Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aile and Crystal looked at each other, the human wincing. Aile wasn't looking forward to this ride, but what other choice did they have? Crystal shrugged, figuring that she could figure something out to hopefully not break anything in case her weight and density became an issue. "Shall we?"

"Juust a sec. Left my artifact on the cot." Aile would dart off real quick, while Crystal would nod and get on board. She didn't have too much herself, so she didn't feel the need to try to find anything.

Once Aile had remade her artifact into her arm and made sure all of the stored items were back safely in it, she would join the others in the jet. And see where everyone had located themselves. "Uh.... Has anyone else even driven a vehicle before?" Aile would start to make her way to the cockpit, looking at the controls. She's driven some terrestrial vehicles before, but... Maybe this might not be too bad if there was some sort of manual and not an overly complicated process of getting started? As long as the steering device wasn't a game controller.

Aile would take a deep breath, pulling out Tatooine's Pokéball. "I think we do. I hope we do, at least. Tati." Aile would press the button on the beat up sphere and bring out her winged sand dragon. "Tati. I need you to see if you can get the Trapinch to all use Sandstorm together, maybe get a giant Sandstorm going. Something big enough to cover us leaving. Sound possible?" Tatooine tilted her head and thought for a moment, then nodded. "Then go out the hangar and ask them for help, please." With another nod, the Flygon would leave the jet and take off for the desert herself, with Aile taking another deep breath as she took her seat in the main pilot's chair. "Okay, let's give it a few minutes while she coaxes them."

While they waited, she would take a look at the gauges and everything in front of her, peeking over at the manual to see if she was right in her assumption, and to see if there was any instructions on how to properly steer and control this thing. She'd also double check the yolk to make sure it seemed to be securely on, thankful it was not some sort of ridiculousness of a gaming controller. The Flygon would return maybe ten minutes later, shaking herself and nodding to her trainer. Looking at the entrance of the hangar, she would see the beginnings of a sandstorm all the way out here, and growing stronger. Impressive what a bunch of those little guys could do together. "Alright, let's see how this plays out now. Thanks, Tati." Recalling Tatooine, the woman would finally put both hands on the steering control, cautiously pushing it forward to make it go forward. All of her attention would be on this task of trying to get them from Point A to B, and she really didn't want to be the cause of everyone's deaths. Here we go.

"Truthfully, I'd argue it'd be wiser if a few of us stayed back," Sol commented. "Freth and Lykas are out of commission, and while I don't have my doubts that Laverne and Dr. Stoja both have their ways, there's only so much they can do in a pinch."

Amaranth was already boarding the Robo-Rayquaza when she turned her head briefly. "Yeah, I don't think we're in a position to do that this time? If we're going back to that cursed place, we're gonna need as many as we can fit in this. Besides, even if I'd rather stay back and not have to put myself through even more of Ein's works, I'll be a lot more useful coming along."

"I'm not staying back either. I can't. I know what to expect from Ein. I can't say that about SWIPE, and I'm not really into waiting for them to breathe down our necks again. Chum, you're coming too."

A quick turn and a defiant, but confused growl would come, prompting Cera to continue.

"That's what your trainer was calling you, right? I don't trust you here alone."

A snap of his jaws would come at that, screaming in response. She was talking about trust after what she pulled? What he watched? This whole situation was a load of Tauros dung as it was, his trainer was Arceus knows where by now, and she was why he was in this situation in the first place. Cera would raise an arm briefly at the protest, shaking her head.

"Let me finish. There's another reason for having you come. I don't know how much he or you saw of Ein. But with all those scars, you've had to have been through a lot together. You might be able to handle seeing the sort of things these people saved me from. That they helped me finally stand up to and fight."

She'd float on ahead, Sharpedo wondering where the hell the sudden dramatics came from. Still stuck in this predicament as it was, he'd follow inside. Might as well stay the course until a way out presented itself.



Sol would be the last of them to get on board, hearing Darts as he spoke through the radio. "So long as no random levers are pulled after we're airborne..." he remarked to himself, taking in a deep breath before making very sure he was buckled in.

As soon as I tracked down Tristen, the two of us found our way back down towards the jet and Tristen couldn’t help but to stare at it a bit awestruck…and worried. “Were…going up in that?” The Manectric teen asked.

“Yeeeep.”

“What abou-“

“Whatever you are going to ask, trust me, I already tried to be vocal about it and everyone here effectively ignored me.” I said. “Admittedly, at the same time, don’t have a whole lot of options either.”

“Well…it should work…” Tristen said, kind of struggling to say that sentence. “I mean, the Kyogre boat thing that I rode on to get to Citadark Island made it to there and back to the port in one piece.” He said.

“Well, you got more faith on it than I do.” I said. “Lets go.” The two of us would perhaps be the last one to board before the jet would make its way off to its destination.

