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Giacomo was probing. In a way that made Monique deeply respect him and keep him in the back of her head.

"The cult? I've never heard of such a thing," she blurted out between deep breaths after being asked. Clearly, Giacomo was misjudging Monique's background, somehow. Perhaps he thought that her relative recency to the team, which he had noted with suspicion, was about escaping this cult? Was he referring to the academy—which she could not rule out—or something more serious? Was there a cult trying to prey on Zoroark hybrids?

Either way, between her encounter with Mela and this exchange with Giacomo, Monique's level of trust in Clavell and academy leadership was starting to drain like the Flower City reservoir did when the purifier was out of service. For Snagem's sake, she had to hope that it wasn't going to run dry. She petted Noio, whose feathers were matted from all the rain. If it weren't for being this tired, the Honchkrow might as well have been incredibly irritated.

"Back off a bit, Kiri," Cera remarked, motioning with her tail to have Kiri take a couple of steps back to try bringing a little ease Giacomo's way. She'd perk soon after at the remark of motorized battles, looking to the Starmobile. The thought that followed was one with an origin she wasn't certain about. But either the idea in general or the influence of Dark energy in her drew some interest from the Mew. Preferably with something smaller, somehow...

She'd be quick to shake her head when she heard the academy was less keen on the whole thing, but given everything, she could see why it'd conflict with their preferences. "I wouldn't call it dumb, we've had plenty of ideas that could've been called that too. And the spectacle does have an appeal... feels like the sort of idea I would've seen from ol' Shades. I guess fair enough on the benefactor, but... cult? That one sounds like news to all of us, but most of us are pretty new to the region still."

With a sigh, she'd have to concede that he probably was right about the Academy's potential to withold information to the team. "Guess it'd track for the region's bigger names to be less keen on divulging more than they think's necessary. As for the Shadow Pokemon... it's more we're following them. You've heard about the pandemic in Hoenn, right? We needed to make rent for the month and stumbled on the whole thing in the process. After all of that and helping Silph out, we've kept an eye out to keep outbreaks from getting out of control. But because we tend to show up soon after they do, I can't argue that it doesn't look suspicious..."

As her words trailed off, she couldn't help taking another glance at the Starmobile, thinking about what could've been had circumstances allowed for what their aim was. She'd make sure the SNAG was still able to pick her voice up to translate before what came next. "...tell you what. I know you just said about going back to the Academy, but if you find a way? Keep working on the Starmobiles. I can't guarantee we'll keep them in one piece, but I wouldn't mind trying this motorized battle idea if we ever get the chance."

"Hm...you people don't know about the cult, strange." Giacomo mused aloud in response to Monique and Cera's reaction, mostly surprised by Monique's lack of knowledge of said cult. "Either way, while I believe all of you as far as the Shadow Pokemon go there are some that don't. There are some that believe the Shadow Pokemon keep your lot in business, so to speak. Especially now that your group is sanctioned by the world governments to seek out and apprehend Shadow Pokemon. Some might say that sounds pretty lucrative. I'm not one of those 'some people' but they are out there." The young man explained, as if he knew who these 'some people' were but chose not to say.

Taking out his Rotom phone he looked at the time and sighed. "Well I guess I'm not performing my evening show so let's get this over with, take me back to the academy. Oh, but first..." He said, taking a coin-like object from his pocket and tossing it to Cera. "It's a key to the original Starmobile, it's an NFC chip. I won't tell you who has the original Starmobile or how to utilize it but I'll give you a piece of the puzzle. I'm only giving it to you because I feel like you might use it better than them. Plus it'd be funny."

Giacomo chuckled before recalling his Pokemon, saying his goodbyes to his hybrid friends, and turning back to the Snagems. "Okay, let's go." Time to return to the academy.

-----

Starfall - Segin Squad: [Complete]

Participating members and their Pokemon receive the following:

4x Snag Coins
1x Dark Gem
3x Exp Candy M

4 Evo/Purification Points
1 Happiness Point

The cyclizar wound up and proceeded to start… welp, BAM! But as the smoke cleared the freshly shed Cyclizar rammed into the lizard and kept going. The Psyduck just gave a serious look to the fireballs. It would hit… where it once stood, as it teleported on top of the ninja and decided to stomp the ninjas head down as if was jumping up and down on him. Deo was amazed at this. His anger turned to a smug grin as he then ran up to the ninja, gently restrained and with some zip-ties, cuffed the ninja without hurting them. The Psyduck then hopped onto Deo as he then used a pokeball to catch the new pokemon which he would name “Smoke” after his stealthy attack

The earth shook and with it the Muk's gelatinous body would wiggle violently, the silent sludge creature losing its grip on Leslie as the Earthquake dealt heavy a blow. Stunned by the Earthquake the Muk was a sitting Psyduck as it took the hammer swing from Leslie, the gremlin's mighty hammer putting an end to its interference as the Poison type fainted.

