silph_co | [video]

[Waking up in an unfamiliar room causes a bit of mood whiplash for Spinel. She doesn't recognize anything here, even the note she finds doesn't make any sense to her. A much bitter, fearful part of her wonders if Steven and his friends just decided to dump her here just to get rid of her. She can't ruin a happy ending if she's not around, right?

She toys around with the two Pokeballs, and her two partners emerge - a Zorua and a Vulpix. They look up at her expectantly, but she's not sure what they want.

Her PokeGear is a little further away, and she tries to extend an arm to grab it but... she can't. She can't stretch out any of her limbs. That's when panic starts setting in. She knew it! They did something to her so she can't cause anymore trouble! And her skin is a different color too. What's happened to her? Why can't she use her powers?!]

Haaa ha ha... normally I love a good practical joke, but I don't think I get this one.

[The feed shows a human girl with pink hair and pigtails sitting on a bed, looking around a blank room with uncertainty.]

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[Dryly,]

Evidently the one thing the native Rockets are actually good at is hunting down deserters.

[He sighs and shakes his head.]

Look. The next week isn't going to be much fun for you. I won't lie about that. Just-- grit your teeth and get through it and once it's over, you won't have to do it again. Getting your quota in shouldn't be so hard, it's only one pokemon every other week and even though they say it has to be stolen, they don't actually check. Most of us just catch something.

And even though the Rocket from this world are a pack of useless mooks, our little crew of people who've also been taken from their worlds--the only other people who can see this channel you're posting on right now--we're all right. We can help you through this.

Just, you know, talk to us so we know what you need?

Oh--and my name's Steven Durante. Carly and Dirk and I are all privates, which is the next rank up from you. Handsome Jack, who's an alpha--that's the rank just under admin and the highest anyone from another world can rise--is the boss of our crew and he takes care of his own. And if you need someone to talk to Jack for you, well, I'm your man.

Well, that's just great. I kind of had important stuff going on before I got zapped here!

[She's not gonna mention that she nearly destroyed all life on a planet just a few moments go. Proooobably better to keep that to herself. Still, wasn't this the second chance she wanted? Make friends? Work on being a better friend?]

... I'm Spinel. Thanks for the heads up, Steven. ... I guess that means I know two Stevens now, heh.

I know. Most of us did.

You'll know a third, soon, in a way. One of the other grunts is named Steve--no 'n' at the end--Palchuk. He's a teenager--how old are you, by the way? [She looks like she could be a younger teenager... but honestly who even knows? Lydia looks like she's in her twenties and she's centuries old.]

We can talk about things in person if you'd like? I live here in Goldenrod and I work in the building above the underground facility, so I could easily swing by to see you when you've got a free moment. [And he's got to give her a Welcome to Team Rocket present, after all. Lydia and Tyler both got one and he's going to keep up with this bullshit.]

Edited 2020-04-08 06:31 (UTC)

How old am I? Uhhh... around 7,000 years? Kinda hard to keep track when you've hit 3,000.

And uh, yeah, that's fine! Better than just sitting around here. And I got loooots more questions.

[Like what are these two foxes that keep staring at her.]

... I imagine it is. [He's not as surprised as he might have been, because Lydia.]

And yeah, of course you do.

[Hm. It's late afternoon on a Sunday. If he made sure Jack knows he'll be home in time for supper, he could probably swing by HQ now and give Spinel the quick lowdown on everything--and hopefully establish himself as a trustworthy superior in the process.

Of course, there'd be the problem of what kind of Welcome Present to give her... oh. Yes. Yes, of course. The idea of turning in such a fine Stufful as part of his quota had annoyed him from the start--but it wasn't as if Steven needed him. He already had Care Bear and since the level twenty he'd caught the other day had been a male as well...

Well. This solved that nicely.]

Give me half-an-hour and I'll be there.

I'll be here.

[She flops back onto the bed with a dramatic sigh. Time to fidget and roll around and try to figure things out in the half hour she's been given. Her two Pokemon jump onto the bed with her to make themselves comfortable.]

[It doesn't take half-an-hour to get to underground facility from Jack's house, at least not with the kind of pokemon-taxi that Steven ends up calling. What takes most of that half-hour is figuring out which room Spinel's been put in, especially given how the admins don't like Steven as much as they used to these days--which reminds him that he ought to pull off something big for the Team pretty soon, despite the disdain he feels for the local element, if only to make up for how the mascot heist went awry.

But Steven has the room number and he has a pokeball with Spinel's Stufful in it and before that half-hour is quite over, she'll hear him knocking on the door to her dorm room.]

Spinel? This is Steven Durante. Can I come in?

Yep, sure can!

[She jumps off the bed, reaches out an arm to stretch and open the door... except she doesn't stretch anymore. Ugh. This is gonna be so hard to get used to. She walks over to the door and opens it.]

Hiya Steven!

[He smiles at her warmly.] Hi Spinel. [A quick glance to the rest of the dorm room shows that there aren't any other Rockets with her. If you could say one thing for the admins, they usually managed to make it so that you had a few hours alone when you woke up, no matter who was assigned to share quarters with you.]

So. What do you want to know about first?

Well...

[Man, where does she even start. She glances at the Zorua and Vulpix who've been sitting there patiently all this time.]

For starters, is there a reason why these two are here?

[Oh boy.]

So. The thing about this world is that people here... don't usually fight each other. Not directly, not like they might do in your world or mine. Instead, they have proxy battles with creatures called Pokemon.

Team Rocket... well, it's a criminal organization. It anticipates us having to inflict violence in order to get our way. So they set us up with Pokemon to help with that.

So these two... fight for me?

[She looks at the two small, fox-like Pokemon. Not large gem beasts or anything like that. Just two small foxes.]

... You're kidding, right? I think I'd do better just fighting myself.

[Ooooh, the Zorua and Vulpix give off tiny - yet kind of adorable - growls in response.]

I'm not.

People from this world don't expect violence that isn't Pokemon on Pokemon. And there's a god that keeps us from using weapons on each other.

But I think you'll find these two are more capable than they look.

Really? So what exactly can they do that makes 'em so capab- AGH!

[The Vulpix opens her mouth, shooting out a stream of flames into the air. Clearly trying to impress the both of them.]

That, [Steven says dryly.]

And I think the other, the zorua can create illusions.

Illusion? Really? That's kind of cool!

[The Zorua huffs proudly.]

So these little guys fighting... that's what we're supposed to do here?

Yes, sort of. We're supposed to capture more little animals like them and steal people's property and having the little guys fight for us is how we're supposed to do it. Speaking of which...

[He pulls a pokeball out of this pocket.]

I've brought you one more little guy to help you. He's what's called a 'stufful'--they're very strong.

[video]

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