Alexei had been quickly spotted by the several Pokemon patrolling Duvet Ranch. Thanks to his Alakazam, Freke, word would quickly get out to Thomas Benoit, who had been there that day, under the guise of Daisuke Hayashi, the man who had attended the Expedition. Admittedly, his Scizor was a dead giveaway, but there was some plausible deniability to be had.

Finally, Alexei would be greeted by Freke the Alakazam. The Alakazam offered to take the man's hand, to teleport him to where Thomas had ended up.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: tl;dr

He wondered where the Scizor was—

Probably somewhere, but who knew?

Either way, he was here and looking for answers. The question now was—where was his friend hiding?

Unless he was mistaken, that he’d mixed up the Scizor with someone else’s Scizor; however there was no denying that it was indeed his friend’s particular Scizor.

“Oh, hello,” he said in greeting to the Alakazam. “Where is he right now?”

He looked around—clearly the other wasn’t out and about.

“You’ll take me there, right?”

Trust in the Pokémon, they said.

With that he recalled the Salamence and allowed himself to be whisked away by the Alakazam, to wherever they were headed off to.

The Alakazam took the man's hand, teleporting him away.

They would emerge at the entrance of a chamber within the underground network of tunnels underneath Duvet Ranch. Freke would guide him into the chamber, which was vast, and empty. Dug out for something large, that was absent. Perhaps to house something that Thomas planned on adding in the future.

In any case, Thomas would emerge to greet his friend from the shadows. A hood draped over his head. "Alexei, it's been to long.", he told him.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: tl;dr

From above ground to underground in a split-second—honestly, there was a reason why he preferred flying over everything else. Teleportation still made him dizzy from time to time (especially if he wasn’t prepared for it) and now just happened to be one of those times!

“I… really hate that,” he muttered to himself once he was on solid ground again—in a vast space.

Wait a second, vast space? Under Verdanturf? What’s going on?

He then heard a familiar voice addressing him, and he turned to locate the source.

“What happened to you? After that outburst you livestreamed. Also what’s with the hood?” he asked, getting some answers.

Finally!

"A lot has happened.", he began. He would produce a bottle of vodka, Alexei's favorite kind, offering it to the Gym Leader as a gift. "Depending on where you are in these tunnels, a head covering is practically a must.", he'd quickly address the hood.

"After the livestream, I went underground. Gathering equipment, brushing up on some training. Preparing for - what must be done.", he told Alexei, his tone rather ominous. "I said on the Livestream that I'd be doing things my own way. Ugly things.", he'd continue. The hood would fail to veil the somber look on his face.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: tl;dr

“Clearly, a lot has changed since you left and returned,” he remarked, reaching for the bottle before an appreciative smirk flashed across his face as he cracked the seal on the bottle open and went straight into it, no shot glass needed.

What, he was thirsty!

Anyway… at the mention of a hood being required underground, he had to do a mental backtrack. Just what exactly was down here that required hiding one’s face?

“How… how ugly, exactly, are we talking?” he continued, seeing his friend’s extremely grim look once the hood had fallen back and revealed the Kalosian’s face.

Thomas didn't judge Alexei from drinking from the bottle. Given the state of things, it was more than understandable that he needed a drink that badly.

"Extremely ugly.", he'd start off, bluntly. "There's a reason I left the League, Alexei. I know I said it was because of my frustrations with how the League operates on that Livestream, but there's more to it.", he'd continue, with a heavy sigh.

"When Silas took over Rocket from his father, he started acting in ways his father wouldn't, crossed lines that he refused to cross. And because the League refused to adapt, and cross those lines themselves, Kanto got rolled. And now Rocket is back, and playing the optics game. If the League were to toughen up, and do what they have to do in order to effectively fight back, it will be used against them by Rocket, to convince the people that the League is totalitarian in nature. And if the League falls for this tactic, and continues with its soft methods, Rocket will use that to convince the people that the League is incapable of protecting the people. It's a catch twenty-two situation.", he'd elaborate.

