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Darts, having been confronted by the Stantler, thought it more perspicacious of himself to ride out of whatever this thunderdome reality was than to question his newly found mount and ability to escape. He couldn't help but notice as the pack of Snagems made their way with their new found friends that even his own mount seemed especially leery of him. As soon as they make their way into the top of the nearby hill the Stantler dumped Darts unceremonially to the ground with a huff, seemingly glad to be rid of him.

"Well thanks to you too..." He groans, holding his lower back as he gets to his feet, looking around at the various other Snagems dismounting. Any Stantler ridden by a person would be fond, even cheerful to the other riders but as soon as Darts approached the rest of the team they shied away, trying to avoid being in his presence as soon as he approached and returning once he moved away. Great.

"I'm not sure." He answers Sub honestly, making his way over to their leader at his question's behest. Watching Monique's touching rendezvous with her own Stantler, the gambler made sure to keep his distance so as not to spook the thing. Similarly, he cast one crimson red side eye at the large... whatever that was on top of the giant outcropping. "From what I can understand from my training and what myself and Doc Owl were able to figure out when I first transformed, this jacket serves as a temporal anchor of sorts. It roots me in space and time. Otherwise, as we've seen, I have a tendency to get sucked back to the Distortion World without it." His jacket ruffles a little on its own, seemingly proud of itself. "But now we're not in our own reality... we're here. So the only thing I can think of is that the jacket is trying to re-anchor me but it's... malfunctioning? I don't think whatever process Giratina did to me accounted for multiverse theory."



"Appreciate that." Darts says honestly. "I don't even know if it would work and I'm not a big fan of testing unstoppable force immovable object on my own flesh and ichor."



Darts is one of the first to see it, noticing the missing limb almost immediately. "No, Keiko, I'd take that as a big no." He says, looking at Aile's cobbled tourniquet. "Arceus damn it, what happened?" He doesn't wait for a response, taking great care in undoing and reapplying the sash as quickly as possible, trying to do his best to staunch the bleeding but being careful not to use his strength to break her arm off. "You need medical attention and not like. Put leeches on it and hope to god you only lost the bad blood in your injury." Despite his cool facade, the Giratina hybrid was worried. Aile had been there fighting along side him in the Pokemon World War and numerous other conflicts. "Sub!" He hails The Dark One over to come take a look with a wave of his gilt hand.

Monique was fixated on the deer when she suddenly felt something in her large plume of hair, pressing a...snout? on it.

"Hyaah!" She turned around to see one of the Stantler staring at her. What was drawing it to her? That Faller energy she apparently radiated, maybe? She looked for a moment, suddenly feeling a bit woozy and deciding not to make any further direct eye contact. The deer dipped its antlers, and Monique patted its head softly, turning her head back up to the massive deer up top. What was this thing going to do?

Beau would be stumbling back as more of the Pokemon appeared from the strange phenomenon, slowly encroaching as the refreshed invaders appeared. Reaching for where he still had the sword sheathed, he would find a whole lot of nothing. Looking with a panic to the nearby area, Beau was quick to identify the discarded sword over where the Hainter's Shadow Ball had sent him flying. And as the debate of retrieving it began was when the Stantler would charge into the area with them. Listening to the nice suggestion he was getting, Beau would hop astride a Stantler and stare over at the sword. There was enough time to go and retrieve it with how clear the path currently was from the sudden stampede. He could go grab that thing, that last symbol of his and Larry's crusade against the Kalosian monarchy. If he left it there, that was the end of this whole saga. It hadn't been buried way back in the past but he had taken it to keep Larrimore from going on to kill all of the hybrids in some zealous crusade. He was still amazed Larrimore hadn't gutted him when he first discovered it was still around and even more so when he came for it during the Tournament.

It was the last thing tying him and Larrimore to why they originally left home.

And Beau was still staring back as the Stantler herd left, abandoning the sword in either the distant past or wherever that distortion spat it out.

He didn't have anything to add to their sudden circle with the Stantler, simply hopping off the Pokemon as he awaited some form of answer. He was going to be debating over his choice back in the distortion for a while.

"I certainly hope not." Sub spoke up in response to Freth's question about the strange dome of energy they just escaped from and whether or not they were an actual thing people dealt with in Sinnoh post. His gut told him that they were common but not something that should be here, just like the Ultra Wormholes. Maybe they were connected in some way? Then again Darts' jacket wasn't drawn to the wormholes like it was that dome. There were many questions left to be answered.

When he heard Monique's SNAG Pokedex function fail to recognize the species of the strange silver Stantler he scratched his chin in thought. "Maybe it's an evolution of Stantler. Wouldn't think it would be a regional variant with the common Stantler running around here. Perhaps even a regional evolution, you know, like Raichu in Alola. I wonder if such a thing even exists in our time...don't think it does. Certainly makes me question if this place is even our past and not somewhere else in Ultra Space."

-----

Larrimore watched Beauregard arrive safe and sound like everyone else, giving his fellow Bug hybrid a nod of acknowledgement. He wouldn't show it, nor say it, but he was glad his friend made it back in one piece. Turning his vision to the Stantler and their leader, just absentmindedly staring, an uneasy feeling washed over him. For reasons unknown to even himself he looked back at Beauregard and stared at him, his stare becoming more intense the longer he held it. Something was wrong, or rather a lot of was, but his gut told him something else was wrong and Beauregard had something to do with it. What that was he did not know.

