Mint nodded at the Underboss, a little tense under his first supervised outing with the man. Cillian Quinn was whole different style of learning compared to Chu-e. And, it seemed, much like Raphael Pryde , Gavin wasn't really once he could let his guard down around. At least he was slightly more pleasant to be around than the scientist that only seemed to loom threateningly over him. "Concerning doubts over taking Sootopolis, the first agent fully went and escaped with the League. He caught on that he was being surveilled, possibly. So he ran, and left his roommates to deal with the fall out. The one I interviewed said they'd heard mention of this location if he ever reconsidered." After the fuckery with bryan delarosa though, he doubted the guy would consider leaving ever again.

Unless he chose to leave this world anyway.

"They've been using a honey tree that has been...ah, quarantined due to sudden crystal bloom growths." A shaggy white dog was leading the charge. Canoli was more or less supervising Subject C, the little Riolu. Or as Mint had dubbed her much to her annoyance, Capelletti. She didn't really respect Mint that much, but she seemed to get along with his pokemon. At least, the once that had beaten her in a fight. She would, on the occasion, gesture at Canoli to veer off with her to sniff something while the Furfrou lazily went along with it. "Dunno yet where Marion has been hiding out, but I know he dead drops here. Or at least, was planning to." Mint added as they pushed through grass.

Cillian Quinn | mission prompt: honey trap

Gavin scowls at the mention of the traitor. It was one thing to want to leave Rocket — though Gavin didn't have the most positive history with anyone who defected — and quite another to go on to side with the League.

"Marion," he repeats. "That's our defector?"

A name that'll be put on the list of those marked for death by the organization.

"Were you the one responsible for finding him out?"

Having heard that they were searching for a honey tree, the eager Riolu called Subject G sniffs at the air and runs ahead before letting out a sharp yip to draw their attention. When Gavin turns his gaze upon the jackal, it fidgets nervously before pointing in a direction and taking off.

mint frost

"Mm. Excellent work."

His characteristically stoic expression darkens to something dangerous, however, as Mint continues.

"They won't be making it out of Sootopolis. We'll make sure of it."

Rocket was better than its past. Efforts were made to keep civilians out of the fighting, and Sootopolis was more than a burning husk to be restored beneath their tyrannical might. But Rocket was not good, and one did not leave Rocket for the League.

Subject G seems anxious about the Combee buzzing nearby, but the attentive little Riolu seems more worried about looking away. Such a nervous, eager-to-please energy was unsurprising of something governed by Raphael Pryde; it reminds him a little of Raziel, and that only makes Gavin sad. He pushes the thought to the back of his mind and folds his arms, surveying the tree.

"How certain are you that this isn't a trap?"

mint frost

"Only seventy-five? Hm."

He doesn't like those odds. Gavin, as previously established by his distaste for Father Winter's antics even before the man had tried to kill him, was not a gambling man. Not unless it was for fun, and this was not his idea of fun.

"We'll take caution in our approach, and send our Pokémon in first."

He might see them as less expendable than he once had, before Lugia's blessing, but he'd still rather see a thousand Pokémon die before he risked his own life. He thinks of Necrozma, then, and his muscles tense.

"So, tell me how you figured out this scheme."

mint frost

Gavin listens to Mint's recount, frowning. Perhaps this is the potential that Chu-e saw. He may never come to understand why his late friend had taken Frost under his wing in lieu of so many others, but at least he was beginning to see the value in what he'd been left with.

He might've responded had they not grown so close to the drop. Caution dictates a need for quiet, and Gavin's hand curls around a pokeball.

As Subject C is suddenly sucked into a trap, Subject G loses its cool and rushes forward as if to help its fellow Riolu. Gavin's sharp whistle sees Subject G hunch its shoulders and reluctantly return to his side.

Miasma swells around them and with a flick of the wrist, Gavin sends out a Dhelmise who immediately vanishes with phantom force.

"Restrain him," Gavin orders, cold, and the dark tendrils of a shadow hold snake forth.

mint frost

Dhelmise reappears as its chains of shadow coil around their target, and Gavin approaches with the slow, calm air of someone taking a stroll in the park. Atypical of that demeanour is the tension in his muscles. He's ready for a fight.

"Why do you think?"

There's a note of derision in his tone, mocking the defector's intelligence.

He lets Mint handle the attacking Pokemon, his own focused solely on Marion.

"He tried to kill you," Gavin says to Mint, almost conversational in tone. "What do you think we should do to him?"

mint frost

Gavin registers the quiver in Mint's voice, in sharp contrast to the strange calm that had previously possessed it. He recognizes something in that tone, though it's hard to place. The underboss remains silent as Mint parses through the traitor's actions, offering only a nod to show he was listening. His amber eyes are fixed on Marion.

He was going to die. That much was set in stone before Mint opens his mouth.

Execution, Mint says, but there's a weight behind it that's telling.

"By whose hand?"

With this, he offers a choice. A way out. But would Mint take it for what it was, or see it as a trap?

mint frost