The distinct sound of mechanical movement could be heard across Oscar's lab. It was light with a noticeable pattern, like an rc car moving back and forth to the tune of a song. Oscar would probably rather be doing something like that right about now, because his current task was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

For the past two hours Oscar had been calibrating the chunk of wires and metal that looked vaguely like a human arm. Wired rings attached to his fingers and wrist allowed him to control the 'arm' from afar, and he has been tweaking the arm's functionality by slowly making a fist over and over again. It was not exciting work, and sometimes the arm would get stuck so Oscar would have to painstakingly reset it so that the calibration could continue. It was painfully dull work.

He was nearly finished though. The arm was connected to a nearby laptop that displayed every movement Oscar had performed so far. This would act as a sort of nerve center down the line, allowing Oscar to hopefully make the arm move without needing the wired rings. He was greatly looking forward to that, as he was very tired of having to pry the robotic hand open when it seized up--which just happened again and he was ABOUT TO LOSE HIS MIND!

Fuck it, Oscar pulled out his phone and Lulu Flint if she knew anyone that would be willing to help him in the labs today. Apparently, one would be sent over shortly.

olliver samovar

Taking with olliver samovar

A shiver ran down Oscar's spine as a gust of wind cut through his coat. He knew Shoal Cave to be rather cold, so he thought he had dressed up accordingly. Yet standing at the cave's mouth proved how unprepared he was, the biting chills from within slicing through his thin body as easily as a sharpened blade. Oscar cursed under his breath as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets, turning his back to the cave.

"Why's it gotta be so fuckin' cold?" He asked his nearby mission companion. Oscar needed to collect data by watching Rocket's grunts work in the field, and today he would be shadowing @jason. Oscar recalled seeing Jason at the first Uriel Project meeting, but they did not interact at all. Mister Beumont's mannerisms were unknown to Oscar; there was a nostalgic sense of awkwardness that came with unfamiliarity. Oscar welcomed the feeling, it had been a long time since he went on a mission with a grunt he did not know.

He just wished it was not so cold! Was it always this chilly? Perhaps, though it might not be a natural chill. Maybe the subject of their mission was the cause of this additional drop in temperature. A ghost pokemon had been getting the drop on Rocket agents near Mossdeep, their pokemon being stolen while the agents were dazed. The spirit had been tracked to Shoal Cave, and it was now up to Oscar and Jason to hunt it down. Well it wa mostly up to Jason, technically Oscar was just supposed to observe and intervene if things get dicey.

Oscar had given Jason a head band to wear, which would record his vitals during the mission. He looked over to check if he had put it on yet. "Is the headband comfortable? I wouldn't know I never put it on."

Oscar stood waiting at the entrance of Rusturf Tunnel, casually fiddling with his phone. At least he appeared to be fiddling; it was the dead of night so while everyone who might want to be on the Route was gone Oscar would still remain vigilant for any unwelcome visitors. Plus it took very little thought and energy to play that fucking god damn stupid Rondez-view of luv game--which Oscar begrudgingly could not get enough of.

It at the very least helped pass the time while he waited. Tonight he would be joined by Zev Harcourt, whom Oscar had invited out for a late picnic. 'Picnic' of course was code for the relentless hunting of an assassination target, usually a turncoat or rat that needed to be expunged from life. Usually Oscar would partake as well, with it being his job and all. However he was no longer a beast, and he no longer needed to hunt down the scum on Rocket's hit list.

However, part of his duty as a Head Scientist would be creating simulations for SPECTRA training. To create his simulations, Oscar will need to collect data by observing capable Rocket agents in the field--and that would be his priority today. Oscar had debriefed all of this to Zev when he first reached out to him, now all he had to do was wait for him to show up.

Oscar's nerves were the highest they had been since the Menteno mission. Sitting before him was declan walsh , patiently waiting for Oscar to begin his presentation. Oscar and Mister Walsh have had multiple conversations, and yet only now did the Rocket Boss strike true fear within Oscar's heart. His gaze was so sharp, so willful; it was like looking down the barrel of a sentient gun.

Yet despite Oscar's fear, his expression would remain neutral. Hiding his anxiety was a valuable skill that Oscar had to learn early in his career; fear was weakness, and Oscar would rather die than look weak in front of Walsh. He took a deep breath before bowing his head in greeting. "Thank you again for coming Mister Walsh, I realize your time is valuable so I am grateful that you would come all this way to see my presentation." They had already exchanged greetings, but you know how it goes with these kinds of things--gotta emphasize the importance of your audience's presence before talking their ears off.

"In that spirit, I will begin right away. The present to you the next step in accessible Infinity Energy: the pokepod." Oscar motioned to the machine behind him, illuminated by the industrial lighting of his workshop. It looked like a giant blender, if it were designed by a heavy metal album artist. At the base of the machine was a chamber, and within the chamber sat a sleeping teddiursa. This unfortunate creature would be the main participant in this presentation.