While the Earthquake did shake the tree a certain someone was hiding in with their concealed Dragalge it didn't cause them to fall out, that was until Leslie's wildly hammer swings connected with that specific tree, the pair finally lose their grip as the Pokemon and trainer pair fell to the ground. "Oof! My apologies!" Atticus instinctively said as he apologized to his Dragalge as the Camouflaged dragon fell to the ground first and then Atticus fell ontop of him. The ninja's brain would quickly catch up to him as he realized what happened and what was going on, jumping to his feet and snatching a Rotom phone out of his garb.

"Enough! The time for this foolery is at an end! Steel yourselves and realize thy folly by trespassing on our ground!" With that said he would tap the screen on his purple phone and immediately the sound of revving could be heard. Confirming it worked by the sound the ninja would throw another smoke ball down creating a cloud of smoke that concealed him and his Pokemon and was big enough to conceal a wide area that made it impossible to see the forest line he was standing in front of.

The revving sound would get louder and louder and before they knew it a giant purple car-like contraption would come rushing out of the smoke with Atticus standing on the top most platform and his Dragalge on the center stage. It was Navi Squad's Starmobile. As the Starmobile rushed the Snagems Sub perked up and took a diving leap, having yanked out his hoverboard at the same time so that went he hit the ground the board hugged against his stomach and chest sent him flying across the ground to escape the charging vehicle.

"Part from my sight or perish!" Atticus declared as the Starmobile rushed forward, leaving behind a trail of toxic goo which splattered around in its wake. The mobile would turn around once it made it to the opposing tree line and faced the Snagems again, Atticus and his Pokemon preparing for a battle. "Beareth witness to the ingenuity of Team Star! Draglage, use Haze!" The ninja said, making a hand sign as if to mimic some sort of ninja techhnique. With a cry his Pokemon would respond by summoning forth a thick white Haze which would sweep in from the forest and engulf the clearing cutting down visibility. They could still see where the Starmobile was but it looked more like a fuzzy silhouette in the Haze. This almost made seeing each other more difficult.

"Gee, this is the thickest Haze I've ever seen. You guys okay!?" Sub said as he stood up, finding it difficult to see as he looked around for the other Snagems.

-----

The female ninja was defeated, laying on the ground with her knocked out Pokemon, groaning in pain. Looking around she could see the thick Haze building up in the forest behind them and she smirked. "You're too late! Atticus is fighting your friends and it looks like he isn't holding back! This is over! Long live Navi Squad! Long live Team Star!" She cried out before slamming a smoke bomb down on the ground creating a thick cloud of smoke which would soon blow away to reveal her and her Pokemon were gone. Deo had won his battle but now he knew his friends were in trouble, how was he going to find them in a hazy forest?

Leslie would be left squinting and staring at the treeline that she just knew Atticus had disappeared into. I mean, the revving was certainly making it easy to identify what direction she had to begin trudging towards. "Come back here, you coward! I promise the hammer won't kill! It'll just feel like you-" Leslie bellowed through the smoke, smirking to herself as she heard the engine noise getting closer. And then as she had a brief moment of sight, she finished her statement as the Starmobile's front bumper closed in on her, "Got hit by a car."


Yelping as she was sent flying with the impact, the Tinkatuff hybrid would find herself disarmed as her hammer found itself trapped in the grille of the Starmobile. Giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts after the sudden impact, Leslie would hear Sub's question and responded with her typical grace. "Not to sound embittered but I GOT HIT BY A CAR! And it stole my hammer! I am not losing another one of those to these two bit school punks!" Cracking open a Pokeball, Leslie would look down towards the Pawniard beside her. "Alright, Guts. I'm gonna go low, you go high and hit them with a Metal Claw." She told her Pokemon, doing her best to guess how high a lob she'd need to throw for him to land even close to the Starmobile. Launching the Pokemon into the air, Leslie proceeded to charge towards Atticus with a lot of shouting and whooping. "After that hit and run, I ain't gonna need the shovel to bury you! I'm gonna build you a grave out of the scrap of that car!"

