"Use Fury Attack!"

Galahad, Sven's recently acquired Galarian Farfetch'd, swung its leek much like a sword and smashed away at the boulder before it. Before long, the stone crumbled and left mere pebbles in its wake. Once the dust cleared, Sven was left to stare at the Zangoose that had made its way further into the cave. A look of excitement plastered itself upon his face. A wild Zangoose?! Here?! The blonde took a step back and readied to order his Farfetch'd to charge.

That is until he saw the Zangoose's trainer approach.

The Farfetch'd came to an immediate halt upon Sven's orders. At least despite it being relatively new to his team, the pokemon was a quick learner. It soon returned to its trainer's side and in turn, Sven knelt down and gave it a firm pat on the head. Once he was done praising the Farfetch'd, he glanced up at the grey haired man and gave a rather enthusiastic wave. To say he was surprised to see another soul out here was the bare minimum, to say the least.

"Yo!" he greeted with a grin. "I'm surprised to see someone else as far out here! Getting some training in too? Galahad here and I are trying to perfect his strikes so we can get him into the Sirfetch'd I know he can be!"

The Farfetch'd to his side stood proud and raised one of its wings in a sort of salute. But the problem at hand was how he almost took the Zangoose on in battle. Sven couldn't help but flash an apologetic smile to the young man and speak once more.

"Sorry, I almost attempted to nab that big guy. But well, pleased to meet you! Name's Sven!"

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With the prompt of the Zangoose, the Farfetch'd gripped its leek a little tighter as if ready to go in for the kill. However it seemed to stumble back a bit, as though it were afflicted by something. It seemed the rock it had just smashed had some sort of poisonous spore on it that had affected the pokemon, given the likelihood that the spore dispersed when the rock was smashed. As it collapsed and began to breathe a bit ragged, Sven quickly rushed over to it and knelt down.

"Hey, Galahad! Come on, this isn't funny!"

He saw how pained that the poor Farfetch'd looked, and then he caught sight of the way the color began to drain from it. He'd seen the affliction only once before and knew it was poison. Rummaging through his bag, Sven was quick to administer an antidote to the Farfetch'd, effectively curing its poison. Once the Farfetch'd was stable, he looked up at Memphis and gave a frown.

"Sorry about that, you might want to check on Freddy. I think our practice must've threw something into the air. You're good, right?"

Sven stood back up and withdrew his Farfetch'd so it could get some rest and recover. For now, he chose his Rampardos to come out and play. As if the situation hadn't even happened, he allowed the colossus of a pokemon to turn back with a challenging look to the Zangoose. The rodent-like pokemon was certainly a lot faster, but Sven was willing to bet that Zircon the Rampardos was a lot more sturdy. But there was no need to make the two duke it out to see if sword or stone were more powerful. Instead, the idea came to Sven's mind quickly.

"Now that I've got a pokemon who's a lot more stable, how about we have a little contest? That way Freddy and Zircon here both can get some practice and competition in! Let's see how many wild pokemon they can take on til we get to the end of this cave, yeah?"

The idea seemed to intrigue his Rampardos quite a bit. It even let out a roar in agreement as if to say it liked the idea.

"Oh! By the way, I don't think I caught your name."

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Despite the lecture on Zangoose, Sven seemed pretty interested in the fact. He never realized that the pokemon had managed to adapt against Seviper, but it made sense. Sven paced a circle around Freddy and looked him up and down. Impressive! The scientist beamed as he made a mental note to possibly look into more pokemon that had adapted due to their surroundings. As if on cue, his own Ditto, Silly Putty, oozed out of its pokeball and began to slink its way up Sven's back so it could make itself at home on the top of his head.

"No, no, that's actually a pretty cool note. Thanks, Memphis! It's nice to see pokemon that can adapt to their habitats. Silly Putty here is the biggest case in that statement."

He gestured to the Ditto atop his head that morphed once into the Zangoose. Sven struggled to keep balance until the Ditto transformed back into its normal state. It seemed to just want to be included in the shenanigans with no desire quite yet to battle. Though as for pokemon that were ready to battle, his Rampardos let out a loud roar before it charged forward. Sven quickly scrambled after the rock type as if attempting to catch up and warn it that it needed to wait until his fellow competitor was ready.