Oscar walked up to the machine and began explaining how it worked. "I have constructed extractors within the machinery, built with filters to allow different levels of Infinity Energy drainage. Upon being drained, the Infinity Energy is directed through a series of circuits. Machinery that is plugged into the pokepod will begin drawing from these circuits, using the Infinity Energy to power them." Oscar pointed toward the jar shaped glass structure that capped off the machine. "This is a giant light bulb that will help visualize the use of Infinity Energy."

Oscar ran over to the control panel, which sat a few feet in front of Walsh. It had been streamlined since Oscar's last round of experiments, with far less buttons and the dial being replaced with a handle-like lever. Oscar grabbed the lever and looked to Walsh. "I will now demonstrate the capability of my machine, starting with its default power setting." He pushed the lever half-way up its path, and the machine would whir to life.

The teddiursa would briefly awaken due to the noise, but the extraction of its life force from within the chamber would quickly knock it out again. The giant light bulb slowly began to glow, casting an eerie red-tinted bloom across the work shop. "If you look closely, you will see that the teddiursa is asleep. On this power setting, the pokepod is able to power a rudimentary device without killing the pokemon within. This provides a small amount of perpetual energy, which can be supplemented by the use of multiple pokepods. My next goal is to make the pokepod more pod-like--er, compact and portable so that they can be easily set-up and utilized within the field. Now observe what occurs when the power setting is changed to maximum."

Oscar pushed the lever up the rest of the way, causing the machine to get gradually louder. The teddiursa sprang awake with a brief scream of agony before rapidly aging into dust. The light bulb began to glow a brilliant and unnatural radiance, lasting several seconds before instantaneously going out. From there Oscar would shut off his machine. "At the maximum power level, the machine extracts the most Infinity Energy it can from the subject. This results in the death of the subject, but provides the most possible energy. Unfortunately, this immense influx of power is short lived and will be used up within a matter of seconds.

Oscar moved from the control panel back to his starting position in front of Walsh. "When I finish the smaller model, I believe that using multiple pokepods at once will have immeasurable utility during our campaign to overtake Hoenn. During my experiments I have witnessed the possibilities of using extracted Infinity Energy not just for powering machinery, but also for healing. I theorize that we can even find a way to weaponize Infinity Energy, with enough development of course. I hope this presentation has sparked your imagination, and that you will find my invention useful for Rocket's war efforts."

Oscar ended his presentation here. He felt like he did alright, at least the machine worked perfectly. Yet he now had to wait for Walsh's judgement, which only heightened his inner anxiety.

Before the meeting started properly, Oscar received a very thoughtful gift from mint frost. Oscar was sure to give him a bright grin as he passed by, not mentioning that he hated matcha tea. Oh well, he will sip it. He did not want Mint to feel bad.

Soon enough the presentation began, and Oscar would pay close attention to everything Lulu reported. This was a surprisingly difficult task, as he was very used to half-paying attention to these sorts of meetings. Yet he had a larger stake in these developments now, he had to make a greater effort to keep track of important information. However this became nearly impossible due to Lulu's visual effects, Oscar kept getting distracted by all of the flashy imagery. Oscar zeroed in on the 'Dahlia Apocalypse' animation, and by the time he realized that he had zoned out Lulu had already concluded her segment!

Oscar sighed, hardening his face as he really tried to pay attention to Naomi Sato's segment. During her speech, Tempest Quinn decided to take a seat next to him and show some friendly affection. Normally Oscar would be freaked out, but Oscar was too busy focusing to be embarrassed. He would at least tap Temp's hand as it rested on his shoulder, both acknowledging and greeting him.

As Naomi concluded, Oscar waited for a chance to ask a question of his own. "What methods are being deployed to wrangle the Unknown? I imagine it is a lot harder than ushering them all into a pen or catching them with Butterfree nets. Perhaps there is something we can use to attract them--though I struggle to think of what."

Oscar stared at his analyzer, not sure what to make of the result. It read as if there had been an error, like if it were pointed at something that was made of plastic or wood. Oscar squatted to the best of his ability to get a closer look. He saw mostly moon rock and grey dust, so he began to gently brush around to see if something would reveal itself.

Eventually his bulky gloves would grab around something that had the texture of a glass shard. He held it up and brushed it gently, revealing a brown sheen under the grey dust that coated its surface. Oscar then spoke to Lulu, "This looks like--a shard of a comet? Or meteorite. Could be debris from Meteno."

Oscar stood up and held it out to Lulu so that she could get a better look.

Lulu Flint

As Temp casually and gracefully entered his lab, Oscar's face lit up. "Temp! You're just in time, I am getting ready to start." Oscar had been setting up all of his specimens for the day, requiring more and more table space as he unloaded his cart. He continued to unload steel types while Temp took a moment to look around. They were all pretty heavy, but with Genesect's help it took about half the effort.

Temp eventually reached a magnemite, pondering aloud how its death did not cause it to explode. Oscar walked up to the metal cadaver and flicked it. "No idea, these are all left overs from Project Genesis." Oscar stretched out his back and took a brief inventory. They had about fifty steel bodies, most of which were either in their first or second stage. They had one scizor (poor guy) and one metagross, but that was it for fully evolved subjects.

