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"Ah yes, Steven's my son." Joseph says proudly, with a hearty chuckle no less reduced by Aria's approach. "Champion, you know." He raises a hand as she nears him, returning the handshake briefly before letting go. "I'm sorry m'dear, as I said I cannot be directly connected with you, my company would not survive the media frenzy that would surely consume it if word got out. But to answer your questions," He says, nodding his grey head towards Aile and Blizz deferentially. "I have nothing to do with HAZARD, the only reason I have journeyed here to meet you both at great personal risk to myself and my company to meet you was because I felt it would be... unchivalrous of myself to not, if that makes sense. As a philanthropist, I am always looking for new ways to invest my money to change the world. And here I find myself on the brink of this Shadow Virus crisis and my company is nigh powerless to do anything, and for as much money as I have no way to apply it, and here you all come. Unheeded. Unpaid. And you defend Hoenn as fiercely as if it were your own home regions." He snorts, another smile crossing his broad face as he looks at all of them again. "I would be doing all of you a disservice if I did not meet you face-to-face. After all where do you think the okay for all of your off the books missions came from? Bulder and Mully are just field agents."

He looks upwards at the sky, the circle they were surrounded by ringed rows of riot shields, shielding a hand against the sunset. "The reason as to why now is because now would be the only chance I could get. Usually I am dogged by press all of the time, but between a lead team of reporters being up on the rocket and the rest covering the rest of the destruction in the town or taken out by it, this is the closest thing I'm going to get to a media blackout on myself. And I wanted to take the time to personally thank you. Thank each and every one of you," he says, his deep sapphire eyes glowing with heartfelt emotion as he looks them all over, his gaze coming back from the sky. "For giving me the chance to try and save the country that I love. I'm not a patriot, but I know my home. So that is why I had to meet all of you." He finishes gruffly, putting his fedora back on his head to cover his face from the cameras again as the helicopter fires up, the rotors beginning to turn. Clearly the CEO was planning on a short appearance, no need to get caught around here. He had said his peace. "Though this was our one and probably only time we'll meet, it was an honor to know the people that helped my people tackle the one of the worst viruses of all time, and save Hoenn."


Norman steps forwards, nodding at everyone as he does so. "As he mentioned, he had nothing to do with HAZARD's involvement, and these men," he nods at the various soldiers holding riot shields at attention surrounding them. "Alongside those in the desert, were mine. Once those thugs waylaid both of us in Petalburg, I worked as swiftly as I could in the months you all were battling Team Cipher and the virus to advance in the organization and get to the bottom of it. The inside of the group was shadowy to say the least, but I did find the individual responsible for all of the anti-Snagem mentality inside the group, though the identity may shock you. Drake, of the Hoenn Elite Four, a fellow member of HAZARD's internal board of directors, held a very no-nonsense policy against you and what he called 'thuggish vigilantism', though why he held such a grudge I have no idea. There may have been other forces at work, but that was the one identity I was able to confirm for sure." The gym leader's calm voice stops as he looks towards the Articuno hybrid. "I'm sorry Blizzard, that's the best I could find out. But, on the plus side due to your involvement in this there's nothing HAZARD can do publicly against all of you without backlash. If I find out more, I'll let you know."


"Thank you again Snagems." Joseph says, turning back towards where their chopper was beginning to hum, the propellers in full motion now as the engines roar to life on the clearing. "Oh yes!" he says suddenly, yelling slightly to be heard over the noise of the aircraft. "During my time working with you, I discovered two things. Firstly, Ein as you all no doubt knew had hacked both of our systems, I will be sending you some Devon Corp. software shortly to take care of any bugs that might remain. But in the bleedover from the data he was collecting from you, I made a rather startling discovery that your group was neck-deep in debts from various sources from anything from utilities to miscellaneous orders for this and that that were unpaid! I used some of my offshore accounts to shore up your various money problems! That should take care of paying your rent at the very least, young lady!" he guffaws at Aria, turning back to the whirlybird as the soldiers break formation to crowd around the Gym Leader and CEO as they file off, reboard the helicopter, and take to the air.


