Perhaps everyone else of the Coalition was fine to continue their expeditioning as usual, but Team Starstorm didn't the following day. According to Rush and Adnea, it was far too risky to go traipsing around in the open after the run-in with Squad Fourteen-Five, and the Starstorm trio wasn't inclined to disagree with such. As odd as it felt to not have anything to do that day, they accepted it just fine- getting intercepted by another faction group (or worst-case scenario, one that their lone Beast comrade matched up badly against) probably wouldn't have ended in their favor, and with Raijin's cover blown, there was no way to play it off.

Still, they made do with the circumstance just fine… seeing as Dren was joined by three other figures on the rooftop to keep him company, which the dragon didn't seem to mind one bit.

"You just stay up here all day?!" Arashi exclaimed, grinning in an almost perturbed manner as he glanced around. "That doesn't get boring or lonely?!"

The Salamence chuckled. "Oh, of course not," he answered. "There's all kinds of things to see and hear. I suppose it goes without saying that you shouldn't make it obvious that you're overhearing something you otherwise should not have been privy to, but as long as you aren't overt about it, the ones that pass by tell all kinds of stories. It's quite entertaining."

That certainly had the Frogadier's attention. "Oooh, really?! I never thought of that!"

Moments later, the smallish aquatic one went peeking over the edge of the roof as if one of those situations might magically manifest before them all, his eyes getting a slightly mischievous sparkle to them.

"Oh, yes," the dragon chuckled. "Just yesterday I was hearing a tale about this poor Skarmory whose mate left her for an Altaria, claiming those fluffy feathers are just too soft not to roost next to every night, and how her friends tracked him down three towns over to give him a piece of their minds… but as luck would have it, he just so happened to be taking an Oricorio on a date at the same time." He gave them all an amusedly intent look. "So now if you see a Sirfetch'd named Arthur, you know he's a scoundrel and you can mock him all you like."

Astrid blushed under her feathers and Raijin tapped his fingers together, while Arashi started giggling like a youngster stealing the last cookie when no one was looking.

"Is that Skarmory okay…?" the Xurkitree inquired.

"Oh, she's happy to be rid of a scoundrel," Dren replied. "I would be too if I was in her position."

They weren't inclined to disagree with that, either.

Astrid and Arashi wound up perched overlooking the edge with Dren's tail curled about them, something that neither of them had been angling for but didn't protest- it merely appeared that Dren liked to curl his tail around his company. Raijin took up next to them, his head just on the edge while his arms dangled over it and his legs and tail sprawled out behind him, looking just a bit ridiculous as if someone had haphazardly tossed around a bunch of wires. It was fairly peaceful, simply lounging about on the rooftop with the sun gently beaming down through the clouds every now and then and the chattering of voices instead of growls from dungeon-dwellers. If they were to spend a day like that, Astrid didn't mind it.

As the morning went on, more expeditioners came out to tend to their own business for the day. A Ditto-faced Metagross followed by a Wobbuffet, Girafarig, and Zoroark came traipsing by and they exchanged pleasantries- Xeno jestingly inquired if Dren's guard job had become too much and he needed backup, which the Salamence in turn laughed off. Apparently Team Charade was making their own venture to Starry Peak, as apparently another team hadn't taken heed that the wild ones in the area had become far more aggressive than usual and been done in by them. Team Sweetheart's singing could be heard off in the distance, their bunch probably happily marching along behind Ama with a bunch of grins plastered on their faces. A certain eyepatch-wearing Garchomp came strolling by flanked by a Honchkrow, Aggron, and Scizor, the Gnarly Brigade (minus Polly, evidently dealing with something else) apparently going off to raise some hell further north with a flagrant band of outlaws. An argument of "You suck!" followed by "No, you suck!" followed by "No! You're both lovely!" was easily heard from a group consisting of a Feraligatr, Meganium, and an Espeon, the former two of which were responsible for most of the bantering.

