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Eventually, Freth and I would arrive at the building and be allowed out of the convoy. The two of us weren’t in the best of moods still, in spite of at least one stroke of fortune, and it wasn’t perhaps lost on Agent Mully. We weren’t going to take it out on her however. She wasn’t the one that was giving us hell over the past two and a half days. But then something that took a second to register to me then instantly. Bugs on us? I then slowly looked over at Freth, rather deadpan, a look given in return, then took a look at the collar on each of our necks. In truth, I should have figured they tricked this thing out with all sorts of things. A receiver, among other things. It then also started to click that they actually knew about Tristen and ‘Phobos’ when he mentioned that; in essence, why we were escorted out of the ceremony. And Freth and I gave him the head start. God, we put a big risk on Tristen just like that without thinking about it. For that matter, as did Sub probably. That was a hell of a gamble. In fact, really thinking on it, we were probably baited in going. I only hoped that Tristen was okay in the meantime.

For that matter, every last conversation that we had between each other was probably listened in on, from off-hand mentionings of trying to get away from SWIPE and getting rid of the collars to the mournings of various things. It also meant that they probably heard my conversation with Darts in regards to my theory of about Agent WHITE being S22, and Darts’s subsequent rebuke. That wasn’t good and it left me to wonder if Darts already figured that out as well. Even though not much was exchanged between us, it would have been more than enough for SWIPE to go hunt down S22 themselves, and even I didn’t know the state of him.

All the same, it was good that whatever what was going to transpire here was going to be between us; probably the biggest feeling of privacy that we ever had in a couple of days. The fact that we were still in rough shape from a couple of days to the eyes of some else was pretty damning. There was only so much we could have done in the meantime with SWIPE hounding us at every moment. Even sleep didn’t even come easy; in some cases, that I knew of, some of it came to the Snagems out of pure exhaustion. Taking care of what few Pokémon we have on us wasn’t easy either. Blaziken was still messed up a couple of days ago and I couldn’t really get any opportunity to help him out until the day after and even then, it wasn’t without causing an uproar with SWIPE. Blaziken was feeling quite bitter that day. “Water is fine.” I spoke up.

“No Coke?” Freth asked.

“I’ve stress drank a bunch of them over the past couple of days. I got to hang it up for at least one day.”

While knowing that I was right and could acknowledge that, it was absolutely astounding to her to hear that out of me. So much so, even Eris had to speak up. ”Wow…I…am honestly hoping you all make it out now. I don’t think Hell could take another cold front hit like that.”

Monique found herself apprehensively looking around the massive, empty lobby of Devon's global headquarters, staring through the floor at the fossilized samples visible under the glass. The Snagems were all standing around, some of them clearly familiar with the woman that was apparently to be their handler within Devon. Monique was not one of them.

"I appreciate it, Agent Mully," she replied. "Lemonade sounds nice right now, even if it won't scratch the surface of my needs." She felt like she could relax at least a bit. Devon clearly was going to bat for Snagem. But there was still a long way to go. "I have so many concerns about these collars, and maybe I should be the most scared to even see them," she piped up, giving Devon a little hint of what was still on her mind. The reason she couldn't bring herself to cooperate completely with this SWIPE outfit. They reeked of royal Tsareena to her in ways that made her shudder just standing and thinking about it.

Sub would quietly exit the vehicle and be led into Devon Corporation headquarters, not reacting too much to being here nor to Agent Mully's appearance. He would remain silent and casually observe his surroundings, taking in everything he could and saving to memory as much as possible. He would watch as Looker began to walk away, finally showing off something of a reaction as he gave the investigator a little smile and a wave, Looker himself grumbling to himself before spinning around on his heel and leaving the building just a bit quicker. With Looker gone Sub would turn his attention back to Mully, following her inside, again not saying a word. He would follow her in and watch as the doors closed behind them, nodding quietly as she mentioned they could speak freely in here. And while the offer for a beverage was nice it didn't appeal to Sub in the least.

Observing his surroundings some more Sub would passively listen as everyone asked for their preferred drink and once he found an opening to speak before Mully got their drinks the Snagem leader would finally speak. "Where is he?" He bluntly asked, not looking at Mully as he asked, too busy eying the front door. "He is here, isn't he?" He followed up his question, turning to actually look at Agent Mully. "I want to see him, now...please." Initially a little aggressive in his request, likely from all he has been through lately, Sub caught himself and dialed his tone down a bit, these weren't the people he should be mad at it. These were the ones possibly saving their hides. "Sorry, been a rough few days." He apologized to Mully.

