It seemed the ranger had a point. Perhaps it was better to get them to safety. With Josh occupied with the transport of the civilians, his focus fell on the battle. That was until the gym leader's own pokemon took to attacking his. Out of reflex, Schuyler felt himself turn to watch the pair. His Armarouge was capable of guiding itself in battle. As the Type: Null that Josh referred to as Aleph lunged at his pokemon, the Armarouge tanked the hit so it could pull the abomination in for a point-blank ARMOR CANNON. Whether or not the attack made contact, Schuyler shouted for his Armarouge to halt.

"Focus on your surroundings! We've got some wires to solder!"

The Armarouge, despite its protest, listened to its trainer and halted its attack against the Type: Null. But unfortunately it seemed the scuffle that involved both the Abomasnow and between the Type: Null and Armarouge was enough to draw out more waves of pokemon. A Houndstone leaped in and offered the final blow to his Armarouge, downing the poor psychic.

"Shit," he spat as he recalled the fainted pokemon.

Unfortunately he had nothing in his lineup that could solder the wires. It seemed it would fall on one of the three Pyroars that Josh had brought. For now, he drew out his Falinks. With the use of ROCK SMASH, the formation began to take out miscellaneous pokemon. As long as the Type: Null didn't go into a frenzy once more, the pair could work on clearing out the horde.

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

Josh Devlin

Seemed Zev had the right idea of how to go forward with this mission. Not that he had any doubt, of course. With the file of the unnamed woman pointed out, he scanned over the file and offered a low hum. Brows knit curiously as he read over the fact that Zev himself had tried to kill her. Why try to kill someone that offered him an extension of power? Did he not realize that working alongside the DRK Triad could put Rocket itself at an advantage? From what he'd read, the Triad seemed to focus on wiping out avatars. Imagine all the avatars within League's alliance that could be destroyed in one fell swoop. But it seemed the man focused on his alliance with Rocket. (Schuyler could only assume that if given the opportunity, the Rocket Beast would not be able to distinguish ally and enemy within the Triad's inner circle.)

"I see," he commented.

His traverse had been deeper into the Wilds. Reports referred to the area as Lesser Megalopolis. Schuyler kept the area tucked away in the back of his mind. Maybe it would be beneficial for him to search the premises. That meant procuring someone who was willing to traverse the danger deep in (what he assumed to be) a post-apocalyptic metropolitan city. A shift in his seat and a final sip of his latte.

"Curiosity has gotten the better of me. Maybe I'll see if there's someone willing to make the excursion with me to Lesser Megalopolis to see if we can uncover anything that may have been missed. It's better you don't go; they'll be looking for you and won't show mercy this time."

Not that he doubted Zev's ability to fend for himself. But the Triad were a mysterious group, and the fact that it seemed this unknown woman with an Unown-A had fell through the cracks. Who knew what other threats lay in their reserves? It seemed Schuyler fell unfamiliar with the proverb that 'curiosity killed the cat.' But as far as anyone or anything knew? He had no connection with the Rocket Beast other than pure mutual affiliation.

And it was better that way.

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

Zev Harcourt

How utterly tragic it was to ring in the New Year with his editor. Did he have any friends outside of her? Was she even a friend? She was just some idiot bimbo that seemed to be doing him a favor. Though he found himself sprawled out on a recliner in quite a comfortable position, his head ached for some sort of relief. Maybe the sixth shot had been a mistake, but here he was, forced to stomach the verbal abuse from this unbearable woman that 'a real man would take it like a champ,' or some other ridiculous comment.

The seemingly dead storyteller groaned a bit to reassure his company he was still alive. Though it wasn't long before his body sprung to life and legs hurriedly carried him to the bathroom. As he remained hunched over the toilet, clinging to the rim for dear life, he felt his body convulse as he retched. The suffering of it all was that nothing seemed to come out -- likely because he had drank on an empty stomach, a piss poor mistake on his part. Another groan and he pushed himself away from the toilet and used the sink to pull himself up. The sight in the mirror's reflection was one he didn't like.

The party life was not his ideal one. With a quick rinse of mouthwash courtesy of his host, Schuyler stumbled back into the living room and looked at the mess they'd left in their drunken stupor. The snow from the night before left them stuck in place until the plows came through. At the very least, the two could clean up. After all, Alma still hadn't torn down her Christmas decorations. (It was amazing she even had the time to decorate. But he couldn't complain too much, at least she managed to get some sleep last night.)

It didn't stop the gentle nudge he gave her with the tip of his shoe.

"Wake up," Schuyler grunted. "I'm not going to clean this shit up by myself."

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

@alma

Devlin, duly noted. The man seemed affable enough, but he supposed that came with someone who was not only a gym leader, but also a ranger. (He felt sympathy for the man. Did he ever get any sleep? It seemed he had too much on his plate as it was.) He certainly recognized that the man wasn't an electrician in the slightest, but it was best not to chase anyone to the location before they realized what the problem was. Schuyler tightened the scarf around his neck and looked upward to follow the power lines that stretched further west.

"There's roughly seven people in there now. As long as we don't open the doors, they should be fine. We don't want to run the risk of transporting people when we don't know what might be out here."

It was a reasonable thought, but maybe the Gym Leader had a point. Brows furrowed as he tried to make out if there was any present danger. It seemed they had no choice but to trek it. Boots sank deep into the snow as Schuyler followed the gym leader northbound to reach the electrical box. Though the further they traveled, the harder the snow came down. It almost felt as though it was pelting him, but that was a sign that something lay further ahead. After all, it was a little odd that it only seemed to be constricted to one area.

As Schuyler squinted his eyes, he saw the silhouettes of two pokemon battling it out: a massive Abomasnow, and a lone Arcanine. Despite the type matchups, it seemed the Arcanine was in a pinch. To the left of the battle, a few of the power lines had seemed to snap. Seemed that the circuit overload hadn't been the issue after all. It was a relief, to say the least. Maybe they could solder the wires for a quick fix. But for now, it seemed that they needed to take care of this Abomasnow.

A toss of a pokeball let out his Armarouge who charged right towards the Abomasnow with an INCINERATE. While the attack hit, it only seemed to make the Abomasnow more frustrated, and it soon sent the Armarouge flying with a WOOD HAMMER.

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

Josh Devlin

As Zev proposed the idea, the wheels and gears in Schuyler's mind began to turn. The Rocket Beast was right, he posed the perfect opportunity to infiltrate, especially given his work as a civilian and work as a member of Team Rocket remained starkly separated. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he finally dared to speak on the matter. It seemed he liked the idea well enough, and would be happy to oblige.

"Just give me some names and I'll see what I can do," he reasoned.

He'd have to play his hand carefully. It would be a long term game that would require him to tiptoe along the line that separated League and Rocket. With the constant news of people who left compared to the remaining connections some folks had with those who abandoned the cause, it left a weak support for the team. A hum of thought came to mind as he verbalized it.

"We have some people who fled the organization who would no doubt recognize you, so we might want to figure out a way to keep this information relay a secret. They'll suspect something when they see me shaking hands with higher ups in the League."

A breath in to steel his nerves. Despite all this talk about blending in with the league, there was still the matter that Zev seemed particularly interested in the DRK Triad. Did he have some sort of personal connection with them? The fact he was able to suspend their ship from the Kyogre incident in midair like he did seemed like a big enough clue. He didn't want to know too much on that matter, ergo he attempted to word himself a bit more carefully.

"Is there a sudden interest in the Triad on your end? Have you come across them recently? I say this assuming you've had plenty of opportunity to do research into them without my sudden appearance."

⚰︎ divider made by milky!

Zev Harcourt