jackson was never particularly picky concerning partnership in team rocket's designated assignments. a fact purely supported by the fact that jackson knew jack shit about the majority of team rocket's task force. his reputation had created a shield intertwined with thorns and barbed sheet and forced distance between himself and others. a distance painful at first, but from which he now found the only comfort he knew. until mila alexopoulos had stepped back into his life and reminded him of how different things once were.

but alas, there was a time and place for the softer memories of mila and his past. he walked one pace behind katja weiss as they approached the house of willard cottrell, hardly speaking beyond the single greeting and personnel confirmations from their initial meet. the darkness of night seemed to swallow them ruthlessly as jackson acknowledged katja's statement with a low grunt. an outfit for the night had been easy to pick from the monochrome wardrobe, complete with a black hat that hid an unkempt haircut beneath.

when she offers him the piece of cloth, he accepts it with a brief "okay" in words that hover barely above a whisper. he ties it around his face, moving quietly through the cloak of darkness to the back side of the house. a soft light lit up the back door from an external lighting structure, but the three windows were shrouded in darkness and took a moment of staring for his eyes to adjust to the house's internal darkness. it was quiet. he pushed softly on the window, but the moment it creaked his hand quickly retreated. "he's not awake," jackson stated, as if the fact had already been confirmed. "we can try the windows or... check the door."

his eyes searched past the darkness into the surrounding area. few houses speckled the disdained streets, many of which had been abandoned in months and years past. a single window glowed faintly from a single house nearby, but the others were shrouded in the same darkness as cottrell's home. considering the number of foolish decisions cottrell had made since defecting from team rocket, jackson didn't have any doubts or worries about successfully fixing the problem.