Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ogerpon led the group back to the Battle Simulation room, Darts and the rest of the Snagems in tow like the pied piper as the Masked Pokemon parades them all in, taking a couple of sly glances at Ter's keen interest in her behind her mask. The once-dusty and dingy Battle Sim had been relatively cleaned up and restored during the pair's time over the last three days, the computers humming and whirring relatively debris-free as Darts had been put to work with a rag and good old-fashioned elbow grease to clean out most of the air vents and nooks and crannies of the place. There were two sets of pairs of virtual Pokemon occupying the middle of the room, a Quagsire and Lanturn facing down a Kyogre and a Kingdra, the virtual water droplets pouring from seemingly nowhere as the battle sphere simulated the Legend's mighty Drizzle ability for the combat simulation.

As for anyone who had visited the room before, there was one other major addition. Ogerpon doesn't pause at the Battle CD console, making her way over to it, and down it. There was now, at the far end of the room, a staircase winding down below the room that had previously been concealed in the floor. "That simulation," Darts explains leading the team around the arena and to the stairs, as the Legend clearly didn't think it worth her time to provide any kind of exposition to the gathered group. "Is the fiftieth Battle CD in the pack of discs we found. Compact Disc, for all of you youngins hanging around the team now. There were fifty different combat situations, Pokemon Battles in different environments, where you are provided with different teams of Pokemon to try and accomplish the main objective which is to defeat your opponent. While I was cleaning things up and trying to figure out if there was anything else of worth in here for us tech-wise, Ogerpon was trying her hand at the simulations one at a time." The Giratina hybrid starts to go down, reaching the first landing and turning to go down the next set of stairs. There were clearly quite a few sets as the next landing yielded yet another flight.

"Being a genius battle strategist, it didn't take her long to beat all fifty of them. And as soon as she did, this little staircase opened to lead us down to..." Ogerpon hit the lightswitch at the bottom of the last set of stairs, balancing up on her toes to be able to flip it properly. Bulbs in iridescent lamps far above them flicker to light one at a time, illuminating out in front of the Snagems a massive underground vehicle hangar of some kind, carven into the hewn rock of the mountain below Trainer Hill. And featured prominently in the middle of all of it was an enormous bright-green Rayquaza sprawled out straight like a taxidermy of the Legend. But it wasn't a Pokemon. Sealed down in the depths of the Trick Master's magnum opus was an enormous green Pokemon-shaped jet, the boosters on the back of it prominently giving that fact away.

"Pyoon!" Ogerpon gestured, its mask flipping from Teal to Cornerstone as it gestures at the whole thing with its now-grey appendages in a message that should need no translation. Tadaaaah!

"If you're wondering, like I was, what an enormous... spectacle like this was doing sealed away in the bowels of this place." Darts adds, holding aloft a little folded note he had put in one of the pockets of his jacket. "I think some of you might already have an idea who built this." He hands the note over to Sub, letting the Snagem Leader read the contents aloud for the class.

"My dearest Trick,

I appreciate your dedication and help in storing one of the ULTIMATE Robo-inventions the world has ever seen. This Robo-Rayquaza is in a different class than even my beloved Robo-Groudon and Robo-Kyogre. It contains hypersonic jet boosters, radar scramblers, stealth flight capabilities, and, of course, display pyrotechnic distribution systems. It is the ultimate traveling surprise party generator. No individual, government, or governing body will be able to prevent the pilot from reaching its intended destination and dispense JOY. It's designed to reach the intended birthday recipient without FAIL and deliver its payload of merriment post-haste. Without the ability to store this incredible machine within my own house, I must turn to your capable skills to hangar it until such time as I am in dire need of a swift partying. Keep it safe for me, and utilize it as you see fit in your own particular brand of chicanery.

Indubitably yours, Dr. Kaminko."

