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“Okay, thank you.” Tristen said to her, stashing the phone in his pack. As he did so he looked up, staring in confusion at the Gengar for a second. He looked at the receptionist then back at the Gengar in short order. “Was…but…never mind. Thank you.” He said, finishing stashing the Rotophone in his pack. Taking note of a clock mounted to a wall nearby, he still had a good chunk of the evening to go through. He was going to need to do some more research on his report project before he actually spent the time writing it out.

The teen hybrid left the desk, taking leave of the academy for only a short bit. While there wasn’t any urgency to do it, he figured to go ahead and take care of the Tera Orb after long last. If nothing else, it gave him the excuse to pick up something to eat for tonight to take back to the dorm. Across the courtyard and down the stairs, Tristen made his way to the nearest Pokémon center. Once there, he’d ask the attendant about recharging his Tera Orb. Much to Tristen’s astonishment the process wouldn’t take all that long at all, about as long as it would take to run through a check of his Pokémon and hand them back to him. From the center, he’d go by, pick up something to eat for him and his Pokémon then make the trek back up the grand staircase and back into Mezagoza academy.

Finding his way back into his dorm, he’d take the meal he got, placing it onto the kitchen counter, took off his pack, putting it on his desk, then proceeded to take off his jacket and his tie, throwing those on his bed. He then take out his Pokémon one by one: Sprigatito, followed by Litten, Wimpod after that, Rookidee, then Espeon, then finally Mienshao. “Alright, guys, dinner time!” When Tristen revealed that he ended up getting sandwiches from Every Wich Way, Sprigatito flipped his proverbial lid. Quickly scrambling across the floor and hopped up to the counter, that it couldn’t clear. “Sprigitato! Easy! Hang on!” Apparently these things were apparently too good for the likes of this cat.

Once he manages to serve dinner he would set his own out. But before he would get to partake his meal, he’d take out the SNAG and the Rotophone. If nothing else, he'd try to let GRAY do what he needed to do before he hammered out the last of what school work Tristen needed to tonight and probably no better time to do it while Tristen was eating. “Alright, GRAY, I got the Rotophone. What do you need done here so you can actually figure out what this thing is about?” Tristen asked.

Tristen stared at the SNAG in confusion for a second until he and all Pokémon came to attention from the sudden Claydol appearing in the room, only long enough to drop off the tool assembly and leave. Well, that probably answers how he was getting that computer later. Something that didn’t occur however until just now in Tristen’s quick mental planning. Just how GRAY was going to figure out what was inside. He was going to need to disassemble this thing himself and effectively help GRAY catalogue every last component. Taking another look at the time on his SNAG, he might still be able to the rest he wanted to do, but he needed to work now. “Alright…” he said. Taking a quick bite of his sandwich first, he went on to go through the tools and went to work. While he was told to not worry about damaging anything, he didn’t want to do that anyways, namely for the sake of a mess or to give GRAY that best chance in trying to discern what is what.

As he closer examined the phone, he stared in confusion. He imagined screws or something that would had held the case together, but apparently not. The seams on it might be a clue as to get into the internals of it, by chance. Tristen would take a flat-head screwdriver and start trying to wedge in, trying to find some sort of means of an opening. Around the screen, around the halves of the shell, and so on. In between attempts he took occasional bites out of his sandwich as he tried to probe and prod until he managed to slip the screwdriver deeper than normal. “There…we…go…well, even from the start they wanted to make sure…these phones were sturdy…” he said. He’d try to move the screwdriver up and down the seam, trying to carefully open the shell without breaking anything until a loud plastic snap graced Tristen’s canine ears. Hopefully that was just the shell and not the stuff inside.

It took a couple of more minutes until he managed to work enough of an opening to forcefully open the phone apart. Though as he looked at it, he had to admit he had no idea as to what he was looking at. Just things that made the phone work. For as all he knew, the Rotom was just an accessory, which begged the question as to why they made Rotom, a normally rambunctious electric ghost who liked to play pranks by inhabiting electronics, a commodity in recent years. Tristen would take out the circuitry inside in one intact heap, taking a picture of it for GRAY to see, just to give him the overall idea as to how it was assembled. Flipping it over to see the reverse side. Who knows, it might be relevant. A couple of more pictures for good measure.

