“Maybe, maybe,” she replied, thoughtfully. At the end of the day, it was probably unlikely. Trainers did not always fight. And even when they did, they as Pokemon often did not have much of a choice to fight unless specifically asked. Especially when one had a trainer like hers, who didn’t exactly seek out fights to begin with. Mareanie was reasonably certain that she never would get to fight either of them.

And that was fine. She had nothing to prove, no aggression to let out. That was the zen of poison and water types, probably. Instead, she observed the other dinosaur, trying to learn a bit more about it. That question asked was an innocuous one, but it also implied things. Maybe the Amaura was getting a bit jealous of the Tyrunt, which had gathered a small posse of Pokemon, while the two of them were still alone together.
Would it be a pittance to agree in this scenario? Maybe. But she guessed that she had nothing better to do, anyway.

“You should not nibble on me to begin with. You would only get sick. But what game are you thinking about here?” She could at the very least hear it out. Who knew, it might even be some fun. Nothing to lose here, everything to gain.

Items

“They are a suitable vehicle to dispense poison at a large group of enemies with some precision,” she replied, explaining it just because that was her nature. Though, really, she did not care too much about this particular application. Grenades were quite fierce indeed, but also too loud for her tastes. A proper poison should be supplied without the other person even knowing. Though, really, that just wasn’t an option some of the time. Just tossing a grenade at a bunch of pursuing rangers and their Pokemon was probably perfectly fine.

But yes, she did not much like explosions. Shizu wasn’t about the killing itself. If she was, she’d just poison any wellspring she came across. It was about subtly achieving your goals, even when they were lethal. That was what felt the best.
“It appears that we are getting some non-poisonous ones on this route, too,” she replied, looking at the next two Pokemon that they came across and that his team just knocked out. Litten was cute though, so she used a ball on it anyway. Why not? He wouldn’t know any better anyway.

“You use….psychic types, is that it? Or is this just because we are hunting poison types. That would make sense,” she replied, already lost in thought again. She still had to find out the peculiarities of psychic being so powerful against Poison types. Did not make too much sense in her mind.

---

catching Litten

Fascinating, fascinating. Shizue briefly smelled the goo on her finger, before dropping the sample into her container she’d brought. Goodra good looked interesting. That kind of slime was not necessarily poisonous by itself, but it had some very interesting attributes. It could possibly serve as a catalyst or carrying mechanism. Much like the Pokemon it came from could learn quite a few decent poison moves.



Honestly she was just interested in studying this slime. That was why she picked up whatever she could for future utilization. At worst, she was wasting some time. But maybe she could make this slime work for Rocket, too. And maybe she could find herself a live specimen to throw a ball at and maybe catch. That would be an even better way to study this.



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“Sounds to me like someone ought to take charge there,” she replied, once more nodding over crossed tentacles, as if she was some kind of sage. One eye was kept on the Tyrunt which was moving about and starting to gather a little posse. She had to admit that it was probably a good leader type. But that was not the grand boon it might have seemed, at least in her opinions. Leaders always had so much responsibility and they got bogged down by their weaker underlings. It was always much better to work just for yourself, really.

Though sometimes it was nice to not be alone. Fortunately, the two of them could stand aside from these Pokemon, together. That was the nice thing about being alone. Didn’t take a lot of others to change that for you, after all. “But yes, my trainer does let me fight when she fights. But she is mostly in those big stuffy clean rooms where there is nothing to fight. So I just usually pick those with wild ones when I come across them and they annoy me.” Come to think of it, putting her into a daycare like this was rather rare. But Mareanie figured that there was a reason for it. Her trainer had not let it down, ironically, despite her nature.
Or maybe because of it. Say what you want about her, but one usually always knew where one was at with that woman. “You really wanted to fight that Tyrunt, didn’t you?”

“Hmm,” she started, tapping her lips and briefly thinking. Well, it was more like remembering, since she pondered if anyone had spoken to her about direct applications like this. However, most were busy preparing going into the tree right now – which was not something for her, she’d just study whatever samples of merit they brought with – so she had not heard much in that regard just yet.

Hence, she could not adequately answer his question. “I am not quite sure yet how they will be used. It depends on how easily I can reproduce them in sufficient quantities. I would reckon more of a usage in grenades or the likes, however. If they wanted you to poison someone via liquids….hmm…..I could probably make something suitable after half a day in the forest down there.” She pointed towards a forest in the distance, figuring she would find suitable ingredients there.
Almost made her miss the next Pokemon that appeared. But she did see a Haunter and, given that the other’s Pokemon sufficiently weakened it, she would throw a ball at that one, too.

---

capturing haunter

Boo. She didn’t like mons like this. Mons that thought themselves above fighting and such, mere moments after they threatened others with just that. Humans called them Hyppopotasses or something. She had not really listened back then. But Mareanie did scoff at the Tyrunt trotting off, just seeing that as a sign of weakness more than anything else.

Then again, she was much more on the same wavelength as the Amaura. Which wasn’t too surprising. After all, ice was relatively close to water, right? Plus, they were both blue-ish! “If you worry about that, you just have to teach him to be stronger. My trainer is often a bit…lost and air-headed, so I poke her in the right direction. But I also lead her astray at times, so she doesn’t fully rely on that, mhm.” Mareanie crossed two legs like arms and nodded, clearly thinking herself rather smart as she copied the human gesture.
“Though I doubt the Chikorita will learn from that. It will just whine and mewl to its trainer and get coddled some more, learning nothing. Weak Pokemon are always like that. Can’t be helped. It’s why I never try.”