Sub would follow Darts and Ogrepon up to the Battle Simulation room, the Snagem leader confused as to what they were suppose to see up here besides a bunch of old holograms. They were nothing like the Super Training Room's holograms but he suppose they provided enough of a challenge. Giving a quick glance at the holographic pairs of Pokemon Sub quickly turned his attention back to Ogerpon as he watched the Pokemon disappear into a stairwell that wasn't there before. Before he could react much to the new staircase Darts would get his attention, Sub's eyes going wide for a second as he looked over at the Kyogre hologram and then back at Darts. "...you're kidding..." He muttered quietly as he looked back at where Ogerpon disappeared, how powerful was this Pokemon from the middle of nowhere? His interest now piqued even the man followed after the former Ogre of Oni Mountain, descending into the stairwell behind her.

As they made it to the bottom of the stairs and the lights were turned on Sub would wince slightly, not expecting the sudden flash of light. With his vision returning to normal he could now see they were standing in some sort of hangar. "What on Earth...this was not in the floor plan the Trick Master left behind..." Sub said in awe as he looked around, his eyes quickly falling upon the serpentine entity in the room. "Oh!" Sub gasped with a start, just briefly startled by the thing, not expecting something so big and snake-like down here. The tension was broken as he saw Ogerpon change her mask to the smiling Cornerstone Mask, Sub giving off a light chuckle before walking up to the snake-like construction.

As he rubbed his hand along the side of the metal 'snake' Darts would walk up and hand him a piece of paper, the man taking it and proceeding to unfold it. Taking a second to read it to himself he smiled and shook his head before starting to read it out loud for the others. "It's a letter, addressed to the Trick Master...from our other eccentric friend, Dr. Kaminko. Dear Trick..." Sub would then proceed to read the letter for the others. Once he was done reading he folded the paper up and tucked it away before turning back to the Robo-Rayquaza.

"Well, is anyone's birthday coming up?" He said with a grin as he looked back at the others from over his shoulder. "Want to celebrate it in Orre?" Then hearing Blizzard his smile faded away as he began to think about that one little problem. "...we just need cover. A lot of cover." He made it sound so simple.

A voice would echo down from the top of stairs as the pondering about cover began. "Am I allowed down here yet? Cause last time I tried, Just Ogerpon tried to cave my skull in for, and I quote, 'daring to ruin the reveal'." Reno bellowed, slowly peeking down into the room as he did so. He wagered that at least if he had some distance this time, he could take a look before having to make another grand escape. All plans for escape would fade as he finally got to see what exactly had be sequestered away in the hanger, the mention of cover finally beginning to make sense in his head. Sliding his way down the stairs and coming to a stop in front of the billionaire card-game enthusiast's wet dream, he would begin to examine the thing and all of the odd and sharp angles that the anatomically-accurate fins on it created and the material that it appeared to be created from. Giving a few knocks on the thing and holding his prosthetic palm to the thing, he would step back to where Sub was still.

".....I hope the plan for cover involves convincing people a Rayquaza is migrating and to steer clear. Because anything short of that aint gonna fly. much like I feel about this thing." Reno told their leader, continuing to stare at the bizarre flying machine that Kaminko was alleging would work. "Are you sure this is exactly how we want to get to Orre? I'm pretty sure with a few headache meds and a lot of energy drinks that I could teleport everyone close to Realgam Tower."

"What the..." Monique was aware of the BattleSim. After all, she'd read about it in the old Trainer Hill brochure. "Did you find another one of those dot code things or something?"

She watched as Darts's Ogerpon disappeared down a stairwell that she hadn't expected. As the other Snagems followed, they were greeted with a massive conveyance. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. And the note left by one Dr. Kaminko of uncertain provenance was like nothing she'd ever heard.

