Gavin's assigned partner would not be making it that night.

The Poachyenas had gotten an earlier start than anticipated. A few of the thugs had managed to ambush the grunt on her way there. Her unconscious body was dumped in the middle of the site, bound and gagged. It would be in clear sight of the underboss, who would see the Poachyenas laugh at the woman before dispersing to other areas of the site.

Curiously, another body was with hers. A sickly looking man.

The difference was that this man sat up when the others were far enough away. Some shifting and working and he had freed his hands using something behind his back. Gag removed, he patted the Rocket woman down and took something off of her before standing up with some effort.

A Gardevoir was called to his side a moment and he surveyed the area. Chu-e Choi, the Beast missing for two years, was obvious to the man on the roof who would see it all.

As Gavin's eyes adjust to the light of the moon, shadows take the shape of figures strange and familiar alike. He had never worked with the grunt before this but he'd passed her in the submarine and Gavin never forgot a face when he was paying attention.

The face beside hers, alas, is far more interesting to him.

"Quietly, now."

Corviknight's dark wings spread wide, the bird of shadow gliding soundlessly from the roof with Gavin aboard. They circle the site under cover of clouds until the coast is clear of the thieves, then descend.

They land next to Choi, and Gavin's suspicions are confirmed. The shuffle of Corviknight's steel feathers mingle with the ambient sounds of night, and their presence remains unknown to the Poachyenas. The poor grunt at their feet lets out a gag-muffled groan as she comes to, but Gavin's gaze doesn't leave the former Beast.

"Back from the dead, I see."

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mission Chu-e Choi

The Gardevoir snarls as if rabid, hunched and wild eyed at this new threat. It tenses as of to leap at the bird and rider, only stopped by a quick motion from Chu-e. He raises a brow and hums lightly, eyeing the blond man.

"Guess so. The Grunts have really gone downhill, huh?" And he kicked at the women. Not to hurt, in a warning, a hissed 'shhhhh' escaping him at her groaning. "Miss Mellisa probably has a concussion. They hit her pretty hard."

He glanced back up at the other. "Granted you're the type of higher up who cares about his peons." Chu-e couldn't exactly place a name go this guy; maybe he had never even met. But only someone more in the know would recognize him right away. Chu-e had met at least two people he suspected were Rocket and they hadn't batted an eye.

Well... whatever. "I don't know why you're here, but I'm kicking these guy's asses."

"They don't make them like they used to," he agrees, and he's still uncertain whether that's good or bad. Old Rocket threw grunts into the fire to forge their hardened criminals, but new Rocket were often brittle in comparison. Breakable.

Expendable, but Gavin tries to avoid that, and his gaze shifts to 'Melissa' when it's clear the Gardevoir has been pacified.

"Granted I'm a higher-up at all," but a flash of sharp canines is confirmation enough. "I'm here to do the same. They're stealing my prize. Hope you didn't have your heart set on it."

Producing a knife from his pocket, he slashes Melissa's binds and presses a finger to his lips. She's timid as she follows the pair, clearly ignorant to the former Beast's identity by the way she looks at him.

[break]

mission Chu-e Choi

"I just got caught in the crossfire. Maybe you should have a staff meeting about target picking." He raises a brow at the girl who quickly glances away. She had only been ambushed because she saw an easy chance to steal some pokemon. His pokemon. She was luckier than she knew the Poachyenas had intervened.

The Gardevoir stalks ahead of them, jerking her head to the side and sniffing the air like a dog. Her tongue lolls from her mouth before she growls, low, hunching down and creeping forward. Something is clearly very fucked up about this thing.

Shadows ahead, four of the Poachyena busy forcing fossils out of rocks and bagging them up, unaware of the three Rocket.

"Incompetence has its way of slipping through the cracks." He hadn't missed the implication that the girl had erred in more ways than one. Her shoulders are stiff when his gaze falls on her, and she deliberately avoids looking at him. "It'll get sorted."

Either she'd die, she'd be killed, or she'd survive long enough to learn how to avoid both.

Chu-e's Gardevoir strikes Gavin as rabid, its feral attitude disturbing Gavin more than even marcel maeda's shadow Pokemon. He keeps his thoughts on the creature to himself, and a close eye on it.

"Time to fix your mistakes, kid. You're the bait." He looks to Melissa, who looks as if she'd rather do anything else.

She moves, however, into the dim light cast by lanterns — just enough for the Poachyenas to see what they were digging into. Enough for them to see her, and surround her like a pack of hungry wolves whose dinner had just escaped and returned itself right to their den.

With a sharp nod to Chu-e, trusting a Beast to handle themselves, Gavin moves carefully to flank the group from the other side. With extreme speed, Corviknight takes to the skies and spreads its wings of steel. As its shadow ability takes effect, sharp feathers turn to deadly projectiles that embed themselves in the flesh of their victims.

[break]

mission Chu-e Choi

Chu-e jerks his head at the Poachyenas and clicks his tongue. The Gardevoir wastes no time in brandishing her fangs, razor sharp canines being revealed before she lunged at the closest body.

A Night Slash from the pokemon rends an arm from her victim; the kind of extreme violence the man had once been known for as he crushed the resistance in Kanto. It was watched on with less than interested eyes.

