”people can be put back together.” in fact, underboss Chu-e Choi had been butterfree filleted, experimented on and sewn back up in his day, and he’d been fine for years until he wasn’t.[break][break]

she was happy to explore the cave further, especially with capable company. it held secrets. surely there was something guarding them, if not there in the physical sense, then somewhere between streams of time and fragmented reality, yet still only a step away.[break][break]

”wonderful.” a pause. ”i hope by 'body' you mean pokemon.” even then, few would be worth the trouble her. rocket had plenty of specimens.[break][break]

as they began to go further into the cave, she finally asked, ”what's your name? and what do you do, if you don't mind me asking?” a job he wasn’t doing, according to him, and now he was casually offering bodies and she was curious. her guess was ranger.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]mission: tera tunneling act i[break]
Navy [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"][attr="class","pkspr pkmn-alakazam"]

“Navy.” He offers her the name his brother gave him instead of the one on the dotted line. Half a heartbeat later, he thinks about how bogus that sounds. Those are the sorts of names you see in old movies about pokemon trainers battling the elite 4 with their trusty charizards.[break][break]
“Short for Navidson. Dewford’s sheriff and gym leader.” The words are dry bordering on amused. Four months into this gig and he still finds it hard to accept that this is the life he fell into.[break][break]
“I meant the bodies of the paradox pokemon we get along the way. I’m sure we’ll run into another one. Probably more than one.”[break][break]
The cave slopes down. Tight, compact chambers give way to underground fields of crystals. Navy can’t even see the ceiling.[break][break]
“I’m not any expert, but the dimensions of this place don’t make sense. We’re not that deep below the tomb.”


[break][break]

+ Lulu Flint

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

it occurred to her, then, that she had yet to update herself on hoenn’s latest roster of heroes. there had been many other things to tend to, and she’d rarely made it out of the labs.[break][break]

”gym leader?” sheriff. after a couple years behind bars, lulu was bitter towards law enforcement.[break][break]

almost like a subtle hint that she wasn’t threatened, her alakazam was withdrawn again into a shiny black pokeball emblazoned with rocket’s bright red letter.[break][break]

”always exciting to meet a celebrity.”[break][break]

it was perhaps for having spent so much time in the submarine that she was surprised at the prospect of running into numerous paradox pokemon at once.[break][break]

”they keep appearing more frequently, don’t they?” before she’d left hoenn, the interdream zone had just begun to unleash its paradoxes into the world. now, they were popping up everywhere.[break][break]

she joined him further into the cave, and as the dimensionality began to shift around them, there was some wave of vague familiarity.[break][break]

”it could be this is the interdream zone interfering with our reality or perception, perhaps due to the abundance of the tera crystal.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]mission: tera tunneling act i[break]
Navy [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"]

“Maybe.” He says, realizing what a nonanswer that is. “…sorry. Eighth grade education means I don’t know much about science. Don’t even really get what these crystals are.” The sentiment is mostly true. He understands, on some level, that they’re power. They’re power in the same way a mega stone is power. With these, a meathead can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.[break][break]
“Don’t know how much farther these caves go, but we’ll probably find trouble soon.” The whiff of interdream mist is already on the edge of his senses.[break][break]
“But before that…I’d like to ask you one question. ‘Bout Rocket. Don’t worry, it’s not intel. I’m not gonna run back and tell the League what you say. I’ll be too busy licking their boots.” Bitterness leaks in towards the end of the sentiment. A cynical believer. She’s probably seen those before.[break][break]
“Back during Meteno…League’s story is Rocket did what they did to turn a profit. League says you guys would put everyone’s lives in jeopardy for cash. Was that it? Money? Power? That what motivated 'em?” He doesn’t know what he expects. Navy doesn’t know what answer he wants to hear.

[break][break]

+ Lulu Flint

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

”well, if you did know what they were, you’d be far ahead of any scientist in this region.” they had learned to use the tera crystal, but it still remained a daunting mystery in many ways.[break][break]

as signs of the interdream zone began to slip through the torn fabric of reality again, his question caught her off guard.[break][break]

her eyes remained ahead as they were suddenly filled with introspection and uncertainty. [break][break]

”it was what motivated some. for others, it seemed like a chance for answers.”

she reached into her jacket pocket for a silver tin, engraved with the mountains of the crown tundra, and from it pulled a cigarette. lit it.[break][break]

”you see,” she started through a puff of smoke, ”we didn’t hear about meteno through the news. two years ago, i conducted an experiment with killian decker to contact extraterrestrial life, and during that experiment it was revealed to us an asteroid was headed in our direction at an alarming rate. naturally, we went digging. turned out mossdeep was already aware of it.”[break][break]

she took another drag.[break][break]

”goode had decided to warp meteno to sea!hoenn before the public even knew about the potential meteor impact, or the ‘hostile’ alien world she had dared to venture to and piss off–this all being after the megalopolan invasion, which was also the league’s fault.”[break][break]

finally, her eyes looked over at him again. ”genocide. that was goode’s plan. meteno was an opportunity to clean up her mess, and yet, we are the selfish ones. while i will admit it was a bad decision, there was no righteous party.”

