Nadia vaguely remembers Zinx and Angel heading to the arcade, so with a little navigation, she finally heads there and realizes it's quite near the museum and the Battle Theatre. The arcade itself is situated in a corner, with neon lights complementing the deep ocean blue of the water outside the dome. Inside, she sees a typical arcade with games on one side and a dining area on the other. The ticket booth is in the far back, and it's where Nadia sees Zinx and Angel...arguing about what they should get with the tickets they won.

"I'm telling you, the plushie! The plushie!"

"Where would you even put a plush that big?! And besides, a Move Manual's more practical."

"What are you even arguing about?" Nadia snuck up on them, which spooked them both. Angel immediately turns to complain.

"Nadia, I really want this Weevolt plushie, but Zinx said no!"

"You know why? It's expensive, it's huge, and it serves little purpose. We're on a journey, Angel, we don't have anywhere to put that thing!" Zinx refutes instantly, already moving to purchase a Move Manual from the booth. Angel was about to stop him when she notices a ruffle in Nadia's hair.

"Nadia, did you catch a small Loomian and stuff it in your hair again?"

"What do you mean, again?!" Now it's Nadia's turn to shout. "But I didn't catch it, I'm trying to find someone to take care of it."

"..Oh."

Regardless, Angel moves Nadia's hair out of the way to reveal Vari. This surprises the Loomian who loses its balance and was about to crash land onto the ground if Angel didn't scramble to catch it in its freefall. 

"Aw, so it's this little thing!" She coos at Vari, who seemed to immediately warm up to the girl. Nadia watches this exchange as Angel completely forgets about the Weevolt plushie and Zinx finishes up his purchases.

"Alright, I got my stuff, let's go to the museum." As soon as he turns around though, he stares in disbelief as Angel seemed to have fun playing with the Vari on the arcade floor. 

The person behind the ticket booth coughs and yells at them, "No Loomians allowed to roam on the floor! Return it to your disc or don't cause a ruckus!"

Nadia panics and tells Angel, "We have to go to the museum soon. You can play with Vari on the way."

Angel stands up, not letting go of Vari once. "Aww, can I have it come along with me? I like this Vari." And unfortunately (or fortunately?), Vari seems to agree. Nadia sighs.

"As long as Vari's okay with it, I guess."

Angel looks at Vari, who began searching her person, shuffling around her pockets. "Is that a yes?" When Vari's eyes land on Angel's watch, it pads it until it turns on.

"I think that's a yes."

Angel smiles and takes out a Loomian Disc from her items app. Hovering it over Vari, she watches as it gets sucked in and captures itself.

"...LET'S GO!!"

Nadia quickly ushers them out after that.

"The Atlanthian Museum should be right down that way," Nadia says once she drags them out. She points down the street, where a differently structured building laid. "They should all be standing outside the building, so let's get going."

Felver sprints away, surprising the group. Nadia immediately tries to catch up to him, followed by Zinx and Angel. Lucas spots them first, and tells the others while waving his arm in the air.

"Nadia, Zinx, and Angel are here now!" Lucas alerts the other group. Lucy waves her hand as well. 

"We're over here! Okay, looks like we got everyone."

"Phew...we almost got lost on the way here. Good thing Jake knows how to navigate." Mabel sighs, now clutching Starla in her arms.

"Mabel told me you got the tickets and had to fight someone on the way. Are you okay?" Jake asks. 

"No worries, the man just wanted to block our way for a battle. I have all the tickets." Nadia takes all of them out, handing one to each of them. 

"That's good. Thanks." Jake grabs a ticket and stores it away fro safekeeping. "Now, let's discuss what we learned while we were split up."

"I'll go first!" Lucy volunteers. "I met up with my aunt in the park and asked her some questions, but she hasn't noticed anything peculiar just yet. She did say she'll let us know if there is."

"That's better than nothing. It's not bad news, but it's not good news either." Jake surmises. "What about you, Lucas?"

