The battle was a blur. Noises blended together until the world around Gunner was one horrific cacophony of screams, roars, and explosions. Blood painted everything: the streets, the walls, his own hands. Only when the girl shouted in his ear did he look up from the corpse he'd made. [break][break]

"Sootopolis?" he repeated slowly, coming out of his daze. "But this is Slateport." [break][break]

He hadn't been in either city when Team Rocket invaded them. Missions had taken him outside of Hoenn in its entirety, to snowy Sinnoh and charming Kalos. Both times, he'd wished his assignments had been closer to home. Both times, he'd wondered what he'd have done if he'd been there to defend it. [break][break]

In the simulation, he no longer needed to wonder. [break][break]

Gunner stood and shook his head. "I wasn't here during the invasion, but…" He scanned the immediate area, getting his bearings. "Reports mentioned Blackwell was at the docks. We have to hurry, before they cut off the power to the city."

TAGS – Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki[break]
NOTES – rks simulation

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Race? "Wait, it's not a race—" Gunner started to say, his brow furrowed in confusion. [break][break]

But Beau was already running off with his Pokémon in tow. Gunner shrugged and started walking in the opposite direction, his Steelix slithering along the beach behind him. [break][break]

Eventually, they reached a grassy sand dune overlooking the other side of the fetid, toxic swamp. There, a Muk and Garbodor were spewing sludge. Thankfully, neither Pokémon had noticed them yet, so Gunner opened a second Pokéball to even the odds. In a flash of light, his Baltoy appeared, levitating above the ground. [break][break]

"Incapacitate those two," Gunner instructed, pointing. "We'll have Fontaine collect them and bring them to the Ranger Headquarters for relocation." [break][break]

Ophelia and the Baltoy, Tom Thumb, rushed forward. The former slammed into the Garbador with HIGH HORSEPOWER while the latter blasted the Muk with EXTRASENSORY.

TAGS – Beau Fontaine[break]
NOTES – mission

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Gunner shook his head with more vehemence than he intended. "Hell no. I'm not a leader type. I'm much better at carrying out orders while people more capable than me make the big picture decisions," he said. [break][break]

He paused, then added with some reluctance, "Paxton's probably the same as me in that way. He served in the Kanto Army, did you know? A proper soldier." [break][break]

Gunner, on the other hand, had just been an analyst sitting behind a desk in a foreign country. Days before war, he and his team had been evacuated out of Hoenn. Unlike Paxton, Gunner hadn't had to live through the waking nightmare; all he'd seen were photos and video footage. [break][break]

"Hey Navidson, can I ask you something?" The blonde man scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Have you ever been in a situation where you know deep in your gut you were wrong to do something, but you don't know what to do about it?"

TAGS – Michael Navidson[break]
NOTES – social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner and Navy were cut from the same cloth: warriors, soldiers, people whose job it was to carry out orders someone higher up the chain of command had given them. Men like them were few and far between, the agent thought. The average person couldn't stomach the hard choices their bosses often had to make, let alone live with them forever. [break][break]

"You think we'll get to work together on the op?" The notion brought a smile to Gunner's lips. "Like when we teamed up to defend Dewford against Kyogre, huh?" [break][break]

He flashed back to that autumn day when a thunderstorm beat down upon them on the pier. The ocean had swelled with so much fury that it sought to snatch them from the land itself. But their Pokémon had triumphed over the leviathan, theirs and… [break][break]

Gunner took another swig of beer. He wanted to broach this topic, but he didn't know how.

TAGS – Michael Navidson[break]
NOTES – social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Penelope's Charizard emerged from his Pokéball, signaling the end of reconnaissance and the start of the assault. Gunner's training switched him between modes the way a bolt levered bullets into a chamber. Smooth. Conditioned. He summoned forth his Salamence and vaulted onto the dragon's back. They took off after the Councilwoman's burning wrath. [break][break]

In the air above the campsite, fire met fire. Still a short distance behind his boss, he trained his rifle on the woman standing up. He saw the VI on her cheek through his scope and knew her at once. [break][break]

She had beaten GIDEON GRAVES bloody. [break][break]

[break]

"I'll take care of the bodyguard!" Gunner shouted at Penelope without taking his eyes off Parker. "You deal with the Visionary!" [break][break]

On the back of a wheeling dragon, through a cloud of thickening smoke, he aimed. [break][break]

Squeezed the trigger. [break][break]

This is for Gideon. [break][break]

Fired.

TAGS – Naomi Sato parker jones PENELOPE LIVY[break]
NOTES – mission

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Shaking his head in wonder, Gunner winced at the long list of Navy's responsibilities. "Gym challenges and Elite Four matches? Isn't it that you're supposed to give up the more local role when you get promoted to the regional level?" [break][break]

Not that Navy was the first to juggle both titles. Gunner simply couldn't imagine doing it himself, if he'd been the one the Commissioner had asked instead. [break][break]

He had other obligations, anyway. [break][break]

"I heard about the Toxic Chain reports. It sounds like it's spreading quickly all over the region. The presence of Poison-type Pokémon, too." Leaning back in his chair, Gunner crossed his arms over his chest, looking troubled again. "Do we have any idea what could be behind all of it?" [break][break]

He recalled a report he'd read last autumn about some Megalopolans in the swamps, but for some reason, that seemed like the incorrect conclusion.

