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"'Excuse you?!" Lykas screamed in defiance as Looker listed off a listed off the extremely false accusations of Snagem's "crimes". "That's all lies! Every word of it!" He exclaimed, about the same time as Sub did. 'Why the ~/~ would any of us help that psycho when we've spent so much time since the day this group came together trying to stop him?!"' He demanded of the interrpool agent. ""You're a poor excuse for a world famous detective if that's the conclusion you've come to." He assured the man, stomping after him as he began to storm away.
"And Let! Him! Out!" He boomed. "That's some kind of 'freedom" you're offering us, keeping him in solitary just because he disagrees with your Tauros crap, clearly already made-up mind about our innocence." He wasn't going to let this fly without raising a giant stink. "It's bad enough you're trying to saddle us with Cipher's crimes with one of their own agents in your back pocket but you can't even be bothered to treat Sub like a person, can you?!" He demanded, staying as close to Looker as he could. "You're a crappy detective and an even worse person if this is how you treat people, criminal or otherwise."

"Lykas!" Odd snapped, at last, grabbing the hybrid's arm and pulling him away. "Leave him alone. He's clearly already decided we're guilty of these crimes. Harrassing him will get us nowhere." The Channeler remarked loudly enough for Looker to hear. "I didn't think it was the job of arresting officers to be judge and jury but some people seem to be having troruble with that." He added, makig sure that was also heard. "Let's focus on figuring out how to get ourselves out of this mess. Looker's spinning anything he can to make it sound like we helped with Ein's madness. We need to figure out how to prove that isn't true. For everyone's sake."

"And what about Sub?! We just let them keep him cut off from everyone like some kind of feral animal?!"Lykas demanded his bloood boiled.

"For now, unfortunately yes." Odd replied with a sigh. "They'll let him out once he's calmed down, I'm sure." The Channeler remarked. "It sounds like he's the one they want the most so we should talk to the others. We need as many of our defenses to prove Sub wasn't involved with that crap as much as it proves we weren't to help get him out of this."

"How do you know all this?" Lykas asked.

"Remember when I first joined the team? I was a teenage music fanboy attending every concert I could make it to. This isn't my first time being arrested for some bs charges I had to fight against." Odd replied with a smirk. "Soo let's try to stay calm, talk to everyone else and start planning a defense that will get as many of us as possible out of trouble, including Sub."

Lykas sighed and nodded. "You're right... "Let's go..."