"Ahahah...I kinda procrastinated." Lucas admitted sheepishly. "I thought I would be able to get to it after I had my meal, but I felt awful after and had to rest up...by the time I felt better, we had to meet up here."

Nadia sighs. "The Five-Pound Meat and Noodle Bowl was too much, huh..."

"I mean--"

"Lucas, you have to have priorities!" Lucy protests. 

Jake decides to intervene. "It's okay, Lucas!" He reassures. "Don't beat yourself up over it. I suppose to make up for it, Mabel and I talked to several people before we did our shopping. Unfortunately, nada."

Mabel adds in, "One lady said her husband lost their fortune to a Hombre with an unyielding poker face. The information seems useless, but it was probably the most useful lesson I learned today..."

"What does that even mean..." Nadia mutters under her breath. "It doesn't seem anything is unordinary, though."

"I agree," Jake replies, "If there was a piece of the tablet here, there would be signs of corruption. With a city this big, people would inevitably notice something wrong. However..."

"Like you just said, it's a big city," Lucas scratches his chin in thought. "It's possible it's only affected a small portion for now and we just haven't found out. We shouldn't give up just yet."

"True." Everyone agrees with Lucas's deduction.

"The museum and Battle Theatre are the last two notable locations we would find anything. And, Nadia's dad said we might learn something from this tour," Jake turns to face the museum. "When we go in, we should check every nook and cranny we are allowed to."

"Remember to be quiet when we do go in, though." Zinx warns. "There's other people in there for the museum itself, after all."

"What do you think he wanted to show us here?" Mabel asks. Starla had climbed out of her arms by now and decided to rest on her head. "Do you think it might have a direct link to the tablet?"

"We won't know until we go in!" Lucy exclaims. "So, let's go!"

Once everyone is prepared, they all head in. They're greeted by white marble walls and floors, a bright circular lobby with all sorts of ancient findings. There is a second floor containing large artworks of many kinds, depicting certain trainers with their Loomians.

"Whoa, huge!" Lucas exclaims.

"It's pretty," Musa comments. "I vaguely remember only been in here once as a child, but this still feels pretty new."

"Hey, are those your parents?" Jake suddenly points out. Nadia whips her head at him in surprise, not expecting him of all people to notice them first. Wait, how does he even know what her mother looks like? Like, she understands him noticing her dad, but her mom??

"Wait, what are you two doing here?!" Nadia yells. Felver immediately bounds over to her mom, who fawns over him, excited at how he evolved so quickly.

"Quiet down, Nadia, I literally just said outside we should keep our voices low." Zinx reminds her. Nadia clears her throat.

"Hey there, Champ? Surprised to see us?" Her dad waves them over. "Your mother and I decided to come down here and see you and your friends ourselves. It's nice to finally meet you all in person."

"It's certainly a nice surprise," Jake remarks. "We weren't expecting this at all."

Nadia had already sprinted over and wrapped her arms around her mother. The woman laughs gently and hugs back.

"Wow, no love for your dad, Champ?" Her dad pouts in jest. Nadia stretches her arm out to grab ahold of him, and he simply chuckles and hugs her back.

"Awww, this is a nice moment!" Lucy quips from the background. "We finally get to meet your parents though, so I think that's pretty cool too."

"We figured it'd be a nice change of pace for us to get out since we're usually stuck in the lab at Mitis Town," Her dad states when they break away from the hug. "My wife was also really worried about how Nadia was doing. We thought, 'why not?' and set a travel plan in advance to meet you all here."

Her mom beams. "You look like you're doing well, Nadia. We missed you so much, but we didn't need to worry as much as we thought we would. You found yourself a little travel group and are shouldering these responsibilities quite well." 

"We're really proud of you, kid. You definitely take after us." Her dad jumps in. "You know from all the stories we've told that we've embarked on journeys like this when we were your age."

"Oh yeah, I totally know. No need for the lovey-dovey stuff." Nadia grins, earning a bark of laughter from her dad.

