[ROCKET ORP] Upgrades - Prizes on page 9

[BlackFireKitsune]

[KO, Frost, Harvard]

Claire didn't reply really to Frost's ramblings, she just continued down the stairs. She did, however, aim a very specific glance at KO with pursed lips. Why are you asking such a thing?

She paused at the bottom and blinked at the toaster as it innocently shot toast onto Frost's head and continued to float past, with Lance following after it obediently. She always did wonder what happened to him.

Claire sighed and waited for the pair to finish their reports, and then raised her own dex to her mouth. "Agent Claire reporting in with Agent Frost and Trainee KO, verifying the... The flying toaster on floor 1." She was almost too embarrassed to say it. Why the hell was there a flying toaster. Why.  

[Shawn Darrow]

[Floor 1: Lance, Claire, Frost, KO]

"All clear?" Shadow asked Keese as the Crobat met him and Lindsay on the first floor. Keese emitted a high-pitched confirmation as he tried to ignore the Shuppet taking pictures of his trainer from behind him. The Haunter lingered likewise behind Shadow, and though Lindsay was growiling viciously at it, the Rocket grunt did his best to ignore both ghosts. A bunch of fellow Rockets had caught his attention instead. He marched over to them.

"You guys find anything?" Rather than being relieved, the fact that they had found nothing so far was more unsettling than consoling. "We checked the floor above, but - " There was a toaster. There was a flying toaster headed their way. Shadow gaped at it as it dropped a piece of toast on Agent Frost's head.

As Frost reported this in, the teen grew pale. This was like one of his many nightmares. "Ghosts," he murmured. "...Maybe it's ghosts! What else would be able to do that?!" Maybe a Rotom was messing with the electricity. Phasing through walls, setting off alarms for unauthorized clearance, causing mischief... The base must have been ghost-proof to some degree, but what else could have been causing this? Was he just being absurdly paranoid again?


[Floor 4: Tambrey, Faleen, Rory, Aulus, Harvard, Seth, Tech, Security]

Whatever the case, it seemed he had an unfortunate reason to actually let his ghost pokemon out. Even if it turned out they weren't the threat, what better pokemon type to investigate an unseen phantom force? Steeling himself, the young grunt released his Gastly and Chandelure. "Jack, head to the tech level. That's four levels below, got it? They might need help there. Check for any signs of ghost activity." The pumpkin-colored ghost gave a cheeky wink before disappearing into the ground below. "And don't scare them!" he called. "They must be freaking out enough as it is..."

"Tatl," Shadow said, turning to address the Gastly, "Go with Jack." The Gastly seemed reluctant to listen to anything her trainer had to say, but he seemed especially serious. Besides, his creepy Jolteon was glaring her down. She whisked off to obey.

After that had been done, the kid nearly had a heart attack as he laid eyes on KO's Baynette. "Arceus, what the hell is that?!" he yelped, stumbling back and clutching his chest.

Eris giggled and gleefully took a picture of the grunt's reaction. The Haunter seemed unamused and reached for the camera, but Eris pulled away with a teasing smirk. The Shuppet wasn't about to leave Shadow when he was this agitated; his emotions were a buffet for her! As for the Haunter, he wasn't about to leave Shadow to Eris. Or Lindsay. Thus the pair of remaining ghosts didn't seem intent on leaving Grunt Shadow anytime soon.

((Edited.))  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

[Faleen]

[Faleen, if you are where I think you are, I'll be joining you soon,] a message that popped up on Faleen's tablet read. [I've got my Absol with me. Shouldn't be long. I'm taking the elevator.]

((Edited.))  

[LexThetaSigma]

[Aulus, Tech peeps and all those there with them]

Once they stepped out of the stairwell, Rory made sure to keep his eyes peeled for anything out of sorts as the agent answered the message that came over the dex. So far there was nothing to be seen but the slight uneasy feeling was still in his stomach.

When he noticed the guy was speaking to him, names of those he was close to started blaring in his mind. He had to know they were okay. "Tambrey, Shadow, and Xander if you could," he hoped none of the desperation came through in his voice.  