Another bite of his sandwich and then he was to disassembling the circuitry. At least there were screws in this, it looked like, very tiny ones. And not for the flathead that he had. He ended up getting another one and started to take apart bit by bit the contraption. One thing was for certain, there was going to be somewhat of a mess by the time Tristen was done. Photos slowly, but certainly would start being fed in to GRAY. Some Tristen could probably imagine what it could be, like the screen. Others, like what the wires did and why they connected as they did, Tristen couldn’t possibly imagine what it could be. Hopefully, GRAY would have a better idea as to what they are than he did. Each part was treated as relevant and he didn’t want to do this twice if he could help it.

By the time Tristen was done with taking apart the phone, his Pokémon were already done eating and were back to exploring around the dorm, only to find the usual same thing. Nothing much doing around here. Litten, though, found his way on Tristen’s desk to play with the Rotophone shell, batting it a little bit. If he hit it just the right way, it actually spun a little. It was better than nothing. “Litten, if you’re bored, why not play with Sprigatito a little bit?” Tristen asked the fire cat. Litten looked down from the desk at Sprigatito who was looking up towards Litten with innocent eyes and a tail slowly wagging, a body full of hope and vigor. Litten would then just proceed to continue batting the phone case half. Typical cat. Tristen could only roll his eyes. “Alright…there…that should be everything, GRAY.” Tristen said. “I sent you effectively every last part that was either screwed down or soldered, and just in case…” One more picture would be sent. “The screws. I don’t know what else I can do here other than hope that something sticks out as weird to you because I really don’t know what basically any of this is.”

“You’re welcome, GRAY.” Tristen said to the voice in the machine. Tristen sat there, a little bemused and was compelled to open his windows to see if there was a sudden cold snap for some odd reason. Getting legit, non-sarcastic, heartfelt thanks out of the likes of the most embittered virtual Pokémon? That was quite a thing in and of itself. Tristen would check the time once more, and he may had underestimated just how much time it would have taken to actually crack the Rotophone open, but it was not that bad off. Just clean up his spot so he can get to his school work and get at the very least his report done.

Tristen would start cleaning up around his desk, but when he did so, he started to notice something, namely in Espeon and Mienshao. They were bored as well, with nothing to do. While they were familiar with hanging out in Tristen’s room back at the headquarters, Tristen started to realize the difference between here at the academy and at the headquarters was that at the very least was doing something with them in some capacity. Rather it was training with them or even playing with them. And it wasn’t just limited to Mienshao and Espeon, it was his whole entourage. And as of late, Tristen had done neither. Even if he didn’t want to do Victory Road or anything related to that, he still wanted to give them all the attention they deserve. Focus was placed on his studies first more than anything, which got him to wonder what of his near dozen and a half of Pokémon. Sure there was this weekend where he was going out somewhere with Matteo, but what of the next weekend? And why wait for the weekends? Could he by chance do anything during the week? Rarely missions came back to back that involved the entire team. But so far? Perhaps not. Suddenly the Indigo League Region chain’s methods started to make a whole heck of a lot more sense…

He’d keep his thoughts to himself, although he’s pretty certain by a curious look his Espeon gave him as he passed on by to stash the food order packaging and Rotophone rubbish into the trash can, at least that one already had some sort of idea that it was eating at Tristen. However, one problem at a time. In the meantime, it was time to finish off this report and get it ready. Once again, using his SNAG and paper for his notes, he started to start trying to check and double check what he could of the legend of the Darkest Day. He already made one association already, the Dynamax phenomenon. Though he couldn’t find anything as to why something was so feared was now so readily available to those carrying a wishing star in Galar. Especially when he found out that it did make Pokémon back in those ages so crazed. Did the wishing star have anything to do that? And how did they find out? One question gets answered, but several more questions popped up. While assuredly Ms. Raifort wasn’t expecting any student to solve the mysteries of the world altogether, Tristen wanted to show he was doing his due diligence. And it wasn’t like Tristen was going to have all night to work on this.