And not a moment too soon, as a reporter with his camera man in tow was hot on the scene. "Possible showdown between Snagem and HAZARD in the rubble of Mossd-!" the reporter stops his headline short as he sees no evidence of anything resembling a brawl. He makes a slashing movement across his throat towards his cameraman, even as the lens takes in each of the Snagem's forms in turn. "Cut... cut." he looks at the assembled group of vigilantes turned heroes alongside the twin Gym Leaders and sighs. "I don't suppose I could get you to fight for the camera...?" he asks, almost pleadingly.



"Heaven." Ein sneers, his eyes full of spite for any one of them living longer than his expectations. "What a cute notion." He leans back in his chair, entwining his fingers in front of himself with that self-confident smile on his face, not a care in the world that he cared to show on the mask he called a face. "I am surprised you managed to survive the fight with S-22, though I did not think you would be intelligent enough to avoid fighting him directly. And your ground compatriots fared just as well against the distraction of the rest of my team, though I would have hoped for a higher mortality rate on that end..." he says, almost wistfully as he glances at the numbers calculating casualty rates coming in. "Speaking of they should be back any moment. We need to debrief." He glosses over talking out loud for a moment, one hand to his chin as he thinks before readdressing the Snagems almost like an afterthought.

"However, if death was your objective, I would rank your grade very poor in that category." his voice, cold and oily like black ice in the middle of winter slithers through the speakers as he presses another button, another screen near his face revealing a camera view of what appeared to be S-22's point of view of the fight earlier, ejecting out of the rocket, Cera, Darts and Reno visible through but floating near a strange large green meteorite, probably bound for Meteor Falls, accelerating towards earth. Tools could be seen emerging from the flesh of the Sharpedo hybrid, gathering small samples of the rock here and there and storing it in vacuum containers that were then stored inside the weapon's body before it had to undergo re-entry. The monitor clicks off a** Ein begins talking again with a satisfied hiss at the monstrosity he had created. "Reentry may require a bit of reconstructive surgery but he was due for an upgrade anyhow. That bit with the Topsy-Turvy was interesting, his computational side of his programming wasn't able to compensate. I'll have to look at patching that out in version one point zero..." he muses, smiling grotesquely as he juggles chromosomal genocide in his head for a moment before deciding to respond to Lykas' retort. "Murder is such a brutal term. I prefer something along the lines of asset liquidation. Speaking of, don't all of you worry your pretty little heads about Miror B. Suffice it to say..." Ein growls, showing the first bit of emotion since the call had started. "There seems to be a need to liquidate some of my assets." His calm facade returns a moment later as he tilts the camera slightly to take in the chess board.

"Ah, yes. It does appear as though you have thoroughly bested me here. The virus, my creation if you hadn't already surmised it, on its way to being cured. And S-22, one of the most dangerous weapons you have ever seen, or anyone has ever imagined, out of commission, at least temporarily." He nods, half grudgingly, before that self-sure smirk crawls across his face again. "But tell me Snagems, even though I only got out of this with some resources for a pet project of mine, even though you turned aside Team Cipher's scalpel across your throat for now... who's to say you're seeing the entire picture...?" Ein hisses evilly, the camera zooming out further than before to reveal the chess board the mad genius had been playing on as one of many, wrapped in an enormous three-dimensional multi-board game of chess, with multiple white queens on multiple different directions ready to swoop in and scoop up the black Snagem-representing pieces.

"And even though." Ein swivels the camera back to face him. "You could best me one time, one time will not be enough." He spits, his eyes widened and bloodshot with anger, the mask of his emotions crumbling again as he looks at all of them in turn. "Not a single other victory will I allow you in this game of ours, I assure you all that. Once your bones have crumbled to dust, and the ashes are spat on and forgotten about then I will be satisfied." He composes himself, sitting back to wipe a little perspiration off his forehead with the back of his hand as he smiles, all teeth and no emotion again. "And even though you say I failed, I can't say," he says, nodding at the still-silent camera woman and her mustachioed camera man who had been doing their best to quietly record the entire thing, standing in the door way. "That international notoriety and the show of strength that we here at Team Cipher have demonstrated in turning the country of Hoenn into our plaything as anything other than a success. Now, I would like to discuss this further with you all but according to my readings you are going to be busy in a moment."