TAGS – Michael Navidson[break]
NOTES – social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Duty called, and Gunner answered it every single time. [break][break]

It brought him to the site of his last great injury. The cold steel of his gaze met the ice and snow of the Silent Icelands as he recalled in vivid memory the battle against Kyurem. The pain of the blow that felled him. The agony of failure. [break][break]

He would not let that happen again, not as he descended into the Giant Chasm alongside PENELOPE LIVY. Others might call it folly for him to continue acting as her shield, for she possessed powers beyond his own ability. But few knew her like he did. Few could fight for her like he could. [break][break]

"Miss Livy, there's a campfire just a hundred yards northeast of us," Gunner said, looking through the scope of his rifle. Perched on a cliff ledge, he had the perfect vantage point. "Two people, two Pokémon…" [break][break]

He paused, frowning. Lowering his gun, he looked over his shoulder at the Councilwoman. "One of them is a blue Unown." [break][break]

What he did not mention to her was the nagging feeling in the back of his mind when he looked at the two human figures. He couldn't see them well with how they stood together, but something about their postures and hair colors seemed familiar.

TAGS – Naomi Sato parker jones PENELOPE LIVY[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

If Annalise sought to catch Gunner off guard by her version of the story, she did not succeed. Instead, he simply nodded in a weary, ashamed sort of way. [break][break]

"Matias was right," the agent said, finding it odd to refer to a stranger in such a familiar way—an Elite Four, no less. "Despite the Bureau's efforts, the Council ultimately decided we did not have enough resources to launch a full-scale search." [break][break]

Gunner's cheeks reddened with embarrassment even as he scowled in frustration. "That didn't stop us from looking, but it did stop us from getting what we needed to find your sooner." [break][break]

As for the animosity between Annalise and Penelope, he could only shrug, hands spread in a universal gesture of "I don't know." [break][break]

"I don't know you, and I wanted to help you. Isn't duty enough?" It was enough for him, anyway.

TAGS – annalise henderson[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner was not too uptight to recognize a fistbump offer when he saw one. He hesitated, then accepted that this behavior was what he should expect from Beau. Clenching his gloved hand, he tapped his knuckles against the other man's. [break][break]

Yep, definitely weird. [break][break]

Thankfully, Beau's Kubfu and Pangoro arrived to distract Gunner from the awkwardness of the gesture. When the little bear performed his bow, Gunner inclined his head toward both Pokémon in return. [break][break]

"Pleased to meet both of you. This is Ophelia," he said, gesturing to the Steelix, who rumbled in greeting. Turning to Beau, Gunner added, "I have an Urshifu of my own, if your Pokémon ever want a sparring partner. Maybe Orson could learn something from his evolved form." [break][break]

With introductions and pleasantries out of the way, the agent addressed the task at hand. "I agree. We won't be able to clean up anything if we don't dispatch the source first. Do you want to start from one side and I'll take the other, and we'll meet in the middle?"

TAGS – Beau Fontaine[break]
NOTES – mission

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Gunner sipped his beer, its bitter coldness a balm for a parched throat. "A bit of this, a bit of that. I was on leave for a while earlier this year, after Kyurem's attack. A Pokémon attack hit me pretty hard in the back, so the doctor ordered bedrest." [break][break]

How frustrated he had been, then, to be confined to GIDEON GRAVES's apartment instead of working. Ultimately, the forced recovery had been good for him. He'd fully healed and was back to work, like he'd wanted. [break][break]

"Recently, I've been helping with the operations in the Giant Chasm. I'm… not sure about Paxton, though. We haven't worked a mission together since the Icelands." [break][break]

A troubled look stole across Gunner's face for a moment before it disappeared behind a longer swig. [break][break]

"What about you?" He peered sidelong at Navy. "You look like you could use a vacation. Have you been sleeping at all?"

TAGS – Michael Navidson[break]
NOTES – social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Hey, Navidson. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me." [break][break]

In a crowded saloon in Dewford Town, Gunner slid onto a stool at the bar next to the most recent Elite Four. For once, they were not meeting for work; no high-profile figures needed protecting, and no city needed defending from a Pokémon attack. [break][break]

No, the agent had invited his acquaintance to grab some drinks and bar food. To chat, catch up, and perhaps get some advice. [break][break]

The bartender came over to take their orders. Not intending to get drunk, Gunner opted for a beer on tap.

TAGS – Michael Navidson[break]
NOTES – social

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Gunner didn't know exactly what to visualize when he read the report that Route 107's beaches, right outside Dewford Town, had turned into a putrid swamp. What he saw when he arrived was beyond his wildest imagination: the pristine sands transformed into bubbling pools of poison, groups of Poison-type Pokémon spreading noxious fumes. [break][break]

Waiting a safe distance from the site, Gunner scanned the area for signs of his partner from Dewford's Rangers. Supposedly Beau Fontaine, who he remembered from a mission in the Giant Chasm, was to meet him at the entrance to the route. [break][break]

Finally, Gunner spotted the other man and waved to get his attention. [break][break]

"Good to see you survived that dangerous canyon," the agent said when Beau was within talking distance. Nearby, his Steelix uncoiled, massive head rising into the sky.

TAGS – Beau Fontaine[break]
NOTES – mission

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