TM1 - A Snagem Siesta in Paldea [Complete/Free Posting]

[Darksol88]

Sol had been tapping at his SNAG, trying to get a message to Sub as the situation started to escalate and thankfully de-escalate a bit, then escalate again when he picked up on Larrimore starting to panic fast. Before he could get the message sent, he heard Sub's shout and turned towards him as Vlademar roared to silence the crowd. "I... what he said, lo lamento." There wasn't much else to add to things, but he'd try to keep what peace he could until Sub was flagged down. Based on what he thought he overheard, there was definitely a few snags in the desert trip now.

"Right. Cera, make sure Amaranth knows about the change in plans. I'll be at the Cyclizar pit stop as soon as I'm able." He'd go upstairs quickly to get to his room and get his stuff, seeing Buzzwole was still there when he came in.

"Ah good, you're still... alright...?" He stayed at the doorway for a moment when he noticed that Buzzwole had the TV in their hands. In at least two pieces, snapped in half and trying to put the pieces back together. Progress on this could be going better, as the attempt to lessen the pieces created more of them instead.

Upon hearing Sol's voice, they turned and gave one last attempt at pushing the TV's halves back together, then giving a dejected look before dropping the pieces.

"Oh come now, I'm not that disappointed. Mostly." Given things, Sol didn't feel he could make matters much worse in Paldea for the moment. And, more importantly, it did turn the TV off in a way that mattered. "Anyways, we need to take our leave. Are you good to stay in the ball for now?"

Though Buzzwole wanted to try and fix what they broke, maybe the ball was better for now. They'd let themselves be recalled so Sol could pack up and mentally prepare for what might come.

---

Cera looked away as everything continued to go down, increasingly upset at the mistake she'd made alongside Larrimore and others. "I... yeah, lemme get her." She said after a bit, sheepishly leaving to her room to get her things- and hopefully calm her crying olive down- before moving to get to Amaranth's room and knock on the door. "Ammy? We, um, we need to leave."

"Hm? Coming!" She'd open the door to see the transformed Mew and her apparent charge, SNAG in hand as each of her artifacts were strewn about behind her. "Leave? Is the trip about to start?"

"...um." Confused, Cera gestured at the window outside and around her. "You haven't noticed all the screaming? About Fredi-whatever?"

"...oh! Yeah, what was that about? I saw the message from Larrimore after I woke up, so I thought it was dealt with and went back to trying to research these. Did something happen?"

Cera kept staring at Amaranth for a second, groaning as she tilted her head back. "Yeah, something did. A bunch of us messed up kinda bad and made everyone upset. Sub said we needed to leave so, um, get your stuff together and get to the Cy... cycle-lizard... just get to that weird parking lot we went to last night." She'd turn and leave after that, leaving a still confused Amaranth to start getting her stuff together as well.

---

Eventually, each of them would be at the pit stop, Aden being the last of them to arrive since having to make a hurried leave wasn't stopping him from at least having a free breakfast. That, and he wanted to stay out of something he had no part in. He wouldn't get to say anything before Sub arrived and questioned Sol, though.

And speaking of the Ho-oh hybrid, he balked at Sub's request and coughed. "Perd- ahem, sorry. Mesagoza? That's more than halfway across the region from here, it'd take us most of the day to get there and you'd think the League would give us some sort of... give me a moment, I have a better idea to get us there sooner. Just mind the squawking." Stepping away from the crowd, he'd get his SNAG out and start making a call on it, after doing a brief search on what exactly to call.

"...yes, bom dia to you too. Yes, we need a taxi from Porto Marinada to Mesagoza. Er, make that a few taxies... 10 minutes? Good, we'll be at the Cyclizar stop." Hanging up afterward, he'd come back to the others. "Alright, we should have a few flying taxies over in a bit to get us to the city. Everyone's ready, right?"

---

Eventually, some time later, there'd be a lot of squawking heard, growing louder and louder as a few flying taxies similar to many Galarian ones came into view and eventually landed near the pit stop. By the time all of them arrived, enough to carry the team, the squawks of entirely too many colorful parrot-looking Pokemon would be practically deafening.

