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It was a long several hours. Every minute…every second. Tense as hell for the likes of me. I couldn’t help but to grip the seat tight, staring at the seat in front of me, holding fast in my seat as the noise of the jet drowned out most other noise in the compartment.

“Blizz? Are you going to be okay?” Tristen asked, staring at me in confusion.

“Were roughly a mile and a half above the ground, in a barely pressurized tin can piloted by someone who only vaguely has experience on flying anything, never mind a jet like this. The situation is trying to agitate a long standing fear that I thought I worked out of until I had a realization on this trip.” I said. “I’ll be fine if I can walk out of this thing.”

“Wait…are…you scared of heights? I…kinda wondered why you preferred to fight on the ground a lot. Hold on…you’re an avian hybrid, what realization could you have to make you upset?” Tristen asked.

“In my defense, bear in mind that I had been human at one time, and after a long time, I managed to actually get somewhat comfortable with flying around. Had to for Articuno years ago. I managed to get over fears for the most part. The thing that unnerves me now is my lack of control over the situation now. It’s not like I’m outside with my two wings right this second.” I said to him.

“...uh...huh.” Tristen was left flabbergasted, trying to make heads or tails of the situation.

The two of us would then perk up when Darts would start making a show, but making his point clear that it was getting close to time to land. I sighed out and just tried to brace myself. A safe landing couldn’t have come soon enough…

Aile was thankful things seemed to be going smoothly this time, as opposed to the Robo-Kyogre. Granted, there were other extenuating circumstances with that, but there were no good memories with any self-made vehicles so far. Her head would seemingly jump up slightly when Darts nudged her, deducing correctly that she was holding on tightly to the yolk the entire time. She’d nod and flip a few switches, starting to slow the vehicle down and engaging the landing gear. Gently, she would begin to turn the plane, doing her best to keep them somewhat far out. It wasn’t the most graceful of landing, hitting the ground rather hard, but it didn’t seem like the landing gears gave out at least. Aile would fight for control of the steering in the sand, and for once in this ride, it made sense to white knuckle grasp the steering wheel. Eventually they would come to a stop, further out and probably enduring a bumpier ride than anyone would have wanted, but the team would emerge unscathed outside of maybe any motion sickness anyone had. After a minute of the jet being stopped, she would flop backwards in her chair and let out a gigantic sigh of relief. “Thank Arceus we’re done. For now at least.”

Crystal would be simply resting while they flew, after bracing during take off. There wasn’t much to look at, so, there wasn’t much she could do, really. Though, she braced herself during the landing when the jet finally hit the earth again. The hybrid’s eyes would widen as something inside her did not like that. Was it just that she couldn’t see what was going on? At least she hadn’t eaten. Crystal would keep herself in the chair, gripping tight even when the jet stopped shuddering and moving. At this point she was just going to wait until her body decided it was going to finally recover from the jostling.

Keiko sat alone in the Robo-Rayquaza, thinking about the choices she made before she left. She felt she was right in asking her husband to stay behind for his health, but she was starting to miss him already. Not to mention how things went the last time she joined a mission. She did NOT want a repeat of that. There was no telling what they'd find in that tower, and part of her couldn't believe she was going back there at all after what happened the first time.

But it was too late to change her mind now. Besides, this was the only way she could see Yuna and Serena again. She wasn't without hope. She had to make sure this went smoothly and as quickly as possible. She couldn't bear being without her children for much longer. Well, the two that SWIPE had a hold of, she thought as she looked to where Ulla was seated. At least she was still here.

Brian and company took their seats just before the Robo-Rayquaza took off, and it threw the three forward for a moment before they sat back. For the most part, none of them spoke. Brian would have let one of his smaller Pokemon out, but didn't want to take up any more space than necessary, so he refrained. Rachel, however, had no such inclination, letting Rainer out of his ball so the Eevee could sit on her lap. Brian kept an eye on Amber while they flew, but it seemed the Froslass hybrid was doing a lot better than she normally would be. He knew she suffered from a severe fear of heights, but it seemed that not being able to see outside kept her calm. That and Rainer decided he would sit between Rachel and Amber, somehow able to sense the older woman's fear. This effectively kept Amber from hyperventilating, something which Brian was grateful for. He remembered what had happened when they'd gone to Paldea, and he didn't want a repeat of the event.