[Gwennythe]

(The Elevator)

All right. The little light had been on and stuff. She hadn't quite bothered to listen for a reply, but the report was sent.
It wasn't going to catch her off guard again; she was stronger than that...
She got up, still not facing the elevator, and placed her 'dex back before running her fingers carefully over the pokéballs on her belt.
The 'horror movie' style antics suggested a ghost type, but she supposed, perhaps, a malicious psychic type might be... might be capable of doing similar. She kind of wished she knew a little more about either... Or what she was actually dealing with. Perhaps it wasn't a pokémon at all, but some clever hacker after all, messing with the thing... Perhaps it was an actual ghost... There had been... deaths on the team after all. No. That was a silly notion.

For the first time she could remember in quite a while, Tambrey found herself glad to come across Neph's ball clipped to her belt. Partially for training (and partially so she wouldn't kill Star or vice versa- honestly she more suspected the former to be likely), Tambrey had taken to keeping Neph and Treestar's pokéballs next to eachother. On the other side of Neph's ball; Octavia. A vague hope that perhaps the mere presence of a fire type would be useful one day in keeping the spider behaved. It wasn't likely, but she could hope.
She unclipped Neph's ball and then thought twice about what she was going to do- a flash of red followed from her other hand, materialising Lasi before Neph.

"Okay. Uh. You two. The... lift is haunted or something." She could have sworn even Neph gave her a funny look at that. "So. We... We need to investigate it. Neph; you go in and, uh, check things out where you can climb in there. I'll stand in the doorway and press the 'hold button' so we don't... have to be shut in there, okay? Lasi is out and- listen as well, Lasi- /will/ faint you if you cause trouble. Okay?" Who knows if that really registered with the spider at all. Lasi understood, she was sure.

Neph did know 'check out the lift' though, or more or less got what was needed. Haunted indeed. Silly human-face. Like any ghost type was a problem?! No, this should be /fun/. The spider skittered onto the wall and took up position above the doors as Tambrey leaned in to press the button and call it back to open on their floor.

(Any pokémon or humans that might be coming to The Elevator/ near it on the Tech Level)

Anyone riding that elevator, if it was still operating and had moved at all since Tambrey called it- if they were to ride it to the floor she stood on, they'd find a determined, ready-for-combat-face (it wasn't as scary as she'd like) Tambrey, facing them when the doors opened, backed up by a rather pink Golbat. They'd also likely get a spider swinging down toward their face.
Anyone who reached where Tambrey stood from another route or another elevator... would see two pokémon and a small Grunt rather aggressively waiting for an elevator to open.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Faleen listened to a few response from some of the other Rockets, lifting her dex back up to reply as she walked out of the lab, leaving Spiritomb behind in the lab where she knew he would be the most comfortable stationary, hovering around the keystone on the floor, the blood red orbs within his body pulsing gently in the dim light of the emergency lights, his swelling mouth humming, crying, cackling and softly screaming within his misty swirls.

She trusted him to do one thing if the need arose.
And that was to tear apart any non-rocket intruders who dared to enter the robotics lab, protect the robots, the technology, and do it with a twisted smile and sickening shrike.

[Aulus, Rory, Izaya]

"Agent Aulus, Grunt Rory, I read you, Thank you for the assistance, we'll regroup and organize from there."
She lowered the dex, not a moment before she got a message of her data pad.
Blinking it, she lifted it up to read a message from her partner.
[Thank you, I will meet you there with the team that will be joining us] she replied,
She had to admit, she was pleasantly surprised with how quickly her partner had responded to the emergency.

[Tambrey]

Faleen made her way briskly down the halls, her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, though she didn't suspect she would find anything.
With the team of dark types and the single ghost floating along side of her, it was clear that real emergency or not she wasn't going to take any chances, not when the team, and her robots were at stake.

She had the intentions to meet others at the lift, her partner included, but as she rounded the corner she paused, seeing a Rocket already there, with their pokemon out.
"Grunt..." Faleen spoke, walking over to her and arching her eyebrows, noting the women's and her pokemon's stance.
She stopped advancing, the dark types around her taking a few steps forward, Umbreon in the lead with his dark red eyes glancing around.
Nachtara was pulling up behind him, both of the Umbreon's rings glowing faintly in the dim light.  