"Oh good, they're here!" Sol yelled, trying to speak over the birds. "They'll be much faster for us to get to Mesagoza!"

"Dad, what the hell!?" Aden yelled back, covering his ears. "Tell me this isn't some joke!"

"Pretty sure he's serious..." Cera remarked, her psychic abilities letting her broadcast into the others' minds so she didn't have to yell.

Amaranth was quiet, but part of her wanted to know what they were to catch one herself.  

[DeoLux]

It seemed that it was a weird day for Deo, but it got weirder when he saw the Parrot type birds that were there. He was amazed by the size of these things, and he got on the back of one of them and he was ready to fly. He only thought a trainer could be able to do such things. "I figure that we can get there faster and with less trouble this way." He said to himself. Already thinking of what to do at the next place. Those cyclzars were very interesting. Deo really wanted one, and he hoped he could find one to catch. He wondered how he could understand the team better, and he knew that he was not a cop, but he had to let that go and remember that he is a SNAGEM, not a sinnoh cop.  

[MoniqueBrie]

The Snagems milled about, waiting for a conveyance that Sol had continually promised was coming.

Then came the squawking. Monique looked up to see a large group of birds carrying several large taxis down to the ground. Having never seen a Flying Taxi (either Galarian or Paldean) before, her mouth was agape. Well...then, she thought, climbing inside one and wondering who would get in with her. An operator sat in the front seat, behind a transparent partition. She studied the small note affixed to it, which identified it as belonging to Radio Taxi Paldeano, S.A., whatever that was. Several other Snagems were getting inside the other taxis.

Getting inside muffled the squawks a bit, but they were still quite audible. If Audino had been out of its Poké Ball, it might have been driven to insanity, she thought. She had to hope this was a quick trip.  

[Atlantis_Darts]

Espeon_Commander

Crystal watched Sub eventually get the crowd to disperse, letting out an even larger sigh and hanging her head forward in relief. Thank goodness it was over. A brief look around would point out to her that she hadn't seen Darts around since last night, nor had she seen Doc Owl at all during the night. "Huh. Well, let's not have them be late and miss all of this stuff..." She'd head back up to the rooms and went hunting around mentally for them, reaching out with the lightest of mental prodding, just enough to try and figure out who was who. When she finally settled on the room, she'd walk up to the door and pound on it. "Hey, Doc, Darts! You two might want to get ready to go if you're not! We're going to be heading out soon, meeting up at the Ride Pokémon station!" She'd wait right next to the door to wait and see if they'd come out soon.

Blizzard120

We’d come to find that no, there wasn’t no megalomaniac dictator that the populace was revolting over. It was over the events of last night. While I didn’t see much movement at all last night, it must have came after we all turned in. Someone must have found out about it somehow. Maybe someone spotted Tristen when he was trying to aid it after the attack. Who knows. Once again, I am reminded of how vacations tend to just not be the greatest and now it was looking like we were going to get an earful over Larrimore’s overreaction, rather if we were directly involved or not. Freth and I would pack our things as soon as we got the word that we had to leave, with us giving word to Tristen soon after. Doc would be appraised of the situation soon after that and honestly, it didn’t come to any surprise to the doctor. Unfortunately, he too wanted to have stern words with the Pinsir hybrid, but it wouldn’t do any good. Nothing that he could say wouldn’t have been already said by others in some capacity.

We would meet up with the group at the north part of the port, finding our ways to the parking lot that we saw nearby the Pokémon Center…if you call it that. We were to wait on getting taxis to our destination, apparently air lifted similarly to how Galar does their taxis, if Sol was to be believed. Unfortunately, instead of large, majestic Corviknight…it was loud, bleeting, bunches of birds. Tristen winced hard from the talkative birds, hoping they were more silent once we were airborne. I kind of doubted it. Tristen, Freth, and I loaded up one car. It was about all we could do between the three of us and our luggage that we brought for this trip. Doc would find himself with Darts, hoping to get to the bottom of what was getting to Darts still. The doctor still heavily doubted that whatever was egging at the Giratina hybrid was going to be slept off. After yesterday, he realized he needed other approaches. Crystal wasn’t going to be of any help in the matter. She apparently has some apprehension on checking in what was going on in the reaches of Darts’s mind, he assumed. Granted, respectful of her to do that, but Darts was making it abundantly clear that there was something going on and it would be nicer if he could get over it sooner than later for his own sake.