[attr="class","ooc"]mission: tera tunneling act i[break]
Navy [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"]

“Fuck…” What more can a man say to that – especially when he knows that she is right? She’s not the only one smoking after that. His poison comes in the form of a cigar. Thick, from a distant island. It looks ostentatious, but he doesn’t care. After hearing her perspective, he wants a smoke.[break][break]
She could be lying or misconstruing events, sure. Rocket has a propaganda machine. Anyone who doesn’t see that is a fool. Even a warrior has to understand there are more theaters to a war than the battlefield.[break][break]
An echo of FERNANDO SILPH ’s words dispel that notion. The councilman made no secret of what they were going to do. He framed it as a hard choice. Indeed, that is a hard choice – the sort that breeds hatred no matter which road you walk.[break][break]
“What the hell are the people who run this region thinking?” When their eyes meet, there’s recognition there – an understanding of something she said that wins the woman his respect. Few people would say what she said there, demonstrably so.[break][break]
“Not many people I’ve met admit both sides can be shitty.” Something sad tints the smile as he breathes that understatement to life. Though they might call him an officer of the law, he is at his core a warrior. Warriors must needs rally around a banner. “Shame everyone has to pick a side, huh? Even if it’s picking between cyanide or sarin.”[break][break]
When the world’s at stake, there are no righteous people.


[break][break]

+ Lulu Flint

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

”survival by any means necessary. good for such a struggling region, and most seem prepared to turn a blind eye to such evil if it means they will live. fair enough, but the truth does not change that it is selfish.”[break][break]

the sadness in his smile was seen and met with only gray weariness.[break][break]

”no one has to pick a side,” she argued. ”there is no draft. we choose to fight because we believe in something.”[break][break]

she herself had returned to hoenn for the sake of research. however, she would soon go to war for rocket, in order to continue her scientific pursuits. it was the way things were. it was the family she was a part of. it was paying her dues, forever.[break][break]

”you chose a career in law enforcement. why?”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]mission: tera tunneling act i[break]
Navy [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"]

“’Cause I hate cops.” He offers her an answer every bit as paradoxical as the monsters roaming the tunnels. “Up ‘til April, I was a private investigator. Well, on paper anyway.” He laughs, like there’s a joke there. “Really it was just merc work.”[break][break]
He walks while he talks, admiring the crystals. It seems he sees a different person looking back at him with the slightest shift of his body.[break][break]
“You’re right, you don’t have to pick a side. You should be able to just be a normal person if you want. Go about your life. Not worry about what’s in the sea or when some psycho’s Garchomp is gonna crash into your house in the middle of a gang war. The people down in Dewford needed a sheriff. They needed somebody. When someone’s got powers like yours, or Lopez’s, or Fairburne’s, normal people can’t deal with that. Laws don’t matter. Only justice in the world’s the justice you make for yourself and the people who matter to you.” That same mantra will, somehow, get him through an elite 4 evaluation.[break][break]
“And before you think it, I don’t got a legendary in my corner. Well, besides Shuwen. He’s not handing out special powers. Like I said, just an idiot. An idiot who doesn’t know when to quit.” Ahead, he spies a resting dragon. The creature is crowned with the earth itself. That, and its size, makes him think they’ve found their culprit.[break][break]
“Funny…usually don’t talk this much.” The Roaring Moon does little to dissuade his humor. “Anything I say can and will be used against me by Rocket intel, huh?”[break][break]


[break][break]

+ Lulu Flint

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

because he hated cops. ’laws don’t matter.’ from what she could gather, he was even worse than the rest of them, then. a league-employed man with a shameless murder-for-hire past, who now used the power of the government to take justice into his own hands–whatever that meant to him.[break][break]

after his joke, the air about her shifted, face stony. she gave a bitter chuckle, and the gaze that followed his reflection in the crystal grew colder.[break][break]

”i can keep a secret.” just not his. ”who’s shuwen?”[break][break]

around the corner, a roaring moon rested, and it was the last thing she wanted to see. perhaps her least favorite of all the paradox pokemon for its speed alone. it seemed the perfect trap to leave him in.[break][break]

”well, that looks like my cue." she released her alakazam. "good luck, sheriff.”[break][break]

with that, she put a hand to the pokemon's shoulder, and poipole did the same on the other side. the three were teleported away in a flash of light, surely bright enough to disturb the dragon nearby.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]mission: tera tunneling act i[break]
Navy [break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-alakazam"]