Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tristen hopped back on his feet, on high alert in this illusory forest. These two were trying to take it cautious. They knew what happened last time, Tristen figured. They were harshly reminded of it just now. Get too close, get zapped. Get caught out, get zapped. They couldn’t move in unless it was something absolutely decisive. While Tristen wasn’t the strongest in Snagem’s entourage by a long shot, he was still never the less formidable on many accounts. Unfortunately, Tristen would once again be caught off guard once the Zoroark snuck up on him from behind. Tristen was ready to shock these hybrids again, if not for hearing what he assumed to be an ultimatum getting cut off in mid-sentence.

Tristen felt a wave of relief in spite of the Night Slash attack ready to try to put an abrupt end to the teen. Sub was finally here; the Zoroark hybrids’ hubris on full display once again out to bite them, and this time, they weren’t getting away. As Tristen listened to the hybrid that had him in extremely close proximity, and seeing Sub give the sagely nod to Tristen, the Manetric hybrid knew he had to be do; what he was trained to do: Once again put his foe down, and make sure they stay down. Tristen quickly snatched at the hand around him, bucking back to smash his head into the hostage taking hybrid. Immediately, he then turned around and in a small spat of brutality that might show just who he was trained by, Tristen turned around to pick the hybrid off the ground, only clearing the ground a couple of inches, enough and to effectively choke slam the Zoroark hybrid down to the ground, and to put a massive punctuation on the skirmish, a Thunderbolt, driving a proverbial electrical stake into the dark type hybrid.

Tristen had to catch his breath for a second then looked back towards Sub. “Thanks, Sub…” Tristen said.

Tristen sighed for a moment, making his way off for the twins, practically running over. These two were practically scared for the rest of their lives after this as far as what he could only imagine. They're probably going to need a lot of help to move on from this, but honestly? They were basically changed forever now. “Hey you two…its alright.” He said, kneeling down towards the two to get the two untied. “I wish I could have thought something was wrong sooner. I should have known. Here…geez, they got this tight on you two-“ Tristen stopped as he started to hear something close by, making him stop as he started to look around. He looked over towards the machine, staring in confusion. He looked back towards Sub for a second as he was trying to tie down the two Zoroark hybrids. “Hey! Sub! What’s that thing over there!?” he then called out to the leader, proceeding to go back to untie the the Tandemous twins. “Almost…there.” Tristen said, proceeding to get their gags off soon after. “You two okay?”

Tristen wasn’t in the least bit surprised as the twins practically clung to Tristen like super magnets and he was more than willing to hold them close. They were kids…they didn’t go through what he has been through for most of his life so far. For anyone else, this would have been absolutely scarring, especially to twins as young as these two. “You two are good. Its good. You’re safe now.” He was just going to let them get it out of their system; he was their friend after all. Tristen couldn’t help but to wonder if his life was different, that he was raised maybe similarly to these two, if he would be in the same situation, bawling their eyes out in pure utter fear of their own mortality. Probably would, considering what he has seen of students here so far. It started to put into context for Tristen just how much of a divide he had with them, despite want to be with kids like these. Tristen ended up more mature, more hardened to the problems, if albeit horrors, that was out there. While he long since knew that no one needed to actually experience what he went through, especially in their early years like him, the depths of such a thing didn’t really come into context until just now, seeing the twins cry in his arms. Tristen effectively became a Snagem out of a feeling of obligation to his adoptive father, although he was advised not to. For that matter, Tristen realized when he made that decision that it was going to give him an opportunity to see what he was missing out in the world, what was being kept from him. What was there to see. Tristen started to realize such a thing wasn’t just limited to him. Kids his age, or less, would have had no idea and perhaps was better off not knowing. Let things on slow instead of full on, at least that’s what Tristen speculated. He also figured, though, that it was probably not easy even then.

Tristen looked back once Sub released the Tyranitar, scaring the twins and attempt to hide in Tristen’s embrace all the more. As Tristen tried to calm the twins, assure them they were fine, Tristen caught Sub’s tone and it was far from lost on the Manetric hybrid. There was disdain in Sub’s command to the Tyranitar; the Snagem leader, far from happy of his discovery. When he mentioned what it was, Tristen sucked his teeth a little. “Ugh, I thought that was what it might have been. It also explained why they were able to make an illusion that big and hold on to it. Unfortunately, I think that power boost was all committed to making that illusion, which I guess only shows just how strong they actually are still…which is dangerous thinking about it. They could have killed themselves getting artificially souped up like that.” Tristen said, looking back towards the tied up Zoroark hybrids. Unfortunately, it only told Tristen another thing as well. That was another Chi converter loose that ended up getting found and used against Team Snagem. Malva managed to somehow either get one made or managed to get one outright from somewhere and gave it to the Zoroark hybrids to give them an extra edge. Fortunately, Tristen thought, they really didn’t have the capability to use it to its fullest extent. All the same, though, that only meant that there were still machines floating around in this world somewhere, something Tristen felt that Sub was painfully aware of.