Darts for his part, despite Doc's analysis would act like he had the most restful night of all time. He had quietly slunk off away from the fight and wandered the grounds trying to avoid any angry mobs and any nightmares that were becoming more and more prevalent until he had actually returned to his tub just before Doc's awakening and Crystal's wakeup call. He hadn't slept AT ALL.

"Heya Crystal!" Darts chirps happily, practically skipping as he followed Doc out of the door and the group of them begin making their way towards the rest of the team. "How did everything end up shaking out last night? I had some of the weirdest dreams ever... that bathtub must just be better for sleeping in than I thought." He pointedly ignores Doc's stare as he swipes a piece of toast from one of the patron's plates in the lobby with a flick of his golden hand, the bread disappearing from the plate before the fat old man attending to his newspaper noticed. The gambler happily munched on his stolen buttered piece of toast as they joined the others. He's fine.  

[DragonFang099]

To her credit, Amber did feel a little bad when she saw the terrified expression on Larrimore's face at the sight of the crowd. Only a little, though. She watched with mild surprise as Sub appeared and calmed the crowd, only to be approached by the hotel owner. When told to go get her things, Amber would release Larrimore, giving her fellow hybrid a hard look, then went to do as she was told. When she gathered with the rest of her teammates outside the hotel, she could see Sub on the phone, and when she heard the words 'flying taxi', her face went pale, paler than it was, anyway. They were flying? Oh, no, there had to be another way. There was no way in the reverse world she was going up in the air, no matter how safe it was supposed to be. Not to mention the amount of noise coming from the birds carrying the taxi was making her ears hurt, causing her to clap her hands over her ears in an attempt to drown out the noise.

Spooky, sensing his mistress' distress, immediately floated down until he was right in front of her, staring into her eyes until she seemed to come back to herself. Shuddering as her thoughts were gotten back under control, the Froslass hybrid approached Sub. "Surely there's another way to get there that doesn't involve midair flights in potential flying deathtraps with birds that are entirely too loud for my liking?" she said, raising her voice to be heard over the cacophony that was the foreign Flying-types. "Please tell me there's another kind of transportation to take than that... thing? Otherwise, someone's going to have to knock me out to get me in that." The Froslass hybrid was trying her best to keep calm, but it was obvious that she was terrified of heights. Knocking her out was probably the best option at this point, seeing as Spooky wasn't able to help her keep her composure.

--------------------------

Brian heard Sub's order to get their things and meet at the Cyclizar pitstop, whatever that was. He assumed it was the place that had Pokemon that looked like they had wheels attached to them. Hearing the sudden cacophony of noise from what looked like a Galarian flying taxi, just with different Pokemon carrying it, he was immediately intrigued. Ah, so this was how they were getting to Mesagoza. This should be interesting. He could see Keiko holding her ears down, and he felt a pang of sympathy for her. Having such sensitive hearing couldn't be good in this situation. The noise didn't really bother him, but he knew there were others in the team that weren't quite so indifferent to the sound of the Pokemon. Shrugging, he chose a taxi that was empty and waited for them to lift off.  

[Darksol88]

"Unfortunately not!" Sol answered upon Amber's complaint. "I know, you probably expected a Corviknight after Galar, but they'd be too dangerous here! Come on, it's quieter inside and I'll give the why through text."

The flying taxis would lift off once everyone had piled into them- though Amber would have the unfortunate timing of trying to board right as one of the birds relieved themself and would be subject to their, well, droppings. Minor setback(ish) aside, the team's trek towards Mesagoza began (click if you like music with your post!). Just as Sol said, they were indeed quieter inside the taxis, but only to a degree. The squawking was muffled at best, and the general proximity of the other taxis meant it was still louder than it would've been for the usual case of one taxi. Should anyone look outside while in flight, they'd get some lovely views of the region. Towns to be visted, mountains to be climbed, forests and fields to walk around (and get lost) in. There was even a part that looked cold, snowy and sorta like a tundra, for those frozen and possibly feathered sorts that were into that sort of thing. They might also notice a giant, gaping crater practically in the center of everything, but there was so much fog there that nothing else could be discerned. That, and anyone looked to their left from the taxis, they might catch a Corviknight or two flying through the air, majestic as ever.