Brian looked at Darts as the Giratina hybrid spoke. He wondered just what Darts had actually been through, but didn't ask, feeling it would be rude. "Perhaps," he said, his voice quiet. "I just don't want them to be shunned because of this." As the procession reached the Devon HQ, the trio had to wonder again just what was going on. Amber could see Looker arguing with a woman that was waiting outside the building, and she had to chuckle at the investigator's reaction to being told, in no uncertain terms, apparently, from what he'd said, that SWIPE wasn't allowed inside. Oh, that filled the Froslass hybrid with a savage satisfaction; unable to help herself, she allowed a small, victorious smirk to adorn her face when she looked at Looker and his lackeys. Leave it to Devon to be as hard-headed as possible.

She and her two friends followed the rest inside the building, following Agent Mully. Hmm, this woman seemed like someone who was accustomed to getting her way. Amber liked that. Hearing that nothing that they said could be picked up from outside, Brian had to speak. "So if I said I plan to teleport to my parents' home to let them know what's going on, Looker and his lackeys wouldn't hear it?" he asked. Not that he was actually planning to do so; it was more a test on whether SWIPE actually couldn't hear anything from inside the building. Rachel perked up a bit at the question of refreshments. "I wouldn't mind a coffee, if you'd be so kind," she said. "Even just being this close to those lunatics is making it where I need something for my nerves."

Even as Sol and Amaranth got out of the vehicle they'd been ushered into, they or Cera looking at the skyscraper that made up Devon Corp. did very little to offer them solace. After everything with Looker and SWIPE alone, two thirds of the trio had their personal nightmares return in full force and wondering if they'd ever truly be free from the specter of Ein. The remaining third saw him wondering if that trip to Boyleland somehow sent them to some bizarro reality and no one managed to notice. Even as they watched Agen Mully and Looker bickered over things, there was a general fear that something about this wasn't going to quite go according to plan. At least, Sol wouldn't doubt that the claims weren't going to hold up and as soon as they failed to, their situation was going to get a whole lot worse real fast.

They'd all be completely silent as they went inside, and even as Mully tried to assure the others that the bugs planted on them- something Sol and Cera wouldn't be surprised about at all- Sol would be the only one to dare open his beak. "Nothing's necessary for me, thank you. But if you'll give Cera some Lemonade, I'm sure she'll appreciate it," he said after a moment. "And you'll have to forgive me if I'm wary about this being as private as you're promising. They've had us so far dead to rights in nearly every other way that I wouldn't put it past them to have found a way around even Devon's staunch defenses."

Cera wanted to protest and say she wanted nothing either, but she knew she wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone at Devon on her own. She'd settle on looking away, resigned to staying in Amaranth's arms as her collar-induced limited mobility and lack of Pokemon allies mandated. Amaranth would shake her head to the offer of anything herself. "I'm fine, thanks," would be the most out of her, not wanting to give the bugs on everyone anything to pick up just in case they were actually working.

"Huh? Oh I was just talking about-" Sub would begin to reply to Ulla, that was until Lykas spoke up, eliciting a heavy sigh from Sub as he immediately changed focus to the Jellicent hybrid.



"Do you want the real answer? The whole truth?" He asked Lykas before speaking to Ulla again. "Ulla, you may not be able to completely discern lies or truth with your Channeling but you can get a read on what a person is feeling, tell our teammates if I feel sincere or not while I answer Lykas." He instructed the young girl before proceeding to answer Lykas.

"I don't know, I honestly don't. Some of you wanted to know the big secret mission put Darts on, right? It was to find S-22, what became of him after he was set free of Ein's control. That's it. Nothing nefarious or anything of the sort, just locating a very confused and very powerful hybrid. You'd think they would be on board with trying to locate what they would consider a rogue weapon of mass destruction. However, as we've all now seen, that action was enough to warrant all of...this." He said, gesturing to the door where SWIPE was on the other side of. At this point in his rant he was venting his frustration built up over the past few days.

"Most of you have been here for everything they accuse us of, what they accuse me of. Have I been responsible for any of that? What could I possibly done to have warrant the accusations? I helped Cipher? I helped Ein!? Are you kidding me!?" He asked incredulously. "For once this isn't a case of sneaky Sub doing things in the shadows and getting everyone in trouble. Should I have kept the search for S-22 such a big secret? Probably not, but I know some of us suffer a bit of trauma with that thing so my intentions weren't to scare anyone. But never once in a million years did I think all this would happen. In fact, if I knew this was possible do you think I would have risked losing everything I worked so hard for? No!" With that he spun his head around to look at Ulla.

"So, what's the verdict, kiddo?" He asked the girl.

Aile frowned at Lykas, but also didn’t stand in his way. Yeah, she probably should have been pissed as well, all things considered. But whatever the reason didn’t matter to her at this point, she also wanted to spite these bastards that thought she was just a ******** lowlife criminal that threw away a nice, cushy life. Still, she would cross her arms and listen, raising an eyebrow when Sub mentioned that he sent Darts to try and locate S-22. Her frown would turn to Sub, silently sighing. “So, that was-” Aile would be cut off by a bitter laugh, coming from one galactic hybrid.

