Several weeks had passed since Zev last heard from Rhys Collins. Their previous exchange had taken place in the Giant Chasm, a new environment fraught with danger. Now, in sharp contrast, they met in the fitness center aboard Team Rocket's submarine. [break][break]

Rhys had reached out with an increasingly common request from grunts: combat training lessons. Scientists numbered fewest of that group, but Zev did not treat them any differently. If they sought him out, then he was going to mold them into weapons of the highest caliber. [break][break]

Not for Team Rocket, though it certainly seemed that way on the surface. In truth, he simply expected the best from anything or anyone that earned his interest. [break][break]

"What's your history with exercise or sports?" he asked Rhys after they'd warmed up. "Do you already work out, or not at all?"

TAGS – Rhys Collins[break]
NOTES – mission

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Zev removed his gloves and pocketed them, replacing them with a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. While Dorian beat the doomed Ranger to a bloody pulp, Zev lit up a cigarette and took a long drag. [break][break]

When the Mad Dog strolled up and offered the Black Hand a bite to eat, the latter shook his head. Not because the sight of a battered corpse curdled his hunger, but because he simply preferred to be alone. [break][break]

"I'm going to collect the rest of my payment," Zev said by way of explanation. Without another word or any gesture of farewell, he turned on his heel and left the warehouse.

TAGS – dorian westcliff[break]
NOTES – mission (repeat) | Kanto in the past

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Even a willing audience was not within Zev's ability to grant. Necrozma decided when to take notice and when other matters required its attention instead. All its Avatar could do was probe the psychic link between them. And so he did, dipping metaphorical hands into the flowing river of thought, emotion, and memory to decipher what wove between his fingers. [break][break]

And what he learned was that Necrozma remembered Cillian Quinn. Not in the way humans or Pokémon remember each other, but as a fleeting oddity. A unique note in the unending song of the universe. A brief flash of dark metal and fragile bone. [break][break]

Black shards of crystal pockmarked Zev's pale skin, rising unbidden from his flesh. [break][break]

"Shadow is an absence of light, but formed from light, too. You cannot have one without the other." The words flowed as he translated what he could of alien consciousness. "What happens when you steal the light from a soul? A body?" [break][break]

Foreign sensations pressed against Zev's mind. An existential sundering. A prison made flesh.

TAGS – Cillian Quinn[break]
NOTES – social

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Quiet triumph swelled Zev's chest as his fingers closed around the metal key. As he tucked it safely into his pocket, Oscar's voice crackled over the building's intercom. Adrenaline spiked through Zev's veins as Hitoshi shouted back, hot on the heels of anger. [break][break]

The Rocket Beast whirled around to glare daggers at the grunt, but then Genesect Prime's screech filled the hollowed-out spaces of the building. [break][break]

Before Hitoshi could even finish his sentence, Zev was moving. Using smoke and shadow as his cover, he made his way to the stairwell again and ascended as silently as possible. [break][break]

TAGS – oscar clayton Hitoshi Inoue[break]
NOTES – mission | inv: 1X key

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Zev kept an eye on missing persons reports. He was, after all, the kind of person who made these people disappear. However, this latest report was for a target of his: Terrance Ormonde, an outspoken anti-Rocket propagandist. As it happened, the man was also a competitive mountain biker and had been training for an upcoming event at Mt. Pyre. His family last heard from him two days ago. [break][break]

Zev's posting to Team Rocket's internal message board delivered an answer in the form of a grunt. cassidy, no surname. Her dossier detailed her recruitment, but no history. For all intents and purposes, she was a nobody. [break][break]

But she could become somebody. That was the crime syndicate's promise. [break][break]

"Ormonde would have stuck to well-used bike paths on the mountain," Zev mused aloud, scanning the tracks with a critical gaze. Noting the depth of the mud. "But once the storm hit, he could have easily lost his way." [break][break]

Choosing a Pokéball from his belt, the Beast released his Noctowl. The bird alighted on a branch above the two humans. Keen golden eyes observed the hand signals his master formed in the air: Seek prey. Man. Follow this. Report. [break][break]

Noctowl took wing with hardly a sound. Then Zev turned his cold blue eyes upon Cassidy. When he spoke, his voice was neutral. Apathetic. "We need to be quick, before anyone else finds him."

TAGS – cassidy[break]
NOTES – mission

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It took only a few days for normalcy to return to Team Rocket's operations. Zev guessed, though, that not all of his associates had resumed the normalcy of their lives before imprisonment. He'd been reminded of the fragility of the human emotional landscape not long after returning home. [break][break]

As he stepped inside Naomi Sato's laboratory, he wondered how many others still lingered within the afterimages of their prison cells. [break][break]

"Sato," he greeted the scientist. The last time they'd spoken in that space, her hair had been bubblegum pink. Now it was as blue as glacial ice. His own gaze, bluer and colder, lingered on the shortened strands. [break][break]

"Beckett told me you've been communicating with the League." Straight to the point, like a loosened arrow. Like a bullet. "Is that a token for you to remember them by?" [break][break]

Zev had read her wanted ad, published in full color in the HNN.

TAGS – Naomi Sato[break]
NOTES – mission

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How did Theo know? That was the thought that wrestled itself to the center of Zev's contemplations as he turned the underboss' words over in his mind. [break][break]

Wordlessly, he placed his white pawn within three maneuvers of the black king. He did not expect a swift victory, however. Pawns were lousy captors. They had purpose, but trapping the opponent in checkmate was not the primary one. [break][break]

Still, it was worth putting Theo in a position of discomfort, however fleeting. [break][break]

"I'll consider it." A pause. "I'll check on Sato, too, in case she needs assistance."

TAGS – THEO BECKETT[break]
NOTES – social

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Necrozma uttered a low, warning rumble at Bryan's shocked exclamation. Though the man thought he recognized it, it did not respond with the same familiarity. And as the DAZZLING GLEAM struck its crystalline body, it retaliated with GRAVITY. A great force suddenly pressed down upon the bodies of friend and foe alike. [break][break]

"Calm down," Zev said to Bryan, mentally adjusting so that the planet's tightened grasp affected him less. "I'm not here to kill you, if you'll believe it. The upper brass doesn't want your corpse; they want you to come back." [break][break]

Punishment likely followed Bryan's return. But if their superiors wanted him back in business, then his value alive was greater than the cost of tearing him limb from limb. [break][break]

Zev crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, notes of frustration woven into the exhale. "Can you actually fix it? Xerneas?" he asked.

TAGS – bryan delarosa[break]
NOTES – social | pre-Prismatic Penitentiary

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