Well, unorthodox as it might have been, that stint with the pikachu had apparently been successful. At the very least, she heard a few more sounds of fighting behind her, then nothing anymore. The Cap returned, stuffing his living projectile back into its cover and acted like nothing had happened. Or maybe he just barely contained his rage at being left on his own there mostly. She and Mareanie didn’t know. They did not care too much. Instead she carefully but swiftly moved onwards, trying to memorize the path and create a mental map for herself.

Not exactly something she could share with her partner or anything, but she probably wouldn’t need to. At worst, he would simply have to follow her and nothing else. However, as she was still mulling whether or not it was worth investigating a small branching of the path, he already snuck down it.
Shizu sighed. Best case scenario, he found something there while she got a dead end. But even in that case, she’d just end up having to backtrack there anyway. They had no method of communication other than just yelling down the cave. Which probably was a bad idea with wild Pokemon about. Hence, her only real recourse was to follow him down there quietly and cautiously. Either he found a way to the target and they basically arrived at the same time, or he found a dead end and she could look down on his silliness. Either way, she’d win.

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“Manners? You are one to talk,” the perturbed Pokemon noted. Why was this dumb dino so aggressive to her now of all Pokemon? She hadn’t even done anything, just dropped a little truth bomb on the others. It was hardly fair to lump her in with the one who hurt others, even if she was on that one’s side. Those were two very different things as far as she was concerned.

Thus, she pouted, looking down on both the Tyrunt and the Chikorita it protected. “You know, that’s not how it will ever learn. If she’s here, she belongs to a trainer, so she needs to fight. My trainer always says that the weak should not be…what was the word? Coddled? Something like that! You are just as much a bully if you think you can force others to do what you want just because you are strong!”
Though admittedly, the Mareanie was not exactly trying to get into any fights here herself. She had been told to behave. The humans would not notice an argument like this, but they would probably look closer if they started actually fighting here. So, better not do that.

Silly fossils. Always biting and eating. These things had so little class, tormenting a Chikorita or trying to protect it. They should be above such things. Much like Mareanie, which had mostly just hidden in its little bunker for the last hour or so, only listening in but not interacting with the others. Yet, now there was enough commotion that even she was unable to just ignore it all.

Thus, that tentacle-hair bunker was lifted a little and she took a look at the two fossils. They looked rocky and stringent. Not good. Meant that poisoning them would be bothersome. And that was bad because her poisons tended to properly shut others up and make them more amenable. “Grml,” she starts, clearly annoyed by their antics. “Must you be so loud? Let it chomp, if that Chiko doesn’t have the backbone to fight it off it just deserves whatever. Best to just stay quiet and each to themselves, least someone gets the stinger here.”
A rather explicit threat maybe, but those two looked like the kind that would only respond properly to those. These kinds of Pokemon only spoke one language, after all, which was why they abused or threatened others. They had no class at all.

And since she was not wrong, that meant she was right. Even though he did not want to admit that. Male tsundere, simply identified. Those tended to not always be about love, but they could never outright give something to someone, it always had to be back-handed in a way. Not too uncommon in her experience.

But at least he was useful, using his Pokemon to get her subjects ready to be caught. Just like he was presenting her a Venipede on a silver platter here. “That works for me. And as for research…..it is mostly about synthesizing Pokemon poisons. That way we can probably improve our….arsenal quite nicely overall.” Not that she herself cared too much about the tactical applications of her research.
She just did it because she enjoyed figuring stuff like that out. Plus, she loved poison types and craved every excuse to study them. Getting more was always good. Hence, she threw another ball, this time at the Venipede.

Ah. So, he was an idiot, then. Shizue understood. While she had in jest agreed to the down equalling good part before, she had expected a bit more professionalism overall. However, it turned out that he truly was clueless as to what to do next. That was, in a way, fine. His prerogative and if it made him happy, whatever. As long as she knew what she was at, she could adjust. In this case, that meant she would have to be the more attentive one and make sure that they did not get lost.

Bothersome, but doable. She would simply focus on that task for the time being. With Mareanie following her, she allowed the young man to take the lead and, incidentally, he did manage to all but trip over a dangerous Pokemon already. Only to then throw his own Pokemon at that one. Quite literally.
She sighed. “Venoshock that one” was the simple order given to her Pokemon, which flung poison at the assailant. It was about all she was going to do in order to assist in battle though, as she was already distracted, investigating the path ahead. They would sort this out without her, she figured. She’d helped. Maybe she was an idiot too, at least in some ways.

“You are only a criminal if you are caught,” she replied, making a very matter-of-fact kind of statement there. It was what she lived by, really. Shizue had no problems breaking the law for this reason or that. Far from it. But she did try to not be caught. Sure, Rocket probably had enough on her to ruin any chance at a normal life should she try to leave, but the public at large had no idea what she did. Thus, she could still live normally under her proper name for the time being.

Fortunately, this criminal at her side decided to properly play the role of muscle, assaulting both incoming Pokemon and getting them ripe for the catching. Naturally, Shizue would capitalize on that chance and throw a ball at the Salandit while also getting out her Mareanie to help if needed. “I am mostly looking for Poison types for research, though anything could be useful for the organization under the right circumstances…….let us simply say that I will know what I am looking for precisely…..if and when I see it.” That probably just about explained what she was after here. Not well, but she was on an expedition here, not a hunt. Worst case scenario they got a bunch of Pokemon to give to other Rockets.