“So, that’s it? You couldn’t trust how the team would handle hearing that you were trying to locate the mutant shark man?” Crystal shook her head and bit her lip, a smile growing on her face despite how she was feeling. “So, that little secret mission is the reason why we’re in this Light forsaken situation?! I assume it was just the two of you that knew, how the hell did you guys get so sloppy even that they figured it out?! Light blind me, that seems just pathetic almost!” She would begin pacing as she ranted, the hybrid unable to keep her tongue to herself. “You couldn’t tell Reno, who’s supposed to be your damned second in command, you couldn’t tell Sol or Blizz even?! They probably could have been rational about it at least! Maybe not all of us, sure, like I should get knowledge of anything like that, correct, Darts? All I do is sit on my hide and complain! But..” She would bring her hands to get head for a second and grinded her teeth, frustration briefly cutting off her train of thought. “You couldn’t help but grab your golden boy and poke the Beedrill’s nest, and didn’t even cover up your tracks when it didn’t go your way! How much did we all lose? We’re currently all locked up like canned Wishiwashi, most of us have these infernal collars on that block our capabilities, we’re all treated like we’re lower than dirt right now, and some of us probably lost the things that were most precious to us in the name of ‘evidence’!” Light burn me to slag, all this over looking for as they put it, a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’! Considering the damage he caused, no wonder they would view that as shady as all hell!" Crystal was visibly shaking at this point, hands balled up into fists. “We lost our freedom, our respect, our dignity, one of us even lost our lives because of you two! Why the hell should we stay after all of this?! Why should we trust you when you can’t trust us?!”

Mully had her phone out, diligently taking down every single one of their drink orders as she taps through them with a stylus, jotting notes on her touchscreen as each of them responded. "Got it," She says finally, confident in her note-taking. "So, three coffees one iced, two lemonades, one soda, one water, and-" Sub breaks in as she's in the middle of tabulating the refreshments for the guests.



"Why," She turns to look at Sub full on as the Leader interrupts her. Agent Mully doesn't seem upset at all, there's more of a gaze of pity in her eyes as she rounds on him. "Of course he's here. How else would we have known to get ahold of you all?" Mully asks, simultaneously attempting to answer Reno's question while keeping things a bit mum. "SWIPE has been trying to keep this as quiet as possible, as no doubt you all assumed, while they gathered evidence. And while I haven't seen it myself..." There's a pause as she weighs and considers her words. "From what I've been told, it's not good. I find it hard to believe after all we've gone through together, we all do... that's why we're here." The woman seems a little emotional, her eyes fogging up a bit as she clears her throat to get back on track with things. "But of course, that's why we asked you all here."

She gets cut off again, as a low roil of bickering that had been humming away in the background comes to the ugly boiling forefront of the current conversation.



As the gang came into Devon's headquarters, Darts, unlike himself as of late, doesn't really keep his guard up. He had been here when himself, the late agent Bulder, and Mully, alongside all of the Snagems around during the beginning of the Hoenn Shadow Pandemic had started to launch a counter-offensive against Ein's bioweapon. In a way it was nostalgic. They hadn't gone much further than some of the labs and the reception area, but still it was home. Once Mully said they weren't under surveilance, unlike some of the more suspicious team members, he was more than happy to collapse on the ground as they stopped to get beverages.

"Okay, Ogerpon, you have to get down please... My Giratina scoliosis... it's killing me it's been three days of carrying you around on my back.... and let's be honest, you could lay off the candy apples a little bit..." He groans, half in pain and half in relief as his Legend disentangles herself from the grooved perch she had practically worn in his back, pushing his lapels aside to hop to the floor. There's a thoughtful expression on her face for the couple moments it's exposed on the outside of the jacket, until a pair of vines pluck and place the standard Teal Mask on her face, reflecting her hesitancy to drop her own guard; she wasn't raring for a fight at the moment. Her 'sandals' click across the tiles of the building, her wooden feet bottoms clanking against the ceramic surface while she walks

Her mask tilts left, right, upward, downward as she looks back and forth, taking all of the various fossils in the floor and modern wonders. While electricity hadn't dazzled the little Pokemon, the enormity of a building beyond anything she had ever seen did, coming from a small village in the countryside. Even in their travels with Darts, the Dragon Clan never had a building that could match the sheer scale of this thing.

Darts climbs to his feet as his ward's sightseeing, near sobbing with relief at the weight off his spine, taking a hand back inside his jacket to massage the small knots in his back, working the muscles with his golden talons as gently as he can. Mully's offer of coffee, while always tempting, Darts had been 'sober' long enough at this point it barely registered as a ping on his proverbial radar. But it was always tempting. However, the direction the conversation swung after that was a bit more concerning.