Isaac would find the controls unlock with an audible 'clack', even more freedom of movement allowed than before as 'manual override restored' beeps across a console near him. "Before you ask it's probably something to do because I altered the mission specs to... shortchange the rocket on fuel a little." Ein smiles that same small smile as always as he looks into each of their eyes in turn, knowing they would kill him if they could get to him and not caring one iota. "A bomb seemed... so impersonal." he says mockingly, just as the engine below the rocket gives out with a wet gurgle, the fire extinguished with a hiss. The rocket holds its acceleration to begin with, but it's not going to be enough to escape Earth's gravity that immediately begins dragging the rocket back planetside. The front side was heavy with the Snagem's combined weights, the rocket not really a passenger craft so to speak. This turns the spaceship around in midair and begins pointing the nose if it downwards. Isaac would feel the controls begin vibrating in his hands uncontrollably as the spaceship begins slowing its upwards momentum and switches to plummeting down, towards that great green and blue planet we call Earth. Reentry hasn't hit yet, but the rocket was gaining speed fast. Sure hope that ice patch in the other room can survive reentry.

Sub listened to Ein quietly, soaking in every ounce of emotion Ein was showing, how he loved to see that at the end of the day Ein was still human. Ein was many things, a genius, a murderer, but he was still human like everyone else, no matter what he thought. And humans, are flawed. "Hey, Ein..." Sub spoke up with a big smile on his face as he stared good and hard at the chess boards and the pieces on them, studying them. Before the man could say much else the rocket begun to sputter and begin its increasingly rapid descent back down to Earth.

"Crap." He mumbled to himself. "Isaac, if we're still over Hoenn there should be plenty of ocean to splash us into, think you can guide us to a relatively safe spot?" The man asked, he couldn't think of much else, teleportation would be suicide and it's not like they could slow the rocket down to a gentle landing. "Oh, and before I forget..." He said, holding onto whatever was nearby to keep himself in place and not fly backwards.

"Middle board, lone black pawn on rank seven to the waaay back. Promote that to a queen for me and check." He said, almost cackling.

Aile blinked, most surprised at the news of their rent being paid off. "Wait, what? Uh..." She was silent for a good minute, until Mr. Stone was nearly on the helicopter. "Ah, merci beaucoup!" She waved quickly, then turned to the reporter as he asked them to fight. "Uh, really?" She shook her head. "We just had an insane fight, bigger than what most of us have ever encountered. And you want us to fake a fight for ratings?" She shook her head. "Not happening. There's more important things to handle right now than having a fight." She'd head out into the rubble as well to help people, sending out Kayvaan to help.

Reno grabbed onto the back of the co-pilot's chair as the rocket began its dive towards the planet again, staring deep into the camera he had now identified in the room. "You won't win. Even if us on this ship don't survive, there are Snagems on the ground just as ready to oppose you. But we WILL survive. Not because we are needed to live, but for something more personal: To mock you. To prove for all your studying of us and planning, you know nothing. 33 failures. How many more until you admit that you have no idea what you are truly doing?" Releasing his grip on the chair, the one armed man sent himself flying at the door between the rest of the rocket and the capsule they were currently occupying. Smashing his lone hand into the door close button once he had confirmed everyone and everything was in the capsule, Reno glared at Isaac. "Rockets don't land like they fly! We jettison the storage area back there, we don't have to worry about anything excess or balance! Now everyone, strap themselves in!"

Aria simply watched as Mr. Stone walked away, giving a nod of respect to the man. It was always nice to help others, but getting paid AND doing it was the best way.

Isaac yanked back on the control stick as hard as he could, fighting to get the ship's nose to raise up. That way they could present more of the heat shielded underside towards the atmosphere, and increase the drag from surface area, a desperate bid to slow the inevitable descent. "Reno," he shot back at the one armed man, "I really don't have time to discuss shuttle rocket designs right now, but I can't jettison the rest of the damn ship. This thing is coming down either in one piece or in a million bits, and I really don't like the second option. So could someone please reinforce that ice patch? If that melts or breaks off, this ship is gonna disintegrate!"