Arashi giggled. "So who do you guys think is actually the one that sucks?" he asked, studying the bickering trio.

"My bet's on the Feraligatr," Raijin piped up.

"Well, if that Espeon is their friend, and she's a psychic, she'd probably have the real answer…" Astrid's voice trailed off.

Dren shook his head, grinning. "Speaking of psychics that know things… You two haven't heard from Necrozma in a while, have you?"

They all shook their heads.

"I'm honestly getting worried about them," Raijin mused. "Even just a little bit of static, just to know they're still hanging in there, would be really nice, but… I guess they can't even afford to expend energy on that…"

"Fending off Void must be hard," Arashi softly noted.

"Well, if they constantly have to concentrate all of their energy on keeping their shields up so they don't get poisoned themselves…" Astrid's voice trailed off. "Would they even be able to tell us if something went wrong off in Ultra Space…?"

"That's exactly what I'm worried about," Raijin said, twitching just a bit. "If the Light Trio falls, we might not know until it's too late… And the absolute last thing any of us need is Ultra Necrozma turning against us."

The thought was definitely unsettling, and Astrid fluffed out a bit. The fact that Necrozma was able to hold out against Void's horde of Beasts was testament to their strength alone… and Astrid seriously doubted that she and all of her comrades would ever be able to match such.

Dren's tail curled tighter for a second. "There's no use worrying about things we can't help," he said gently. "We're doing what we can on this world. We can't reach them in Ultra Space; we'll just have to trust that they can handle themselves."

"You're not wrong," Raijin acknowledged, giving a flick of his tail. "I guess this is the best we can do for now…"

*There's at least five Beast squads prowling the surrounding areas- the best thing you could possibly do right now is not let them see you,* Adnea's detached voice chimed in. *I'll be surprised if we don't hear about another team having a run-in by the end of the day.*

Shortly, what was likely sights seen through the eyes of wild Pokémon filled their minds- a group consisting of a Buzzwole, Celesteela, and Naganadel looking at the mouth of a cave, then another consisting of a Kartana, Stakataka, and another Xurkitree prowling around in a forest. They didn't appear to be carrying any glowing vessels, but still, getting into an altercation with them was nonetheless likely a terrible idea.

"… Duly noted," Raijin said, sounding contemplative as though he were mentally cataloguing the groups.

"A-are they looking for us…?" Astrid hesitantly asked.

*Yes.*

Arashi grinned uncertainly. "You know, this is about the only time I'd ever be upset about someone obsessively trying to find our team…"

Astrid shot her partner a pointed but playful look. Dren chuckled, nudging the Frogadier with his tail.

They stayed up on the roof for quite some time, watching the surroundings alongside the Salamence. It definitely wasn't boring- quite a few Pokémon came bustling along, all tending to very different things. The livelier things became as the day went on, and they saw that Dren hadn't been lying. An Umbreon traipsed by, swearing up and down that she was going to drag her little sister out into Dusky Grotto and feed her to a wild Mightyena after said little sister dropped a valuable Mobile Scarf into a rushing river and lost it. A Sawk had apparently been quite successful in teaching a wild Murkrow to repeat cuss words and eagerly ran off with his friends to show them. Astrid only blinked at what she heard and Raijin didn't show any reaction either, while Dren gave Arashi a few squeezes with his tail to keep the Frogadier from bursting into laughter.

The Starstorm trio relaxed in no time. Astris nestled up into Dren's tail, Arashi ducked under the dragon's wings when the sun got a bit too warm for his tastes, and Raijin occasionally switched from looking like a haphazard bunch of wires while he watched the happenings on the streets below to looking more like a vaguely humanoid creature sunbathing when he decided to simply stare up at the sky with his arms behind his head. (Astrid couldn't help but find it oddly amusing just how fast he could go from looking like a bipedal creature to looking like a very strange tree to looking like an absolute mess just by shifting around a little bit.) It was all rather… peaceful.