Oscar clapped his hands together before looking to Temp. "Have you brought any fire pokemon?"

Tempest Quinn

Bryan stuck his head out the window, and Oscar was going to warn against that when a rock imploded Bryan's skull. Oscar yelped, grasping his mouth in shock. Did Bryan just fucking die? How was he going to explain this to Walsh? How was he going to explain this to anyone. A fucking pink gremlin threw a rock at Bryan and made his head into the world's worst pinata, oh that would totally fly.

Oscar had resolved to slowly lean over and push Bryan's body out the window, that seemed to be the safest way to cover his own ass. Before he could though, Bryan came back to life with a fully healed head. That made Oscar yell out again, retracting himself as much as he could into his seat. Bryan did not seem bothered though, jumping out of the cabin as if nothing had happened. Oscar leapt toward the open door, watching in disbelief as Bryan chased after the pink thing on his corviknight.

Bryan urged Oscar to follow, and after Oscar blinked away his bafflement he would indeed move to pursue the creature. As it turned out, Oscar's corviknight was actually their driver and Oscar would climb up the cabin's exterior to reach its back. Oscar pointed toward the pink creature, now much more visible as it ran toward them. "Throw the cabin at it!" His corviknight did so, using its mighty strength to throw the entire cabin at the creature.

bryan delarosa

EXPEDITION TEAM

FAREWELL, MY FREE ADVENTURERS!

CHARACTERS: oscar clayton , Gerald Kaiser , @gaultier
EXPEDITION #: 3
SELECTED PROMPT #s: 27, 28, 30, 31
TREASURES BROUGHT: Cell Battery
NOTES: The entire team can MEGA EVOLVE. Oscar and Gaultier have access to TERASTELLIZATION and Z MOVES. Oscar has GENESECT and ZAPDOS in his possession.

The memory played back flawlessly as Oscar held the pokeball. Him stepping out of the Faraday Cage, the titanic Zapdos looking down at him. Zapdos leaning forward, as if expecting Oscar to do something. Oscar raising a pokeball to its beak, and Zapdos not moving away. There was a great flash, and then it was all over. It was so quick and abrupt, Oscar nearly thought that it had been a dream.

Yet here he was, holding the pokeball that contained a pokemon of legend. It was just like any other ball in his collection, and yet it almost seemed heavy within Oscar's palm. He had not had the guts to open it since that day, he kept meaning to but he would lose his nerve every time. Two weeks later, Oscar finally decided that it was time to truly meet Zapdos.

He had chosen the open field behind the power plant as the location for their first--encounter? Training session? It was hard to define. The sun was barely on its way toward rising, Oscar wanted to get this done early enough that no witnesses could accidentally come upon them. This was to be a private meeting--between him and a legend. Oscar took a deep breath before finally opening the ball.

He jumped a bit as Zapdos emerged, he had nearly forgotten how massive it was. The electric bird stretched out its wings as far as it could, adding onto its already imposing silhouette. Then it folded them in, creating the almost comical image of a giant spiky hen. Oscar smiled, doing his best not to burst out laughing. Zapdos was clearly not designed to rest. Zapdos looked around briefly before looking to Oscar, staring as it waited to be addressed.

Oscar gulped heavily before reluctantly raising a hand. "G-good morning Zapdos. Sorry it took so long, I got kinda nervous after I caught you." Zapdos did not react at first, before slowly nodding with acknowledgement. The regal motion did little to settle Oscar's nerves, "Well--I thought it would be a good idea--since we're gonna be companions for a while--to have a little talk to get to know each other. Y'know, set up some boundaries?" Zapdos blinked, and there was a long pause as Oscar tried to think of what to say. "Um--can you talk? I heard some legendary pokemon could like--talk with their mind or whatever."

Zapdos blinked again before shaking its head. Oscar let out a sigh of relief, "Cool, that would be a little much for me. So hey, I've thought about it and I think it would be a pretty good idea to like--let you be a free range bird. I mean, you don't seem the type to stay in one place for a long time and keeping you inside a pokeball at all times seems a bit silly. I'll probably use the pokeball if I need you around but otherwise I think it would be best if you were able to do what you want. I mean, seems fitting for a god and all..."

Zapdos stomped one of its talons and let out a low shriek. It was a minor display of power, and yet it still managed to send so much static in the air that the sky crackled. Oscar flinched, "What!? What did I say? The free range bird thing? The god comment?" Zapdos huffed harshly, leaning down to glare directly into Oscar's eyes. Oscar froze and nodded slowly, "Okay, okay I get it. You are not a god and don't like being called one. You're just Zapdos, I'm sorry."

Zapdos huffed again before leaning back up, its anger almost instantly melting away. The fact that it could be angered and yet calm itself so easily sent chills down Oscar's spine. This was not a pokemon to get on the bad side of. Oscar waved his hands a bit, "The rest of the idea is cool though right?" Zapdos's eyes looked upward as it thought for a moment before slowly nodding. Oscar once again sighed with relief, much heavier this time around. "Cool, glad to hear it. So ummm--I guess if you're down I have a few questions."