Right up to the part where something else shot upward into the air, slammed into one of the Corviknight, and sent it hurtling to the ground below followed by what seemed to be responsible: a decently big hammer, very metallic, and more eagle-eyed viewers might notice what looked like feathers from other Corviknight adorning it before it too fell to the earth. The event was enough to cause the taxis to jostle a little, the birds carrying them squawking louder in their moment of fright. A moment later, though, and things were smooth flying. What was less smooth might've been the text Sol had promised the others.

SNAG

Right, so I promised an explanation for why our colorful, loud friends- Squawkabilly, they're called- are carrying us in these taxis instead of Corviknight. Well as it turns out, Paldea also has their na

Confusingly as it ended, another message would be sent a minute later.

SNAG

That. That's why. Their natural predator's native here and surprise, no one likes being flung out of their taxi or have it falling mid-flight. I'm sure you all understand? Oh, sorry again about the desert trip, I'll try to make up for it when we can.

The rest of the trip would be less exciting on the "birds getting smashed out of the air" front afterward, but hey, the sights would continue for a while to come. Finally, after a few hours, the taxis would start to descend and it'd become possible to see people and Pokemon in a form that wasn't so distant. Some species might be recognizable here and there- a Wingull here, a Psyduck or Chewtle there, maybe even a brown Wooper... they were brown, right? Not blue? Still, others would be decidedly less recognizable, with such sights as a small pig running and sniffing around, a pack of dogs that looked more like walking bakery goods, or a flamingo near a pond. But alas, such sights and flights must come to an end, and they did when the taxis landed in front of a couple of huge doors and right next to a Pokemon Center just outside of it.

As soon as everyone disembarked, Sol would give a wave to the taxis as they flew off, the squawking eventually dying down and saving everyone's ears. Or whatever hearing was left in them. "Well, that was eventful, but we're here! Just past this gate is Mesagoza! Consider it a sort of capital. You know, your Saffron or Goldenrod Cities, your Castelias. Though, with Naranja-Uva being here, that's perhaps not that big of a surprise... it'll still be a little bit of a trek since the academy's on the other end of the city, so I hope you're all ready for a bit of cardio."

He'd start to open the gates once everyone seemed to be ready, though he'd be lying if he wasn't eager to reveal what was behind them even with the circumstances behind it.  

[DeoLux]

Deo enjoyed his ride, the sky was delightful to see, though the hammer from nowhere was a little scary. When Deo landed, all was good and the city looked beautiful and the smell of.... wait, the smell of spices was gone and it smelt horrible. The smell, the smelly smell, the smelly smell that smells, the smelly smell that smells, smelly. Sewage? No, he looked over and saw one member of snagem, a Frostlass hybrid, covered in a giant pigeon skid mark. Reaching in his bag, he pulled out a towel. Walking over, he handed the towel with a gentle hand to her. "Seems like this day has gone to the john has it? Nah sorry, name is Deo, here, you might need this. Also, keep the towel." He chuckled as he handed it over.  

[DragonFang099]

Brian wasted no time in making room for Deo and the same Froslass hybrid from before, though said Froslass hybrid managed to get on the wrong end of a Squawkabilly's droppings. He barely suppressed a chuckle at the disgusted look on her face, though he noticed she hesitated upon reaching the taxi. Hmm, was it possible she was afraid of heights? He'd known someone a long time ago that had a fear of heights, but there was no way this was the same person, right?

"It'll be over before ye know it," he said, causing the hybrid to look at him. "Just don't look down, and ye'll be just fine." He caught a distinct 'easy for you to say' look from her as she steeled herself before stepping into the taxi, and while she was calm now, there was a chance she wouldn't be once they took off.