At least, for a while.


It was several hours into the afternoon and most of the expeditioners that had set off in the morning had already started trickling back in for the day. The Coalition members were already back in, and apparently Rush and Rozen had run into Shar's team on their own return, for the Garchomp as well as her Aggron comrade were happily carrying on with Rush in the front room. A cry of 'Keep it gnarly, mateys!' had greeted the ones on the roof, which Arashi and Dren had no issues giving some cheerful cries back to. Adnea appeared to be focusing rather intently on something, for if one of them would venture back inside for a moment, the smallish floating bug would always have a rather intense look on her face and her arms crossed while staring at the same spot on the wall. It was easy enough to deduce she wasn't actually staring at the wall, but it was obvious that wherever her mind was probing, she was concentrating quite hard. Any inquiry as to what she was so attuned to was waved off, the Orbeetle saying she would speak of her findings later once she had hopefully collected more data.

The Frogadier, though, perked up rather quickly when another certain team consisting of a Mawile, Meowstic, and Chikorita strolled by below.

"Hey! You three!" Arashi called down from the roof's edge.

"Hey! You three!" Jaws called back up.

Both Astrid and Raijin peeked over the edge to see what was up, and Jaws started grinning and waved up at them, to which Arashi eagerly waved back. The little Chikorita's eyes instantly lit up and she was grinning just like she had every time they'd seen her, but the leaf on her head was very obviously damaged with a fairly prominent puncture from which a large rip started. A fairly big scratch mark, as if she'd been raked by a sharp claw, was also visible on the back of her neck, though it clearly wasn't fresh. She didn't seem to be in pain over it, but nonetheless, damage like that had to come from somewhere.

"What're you doing up there, huh?" Jaws called, crossing his arms and grinning. "Are y'all three guards now, too?"

"Only temporarily!" Dren called down, smiling.

"Yeah, we had a really bad run-in with some Beasts yesterday and we can't risk running into them again!" Arashi explained without missing a beat. "Word's out- they know Raijin told us everything and Adnea says there's a bunch of them out looking for us now!"

That certainly got Team Wily's attention.

"That's terrible!" Jaws exclaimed. "Was everyone okay?!"

"We are now!" the Frogadier replied. "How are you guys doing? Anything interesting happen to you guys lately?"

Jaws himself got an awkward look, as did Clyde, while Kaede pouted and tried her hardest to bury her head in her front legs.

"We had a pretty bad run-in today too, actually," Jaws admitted. "But we couldn't tell you with who!"

The ones on the roof perked up.

"Oh? What happened?" Dren inquired intently.

The Mawile told them. "Well, we were going to an evolution spot several miles east of here so Kaede could finally be a Bayleef like she wants, but once we were getting close, we heard some rustling in the trees and then it's just literally all a blur! Whoever attacked us moved way too fast for us to see!"

"I tried Mean Looking the surroundings, but that didn't help us at all," Clyde corroborated. "We were knocked out for a while too and woke up pretty far away from where we were supposed to be before."

"They ripped my leaf!" Kaede bemoaned. "It was awful, awful, awful! It's just a leaf, but… now I can't soak up as much sunlight until it grows back together!"

"I mean, I know evolution spots have been disappearing or getting broken, but I didn't expect to actually see it happen," Jaws noted. "I guess we just got really unlucky."

Indeed they had, it seemed. The ones on the roof were perking up even more at the mention of being ambushed at an evolution spot, particularly Astrid and Arashi. Zariel and Azure had already done that exact same thing to the Dartrix and Frogadier, although there had been far more damage than merely a tattered leaf. Team Wily seemed to be in relatively fine condition, but nonetheless, they were definitely taking note of it.

*About that,* came Adnea's detached voice.

Team Wily was just a bit caught off guard by the Orbeetle's voice suddenly filling their heads, though shortly the Orbeetle brushed past the front curtain door and stared straight at them, the three of them shrinking up just a bit under her gaze. The ones on the roof were paying attention as well, especially the Starstorm trio.

