Novak wandered aimlessly through the Rocket sub, with Cedar sitting on his head, motionless as ever. It was an odd sight, but no more than many of the other Rockets.

"The toxin's half-life was far longer than expected," muttered the man who he was walking past, and he immediately froze.

Toxin? What toxin? His curiosity was peaked.

He backtracked and surreptitiously glanced at the person who had spoken, and-- well. Novak recognized that guy. It was hard not to, with that distinctive mask. Though, after all, Novak was walking around with an eerily still Natu on his head, so he wasn't really one to make judgments. The mask that was quickly coming off, now, as the guy turned to Novak, a sort of grimace on his face as he began to speak.

Novak tried not to laugh as... what was his name? Alex, or something? began to try and get him to try and help him with... something. Huh.

"I'll see if I can help," said Novak. "Though you're saying a lot of words and not getting to the point. Could it have something to do with the toxin you mentioned earlier?"

He leaned over to look out into the water.

@alek

Huh. This was really weird. A strange toxin that somehow expanded in saltwater? That was new.

And Novak did a double-take when he heard that the toxin was extracted from a Grimer. Sure, the guy said that he'd experimented with it and modified it, but this strange expansion was certainly not a property common to natural toxins from the Grimer line at all. When exposed to water, Grimer and Muk tended to seem mostly unaffected, whether that water was salty or not. Castor, Novak's own Muk, had been hit by a Brine from a wild Pokemon once and simply shrugged it off.

If all Grimer and Muk behaved like... whatever this was, there was the possibility of enormous members of their species, multiple times the maximum recorded size.

"Wow. That's interesting," Novak said, not bothering to hide his curiosity. "I think I can help with this, though. Or, well, my Pokemon can..."

He released two Pokemon a second later, the Shedinja and Haunter materializing in the sub. The Haunter looked at @alek, tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Foxglove, no," said Novak sharply, forestalling whatever it was the mischievous ghost was about to do. "I've got a job for you two. We're on cleanup duty.

"Iris, you stay inside. See if you can move the toxins using Poltergeist."

Iris floated motionless above the ground, barely reacting to anything at all. It was hard to say if it had noticed Novak's command, until slowly but surely, the purple cloud started to drift through the water.

It was going slowly, but Novak thought it might work. While it happened, he asked Alek, "So, what exactly did you do to those toxins to make them expand like that? Or is that secret? Your experiment still not through yet?"

"It's really no problem," said Novak, as Iris continued to slowly move the sludge.

Hoping to speed up the process a little, he waved at Foxglove. "Why don't you help out, Foxglove."

It wasn't really a question. The Haunter stuck his tongue out in a show of petty defiance, but phased through the wall of the submarine anyways, using his detached hands to help grab the sludge and move it. The pace picked up quickly with another Pokemon helping.

As the two Pokemon worked to move the sludge, Novak listened to Alek's explanation of his experiment. It really was fascinating, how the toxin had reacted. And if Alek's project worked well enough, that would be a tool that would be of great use to Rocket, Novak would assume.

He nodded. "That's truly a fascinating project. I wonder if the effects could be replicated with other toxins as well?" There were quite a few that he could think of that would have... interesting effects. Crobat venom could be used with this side effect as a powerful numbing agent, for medical uses or for incapacitating people in larger doses. Not to mention Toxicroak venom to knock people out, Seismitoad's venom suddenly becoming a much more useful paralytic agent, the newly discovered Poipole and Naganadel's powerful neurotoxins...

The possibilities were endless.

"I think that's a very interesting project," said Novak, turning to Alek, "and I'm very much interested in seeing where it goes. Would you be willing to let me join in, if you should ever attempt another trial?"

@alek

"I do have a few poison types of my own," added Novak, in case he needed to make sure that he was worth Alek's time. Though, here he was doing a favor for him, so... "Including a Muk, and of course the Haunter you see here."

Speaking of which, the two of them had finally brought the sludge through the airlock and into the sub, depositing it right in front of Alek's Grimer. The little guy began to eat it up.

"Well," said Novak, pulling out a business card. It was pretty bare-bones, with only his name and his number, but it'd do the job until he found something better. "Now you know where to find me. I look forward to seeing where this goes."

"It was really no problem," asserted Novak. "Really, you should be thanking Foxglove and Iris. Though there's not much point thanking Iris. They hardly seem to react to... well, anything."

And then he said his thanks and left. Novak nodded politely, watching the man leave.

Yes, he was also excited for their future collaborations.

As Alek left, Novak turned around and began the walk to the labs.