Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tristen stared in confusion at Penny as she left as well. Considering her abrupt leaving of spots before, this wouldn't have been surprising. But considering her reactions before hand? She knew something. She definitely knew something. Something that she didn't care for out of Matteo. But if that was the case, why didn't she stop it, or at least speak up? What was going on with her? Tristen looked back at Fela for a second, his confusion well abound on his face but then shook his head. "Anyways...its fine, Fela. I wasn't lying when I figured that I was going to cave to Nemona sooner or later, even if it was to give us at least a day of peace to do what we need to do for class. And also like I said, she's got homeroom with us, so I was thinking on talking to her there if she hadn't settled into any sort of Pokemon team as of yet."

Tristen with a sigh looked back towards the door, crossing his arms for a moment. He continued to think for a second but then he remembered something he wanted to try to at least put to rest on, maybe to see what Matteo is angling on, based on something that was told by Indie during Ms. Dendra's class yesterday. "Say Fela...you mentioned Matteo ended up getting into a fight with Team Star a while back ago and he ended up getting suspended from classes for it. Do you know why he got into that fight? Did he ever say why?" He asked her.

Tristen thought for a moment. There was a point in time that he was missing. Matteo wasn’t exactly absolved of everything, at least as current events against Tristen versus Team Star was concerned. He’d buy the fact that he bullied others at one time, especially considering nowadays with him trying to be underhanded, but there was something there that he felt he was missing, given what he was told yesterday. Wait a second…what did she mean by that? “Wait…” Tristen asked, staring in confusion. “…'new'? As in the one now? Like she had a whole other bunch before?”

"Twins?" Tristen hesitated for a second, but then... "...those...two..." he looked around then started to talk lower. "...those two are actually hybrid. They're the Zoroark hybrids I told you and Penny about. They use illusions to make themselves look human." Matteo probably was part of Team Star before Mela decided to go rogue in such a fashion, as far as Team Star was concerned. Matteo probably was one of those ones that came back to the class room instead of to other Team Star factions. Tristen couldn't help but to wonder if Matteo ended up going back to Mela...but why would he? Fela just said that he was effectively her and other's bully. Unless he was with one of the squads. Wait...Giacomo? That name...

Tristen instantly flashbacked all the way to last week, during the first day of school. Penny was supposed to be partnered with Giacomo during Mr. Jacq's class, only to be paired with Camp. Penny tried to play it off a day later, but it wasn't exactly ignored. Tristen even recalled ever so briefly that Penny didn't care for a off-hand remark about Giacomo out of Fela. He was left to wonder just what Penny's relation to a Team Star squad leader is. That wasn't necessarily important right at the matter. There was a possibility Matteo actually was with Giacomo or one of the other squad leaders before he up and bailed out on them. Tristen remembered Sub having Atticus in tow the other day and with how he came off and Mela the day after during the fight, they were probably in on this whole situation together under Malva's lead. When they joined, there was a possibility that Matteo was with one of them then left when he started to realize she was bad news. That would only insinuate that Malva had been here a while, and maybe even knew that Snagems were going to be here. With all said though, it left Tristen wondering why would he be part of Team Star and bully what was effectively his own team mates before hand. When did that happen exactly? And why?

It was crazy to Tristen, however, just how crazy things have gotten before Team Snagem found their way here. But then, a thought just occurred to Tristen, a grim realization came to the kid. He looked over towards the chair where Matteo was sitting then quickly got up. "Hang on a second..." He walked around the table and started to look around. A Zoroark's illusions were good, but there was only so much they could cover up. One of which they couldn't...was their smell. Tristen tried to play it off like he lost something under the table, but really, he was trying to put those canine smelling to use around where Matteo sat.

The look on Tristen’s face went from suspicion to pure horror. “B. E. They’re in trouble.” Tristen said pulling away from the chair, looking over towards Fela. “Fela, find a teacher. Now. No joking. Tell them to find Mr. Clavell. Team Star might have just took the twins. Go!” He said, snatching his pack and bolting for the door. He had to try to reach the twins before anything happened to him.