"So now I find myself acting outside of the system, to do what the League can't. I'm wiping out Rocket by whatever means necessary. Even if it means I become a pariah, lose everything, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Rocket falls, once and for all, and that the people of Hoenn - no, the world, remain free.", he'd finally get to the point.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: tl;dr

He knew that the obvious reason was what the other had talked about on the livestream that had aired some time ago, but to hear the actual reason that he’d departed from the region…

“That… that bad, huh,” he remarked quietly as he took another drink from the bottle.

If he was being honest with himself, though… he wondered why those who were lower than the Elite Four—the other Gym Leaders in particular—weren’t being kept in the loop regarding highly-sensitive things like security. Why was it that anyone higher than them got everything, what about them?

“Much as I want to bring this up with anyone higher than me, I’m concerned they might not listen because… well, I’m just a Gym Leader…” he said with a sigh.

“What if we’re left out of anything region-changing? What then? We’re going to what, be the first line of defense for our cities, caught off-guard without warning?” he continued as he tipped the bottle back again and took another long inhale.

"Yes.", he told the Gym Leader. One thing Alexei might notice was that Thomas himself wasn't drinking.

"Trust me, they even blew me off when I brought it up to them. Why do you think I made my choice?", he asked his old friend rhetorically. It sucked that the Gym Leaders were left out of the loop regarding this information. But then, there was the persistent fear at least one Gym Leader was a spy for Rocket. After all, it was one of the easiest ways for a Rocket to infiltrate the 'upper rungs' of the League.

Not that Alexei wasn't to be trusted. No, Thomas definitely trusted him. He'd proven himself on multiple occasions.

From the shadows of the cavern, a small, metallic blob-like creature with a hex nut floating like a head emerged. The Meltan looked up at the other man with curiosity.

"Oh, I'd like you to meet my new friend here. This Meltan was born from the Melmetal we dealt with near Cycling Road.", he'd tell Alexei. "I haven't come up with a name for the little one yet, I'm afraid to say.", he continued, allowing the Meltan to approach the man.

Knowing Alexei, he brought along Zelle, who'd no doubt make friends with the Meltan.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: Meltan appears

After he was done with that long pull, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

At his rhetoric question, he just let out a dark laugh.

“Honestly,” he said with a shake of his head. “Fucking honestly, I sometimes hate that my position isn’t high enough for the sensitive, classified information—hell, even my friend who’s higher up than I am can only get so much drip down…”

Once the heavy discussion was done, he saw… a literal… blob of metal? A living blob?

“Are you sure that ain’t a Ditto?” he remarked, pondering because he knew how much of a troublemaker that the Ditto line was. Speaking of…

“One moment,” he continued as he pulled out a particularly-marked Dive Ball and popped it open, watching as the Phione they’d found together emerged from its depths.

Seeing that she was in the presence of both her ‘mom’ and her ‘dad’, Zelle wasted absolutely no time and flew over to Thomas, poking him with her thumbless limbs and touching her forehead to his.

“See? She’s missed you. Hell knows I’ve tried to tell her you went somewhere but she wasn’t having none of that shit,” he went on as he was unable to stop a bark of laughter at the Phione’s show of affection.

As much as Thomas himself hated it, there was a reason why such information was on a need to know basis for Gym Leaders. The fact that a member of Team Rocket could end up becoming a Gym Leader, and thus gain access to sensitive information was trouble. And finding out who was a mole was a difficult process.

Thomas chuckled at the man's question of whether or not the Meltan was a Ditto. "That depends, do Ditto eat metal?", he inquired playfully.

And as he thought, the Unovan brought out his Phione. Thomas crouched down to pick up the Water-type, embracing her warmly, and pressing his forehead against hers affectionately, even nuzzling his forehead against hers. "Zelle, I missed you so much!", he cooed warmly, smiling brightly at the rare Pokemon.

"Wanna meet my new friend?", he asked the Phione, pointing her to the Meltan, who looked up at her curiously with the eye in the middle of his lug nut head. He would give her a chipper cry in greeting, waving to her.

---

tags: Alexei Ivanov
notes: tl;dr