The way he carried himself confirmed what he was saying. Coming from the military, she largely knew killers to either express excitement over the prospect or a sense of duty and inevitability. People who had enough years under their belt and enough exposure were more likely to treat death like a coffee run. It was unordinary but still a skill so honed it could almost be automatic or habitual if the individual had lost their sense over time, though Ameena knew only a small amount of killers who could maintain such cool without rendering murder an act without nuance and thought. [break][break]

And while she would want to put him in this category based on his tone and ease of conversation, she felt there was another layer there, something she could not name and could not even recognize. Something existing in the negative space of him, or perhaps something more abstract that could not be looked at exactly but could be observed in the peripheral if it could be observed at all. [break][break]

She was not a woman of conjecture, however. Evidence displayed time and time again that Rocket collaborations were fruitful, and Rockets only offered their talents when they were truly in possession of them. "I believe you," she said confidently. She knew better than to ask about that Kantonian service, as she'd yet to meet anyone who served in Kanto that hadn't had a horrific experience, but the curiosity almost beat out her manners. [break][break]

"It would be a privilege to see your work. Do you prefer encrypted data or physical intel?" Her company made the encryption easy, but she would be equally thrilled to look over what she had on Kaur and collect its physical weight in her hands.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES – [break][break]

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"That rod just needs to be planted on a surface of the chasm that connects to the ground. It will emit a sound related to the seismic activity it is detecting. When the pitch is high and the beeping is frequent, an earthquake is about to occur, and that is how we will know the unusual deity-looking pokemon in the chasm are coming." Because earthquakes predated their arrival, seismic sensors were the only way to guarantee some sort of warning to their arrival. [break][break]

It was perfect for establishing a trap, though Ameena had no interest in catching volatile pokemon even if Kazuya was confident they could be trained. She had no further time for domesticating truly wild creatures. [break][break]

"The gloves, however, will read energy instead of seismic activity and tell us if the paradox pokemon are sapping or generating more tera crystals." She put her glove on the glowing crystal beside her, one that was emitting a brighter light than the others in the area. The second she touched it, the glass reader on the back of her glove shattered. [break][break]

This tera crystal was dangerous. If the theory about the paradoxes being attracted to tera was true, there could be a horde on the way already. "It is in our best interest to leave. Now." She was not going to be taken out by a stampede of all things.

TAGS – Kazuya Yoshida [break]
NOTES – [break]SM9LsTSR[break][break]

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Ameena was rendered speechless at the casual tone and flippant nature of Xenon's recollection of legendaries. She wasn't sure if she was feeling like she'd missed out on so many opportunities during her bout of studying in Alola or if she was glad she hadn't had to defend herself against so many deities. "Hoenn is beyond bizarre," Ameena said mostly to herself. In Galar, gods were just legends. In Hoenn, you could fight multiple in one lifetime. [break][break]

She shook her head and got back on track. Xenon's iron sword pokemon took point, but Ameena's own continued to manage some crowd control while picking a few off. The stampeding pokemon were scared or feral or something else entirely, but it was difficult to judge their behaviors when there were so many. The chasm was shaking constantly under the weight of the battle, and the noises echoing and expanding through the chasm felt like an iron barb being stabbed into her temple. [break][break]

"The sensor will stay put with how it stands. We can get out of here." There was no way they could enter the chasm further with such a riot of pokemon. "Edith, close it off." The Espathra used lumina crash on a giant stalactite, causing it to rock loose from the ceiling and descend down on the handful of remaining raging pokemon. Ameena turned to leave, concerned about what she's learned. Was she ready to face a deity?