Tristen would stand up, helping the twins back up to their feet. “Anyways…B? E? This is Sub. Leader of Team Snagem. Its okay. He’s one of the good guys.” He told the two. “Sub, this is Brooks and Elwin. B and E. Friends I made here in the academy.” Tristen said, rubbing the twins on each of their shoulders, an affectionate gesture. Everything was okay now. “By the way, when I figured out something was up, I told one of my other friends to find a teacher to get Mr. Clavell aware that something was happening here. Hopefully he found out by now.” He then told Sub.

As the twins went from fear to being enamored by the likes of the Team Snagem leader, Tristen stepped away for a couple of seconds, having a nice chuckle at the sight of it. While the whole situation with Malva isn’t over, it was nice to actually breathe now that the Zoroark twins are now under wraps. It was just the matter of tracking down the former Team Flare admin and bringing her down once more. Tristen then stopped for a second, feeling something off. The static that was once again in the air. And it was more dominant than ever. Tristen never felt it this off before. And more than half the time this past week and a half now, he didn’t even notice it. He did recall that he started feeling it as early as Ms. Dendra’s class all the way back on his first day of class apart from the Snagems, the race that he had with Matteo and the other students. He didn’t think anything of it at first, but now as victory seemed pretty good now, it was more prominent than ever. Then Sub’s utterance of Clavell, which confused Tristen, but apparently something occurred to Sub that Tristen wasn’t privy to, something that may have happened over this past week that got Sub working behind the scenes until now. Was the head of the academy behind all of what was going on? Unfortunately, Tristen wasn’t going to be able to find out right away…he had to evacuate the school. Immediately.

Upon Sub’s order, Tristen went back to the twins. “B. E. Come on with me. We gotta go! Hurry!” Tristen said, leading the boys off the field. Once Tristen found his way back inside, Tristen kept on the look out down the halls until he found what he was looking for. Tristen went to a nearby fire alarm lever. There was no fire here, but there sure as heck as an emergency if Sub was telling him to evacuate the school. Tristen pulled the alarm and every loud shrill of electronic alarms, every alert tone over the intercoms, every bell started to go off throughout the school. “Hurry! Go go go, hurry up to the city! Don’t wait around! If you see anyone along the way, tell them to run away. Go far away into the city! Far away from the academy that you can! Be brave, you two. Like Dragonite. Go!” He told the twins.

Absinthe's day was going surprisingly well, today. All her pokemon were fully healed, and with no Star fools to deal with, she basically just chilled. She was wandering through the school just to sightsee and happened to glance through a window out to the courtyard just as more Star losers were posing up around Sub. Immediately on high alert, Abby ripped through her backpack to get her SNAG and sent a message team-wide.



Once that was done, she shoved her SNAG back into her backpack and charged into the courtyard, but as she drew close to Sub, she realized someone was already standing beside him...

I noticed the jumpting Sub was about to partake in about the same time Abby did, but while she was warning the team, I rushed in on Hoverboard.and let Rala out of her ball just as I stopped beside Sub. With her normally shadowy heart crystal now a brillaint, shining blue, the Psychic she threw at the Primate was far more powerful that it would have been a year ago.

As Abby approached us, letting her Breloom out in the process, she couldn't help but ask "Where the hell have you been?" It was pretty obvious she was asking me.

"Busy," was all I told her for now. "I'll explain once these are taken care of," I added, motioning to the Star grunts. Abby didn't seem too happy with that, but she relented, and ordered her Breloom to attack the Passimian with Force Palm.

Monique felt like she finally had something of a rhythm in her studies. The classes were going well, she was learning a lot... She had to fill the downtime sometimes, so she talked to people. After all, she might as well have been an exchange student from an alternate reality, and being in a school setting quickly showed her what she didn't know.

Monique was showing Miriam in the health office the Pokémon she knew nothing about—Hao, the blue Orthworm.

"Whoa!" Miriam remarked when it came out.

"...What?" Monique asked. The reaction seemed overkill for a Paldean-native Pokémon. She expected that if she had produced Kalama or something.

"It's a Shiny Pokémon!"

"A what now?"

Miriam looked at the Sheriff of New Po like she'd come from another world (not wrong). "A Shiny Pokémon! Its coloration is not normal for its species. They say about one in 4,000 are like that. Normal Orthworm are red, not blue, you see."

"Does that mean it's in—"

SCREECH SCREECH SCREEeeech

A loud noise and bright strobe issued forth from a red box near the door. Every muscle in Monique's body tensed at the abrupt and unfamiliar sound.