The pair made their ay back toward the STR, searching for anyone they could find that as wwilling to talk to them.

~~~

Clare had only just begun to see real improvement in Spectra's control over her Acid Spray hen the massive thud and GRAY's announcement over the intercom happened. Before anything else could really be considered, Clare recalled Spectra, not wanting to give any signs of hat they were considering doing. Forced out of the STR and left to their own devices for the next several hours, the hybrid would head up to their bedroom, finding that the rooms seemed to have been mostly cleared out of SWIPE agents by this point with practically everything that could be taken swiped by them. Even the majority of their clothes seemed to have been taken from their closet at this point.

"Now's my chance, I think." They decided, finding that they had a few minutes of privacy at last. Releasing Spectra from her ball once again, they looked closely at the Glimmet. "You were finally getting the kind of aim I need from you before they forced us out of there so... I want you to use Acid Spray on this collar. Aim for the hinge on the back. That tends to be the weak point in tech like this." They informed the crystal flower Pokemon. "And remember if this goes horribly, be good for whoever Sub gets to take care of you for me, ok?" They requested of the toxic Rock-type.

Spectra nodded to Clare's instructions, listening carefully to what they wanted of her. She was on board with following through until Clare got to the end, however. How badly could it go that she could end up under the care of someone other than Clare? "I need you to do this, Spectra. You're the best chance we have too get us out of these things and I'm the most expendable hybrid to test your ability to do so." The Nihilego hybrid urged the Glimmet. "Now please. Use Acid Spray on the hinge and see if you can get this collar off me."

Spectra nodded once again and as Clare attempted to adjust the collar just slightly so there was some space between t and their neck, Spectra took aim and sprayed her highly Corrosive acid directly onto the hinge in hope of melting through the metal. Whether this worked or not, Clare would be in the STR with everyone else, staying quiet and inconscpicuous for the moment as Looker's announcement was issued, as long as they survived. If not? They would be conspicuously absent.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Sol lamented, shaking his head in frustration. He wasn't quite sure what he expected after the responses from him, Sub and others, but he supposed either Looker didn't have an answer in the first place or didn't want to twist the knife further with an answer that he and others wouldn't like. He'd resign himself to leaving the STR, getting back to the commons by the time Darts had joined him, Ogerpon in tow. And Reno too, which he couldn't say he was surprised about.



"Has been since everyone's trip to Kitakami last year. Apparently, he and Aile went to the Crystal Pool together, probably heard about the folktales surrounding it. She's convinced she had a vision while she was there and Aden froze up, but by the time she came to, he wasn't there. Only a message that he was dealing with personal matters and would come back later. I can't fault a lot being on his mind after the Ziton and everything, but it's unlike him to take off like that. Or to be completely unreachable or found, be it by SNAG or telepathy or anything... and it's not like any of us can search for when he went if that's relevant, though I have my doubts with how much he burned out of himself. At least, Cera and I haven't been able to find any leads."

After a moment, he'd give a passing glance towards Ogerpon. "You know, I haven't asked before now, but I presume your friend there knows Kitakami fairly well? Far better than I do, at least."

---

Amaranth would settle to bring Cera into her room, initially feeling like the Mew would at least want to be around familiar belongings. What was there instead nearly had her drop the Mew in shock, seeing the sorry state it was in. The bed destroyed, plushes ripped to shreds to find anything that was hidden within that wasn't fluff, the book Sub made after her feat against XD002 completely absent. Turns out, that book was now serving a role as the genesis of the team's new problems. "Oh..." was all the channeler could get herself to say in response, mouth agape and realizing she had probably just made matters so much worse than they already were.

"Cera, I'm so sorry... if you want, we'll just go to my room instead and-"

"Mew. M-mew mew mew..."

As she spoke, Cera tried to force herself out of Amaranth's arms, forcing her to set her down on the floor. The Mew would take unsteady, awkward steps towards the closest plush she could: a beheaded, stylized Skitty, pulling it against her and staring around the room, totally despondent. The state everything else was in was terrible, but they were replaceable no matter how much it stung. But what stung much more was the so-called 'Book of Genesis' now being absent, save for a single page that was torn out, deemed irrelevant to the investigations. A quick look from the Mew showed her it was the last page of the book, recognizing the Unown-styled font. She had to have read that page multiple times in the last few seconds alone, sitting there before pulling the page to join her and the headless plush, clutching the both of them as tightly as she could physically manage, and quietly sobbing.

Much as Amaranth wanted to leave her alone and give her space, she couldn't bring herself to leave the doorway. She wouldn't end up going to her room anytime soon, eventually joining Cera on the floor to pull her into her lap to offer some sort of comfort. She still didn't say anything, words utterly failing her as she slowly pet her to keep herself grounded almost more than she was trying to comfort the Mew.

Clare would be notably absent from the gathering in the STR, when the charges were read to everyone. Instead elsewhere in HQ the Nihilego hybrid would be messing around with their collar despite the warnings not to, how doing so could be dangerous to their health. Clare would only get a few moments to fumble around with the collar until a series of beeps went off, warning them from messing with the collar. However it was too late, they had done too much. Clare would not have time to reconsider their actions as the collar would suddenly go off, exploding and instantly shattering her entire body, leaving behind hundreds if not thousands of glass-like pieces and a single crystal-like 'eye'.

"Don't worry about me, UIla, I'll be okay. Just make sure you still have your heart and soul. Keep it close to you, for me." Sub said to Ulla, reassuring her he would be okay but also cryptically referring to her heart and soul. What was that about? Either way she would not be allowed back in, the guards forcing her to step away from the STR.

[Two days later.]

The past two days have been nothing short of stressful for the members of Team Snagem as SWIPE continued to tear their home upside down while the Snagems could do little to stop them. While most Snagems were allowed to go about the HQ as they pleased as part of their house arrest Sub was not so fortunate as his imprisonment was the traditional way, confined to the STR with no contact with the rest of his teammates. This would be the situation they found themselves in for the last two days with little change, that was until on the third day of SWIPE's ransacking of their home investigator Looker called them together again, gathering them in the STR once more.

