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Sidney’s head lolled to the side in pronounced thought as she hummed. “Hmm… I’m not too sure,” she eventually answered, but not without a groan following. “But god, I hope not.” If she were being honest, though, she’d say it was part of the gig. They were probably expected to, of course, she would do exactly that in order to keep her paychecks from being halted due to an insufficient job.[break][break]

But that didn’t mean she wanted to, no matter how capable of handling combat she might’ve been.[break][break]

“He’ll let us know, though,” She pointed upward with a glib smile.[break][break]

From a rocky ledge above, her noivern let out a rolling chirp of sound–an occasional alert that he hadn’t spotted anything nearby that was out of the ordinary. Noct’s large ears swiveled as he peered around the cavern, yellow eyes catching the glow of nearby tera crystals embedded in the walls.[break][break]

Well, that was all well and good, of course– so long as they could actually hear him over the mechanical din of the machinery drilling into the. She was confident in the noivern’s skills, but perhaps she should’ve been a bit more concerned that his sensitivity was muddled by the noise as well.[break][break]

“You’d think they’d assign people who know what they’re doing with these things,” she called back as she gestured to the rig. Sciencey type, Sidney was not.

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"Me neither. I'm not exactly a battling type of guy," Frank agreed. He gestured to his Krookodile. "Kathy here can handle some small fry but I've heard the gossip about the Pokémon that live in these caves." [break][break]

Glancing down one tunnel leading from the rocky chamber, he shuddered at the thought of having to face a Paradox Pokémon. Casually, he meandered closer to the drilling rig, his hands in his pockets. [break][break]

"You'd think, right?" Though Frank peered closer at the machine, he didn't dare touch it. "Maybe some science-y guy will come by and do stuff with whatever data it collects." [break][break]

Then he paused. The hard earth beneath the machine was crumpled in a way he hadn't noticed before. Resting a hand on the rig for balance, he crouched for a closer look. [break][break]

"Hey, Sidney, look. These are tracks of some kind." [break][break]

TAGS – sidney tsuda[break]
NOTES – az excursion b: geological survey

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“I can do it, I just don’t really feel like it at the moment,” she answered with a shrug of her shoulders. Though it would make things a bit more exciting, wouldn’t it? On the other hand, it could damage the equipment and this thing looked expensive as hell.[break][break]
And Sidney was not keen on covering any damage fee she could get slapped with for breaking company equipment. So she turned back to Frank with an arched brow. “Not a fighter, though. What are ya then—desk jockey?”[break][break]
She watched him meander, content to remain where she’d settled herself. Though the incessant tap of her foot betrayed her actual restlessness. “Guess that makes sense. Or maybe they have some fancy pants cloud the data goes straight to.”[break][break]
Her head tilted, suddenly curious as he signaled for her. “What’s up?” She wandered closer, brows furrowing as Frank pointed at a disruption in the earth that didn’t come from the machine itself.[break][break]
Hands perched on her knees, she stooped down. Tentatively, her fingers reached to trace over the shape of one track. “These are kinda fresh,” she commented, casting a sidelong glance up at her companion. “Don’t suppose you recognize the shape, huh?”[break][break]

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"More or less," Frank answered with a chuckle. "I'm an accountant." [break][break]

Which was not the most glamorous of careers compared to his past ones, but Team Rocket's books demanded the sharpest of minds. He actually found managing and organizing it a mentally satisfying challenge. [break][break]

Sidney joined Frank next to the footprints, and he shook his head. "Nope, not at all. It's probably one of the new Paradox Pokémon, right?" He tried to remember all the different ones he'd already seen in photos. [break][break]

As he lifted his head to look around, movement from across the cavern flickered in his peripheral vision. His blood ran cold as adrenaline flooded his veins. Nearby, Kathy the Krookodile started growling. [break][break]

"Uh, Sidney? I think there's something here." [break][break]

TAGS – sidney tsuda[break]
NOTES – az excursion b: geological survey

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She grimaced at his answer— not because of him, because she’d be real: Frank was hot for an accountant. Like, what?? More because it probably said something about Rocket’s census.[break][break]
“They must be hard up for numbers if they’ve got the math guys out here running guard jobs…” Sidney flapped a hand in his direction, unbothered. “You’re doing great, though.”[break][break]
Well, so long as they didn’t come up against anything too awful.[break][break]
Something they seemed doomed to. “Maybe…” she replied thoughtfully. She considered the paradox Pokémon she’d encountered when she had run into LANCE VOLLANS. “I’ve only really seen one, and this doesn’t look like what a Walking Wake would leave.”[break][break]
She sensed the dread that filtered into his words, in time with the rumbling from the krookodile. “Move slow..” she pulled herself up at what felt like a snail’s pace, turning to face away from the rig.[break][break]
Overhead, her noivern sensed the trouble and let out a SUPERSONIC screech, hissing and swooping down just as a gout of flame from a Gouging Fire lit up the cavern, refracting off of a multitude of tera crystals with infernal glow.[break][break]
Scrambling, Sidney shoved at his arm to coax Frank into movement. “Dodge, dodge!”
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"What's a Walking Wake?" Frank whispered, compelled by the sudden tension in the air to keep his voice down. But Sidney was already standing and turning to face whatever else was in the chamber. He followed suit. [break][break]

