disguised yourself as Lavana so it's no secret you are not above doing the whole doppelganger thing. What a dangerous ability too, who knows what someone with malicious intent could do with it. Don't you agree, miss Monique?" Looker said.

‘I mean at this point, we’ll need a HQ that’s off the books.’ Tsuki thought offhandedly as he listened in to the others. There was no way he’d ever be able to let his guard down here ever again, not when it was clearly so easily broken into. How many layers of security broken down in an afternoon? He hopped off of the ground and meandered around the STR, not walking too far off. Moving just helped him deal with stressful situations.

Tsuki missed when he was able to think of everyone and this place as invincible. The reality that he had actually come to know was something a bit more real but no less frightening. There was always someone stronger, always a group with an answer to anything yours can do. Like these schmucks for instance: who were taking people to be questioned obviously, which meant that they were looking for something. Or someone. He thought about it for a moment.

“We aren’t in an actual jail, so they don’t have enough of what they want to convict us of something. They’re questioning us, which means it’s information they think we have that’ll incriminate us.” Tsuki said plainly. Surely those with the more… mercenary adjacent histories could have put that two and two together but he was doing his best here. What had they done recently to draw any kind of suspicion?

There was that Mister Mushroom situation, the countless calls to handle Shadow Pokemon, a few failed vacations? Besides that, it had been a lot of individual missions and people focusing on personal training. There was something Tsuki was missing, there had to be.

Monique had come off cool and unruffled thus far. That changed the moment Looker said the word "sisters". They know about them!? And that they're in Alola!? It was as if someone had opened the floodgates and attempted to drown Monique. Her eyes widened, looking back at Looker with much-increased apprehension.

"They're..." Monique paused for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to say back. "They're fine. But don't drag them into this. I'm lucky to have them here," she insisted, her voice slowly raising. She wasn't about to say why: clearly they knew, and besides, now she wondered if the Ultra Recon Squad were in cahoots with this S.W.I.P.E. outfit.

"Besides that, though...I do have one real question left, and that would be more of a personal one for me. Do you have any interest in joining the force? The International Police, that is." Looker extended an offer at maybe the worst time, given that he had just seriously unnerved Monique. She probably wouldn't eat a Berry right now if she'd been offered. "I think you have a lot of potential after seeing some of your endeavors, like in Lacunosa Town. I could help you with that if you're interested, help get you a fresh start and away from all this vigilantism. From lawman to law woman."

It took the sheriff a few seconds to process her thoughts. There was the revelation that this S.W.I.P.E. operation related to the International Police, which certainly explained the physical and human resources available to it. But she had to unpack that another time. "I respect the offer, and clearly you see something in me. But..." Another pause. Looker might notice that the last two exchanges had definitely put her on the back foot. "I owe so much to Snagem. When I turned up here, I had nothing. Nobody. Except one Marowak. I know you may feel differently right now, but its people have earned my respect. I have done a lot for them, and they have done a lot for me. I could not consider leaving them, and I think if you were given a similar offer you might feel the same about the International Police. But I appreciate it." She gave a little bow of courtesy, perhaps a sign that she acknowledged their work.

There were many things that, once she got out of this room, would be on her mind. Their background research had clearly been incredibly extensive. And she had to admit it was troubling that the International Police were investigating Snagem, given her respect for the law. But respect for the law only could go so far. Maybe she was reading things through Dome-tinted glasses. Maybe the way they carried themselves was too official, too Flower City-ish. While she could concede they were going about things with incredible attention to detail, she could not concede yet that they were better than Snagem. She could not see herself, with her background, in their ranks.

And more importantly, she could not see herself wielding suppression collars.