The cheekiness of calling out of a move as the spaceship begins to reenter the atmosphere elicits a slight twitch from the mad scientist, who proceeds to complete the move as Sub had specified, slamming the queen down on the chess board before terminating the link to the shuttle.



The first thing Aden would notice inside the Mission Control would be a couple of scientists agitatedly jabbing at their console screen, waving over the director of the project who was rather red in the face and enjoying a nice bottle of champagne to look at their monitors, and the merriment would drop from the man's face in an instant. He ran off to the other scientists in the room, hustling them back to their consoles with a bellow. "We got a situation people!" This would elicit Cozmo to hurry over and join the other people near the big screen. Isaac's voice was coming from the speakers in the room now, and they were well aware the rocket was out of fuel.

"We're looking at the readings here my boy," Cozmo says, "And you fellows are coming in at a pretty good pace, there seems to be a large cool zone in the middle of the rocket that's helping contain it from shaking apart, you're coming in very fast though, but you seem to be on target for the ocean right outside Mossdeep we can't be sure of your trajectory yet. Is there some way you can slow the rocket down from up there so we can get a team out into the ocean to help you when you get closer?"

Up on the rocket, Lykas' genius ice core was keeping the hull with the hole from shaking itself apart, but he was going to need to constantly keep it cold or the ice and water was going to boil itself out of it. The controls in Isaac's hands begins shifting massively without his consent suddenly, and there's an audible clang from outside the shuttle. A stabilizer fin on the outside of the rocket seems to have bent from the force of reentry and will probably need to be fixed, but it needed to be done either from the inside or someone was going to have to crawl out during reentry.



Liza and Tate watch the group head off into the city, making their way towards Misson Control to try and catch up with the goings-on with the rocket.

The Snagems who decided to journey into the town would be shadowed by several groups of curious onlookers staying just out of talking distance from the group, varying in ages from small groups of children to mixed bags of adults. Luckily they had decided to help however, as there's a groan from one of the buildings they had stabilized earlier and it pitches as the ground sinks below it, the building swinging violently towards a group of six people, the shadow blotting out the sky as the little girl who had waved to Kaya earlier screams in fright in her mother's arms as her young life is put in danger for the second time today. Another man, a H.A.Z.A.R.D. trooper puts his body over the top of them, his back facing the colossal weight slamming down on top of them as he does what he knows is a futile effort to try and shelter the both of them from tons and tons of collapsing stone and glass. The others shelter their faces futilely, no amount of eye covering was going to protect them from this.

Reno watched as the controls went haywire on Isaac, the sudden jerking and uncontrollable movements telling Reno that this was a mechanical issue. Moving towards one of the windows, he spied the bent stabilizer and came to two conclusions: Going outside to manually fix it would be suicide and that his one method of using his Kadabra to fix the fin would be unsuccessful due to lack of power behind the telekinesis. Opening his Pokeball and releasing the Kadabra anyways, Reno placed a hand on Kaiden's shoulder before going ahead with his third idea. Using the physical contact he had and the mental link he was quick to establish, he vented the majority of his Psychic energy into the Kadabra and gave him a definite image of what the stabilizer would look like once straightened. Feeling his Pokemon drawing on the sudden well of energy he now possessed, Reno watched and waited for what he hoped would occur: The fin bending back into shape against the power of reentry.

Kaya would find a new batch of assistance as something resembling a piece of solid iron slammed into the side of the building, silvery energy flickering around the thing's arms as it attempted to push against the build. Dista looked over her shoulder towards the trio of people endangered by the building she was helping to intercept to watch for her current partner in crime. Beau wasn't one to disappoint, streaking through the air himself to grab and move the mother and child out of the building's path, using the energy he had built up in his dive to try and take the pair away. Behind him, his Fletchinder would sweep up the H.A.Z.A.R.D. trooper to take away from the Snagems' efforts to stop or at least stall the building collapse.