[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby was glad it was Lilycove and not Mossdeep that was the target of today's operation. Both cities were close to Sootopolis and, thus, were prime locations for Rocket's expansion. Ruby had moved to Mossdeep after joining Rocket to be closer to their base of operations without forcing opal garcia to live in Sootopolis, but she hadn't considered that Rocket would try to expand into the nearby cities. Maybe she should move again...

[break][break]She'd have to figure all that out later. Right now, she had a mission to complete. The goal was unusual but simple: get a bunch of wild Poison-type Pokémon to release their noxious gasses and other poisonous substances in the city. Ruby had a few Poison-types of her own, but using wild Pokémon would make it harder for the act to be traced to trainers. As usual, she'd been assigned a partner, but nobody had bothered to tell her who it was.

[break][break]She really wished someone had.

[break][break]"Great, it's you," she said from behind her usual skull bandana. The "ultramodernist" Xenon Antheil had made one hell of a first impression during the S.P.E.C.T.R.A. trials; Ruby felt sorry for the poor saps who'd ended up on her team. And now Ruby was one of those poor saps.

[break][break]"Enjoying being queen of the trash?" At least she had a chance to make a snarky comment.

[attr="class","blboxbl"]

A voice from behind catches Xenon's attention and she spins around with a smile, one leg propped up while the other dangles in the air as she stretches out her arms up to the sky with a cry of excitement. "Hooray! It's you!" Whoever you was. This one had never bothered to introduce herself back at the SPECTRA Trials, and even if she had she had absolutely zero recollection of her, she hadn't proven herself important enough for something like that. "But for your information, I prefer the term Ruler of the Trash. Kings and queens are pretty outdated, real primitive stuff, not Ultramodern at all."
[break][break]
Xenon's legs tense up as she pushes herself off the mountain of garbage and sails through the air, doing a flip as she extends her legs and solidly lands on the ground in an easy ten point landing. "Alright, you know why we're here but let's go over things one more time huh? We gotta start enough of a ruckus to start pushing all these brainless poison types closer to Lilycove, I was thinking of starting a trashfire at first, but then I realized that might actually draw them towards the fire if they get attracted to all the noxious fumes. What are your thoughts, you got any bright ideas in that fiery head?"
[break][break]

+Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Okay, that wasn't the reaction Ruby had been expecting. She stared blankly, blinking a couple of times. How the hell was she supposed to react to that? If she had any idea that Xenon didn't actually remember her, she could at least say something. Remind her she was the redhead she'd flipped off for telling her to shut up or something.

[break][break]Luckily, Xenon then expressed the most obnoxious reason for not wanting to be called "queen" ever. Weird she was fine with the "of the trash" part, though. Either she was oblivious—doubtful—or she just didn't give a fuck. The latter would be admirable in pretty much anyone else.

[break][break]"You got it, Miss President." The words oozed sarcasm, but Ruby realized too late that Xenon might still take them as an ego boost. That or "president" still wouldn't be "ultramodern" enough. What the hell would an "ultramodern" ruling figure be called? Ugh, Ruby was thinking too hard about this.

[break][break]Wow, Xenon was actually asking for Ruby's input? What an honor.

[break][break]"Unless we can get this garbage pile closer to Lilycove, yeah, trash fire won't work. I say we chase out the locals and make them find somewhere else to stink up." She tilted her head toward Lilycove. Already, her hand was reaching for the Dusk Ball that her Skorpios, her Drapion.

[attr="class","blboxbl"]

"Miss President, that's not half bad. Not half good either though, not a big fan of the whole democratic election thing. Eh, we'll workshop it." Xenon muses as she unclips the ball holding her Gothitelle and releases the psychic type onto the trash pile. "Hafnium, start scanning around for a good cluster of pokemon around here, we want to drive them towards the city in as big of a group as possible, try and get them to gather into a mob." The girl claps her hands and the Gothitelle's eyes close as she begins her search, leaving Xenon to discuss further plans or lack thereof with Ruby.
[break][break]
"So Red, I'm calling you Red on account of the red hair, how you feel about this mission huh? I mean, a lot of people are about to get sick because of what we're doing. How does that make the big bad Rocket grunt feel?" The girl wears a pleasant smile as she asks, but her eyes tell the real story as she pokes and probes at her coworker, she's trying to get a gauge of just what kind of person she was working with today. She had no problems coming to terms with the fact that she was about to hurt a whole lot of people doing this, but not every Rocket could do underhanded shit like this without any emotional qualms. Most of them just signed up for the license to commit violence on a whim, real society wrecking shit like this left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.
[break][break]

+Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Dammit, for once, Ruby hated being right. Xenon didn't like monarchs, and she didn't like democratically elected leaders. "What the hell are you a fan of, then?"

[break][break]So Xenon had a Gothitelle, too. Ruby momentarily thought about sending out her own to help, but another idea struck her: "If we're gathering a bunch of Poison-types, I've got just the thing." With a lazy toss, she sent out a shiny Salazzle. "Her pheromones should lure in whatever Poison-types are around here."

[break][break]Of all the names Xenon could have given her, Red was the one Ruby was most okay with. Ruby didn't remember her partner's name, either, only that it had been unusual and started with an X. Or maybe it was a Z? Whatever, she was Annoying Ultramodern Girl to Ruby. Didn't exactly roll off the tongue, but whatever.

[break][break]She narrowed her eyes. "What the hell should I care?" she asked in response. "I don't know any of these people, and I've got a job to do."