She hoped the distraction of her shouting would be enough to let Guts slip through from above, with a Metal Claw aimed to hit....honestly whatever he drew close to from the throw. It was a very blind toss after all, so picking a target any more precisely than the vehicle-shaped blob was foolish.

"...did you get its tag number?" Sub asked Leslie, unable to resist the urge to make the joke, in spite of the real danger they were all in, let alone the fact that Leslie literally got hit by a car. She'll be okay though, being Steel and all, right? Before Sub could say anymore he watched as Leslie got personal, more personal than it already was. It was one thing to scare off her prey, another to run her over, but to separate from her hammer? She hadn't been in this form that long but Sub quickly learned that if there was one thing Leslie would die protecting it was that hammer. Looking down at his Pokeballs for a second he then looked at Leslie and took a step back. "...she got this...yeah..."

Leslie's scheme seemed to work immediately as the Starmobile revved its engine again and spun around to face her direction. It would just start to spin its tires and head for her but not before one Pawniard came flying at them, catching Atticus by surprise as the Haze acted against his favor, the man barely having time to register the oncoming Pawniard as he attempted to duct and dodge. Atticus would not move quick enough to completely avoid the Pokemon projectile as one of Pawniard's blades caught Atticus clothing and bound them together as both Pokemon and human were sent up and over the railing and onto the ground as the Starmobile rushed towards Leslie leaving them both behind. The Metal Claw 'missed' but Guts still succeeded in doing something.

As the Starmobile rushed, leaving behind its trail of poison, Blaziken would spot them in midair and would have the perfect opportunity and vantage point, the flames having dissipated the Haze around it, to send itself and its Blaze Kick straight down in the path of the Starmobile so that the Blaziken's foot would connect with the Draglage on top the Starmobile, knocking it off too.

The only unfortunate turn of events would be that once again Leslie would get mowed down, resistant to any of the poisonous goop or poison energy but it still hurt to get hit by a car, then again it wasn't like Leslie did much to avoid getting ran over. Either way the Starmobile was now without guidance, the vehicle coming to a stop after hitting Leslie and turning around to face the direction it assumed Leslie was still in. Without Atticus it didn't know what to do so just idled there for now.

"Get off me!" Atticus shouted, dropping all the flowery speech he was known for, now thoroughly irritated. After ripping off a sleeve he got free of Guts and rose to his feet. "I will not be humiliated anymore! Never again! Starmobile, Flame Charge! Burn up the poison reserve!" Atticus commanded. "Schedar Squad eat your heart out!" Atticus cackled, suddenly becoming very out of character.

"Oh crap! Leslie- ack!" Sub shouted, alarmed by the command for the Fire move as he figured that Atticus had finally worked out Leslie's typing, commanding the one move that would actually deliver serious harm to Leslie. However, Sub quickly realized another problem that the Haze had concealed; the entire area they were fighting in was now littered with Toxic Spikes, the Starmobile's Toxic Debris ability having apparently been triggered every time it rammed into Leslie or when Pawniard bounced off it. There were spikes all around Sub, Absinithe, and Leslie too, the later of them unaffected by them but the two humans very much.

As well as Blaziken who now had to land on the spike strewn ground and if it tried something crafty Draglage would ensure it didn't get away unscathed, the fallen dragon lashing out at the airborne Blaziken with its long Poison Tail empowered tail, attempting to wrap it around Blaziken or at least swat at it. It was coming down to Earth one way or another.

When Deo ran up on the scene if he didn't pay close enough attention he too would step right on the spikes and anyone who did would be poison badly.

While the others took pause due to the sudden realization of the Toxic Spikes all around the Starmobile went on the attack, the engine Pokemon revving up wildly and pushing the machine as far as it could as it began to burn up all the full it had to create the hottest, most savage looking Flame Charge it could. As the Starmobile rushed towards Leslie it would ignite all the poisonous goo left on the ground, the area quickly becoming engulf in flames. The flaming Starmobile looked like something being rode by Ghost Rider as giant pillars of flame shot from its exhaust pipes, pitch black noxious smoke also pumping out of it in massive amounts. The Starmobile was locked onto Leslie and was intent on flattening and melting her.

"Les-!" Was all Sub could get out as he accidentally took a breath of that poisonous smoke the Starmobile was pumping out, and caused by the goo now on fire, causing him to flinch and gasp for clean air. Even if Leslie survived this they now had a very familiar situation on their hand; the forest was about to burn down.