"I know the culprit," Adnea flatly noted. "One of them, at least. Kaede, that puncture in your leaf looks identical to one a Golisopod would make by extending the larger back set of claws through something, and that wound you've got on the back of your neck is close enough to be caused by the second claw that didn't go through your leaf. Couple that with the rips that make is look like the culprit bashed you over the head with one claw still in your leaf… and I do believe you were struck with First Impression."

The Chikorita let out a cry of dismay. "I got First Impression'd?!"

"Indeed you did," the Orbeetle affirmed. "I picked up on your distress and scanned the vicinity for whatever presences I could detect, and none other than Azure the Golisopod is out there."

Several sets of eyes went wide at the mention. A small disgruntled intonation came from Arashi, and Astrid definitely could tell why- getting impaled on those claws in a blatant murder attempt had wiped the smile right off of her partner's face. She fluffed out at the recollection.

"W-wait, that's one of Salem's underlings!" Clyde exclaimed in hesitance.

"Indeed he is," Adnea affirmed. "As for the other culprit… I can't say for sure, but if your memories are anything to go off of, it's safe to say it wasn't Azure, or you would've seen him after that first attack he used since he can't move that fast all the time." She cast her gaze up at the ones on the roof. "Comrades. Inside. Now. We need to talk."

The Starstorm trio was quickly exchanging farewells with Team Wily and darting back down the staircase from the roof, while Dren flapped down to the ground below and ventured in through the curtain.

"Why him?!" Arashi fussed.

Astrid shared the same sentiments, her eyes narrowing. Raijin didn't say a word, only shook his head while tapping his fingers together. Everyone else was down below in the front room and eyeing the Orbeetle fairly intently, and the Starstorm trio definitely wasn't far behind, nor was Shar and her steely comrade who had both been snickering and cackling with Rush not long before.

"You finally coming out of that study, matey?" Shar inquired, smirking a bit at Adnea. "You've been lookin' pretty busy the entire time me and Azra have been here."

"I ain't seen you like that in a long-ass time," Rush chuckled.

"It hasn't been necessary in quite some time," Adnea replied. "To cut straight to the chase, we've got an underling of Salem's not too far away that's causing trouble again, specifically Azure the Golisopod. He's sticking close to Luminous Grotto."

Rush, Azra, and Shar were instantly getting smirks on their faces. Lazuli and Rozen perked up while Cinder growled in disdain, and the Starstorm trio was definitely growing tense.

"Team Wily was already attacked, but they aren't the only ones," the Orbeetle continued. "Two teams have ventured through that area in the last five hours and both of them were blindsided too. This is essentially akin to what Zariel did at Overgrown Crevice- guard the area and knock out anyone that got close to it, except with this one, it's already established in public knowledge that there's an evolution spot. That one is likely to go disappearing soon, which is problematic in its own right, but…" She turned to the Starstorm trio, her stoic eyes practically staring holes in them. "What do you three make of this?"

Astrid couldn't help fluffing out a bit under her piercing eyes.

"I've got some choice words for that guy," Arashi declared, frowning and crossing his arms. "I mean, he impaled me on those claws! I think I've got a right to be angry!"

"I-I'm not too happy with him either," Astrid said quietly but forcefully, shaking her head in frustration. "He p-patted me on the head with the same claws he impaled Arashi with, and talked about getting me a better partner like I was replacing a worn-out bag or s-something…"

"If I may be honest, he's only alive right now because I hesitated last time," Raijin noted, tapping his fingers and looking at the floor. "… I was supposed to kill him when I saw him last, but then he woke up and caught me off guard, and I freaked out… but that's not a mistake I'll make again."

