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Ash just gives Alec a smile. "You're free to if you want. Knowing you're afraid is where the courage part comes in." He turns his head towards the way up the mountain. He's been here twice now. Well, three times. The second time was the raid. The third time, was with Kepler, Isaac, and Temp.[break][break]

The first time though... eyes shut, he cranes his head back, sheepish in appearance. "Maybe you shouldn't though." He tries to smile. Part of him wants to tell this guy he just met that he's Rocket. See how well that flies. See if he'd jump at the first chance, to judge the cover before the book.[break][break]

He hesitates completely.[break][break]

"The Pokemon I'm paying respects to, they were my fault. Two of mine, and my best friend lost his Aggron because of me." It wasn't a lie, but it isn't a full-truth either... he feels himself tense up. Isaac Merlo loved Kiryu a lot. He feels the weight press down on his shoulders. "I'm here to pay respects. It's the least I can do for causing three innocent Pokemon to die." Even after forgiving himself, Ashley still can't fully let it go. It was his fault for Bullet, Pluto, and Kiryu. Sushi too. And even Jubilee. He caused five...[break][break]

Part of him did just want to see Jubilee again.[break][break]

Bongo enjoyed Marsha's company enough, enough so to at the very least get his feet muddied, as he monkeys around a little more, but Ashley was looking rough again. With a look to Marsha, he points to Ashley, with an intent to cheer him up. Hopping out of the mud, he places a muddy hand on the guy's shoulder.[break][break]

"Thanks, Bongo... still up to go with, Alec? Marsha too, of course."

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Advice. A year ago, he'd spit in Theo's face. Now, Ash takes a deep breath. Will it bring peace to him? He has no idea. He doesn't know if this will help him at all, but Theo is right. Baseless anger does not let him get his vengeance, it muddies everything. Him included.[break][break]

His exhale grounds him. The elevator opens. Zev and Gavin make the gameplan. Isaac would man the exits, Zev, Gavin, and Theo would take two, and leave him the spare. That easy.[break][break]

The doors close, and the elevator moves. Every ticking floor number begets a considerable amount of sweat trickling down his neck. Isaac was all too sure to know exactly how. The Ash that would commit the deed was not the same one that met Isaac on the beach almost a year ago. Things have changed a lot. Some for the better.[break][break]

This was not one of them.[break][break]

Each floor going higher, each foot further, he can feel his heart closing more. Walls beginning to come up. Defensively guarding him. Barricade away the bad decision. That way, he can stay innocent, right? It's... Byron's fault that he has to, right?[break][break]

It's hot as hell in here. His eyes coldly and blankly stare forward. Isaac's words sit as an omnipresent storm of the mind. Was certainty even allowed here? Troubling how even now, as they went up, his stomach still turns over. Zev taught him well, but perhaps that was what made him weak? Maybe it was... maybe the only thing he has here, as the numbers tic past the twenty mark, was an echochamber of people to tell him he was right to do this. So then, why bring Isaac? These three, well, most of them wouldn't have any issue with the slaughter. So why then?[break][break]

How did it get so fucked up?[break][break]

The elevator doors open on 40. Ashley takes a step out first. He briefly checks the small room, the unmanned desk nearby where a guard would be sitting, unguarded. The black leather couch with a small lovely nature scene on a screen nearby, hoping to play an instrumental cover of What a Wonderful World. There's a lovely plant that is nicely watered to the immediate right. To the left, however... Ashley's eyes are dead cold, and he is the first to approach the double doors, to open them.[break][break]

Seven men. Turn to face the doorway. Each an older man, likely in their 40s. They were drinking wine, enjoying themselves. One of them pipes up. "What the fu-"[break][break]

Go time.[break][break]

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Beaten again. Damn, Ashley is having all the trouble in the world just keeping up with the top brass. There's no medal for fifth place, and for a moment, he almost feels dejected... he closes his eyes, putting his spatula down, and thinks as the next dish is decided. Surf'n'turf.[break][break]

Unova. Home. The streets of Castelia City. The grills within the city itself. He taps upon the counter. He always saw the chefs throwing the knives and making a show right by live catches on the beach, literally as he was there, enjoying a small thing of bread. What would go best here? Was there an answer? He would not be deterred. He had to win.[break][break]

His eyes flash with inspiration, as he looks to Bongo. Bongo and him share a fist-bump, and the duo are in the pantry again.[break][break]

