A hand raises from the middle of the crowd, mechanical fingers wiggling as their owner tries to grab everyone's attention. Look down a little further and one sees a familiar little firestarter staring over at Naomi. Regardless of whether or not she's called on, Xenon has no problems pushing her way to the front of the crowd to ask her very VERY important question, regardless of who she might have to knock over on her way. And then, a cheerful voice asks some very decidedly uncheerful questions about just what the hell this whole situation was gonna pan out like.
[break][break]
"Hey, yeah, I've got a kinda important question! I don't really know about this whole DRK Triad thing, seems like a pretty edgy bunch, but I can respect a little bit of edge, very ultramodern flair. But uh, they bleed right?" A beat passes, the girl continues to stare before deciding to elaborate further. "I just mean like, from my understanding of it these guys are like some kind of multiversal losers who claim to have just about the closest approximation to our understanding of omnipotence on their side, so like do we know if they can even die? Have we ever killed one of them before? Like for sure?"
[break][break]
She turns left to right, staring at everyone else in the room in hopes of some kind of answer. "I just don't think we should assume they're Human. I mean it would be real nice if they were, Humans have pretty obvious weakpoints regardless of what kinds of powers you have. You can cut off their heads, rupture their organs, burn them into pretty little piles of ash, crush their bodies into little red pancakes, etc etc. But if they're not Human, then killing them gets a whole lot more complicated. Hell, it's still pretty complicated to kill them even if they are Human, cause again, Arceus, closest living approximation to omnipotence we know of. How do we know the thing can't just bring them back to life whenever it wants? Do we have to kill God? Because I don't mind killing God, I just figure it might be a little tougher than killing a big flaming chicken like I had to. Lamest SPECTRA trial ever by the way, next time I want Groudon at bare minimum."
[break][break]

+ - Xenon asks the very obvious question: Is the DRK Triad a group of humans? And can they even be killed conventionally?[break]
-

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

They fight for their lives as they flail about in the sinking sands, even the unflappably cool ultramodernist starts to look a little panicked as she sinks in up to her armpits, reaching out for her Cacturne as it continues to duke it out with the Pallosand who thought it could prey on her in such a underhanded manner. Perhaps that's all that keeps them from death as its attention is drawn away from the trio, leaving them to fall into the depths of the earth further as the shifting grain swallow her up to her neck, her breathing hitches as she starts kicking her legs trying to swim up on instinct.
[break][break]
Deep breath in, then out. The sand covers her mouth, panicked eyes dart left and right to try and find her companions, they've already been drawn under. One last deep breathe in through the nose, just in time as she sinks another inch in, she can feel the abrasive grains scraping at the insides of her nostrils now, trying to choke her out. Close your eyes, it'll all be over soon. She can't help but think it in the back of her mind, an intrusive little thought making itself known over the death throes of a drowning woman, but this is so not an ultramodern way to go out.
[break][break]
Down she falls. Down, down, down, black, blacker, yet blacker still. It's been a minute, no, two minutes? She wasn't counting the seconds properly, she's never tried to see how long she could hold her breath for, it's never been a major concern for her. The world record is something around 18 minutes for a professionally trained woman, 22 minutes for a professionally trained man, she's neither of these, holding her breath for as long as she has is a miracle in and of itself. Her lungs are burning red hot, she needs air so bad right now, but if she opens her mouth she's going to choke to death on sand, nothing but sand, maybe having her life drained by that pokemon would have been an easier way to go-?
[break][break]
Don't finish that thought, your feet are touching air. She forces herself to start thrashing as much as possible to try and speed up her descent, bright lights are flashing behind her eyelids, she's so fucking close Arceus damnit she want TO LIVE!!!
[break][break]
She isn't aware of it in the moment as she passes out, but her body ends up falling straight through the sand packed ceiling and right on top of Frank's where ever he lands, she's not all too heavy all things considered with the prosthetic arm, but she is still a fully grown woman landing on the guy with all the grace of a half dead body falling directly on his torso. It takes maybe a minute for her to regain consciousness, eyes fluttering as she tries to adjust to the darkness, doesn't even have a snappy quip ready as she stares right into the man's eyes from on top of him.
[break][break]

