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"Yes," Rhys affirmed, expression neutral as he took in the grimy room he found himself in. Though forgettable in most cases, he'd come a long way in the intervening months since Zev had last debriefed him - more focused, less unsure of himself. He'd been told what to expect, but as with so many things, experiencing it directly was a completely different matter.
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He blinked, nonplussed, at the impact of the cleaver, glancing to Zev and raising an eyebrow. "Capital idea," he agreed. "Is there a benefit to taking multiple paths on repeated entry, or is one as good as the other?"
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It was a simulation, of course, so directing his disdain toward the constructed butcher would be fruitless at best and an utter waste of his energy at worst. Still, he couldn't resist analyzing the scenario: mutilating these pokémon simply for monetary gain was pointless. If you're going to do it, he wanted to snidely comment, do it for something more perpetually worthwhile.
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Short-sighted idiots, even in a computer.

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The internal wince that Rhys experienced at Aurelie's gentle correction didn't reach his features, as he offered a wry smile in return. "Aurelie, then! Force of habit," he explained with a wink. No one could say his mother hadn't raised him right - or if they did, the one or two that openly derided his occasionally dated sensibilities - well, some of his contemporaries had been in tragic accidents.
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A shame, really.
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He canted his head slightly as Aurelie provided background to the battle, and the subsequent appearance of the strange metallic pokémon, looking the Iron Crown up and down with a narrowed, appraising gaze. "From another dimension, perhaps? he mused. "I've heard of the Ultra Wilds and their similar phenomena...oh!"
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His train of thought was broken as the Iron Crown took off, followed shortly thereafter by its trainer and then by Rhys himself, Althea yelping in alarm and struggling to catch up. "You...may have been...on to something!" he called, huffing.
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He came to a stop just behind the red-haired woman, regarding the corpse with raised eyebrows. "A body," he agreed, moving past her to crouch next to the fallen traveler. Leaning over, he examined the frankly extravagant wounds before turning his head to glance up at Aurelie.
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"I can't be more specific, but it's been hours, not days. What kind of pokémon could have inflicted this kind of damage all at once?"

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The trek took the unlikely pair past a small pond, its still and tranquil surface breached by a bulbous pink head and a pair of fins.
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"Ew," Rhys remarked reflexively, cringing backward from the piscine pokemon that regarded the trainer and his Lucario with vacant eyes.
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"Let's just, uh, keep going, shall we? No need for you to get wet trying to fight that thing." Owain nodded an affirmative, and the pair skirted past the pond to continue on their walk. Rather, they would have continued, had a splash not sounded behind them and a concentrated WATER PULSE hit Owain in the back and sent him skidding forward several steps.
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The Lucario turned his head slowly with a growl, and before Rhys could even issue a command, leaped into the middle of the pond amid a great splashing of water. The Alomomola wailed piteously and dived for safety below the water, but Owain followed, and after a number of bubbles and ripples broke the surface of the pond, all fell still.
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Looking on incredulously, Rhys took in the sight of his Lucario dragging itself determinedly from the water, shaking off at the shoreline before rejoining Rhys with a scowl that dared him to say anything about the encounter.
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Holding his hands up defensively, Rhys motioned for Owain to continue, and the pokemon proceeded ahead of him with a derisive snort.

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Rhys opted to take a meandering route through the next stretch of the path, the grass coming up high enough to leave streaks of pollen and other ecological detritus on the calves of his trousers. He didn't seem overly concerned, however, instead focusing ahead of him on the next trial for Owain to tackle.
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Said trial was soon presented in the form of a small Rookidee fluttering upward just to his left, disturbed by his passing. "Alright, Owain," he nodded to his companion, "Don't go overboard, let's take this one home with us, yeah?"
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The Lucario nodded decisively, sprinting forward and leaping into the air to meet the small bird, delivering a few rapid-fire punches in a METEOR MASH that sent the bird to the ground, twitching helplessly. Rhys sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, and waved a hand. "Come on, now, I said NOT to go overboard."
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Managing somehow to look abashed at this setback, Owain approached the Rookidee gently and held out a hand, liquid energy falling from it to heal some of its wounds. The small bird ruffled itself and rolled over to stand on its own two feet, tilting its head up at the Lucario quizzically with a 'cheep'.
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With a grin, Rhys tossed a safari ball at the Rookidee, catching it on the rebound and offering a nod to Owain. "Good job!"

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Rhys smirked as Althea worked to complete the base of her snowboy, at one point tripping forward to plunge face-first into the growing sphere of snow in front of her. Stifling a laugh, he moved to tug her free of the imprisonment, though the result was that the entire carefully-rolled sphere of snow was dispersed messily across the surrounding area.
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Althea began sniffling dejectedly, and Rhys offered her a smile and a reassuring pat on the head. "Hey, hey, no worries! You start again, and I'll get us a little treat to keep our energy up, okay?"
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Offering the Audino a parting wave, Rhys wandered over to the concessions stalls, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. He cast a surveying gaze over the stalls and carts, eventually landing on the brightly-colored dango skewers arranged artfully along one cart.
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Clapping his hands together brightly, he moved to stand in line for the snack, glancing idly about as he waited. His eyes met Yumi Hasegawa near her entourage and he offered a wave and a broad smile in greeting from the distance between them.
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"Explains the aim," he growled through his teeth, eyes flickering down to the spiced wine she held before he turned to look at something more pressing, like a passing bird.
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No sooner had Rhys resolved to make the most of this particular excursion than a disturbance drew his focus from the path ahead. A patch of long grass rustled ominously before an erratically-flapping Woobat burst into the air, fluttering about in dizzy circles. "Alright, this is our first battle together," Rhys nodded to his Lucario, who grunted and dropped into a battle stance, eyes fixed on the Woobat.
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A moment passed, and the Woobat continued fluttering aimlessly nearby without offering any outward sign of aggression to either the trainer or his pokemon. "Hm," Rhys reflected on the situation as Owain blinked incredulously at the interloper. "Well, maybe not, after all."
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The Lucario turned to fix an icy glare at his trainer, and Rhys raised his hands defensively, offering a wry smile. "Alright, alright! How can I refuse a face like that? Extreme speed, then."
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With an affirmative growl, the Lucario planted his feet in the dirt and then...vanished. An instant later, he reappeared in the air above the Woobat, unleashing a battering series of strikes that pummeled the small creature back and forth, up and down in midair, before a final spinning kick from the canine sent the small puffball of a bat careening back into the grass from where it had come.
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"Very well done," Rhys offered, applauding brightly as Owain jogged back to his side. "Let's find another, shall we?"