"It looks impressive, but you expect us to put our faith in something built by a guy who talks like that?" She pointed at Sub, holding the letter, and looked around the dimly lit hangar, which shared none of the comparatively elaborate or resort feel associated with the original Trainer Hill. The Trick Master did this. But why? Friendship alone? "Then again, the only thing we've been able to put faith in is ourselves and a few assorted people in Hoenn. But look at this thing! I hope there is something in the world that looks like this, tapu willing?" After all, she hadn't seen much of the legends of Hoenn.

Crystal would sigh, quietly crossing her arms underneath her shawl as she listened to Darts explain what the two of them were doing. Once again, she felt like she was behind, something that… while not in the forefront of her thoughts, after catching Reno up on what happened, the thought did hover around in… we’ll say the middle of her mind. Something that lingered since watching Darts and Ogerpon save her hide in Rustboro. However, with not a great way of rectifying that fast without some sort of time travel happening(Seriously, what did happened to Aden?), it was going to be decently hard to rectify that on the immediate. When they got down the stairs, though, she had to blink. A Rayquaza? It wasn’t real, clearly- the jets on the back alluded to that. However, that didn’t immediately answer why this thing was down here., The note that Sub read did, though, and that’s when she raised an eyebrow. “I… wha? Was this thing really made just to deliver a surprise birthday party?” The hybrid tilted her head in confusion, wondering about the reliability of it. And how well it would stand up to her weight.

Blizz did bring up a good point, though, this thing did not look like it had stealth capabilities. Some sort of cover? Crystal’s mind wandered, thinking about possibilities for that. Almost immediately, she would think of not any sort of cover, but a rather notable distraction. A couple open Ultra Wormholes across the region could almost certainly do the trick… However, uh, there would be no telling what came through them. And there was no way she wanted to curse any reality, much less this one, with the presence of a glutton. Not to mention any other sort of repercussions not Ultra Space related. So that would be one idea out the window, rather quickly.


Aile, on the other hand, was rather impressed with Ogerpon, solving all of those puzzles. She certainly wasn’t a simple brute, not like she thought that of her to begin with. But solving all of those, the legend pretty well proved that now. And the woman followed everyone else down, she had a mild look of horror seeing this Robo Rayquaza. Aile had been in the Kyogre contraption once, and it was cramped and she was pretty sure they nearly died in it. Among other attempts on their life, but that thing wasn’t constructed by Ein. She shivered, shaking her head. “This thing is related to that Kyogre submersible? Wonderful. Do we have someone to jerry-rig the engine on this thing as well? Pretty sure Issac ditched us for the normie life a long time ago.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, not looking forward to how things might go sideways with this contraption.

And then Blizz mentioned the need for cover. Yeah, that color of green certainly wasn’t going to blend in anywhere high in the sky. Maybe some sort of smoke screen, or storm, or something. A storm at night maybe? Or… Wait. Smoke screen and storm… There was something there. They were close enough to the desert to utilize the area for geothermal energy. And while it wasn’t a proper smoke screen, the desert had a nigh continual sandstorm going. If they could get the sandstorm to grow somehow…



Crystal would watch Aile as she walked over to one of the walls of the hangar, apparently deep in thought. She tilted her head as the cat woman watched the human woman, deciding a moment later to follow her. “Yen for your thoughts,” She’d quietly ask once she got to her side, looking down at Aile.

“Mm?” Aile blinked and looked up, frowning. “Thinking. Might have an idea to solve the cover problem.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. The sandstorm in the desert.” Aile would bring out one beat up old Pokéball, one that had definitely seen better days. “Trying to figure out the logistics, but…. I might be asking Tati to ask her new friends for a favor.”

“Your Flygon made friends?”

“Some of the Trapinch don’t trust her all that well, but after we worked in the desert to help the Trapinch to reclaim some of their hunting grounds, a bunch do like her. And they’re also willing to try to avoid the pipes we use for energy as well.”

“Huh.” The hybrid shrugged, a slight smile on her face. “Might be worth a shot. Much better than mine.”

“What was yours?”