It was the day after the attempted run at Ein’s tower, and there wasn’t any word as to any success as of yet as far as the information, however much or little we got, was concerned. As I sat there at the edge of my cot, thinking back to the day before, I couldn’t help but to hope and pray that whatever we did get wasn’t a waste of our time. Never mind what we put up at risk. I took a look over towards Tristen, who still wasn’t doing the hottest. While we managed to get back to our makeshift headquarters in the nick of time, the poison had perhaps too long to do whatever it was it was going to do. The resident doctor in the house stated if we had managed to get here any later, then there was a fair chance he wasn’t going to make it, even with her abilities. While I end up still skeptical about her methods, it was all I had to go on to make sure Tristen was okay. If it makes Tristen better, then she can do the voodoo she can do.

Though at the same time, while I was told that I needed to rest myself and gather myself, relaxing was easier said when enemies came closer to bearing down on us. Last night was restless, between the worrying of Tristen, to wondering about Ogerpon’s wellbeing, perhaps almost as badly as Darts was, even though in my case, it couldn’t be helped about her condition. She decided to take on that Type: Null as we dealt with Ein’s abomination. Though with all considered, those with me got off easy as opposed to those in the other rooms. Ulla seemed even more stressed out than I was; barely uttering a word since getting back like she was coming to grips with whatever she dealt with. I noticed a little of what Crystal, Darts, and Leslie dealt with in that shifting room, and Leslie was seeing better days. Sub hasn’t mentioned too much about he and his group had, but it didn’t seem good either by what I could tell. I had the feeling this team was going to break before we got anything resolved.

Apparently though, little did I realize, that wasn’t the only thing that has been going on…

“WAKE THE HELL UP! I SWEAR IF I COULD SLAP YOU I WOULD RIGHT NOW! GET UP!”

Freth found herself standing in the white void, wincing fiercely as if her eyes was trying to adjust. She saw the long regal table with the wide spread of food fit for royalty, the large fire place burning with a gentle glow, the large crystal chandlier which hung over head, the stained-glass windows that while in truth were mounted, with the walls and floor being as white could be, only looked they floated in mid air. She was back in her inner palace, in her human state as she usually is here. She looked down the table, seeing Eris still sat in her chair, chained, but looking exhausted and put through the ringer.

“Wha…what happened?”

“Oh thank GOD you finally snapped out of it! I felt like I was caught up in all of that stuff you were dreaming up for an eternity! You do realize some of what your mind comes up with actually HURTS in here, right!?”

“How…how long have I been out?”

“HELL IF I KNOW! Technically you still are! You hadn’t woke up since Kess had her way with you!”

“Kess…KESS! SON OF A-“ Freth quickly looked around. “Am I dead!?”

“Considering you’re here, no. Would have preferred that, honestly as opposed to what I had to deal with for who knows how long. Now hurry up and wake up and find out what the hell happened out there! You might not be dead yet, but who knows how long before that changes.”

Freth once again found herself opening her eyes, though this time it was harder to do. She saw a dimly lit room and caught a whiff of…dust and musk. “Wha...” Freth turned her head, seeing me close by, to my own thoughts. “Blizzard?”

I was instantly startled out of my thoughts. “Freth!” I quickly shot off the cot then took the couple of steps to instantly be right there at her bedside. She tried to push herself up and instantly everything ached. “Easy there…take that slow. You’ve been out for four days. You might have atrophied a little.”

“Four? What the hell did Kess do to me?” Freth asked, laying back down.

“More like the doctor we got on short notice. To try to save your life from what that blasted harpy did, the doctor did something that kept you out cold for the past four days so your body can put all its energy into healing the damage that Kess did to you.” I said. “Though said something about side effects like you dreaming a lot in the process.”

“Well, that explains that one. Though I never heard of anything like that before; what kind of crackpot doctor is this?” Eris shouted from Freth’s mind. It was a question Freth had too, it wasn’t anything that she was going to ask right away. There was more pressing things in mind.

“So what did I miss?” Freth asked warily as she looked back at me.

“Well, first off, where we stopped at and have basically stationed ourselves out from since we don’t have the HQ any more for now. We’re at Trainer Hill with whatever condition that it is in right now. It was supposed to be remodeled for the Trick Master’s purposes, but he gave up on that one. So we’ve got it for now. Hoenn region is the only one that we know of that is still on our side with all that has been going on with SWIPE and all, at least for the time being, and the other regions are either neutral at best to opposed to us at worst. Sinnoh being on the forefront on the latter. And yesterday, to try to find some sort of leads, information, evidence and so on to prove our innocence, we took a run at Realgam Tower.”

“In Orre? Ein’s old tower?”

“Yea, and while we found some stuff there, I don’t know if its substantial enough. Or if it was worth it yet, because some of us didn’t make it out unscathed. Tristen is out of the fight for the time being. Ogerpon is out for a little bit too, at bare minimum. Worse still, something is running majorly afoul…remember those people we rescued from that tower after we beat Ein?”

“Yea?”

“Yea, they’re back there. As skeletons. Like we never released them and left to fry out in the desert sun.” I said.