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For Rhys's first excursion in the Safari Zone, he felt less engaged in the spirit of adventure to which he'd always associated with stories of the place as a child, and more attuned to the idea of a lazy walk through the area with Owain the Lucario, a newer addition to his little band that he'd had yet to spend a significant amount of time with.
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Sidling around a small pond located in the middle of a thick spray of brush, Rhys slid his hands into his pockets, glancing to Owain at his side with a critical eye. "This might do to get your bearings, so let's enjoy ourselves and take a lazy afternoon," he opines. The Lucario grunts in assent, kicking through the underbrush contentedly as his own unhurried pace follows his trainer's.
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Sighing, Rhys turned his thoughts to the last encounter he'd had with Zev Harcourt, months now after his first real mission as a Rocket. He'd worked on strengthening his pokemon - Owain's very presence was a testament to that - but after so many years of academic study and clinical application thereof, direct encounters were something foreign to him. Perhaps this was as good a way as any to stretch his battling muscles - the Safari Zone was, after all, a controlled environment, relatively speaking.

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Shaking his head good-naturedly, Rhys stepped away from the mess of snow to observe his Audino's antics in assembling her snowboy. The head, decoration, and now body were complete, but all managed to lay on the ground separately and had yet to resemble anything approaching a snowboy or indeed any other form of recognizable shape. "Hold on there," he murmured to Althea, "You've got to get the bottom done first before the rest can go on, and it's got to be the biggest part. The biggest, you understand?"
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He holds his hands apart, wide, in order to illustrate. Althea regards this display keenly, then offers a happy chirp and a nod of understanding before tottering over to begin rolling another mound of snow. Rhys snorted, sliding his hands into his pockets, and watched as Althea wandered around and around in circles, her parcel slowly growing larger and larger. Once she'd completed it, he'd likely have to assist in assembling it, but that's what one did for one's friends, wasn't it?
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Rhys knew that being part of an organization like Rocket would naturally open many opportunities to him, some more noteworthy than others. He hadn't expected, however, that his travels would so soon take him to this virtually unspoiled landscape. He followed the woman's descent carefully, though not too far behind, and managed to avoid looking around enough that he didn't stray from the narrow path sloping downward into the chasm proper.
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"Incredibly fascinating," he found himself agreeing in response, for it seemed the most appropriate word to use in these circumstances. "I wasn't, ma'am, no, but from what I hear it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I wish I could've been there, but something tells me I would have been more of a hindrance than a help," he grins wryly.
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As Althea the Audino toddled along behind him, he allowed his gaze to skirt over the strange metallic pokemon accompanying his companion. "I do have to say I've never seen anything like your friend, there. Did it come from...this place?" Perhaps a bit bold of him to ask unprompted, but if there was one thing he could be relied on for, it was his curiosity.

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Although Rhys had more time than he might've to prepare, he allowed a small smirk to turn up the corner of his mouth. He hadn't had much field experience outside of sparring with his fellow grunts, so he was unable to quell the slight flush of pride as his quickly-enacted defenses were...
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Just as quickly hauled through by the assailant and his Toxicroak. Huh, so that's how it worked on humans.
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A fist to the face was something he had passing experience with, but only on the receiving end and not the reverse. Eyes widening in alarm, he ducked to one side in an attempt to dodge the punch, managing to deflect it to his shoulder. The force of the blow spun him to one side, and he went with it, dropping low and lashing out with a kick toward Tavish's ankle. Brawling wasn't his forte, but he'd be damned if this assignment was a failure based on his inability to hold his own in a fight.
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His Reuniclus bore the brunt of the Toxicroak's Feint Attack, the impact point of the blow rippling outward through the green goo that formed the majority of its body. It floated back from the hit, emitting a shrill trilling series of notes, before retaliating with a PSYSHOCK, motes of pink energy forming in a dome around the Toxicroak before lancing inwards toward a singular point.
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Rhys couldn't spare a glance for how his pokemon was faring, too engaged in his own battle while one hand fumbled at the small pouch on his hip. Where was it, where was it...?

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Despite the spike of adrenaline that currently had his spine reminiscent of a live wire, Rhys liked to think that he'd done a fair job of schooling his features into an expression of neutrality. Had he remembered to blink at any point in the past minute while he'd been focused on his own racing thoughts? He did so, just to be sure. Smooth.
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"Ah - yes, of course, I'd be honored," he responded hastily as Nomi rose, stepping back out of her exit path and narrowly missing an embarrassing tumble over Vaughn, who squelched amicably as his trainer drew near. He hadn't seen any of the submarine's interior, hardly, and although he had a death grip on his humility held closely around him like a shield, he couldn't suppress another spark of elation that he'd have his own space to work.
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Her final words caused him to pause only fractionally, the corners of his mouth twitching upward even as he offered a decisive nod to the woman. "Thank you for giving me the chance, ma'am. I won't let you down."
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He wouldn't, of course. He couldn't afford to.

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