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Aile would sit up after a bit, her mind just running in circles after a while. She’d scratch Tatooine behind her antennae as she watched Sub re enter the STR, noting the look on his face and where he went. Then Blizzard was summoned. She sighed, looking down and shaking her head. “Tati, this is going to be a long wait, isn’t it?”

“Gooon…” She appreciated the scratches, even if she could feel her partner’s anxiety right through them. The Flygon’s eyes were trained on Aile the entire time, even if her trainer’s thoughts were elsewhere.

“Yeah. Nothing to do but sit. Right now, at least.” She would begin to trace squiggles on the ground, looking up when the doors opened once more to grab Ulla next. Notably, Blizz hadn’t returned. This made Aile frown. …What was going on with him? Was he free to go, or were they going to hold him for something else? She could see either way. Or, actually… keep the ones they want to keep or properly arrest in a room, and let the ones they’re fine to let go roam. Lovely. This would be something to potentially figure out with the next few people. Ulla, she highly doubted they’d properly arrest. But some of the next few and where they landed were going to be telling.

The woman’s eyes would glance up as she noticed Darts stand up and walk to Sub, followed by Sol and Amaranth. Shrugging, she’d nudge her head over and stood up, walking over with Tatooine right behind her. She would keep quiet when she noticed the conversation’s direction, raising an eyebrow. Wasn’t that what caused this spat between Crystal and Darts? And then others joined them as well. So for now, she just felt it best to be a silent observer. If she needed to or was called on, she’d speak up, but otherwise, just listening was fine for her. Being near others was already helping her mind state slightly.

In addition to landing on the Alolan beach, in the middle of a typhoon, Reno would see a Crystal that would not match up to her current physical form. Her clothing would match what she used to wear as an Espeon hybrid, and her body mostly matched her appearance back then as well. Giant Espeon sized ears, her hair was once again down to her ankles and pulled back into a braid. Even her base fur color was the same as back then, the base Espeon lavender*. But there were even a few things off about this. Her nails were all golden to start. Her hair, originally black, was pure white, with five stripes of orange(three of said stripes standing out in her braid) and ending in tips of gold, and the fur tufts that were normally underneath an Espeon’s ears were also white, much longer and wild. Her forked tail, while it started lavender, would shift to while, and each end would look just like her singular tail in reality. And the ruby red stone that would adorn an Espeon’s forehead? That was instead replaced with Solgaleo’s compass rose, as bright blue as that symbol was normally whenever it appeared.

Crystal would whip around when she heard a new voice, hand extended like she was ready to use Psychic Fang against whatever interloper entered. Only to see a friendly face. “Wha… Reno? How?” The storm would instantly drop down to a more tolerable downpour, as the shock of seeing anyone else started to wear off, and she softened up somewhat. She walked up to her friend and took the malasada from him, staring at it for a moment as the rain eventually cleared up. “How… How are you here? What’s going on? Light, what’s the whole deal with that group that blindsighted us? And... Burn me, what are we doing while I’m… stuck here,” she’d ask, possibly not thinking about how she just bombarded the man with a bunch of questions. The malasada would continue to remain uneaten, as she was now getting to terms with what her body might have been doing while she was deaf, dumb, and blind to the outside world. Or potentially not doing?

*The writer would like it to be known that Espeon should remain lavender and not go pink for more color variety within the Eeveelutions. Thank you.

"That's the place. They call it White Forest now. You can thank the Ultimate Weapon for that." Sub responded to Aria.



Sub give Sol a glance and sigh before turning his attention to Amaranth and her question. "Listen, after speaking with those guys I can confidently say it would do more harm to fill you all in than good. It's me they really want so the less you guys know the better."



"I know nothing about SWIPE, this is the first I've heard of them so I'm learning about them alongside you guys. If I had to gamble a guess I would say they were created specifically for us. Gotta appreciate the name too. Swipe? Snag? They got a sense of humor, whoever thought this up." Sub replied to Lykas.

Ulla looked at everyone in the room to see their emotions. No malice or deceit. They were calm, collected. Ulla leaned back in her chair. "Of course....different perspectives. Different views of life." She said as she sighed. Like he said though, they could be good at hiding their intent. But, with Looker's remark. She could only guess that they don't know her new title. "Your answer is a very blanket answer. There could've been more civil ways to this. I maybe young, and yes I have so much to live for. And I know; I am wise beyond my years. So many depend on me. I'm sure, we could've been allies." She sat up and smiled.

"But you endangered my family. An innocent life in all of this. How can I trust you after that?" Ulla started to get a bit agitated but still held her smile. How much more were they going to question her? What exactly did they want from her? Did they want her to be on their side?

Maybe they did, but somehow based on her answers it was also pretty clear that wasn't happening. Emma smiles at her again, sadly this time. "Dear." She says softly, brushing a little hair out of Ulla's face. "We already told you why we're talking to you. You don't have to trust us, but we want to save you from going down with the ship. You call them your family, your friends, but the truth is you don't know what kind of lives these people lead. Take some time, think about what we've said, and if you do have anything you want to tell us we're all right here. You're free to wander the building, but don't try to get out othewise." She stands up then, backing away to her usual spot in the room as she gathers her hair, shaking it together so it'll fit back into her helmet. It clicks in place and lights up again alongside the rest of her Expansion Suit as she turns to Agent WHITE. "Bring in the next one."

Ulla would be taken to the commons room and left to her own devices, the trashed and ransacked HQ empty outside of all of the other soldiers, lining all of the entrances and exits, and Blizzard of course, who had also been left here.