“But we…” Freth said.

“Yea, I know.” I said. “There’s something else going on here and were taking the fall for it. I don’t know what, why, or how, but whatever the case, its probably part of why SWIPE has been on our case.”

“Ugh…I think I want to go back to sleep now…” Freth said.

“Don’t. You. Dare.” Eris spoke up. It got a disdainful sigh out of Freth.

“So what about you? How are you feeling?”

“Stiff. Hungry. Thirsty.” Freth said.

“One thing at a time. I’ll get you some water.” I said, getting up from Freth’s side and made my way off to find water for her.

”Four days…and it continues getting worse it sounds like…”

”I’m more worried about what he said just now. About how it looked as if the Snagems didn’t rescue those people from that tower. I’m not sure how even that is possible. Are those remains for certain those people or could they have been someone else?” Eris asked.

“It isn’t like we’re forensic scientists, so no way to know for certain. But it does leave the question when they got there. Or how. That tower was supposed to be cleared out last I heard. Or at least in the process of.” Freth replied. “Hell of a thing to wake back up to.”

Deo was asleep, with waking up early for the fact he could not rest. The world was out to get him and his friends. Could he even call them friends? He was going to be in deep water when it is discovered that he is working for SWIPE. Dark clouds were gathering, but where was the storm? Was he that final blow for SNAGEM to falter? Whatever the case he stood at the window looking out in deep silence and seeing his cat like reflection. Who was the monster here? Him, a literal monster of a being made against his will who is turning in the very group that took him in? SWIPE? The law and order of the land and for some reason SNAGEM was in for it? What was the case? What was happening? The tower was supposed to be an easy snag, but why did Cynthia turn on the group? Would it be easier for Deo to leave now? It didn't matter now, as Sub yelled for everyone to attend an emergency meeting. Deo would get there, slowly as the thoughts were persistent in his head. As well as the fact his face shown worry, concern, and worst, dread.

When Keiko came back, she seemed really out of it. It took most of the rest of the day to get her to open up about what happened. From what I could tell from what she said, the most logical reason as to why she blacked out was that the gas took longer to metabolize in her body than the rest of the team. Other than that, it really seemed that what she went through in Realgam Tower demoralized her, as she was nowhere near as adverse to the idea of me being more proactive in helping the team as she was before she left.

When Sub started screaming in the middle of the night about a meeting in the lobby, I let Keiko sleep and went to the lobby on my own.

Brian and Rachel fell straight into bed when they arrived back at HQ. Amber, however, did not, her ghostly nature preventing her from sleeping. Her mind was whirling with everything that had happened that day. She wasn't far enough along in her training; she knew that now. After what had happened at the arena, her reaction and Spooky's evolution, she had to double down. Pulling out the Banette's Pokeball, she walked into the kitchen area, letting him out. He turned to see what she needed from him, and tilted his head when she called out Arauth, Turace, Gembreaker, and Lily, as well. "We have news," she said. "Arauth already knows, but Spooky evolved while we were away. Care to explain what happened?"

The Banette blinked before giving a nod. "You could not deal with the overwhelming negative emotions left behind by so many that were lost," he said. "Given your sickened state, I could not stand by and watch you suffer. I evolved to protect you, to keep those negative emotions at bay so that you would not be affected by them." Amber was stunned by this; she hadn't thought the Banette thought so highly of her before. Seeing the look on her face, Spooky spoke again. "You are the one that earned my trust when no one else could," he told her. "Our bond, as well as the bond we both share with each of my fellow ghosts, goes beyond that of simply trainer and Pokemon. You are ghost, as well. You are not just our trainer; you are our sister, the one we would give our lives to protect."

Amber didn't know how to respond to what she was hearing. Sure, Spooky had called her 'sister' before, but hearing the conviction in his words made them very different than what she'd first believed. He didn't just see her as his trainer; none of them did. They saw her as one of them, not just because she was part Ghost-type, but because she protected them the best she knew how, and they returned the favor. Only just now noticing that her eyes were damp with tears, Amber swiped her sleeve across her eyes, then looked at her Pokemon with a newfound determination. "We have training to do," she said. "I want you all to teach me what it means to be a ghost. Not like what we've been doing, where I only train my abilities with your help. I want to truly embrace my hybrid nature. Turace, I'll need you to help me with the Ice side of things, but all of you will be helping me with the rest."

The seven of them spent the rest of that night training, doing so quietly so they didn't wake any of the other Snagems. The last thing everyone needed was to be woken by a sudden ghostly presence invading their personal space. When Sub's shout came through the building, Amber had just finished a meditation session, centering her energy so that she could more easily access it. She spotted Brian and Rachel stumbling from their beds groggily, neither accustomed to being up this early. "I'm guessing GRAY managed to crack whatever protections were on that information we managed to salvage," she said, returning everyone but Spooky and Arauth, the latter of whom floated around her head. "What did you find out?"