When they finally reached their destination, the three did what they could to keep themselves in their seats. Rainer dug his claws into the seat to keep himself in place, and the trio gripped whatever they could to keep their own seats. When the shaking finally stopped, Amber was quick to get in line to get off the infernal flying death trap, as she called anything she had to fly in. While she seemed to be doing fine during the flight, what she would never admit was that her fear was still very much there. She was grateful that Rachel had let Rainer out, as having the Eevee there to focus on kept her mind off the fact that she was thousands of feet in the air. Thankfully, she couldn't see out any of the windows, so she managed to keep herself from hyperventilating, but she still hated flying.

Staring off into the distance at the tower, Reno would be greeted with a familiar sight. After his own little personal investigation with Sol and all the information that he had gotten out of Giacomo, this had been the natural next stop as the other end of the Chi Converters that had arrived in Paldea. But at that time, they had been wanting to come at this through legitimate channels and that had meant a lot of waiting for permissions and everything. Which, given how Snagem was being played as the poster children of the Indigo Alliance, was a political and logistical quagmire. While he had done his best to keep the process moving forward whenever it came up, he had been spending more of his time seeing if any new incidents from Mister Mushroom would crop up and just doing actual Snagem work. Couldn't let his own personal investigation into what might amount to a dead end get in the way of doing his actual job.

But circumstances change. And now it was time for a much more direct examination of the place. Both for the information for their own exoneration and to potentially check into this other stuff if the opportunity presented itself. After all, it was hard to call it a coincidence that the remnants of Ein seemed to be cropping up so often.

Further ahead in the seats, Leslie would be mulling a little herself. She had simply wanted to come along to see what she could potentially learn for enhancing her hammer but that little reasoning began to ring hollow when she spent more time thinking about the EVO Machine. After what had happened with the Mega Mawile situation, she felt reasonably sure that the transformation into a Tinkaton hybrid had fully solved the situation. But there was always the niggling thought that there was going to be another hitch, another problem. She wanted to see if there was anything here that would point out any of these future problems. And it looked like it would be coming up soon, as Darts mentioned their impending landing. Wrapping her hand around her hammer and bringing it close to herself to keep it from potentially bouncing around in their landing, she would give a small nod as she braced herself.

Darts pats Aile on the shoulder fondly as he sighs and tosses the manual aside in apparent relief. "That'll do, toad, that'll do." They had made it to Orre in one piece, and apparently without pursuit. But there was one thing still puzzling the gambler. "Where's the happy birthday surprise?" He asks, craning his neck to get a look out of one of the two eyes, no merriment nor celebration of going around the sun another time making itself known to him. He shrugs, as that's not the real reason they were here, and pushes a button labeled 'hatch'. On the side of one of the walls in the passenger area, the same door they had entered through flips down to the outside with a 'hiss' as the cabin depressurizes, revealing a staircase that unfurls a second time and hits the sand dune they were landed in with a 'thump' as it fixes itself into the ground. Sand whistles past the heads of the first couple Snagems off the plane, Darts included, as they offload themselves out into the desert.

Ogerpon catches up with him and scrambles up to take a seat on his shoulders behind his neck, Just Darts the horsey now a common part of their travel parlance when the terrain was too treacherous for her to traverse without incredible difficulty. Sinking down to the bottom of the dunes or having to rampage through the desert to keep her footing didn't appeal to the Legend considering the circumstances. Her mask rotates to Wellspring, sad about the sand smashing into all of them as well as keeping the pair in a soothing mist to help blunt the sun, as Darts shades his eyes to see the camp further on out surrounding the tower.



Ignoring this question, mostly out of feigning deafness and hoping someone else would explain, he turns to look at the rest of the group, Ogerpon holding on with both legs but bobbing back and forth slightly as she sways steadily above the hybrid's crest.