Astrid and Arashi gave their comrade a glance, rather surprised at hearing their comrade talking about taking anyone's life for as docile as he usually was, but it wasn't hard to tell that the three of them were sharing the same sentiments. They all definitely had some less-than-stellar thoughts about the Golisopod.

Adnea studied them. "That's what concerns me," she said flatly. "All three of you have a grudge of some sort, the faction knows you three are in the area, and they're blatantly kicking up a fuss. This could be a complete mistake on their part, or it has 'ploy' written all over it, since at the same time, I do believe it's fairly safe to say that Azure knows he wouldn't be able to win a fight against you three… even if only because of Raijin."

The researcher was right- all of Team Starstorm's members definitely had their own causes for frustration and anger at the armored underling, but in a fight by himself, it was an all but guaranteed loss for Azure. Yet surely, it couldn't have been a coincidence that the Golisopod would show up in their vicinity the immediate day after the run-in with Squad Fourteen-Five, though kicking up enough of a fuss to give away his location would've been a foolish move if he knew there was a chance that the Starstorm trio would start a fight that he knew he couldn't win. Something… seemed off.

"H-hold on," Astrid shyly piped up. "You said there was another culprit, right…?"

"I did," Adnea replied. "That's who I've been trying to deduce, but I don't think I'm going to get any data to confirm my suspicions."

"Well, who are ya thinking?" Rush inquired, smirking. "It ain't Zariel or Salem, is it?"

"Ohoho, wouldn't that be gnarly!" Shar laughed, the Aggron next to her getting a grin as well.

The Orbeetle shook her head. "I don't think it's a Pokémon. Whoever it is, they're almost impossible to get a read on, so I'm assuming they've got quite a bit of Nihilego neurotoxin in their system. They move blindingly fast, so my best guess is a Pheromosa unless we've got another incident akin to Team Sweetheart and a Ninjask or Rapidash has been doused in it too."

The Starstorm trio exchanged glances, as did the rest of the expeditioners.

"You two can stay out of it if you want to, but I'll be honest, I don't think I can ignore this one," Raijin said, looking between Astrid and Arashi.

Astrid and Arashi looked at each other.

"… I don't think I can, either," the Dartrix piped up, still slightly fluffed out. "L-look, we didn't know what their syndicate's real goals were back in Lake Lucent, but now that we do…"

Her partner nodded, sticking a hand on her wing. "We already did it once, just you and me." He looked to the Xurkitree next, grinning. "He doesn't stand a chance against all three of us!"

"He can First Impression me if he wants to," Raijin remarked, a little spark running down his body. "It'll hurt him more than it'll hurt me."

Astrid could easily envision it- the Golisopod would probably feel the jolts of electricity and go stumbling back the moment the tips of his claws even touched the Xurkitree. Sinking those claws in would practically be a suicide attempt.

"What about that Pheromosa, though…?" Astrid softly inquired. "Sixty-O-Three was giving us hell yesterday…"

"Their speed makes them really problematic, but if it's only one of them, that's manageable," the Xurkitree replied. "They can't dodge my Discharges forever, especially not if we throw Ominous Winds and Quick Attacks into the mix."

"You three are really intent on this, huh?" Rush inquired, smirking and looking them over.

Arashi's excitement went bubbling to the surface. "Can we go?!" he exclaimed. "We can handle it!"

The Scrafty looked to Adnea. "What're you thinking?"

"Oh, I know they're capable, and of course I can keep up surveillance, but something still feels off here," the researcher answered. "I don't think they should go alone, just to be safe. If anything, we can hold off a Beast squad if one tries to intercept them should it come to that, and we can make a quick getaway with Dren if all else fails. Taking down one of Salem's underlings would be lovely, but we can't take unnecessary risks. This is feeling too easy, and it's plainly obvious how deliberate this would be if it is a setup, but I can't tell for what reason they would do this. If I'm wrong about them needing backup, we lose nothing, but if I'm right and we don't take precautions, that's a mess we'll never be able to fix."