In his search though, he did end up coming across something fairly recent, dated apparently not too long before the Galar World Tournament that Team Snagem took a part in. A mural in a market town called Stow-on-Side was recklessly ruined, but in that act lead to a discovery that may have a hand in Galar’s history. The leading professor on it, Professor Sonia, who focuses more on the history of Galar and the Dynamax phenomenon as opposed to the nature of them as opposed to who she is in the process of succeeding, Professor Magnolia, stated there were two memorial statues of two Pokémon that seems to date back all the way around the era of the Darkest Day. And because it was oddly put behind this now wrecked mural, it kept the statues well preserved. While that in and of itself raised questions, something that stood out. One of the Pokémon bore a shield. One wielded a sword. Tristen was left flabbergasted. As he read on in the official release out of Professor Sonia, while there was nothing conclusive as of yet, at least at the time of this release, she started to show correlations between the darkest day, the murals, and other depictions that ties it all together, then wrapped it up with all that was known. The statues were effectively filling in blanks that some didn’t even realize were there in the history of Galar. That was definitely worth mentioning. Unfortunately, that was also the last release that was made public...with a further note that this is not a license to go smashing any other murals just to see if it held other secrets. Leave the mural smashing to the professionals.

At that point, Tristen figured if he tried to find anything else, he would just be getting greedy. And just trying to find something of that level was going to take more time than what he had. Tristen would start trying to write out his report. Tristen would start writing out his report, getting his introduction in as his first paragraph to explain their assignment and to fill in the details as to what is commonly known, then the next several paragraphs starting to pick apart the details of the story of the Darkest Day. From the Dynamax phenomenon to the fact that while there may be two kings that held the crown afterwards, there was the possibility that it wasn’t by the ones who actual heavy lifting to liberate the Galar region. Each paragraph explaining the details that were uncovered and the means to cite it. It would take a while, but after finishing it, Tristen would read over his work, trying to make sure that he got it as good as it was probably going to get. He was more satisfied with this than his art project, that was for certain.

With little time to go, Tristen would then get something to drink, going back to his desk and switch gears to his language make-up work. With the understanding that he managed to get between yesterday and earlier today, Tristen tried to take each saying one word at a time, trying to remember what Mr. Salvatore had taught him. Today especially. Each saying, admittedly, was still a task to try to remember. Part of himself tried to look at it as if he was trying to talk to Larrimore in his native tongue, which threw a lot of wrenches in how he’d associate to him. ‘Envie d’une bataille’ or just simply trying to differentiate telling him ‘comment allez vouz’ as opposed to ‘comment vas tu’. It was still jarring, but he was managing. Good enough to make good marks on the assignment sheets that he had? He was going to find out.

Working on the assignment as long as he could, Tristen would once again check his SNAG, noting the time. He did make some progress on the make up work, but he couldn’t stay up until midnight nor did he really want to either. He already did that once this week. He’d look around, seeing his Pokémon have decided to all call it for the night. Rookidee nested himself on the kitchen counter, Wimpod picked his spot out on the kitchenette floor. The two cat Pokémon took residence at the foot of Tristen’s bed. Mienshao and Espeon bunched up in a corner up against the wall where the wall met the kitchenette counter. Tristen looked at them all for a moment. “Yea, I gotta do something…” he simply told himself as he got up from his chair. He would get himself ready for bed, take his medications once again, checking his electricity as he did so, then finally turned in for bed for the night.

