Colton's back was to the door as Gunner entered, the younger scientist hunched over a table as he fiddled with something on top of it. "Ah, Agent Graves! Glad you could make it!" he as a very loud snapping noise filled the room, matched only by the pleased grunt he let out a moment later. He set the object down before turning to face the agent, a large grin on his face. Normally, he'd be very nervous standing across from someone on the same level as Gunner Graves, but in his lab, Colton was in his element and a rare sense of confidence oozed from the brunette.

"I'm glad that you agreed to take a look at some of the gadgets I've been designing for field agents! I've been working on ways for agents to better infiltrate and break into secure locations, beginning with this!" he said excitedly, lifting one of the gadgets that had been resting on the table prior to Gunner's entrance.

The object appeared to be two clear pads attached to band that Colton wrapped around the back up his neck, sliding his thumbs across the pads to seal them to his skin. "One's voice can be a dead giveaway to who they are and not everyone has an extremely large vocal range to allow them to disguise their voice naturally," he explained. His Rotom Phone floated out of his pocket and he tapped away on the screen briefly, still grinning broadly.

"So, I've devised a way that changes your voice for you! Pretty cool, right?" Colton said, his voice now deep and full of bass, very different from the relatively high pitched voice the engineer normally had.

Gunner Graves

”Yes, of-oh…yes, of course!” Colton’s replied, pulling the device from his neck and massaging where the contacts had been for a moment. He handed over the gadget as his free hand quickly tapped and swiped across his phone, while his eyes were already looking to a large digital display on the wall. It depicted a Chatot, with particular focus on an area around its neck. ”The application should be uploaded to your device now, labeled as ‘ACVC.’ To make it appear conspicuous, it’s meant to look like a heating and cooling company with a logo depicting a Coalossal and the Alolan variant of Ninetales.”

Once Gunner had taken the band, the engineer briskly walked across the room towards the display. ”Now, as you put it on, you’ll notice a subtle vibration through your neck that changes as you adjust the ‘frequency.’ While it may be uncomfortable, that means it’s working,” Colton said before pointing towards the indicated area on the Chatot’s body. ”Now, as I’m sure your well aware, the Pokémon, Chatot, as the marvelous ability to imitate human speech as well as the cries of other Pokémon. Now, this is in part due to their very human like tongue, but I was able to isolate a very particular way that Chatot is able to vibrate its vocal cords to change its pitch and tone at a moment’s notice. That’s what the device, the ‘Articfical Chatot Vocal Cords’ or ‘ACVC,’ is doing to you.”

Colton wore a broad grin on his face as he watched Gunner mess around with the ACVC, practically bouncing in place with anticipation. He could hardly contain his excitement to show the field agent what else he had managed to come up with.

Gunner Graves

Colton could tell by Gunner's tone of voice that the explanation he gave meant little to him, which the researcher couldn't blame him for. He just needed the tools to work, not to understand the science behind them. But it was hard for him to control himself when describing them. It was what he was good at, which he couldn't say about a lot of things, so he felt that getting just a bit excited showing off his successes wasn't too annoying.

Colton nodded, his excited grin turning just a bit smug as the agent praised his work. "Not particularly, but it won't be fast. Now that I've cracked how to recreate the vibration, all I really need are the parts to make more. The only unfortunate part is I'm not sure how to automate the process, just yet," he said with a shrug, scratching his chin thoughtfully as he did."Though, I'm not sure how many I'll need to make, anyway, plus I can pass the blueprint around if the need calls for it."

He took the device back, gently placing it in a small case before moving onto the next invention, a small container made to look like a common lotion brand. "This one was a bit trickier and its use is a bit more niche, since I'm not sure what kind of biometrics Team Rocket would employ, but, I still think it was pretty cool to develop," Colton described, twisting open the canister to reveal the pink goo inside. He gently placed one finger into the container, just enough to cover his his finger print. "By studying Ditto cells, I discovered a means to reverse engineer their ability to transform into anything they come across and synthesize it into a cream. By applying it to your finger or hand, the cream will mold itself to match any fingerprints or handprints already on a biometric scanner, letting you slip on through!" Colton described, though his face fell moments later, sighing as he capped the lid and held it out for Gunner to take.

"I was attempting to make it so you could apply it to your face and have your features change, but coaxing something so complex out of the cream was extremely difficult and, with what small samples I was able to create that worked properly, anything I applied it to would always have the same two dots for eyes with a big smile Ditto are known to have. Sorry if that disappoints, but it's the best I was able to come up with. And no Dittos were harmed to make this, just to give you the peace of mind on that," Colton said, crossing his arms with a sigh.

Gunner Graves

Colton shook his head, his self satisfied smile growing, only to fall again as he thought about how annoying it had been to actually create the cream. "In a sense, the best way to look at this stuff is a non-sentient, non-living Ditto, with just the barest bit of a thought process to actually make it react to the environment. That's what makes it capable of changing itself in the first place," he described. There was a more technical description of how exactly it was capable of such feats, a long, boring explanation about synthesized DNA and electrical signals sent through the body to power it, but it would probably fly over Gunner's head. Just so long as it worked, then that was enough.

"Pattern recognition, essentially. Hands talk all different shapes and sizes and once it's found a thread to follow, it can smartly sift through the various prints on the sensor to stitch together the correct shape," Colton answered. "That's really the only real downside to it. It needs a bit of time to properly recreate the pattern, but it'll hold that pattern until you clean your hand off."

He wiped his own finger clean, his gaze focused on the container as he let out a frustrated sigh. "There's a lot of improvements I could make, especially if I could crack being able to change your appearance as a disguise, but I don't want to push it too far and just start synthesizing actual Dittos that I stick in a jar," he said, crossing his arms over his chest as his brow furrowed.

Gunner Graves

Colton's look of frustration fell away as Gunner remarked on his surprise, replaced by an amused smile as he took the container back. He knew his thought process when it came to making stuff was a little on the odd side, especially with his rather...mechanical way of looking at living creatures. "Probably not what I've made, but Pokémon have incredibly unique biology among the different species. It's very inspiring in terms of creating things for humans to use," he replied, he said with a shrug. "Not everything I make is so out of the box."

Colton pulled open a drawer next to him, pulling out a small, handheld device with a button at the top. "Last thing for now and I think it's probably more your speed, at least in trying to wrap your brain around trying to figure out 'why' I made it in the first place," he described, pressing the button on the top. In response, four mechanical legs popped out of the sides, with two metal sticks popped out of the center. "Auto lock picker, skeleton key, whatever you want to call it. Just place it on the lock in question, press this button, and it'll cycle through the tools inside until it gets the right ones for the job."

Gunner Graves

Colton smiled as Gunner eagerly took the auto lockpicker. Perhaps he had aimed a little high with showing off his unorthodox, almost bioengineered tools so early. Compared to the lockpicker, they were very out of the box, both in their application and how he came up with them. Likely, that wouldn't stop him from studying Pokémon to glean inspiration from, but he would probably try and reel it back in the future. More voice changers and less "Dittos in a jar."

"If not Ditto, potential disguise tech could be derived from Zorua and Zoroark..." he thought for a moment as he watched the agent mess around with the gadget. With each press of the button, a different tool would pop out, showing its all in one capability for nearly every kind of lock imaginable. "Better to have it and not need it, I say," he remarked, shrugging his shoulders.

Colton nodded appreciatively as he accepted the lockpicker back and set it back down on the table next to him. "Just glad to be of service, I guess. If you've got any particular needs, feel free to bring them up and I'll try and make something for you. One's that are...less off putting, too."

Gunner Graves