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Conviction... It was a powerful force. Her own success and research had resulted from her own determination. She could not be deterred from seeking access to alternate dimensions through dreams. "Those with weak backbones do not deserve success." She liked his line of thinking. [break][break]

The tone of everything shifted sharply as the world blurred from utter destruction to an upbeat festival. Everyone bore some kind of mask. Ameena reached up to her face to find one, too. Inspection revealed her mask to be based off of an Abra. There were hundreds of people filling the streets to the sound of rhythmic drums off in the distance. [break][break]

"What to learn from this...?" She wondered aloud until she saw it -- something short and green and with an unusual mask. "A florgato?" She struggled to find it again as the crowd continued to ebb and flow around her.

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[attr="class","itemcolname"]legendary event

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[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]OGERPON 1

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]Welcome to the Festival of Masks! All around, festival-goers wear various masks to hide their identities. Some are sculpted after Pokemon, while others are fashioned after Pokeball designs. All manner of designs come together to create a kaleidoscope of colorful facades.[break][break]

However, you bump into a festival-goer wearing a curious mask. It seems to be based off of a Pokemon, but you do not recognize what the species is.[break][break]

What do you do?

She was familiar with the DRK triad a little bit. She had earned some curio from the simulations that related to their work, and she knew they had some odd connection to Unown. They seemed interested in the manipulation of space and probably time, but she couldn't speak to their motivations or even their capacity for action. But she'd yet to meet a fan of them. [break][break]

It was a decent theory. She couldn't help but look around when Lulu mentioned being watched by them. She didn't like the feeling. She preferred to be on the side of observation rather than observed.[break][break]

"Some of the nonsensical scenes lead to some odd function, like this power spot. Why would choosing a gym theme take us to one of these? I do think this is some larger experiment. Someone is trying to learn something. But who and what... I am not sure I have seen enough of the simulations to devise a hypothesis." She was glad Lulu didn't think it was purely fun and games -- she wasn't sure what she'd do if the scientist she looked up to most didn't think there was significance in the simulations. It would be harder to ponder such possibilities if no one else thought it was strange.[break][break]

But then, Rocket scientists seemed to specialize in strange.

TAGS – Lulu Flint [break]
NOTES – design[break][break]

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As he responds about the failed Galarian archeologist, she can't help a rather unprofessional grin. "Immortalizing fools is usually a wasteful practice, but I like to think the science community benefits from seeing the consequences of poor work." Dream researchers were largely motivated by personal interest to perform well, but they were also very careful because of strict ethical guidelines regarding sleep studies. [break][break]

It hindered progress. That's why Ameena used Rocket resources to get around such limitations. She gives him a surprised look at the mention of his Arctovish. "A pet fossil? I know they're supposed to be far and few between, but I swear I saw one wandering in Mauville without a trainer. Hoenn is such a bizarre place." She was pleased that he seemed to hail from Galar as well given his accent. She had met a lot of foreigners in Hoenn, but not so many that belonged to her home. [break][break]

"I believe-" [break][break]

Her words are cut off by a slice of reality tearing open in front of them, some kind of distortion that makes her heart skip a beat. She flinches backwards instictively; her hand brushes against Munna's pokeball, who comes out and puzzles over the sight before her. Okay, so Ameena isn't dreaming. She pulls her phone out to snap a video; this warrants study. "Never seen one of these in my other trips down," she comments in an awed voice.

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Something about the other scientist made it easy for Ameena to take her words at face value. She could believe Xenon's claims; her confidence was easy and natural, but not flashy. "What legendaries have you faced? Or is that a turn of phrase?" Normally, she would assume the latter, but everywhere she turned, someone seemed to have a close encounter with a deity. "I look forward to seeing how your approach works," she acknowledged as tremors grew and a stampede came their way. She was also eager to see the paradox pokemon of hers in action. She knew they could behave strangely, but Xenon seemed to have things under complete control.[break][break]

She sent out all of her pokemon. Edith dove in head-first, picking off the first of the strange pokemon coming towards them. She initiated combat with a walking wake, though it blew her away with something concussive. Munna hung in the air and continued to use yawn on the crowd. Sleeping pokemon were her best victims. Honedge stayed close to her, defensively, and Rookidee used status moves on anything near the Espathra. [break][break]