The creature was unlike any he'd ever seen before. [break][break]

Frank had no time to wonder about it, however. The SUPERSONIC from Sidney's Noivern hit the strange Pokémon, instantly confusing it. Flames poured from its mouth in every direction—including theirs. [break][break]

Frank barely even heard Sidney's yells to dodge; he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her with him as he raced away from the INCINERATE. [break][break]

"Fuck! We gotta get out of here!" he yelled, frantic. "Kathy, do something!" [break][break]

The Krookodile bellowed and summoned an EARTHQUAKE. The ground split, the walls trembled, and the drilling rig started leaning to one side. [break][break]

"No! Anything but that!" [break][break]

Frank rushed toward the machine, grabbing its frame to try keeping it upright. [break][break]

TAGS – sidney tsuda[break]
NOTES – az excursion b: geological survey

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“Weird lookin’ thing,” she whispered back, shoulders rising and falling before her face twisted in comedic menacing (in spite of the situation,) and her hands rose, tucked close to her body to mimic tiny velociraptor arms. “All mean and monster-y.”
But the time for jest was soon over, and she quickly decided that she liked this one much less than the Walking Wake.[break][break]
The SUPERSONIC worked, but it also didn’t work, given the way it increased the beast’s rampaging. More flame spewed from its open maw as it stumbled and howled. Before Noct could do anything else, the Paradox Pokemon bellowed as the Krookodile practically turned the place upside down, “Oh, no! Kathy!” she echoed the croc’s name, frantically looking over at her partner like, do something, man![break][break]
Only to find him preoccupied. A hand flashed to a pokeball at her hip–for the second time in this stupid big chasm, summoning her ariados to come in clutch.[break][break]
“Tsumugi, help Frank!” The ariados scuttled to where Frank was stuck trying to push the rig back up. Passing around to the other side of the machine, a shot of SPIDER WEB was quickly threaded around a support beam to pull the heavy equipment back into place.[break][break]
The strands of webbing pulled taut from the effort, and Sid’s attention diverted back to Noct, who screeched and flapped around the Gouging Fire before blasting it with a plasmic DRAGON PULSE.[break][break]
“You got back up on speed dial??”

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"Thanks!" Frank shouted at the Ariados that had appeared to help secure the drilling rig. With the machine in place, he turned to regard the chaotic battle. [break][break]

As the Noivern's DRAGON PULSE smashed into the strange, Entei-like Pokémon, Kathy the Krookodile followed up with a well-placed BRUTAL SWING. [break][break]

For a moment, Frank thought they could win, but then the Gouging Fire unleashed a RAGING FURY. The cavern's interior grew swelteringly hot as flames licked up the walls. [break][break]

"Backup?" For a brief moment, Frank thought to call howard slayte on the phone, but he had no idea where his boss was. For all he knew, Howard was on the other side of the Giant Chasm, unearthing funeral urns. "I don't know!" [break][break]

Then, like a miracle of the darkest night, shadows swathed the entire chamber, dousing the fire. Frank had no idea what was going on, but the Paradox Pokémon was not amused. It roared again, backing up several steps before turning and fleeing down a corridor. [break][break]

The shadows lingered for a long time before slowly melting away. [break][break]

TAGS – sidney tsuda[break]
NOTES – az excursion b: geological survey

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Tsumugi clacked her mandibles in response to the man’s gratitude and continued her work, adding more webbing to the rig as she fortified the tether. Eventually the machinery groaned as it settled back into place.[break][break]
“Now you’re gettin’ the hang of it!” Sidney chimed in as the krookodile managed to take a successful swing at the angry paradox. It backed the beast up into a waiting HYPER FANG from Noct—his needle teeth sinking into its shoulder.[break][break]
Not that it did much to stop the rampaging attack that followed. “Yeah!” It wasn’t like she had anyone that came to immediate mind, but she was thinking on the fly. Maybe he had, like, connections or whatever.[break][break]
Maybe they were being watched after all. Swathed in the pitch dark of a shadowy embrace, they were sucked up into the void of it. She had to fumble to call her pokemon back, but eventually the sound of their assailant sounded far away, and then gone altogether.[break][break]
When light and scenery filtered back into view, a wild grin had pasted itself on her face.[break][break]
“That got the blood pumping, huh?” She puffed out a heavy breath of relief, then clapped Frank on the back. And then she laughed.[break][break]

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