Forget the teachers, forget any manner of subtlety, if that was in fact one of the Zoroark hybrids like he suspected, then they had about a minute head start on him down these halls. In fact, there was a good chance they’re already out the nearest door to the outside. Tristen quickly pulled out his SNAG as he ran, and quickly signaled off for Sub as he tried to follow the smell. “Come on, Sub…” Tristen said to himself as he made his way down to a hallway intersection and started looking around, trying to readjust himself, trying to discern which hall they might have went down.

“Sub, I think my friends are being taken. I think one of the Zoroark hybrids that I told you about yesterday is taking them out, I’m trying to follow the scent trail and…” He started to look about, trying to get a clear follow. The smell was seemingly heading the way of the courtyard, just as mentioned earlier. Was this a setup? Why would the fake just lead him out there? Was it a rendezvous point for someone else? Did they not think Tristen would pick up on it? “…I think they are heading to the courtyard right now. They already got a minute head start on me; I didn’t realize it until just now.” He said, rushing down the hallway. Sub would hear the exertion out of Tristen as he quickly rushed for the courtyard door.

Tristen had his orders again. He’d quickly stash his SNAG in his jacket then quickly rushed down the hall and plowed through the door, nearly stumbling through. He quickly looked around and in a look of shock, Tristen went completely wide-eyed for all of a blink of an eye then started to bear fangs once again. “Ugh…couldn’t take me on three on one, with Pokémon I might add, so you run and take hostages! Cowards!” Tristen shouted to the two Zoroark hybrids. Tristen found himself in a situation he didn’t want to be in ever. Tristen started to think, trying to figure out just what to do. Tristen wasn’t confident enough to Thunderbolt either one of the hybrids without catching any one or both of the twins in the electrical wake. Part of him wished that he had mastered Agility by now, that probably could have been a great equalizer, but he still only was getting the first steps of it down. They’re too far out of range for a Flash attack or a Thunder Wave to be effective enough. And Spark was effectively melee range. Tristen cursed his limited abilities. “Ugh, do you two even realize who you are working for!? At best you’re just a means to an end! At worst, you’re a waste of space! She doesn’t even care about you two just because of you being hybrids! Why are you even doing this!?” One the one hand, Tristen did want answers as to why they were doing this, because he couldn’t have imagined Malva being that lax on her ‘morals’ just to get revenge on someone, at least as far as what he was told. He only imagine Malva retching at the idea of having to get a hybrid to do things for her. On the other hand, he was stalling. He needed Sub to show up in very short order. He wasn’t sure how long he could hang on, however. He doubted for long.

Tristen couldn’t help but to stare confused for a moment. Why did they harbor a grudge against Team Snagem that they’d join the likes of Malva? Who even were they? There were many enemies they had, sure, but there wasn’t any Zoroark hybrid in the mix that he was aware of. That train of thought was immediately derailed however when the Zoroark hybrids made their move. Tristen went wide-eyed as the surroundings started to get replaced by the likes of a forest. He knew they didn’t telelport, not like that so easily. Not with them so wide spread like that. An illusion? But how? How could they conjure such a large-scale illusion in such a fashion? As far as Tristen knew, Zoroarks could only keep the illusion about themselves in close proximity, not outright blanket the area with it, and a hybrid should be capable of roughly less than that. Even if they could do something on such a grand scale, that had to be expending a large amount of energy just to even be capable of it, let alone maintain it. They weren’t psychic where they could directly drill into the mind to hallucinate. They couldn’t be thinking on trying to hold onto such an illusion to batter and cow Tristen into submission, could they?

The plan was still in effect. Tristen had to stall. If they were willing to fight, then he’d fight. Sub needed to get here, hopefully sooner than later. Tristen perked up, and quickly moved to the side to avert the Dark Pulse, but it was right in the path of the Shadow Claw. Tristen tried to brace himself, but then gets driven into the ground by the Shadow Claw. “Augh…Get off!” Tristen shouted, his body lighting up furiously with his Spark attack, making his assailant regret trying to pounce him in such a fashion.