He's quiet as Sub spills the beans about his little summer project before they had spent time in Kitakami. The story that The Dark One was saying was mostly accurate to the aims as explained to send him to Orre. The Giratina hybrid had been sent to the desert to try and locate the walking weapon, being one of the few that would probably be liable to survive if things did end up getting physical. However... it looked like there were still some key details that the leader was playing close to the chest. Far be it from Darts to kibitz on a game that wasn't even his to play, so he held his tongue. For once.



...That is until his former friend turned scowling critic starts lashing out again. Darts gets in her face immediately, collar or no, as she starts lambasting Sub and himself for their actions, subconsciously putting himself between her and the leader. "Yeah, why don't you just walk out the door now, huh?" He asks, tapping the collar around his own neck meaningfully as he says it, indicating their current state and lack of choices. "Rather convenient for you to try and have this little conversation now, when we don't exactly have the means to have a proper fight. I guess you don't need your powers to sucker punch me again though, do you?" He had held his tongue since the last time they had bickered, mostly co-existing side by side but her getting uppity had needled him back to full rage all over. Ogerpon, who hadn't been around for the last fight, pushes her way between them but not to calm things down. Her mask has switched to the Hearthflame and she snarls, a deep low growl in the back of her throat daring Crystal to take even one step towards her master.

"You see this? This little tantrum you're throwing right now? THAT'S why Sub didn't tell you, for sure. Because after all this time you can't be trusted to be a professional and think of the team. You're just mad your little feelings are hurt because we didn't deign princess Crystal worthy of knowing. Guess what? You want to know how much trouble everyone would be in if we DID tell all of you? You think the problems we have now would be so much better if everyone was active, knowing accomplices?" Darts spins, looking around at the rest of the team, his jacket flapping from momentum. "Are you sure that all of you would have been able to keep your mouths shut? When your kids' lives are on the line? When your home is going to be put in danger? When they offer to get them out of here so they don't have to suffer through this because they know you know something?" The gambler lets his words ring out before continuing.

"We didn't tell you all not because we didn't trust you, we do, but so we didn't put you all at more risk." He rounds back on the Solgaleo hybrid, wagging a golden finger accusingly at her. "But you never considered that we were doing this for all of your benefit. It's always the world against Crystal, the universe against Crystal. Right?" The hybrid's red eyes pulse a little in anger, but unlike last time he was holding himself together. After all they had been through, Darts was tired. Tired of people questioning his motives, his character, and his instincts on what was best for the team.

"You can tear apart the fabric of reality, just like me." He finally manages after a couple moments, putting a calming hand on top of his Pokemon's head to try and keep Ogerpon from jumping Crystal. "I said you were a coward last time, that's not fair to you, but it wasn't completely untrue. I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings. But the real difference between us is that even though we both can rip these holes in the fabric of the universe, only one of us has the wisdom to know that tearing a hole through the middle of our team in the middle of a crisis like this is a bad idea." Darts turns his back then on Crystal, shooing the blazing Grass-type along with him as it shoots red-hot daggers around him at her with its eyes, even through the mask. "I'll let you figure out which of us that is."

Mully, who had been awkwardly standing nearby after she had relayed their drink orders, finally speaks up. "Like it or not, there's a lot of truth in what Darts is saying. And you guys can look at him with suspicion but I've fought alongside him, just like I fought alongside all of you. Give him, and Sub, the benefit of the doubt at least for right now. I don't know what kind of problems you all have been having amongst yourselves, but surely right now is not the time to figure that out while you have bigger Magikarp to fry..." She checks her phone, scowling at the lateness of the drinks, before sighing. "They'll just have to follow us up. You're right," Nodding, she indicates Sub as she makes her way over to the elevator. "We don't have time to waste on this. I'll take you to him, right now."

Pressing a button further over from where they had been standing, Mully hails an elevator. There were a lot of them, but even packed in shoulder to shoulder they were able to cram in as the space was large to accommodate a lot of coming and going by Devon scientists and their various equipment. She scans her keycard again, at a console in the elevator, before pressing the topmost floor in the building. Penthouse office, all the way up.

The double doors slide open again to reveal a magnificent office, adorned with all kinds of precious minerals, fossils, and other geological paraphernalia. At the other end of the room from the elevator there was a massive hewn brilliantly amber-colored desk, carved from what must have been the most enormous Old Amber deposit ever located. Fossilized remains of an Aerodactyl stared out at them screeching a silent defiance, the skeleton immaculately rendered in pristine condition within the piece of furniture, clearly a priceless heirloom of some kind.

Behind that desk sat a massive high-backed leather chair, not nearly as expensive but no less impressive. There was someone sitting in it, their face and features obscured by shadows as the team enters. It swivels around, slowly, to reveal....