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"Very well, I shall make note of that for later reference. My discussion with you have proved beneficial to my algorithms. I always strive to be a better tool for the team." GRAY said in a plain monotone, doing his best 'just a program' voice. There would be nothing but silence for a few seconds after that before GRAY spoke again from Tristen's SNAG, his tone far less monotone and filled with proper personality, even if it was just three words. "...thank you, Tristen." The AI thanked the boy. An image would flash up on the screen of the SNAG reading 'Scheduled Update Commencing, Please Wait' with a winking emoji at the bottom. The SNAG never did something like that before, let alone with a winking emoji...was this GRAY's way of saying he needed a moment while still letting Tristen know he's okay? Looks like old GRAY is in his feelings in the moment, that's okay.

Without GRAY to speak with at the moment, or rather GRAY not feeling chatty anymore, Tristen was left to focus on his work.




"Yeah, I heard about the mushrooms, I was surprised when finding out they were infected this whole time but at the same time not, they had all been acting weird for some time so the mushroom stuff explains the weirdness." Giacomo replied to Reno, insinuating that the other Star Bosses had been infected for some time. "As for how or through what they got infected...I don't know. Maybe the twins? But they seemed way more...logical? Like, they didn't just get made or irrational like the other bosses, my friends, did. If the Aku Twins infected them do you think it was by spreading the fungus or did they infect them through other means?" He pondered, not really expecting an answer. Looks like the boy didn't believe the twins had the fungus. "Now that I'm thinking about it the twins showing up and my friends getting infected would kind of line up properly time wise, especially with how slow their descent into the strange behavior was."

"The rituals weren't too much to note, I don't think. They would just pray under the moon, burn white feathers in a bonfire while yelling, specifically white ones for some reason. Uh, they also meditated with their Malamar a lot. That's the most I can think of off hand. As for the Black Hero I have no clue what that is, I thought it was just a name for their god or whatever. Sorry." Giacomo responded to Sol's questions.

Reno would continue to poke around, navigating through Giacomo's mind. While difficult to traverse he was making progress, finding a memory of meeting the Aku Twins months after Team Star was founded, memories of Giacomo getting into unprovoked arguments with the other Star Bosses, a memory of seeing the chi converters for the first time of which Reno would clearly note the crates they were in were marked with Cipher's logo indicating someone literally just lifted it wholesale, and a memory of Giacomo dealing with a Kricketot infestation at his squad base. That last one was seemingly random but for whatever reason to Giacomo it was noteworthy to remember, especially since Kricketot aren't common in that area.

"Ack, my head hurts..." Giacomo muttered as he suddenly grabbed his head and leaned over in slight pain. It was Reno's mental intrusions, the boy's natural Dark natural making him very incompatible with these psychic intrusions, his 'telepathic immune system' trying to fight Reno off but failing thus causing the boy pain. Reno can't keep digging in his mind like this, not unless he was okay with causing him pain. If Giacomo was more experienced with such things he would have realized what Reno was doing and kicked him out by now.

Giacomo's explanation about the mushrooms did give a lot of insight to why the early dealings with Mela and Atticus had seemed to go as smoothly as they did, at least from what he knew from the team's reports. Well, smooth per the team's definition of it at any rate. Though, this left him wondering how long the infection went on for. "With our information and yours, it's something I can't say we have an answer to," he replied. "If they were handling them, they'd need some way to avoid being infected themselves, unless there's more at hand."

Though the rituals weren't much to note about, it was still information worth having. Likely not much in the way of any leads, though... but before Sol could ask anything else, he noticed Giacomo leaning over in pain as Reno explained himself. The gig was up and he could only hope he wouldn't be too upset about it, though it did lead to an interesting observation. "If it means anything, psychics- channelers or otherwise- sometimes end up picking up stray thoughts. Completely involuntary, as someone who's lived around them a lot of my life in and out of Paldea." Something to maybe line up with Reno's words before the follow-up question; he could already tell Giacomo was an intelligent sort, treating him otherwise would've been an insult.

But also what he didn't need to know wouldn't hurt him.

"That said, I'll admit what Reno brought up sounds like an odd thing to happen. But if anything similar happened elsewhere, I can think of possible reasons for it," Sol added afterward.

Reno would nod along as he spoke, taking Giacomo's explanation in pace as it came. So a horde of Kricketot came into the place, got repelled by the twins, and....likely were the source for fungus, given the timing for when the Shadow Nincada could've appeared in Aile's stuff. "Well, glad that little exercise with the Kricketots didn't endear them to you. Because if they didn't try to infect you after they got your trust doing that, then the Kricketot themselves were liable to do it. I think that's all we need answered currently. If we have any other questions, I hope you would be fine answering them as well." Turning for the door and making to open the passage, he would pause for a moment before turning back around to Giacomo. "I know you might be dealing with a few issues of trust after everything that went down, but I'd just like to tell you...They're still your friends. Whatever the infection can do, it doesn't fundamentally change them. It just adjusts their focus. And if we find your other friends....I'd like to extend the offer to see if you could help them. I'm sure a friendlier face than mine would help with get their focus back to how it used to be."

With Reno and Sol's 'interrogation' of Giacomo, if you could call it that, complete the two adult Snagems would make their way out of the former Star Boss's dorm room and begin to make their way for another room on this floor, the dorm room occupied by their younger teammate.

The silence that filled Tristen's room as he did his homework would be broken by a knock on his door, the boy getting up to answer the door and find the promised Snagems standing on the other side.