[break][break]She'd be singing a very different tune if they'd been doing this in Mossdeep, though. The thought of one of the very, very few people she actually cared about suffering because of her work made her stomach turn. And, yeah, this was about to screw over a lot of innocent people. That sucked. But what was she supposed to do, tell Rocket to buzz off? It wasn't like Ruby hadn't been screwed over plenty of times, too. They'd be fine.

[break][break]"Why, having second thoughts?" she asked with a raised brow.

[attr="class","blboxbl"]

"Power and the ability to exercise it at my discretion." A short and clean answer that told all one needed to know about how Xenon saw the world around her. The people in charge are the ones who are the strongest and most willing to take charge.
[break][break]
Xenon's eyes glance at the miscolored Salazzle as it begins to manipulate its internal biology, an approving glint in her gaze at the resourceful use of Ruby's arsenal, but all she can spare is a glance before her scrutinous eyes drift back to the redhead. "That's a good answer, I appreciate a woman who understands that fundamental fact of life." The only person that matters in the world is you, that's something that Xenon liked to preach to those who bothered to listen to her ultramodern gospel, the only experiences and opinions that mattered are those that reside within your head, fuck everyone else. Or to put it more succinctly, the world ends with you. She should get that tattooed on something, that's a good one.
[break][break]
Nah, tattoos are too permanent. "I've had second thoughts, third thoughts, fourth, but they all generally align with what the first one was. I want this city as a notch on my belt so I can move up further in this dumbass hierarchy, then I can get more money for the future I'm walking towards. You saw it for a moment during the S.P.E.C.T.R.A. Trials, that beautiful mechanical ruin we're all tumbling towards~" There's a breathy lilt to her voice as she dances atop the trash mountain, spinning in place and stretching her arms out wide as if she could leap forwards and take flight just like the Iron Jugulis she was so fond of.
[break][break]
The Gothitelle's eyes snap open just short of her doing that, its hand rising up and pointing northwest towards the center of landfill. Which just about checks out really, makes sense that all these biohazards would instinctively drift to the oldest and smelliest garbage they could find. "Ah, looks like we've got our jackpot Red. Bring that sexy ass on over and lets gather up some trash huh, I've got just the place in mind to send them." The girl's arms fall back to her side as she steps forwards into oblivion and slides down the trash pile stylishly, collapsing a good portion of it in the process and just barely avoiding being buried as she takes a hop, skip, and jump to the bottom to start racing towards what Hafnium found.
[break][break]

+Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","rubyw"]

"So a dictator. Got it." Ruby's voice was nearly flat, tinged with a note of disdain. Xenon's appreciation only got a "Hm" out of the redhead. Ruby's own worldview wasn't quite as "ultramodern," instead stretching out just enough to include the handful of people she actually gave a shit about. Life wouldn't be worth living without them, no matter how much power she had. It was lonely at the top and all that crap. She got the feeling that didn't matter to Xenon.

[break][break]Xenon had zero qualms with what they were doing, seeing it as just part of her grand scheme of... a "mechanical ruin"? "Anyone ever tell you you're insane?" Ruby asked as she watched her partner of the day twirl atop the trash heap. Kiha hissed quietly, unsure of what to make of this display. Humans were weird sometimes.

[break][break]Luckily, the Gothitelle pointed out where the most wild Pokémon were before Ruby had to be exposed to too much of this display. But then Xenon opened her mouth again, and Ruby wished she'd just kept spinning until she flew off.

[break][break]"My ass is—!" Wait, no, that wasn't the message she wanted to get across. "Don't say that to me!" Much better.

[break][break]The Dictator of the Trash hopped, skipped, and jumped to the bottom of the pile she was on and raced toward the center of the landfill. As much as Ruby wanted to turn around and get as far away from this lunatic as possible, she still had a job to do, and she didn't think "My partner is fucking crazy" would fly as an excuse for bailing. So, with a resigned sigh, she jogged after her.

[break][break]Yep, the local Poison-types had found the oldest, smelliest trash in the dump to congregate around... and eat, apparently. Grimer, Trubbish, Gulpin, Koffing, and a handful of their evolutions scooped the garbage into their mouths or absorbed the fumes and runoff. Noxious gas streamed from the Koffing and Weezing, which should have added to the horrid stench permeating the air, but a particularly large Galarian Weezing was taking in the contaminants and expelling clean air from its pipes. That could be a problem for the mission...

[break][break]"You gather the trash or whatever," Ruby said to Xenon. "Kiha, do your thing."

[break][break]On all fours, Kiha approached the group of trash-devouring Pokémon. Many of them stopped to watch the newcomer, some wary, some just curious. Kiha blinked slowly, stood up on her hind legs, and began to sway her lithe body in some kind of dance while beckoning with one finger. Flames flickered to life on her hands, feet, and tail, sending pheromone-filled poison gas wafting toward the group of wild Pokémon. About half of the Pokémon's eyes glazed over, entranced and Attracted. The other half mostly looked confused by this display, but a couple, particularly the Galarian Weezing, looked pissed. Said Weezing clenched its mouths shut and sent some Strange Steam toward Kiha.

[break][break]"Dammit," Ruby hissed. She'd been hoping that Weezing would have fallen under Kiha's control so they could force it to stay behind or something. Then again, maybe they wouldn't have to worry about that. The Pokémon who had been allured by Kiha turned to glare at her assailant. Ruby knew a brewing brawl when she saw one.