she looked up, blinking. his comment rolled off without response, but she was soon lifting the glasses to the top of her head anyways. ”i’m working,” she responded coolly. focusing. in her office. why did no one ever send emails first? why?

while her frustration began to rise, it was quickly quelled by the sight of... whatever this thing was. a lilligant. the same one from last time?

a time-space distortion was on her list of to-do’s, but presently, she knew little on the grand scale. there were all kinds of phenomena occurring around them, and simply too much to look into these days to keep up, despite her attempts.

”fascinating.” she stared. ”i’ll be honest, delarosa. i’ve never seen one of these.”

her eyes traveled down.

”why does it have shoes on?”

bryan delarosa

☉

the league. ”hm.”

lulu was taken aback by the liligant’s excitement. there was a wash of disdain that she was careful to soften for bryan’s benefit as she pulled her hands away, gently.

”how nice.”

with a step back, she hypothesized.

”a typing change, maybe? perhaps this is a new evolution.” which begged the question: what kind of natural phenomena had caused it to happen? ”i’m sure priam’s told you about the spontaneous mega evolutions happening around hoenn?”

bryan delarosa

☉

”could be. i suspect that these portals and spacetime distortions we’re seeing take immense amounts of energy to form. ultra wormhole radiation can still be detected a whole year after the war in the same area where these mega evolutions are taking place.”

she crossed her arms, leaning against her note-stacked desk. gorgo’s nails clicked on the metal submarine floor as the pup went around to sit near her heel, staring up at the liligant quietly.

”if hoenn’s primal energy resources are causing these dimensional disturbances, it could be that the energy is strongest in these locations, perhaps also causing evolution to occur, but whilst simultaneously taking on some of the properties of foreign lifeforms.”

she shrugged.

”just a wild guess, for now.”

bryan delarosa

☉

her eyebrows knitted together at his air quotes.

ah. avatar questions. lulu always found their mysteries perplexing. more often than not, she had turned away from avatar research. strangely, and though she’d never admit it, she found herself scared about answers she might find. furthermore, she was scared to think about it long enough to ask the questions she might never find the answers to.

and perhaps most of all, like Cillian Quinn , she feared a loss of power. rather than involving herself, she’d lingered in the shadows of the MAGMA PROJECT. watching, waiting.

that day, under walsh’s eyes, under the gun... it all came back in an almost disorienting wave. but this was her job, wasn’t it?

”of course. do you remember, on the island off of lilycove, a year ago? the eternal flower?” the day she had gained her avatarship. walsh had demonstrated rocket’s powerful technology. back then, she’d in awe.

her eyes glanced at the door briefly.

”that’s what you agreed to?”

bryan delarosa

☉

it was always remarkable to her, that people even in the highest ranks of team rocket had souls as soft as anyone else. they bled for the plights of the world they sought to ravage and control. why harbor sympathy for some and not others? what was the point? she could ask herself the same question.

“so, now you’re... what, taking her place?” foolish. the word spelled out on her face as her brow quirked and her head turned with clear skepticism. it was a silent warning, but the deed was already as good as done. he’d already signed his name on the dotted line. he’d just gotten the prize early. now it was time to make good on his debt.

she didn’t want to spend more time than necessary dreading this.

”now’s as good a time as any.” with a sigh, lulu pulled the glasses off her head and set them on the desk. ”let’s go, then.”

heading to retrieve her lab coat, she slipped it on and clicked for the door. ”stay, gorgo.”

bryan delarosa

☉

surely, he couldn’t know the weight of his promise until it hung on his shoulders—his own heaviness, dragging him down in the exhaustion post-zap. if it was survival he was after, lulu was not sure he had taken the good route to achieving it long-term.

without walsh. she recalled the man’s lashing ropes of shadow, unlike anything she’d ever been able to conjure herself. what he could do was entirely different. she was not so positive anymore that they were even all darkrai’s powers.

”hm.” she neither agreed nor disagreed with bryan openly on their boss’s influence on their outcome. she wouldn’t dare cross one of walsh’s deadliest with suspicions of him.

with her coat on, she obliged to lead the way. ”follow me.”

click, clicks down the hall eventually led to one of the larger labs where the gun was located. she hadn’t powered it up since zapping giona ferrara —before his death, of course. nothing had happened, but he’d certainly been in pain.

but where giona had come up empty, bryan had something to take, and he would surely only feel it so much more.

lulu went to work setting up, informing as she did so, ”i’m not sure what you’ve been told, but you should know that this is not a pleasant process.”

preparation was built of snaps, grinds, clicks, and the eventual almost-harmonious hum of strange machinery coming to life in their sterile metal husk.

”i hope your lunch was light.”

bryan delarosa

☉