+ Ultra Desert #2[break]
Gerald Kaiser Frank Caffey

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Off they go to find whatever interesting little thing that Promethium discovered, walking through the ruins following the living scarecrow as they trudge through the sand. Perhaps it was a lack of care that led to the ground collapsing under her feet and the sand trying to swallow her whole, or just a lack of attention at least as the Pallosand sucks her body up to her knees and starts to drain the life from her and the rest of the trio in a matter of moments.
[break][break]
But unlike Frank, there's no panic present in her body language as she calmly reaches a hand out towards the Cacturne and snaps her fingers, grabbing its attention and throwing it into battle mode as it focuses its enmity on the Pallosand trying to eat her. "While it's distracted, Sucker Punch." Her voice is calm and neutral even as she's pulled down further to her chest, she doesn't struggle or flail about wasting pointless energy, she knows that will only bury her deeper and give her less time to escape this not so certain death.
[break][break]
So while that ghostly sandcastle tries to drain the life from the Wiglett attacking, it fails to notice the shadow sliding under its line of sight, right until a paw filled with dark energy crashes into its center of gravity and unleashes a furious Sucker Punch right into its weak point, prompting a agonized screech as half of its body mass is blown away and it tries to Shore Up and recover from the damage done to it.
[break][break]

+ Ultra Desert #2[break]
Gerald Kaiser Frank Caffey

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It's a simple rebuke, but it cuts deep as Xenon's routine halts and she starts cursing under her breath. Because he was right, he was absolutely right and she didn't even realize the routine she had fallen into and it pissed her the hell off. "I need to maintain a base standard at least-" The girl halts in the middle of her sentence, she wanted to justify herself by saying she needed to maintain her current strength, but that was an excuse, a bad one that justified stagnation.
[break][break]
"Yeah no, you're right. What I'm doing now ain't gonna cut it if I wanna make my future a reality, so lets push the boundaries some." She turns away from the punching bag and starts walking towards Temp, the Toxel by his side snatching up the handful of trail-mix without hesitation and shoveling it into her mouth like it was the last piece of food she was ever gonna eat. Happy grunts accompany the crunch of peanuts and almonds as she waddles away to go look at something else, always curious about something new in her limited world.
[break][break]
"I know how to beat a man's face in if that's what you're asking. Haven't had to since I installed the prosthetic, but there's a first time for everything." She unconsciously rolls her shoulder as she says this, still getting used to the feeling of the artificial limb and the subtle differences in weight that it carried compared to her old arm. It was heavier in a way that required conscious adjustment of how she carried herself, otherwise she was going to be walking lopsided.
[break][break]

+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"Miss President, that's not half bad. Not half good either though, not a big fan of the whole democratic election thing. Eh, we'll workshop it." Xenon muses as she unclips the ball holding her Gothitelle and releases the psychic type onto the trash pile. "Hafnium, start scanning around for a good cluster of pokemon around here, we want to drive them towards the city in as big of a group as possible, try and get them to gather into a mob." The girl claps her hands and the Gothitelle's eyes close as she begins her search, leaving Xenon to discuss further plans or lack thereof with Ruby.
[break][break]
"So Red, I'm calling you Red on account of the red hair, how you feel about this mission huh? I mean, a lot of people are about to get sick because of what we're doing. How does that make the big bad Rocket grunt feel?" The girl wears a pleasant smile as she asks, but her eyes tell the real story as she pokes and probes at her coworker, she's trying to get a gauge of just what kind of person she was working with today. She had no problems coming to terms with the fact that she was about to hurt a whole lot of people doing this, but not every Rocket could do underhanded shit like this without any emotional qualms. Most of them just signed up for the license to commit violence on a whim, real society wrecking shit like this left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.
[break][break]

+Ruby Garcia

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

"Look what else the Meowth dragged in, good to see ya gloomy~" Xenon titters as Gerald and his Kecleon approach, lizard leading with aplomb and attracting the attention of her Toxel as it hops down from her shoulder to sniff the new stranger out. A Wiglett joins the party shortly after and the trio of Pokemon seem to start in on their own conversation, while their owners stand awkwardly around staring at one another.
[break][break]
No, wait, that's mainly Gerald. Xenon is more than strong enough to power through any kind of social awkwardness as she speaks up. "Honestly I don't find any of this shit interesting, it's all a bunch of boring dusty ruins, but I have had good old Promethium sniffing around for something interesting." Speak of the devil and he shall appear, a shadow looms over the group as a tall Cacturne waddles around from the corner of some ruins with a happy grin, patting Xenon on the shoulder gently and pointing to the direction he just came from. "Looks like he just got something too. Care to follow gentleman?"
[break][break]

