Gavin's heart slams in his chest, lungs drawing barely enough air to breathe.

Do you realize how important Pallet is?
Paltry, in the grand scheme of a region — but Rocket wanted to conquer.
What will happen if we fail?

A whistle cuts through an uneasy silence. Like a dog, trained, his attention snaps toward the sound. A quick, bracing breath. He whistles in return.

On silent wings, a Crobat swoops over the sleepy town. In its wake, a TAILWIND heralds an oncoming HURRICANE.

Lucario casts its trainer a somber look before it slams its paws against the ground, earth rumbling beneath a ROCK SLIDE that obstructs the main road out of town.

[attr="class","beck"]block them, trap them, kill them.

from across multiple spots, HURRICANES sweep through the town, bringing with them destruction and chaos. it looks so minuscule and unimportant from this far away — he can only imagine what it must be like in the heart of it all.

click.

nidoking swings its tail and slams it into the ground, summoning a FISSURE that looks to split the town in two.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

He sees not a town, but a mission. Not people, but targets.

Even in a place as quiet as Pallet, there is resistance. Lucario is the interference. With a chilling howl, it draws the ire of all who would seek to stop their advance. FOLLOW ME, it commands, and they do. The fissure opens like a wound in the earth, swallowing those in pursuit of the aura Pokemon.

A deafening UPROAR from Crobat drowns out any plea for help, any hope of communication.

But Gavin doesn't need to hear to heed Beckett's command.

[attr="class","beck"]he watches the crack in the ground travel — it snakes across town, moving through buildings, and the split that comes is inevitable.

the very earth tears open, swallowing those in its path.

his eyes never drift from the target.

another whistle sounds, commanding, and raises his hand to sign an order.

advance.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

Amber meets pale blue across a battlefield. Gavin nods, curt.

With the favorable tailwind Crobat had established, it is all too easy to slip quick and quiet between buildings ravaged by the quaking earth. Lucario prowls close, ears alert to DETECT threat.

An eerie HAZE begins to roll through the town.

[attr="class","beck"]resistance is to be expected. but they've prepared for as much.

a small group of officers stand on one side of the FISSURED earth. it's clear that they're meant to hold back whatever forces come their way to ensure civilians evacuate in time.

a click sends dragonite speeding forward with EXTREME SPEED. it crashes into one of the officers, incapacitating them, then swings its DRAGON TAIL at the other.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

Where Theo is the muscle, Gavin runs interference.

His Pokemon, though well-trained, would not hold up against the trained officers of the League in a fair fight. Crobat was a recent evolution and Lucario fought only out of necessity to protect the man who'd raised it.

So the fight will not be fair.

Crobat continues its UPROAR, drowning out the League's communication as Beckett continues to lay into them.

[attr="class","beck"]with a final sweep of its DRAGON TAIL, the rest of the officers are sent smacking against concrete. with their trainers incapacitated, their pokemon are doomed to fall. they can't expect to match against the speed of his dragonite nor the viciousness of his nidoking.

nidoking charges forward, ramming its MEGAHORN through both of machamp's arms. dragonite blurs in an EXTREME SPEED before smacking into a seaking, sending it flying into a building.

with this one group handled, theo whistles, then signs.

advance.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

He cannot hear the crunch of breaking bones over his Crobat's UPROAR, but Gavin sees the angle at which some of the officers collapse and understands that not all of them will get back up.

He feels nothing but relief.

They can't fail.

Gavin moves forward upon command.

A Hitmonchan hurls a boulder toward him but Lucario is prepared — it DETECTS the threat and moves with EXTREME SPEED to intercept. There is no time to hesitate on the battlefield, to ensure his partner was OK. All Pokemon exist for the glory of Team Rocket. Lucario knows, understands, and turns its head to give him a curt nod.

Another HURRICANE walls off an escape route. Block, trap, kill.

[attr="class","beck"]they come to possibly the only multi-story building in pallet. it's an office building that houses researchers. naturally, most of them have evacuated, likely to have left their work behind.

it's there that they'll find things of interest.

he whistles, points to the building, then starts his approach.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

Gavin knows this building. They'd identified it as a key target when reviewing plans to take the town. There were researchers who worked there, innocent scientists much like Gavin might've been had Rocket not sunk in their claws.

He doesn't hesitate to press their advance.

Theo is an admin, valuable, and Gavin little more than a grunt in the eyes of Rocket — so he goes in first, draws back to kick down the door when he finds they've locked it. It takes a few solid tries before it bursts inward.

Lucario DETECTS against a spray of pin missiles from the dark, but a vine whip catches Gavin around his throat. He snarls, the sound choked off by the obstruction, and fumbles for his knife.

[attr="class","beck"]the sight of the VINE WHIP wrapping around merlino causes him to tense but duty overpowers all else. it proves enough of a distraction for a click to sound.

nidoking rushes forward and rams its MEGAHORN through concrete, crashing through the wall close to the entrance. dragonite flies in, blurred by an EXTREME SPEED, and crashes into the first thing it sees. nidoking follows suit.

and so, too, does theo.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

The Venusaur whose vines wrap tight around Gavin's throat is slammed into by Theo's Dragonite, and Gavin is pulled to the ground with the force of its stagger. The vine tightens and tugs painfully at his neck, threatening to strain or break as Gavin clutches at it and flicks his knife free. The blade nicks along his collarbone as he forces it beneath a taut coil of green.

A sharp tug of steel through plant fiber, and he's free.

He rolls onto his side, gasping for air as he clutches at his throat. His lungs burn with a flood of air but there's no time to recover; Lucario tugs him roughly to his feet as a Jolteon's thunderbolt surges overhead.

Whistle.

Crobat swoops in through the opening Beckett had created, targeting the Jolteon with CROSS POISON.

Gavin looks to Beckett, wide-eyed but determined.