"Eh?! Really, Nadia?" Lucy deflated. Apparently she was looking forward to hearing about how Nadia's parents first met. 

Nadia's mother walks over to Lucy and whispers something in her ear. A moment later, the both of them are seen shaking hands. Everyone else but Nadia's dad is confused.

"What did you just promise her, mom?" Nadia asks, deadpan. Her mother simply walks back to her husband's side with a finger on her lips, as if she refuses to answer.

"In any case," Nadia's dad interrupts, alerting the crowd back to him, "We did come here for another purpose, relating to the stone tablet. I met up with an old friend of mine, Benjamin, and explained the situation. He allowed us to utilize a spare room to set up our equipment. With how much closer we are now, we were able to pick up a signal within half an hour."

"Half an hour?!" Jake exclaims while the rest of the group gasps in surprise. "That's much faster than expected."

"Yes, and it seems the signal is coming from somewhere inside this dome." The reveal did shock everyone a bit, but it was what they expected. "According to those readings, at least."

"But it doesn't add up," Musa speaks up, raising her hand. "We went over our intel earlier; none of us found anything strange during our time exploring."

"Yeah, we found no evidence of its presence." Mabel backs her up. Lucas nods in agreement.

"If it were here, there would be evidence of people and Loomians going nuts, but the city's been more or less peaceful."

Nadia's dad agrees as well. "I believe you. However, this revelation has me concerned. The citizens in the city appear unaffected, so I wonder if someone was keeping it hidden."

"I want to propose that each tablet piece may have different effects on people and Loomians, but considering the last three that I found, that may not be it." Nadia adds. 

"Good point," Jake also speaks, stepping forward. "While the evidence goes against it, we can still consider that a possibility."

"Yes, I concur," Nadia's mother says this time. "You bring up a good hypothesis, so it's our job to consider all possibilities."

Nadia's dad nods slowly. "Our equipment has yet to precisely triangulate our signal. With a little more calibration, it may work. It may take a while, but I am certain it's somewhere within the city."

Nadia looks back at the others, who look like they're considering their next steps while they wait. "So what do we do in the meantime? We have that tour to go through, right?" She asks her dad.

"Yes. When we first got here, Benjamin gave a little tour and we found a display that may be related to our lost stone tablet." He snaps his fingers. "Right, I'll go get Benjamin, and let him tell you more clearly." With that, he takes off.

While they waited, Lucas decides to speak up. "So I'm a little confused. Does that mean they have something at the museum that might tell us more about the corruptive properties of the stone tablet we're looking for?"

The rest of the group look at Lucas. "That...might just be it," Mabel agrees. Jake looks even deeper in thought. 

"I wonder..."

Before he could continue, Nadia's dad returns with Benjamin. "Everyone," He grabs everyone's attention, "This is my old friend Benjamin." He gestures to the man next to him. He has reddish-brown hair and green eyes.

Benjamin smiles and introduces himself. He scans the small group and lands on Nadia. He walks over to her. "Well, now. You must be Nadia!" Nadia gives a little nod. "You've grown quite a lot! I remember the last time I saw you, you were still learning to walk!"

"E-Eh?!"

"Yeah, I wish I could've seen you grow, but since the discovery of the ruined Lost City just outside of Atlanthian, I've devoted most of my time to studying it and its people." Benjamin continues speaking, ignoring Nadia's sputter of embarrassment. "We've learned quite a lot about the history of the world that had once been lost to time; and yet, there's still so many uncovered secrets and mysteries even within our discoveries. Your parents may have helped me fill in some of those gaps in the short time since they've arrived." 

"Wait, really? Is that what you've been doing?" Nadia asks, a little surprised. Her dad nods. 

"And that is what I wanted to show them, now that they're all here." Her dad turns to Benjamin. "Ben, would you mind showing them the tour you gave us?"

"Of course, no problem at all. As an archaeologist and a curator, sharing my work is my favorite thing to do." Benjamin bows, then ushers the eight of them to follow him. "Now, if you will all follow me, we'll get started straight away."