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Sub would chuckle softly in response to Freth's reaction to all his luggage, the man dismissing her concerns that it was way too much stuff for a two day stay. "Trust me, Freth, everything I brought is absolutely necessary. I will not be arriving in an unfamiliar land unprepared this time. No, this time my pants will be staying up and snug against my waist!" Sub proclaimed, basking in his 'moment' for a bit before speaking further. "...it's belts, a bunch of belts. I won't be caught with my pants down this time, figuratively nor literally." He said with a cackle, no doubt leaving Freth to wonder if this man was being serious or not, after all this was Sub. It was perhaps good though to see him acting like his normal insane silly self though.

For Sub the next three hours would go by in a flash as the man left his seatmate to her own thoughts and the conversations playing out in her mind with her brainmate. These days if Freth was being quiet it usually meant her mental roommate was talking to her. As for Sub he had plenty of reading to occupy him, the Dark One having brought along a book for the ride. While Sub was the type of person to embrace technology whenever and wherever he could, always looking to the future, there was one thing he would not replace the old for the new and that was books. There was something about a physical book that brought Sub such joy. The way they feel, the way they smell, the knowledge they contained, the hands that have held them. To him a book wasn't just the information they contained but so much more. There was a reason why the man had his own personal library back at HQ, of which many were...'borrowed'.

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[Three hours later.]

The ride along the coast was an uneventful one, one side of the bus seeing nothing but beach, cliff side, and ocean on end with no real sign of civilization or even beach goers as very few people ventured this far beyond Kanto's eastern borders. The other side of the bus would the occasional farm at first until they disappeared and were replaced by forest and cliff walls, their side of the bus easily becoming the most boring with very little change, just trees and rocks.

In time, on the left side of the bus, the beach would turn rocky and coming into view would be their first sign of civilization in the form of an old bridge stretching out from the shore line, over the rocks, a ways over the ocean. A lone fishing boat tied to the side of it. On the right side the bus could see the trees giving way to a modestly sized clearing with a small building come into view, made of wood in traditional Kanto-Johto style, sporting a tile roof and decked out with numerous flags and banners that waved in the ocean's breeze.

"Good evening passengers! The time is five twenty-six and we are pulling into Rest Station Number 9, Kanto-Kitakami! All passengers will be permitted to step off the bus, utilize the station's facilities, or just stretch your legs if needed! We will be stopping for a minimum of thirty minutes with a max of on hour, pending on passenger needs. Please wait until the bus comes to a full stop before standing up and again thank you for riding Windy Lines!" Mister Marcel spoke to their minds, never taking his eyes off the ground as he did, the effects of Natu's Miracle Eye still lingering on Monique so she too could hear the announcement, unfortunately though Sub couldn't.

As they pulled into the rest station the group could get a better look at the old wooden building and its many banners and flags, the ones with words on them written in old Kantonian kanji, the kind not even most natives use anymore. The bus would vibrate a bit as they pulled in, going off the paved road and onto the station's gravel lot. The bus would eventually come to a stop right in front of the station and a 'bing bong' would ring out throughout the bus to indicate they had stopped. "Welcome to Rest Station Number 9, Kanto-Kitakami! Please watch your step when disembarking! If you have any trash please hand it to Miss Rouge as you step off the bus." Mister Marcel telepathic instructed them, the Jynx now standing by the bus's exit with a trash bag, the Natu now perched on her shoulder.

The rest station wouldn't have too much to see. There were a pair of old looking vending machines on the outside and while they looked like they were put in place as much as thirty years ago the products they were stocked with were fresh, clearly in currently available varieties like back in proper civilization so someone was clearly keeping the chips, drinks, etc. stocked up in these things. Besides vending machines the building itself had restrooms on the inside, a small sitting room with a table, a marked Pokemon battlefield out back, and beyond that an old shrine apparently dedicated to Ho-oh by the looks of the rainbow colored rope bow that adorned the torii gate. On the other side of the street was the rocky beach, dock, and singular fishing boat, its fisherman nowhere to be seen.