Rush nodded, then turned back to the Starstorm trio. "Go ahead and get your stuff together. We'll follow along in a few."

"And I'll give you directions, but just to start off, head east," Adnea added.

The Starstorm trio nodded, then went darting down the stairs to fill their bag with appropriate supplies. The ones left upstairs shared some more glances.

Shar perked up, clicking her claws together with a grin on her face. "Say, could ya use a couple of gnarly mateys as backup too? If ya get ambushed by a bunch of those extradimensional weirdos, you're gonna have to raise all kinds o' hell!"

The Aggron next to her got a grin as well. "Bwah, I'm all aboard!"

Rush grinned at them. "Hell yes, Shar! Y'all gnarly motherfuckers can tag along with us any day!"

"Oooh! We haven't run around with the Gnarly Brigade in a while!" Lazuli happily exclaimed.

The Garchomp and her comrade cackled, both of them holding out their claws which Rush promptly bumped with his fists. Lazuli gave a little cry of happiness, looking enthralled at having company tag along.

"I'll go run it by the rest of my mateys, see if Riven and Seth and Polly are down for it too," Shar noted.

"You do that!" the Scrafty gleefully affirmed.

Shar and Azra chuckled, the two of them swooshing the curtain door aside as they went to fetch their own comrades. If it was a setup, the expeditioners wouldn't be overtaken so easily.


The Starstorm trio set off before the rest of their entourage that needed just a bit more time to get everyone gathered up and ready, knowing Adnea's surveillance would keep them out of harm's way as best as anything else possibly could. Still, Astrid couldn't help eyeing their surroundings just in case, even if she knew there was no way she could keep a better watch than the Orbeetle. Their bag contained three Oran berries, a Reviver Seed (mostly in case Raijin ended up taking too many hits, seeing as berries wouldn't do him any good), a Blast Seed, and an All-Protect Orb. They wouldn't be taking any chances, especially not against an underling of Salem's even if they knew they had a good chance at winning.

It wasn't dusky out just yet, but it was late enough in the day to know that sunlight would be limited before long. A wild Pidgey or two called to their flockmates, but the air was rather quiet, which none of them protested. There was a calm wind in the trees and the air was cool- an otherwise peaceful surrounding. They followed the same pathway as they had to Bramble Peak, but before long, according to Adnea's directions, they'd be diverging from the trail.

"Adnea would probably want to do her thing with Azure," Astrid mused gently. "Just to get whatever info he's got if anything. He probably knows a lot that we don't."

*That is true,* the Orbeetle's disembodied voice affirmed. *Do what you must and by all means knock him unconscious if that suits you, but don't kill him.*

They easily could tell she was referring more to one of their team members than the other two- a certain one with a wicked Discharge.

"Don't worry; I didn't intend to unless I have to," the Xurkitree piped up.

Arashi giggled awkwardly. "I just can't see you doing that at all, Raijin," he remarked. "Astrid, maybe, but not you."

The Dartrix shot him a funny look, fluffing out just a bit. "Look, I'm not gonna lie- him and those huge claws still scare the daylights out of me," she noted before shaking her head and looking up at the sky. "I just want to be sure that we and no one else will have to face him again… whatever that entails. Probably shouldn't be an issue after today… but you guys know how it is."

They didn't disagree with her sentiments.

"Let's just hope Salem doesn't notice and get pissed off before we can do what we need to," Arashi mused, gently grinning nonetheless.

"Assuming she's not busy," Raijin added. "If she was the one we had to worry about, she would've attacked already. Void probably has other ideas for her right now."

Astrid fluffed out just a bit more. "That's all the more reason to be glad we've got the Coalition and Shar's team trailing us too," she noted. "… Just in case."

Again, her comrades didn't disagree. That much was reassuring- if it was a ploy, they weren't alone.

… Though a certain Pheromosa and Stakataka couldn't have cared less what allies they had, and a certain Golisopod wasn't too worried either.