While there might have been more information to glean from Giacomo, he had covered enough of the broad strokes to get an understanding of why he might have evaded infection, how exactly the Aku Twins fit in, and what was done to get Team Star chi converters. The latter two offered whole new avenues of exploration, especially with the additional angle to attack for learning about what Reno assumed would be the cult Robin brought up back in Galar. Which linked the Dark One, the Ziton, and eventually Mister Mushroom once again. But that could wait for later. There was no dire rush to pursue the leads immediately and Tristen had wanted to talk to them.

Lowering his sole hand from the knock on the door, it would only be a moment before it was opened and Reno saw the waiting hybrid. And watched as Tristen extended a trio of shards towards them that Sub had apparently been asking about. Giving the chunks of rock an examination before he placed them in his bag, he would say, "Huh. Tera Shards. Wonder how these compare to that massive hunk of crystal I ended up finding?" Shaking his head for a second, he would quickly place them inside his bag before adding, "I'll be sure Sub gets them."

He would remain silent as the subject of Aden came up, figuring that since Sol had been the one monitoring the situation the closest that he should answer.

Taking a step back into the conversation as Sol finished, Reno said, "As for why we're here, we ended up on what was going to be a calm information collating session. Dot the is, cross the ts, see if there was any small details that our separate cells missed in isolation that added up when put together afterwards. And...we found a few things." Pausing as he figured out whether or not he should avoid any details, Reno figured it was best to just put all the cards on the table given half of them had been stolen from Tristen's deck. "First was the presence of the Zoroark twins that ambushed you just before everything went off. They had been seen before that, except they were operating as lackeys of Giacomo at the time. Which led to point two, they decided to break out an entirely different Team Star leader instead of their supposed leader. So....I decided to come and ask through official channels if we could question Giacomo, which Clavell granted."

Looking to the side, Reno would add under his breath, "A small miracle after Freth decided to bulldoze her way through half their state secrets."

Tristen listened intently to the two adults and one thing struck him as odd immediately. Giacomo. He knows he heard that name before. He’s Team Star? It only took him a few seconds until he was reminded that name was tossed around his first day of school. Penny was supposed to be his science project partner before she got reassigned to Camp, the bug trainer. Though there were a couple of things odd about that situation. Giacomo being Team Star would definitely have been an issue, for one. Though for another, Penny was unusually defensive when it came to him. The weird looks Penny gave Fela when she made a snide remark about him for one. Her denial that she was paired with Giacomo the following day. Did she know he was Team Star? Certainly she should have. It seemed like everyone knew who the Team Star leaders were. Even Fela. Though of all the leaders that came after Tristen, it was a wonder how he didn’t…the supposed subordinates took it upon themselves. Or more specifically, the Zoroark duo. Perhaps this was going to be something that he could try to look into as long as he was here. “Well, Paldea didn’t really help a lot of matters either, you know.” Tristen said, overhearing Reno’s and Sol’s muttering. Tristen didn’t realize that Reno didn’t necessarily care for Freth’s stunt. Though maybe because of Freth, and now the rest of Snagem knowing about some of what was going on in Area Zero, maybe there was still room to blow the proverbial whistle on them. Twist the Paldea region’s proverbial arm, as it were, to do a few other things that were probably needed, like getting to the bottom of this whole mushroom thing. At least, that’s the hope. “Well, I haven’t heard too much about the incident myself with the mushrooms. Everyone here is apparently still recovering from it, though coming along fine. I ended up making friends again with someone here, which was nice.”

Tristen then started to listen about Aden and the others, and apparently not much had improved as far as Aden was concerned. Tristen grimaced a little, hoping that Aden was at least up and walking around by now. He already had some sort of idea, but now he started to fully realize compared to Aden, Tristen got off relatively easy. Well, that was something to sleep on. “Man, I can’t imagine still that anyone is in that good of mood now after all that Ziton stuff happening, and Aden…ugh…is he really ever going to be better again?” he asked the two. He was a bit concerned right now; Aden and Tristen had probably a little bit of a thing going on that Tristen only just now started to realize that he didn’t really get too much of an opportunity to explore. Two ‘brothers in arms’ trained by the same Articuno hybrid that got them to Pokémon battle and fight. Maybe he could have when Aden went on victory road, by doing the same himself. But he wanted to learn more than battle. Should haves, could haves, would haves. “Is there anything I can do here?” Tristen then asked the two.

Reno would look up for a moment before his eyes refocused as something came to mind. "Oh right! Forget if I had mentioned it before, but I ended up meeting one of your friends that got mushroomed. Or at least he seemed like he wanted to be friends again. Either way he was wanting me to pass along...what I assume was going to be an apology if he hadn't lost his nerve." Scratching his chin with his only hand, he would add, "Although based off what you said, he might have already done that himself..."

Giving a quick shake of his head, he would return to thinking before he spoke again. "Things to do here....could just keep any eye out for any other odd things like the mushroom incident? Maybe ask after a Grass or Bug type expert if there are any here, see if they know anything? No need to push too hard on that but if you want something to do..." Reno offered, waiting to see what kind of response he got. It was just as liable to get a "No duh" as anything, but it was worth at least floating the small idea.

Reno would give a quick nod to the response. About all he could expect for the small request, especially since it was mostly just precaution. "Well, from personal experience, this being the end result of arguing with the blob is probably one of the better outcomes." He admitted, giving a slight shrug as he started to move for the door. "Also, no need to rush unless its like....dire stakes information. You're allowed to just do your own thing out here."