Besides this piece of civilization there were some Pokemon nearby too, numerous Pidgey and a few Hoothoot hanging out on top of the building and in the trees, Kricketune chirping somewhere in the woods, and even a Kantonian Meowth slumbering lazily underneath the meticulously kept bonsai-style bush out front. Over towards the rocky beach they could see numerous Shellder resting on the rocks with dopey Slowpoke trying to fish from atop the rocks but clearly most of them didn't realize how low the tide was and thus their tails were barely, or not at all, touching the water. A single Slowbro stood among them but it just seemed preoccupied by staring off into the horizon. It was a nice quiet place, the perfect picture of a rest stop that has been minimally touched by civilization. They would have up to an hour to enjoy the place before they moved on.

The second the bus stopped, I got out of my seat. I gave Keiko the window seat, but I knew she'd need to get up and out right away. Sensing the Psychic-type energy the Xatu was targeting at Monique, it didn't take me long to figure out what it was doing. "That guy over there," I said to the Xatu while pointing at Sub, "is a Dark Channeler, so he's going to need your help, too," I explained.

I left the bus after that, but the sensation of distress stopped me from following my wife into the rest stop building. I followed the sensation to its location at the back of the bus. Confused, I opened the door and watched Leslie jump out of the luggage compartment. Part of me wanted to question how she got there, but I decided against it and focused on putting the luggage back into the compartment. Once that was done, I'd head inside. Assuming there wasn't already a line, Keiko would probably be out of the restroom by then.

There was a flash of a memory, probably supported a little bit more firmly in the hybrid's mind because his species was built to move between the dimensions. He paused, the question lingering in the air as he thought back. The trauma of what he had witnessed pulling the team back through the infinite void had almost erased the time they had together in Hisui, but Monique's quiet inquiry stirred something in him. A dark basement, with false talismans and whispered voices. Inquiries painting him as shades of a monster that he had never been, but was determined to play. It all came rushing back to him, a little at a time, some pieces more clearly than others. He did distinctly recall a Marowak of a type he had never seen before and a guard uniform. Distinct flames, screaming... It all hit him in a sort of rush.

"I do seem to recall something about it..." he answered finally, after a bit of a pregnant pause, turning back to look at the Zoroark figure in pursuit of him. "If I'm recalling things correctly..." And he was, probably one of the few who could clearly remember everything that happened given the circumstances. "I owe you a great deal of thanks for helping spring me from that basement and getting me back to the team when everything went down."

Besides most of the others ignoring his question, which made a part of his brain wonder how a group as weird as the Snagems could be such spoilsports during the roadtrip, Tsuki spent most of the three hours listening to music with wireless headphones. He let his Magby borrow one while he read a brochure on Kitakami. It was a small regionette that specialized in rice, apples, and mask festivals. When he saw Applins in the artwork, he wondered if the people there knew anything about Dipplins- he knew about Flapples and Appletuns but nothing about this particular branch. Heck, he didn’t even know there was third branch of this Pokemon line until Snapdragon evolved. The information about Oni Mountain also caught his attention- was it haunted or something?

Tsuki decided he’d ask about it when they finally got to Kitakami. The thought of some kind of demon in the mountains made him think back to the caves and bamboo grove he had explored in Paldea. It felt haunted, or at the very least cursed, what with how the local Fire type Pokemon had been going rabid. He shuddered, remembering the vision he had received. Hopefully the name was just there to attract tourists.

When their bus finally arrived to their first rest stop, Tsuki booked it out of the ride as soon as he could to stretch. Seeing Ter help that Tinkatuff hybrid that had been stuck in the storage area, he couldn’t help but snort. “How’d you manage that?” He asked Leslie. Was she new to the team? He didn’t remember a hybrid like her from three years ago.

“Yeah… AyTee’s with me right now, actually. Not like I’d send it out right now for proof…” Aile looked around, making sure no civilians were close enough to really pay them any mind. Snagems were one thing, and they’d know eventually, with little doubt the Sandy Shocks was going to be useful somewhere. However, she didn’t need to make a panic in public, bringing out a very strange, metal enjoying Magneton. “But it certainly seems enough of a Pokemon to be caught in a modern Pokeball.” Aile paused as she stood up herself, thinking for a moment. “Wait. Weren’t you traveling with Reno before all that stuff? Was he reading those magazines he mentioned and talking to you guys about them?” She’d pack her notebook and pencil away in her carry along bag, making sure everything was set before starting to disembark herself. “What all did he mention from those? Since… they might not have been terribly off the mark,” she muttered at the end, once again checking for any civilian trying to listen in. Hopefully the psychics running the bus were kind enough to keep to themselves on this as well.