Welcome to the power hour with Ashley and Bongo, the duo this time are grabbing garlic, olive oil, fresh parsley, some fresh minced thyme, a lemon, some green onions, cayenne pepper, butter, bread crumbs, and the main course; Clauncher tails and Tauros steaks. With their haul done, they quickly race back to the tabletop, and get to work.[break][break]

Skillet at the ready, Bongo holds it as Ashley begins doing the work, as 2 tablespoons of olive oil sautés the garlic. Ashley sets the timer. "Once it dings, off." 30 seconds tick by, as Ashley begins chopping up the green onions, and begins to zest a lemon, putting the onions, the parsley, the thyme, some salt and pepper, the cayenne pepper in a bowl. Once that timer goes off, Ashley gestures. "Garlic, in." Bongo does so, beginning using a wooden spoon to push it in. Once Bongo finishes, Ashley gets a half cup saved of the herby mixture.[break][break]

Next, butter. Some is soft, this is good. Ashley throws it into the herbs to mix it up into the small bowl, and he begins to shape it into... a log? Interesting.[break][break]

As he races towards the fridge, he shuts it.[break][break]

"We got maybe 35 minutes, Bongo. Let's roll."[break][break]

With the oven heating to 375°, Bongo begins to split the Clauncher tails with his gorilla strength, lengthwise, as Ashley mixes the reserved herby mixture with bread crumbs, and melted butter, setting it aside as he takes out scissors, beginning to cut along the edges of the Clauncher tails, to loosen the cartilage covering the tail meat. It can be healthy, but Ashley tosses it to the trash. Cartilage isn't necessary here. It's all about the necessary bits, baby.[break][break]

"Okay, baking sheet, Bongo." Bongo nods, and places the Clauncher tails gently, cut-side up, as Ashley begins coating the tail with that crumb herby topping. It was oven ready, and they still had to wait for the oven to be ready. But thankfully, the boys were ready.[break][break]

Now comes the Tauros steaks, and Ashley looks towards Bongo as he points to the pan. "Like we practiced, bud. Hold it over, make sure it's cooked medium-well done, okay?" Bongo salutes. He's in charge of the steaks, and Ashley with sprinkling the pepper over it. And with the remaining oil, those steaks are sizzilin' nicely as the oven goes off. Ashley puts the lobster tail in, and sets it to 18 minutes.[break][break]

He looks to the time. They got some time now, so it's all on Bongo. He places complete trust in the Rillaboom, as the picturesque scene of the gorilla flipping steaks over with a spoon adds a novelty to the whole endeavor. And for an agonizing fifteen minutes, the crowd watches on at a Rillaboom cooking steak.[break][break]

Ashley rolls up his sleeves. Game time.[break][break]

The moment that oven is off, the tails are removed from the oven by mitt, and the moment Ash checks the fridge, that herby butter log is solid. "Perfect." Chopping into four fourth-an-inch slices, spinning the knife in his hand for a little showmanship, as he watches Bongo now removing the steaks from the heat. With unwavering trust in Bongo, he prepares the slices, as Bongo prepares the plates.[break][break]

Three split Clauncher tails, cooked and coated with that crumby herby buttery mixture in the split, with three Tauros steaks on the side, now holding some of that herby butter atop them to melt into the meat. With that, three plates for the judges.[break][break]

"Bon appetit. Some Kalos seafood and Kanto meat for you."[break][break]

Ash is sweating now. All he can hope is that he did a good enough job.

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Part of him just thinks. If he drops, so what? He ponders for a moment if it's worth it to just click a button and save the guy.[break][break]

In the end, he decides B. Yeah... he didn't like it. But no one deserved death by lava. Sounded painful.

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C. The primal rifts existed, like the Border, right? If they're popping up over Hoenn, than is the fabric of reality not tearing? It's almost obvious. He doesn't know Avatars. They already stopped a meteor with Mt. Pyre, and paradox Pokemon and Terastallization... he doubts that.[break][break]

If anything, Kyurem is the most terrifying of the bunch, but even then. The rifts, if they kept opening, could get worse.

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Reading through it, it only becomes more clear as he reads and scoffs. He was into makeup? Huh. Walsh is just... an oddity.[break][break]

... he closes his eyes. One of these answers is truthful. One is the lie he told himself in Kanto. So he selects C. The truth.

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Gag. Ashley finds himself cringing immediately, and it's due to a small grudge, but it's also because he doesn't want to talk about this with this guy. Why does he have to proceed? He shakes his head. Oh well.[break][break]

The choices are simple, agonizing, and he decides to remove Farhan's image from his mind. He thinks of his own.[break][break]

All three were necessary. But, core...[break][break]

"Communication." Sex is fine, but if you can't do the horizontal hanky-panky for months, it means the only two left are sacrifice and communication, and sacrifice wasn't core. Talking to get to that? That is.