"So." He says, opening the floor up for discussion from all of the members. "How do we want to do this?"

The camp out ahead of them sprawled around the base of Realgam Tower, plain to the eye even from this distance, and was hustling and bustling with activity. It was two or three sand dunes away, and judging from the fact there wasn't any convoy headed their way somehow they had managed to keep their presence concealed from the people out in front of them... for now.

There was some sort of military presence, judging by the guards around the camp's perimeter, clearly (ironically) outlined by their sand-colored camouflage and hard combat helmets along with their actively sniffing Hippowdon snorting and huffing in the harsh climate that was their natural environment as they keep dutiful guard over the edges of the effort.

Behind them, closer to the tower, are armored trucks, excavation equipment, and ATVs fighting for space with a set of rugged looking jeeps that made up the camp's transportation. Further along, closer still to the base of the monument towering over them all, are large banks of tents. These were presumably utilized by the crew cleaning out the tower as lodging, mess, equipment, and medical alongside other various multipurpose uses besides. There were people moving to and fro between these erected structures as they go about their duties, but from the Snagem's position it was too hard to tell who or what any of them were.

Finally, ominously, there's a massive concrete barrier erected between the camp itself and Realgam's front entrance - as wide as the tower's base itself and ensconced with razor-sharp barbed wire that looked like it could cut as a distance, alongside more guards keeping an eye on the people going in and out, letting them through a small entrance made of mesh chain link fence that served as a checkpoint. They had clearly had issues with something or things that had come out from the inside to force this group to erect a militarized no-man's-land like this between themselves and their objective.

"Do we think we can stealth it?" The Giratina hybrid asked, earnestly, looking to Sub in particular for guidance but inviting the others to speak up. "I don't like our odds just attacking, but stealth in our numbers has beeen.... a little touch and go, as you know."

"Pyon popopo pon." Ogerpon adds helpfully from atop his shoulders. Stealth with you alone is a mere fantasy at times, Just Darts.

As the Robo-Rayquaza landed Sub braced himself for whatever crazy and over-the-top 'surprise birthday' features the actually-mad scientist had installed in the Pokemon styled jet but when nothing actually happened the man was equally as confused as Darts but was quick to also dismiss it, in fact kind of happy that the thing do something to draw attention to the giant green flying mechanical snake. It was a small miracle they weren't spotted at any moment before getting here but he wasn't about to look a gift Rapidash in the mouth. With the aircraft on the ground Sub got out with the others and stretched his limbs a bit, letting the heat of the Orre desert wash over him. He might be one shade removed from being albino but he enjoyed the heat.

"One of these days we'll be done with this region. Today is not that day." Sub commented as he took a few steps away from the Robo-Rayquaze so he could get a better look at Realgam Tower in the distance. Squinting a bit he could make out the camp set up around the perimeter and the cement wall beyond that but not much else. Unsatisfied with what he could see he pulled his backpack around and took out an old dust pair of binoculars and wiped the dust off the lenses, wishing he had something a little more high tech but beggars couldn't be choosers. Peering through the binoculars he got a better look at the situation, though truth be told not discerning more than what was already to be seen and assumed.

"Feel that? Teleportation scramblers are running." Sub commented. He could always feel the things in operation as they gave off a slight Dark energy signature. Listening to Blizzard's comment he couldn't help but agree, they couldn't afford to crawl in but what if there was another way? "...I think we got a way around those and get inside. Reno, if we were able to sneak someone's Pokémon in behind their lines do you think you and your Psychic Pokémon could set us up a little short range teleportation relay? I mean, the problem with the scrambler is it makes it impossible for a teleporter to focus on a destination but what if you use yourself and your Channeling partner as focal points? Would it be enough to overcome the scrambler? As for what we could sneak in..." He said, turning to Aile. "Got that Nincada? Despite being big for a Nincada it's still pretty small, it could sneak under the sands undetected I'm sure, or at least fast enough."