"Alright, I don't know how you did it, but the powers that be tell me I have to permit you a meeting with Devon Corp." Looker said bluntly with a tinge of annoyance in his voice, as if it pained him to say this and just wanted to get it over with as quick as possible. Agent WHITE behind him didn't react at all, like usual. "Somehow..." He started, glaring at Sub. "...Mr. Stone got word about all this, that is your current...predicament...and has demanded a meeting with all of you to ascertain for himself the situation with the Hoenn government throwing their weight behind his request, something about all Snagem allegedly did to protect the region. I'll be honest, I don't know why some billionaire big wig gets to dictate anything to law enforcement but whatever. It's above my pay grade to mediate international relations so I'm not going to argue with anyone." He said with a shrug.

"However what I can and will do is ensure the terms of your current detainment are adhered to. My team will escort you all to Devon Corporation in Rustboro City so that you may have this little meet cute with Mr. Stone. If any of you try any funny business I will not hesitate to trigger your collars. Hopefully I made evident how serious I was with your late friend Clare..." Looker said as he slowly turned his gaze to Sub who was currently clutching with both hands the Z-Crystal shaped 'eye' that remained of Clare after her collar went off and instantly shattered the hybrid. While Looker was 'kind' enough to inform him what happened to Clare and give him Clare's remains the Dark One would still make Looker pay, for Clare.

"Unfortunately I also have to take Mr. Locke." He grumbled. "So, let's get going. My men and women will make sure your collars are on tight and we'll load you lot back into the carriers before we fly you all off to Rustboro for this little tea party. And again, no funny business." He said, fixing his gaze on Sub once more before turning around to walk away, SWIPE grunts now flooding into the STR to check on their collars before escorting them to the armored carriers waiting outside of Mt. Silver.

How did Mr. Stone find out about all this anyways?

It had been two days of finding random rocks in the small amount of outdoor space that they had available and obliterating them for Leslie and Aile. Or at least, for Leslie. How much enjoyment Aile got out of the process was hard to dictate but this was the best way Leslie had figured out for doing this without causing any more damage to their current housing. So when the announcement came for them to be transported away, it took a minute for the impromptu quarry crew to gather themselves together and get transported away.

The last two days had been little more than a quiet, near excruciating wait, broken only by Sol having a moment where he sighed, shook his head, and muttered "idiot" in response to Clare still deciding the best solution was to screw around. He certainly hoped being reduced to a offbrand Z-Crystal was worth proving to everyone what the collars would do. He had tried to warn based on what he felt from his own, but it was what it was.

He found himself in the STR alongside the others, and crossed his arms as Looker talked. "Wow, it's almost like we weren't talking out our hides or something," he quipped, a hint of frustration evident as first impressions left sour notes among legitimate respect. "Anyways, I get it, the collar stays on, I'm ready whenever."

Cera kept quiet, barely talking in the last couple of days as it was, as Amaranth gave Sub another look. She wasn't sure anything was done at all, but not terribly fond of Looker herself, she'd also go on to get ready.

It wasn’t long that Freth and I were back at the headquarters from Paldea. Probably the shortest trip to another region ever, honestly. I could only suspect that they caught wind of whatever it was Tristen did. And in truth, I don’t even know what it actually was. When we got back, things looked even more morbid than it originally had. It was effectively damage assessment within the headquarters. Which…well…to say that it was not great was a massive understatement. Some took it a lot wore than others. I’d notice Cera who was who was in mourning for example in her room, with Ammy trying to comfort her. We passed by Tristen’s quarters and apparently in spite of him not being here for a year, it was still upturned with what little was in there. His old third hand text books were tossed aside, the bed was flipped, and so on. Then, there was Freth and my room…

As we made our way in, we found our room was a disaster. Immediately I took notice to the stand that I had Hinterbane set on…and there was no Hinterbane there. I fully expected it, but even then, I’m still rather disappointed. Freth started to assess what she had of her things. Her novels that were thrown about, clothes, various knickknacks and such…all irrelevant to whatever investigation. Anything written on paper was apparently taken, however. The one corner desk we had was cleaned off and drawers emptied out onto the bed. My clothes were also moved aside, though it was put in a more condensed pile, probably due to some having an Expansion suit, it was a task to carry. And it wasn’t like Kess was helping them. A grim thought came through my mind where Kess would probably find it high time to wield Hinterbane, since she was the only sword user in this faction that I know of. If I thought Eris was a pain in the butt to deal with, Kess for certain was going to put an end to me with that. I probably had to avoid her at all costs for now…

Two days would pass and for the time being, we would end up cleaning things up, at least enough to make the place livable for us again while SWIPE still had their way with the headquarters. At least for the time being. Thoughts were being tossed around hush-hush between each other about having to find a new headquarters or things of that nature which didn’t seem to matter and really? We had more pressing matters of trying to get these collars off of us and that was never mind the logistics of it all. Following that was why the team was being set up to take a fall. Who instigated all of this. Because so as long this entity, rather it be one single person or several, were still around, we wouldn’t get any peace. Rather if they were here at the headquarters or not. Neither one of us would be able to see Sub however, it being off limits and made as a impromptu prison for Sub. Until the third day.

Looker would eventually return, irritated at Sub once again. We were to head to the Hoenn region to Rustboro City. I was left to wonder if that was what happened to Tristen, but I can only speculate at this point. In the meantime, we were to be packed like Remoraid in a cargo carrier and shipped off to Rustboro, albeit with these collars still on the each of us. Whatever. All I could do was hope there was good news in all of this. Freth and I would make our way off to see what this was all about. Hopefully they wouldn’t be as flighty with the situation as they were with going to see Tristen in Paldea.