She wondered if her initial head scientist comment, before she knew who he was, would stick forever. She really wasn't so ambitious as to take the rank from someone; working alongside the head scientists had been more bountiful than she'd expected. Still, she found herself appreciating his advice about it. It was possible he didn't have her best interests in mind, but he had never struck her as petty, either.[break][break]

"I will not brush off the impossible," she promised, ever-loyal to the principles of science that had gotten her this far, "but this is beyond comprehension. It truly stuns that there are so many reality-defying oddities in Hoenn that we cannot justify having thousands of researchers on this project right away. We could probably not spare a dozen to actively commit to it." Indeed, Rocket had their hands in so many pies as it were, and nearly everything strange in Hoenn was producing something valuable, be it research or power. [break][break]

For what it was worth, he had earned her trust enough to warrant faith in his exfiltration strategy. "Lead the way."

TAGS – Amor Rose [break]
NOTES – [break][break]

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Ameena couldn't suppress her smile. "Hearing about it secondhand will not be the same. I can make do with looking through a scope, but I have to witness it. It will be a proper eye for an eye." She had no interest in boring him with the full details of the man's crimes, as nearly all high-ranking military officials in Galar had bloody, dirty hands outside of what was permitted in war time or through their rank. But General Kaur had been among the group of men that killed her mother, she knew it in her soul, and it was time for retribution. When she sees her mother again in the dream realm, she has to report the good news.[break][break]

She made to shake his hand but aborted the motion. "My, my. Two head scientists, an underboss, and a Rocket beast. I keep finding myself surrounded by the big names without knowing it." They all behaved quite differently, too. She had expected all of the upper echelons of Rocket to be standoffish, but that hadn't been the case. [break][break]

"Ameena Abadi. Abundance Connections CEO, but more importantly, a scientist making headway on accessing the dream realm." Space and time distortions were an interest shared by most of the Rockets she had met to date, so she had no issue sharing her own area of contributions to its study. "My data has been a more relevant background for Rocket to date, but you can consider my military background and my company for any future favors you ask of me." [break][break]

Her understanding so far had been that networking in Rocket was an exchange of skills; it had helped create major breakthroughs in her studies, so she was more than happy to offer her blood and sweat to future colleagues. Some carefully protected their Rocket work, but she figured anyone she interacted with stood to benefit more from keeping her unethical research and cooked books secret than by exposing it. "I take it that your interest might stretch beyond the theoretical?"

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES – [break][break]

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She doesn't envy that loss of freedom. The responsibilities that come to the upper brass are not tasks she wants to add to her plate. Her ambition laid with her research first and foremost. "Kanto sounded like a horrific battlefield. I would consider a trial by fire to be solid training." She preferred the gentler, less consequential stuff over such drastic circumstances, but at least it would be impossible to forget the lessons learned. [break][break]

She nods at his plan to grab more readings and claims the data chip from the sensor that won't be functional for much longer in these conditions. She follows him and the rotom phone, pondering about an archaeologist walking a path through Kanto's war and coming out with more responsibility than ever before. Instead of approaching what might be grim, she considers something more catered to his scientific expertise. [break][break]

"Archaeology is not my area, but I remember some of the reception to Galar's unveiling of discovered fossil pokemon. Many have called for the doctor's credentials to be revoked." The fossils had been revived into wild looking pokemon. It seemed shoddy work, though the pokemon were stable.

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The world shifts to Alola. Ameena knows it well after spending so long researching there. [break][break]

"A Xatu?" She walks closer to it. She did not recall seeing many of them on the islands. It stands tall and unwavering. She turns to follow its gaze to the sun, but when she looks back to it, it sends a vision... [break][break]

KYOGRE and GROUNDON battle at the shore. The earth seems to quake underneath the weight of the clash of their wills. There's no sign of civilization to date the event. Ameena watches from some unknown observer's eyes as the two are locked in vicious combat.

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