his findings would be valid information to someone, at least. he had been noticed.

this had been fake—to a degree. a lie. poor leone surely had no idea that the woman he was about to meet was not only uncredible within the larger scientific community, but also a murderous villain. this was still an opportunity, though. depending on his willingness to make difficult sacrifices and leave behind such troublesome restraints as morality and ethical practice, leone could do great things moving forward.

she came out from behind a tree, onto the path to meet him. in her hand was a device he would not have seen before. something new, developed by the bright minds of team rocket, and their tech-savvy head scientist.

”mr. harte?”

though she had presented herself initially under the identity of doctor ingrid crane, lulu came with no wig, or alternate aesthetic. her face wasn’t yet plastered anywhere as wanted, or a threat to society. she was merely a shadow in the darkest corner of their shared world, for now.

her only disguise was a friendly smile.

@leone

☉

it was ironic, maybe, that she was often called ‘dr. flint’ without having a phd to speak of. like leone, she was not in the habit of correcting people on it. in fact, she found it very amusing.

for now, though, of course, it was dr. crane.

as he lit up at the device in her hand, her smile only crept up at the edges more. she had him already, didn’t she? just like that.

”yes. very new.”

she held it up for him to see. it was a device that didn’t look too much unlike your typical radiation detector. it was little larger, with scarcely noticeable differences otherwise.

”this is an infinity energy detector. it’s something my team and i have developed recently. with it, we’ve been able to discover fluctuations in bioenergy prior to spacetime distortions. to some extent, we’ve been able to predict them.”

we being team rocket, which was why someone like him hadn’t heard about it yet.

still smiling, friendly, she reached out to hand it to him.

”here. have a look.”

it worked similar to a geiger counter, numbers on a screen giving a reading of the level of infinity energy around them, which, for now, would likely not be anything noteworthy. static, unless something prepared to open up nearby.

@leone

☉

her hand only barely left the device before he was handing it back. she took it away again, amusement lingering at his excitement. was he nervous?

”mostly—but i did have help.” that help was a team of rockets and the funds provided by their organization.

her smile twitched upward.

”tell me about yourself, mr. harte. what are your dreams?”

@leone

☉