[Blood_Goddess]

[Inigo, Alba]

Jerome glanced down the hall the Inigo gestured in, arching an eyebrow as he then looked up at the dimmed security lights.
"yea" He replied to Inigo, as Bro' drifted down next to Jerome's shoulder and nodded as well, frowning at the hallway himself.
"F'there's trouble we best get our asses n'gear." He lifted his hands up, cracking his knuckled and nodding. "S'fight out who's pickin' fights."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

[Alba, Jerome]

"Ah," Inigo said, eyebrows raising. "Claro que si." Oh yeah, he should probably be taking this seriously. They could actually be in trouble or something maybe. Possibly. But he hadn't seen anyone yet, and no one knew anything definite, so it was a little difficult for him to perceive this whole thing as much of a threat. But Jerome did, so he nodded and attempted a similar action with his own hands.

Except all he managed to do was make his hands hurt.

He frowned down at them briefly before he grabbed Alba's arm and followed after Jerome. "C'mon!"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

[Faleen, Tambrey, Lasi, Neph]

Grunt Nakura frowned slightly at Faleen's response. Team? She had a team with her? From the sounds of it, it didn't seem like she was simply referring to her pokemon. Then again, with all the commotion going on and with the rank and department of his partner, he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. Hopefully it wouldn't be anyone who hated his guts. He glanced at Kid, who stood quietly and obediently at his side. And hopefully they're symmetrical enough.

When the elevator stopped, however, that was the least of his concerns. "Tam-chii?" he managed to utter in surprise. He stared at the pink golbat and appraised the green-eyed young woman's determined expression just as Neph swung down into his face. "Eh?!"

The black and white Absol looked up with attentive, yellow eyes, but at the sight of the symmetrical spider, he merely beamed up at her in admiration. She had landed perfectly in the center of his trainer's face. How amazing! She was spectacular.  

[Gwennythe]

(Faleen, Izaya)

A voice! She turned what was nearly a jump into a short shudder, calming when she realised that... she actually knew that voice.
"Agent Faleen!" She tried not to sound /too/ relieved, though a grateful edge couldn't quite be forced out of her voice. "Erm. The, er, lift-" Was arriving right now apparently. There was a noise. Tambrey whirled to look and... didn't see a ghost or any sign of 'horror movie' activity except for her own spider- acting like any little 'horror genre' beast might.
"Gah! Oh frak! Neph, stop it! Return!" She had the clarity of mind to return Neph to her ball as soon as she realised what was happening, but looked rather horrified to have, if indirectly, sicced the spider pokémon on a friend. "Oh, frak! I'm sorry!" She stepped quickly to the door, intent on checking Izaya was alright, but didn't step in, not quite forgetting the experience from before.

Lasi watched. Stunned. Should he... help? He'd given a nice grin to Faleen when she arrived and had languidly turned back to face the elevator when it arrived, but had been quick to work out that /that/ was a human in there. He wasn't going to be much good in an enclosed space with other pokémon and humans in there with the spider, so he was half glad, half disappointed (it still might have been fun) when Tambrey recalled Neph.

Neph had eyes for nothing but the doorway.
She was being allowed to seek out and /destroy/ something. The door would open and the rival she'd dreamed of having, finally, worthy of defeating would be right in front of her. Whatever it was in there had affected her trainer /delightfully/ and she couldn't /wait/ to face it.
With a tiny 'Chrr!' of a war-cry, Neph swung in like some tiny action hero and flung herself at the first individual she came across in her path.
A /human/?! Tsch... She was instantly slightly disappointed as her little legs met the man's skin, but perhaps, like that one other human (the ally of her arch-nemesis 'Gun'), this human would surprise her? She chitterred and attempted to perform Night Shade, death to her trainer's commands. Only the red light and the feeling of fading were her warnings to being recalled; her squeaking clicks of protest were cut off as soon as they'd begun.  

[Blood_Goddess]

(Tambery, Izaya)

Faleen watched with arching eyebrows as the scene before her unfolded, the lift door opening and who she recognized as Izaya standing in the doors, nearly being taken on by a variety of Tambery's pokemon.

