[RAID ORP] Prepare for the Worst

[BlackFireKitsune]

Taking Lucas's last words as a hint of his readiness, Becca offered a gleeful wave to the various Rockets and Harvard in particular. "Catch you guys later!" That said, she reached for the scruffy elite's arm to drag him off in her excitement - not that she'd really be able to physically drag him off, but that didn't seem to matter too much in her eagerness.  

[insidiousEnigma]

This must be where the saying, 'Running around like a chicken with its head cut off.' came from.

"Pory...Porygon." Virus chirped from its precarious perch on Zacharie's shoulder, its beady eyes taking in the organized chaos going on around them. "Yeah...I know." The teen huffed, peering over the top of the heavy box he was carrying. He couldn't bring himself to feel irritated though, not when his heart was hammering away violently in his chest. He'd never experienced something like this before and he could admit, if only to himself, that he felt a little panicked. He stuck with his predetermined group though, refusing to all behind or mess this up in anyway. "I wonder where Jerome is?" He thought aloud, eyes darting from face to face. "Porygon Pory-gon." Virus' voice was calm, as it always was, if not a little curious. "You saw the message before I did, you know what's going on." The purple haired male grunted as he shifted the box in his arms a bit.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Hitching the bag up higher over his shoulder, Jerome kicked the door shut after him as he half spun out of the room and started to jog in the direction of the garage,
He would meet Bro and Tremain there no doubt.
It didn't take very long to gather the things that the Agent had asked for, so he was sure he had enough time felt to get to the garage.

He was almost there when he noticed a familiar person carrying a box, and moving much slower than him. He didn't need to look long to recognize that purple hair.
"Yo kid," Jerome grunted, stepping up next to Zacharie reaching out to take his box "Better get a move on er'yer ganna miss th'ride." He offered a grin then down at the box "Woh, what ya pack in here?"

Making his own pace faster so that they could get to the vehicles, Jerome nodded for the younger Trainee to grab a seat in the van so Jerome could give him his box. before finding a seat himself.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie let out a relieved sigh as Jerome easily lifted the box out of his arms, returning the older man's grin with a smile of his own. "I'm actually not sure what's in the box. Someone just shoved it into my arms and told me to get going." He shrugged, jogging to keep up with the other. "Porygon!" The startled cry reminded the teen that he had Virus up on his shoulder and he reached up to bring the Pokemon down into the cradle of his arms. "I'm just glad I carry all of my important things with me all the time." He muttered as he climbed into the van. Old habits died hard and it seemed that it was actually a good habit to have. "Do you know where we're going?" He asked curiously, checking his hip for his pokeballs before setting the little Porygon in his lap.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Oh, so the box wasn't Zacharie's. The image of the kid carrying the box with him becasue someone probably mistook him for the wrong team, and then there was Zacharie, taking it with him anyway.
He couldn't help but be a little amused by that.

"Ain't sure." He admitted honestly, closing up the box and sliding it into the vehicle on the floor, stepping in after Zachari the older Rocket dropped down in one of the seats, propping his legs up onto the box and shaking the dreads out of his face.
"heard nothin' bout it yet, guess we'll see"

Reaching out he patted the Porygon on Zacharie's lap, before a pokemon perched his hands on Jerome's shoulder and a Gengar appeared floating just over the man's knees.

"J-man, w'got yo s**t" The young voice of the Jirachi announced proudly, as Bro deposited a lightly packed backpack into the man's lap.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Porygon." You could practically hear the little, inner workings of the Porygon hum, as if it were purring, as Jerome patted it. "I see..." Zacharie murmured, absently petting the little, mechanical pokemon in his lap. He hoped that they wouldn't have to abandon the Headquarters for long, he had just started getting used to everything. He tried not to dwell on that though. He used the appearance of Jerome's pokemon as a means of distraction. "He's got quite the vocabulary." He observed, tilting his head ever so slightly in the direction of the Jirachi. "Though I'm sure if we could understand Bro he would be infinitely worse." The Jirachi mimicked, so he must have picked up a lot of stuff from the Gengar. Jerome as well...but the legendary certainly didn't hear it from him!  

[Blood_Goddess]

Faleen listened to the various conversations in the van as they waited to depart, holding her head up with her arm propped up on the side of the van window, the Agent staring out the window, though didn't look like she was looking at anything in particular.

One of the trainees was making a comment about maybe coming back to HQ at some point, this drew Faleen back from her vacant stare to glance over her shoulder at the two Rockets talking.
ah, she knew this boy, and certainly knew the Porygon in his lap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wut chu talkin' bout?" Tremain asked, looking from Jerome to Zacharie "S'wrong with my vocab?"

Bro let out a boisterous cackle at Zacharie's comment and help up a thumb toward the kid.
Jerome too let out a snort of amusement eyeing the ghost with a knowing expression before addressing Zacharie again.
"yea, just soaks up anythin' he hears, ain't surprised."
Reaching a hand up he grabbed onto Tremain's head affectionately,
"ain't nothin' wrong with it bro,"

"I be whoever I wonna be." Tremain giggled trying to wrestle Jerome's hand away.  