--



"Listen Sub, I know what we talked about before you sent me out to... go take care of the business you wanted me to investigate." Darts says, looking around at the group of team members gathering to ask questions about what up until now had been a very private topic. "But you and I both know this isn't JUST going to affect you, no matter what happens. Crystal was already getting upset at me so maybe we should just-" The Giratina hybrid is cut off a half second before he can finish his thought, the Training Room doors hissing open as Agent WHITE's face greets the group, shortly following dropping Ulla off in the main room. He points at Darts and the gambler sighs, twisting his neck back and forth as he cracks it in preparation of whatever is coming. His golden crest turns to Sub and he gives the Leader a very communication-heavy silent look before he turns and walks towards the giant, his handcuffs clinking with every step. His jacket, usually a bevy of activity, has been silent and still like an actual piece of cloth since the collar's gone on him and he looks up to Agent WHITE, red eyes meeting where he figured the equivalent was in the guard's helmet. "Is it time for my phone call already?" Darts asked sarcastically, clicking his tongue before the pair left the cell headed for Sub's office.

"Mister Darts huh? So formal." Darts wasn't in a good mood, to put it mildly. He could feel the fear and agitation from Ogerpon's Pokeball near his heart and between that and the collar he also wasn't in a very talkative mood, particularly to this group.

"Kess," He nods in her direction, ignoring Looker's question for the moment. "Glad to see you turned out to be the feckless mercenary we originally thought you were."

The Zapdos hybrid bristles at his accusation, a small ripple of static electricity passing through her needle-like feathers. "Oh that's rich coming from YOU of all people. Focus up and answer the questions."

The gambler leans back in his chair, putting his feet up on Sub's desk as he turns his ruby-red gaze back to Looker. "As you no doubt discovered through your searching, I'm an orphan from Sootopolis City. I don't have another name and this isn't an alias, I'm just Darts. I joined up with Snagem when I was twenty or so, seven or eight years ago. I don't know how many Giratina hybrids Interpol has heard about coming out of the Hoenn region, but I think that should be a pretty definitive answer to the second bit of your question." He can feel Essentia shooting daggers straight through him all the way through her Expansion Suit helmet as he rocks back in his chair, leaning on the back legs.

Freth and Doc Owl stared in confusion as the two of them listened in on Sub’s conversation with the others. She didn’t have too much to input on, just that she was wanting to figure out what they were all after. As Agent White came back once again, yet another member was not returned back to the training room. Her eyes narrowed, unsure as to what was going on. Before Ulla was taken, Freth would have given her significant other credit for pissing someone off and put himself in well over his head. But now that Ulla wasn’t brought back either, that didn’t seem to hold water. Actually, now that she thought about it, why was Sub pushed back into the training room with the others? It’d compromise any sort of investigation if these guys had any sense.

“I’d tell Sub to shut up right now…” Eris spoke up to Freth. Freth looked over towards the reflective metal, polished to a mirror sheen, that was up against the wall. Freth could see Eris in the reflection where Freth was supposed to be. “They’re trying to pull something underhanded.”

“Well, duh, I’m pretty sure on that.” Freth said. “But this is weird. Citadark? Black City? All of this stuff we spent weeks having to make reports on addressed to the various governing bodies in the regions and even had to do polygraph tests more than once on all of this crap. They’re after something fairly specific. You heard Sub; he thinks they’re after him specifically, but why, we’re still trying to figure that out.”

“That Subbarro thing doesn’t seem to be related to that stuff with Ein, however.” Eris said. “Are you certain that Sub hadn’t kept anything else from you all? Why would they care about that?”

“Probably attacking his character, I guess, to get him to talk.” Freth said to her. “Blizzard does that all the time when he wants to grill someone or win a fight. Its not unheard of.”

“And what of the thing that Darts did for Sub? Crystal made a scene in Kitakami about that, if you recall.” Eris said. “And yet that was apparently one of those things that were asked according to them.”

“That I can’t really vouch for, you know that.”

“Because you wanted to go on faith that Sub knew what he was doing and felt that you had more important things to try to investigate on. Well, between your training sessions with your psychic power.” Eris replied. “I have seen in your memories that both you and Blizzard called out Sub about keeping secrets in the past, and yet he possibly has one right now that is going to drag all of you down. ‘Plausible Deniability’ is only so strong of an excuse you know. I’m actually surprised Aile was willing to take that as is.”

“Pretty rich coming from someone who preferred to stay a solo act for a while.” Freth said. “While we did go off on Sub about all of that, he hadn’t given us any reason to worry about it since then, especially since just before the tournament in Galar we went to, Reno tried to call him out on it and effectively got made a fool of in the end. Complete foot in mouth on Reno’s part.”

“You best hope that this faith in Sub of yours isn’t misplaced. Need I remind you that your situation here is precarious.” Eris said, her arms crossed in the mirror.

Something was certainly up for Sub to be the only one returned here, but with Sub's remark came a tongue that'd be held no longer.

"With all due respect, mi amigo," Sol interjected, standing up for the first time since he entered. He looked down where Sub was, aside from a brief glance towards the door. "But in case it hasn't set in, whatever stunts you and Darts have been pulling have already roped us all in and surely thrown us out of the Indigo Alliance whether you wanted that or not. And judging by this," he kept on, moving his head to gesture across the entirety of the STR. "I certainly hope the gamble's been worth going all in."

Amaranth, having no idea what to say that hadn't been already, had directed her attention towards the cage Cera was in. She seemed to at least be somewhat aware of what was going on, the Mew staring at the door and making sure her gaze didn't meet anyone else's. Words failed her, wishing her friend would at least be let out of the thing even if the collar had to stay on.