"Foul! Freddy isn't ready!"

The Rampardos soon came to a halt but Sven wasn't quick enough to stop. Instead, he collided with the creature and took a moment before he picked himself up off the ground. The Rampardos gave a grumble that seemed apologetic, which earned a laugh from the blonde as he gave it a firm pat on the head to show that all was forgiven. Instead, he encouraged Zircon to run off and search for something to test its strength against. It wasn't long until he approached Memphis, mindful to keep a slight distance as not to make the stranger uncomfortable. After all, Sven knew he had a habit of pushing past other people's comfort zones.

"So you know about how Zangoose were able to adapt against natural predators, huh? Are you a scientist too? I've been dipping my toes in to do some research of my own actually! So I'm happy to hear any notes you might have for a beginner."

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"Oh neat!" he commented genuinely. "Just figured I'd ask cause I'm personally trying to figure out what's going on with this place."

A generalized statement because he wished to know just what catastrophes Hoenn had survived, and ones that had yet to come. As the pokemon made their way to train, Sven looked away briefly to make sure Zircon treated the fight fairly. Brows knit in concern until he saw that the creature seemed to be off on its own, battling a wild Geodude. It seemed quick to take the creature down. Make that one point for Zircon. He couldn't help but grin with a sense of pride.

It wasn't long until his attention turned back to Memphis. Part of him wondered just what classified as an archivist, it seemed like such a stuffy title, like he had to file a bunch of paperwork to make sure the museum didn't lose it. Maybe it felt odd because from a first impression standpoint, stuffy didn't suit Memphis. But then again, he did give off librarian vibes.

"Never been, guess I'm gonna have to check it out!"

It wasn't often he made his way over to Slateport given its high occupancy of Team Rocket members. So to have a museum of natural history sounded pretty dangerous. Likely the place risked several instances of robbery. Or even worse of a possible conclusion: the history museum helped mask the illusion of an everyday life for Rocket members. The latter didn't offer much enthusiasm for him -- criminals didn't deserve a normal life. His expression went flat for a moment before he spoke in a rather straightforward fashion.

"You guys are careful with the stuff right? The historical artifacts and all that, I mean. It'd be a shame to lose it to a bunch of criminals like Team Rocket."

The comment seemed so tactless and out of place, but it was a question that felt necessary to put out into the open.

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With the reassurance things would be safe in the museum, Sven couldn't help but give a nod. That was enough for him. But he couldn't help but notice the way the grey haired archivist seemed to recoil a bit. Had he said something out of place? Brows furrowed a bit in frustration as he let out a sigh. Right, it's not like the League was innocent in its own acts. Both sides had questionable means. How many lives had been lost in the crossfire? More importantly, how many had the parties lost to each side in terms of turncoating? Sven pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the pressure that found its way to his forehead and looked to Memphis.

"Sorry, it's just... They go out of their way to do misdeeds. And for what? Greed? Power?" he began to reason. "Not that the League is any better. We've been housing people who were once loyal to Rocket's cause and excusing actions of higher leveled figureheads because we can't afford to lose them..."

Some actions weren't excused, case in point being Josh Devlin's prior temporary suspension from his duties as a gym leader. It's not a story he'd heard both sides of, and given he viewed Josh as a fair ally, he didn't want the image he had in his head of the man to be painted improperly -- it'd be something he'd have to ask about at a later time.

He'd nearly forgotten about the back and forth his Rampardos and Memphis' Zangoose seemed to have. While the Zangoose was smart to go after smaller swarms, Rampardos continued to take out larger opponents. Perhaps it wanted to prove something -- that power was better than speed. Both were necessary in the end, but Zircon was adamant that its sheer power would be the best. With an Ancient Power, it sent a handful of Geodudes flying to try and level its numbers with Freddy. But it seemed the Zangoose was a bit more ahead of the curve.

"What exactly are you trying to look for? Are there certain exhibits you want to add to in the museum? Or did you want to build up your own exhibit?"

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