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"Should I... be worried about GRAY?" Keiko wondered aloud, not asking anyone in particular - especially not the AI himself. "Something seems off..."

"Let's just get this over with," Absinthe grunted, not very pleased to be back in Galar again.

The two were standing outside the Postwick Pokemon Center, waiting to see if other Snagems would arrive on the scene. Though Absinthe didn't care, Keiko wasn't comfortable doing the mission with just herself and a younger girl, regardless of Abby's robust personality.

Sol hadn't been able to make heads or tails of what seemed to be going on with GRAY, having little to go on apart from the blaring message and something that pointed to a town called Postwick. He had to slip away, but effectively being out of the tourney anyways meant doing so wasn't difficult.

"I was hoping one of you might've been able to shed some light," he remarked, arriving in time to hear Amber's question. "I'd imagine we're all just as confused as the other here, then?"

"FIND CHILD." GRAY shouted through the SNAGs in response to their questions, his voice sounding mostly normal except the pitch was wrong? It was hard to tell what exactly but something certainly was off with it.

Either way the child was said to disappeared somewhere on Route 1, better start looking there.

Upon arrival they would find the short and uninteresting Route 1 which consisted of two paths. The first led straight north to the next town, flat with no tall grass. The other made a U shape branching off from the main path before reconnecting with it at the end and was filled with tall grass and many wild Pokemon. Common sense probably told them to check the grassy path but it wouldn't hurt to poke around the main one either.

Amber turned to look at Sol as the Ho-oh hybrid appeared and said he was just as in the dark as the rest of them. Keiko's response that a child was missing along Galar's Route 1 was rather alarming, and although she returned Abby's smile, glad to see her fellow Snagems, GRAY's shouting wasn't helping matters. "Geez, GRAY, I didn't know you cared so much," she said, her voice missing its usual snarkiness when dealing with the AI. She wasn't trying to be insensitive; this was completely unexpected from him, and the pitch of his mechanical voice sounded off to her. What in the world was going on with GRAY?

"Alright, Abby's right, we should get going," she said, following behind the others. Something was very....off with this whole scenario. It was making her skin crawl just thinking about a missing child, and she was hoping they could find the child safe and sound before anything happened. "Spooky, keep an eye out for anything unusual," she said, not needing to see the Ghost-type to know that he would do as asked. Amber followed Keiko along the grassy path, thinking that Spooky might pick up something more there than on the straight path.

Sol moved his SNAG away from his face out of reflex from the pitch, being weirdly higher yet lower sounding at the same time. "Not just that," he spoke up in response to Aile. "GRAY's usually more apt to crack remarks and give us sass even when the matter's urgent. Maybe especially when the matter's urgent. Think the only time I've seen GRAY this no nonsense was when he watched me die and resurrect, and that was because his programming made him crash over it."

"Anyways, this route should be safe enough that Absinthe and maybe one other should be fine on the straight path, and the rest of us can go through the grass. The wild Pokemon here shouldn't pose much of a threat, but that's no reason to throw caution to the wind," he continued, sending out his Scorbunny. "At worst, if any of them decide to fight and we can't avoid it, it'll be a good way to get some quick experience in while we're looking. If anyone finds something, shout or send a message and we'll regroup sooner rather than later."

Turning towards the grassy part of the route, he and Inigo would start down it theirselves to begin their search.

Spooky, being able to sense the spiritual energy approaching, was quick to make himself visible. Amber, having known the Ghost-type for two years and being able to understand his actions to a point, immediately knew that something wrong. The Shuppet only made himself visible around people he didn't know well when something bad was about to happen, or he was protecting Amber. "Send up a signal, quick!" she said, then turned to Keiko, since she was the closest. "Keiko, get out of here! Spooky's sensing something, and I don't want to be here when it arrives!" As she was speaking, she was running toward the main path, while Spooky, on Amber's orders, fired a Thunderbolt into the air, hoping to alert the Snagems that weren't close to them that something was wrong. Amber was hoping that they would be able to get out of the way, but only time would tell.

"Hm?" First, Sol would notice Amber and Spooky's reactions. Then he'd notice the energy signature rapidly approaching. Motioning in the direction he felt it from and looking to his Scorbunny, he figured to try and keep it at bay- at least in so much as a blind shot might allow. "Inigo, fire an Ember to your left and keep your guard up!"

Opting to comprise a sort of vanguard for the rest, he and Inigo would keep their ground for whatever or whoever was approaching while the Scorbunny fired off the Ember as directed. Take that, grass.