+ Ultra Desert #2[break]
Gerald Kaiser Frank Caffey

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

A device reminiscent of a geiger counter softly clicks within Xenon's hand as she approaches the cavern entrance in Route 111, a frown appears on her face as she looks up at her Glimmora eyeing the rocky gateway with extreme interest in its miscolored gaze. "Gonna have to adjust further if I want to match your nose aren't I?" She mutters as she tucks the device away into her jacket, letting out a heavy sigh and crossing her arms tersely. This was simply the latest in a series of experiments related to the Paradox phenomenon she was researching, a study into the correlation between Terastal crystals and the Interdream Mist that seemed to accompany their appearances, and in turn the correlation between the Interdream Mist and the appearance of Paradox Pokemon.
[break][break]
Creating a device that directly tracked the Interdream Mist was somewhat difficult at the moment due to how sporadically the phenomenon came and went throughout Hoenn, but tracking the appearance of Terastal crystals at least was more than doable thanks to the vast online community that showed interest in the Terastalization Phenomenon that had been imported from the Paldea region. Xenon herself had very little interest in that type of thing, changing the type of a Pokemon briefly held little merit for her field of study. However if she could find a way to reliably track down Interdream Mist, possibly even capture some for herself for study in her lab, that would be most ideal.
[break][break]
Thus we find ourselves here on Route 111, dragging Kaname Fujihara along with her to act as a mission partner and extra muscle if she ran into something or someone she couldn't handle by herself. Highly unlikely of course, but one can never know what the future holds. "Research Log Chi Nu Mu 838, open. I've approached the initial entrance to the research site with the assistance of Bismuth and Rocket Operative Kaname Fujihara, already I can see a glimmer of unaspected Terastal Crystals dotting the inside of the cavern. We're going to be entering the research site now, time of entry is 12:37:28. Anything said from this point onward will be directed towards Rocket Operative Kaname Fujihara, unless stated as a note to self."
[break][break]
The woman tucks her phone into the breast pocket of her jacket and turns to look at Kaname for the first time since they had met up two routes ago, adjusting her glasses and cracking a smile. "Any interjections for the record? Hypothesis you want to state beforehand, praise for my absolute genius, etc etc?"
[break][break]

+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

With the Trinity Trials over and done with, those who had participated found themselves at rest within the halls of Rocket HQ. Some spent their time sleeping away the stresses of the batch of high profile missions the organization had sent them on in the past few months, others fraternized with their fellow man to complain about how they had been worked to the bone. Xenon Civitas Antheil had little time for such meaningless trivialities, the future waited for nobody and neither did she.[break][break]
Her time was spent researching, researching and training. She lost her arm during the fight against the Legendary Dog and the Beast of Ruin, the prosthetic replacement she had constructed to replace it needed to be broken in properly if she wanted to continue advancing past the her of yesterday. The sound of metal and flesh pounding against heavy canvas fills the training halls as Xenon throws her fists into the hanging sandbag, sweat dripping down her face as she throws out combo after combo without rest.[break][break]
Her Pokemon were much the same as six different creatures spread throughout the training hall in various exercises. Argon and Hafnium pair up in a faux sparring match against one another, throwing out Psychic blasts and Night Shades to see who can hit the other first, Radon and Rhodium race across the track trying to outspeed one another atop an Electric Terrain that Rhodium has to force itself to maintain, Chromium practices using its newfound limbs to pound against a trashed car, and Polonium simply watches everything happen with awe in her eyes, ingraining the nature of combat into her body to prepare for when she too must fight.[break][break]
There was no time to waste with trivialities like rest or relaxation. The future is a war, a war that Xenon refuses to fall in. Which is precisely why she forced herself to swallow her pride and call upon Tempest Quinn for his experience to help her train. The evaluation she had received after the simulated battle against Moltres... it chafed her more than she'd like to admit. But it was also correct in its assessment, she wasn't one to deny an honest critique just because it was something she didn't like. Stagnation is death, only through evolution can her ideal future be achieved.
[break][break]

+ Tempest Quinn

[attr="class","pokeclass"]