“Dumb,” Crystal bluntly replied. “Dumb, reckless, and not practical in the slightest. I was never actually going to bring it up, unless no one came up with any sort of idea.”

“Riiiiiight…” Aile would stick her hand in her pocket, frowning. It really couldn't have been that bad... could it?

"This would be a good start..." Sub said as he eyed the Soul Heart, noticing how far Ulla has succeeded in purifying it. There was still a bit of Shadow energy swirling around in it but the true heart was still there and becoming more visible. This was good. "Keep that close, I have a feeling we'll be needing it before long. Good job though, Ulla." He told the girl, giving her a thumb's up of approval before turning his attention back to the rest of the team.

"Dr. Kaminko, for how eccentric he might be, is a genius and a man with the purist of hearts...that being pure scientific curiosity I admit but still pure. The guy invents gadgets for the love of the game." Sub replied to Monique, chuckling a bit as he thought about the mad man. "And truthfully? His inventions always work as invented...the only problem is...that they work as he invented them to. So if this was invented for delivering surprise birthday parties, then it's going to do just that, for better or worse. So at the very least I trust it to get us to our destination. Now how we arrive I have a feeling will be a different, more festive, story."

"Okay! It's settled! What other options do we have at this point? We're enemies of most of the world, we're living in a twice failed trainer destination, two of our friends are injured and unconscious and the only reason why we had these past few days to rest in peace is because we had to cash in all our social credit with the Hoenn government which I'm sure they won't be keen to keep SWIPE at bay forever. Now we are given another chance by another friend, even if they don't realize it. We are going to Realgam Fortress and we're going to find the evidence we need. If you have any reservations about the plan then stay here with Freth, Lykas, Laverne and Dr. Stoja. Everyone else, time to board."

"I'm afraid I'm not likely to be of any help here..." Odd announced, having come out of the barracks room from checking on Lykas just as Darts and Ogerpon had led everyone off to the rocket room. He'd followed along out of curiosity but upon arriving at the destination, he was left with little idea of what was going on. "Considering my lack of functioning eyes, I'm afraid I'll be no use on this mission." He sighed.

"How about I help out, then?"

"Hm?" Turning around at the sound of that voice, the man spotted a soul he hadn't seen in a while. "Wren! How did you find us?!"

"Well, when the news said Snagem was last seen heading North from Mauville and there was a giant abandoned tower along the way, I assumed Sub had some kind of plan for you lot involving it." The Grass Channeler admitted with a shrug. "I decided to take a chance and got lucky I was right." He admitted.

"How did you avoid getting caught by SWIPE?"

"You think I can't hide out in the woods for weeks at a time? I started a farm in a desert. I could live in the forest for years." Wren replied with a laugh. "They did come after me but they found out quick that I'm not that easy to pin down between White Forest and Lostlorn Forest. Pretty sure they're still looking for me out there, to be honest."

"Well, I'm glad you're safe!"

"Same here! I haven't been able to contact anyone in days. I've been so worried about you guys!" Wren remarked, stepping closer at last. "I don't know what's happening but I'm glad to help! Just give me a cheat sheet on what we're doing and I'm there." He informed Sub. "Also, since when do we own a jet?" He asked, finally acknowledging the Rayquaza in the room before he began to follow others that were boarding said jet.

None of the trio had any idea what they were going to find when they followed Darts and Ogerpon. None of them had words when they saw what was waiting for them. The way the note said it was supposed to 'bring merriment post-haste' made the hair on Brian's neck stand on end. What exactly did that mean? And how were they supposed to get all the way to Orre without getting spotted and/or shot down by SWIPE? Of course, he didn't voice these thoughts, instead listening as the others spoke. When Sub said they could stay behind, the trio looked at each other and shrugged. "We've come this far," Brian said. "No point in backing out now." With that said, the trio boarded the jet and settled in, Amber recalling both Spooky and Arauth, neither of whom were keen on flying.