One of the sharp feathers struck the Gardevoir, making her snarl and hiss as she took a bite from her target. The Illusion faded, revealing the Zoroark for what she was. This seemed to matter little to the pokemon, who sunk her fangs deeper and ripped flesh from bone.

"Beepin, stop playing and get to work." The Zoroarl hissed but dropped the person she had been mauling, stepping towards the next. Between the assault from the Corvinight and the Zoroark the Poachyenas left started to flee, not wanting to end up like their comrades.

All the violence and gore proves to be too much for the poor grunt, who stumbles away from the carnage to retch. Though the grisly scene turns his stomach in kind, Gavin can't bring himself to be sympathetic. He'd seen worse. Rocket had done worse.

He admired the Beasts for their strength, their capability in battle. This was the part he liked the beast.

Zoroark's reveal is only a surprise in that he hadn't thought of it; he'd seen their illusory capabilities with Emma Wolfe's Pokemon, the corruption of its form lending them greater power. The shift explains much, and Marcel's Gardevoir regains its unsettling status.

Once, Gavin had aspired to count himself amongst the Beasts. It shows in the way he commands Corviknight without words, and the shadowed avian hurls a feather-blade toward a fleeing target. It leaves a gash in the man's thigh and he stumbles, crying out in pain; the sound is cut short when Corviknight dives to drive its beak through his throat. Gavin doesn't watch. His eyes are on Chu-e, on his disinterested expression. Some of their Beasts had lived up to the name, in the end.

Monsters. Was he one of them?

[break]

mission Chu-e Choi

With the Poachyenas chased off, Beepin loses the will to hunt. She slinks back to her trainer on all fours, muzzle dark, as pushes her head against Chu-e's chest, a chuffing noise sitting in her throat. He pats the dark type on the head and mutters his praises to her before returning her to her ball. Whatever residue she had left behind is ignored as he walks over to the grunt.

Of all things, he leans over to give her a soothing rub on the back, even reaching out to hold some of her hair back for her as she vomits. "You look at what your commander and I have done," He started, softly, but still loud enough for Gavin to hear if he wished. "and you pray to whatever god you believe in you never end up like us."

Chu-e gave her one more pat before leaving her, approaching the other man instead. While there was clearly no remorse for what had just happened he did look kind of tired. Weary, maybe. The meat and blood and viscera were nothing to him, the shadows of a war long fought in his gaze. Gavin was taller than him and he looked up into the other man's eyes as he crossed his arms.

"I don't know who you are but you know who I am. Don't take what I'm about to say as a threat because it isn't... but leave me alone. Don't tell anyone you saw me. Don't hint. Forget I exist. I'm not any use to you anymore."

He's surprised to see the show of compassion from Chu-e... but not disappointed. His lip twitches into the shadow of a grimace as he hears the words, leaving them uncontested.

"My name is Gavin Merlino," he says without hesitating. His amber gaze is steady, certain. "You wouldn't have known me back then because I was only a scientist doing grunt work in the labs. I'm underboss, now, and I disagree — I think you're exactly the sort we need."

Old Rocket had seen things, experienced things that their new blood would have nightmares about, but such experiences came with a baggage that not every mind could handle. There were too many among their number who'd become unhinged, reckless, useless in a way that was different from the shivering grunt stealing anxious glances at his corrupted Corviknight.

A gentle whistle summons the shadowed bird to his side, and a second Corviknight with feathers of shining silver appears at its side. "Take Melissa back to HQ," he instructs of the silver bird.

It crows softly, allowing the girl to board before taking flight.

"But I won't force it," he adds, acquiescent, as he turns his gaze back to Chu-e. "Rocket's cut ties with blackmail and hostage situations. We're under new leadership than when you left. This'll stay between you and I, but if you ever change your mind... look up Cavalli in Fallarbor."

[break]

mission Chu-e Choi

A ghost of a smile curled the corners of Chu-e's mouth and he snorted. "That's for the best. That kind of stuff wouldn't work on me, anyway." It was curious that the other thought he was exactly what was needed... He wondered what those qualifications were. Was it the senseless bloodshed or the pallor to his skin? Rocket had not been kind to him.

"Oh yeah, I knew about Blackwell. Only reason I'm back in Hoenn is that bastard is dead." Gavin might have been in the know, but was he in the know? The statement was posed more as a test for the blond. If the other didn't know it wouldn't be up to Chu-e to enlighten him on what Silas had done.

"I suppose it was nice enough to meet you, Mr. Merlino... and if you ever need to forget for a while, you can find 'Ki' in Mossadeep." He glanced around, at the fossils left behind and half unearthed. "I'll leave you to this." He nodded to the other and started to walk off, only to pause. "Well... one more thing. If Emma and Dorian are still alive, let them know an old friend wishes them well." With those parting words, he did hobble off for real this time.

Blackwell still inspires within Gavin a distant memory of fear; he'd taken great care in those days to avoid making waves in the organization, with no desire to draw the attention of the man in charge. He'd never met Silas, but he'd heard enough.

"Rocket is better for it."

It's at mention of Emma Wolfe in particular that Gavin's stony exterior lapses into something softer. The moment is brief, but there's a fondness there as he tells Chu-e, "They're alive, both of them. I'll let them know."

With a last dip of his head, he kneels down among the fossils to continue the work the Poachyenas had started.

[break]

mission Chu-e Choi