Stepping forward to close the distance between the her and the other two Rockets, the Agent glanced around the hall, gesturing an arm out.
"There are going to be a number of Rocket bodies on this floor, please make sure to keep your pokemon alert, and no more mistakes with attacking team mates. Do not use any pokemon that cannot do that job properly down here." Faleen put bluntly, and painfully serious.
Faleen eyed Tambery, noting that the grunt looked unusually shaken, "Are you going to be okay down here Tambery?"  

[Catzandbirdz]

[ Jerome + Inigo ]

Alba had to bite back a chuckle at Inigo trying to crack his knuckles. No need to embarrass the poor kid. Not that he was allowed much of a chance before he was being yanked along. "Alright, alright. I'm coming." Yep, a real kid. He would probably never fully understand how someone like Inigo got so tied up in something like Team Rocket.

Getting his feet back under him, Alba followed their little team, Spook still over his shoulder. Hopefully it wouldn't come down to a fight like Jerome suggested... His leg still bothered him on occasion, and he wasn't all that eager to return to using that silly cane.

Behind the group, down the coridor, a shadow moved unseen and smoothly from one open dorm door to another across the hallway.

"Ching?" Spook paused and half turned to look back. Had she just sensed something? She chimed again to Bro. It was probably nothing, just a stray Rocket, but she was still curious if he had noticed anything.  

[Catzandbirdz]

[ Claire, Frost, KO ]

If a toaster could float casually on, that's what this one was doing. It still paid no mind at all to its audience. It didn't even stop to apologize for the toast.

Four floors underground, Harvard stared flatly at the screens as she listened to the odd reports. First elevators doing unknown things, and now reports of... flying... toasters...

She raised her Dex and quickly tapped the names on her screen so she could respond to all three at once. "Agent Frost, Agent Claire, and Trainee KO. Approach the," Harvard had to pause to think of an appropriate word, the microphones built into the main command station relaying her words to the three desired Rocket Dexes, "target with caution." To be fair, for all anyone knew it could've been an explosive.

An explosive that floated.

And looked like a toaster.

Yeah.

"Neutralize if possible."

----------

[ + Lance ]

A very confused female Agent approaching down a hall to the left raised a brow as she spotted the appliance floating by- and raised both brows at the sight of a familiar member of the League pass along behind it. The woman raised her Dex to speak into it, already having dialed in to report to the security team below. "Um... Security, I have visual on prisoner Lance in janitor gear and following the, um, toaster."

Harvard was getting very near a true to life facepalm action. This was all shaping up to be one report that she actually wouldn't be looking forward to later. "Confirmed. Keep an eye on him. Keep him inside and out of the way."

The Agent looked back up at the zombie-like man. She shrugged. Might as well let the guy have his entertainment so long as he wasn't causing problems. Could he still even be entertained in this state? Oh well. Maybe he'd do something to entertain the rest of them.  

[Catzandbirdz]

[ Tambrey + Faleen + Izaya ]

The elevator was behaving boringly normal now.

Except when it then "ding"-ed. And the doors closed quicker than normal with Izaya still inside. Right, that probably wasn't normal. Especially when the door began a habit of opening about a foot before closing again, only to open a foot with another ding, close, open with a ding, close... It was very repetitive. And very difficult to get out of. If anyone stuck in a hand, instead of popping open again like a functioning elevator with functioning safety protocols, the door would simply stop closing just short of causing damage, but would otherwise go back to its new habit.

All of the other elevators around the base continued to function without any issues.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

[Frost, KO, Harvard, Shadow]

Target. That was a much better word. Much better. She managed to refrain from showing amusement at Frost's predicament and was about to respond to Harvard when some kid came out of nowhere and started blabbering on about ghosts. The agent gave him a hard look. "You -- hush." The last thing she needed was some overemotional teenager tagging along just to freak out. Where did he even come from, anyway? He wasn't there last time she looked.

Regardless, she raised her dex to her mouth to call in to security, "Understood." She lowered it again and gave Zeus a sidelong glance. "Shock it."

"Chu," the Pikachu responded curtly before he jumped off her shoulder and bounded ahead a few feet after the flying toaster. Wasn't that supposed to not fly, and only make toast? He must be dreaming or something. Maybe he'd ate too much chocolate again? Regardless, Zeus loosed a bolt of electricity that arced towards the toaster.