Tristen would submit to the bedsheets and the night would be…actually weird. Imagine the fantastic? More like a massive trip of a dream that seemed to have stopped about as fast as it started, where Tristen was trying to disassemble a giant phone the size of the academy with his tiny flathead screwdriver with GRAY yelling at him in any language other than the one he understood. If they were languages. Kalosian? Paldean? Binary? Nothing was off limits. It wasn’t a nightmare, just…very trippy. Tristen would awaken to the alarm the following morning, wincing hard. Sprigatito however had a bit more spring to his step, running up the bed, up Tristen’s chest and right up to Tristen’s face. “Nyah? Nyanyanya!” Sprigatito mewed out as it propped himself up on Tristen’s face.

“I’m up…I’m up.” Tristen warily said. He sat up in the bed, rubbing his eyes for a brief second, then started to pet Sprigatito. “Morning.” The other Pokémon were starting to stir awake from the commotion. He would reach over to grab his SNAG, only for even GRAY to now speak up. “Huh? Sub? Here? This morning?” Well, that was news that he didn’t expect, never mind so early in the morning. “Yea, okay. I’ll…get there as soon as I can then…thanks, GRAY.” He said.

He dragged himself out of bed and started on the morning routine. Breakfast for him and his Pokémon, followed by a shower and brushing of his teeth, then got dressed in academy uniform, assuming that he was still going to be going to class today. He’d take a quick inventory of the stuff he needed for the day. Math with Ms. Tyme, then Language with Mr. Salvatore. Making sure that he did have that portion of work that he did finish last night at the ready to turn in like he promised he would. Then the history book for Ms. Raifort Class, making sure he had the book he borrowed from Ms. Raifort the day the assignment was given as well as his report that he took a lot of initiatives on to try to make sure he was going to ace this project. Nothing much beyond that other than homeroom, and if a couple of days ago was any indicator, it could be a grab bag of anything. It was just whatever Mr. Jacq felt like doing for Homeroom. Then of course, the other odd and end things like his freshly recharged Tera Orb.

Packed and ready to go, there was only one more thing to take care of. “Alright guys, we got to get on out of here early. Gotta go see what Sub is doing here so early in the morning.” Tristen said to them. “So, come back for now and we’ll talk later, okay?” He would then start recalling his Pokémon back to their respective Pokeballs and he would stash them on himself. He’d put on his academy jacket then slide on his pack then finally grabbed his SNAG and stashed it in his pocket. He then took his leave from the dorm, locking his door behind him as he left.

Tristen made his way down the halls once again, noting the lack of hustle in the halls for the moment. Since there was still a short bit of time before class starting, there was no urgent need to make the rush for any sort of class. Students are probably heading off to the cafeteria to pick up their own breakfast, maybe went to go meet up with other students to socialize before class time. It was a little funny to Tristen how these halls were effectively night and day when classes transition between periods. He’d find his way back to the library once again, not really expecting to be back here so soon. As he started his way off, he took notice to the Gengar once again giving a slight chuckle as Tristen took a glance at it, but once he turned away but then looked back, he saw a Psyduck there that was apparently trying to find some way to wake up fully in the morning. Tristen had to double take again then took a look around the entire library from where he stood. Where in the world did the Gengar go? “Ugh…it is too early for this…” he said to himself as he proceeded for the stairs.

He would make his way up the stairs to the second, and not too long after that, the set to the third floor. Sub did say the west side? He walked down the path, past the shelves and displays that laid out for students to browse over, all in the search for the Snagem leader.

“Hey there, Sub.” Tristen said as he approached the Snagem leader. Even though it had only been a few days since he seen Sub first hand, and been a couple since he spoke to him via the SNAG, it was still nice to see the Snagem leader. Many people would really grasp just what kind of an impact Sub had on the teenager over the years. Arguably, probably about as large as one as his adoptive parents, if one thought about it. “Yea, it is. For here. Isn’t it roughly just starting the afternoon good back at the headquarters? You would have been up for at least a few hours now, right?” Tristen asked curiously. He then looked down at the box, staring in confusion until it clicked. “Wait, is this…?” He said, popping open the box to see the contents inside.