--------------------------

Amber blanched at Sol's words. Well, s***. "I wasn't expecting to fly," she said. Surely Sub would understand if she just... took the ground path instead? Then again, she really didn't want to get left behind in a place she was completely unfamiliar with, so at this point, she had no choice but to ride in the taxi. So she steeled herself and made to get into one, but before she could, a glob of Squawkabilly dung landed squarely on her head, causing her to jerk back and glare at the birds above her head. As if her fear wasn't enough, one of them just had to make things worse. She looked at the massive Luxray hybrid next to her, taking the towel handed to her with a nod of thanks. "Yeah, you could say that," she said. "I'm Amber."

She turned to the other occupant in the taxi and froze for a second. Of course, Brian just had to choose to ride in this one. Not that she was complaining; if he recognized her and realized what was likely to happen once they took off, then perhaps it wasn't a bad idea to ride with him. At least he could keep her from hyperventilating while they were en route to wherever they were going. And the only thing running through Brian's mind at the moment was the fact that yes, Amber was here, in Team Snagem, and yes, she was right in front of him, albeit in a... different state than he last saw her.

Once they took off, Brian was at the side of the taxi, taking in all the sights and areas around Paldea. He loved exploring, especially from the air, and he had his SNAG out and recording the local area to try and establish a map of some sort for GRAY. While he was doing this, a message popped up from Sol, though it was cut off before it finished, and Brian wondered why. A pair of Corviknight, a Pokemon he recognized from his time in Galar, were flying not too far away, and a moment later, he saw what had caused Sol to cut his message off mid-sentence.

Something flew up into the air and slammed into one of the majestic birds, sending it crashing to the ground with a screech. He caught a glimpse of the item that had hit it: the thing looked like some kind of metallic hammer, and if his eyesight was correct, he could see feathers from other Corviknight adorning the hammer. Wait, did Corviknight have something that actively hunted them? Sol's second message confirmed that thought, and Brian had to wonder what kind of Pokemon would willingly go after such a powerful Pokemon as Corviknight. Luckily, his SNAG was still recording, so he managed to get the event on the footage he was putting together.

Unfortunately, the sudden hammer flying through the air so close to the taxis caused the Squawkabilly to jostle the transports, which caused an unforeseen side effect: Amber immediately curled up into a ball, having been sitting the whole time, and started saying something about 'make it stop.' While she was trying to keep herself from hyperventilating, her abilities started to manifest without her knowing, and Brian turned as he felt cold air on his legs. There was a thin coating of ice starting to grow on the metal around where Amber was sitting, and knowing what was likely to happen in the next few seconds, he knelt down in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Look at me, Amber," he said, his voice calm and soothing. It took a few minutes, but Amber looked up at him, meeting his eyes as she did so. "Focus on me, focus on my voice," he said. "There's nothing here but ye and me. Ye're fine. Nothing is going to happen, ye're completely safe." Somehow, the sound of his voice broke through the fog of her mind, and grounded her. She kept her attention on him as he kept talking to her, and she didn't even realize when they'd landed until she heard others starting to leave the taxis. Amber was quick to escape the metal 'deathtrap', as she called it, grateful to have her feet back on firm ground, and Brian wasn't long in following, though he didn't follow his old friend.  

[Requiem of Whyspers]

Wren was a bit distracted by Clare's newest addition to their team when the Flying Taxis first arrived, wondering for a moment what all the noise was for before he turned around and saw them. "Oh. Huh. I was expecting something... different?" He admitted. "It's so unusual for such distant regions to have such a similar kind of public transport."

~~~~

Odd nodded in agreement. "I'm actually with you there... I was kind of expecting a bus or something pulled by a small horde of these things." He admitted, pointing a thumb to one of the Cyclizar sitting in the pit stop with it's owner. "Cyclizar, right?" He asked the human he'd been speaking to.

"Yeah. They're grandioso!" The young woman replied. "Cuando no se escapan de acantilandos..." She muttered to herself, remembering a recent trip where hers had simply made the choice to take a shortcut by jumping off a low cliff without any warning.

"Uh... Sorry. I don't speak the local language. Mind running that past me again?" Odd requested politely.

"No te preocupes. Don't worry. Mine's a little strange so if you ever get one of your own, you should be fine." The young woman laughed. "I was just complaining about mine's personality. Enjoy the rest of your visit!"

Odd nodded, following the others to climb into the taxis along with Terashi, Keiko and Abby while Wren climbed into one with Clare, the pair waiting to see who would be joining them before the taxis took off. "Is she going to be ok?" He asked regarding Keiko, though the answer would be wasted on him when and if it came once the Corviknight was knocked out of the sky within minutes of the trip starting. "... Should we be concerned about that?" He asked himself as the Corviknight went down, getting a glimpse of the massive metallic hammer as it hung for an instant in the air at the point of impact before it went down. "That... That is terrifying." He admitted. "I know I'm less prone to death than the rest of you guys are but I don't like that giant metal hammers knock giant metal birds out of the sky." He emphasized the latter part of his statement, concern evident in his voice.

He would fail to catch all of the sights of the region as they traveled to Mesagoza, his eyes focused on the ground as he attempted to identify whatever had thrown that hammer. Easier said than done, he felt but even so, it felt like a necessity.