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So true. Bread? Bread was powerful. Tasty. Delicious. It fills his stomach, and after cold winters on the streets, Ashley knew the power. And cream cheese was like a delicious luxury icing atop of it. This bagel fucked.[break][break]

The actual talk on the bank has a serious look in his eyes, a glint even as he places his hands together. He had thought of everything, yes, but he knows no job is as easy as it can be. For every avenue he thought of, with security Pokemon, technological advancement, there was always an armed guard at the wrong place, or a laser-grid system meant to trigger an alarm. Ashley doesn't know the basement, because that access is typically denied, meaning by time they get to the vault, that's where it goes wrong.[break][break]

Milk runs don't exist.[break][break]

He keeps it in his mind as Cygne and Isaac speak. Ash is smirking. The toothy grin is gone, there's just confidence. A man who is confident could pull any bullshit off and call it part of the plan. That was a quarter of the heist already solved. Cygne and Isaac were already doing groundwork too. He's happy he doesn't have to poison some dogs, and what with Cygne covering through the potential space to play, it only proves he was right in his desire to bring Cygne. Isaac too, because he does prove a valid point; killing would mean that money is frozen. The moment blood is involved, that money has to be laundered and trickled in.[break][break]

The thought does leave a bad taste in Ashley's mouth. He suddenly had a bad feeling.[break][break]

Cygne's question does have him respond by opening the files on Gerald Kaiser and Makoto Kurumi . He gestures. "Nah. These two should be the only Rockets we need with us. Gerald has some muscle, and if things go south, we need to make a way out. Between the five of us... we can do it without spilling too much blood."[break][break]

He points to Makoto next. "On the other hand, they're perfect to slip in and out too. We need someone who can slip out of the building undetected." It was to get the escape vehicle, or Pokemon ready to go. As Ash sees it, if they were to succeed in this heist, they needed that last one. If they wanted to live, and go home to see their loved ones at all, they needed every avenue covered they possibly could.[break][break]

Taking a moment to grab Pulse, Ash goes to his home screen. His background, a picture of Kepler he finds comfort in. His smile returns completely, before silver eyes shoot back to the couple.[break][break]

"My recommendation? All kinds of Pokemon are needed here. Big, small, experienced preferably. Anything that might help. A full team of six for each of us." Some powerhouses, some to fit in tight spaces. "I don't know what it's like under the bank, and at the vault. We need a means to open it too. A Fire Type would be nice, but a drill might even do us better, especially if we can make it silent..."[break][break]

Then the kicker.[break][break]

"I want to be perfectly transparent. Commercial banks don't have that much in them typically, but we're hitting an investment bank. They handle corporations, and this one is tied to a particular Unovan business that happens to have a branch in Mauville. The banks are stated to insur two-hundred and fifty grand if anything happens to that money, so judging from that, the bank itself will have the money to hurt from this-" And then comes the turn of his hand, as he swipes to a spreadsheet he has prepared for this exact process. He stares at the numbers to ensure he isn't talking out his ass before continuing.[break][break]

"-assuming this is the case, theoretically, the bank should have above a commercial banks typical two-hundred grand. That's why we hit them over a commercial. Take from the rich, give to the poor, Robin Hood would be proud. A million for each of us to walk away with, and five mil for Rocket."[break][break]

And, it would be a huge middle finger to his father, who worked at said corp, but well. That didn't necessarily need to be said. "Questions?"

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Hm. Swampert. Cute little thing, and as he chuckles, turning towards the Swampert as he makes note of it, Ashley turns back at the mention of his own business here. He holds up the bouquet in his hands.[break][break]

"Paying respects." He smiles. There's no reason to push the envelope, or explain he was here in Mt. Pyre. Or that he had intended to leave the bouquet in the spot where Bullet, Pluto, and Kiryu gave their lives for him and Isaac. It was simple. Sweet, and to the point.[break][break]

"Sawyer. Or Ash, either way, Alec." He turns his gaze up the mountain, Bongo moving nearby the mud pond-bound Swampert, and proceeding to step into it. Feet now covered in mud, he begins to stomp around to play with Marsha.[break][break]

Ashley smiles at his Rillaboom. At least Bongo was having a good time.[break][break]

He sighs. It never does get easier. His expression is sulky. "Hate to say it, but I'm almost afraid to go up there right now. So maybe I'll chill here for a second. You mind?"

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