As Tristen started to pull the contents of the box out and Sub gave his explanation, Tristen’s eyes went wide and mouth slowly going wide, completely enamored. Practically a kid that received Christmas early, the joke of the Snagem logo lost on Tristen for the time being. A laptop computer, something that Tristen never really had before even back at the headquarters. Never needed one. But here? It was a touch of home, honestly. Something that he needed at the very least around here if he was going to be here for the long haul. He looked it up and down, carefully lift it up to get a look at it in every which way, even opened it up to see the screen and keyboard. Tristen would set the laptop down, anxious to turn this laptop on and browse everything that was programmed into this thing, only restraining himself remembering he wasn’t going to have time to do that until after class today. Sub demonstrating the port to exchange his Pokeballs was all the more exciting.

“Sub, its perfect.” Tristen said, looking back towards the Snagem leader. “Thank you. This…this is great, I…I…wow…” Tristen didn’t even know what to say at this point. He didn’t really expect too much for a couple of tera shards like that. Or the fact that Sub even agreed to get him one to begin with, let alone go out of the way like that. Speaking of, if nothing else, it answered the question if Reno gave Sub those Tera Shards. “Man, I…really want to start using it right now, if I could…Sub, thank you. Thank you.” He said, closing the laptop back up.

A thought then occurred to Tristen just then, taking a look around then sitting down. “I figure that I better bring some stuff up since you are here.” Tristen said, talking a little lower than he had. “I ended up hearing that the Star Leaders that were caught up in that whole mushroom stuff are still on medical lock down because of possibly what the mushrooms did to them. Though really, in Atticus’s case, I don’t think I helped matters in electrocuting him that day.” Tristen told Sub. “Though I also heard Ortega is still running loose. But what I find weird is that apparently his parents is not wanting to get the police involved for some reason, which that sounds weird. And I haven’t heard any thing else about Malva being around here still…though really, I’m guessing Mela ‘knowing’ Malva was just an effect of the mushrooms, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.” Tristen said to the Snagem leader. “Thank you. Later.” Tristen looked down at the laptop, still anxious to fire this thing up and have at it, but time wasn’t going to permit much. And as he took a look at the clock on the wall as well, Tristen started to realize that he probably had to get this laptop put up. He would need to get this laptop taken back to his dorm so it was safe and sound. He didn’t want to risk carrying it all over the school for the entire day. It did make life though a lot more convenient for him. He didn’t have to go all the way across the academy just to do anything like work on projects, he could do it within the comforts of his own dorm. If he needed to switch Pokémon unexpectedly between classes for example, he could get to his dorm a lot quicker than anywhere else. A bit of home here for the school life.

He would pack back up the laptop for the time being and then start to carry it off back for his dorm. He didn’t want to exactly flaunt this new laptop to anyone, let alone give anyone any sort of an excuse to start asking questions about it. Back down the stairs and back through the halls, he made the beeline back for his dorm, following the quickest path he knew of to get back there before the halls started to get all the busier before the first bell of the day. Once he made it back to his dorm, he quickly slipped in and placed his laptop on his desk. Temptation rose again to just at least take a peek at what this laptop was all about. It was as if telling a child that dessert had to wait after dinner. But he was still on the clock…he needed to get to class. Tristen would leave the dorm, locking the door behind him, then started his way for Ms. Tyme’s class for math.

Tristen would make it to the math class though seemingly with a bit of time to spare in spite of the detours he ended up having to make. Once he made his way to a desk near by Nemona and Penny, he started to manage to hear the tail end of the conversation which Tristen couldn’t help but to sigh, albeit bemused. His adoptive father was definitely going to have a hard time if Nemona ever manages to track him down. “Eheh, hey, I’m doing okay.” He said, taking a seat at a desk. “Kind of been having a busy morning, but nothing bad at all. Managed to get done with some of the homework for Mr. Salvatore’s class last night as well as got the report that Ms. Raifort assigned us so, I think I’m good and ready today. What about you two?” he asked Penny and Nemona.