~~~

Upon arrival at Mesagoza, he would promptly exit the cab and speak up. "And I'm never riding one of these things again." He stated. "At least not here."

"Scared of a little hammer?" Wren asked him as he exited the taxi he and Clare had taken, approaching the shorter channeler from behind.
"
Little?" Odd questioned sarcastically. "That thing was as tall as me. And solid metal from the look of it. Do you have any idea what that thing must weigh!?"

Clare nodded. "I got a picture of it, somehow. I was snapping a photo of those bird Pokemon right when the hammer hit." They explained. "Looking at it, it looks like there's a lot of empty space inside it, like it's made of scraps rather than being solid." They explained. "It also has what looks like feather from that same Pokemon on it."

"And Sol did say that whatever threw it is Corviknight's natural predator." Wren pointed out.

"Right! So accounting for the fact that it looks to be mostly hollow and if that metal comes from those Corviknight, it's probably much lighter than it looks. Maybe about a hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds?" Clare replied.

"How do you know that?" Odd asked, confused.

"I don't. I'm making a guess." Clare replied with a shrug.

"That's a very specific guess." Wren pointed out with a laugh. "Anyhow, we're here, apparently."

The trio all turned to the gates and waited to see what the inside of the city was going to look like, the two channelers wondering why the town was gated like this anyway, Wren especially since his biggest experiences with walled cities came from Lacunosa Town and the horrible politics in the area that had resulted in centuries of isolation from the greater society of Unova.  

[MoniqueBrie]

The squawking taxis finally lifted off, Porto Marinada firmly behind them. Now, Monique got her first good look at Paldea, which looked to have a wild diversity of biomes.

First to reveal itself was a large sandy desert, broken only by some rocky protrusions, and at its far edge a larger town. South of the bowl, the terrain was green but with many changes in elevation. She spotted a tall watchtower with several platforms from which to view the scenery, which loomed not unlike Flower City did over New Po.

There was plenty to see on the ground, and Monique's SNAG kept feeding a steady stream of error messages informing her that it could not identify the Pokémon.

A large black bird soared into the air beside Monique's taxi. This time, the Pokédex found a hit. Corviknight. Flying/Steel. The Raven Pokémon. Although its wings have partly turned to steel and become heavy as a result, this Pokémon flies through the skies with ease.

Monique was listening to the Pokédex entry, a telltale that this Pokémon might be found somewhere other than here in Paldea, when an object launched from the ground made contact with the bird Pokémon, knocking it clear out of the sky.

"Squawkawkawkawk!" That got the birds in a chatter, which in turn jostled the Flying Taxi. Monique gripped the seat as the vehicle yawed left and right, suddenly worried for her life. She only then saw the messages from Sol explaining what they had just witnessed as the vehicle steadied.

Turning her gaze back to the region below, it continued to present its kaleidoscopic face. A row of windmills stood atop some of the bluffs to the west. In front of her, the untamed grass yielded to the flattest patch of land in the region, heavily cultivated and a patchwork of groves with a town in the middle. The taxi was slowly lowering to the ground, and there were more visible Pokémon here, though she recognized none of them at all.