-----

Sub would perk up when Darts called out to him, whipping his head around in the direction of the Giratina hybrid and immediately noticed what required his attention. "Aile!" The man shouted as he scrambled onto his feet and ran over to the wounded woman, any other thoughts and worries completely obliterated from his mind. Looking down at the nub that used to have Aile's hand attached to the end of it Sub's mind began to race. They couldn't do this anymore, this land was out to kill them all, literally. They were far from home, lost in Ultra Space, and had no idea how to get back, even if they could get back. Recalling something Darts said earlier the leader spoke up.

"We're going back to the village, all of us." Sub declared, his eyes focused on Darts when he said that. "We can't stay out here. It's not safe, we'll either die from exposure, or Pokemon attacks, or even another one of those dome things appearing over us in our sleep. Maybe there is a reason civilization here seems to begin and end at the village. Without proper treatment Aile will likely die, there is just no putting it lightly. As we saw with Wren the village has their own medical corp. and I'm sure they will help treat Aile but I can't just leave our hybrid members out in this hostile land, you were all lucky you survived the night." He began.

"They said they were accept and reward us if we brought them Darts and maybe they don't have the means to actually contain him, in spite of my earlier questioning and refusal of such an idea of turning him over so we all might survive I feel like we have no other choice." He said, pulling his eyes away from Darts in shame. "Just until Aile is fixed up and we figured something out. Maybe the village has some information we could use if we were to gain free access to all they have to offer, however as the commander made clear that only comes with payment of one devil." He said, glancing back at Darts again.

"I'm not going to bother asking everyone their opinion on it, this isn't the time or place for democracy, instead there is only one person we have to ask and I insist we all respect his decision..." He would turn once again to face Darts, looking him directly in the eyes. "So, what do you say, Darts? I don't want to ask you to 'take one for the team' but...take one for the team?" The man winced, almost feeling sick for every daring to ask even though it was Darts who originally put forward the idea.

-----



As Amber wandered she would eventually make her away up a hill with a strange rock formation hanging over it with some sort of four legged creature perched on top. As she neared the top of the hill she would spot people, a group of them. Upon getting closer she would note that she recognized these people, a good majority of them in fact. It was her team mates! Team Snagem! What luck. However they all seemed pretty serious at the moment, was something wrong?

Sub flinched at Darts' words, calling him and the rest of the team 'chips' for him to play. He wasn't wrong, his logic was sound and he did bring Darts on board to assist with his talents as needed, after all that was the entire point of assembling the individuals he did of Team Snagem. However putting it so bluntly did cause a stir with him, certainly not a way he'd describe his teammates, his friend. Ignoring that for now and resuming to focus on more pressing matters he nods his head.

"It settles then." Sub said before facing the rest of the team. "We will present Darts to the village and Commander Kamado in exchange for medical care for Aile, food and shelter for us all, as well as free access to the village and any valuable information it may contain. I don't like it anymore than the rest of you but I see no other choice. We can say that has to be another way, try and find another way, but we not only run the risk of Aile getting worse but the more time we stay out here ignorant and vulnerable the more danger we are in. Besides, Darts can just skip off to the Distortion World and leave the rest of us behind if he were so inclined." He chuckled slightly. "Now then...anyone got a rope to tie up the Lord of All Evil here?"

Monique took in Sub's words with apprehension and understanding. It sounded like Darts had the ability to get out of anything this primitive civilization could muster, and it was clear that they needed supplies and resources—and especially medical care.

But she fretted. Would they be able to handle a hybrid, let alone a bunch of them? They looked to be incredibly angered the first time. Then again, she knew her walled cities, and she figured that whoever lived there might not mind her so much if she explained her past. Instinctively, she shifted toward her human disguise.

She looked back at Stantler, wondering if the curious little deer was going to follow her all the way. What was it about her that got its attention? She moved slightly, only to see it start to follow her, and decided to pull out one of the few spare Poké Balls she had from her bag. Stantler wasn't normally a Psychic-type, but if that big white deer was its evolution in this time, it definitely turned into one.

She threw it at the Stantler, which shrunk down and fit into the mechanism as it closed and fell to the ground. It shook several times, emitting a satisfying click, and Monique picked it up and put it in the bag.

"I'd rather us not have anyone take one for anyone, but..." Much as Amaranth wanted to argue, there wasn't any arguing that Aile needed medical attention that just wasn't going to be possible on the field. And Sub was right, this wasn't the time to debate; an executive decision needed to be made and based on Darts' response, that decision was already made. She was quiet as ever, swallowing whatever words she had in favor of respect and survival. "...alright. Let's hedge our bets. We've won out on worse odds before, right? Anyways, I don't really have a rope, but maybe the next best thing. Zephyr!"

Getting another ball out of the satchel, she'd get her Butterfree out and nodded to him, then Darts. "If we don't have any rope and can't make any, String Shot should work fine too? Should be able to break free from it just as easily if and when it's needed."


"Er, sorry, I didn't think to bring Pelipper..." Amaranth added, shaking her head. "Kindle or Forge might be able to do something with the wound with fire, though?"