"Fire alarm. We occasionally get pranksters that pull them. But we weren't scheduled for a fire drill today," Miriam explained, a bit of nervousness. "We should follow the evacuation plan and get down to the ground." Monique was about to follow Miriam when a notification sound came across her SNAG.

> Sub's getting jumped. Come to the courtyard NOW.

"Something's happening," Monique told Miriam, her voice rising. The nurse's office was on the east front wing, second floor, and it had a window overlooking the front of the school. Monique walked to the window and pulled the curtains aside, trying to shut out the continued clangor of the fire alarm. A large orange vehicle was parked across the large paved path. There were people and Pokémon all about, and according to the message she had received, Sub was among some bad company. "Get people out of this building. Preferably to the rear," she growled at Miriam, recalling Orthworm and sending out Noio. "Through the window!" she commanded her flying steed as she hopped on. The bird then took off, Monique aboard, and burst into the Mesagozan sunlight.

No use in casting an illusion, Monique thought as she noticed the vehicle was another Starmobile. The screeching fire alarm, audible through the open window, matched the alarms blaring in her head. She came in for a landing, off to the side in hopes nobody had been looking skyward in all the confusion, and prepared to enter the fray.

Clared shoved their way through the cafeteria, having been on a break from their classes when Abby's message came through on their SNAG. "Oh... This can't be good." The still-one-armed hybrid burst out into the courtyard through the inner halls of the school only a moment before a certain couple arrived.

Odd arrived on Lykas' hoverboard with the hybrid in front and jumped off just behind Clare. "Get her to safety and come back when and if you can. We'll handle things here either way." He told his partner as Lykas nodded.

"Yeah. Mykel should be able to watch her for us for a bit. I'll be right back!" The hybrid agreed, racing off with what appeared to be a baby in his arms as Odd threw out a Pokeball that released his recently acquired Charcadet, a pair of Black Glasses secured over his eyes by the point of his helm. "Acciacca, use a weak Fire Spin to get some space around Sub!" Odd ordered, pointing toward the Snagem leader. Acciacca nodded and threw a punch that sent a small but fierce flame racing across the ground, which circled Sub in a wide arc, forming a ring that flared up for a moment in an attempt to drive some of his attackers back before weakening enough that the man could jump over them if he wanted.

Clare would toss out their own Pokeball here, releasing Visage into the courtyard. "Try using Swift!" They directed, pointing toward the Flamigo. None of these Pokemon were familiar to them so Clare wasn't sure who, if anyone, on their team was going to prove useful in this situation. Best to go with the closest thing to a neutral attack they could think of for now.

The battlefield would begin to light up as multiple targeted Pokemon would be illuminated by and then subsequently wiped out by a flurry of pink Psychic blasts. It would take a minute to pin down the source especially as the blasts came from a myriad of directions and there was even a possibility to misidentify it coming from a Corvisquire that was flying away, but it would eventually become clear that an Alakazam was teleporting around the rooftops to accomplish this. Once it was recognized as a threat, it would be a lot easier to pin down the psionic covering fire and turn into an actual fight with the Pokemon.

From behind the woman on top of the Starmobile, a small metallic tapping would be audible, almost like someone was poking away at parts on the machine with a metallic stick. Which was fairly close to reality, as Reno continued to looking around at the machine and poking at it every once in a while with his prosthetic arm. "So....how'd you manage to get this big thing under the town? Certainly doesn't look like it can do tunneling and I have my doubts you dug it out beforehand unnoticed." Reno asked, continuing his casual examination of the Starmobile. "First time I've seen something like this. Where'd you get the tech to make Poke-powered mechanisms like this? Would love to see what I could hotwire from that stuff."

----

The Star grunts wouldn't be given any breaks from the other Snagem that had arrived alongside Reno, especially since she had been put on the rooftops alongside his Alakazam and was very eager to take advantage of abusing the added physics it offered her. Making sure she wasn't going to kill anyone with her flying leap, Leslie would raise the hammer above her head and look to the one Pokemon she had out. "Alright, Mauri. Drill Run through them. Sweep the field." Leslie said to the Fearow beside her. Taking the spreading of her wings as confirmation, the Tinkatuff hybrid would leap. Watching the ground rushing up towards her, Leslie would swing her hammer down in a gap between a few of the grunts and send cobblestones and other shrapnel erupting out from the impact to scatter the grunts and wound their Pokemon.

"Alright, you pack of no talent punks! Get out of here quick and I'll forgive your little eruption from, ONCE AGAIN AT YOUR HAND, sending my chosen flying out of here!" Leslie bellowed, her point being punctuated as a Fearow swept through their ranks with a sprialling dive.