Leslie looked up and out of her predicament towards the collection of people it seemed were now readily available to aid her in this situation. "I wanted to pack along my really big hammer I've been creating for the last few weeks, get out the last few problems and start swinging that thing around. Bus was packed by you hooligans very poorly, so I went to great lengths and the occasional dose of bludgeoning to make things hold in position so I could slot it in." Yanking her medium-sized hammer out of the vehicle, Leslie would point towards the large bag that instigated this disaster. "Then some fool came late, bombed that bag in without looking, and I got pinned underneath all of the luggage when the game immediately shifted from Tetris to Jenga. Only reason bus driver didn't notice is I got my ticket checked before I went for it so if I couldn't make it work, I'd just run on and take a seat."

Darts's reply dusted just a little more of the memory out of Monique's mind, but it was patchy, incomplete. "I'm glad I could save you, Darts. You know... Sometimes I wonder how Kalama saw things." She took out the Poké Ball containing the Bone Keeper Pokémon and sat next to her companion and Darts, its flame a little welcome in the chilly night air—though a Marowak campfire could be downright dangerous to anyone not a Trainer or even a Ghost-type hybrid like Darts. "You know, I wonder sometimes what you've been through, what you've seen," she thought, looking her companion in the eyes as her green glow flickered. "You came with me. You were there on Mt. Silver. It still feels like a dream... After the Dome broke, it was you and me." She looked up, recalling her fortune at landing with Snagem, in this reality, with this Pokémon. "My world's tapu were gone... But this world's tapu saw to me."

She looked at the other Snagems, milling around at the rest stop; the vending machine, well-stocked even this far out from the nearest population center; the fishing boat and the dock; the Hoothoot and Pidgey, which seemed to be everywhere; and back at Darts and Kalama. "You know, there is more life here—real, honest, protected life—at this rest stop than where I came from. If you went out to the wastelands and saw a Pokémon, it was a lucky day. Even the things that Flower City grew weren't as good as this. We were lucky to sustain a little civilization of our own even without the king's so-called blessing."

"I can't help but think of my Pokémon. Not just Kalama, but all of them. I was lucky to have three Pokémon, and one was basically a pet. Now I have, what, 16? 17?" They had come from all over a world that by her time was gone and, in two specific cases, from a time before that. "From an egg in Paldea, from a backpack in Hoenn, from a dark Unovan night, from Sub himself... Heck, from Ultra Space..." She smirked, thinking about her encounter with Aniani the Primarina and how she was her for a time. "I'll always treasure and love Kalama because she deserves it, but... Mo‘ala and Lua Pele and Hao and all the others are treasures, too."

She thought back to the realization she'd had on her Master Mission in Spikemuth. "I was thinking... Why did the tapu make me a Zoroark? And why the Unovan kind? I had a Ghost-type Pokémon, so why not the Hisuian variety? And I realized why. I cannot be fueled by Bitter Malice. Because I'm so constantly thankful. Lucky beyond a Chant." Monique choked up a bit, clinging to Darts for just a moment. "I'm here. This world isn't perfect, but it's a world that you can live in. And that is more than I could say for mine."

"The what?" Aden asked, remembering a particular article and how he found the name spoken in it sounded awfully ironic. Now that he thought about it, he did recall Sol looking pretty rough when he came to, but he thought that was just from the worries of a concerned parent.

"The robot Gallade thing too! Apparently they went off to find the last Herba Mystica or whatever before some Rock channeler got there first, ended up finding some ruins and fell even further down after a fight broke out. Unless Reno wants to explain, I can relay what Aile told me when we're back on the bus." Somewhere in Aden's mind, surely some sort of board was being put together alongside a wish that the group thought to take some of those magazines with them... actually, maybe not. In the meantime, he'd found himself looking at the shrine maybe a bit more intently than he intended, snapping back to reality (and out of the telepathy) at the question from Aile.

"...oh. Er. Maybe it wouldn't hurt, but if I was doing that, I'd probably just go to the Relic Forest. If anything, I'm maybe past due on the usual trip there..." He responded, musing for a second. "I'm not against the company, though. Can't say I've seen a lot of Kanto outside the cities, and a shrine like this reminds me a little of Ecruteak, yanno?"