The constant squawking was grating on her ears by the time they had reached their destination. It looked like a futuristic roadside stand with some outdoor seating, for some reason. What is this for? More noticeable was where the road ended: a large gate on the bridge past the river and to what from here looked like a massive walled city with a few old buildings poking past the height of the defenses.

This level of diversity, life, and vibrancy was still so new to Monique and was all she could think about on the trip. She'd lived the first 25 years of her life under the Dome, under the thumb of King Faba (even outside his city), and under the misery that came from them. Here she was in a place teeming with all the things Aether Island either lacked or tried to simulate so desperately. They grew food, and lots of it. There was energy and wind—where Aether Island's trees were troubled by a lack of it. There were dozens of species of Pokémon. It was the same most everywhere she had visited as a Snagem. Even forsaken Orre. It was hard to make the former sheriff optimistic, but it did just that.

Her ears were still adjusting to the silence and the blissful lack of squawking when Sol explained what Mesagoza was: the cultural capital of Paldea and home to their destination, the Naranja-Uva Academy. Monique could only wonder what was behind those walls. Better not be another Flower City.  

[Reno Vantas]

Looking between the flying taxis that had just landed and his own hovercycle, Reno would sigh before quietly wheeling it over to the little weird lockup and setting to work chaining it up. "Fine. Didn't wanna do any cool motorcycling across the desert anyways." Reno petulantly muttered, pocketing his key before walking over to the taxi. Staring up at the flock of noisy birds that seemed to be made specifically for hauling these taxis around, he let out another sigh. He so would have just taken the bike either way if he figured he had any hope of reaching this Mesagoza at the same time as the rest of them. Turning back for a moment to take a photo of his bike, Reno would take the time on this flight trying to get a hold of some authority at the port to make sure his bike would be fine where it was. He was not going to have his bike getting stolen after all the effort he went to getting it teleported all the way out here to make transport easier. Especially not when it seemed like there might be something to race it against and see how fast he could really make it go.

Aria would stare at the strange birds like the others, however it was for a different reason. Because as noisy as the birds were being, they seemed able to hold something resembling a note. And they had the look to them to at least fight in with most stagework she might do for actual performances. Had to keep these little guys in mind the next time she was looking for a new Pokemon. But first, had to figure out where Levincia was and how she might be able to duck whatever came from this chastising that she expected for them in Mesagoza.

Leslie would hop into a cab along with her newest Pokemon, both of them looking out the windows to see what else this region might hold. And as the taxi finally took off and began to clear the desert, Leslie would find her eyes drawn to the gigantic crater that laid within the middle of the region. What the hell could have hit this place hard enough to cause that? With how the terrain and everything was, it had been there for a long time. What Pokemon lived within its depths? DID any Pokemon live past that fog bank? All she could see was the few Pokemon that seemed to occupy the sheer cliffs and that were flying around. Mori seemed to get really excited when she saw the Corviknights in the air, squirming within Leslie's arms and shaking her little rattle towards the giant birds. Aww, how cute. It wanted to make friends with them and say hi.

And as a hammer bigger than Leslie slammed into one of the birds, time seemed to slow down for both her and her little pink Pokemon. Leslie could hear the little Pokemon cheering at the obliteration of this Corviknight by a hammer. A giant metal hammer that looked to be made up of whatever pieces of metal could be found, including metal off of Pokemon. Was what had thrown that hammer a bigger version of Mori?

For any other occupants of Leslie's cab, the moment was simply just a moment. For Leslie herself however, this was a moment of revelation. She felt all the misery, the illness, and the loss of the last month melt away. In that second of witnessing, Leslie could see it. She could see the power she had lost returned, the speed, the resilience. The height. Oh god, the height was the major loss she felt from her temporary high of Mega Evolution. And if that hammer was anything to go by, hybridizing with Mori would finally let her get back to a normal height and be able to swing a hammer that dwarfed most vehicles. It was beautiful.

Leslie would be lost after that moment, continuing to stare out of the taxi window with an almost painfully wide grin. Only when the door opened and Leslie fell out of the taxi would she snap back to the reality that they were about to get punished. Alas, her dreams of being above 5 foot tall and able to swing hammers like a child with a stick would have to wait.