[Catzandbirdz]

Harvard smiled in thanks to Lucas as he departed. She frowned in irritation at Becca. This was going to be a loooong drive when they regrouped later.

She made a mental count of the people climbing into the van with which she would be traveling. Good, they had room. And even better, they had packed in more quickly than her original time estimate. "Alright, everyone. Got everything? Good." If anyone had thought to say otherwise, she didn't give a chance. "We're moving out. The cargo vehicle will be taking the lead, and we'll be following right behind." With that she slid the door shut. The tinted side windows would make it possible for the Rockets inside to watch for any incoming threats.

"Is that the team that was in the Robotics lab?" Harvard turned to the Grunt that had addressed her. Alba squared his shoulders. His bag was slung over one shoulder, and his opposite hand carried Inigo's all-important plant.

The two entered a neutral glaring match. Clearly, they were both still bitter about their last run-in with each other, when Harvard had returned to base after the Rocket arrests. "You're late." He wasn't.

"I know."

"Join the van for accounting. They need more people who can actually battle when needed." Alba gave a curt nod, and moved away to said vehicle.

----------

Harvard took the shotgun seat for the vehicle carrying personnel, and gave the orders for their two-vehicle caravan to move out. There were convoys ahead and behind them. The tunnel doors were wide open. How many times had everyone in these vans been in and out of this tunnel? And now, as the van rocked and bumped onto the uneven terrain and turned toward its new destination, the sand already bearing the tracks of the departing vehicles before them...

...this would be the last time. This was not their home anymore.  

[TawnyAngel]

Well so much for the base. KO watched as they pulled away from the building but soon turned around to look forward instead, not that there was much to see until they were out of the tunnel. Come to that even once they were out the desert was featureless, he wouldn't miss it so long as wherever they were going was relatively comfortable.

"So have we got any more specifics on our destination now we're on the road?" he asked of Harvard, fetching a small comb out of a hidden pocket of his uniform to fix his hair; all the running around had probably thrown it a bit out of place.

---------------

Aulus brooded.

He had a rather good face for brooding, something about the livid scar probably.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie smiled at Bro's loud laughter, "There's nothing wrong with trying to emulate those that you look up to." The teen assured. Virus gave a little trill of agreement and shifted about in the boy's lap, obviously amused with the Gengar and the Jirachi. "Oh!" He gasped suddenly, lifting the small Porygon from his lap and presenting him to the older male. "This is Virus." He introduced. "I don't think I've seen you since I've gotten it." The Porygon chirped and squirmed as if in greeting. "...Faleen gave it to me so I wouldn't ruin any more computers." He mumbled before nibbling on his bottom lip. "Porygon Pory-gon." He settled the Virus back into his lap and gently patted its head. "Virus just hatched not too long ago but its very smart. Its really really curious about everything too, so I carry it around on my shoulder so it can see everything that's going on." He said proudly. Virus was his first well-behaved pokemon so damn right he was proud of it!  

[League Trainer Rosie]

Tremain blinked at Zachair, tiny hands still grabbing at Jerome's wrist, lingering there for a moment as he took in what the younger of the two Rockets said then frowned slightly "Bro's mean!"

A long tongue rolled out of the Gengar's mouth, in a mocking amusement toward the Legendary who pouted.

"Virus huh?" Greeting the young pokemon with a casual wave, glancing over to the blond when she spoke from the row in front of them.

"How has he been working out for you?" She asked, turning a little more in her chair to look at the young Porygon, then up at the trainee.  

[Catzandbirdz]

"Our heading is south--by-southwest of the base," Harvard called in answer to KO's question. "Until we have cleared the desert, that is all I can say for location." She could hear some of the others talking amongst themselves, but she couldn't make out what was being said at their current volume.

The van jostled as the driver's side went over a hard bump. She gripped the handhold over her door. "Easy, Agent. We need this vehicle in one piece to get us there."

"Yes, ma'am."  

[Catzandbirdz]

They were almost halfway out of the desert. So far, so good. Harvard was hesitant to think on it until they were entirely in the clear. The last thing they needed was a jinx in their situation.

But of course, that was when her Dex beeped. She frowned at the message on her display. "A convoy to the east of us has run into trainers," she said plainly to the driver, but perhaps more to herself. Raising her voice to be heard over the engine noise, she turned in her seat to address everyone in the vehicle. "Keep an eye out. It seems the trainers and League are closer than we originally anticipated."

Whatever Harvard had been preparing to say next was swiftly cut off by a resounding "BOOM!" Those looking through the front windshield would see a plume of sand being shot into the air above the canopy of the cargo vehicle ahead of them. The vehicle was brought to an abrupt and complete halt, the front dipping to the ground and raising the rear axle to near vertical. Packed boxes and shipping containers alike were dislodged by the force, and many toppled to the sandy ground.

"Hold on!" The driver to their own vehicle braked and jerked the wheel hard to the right, bringing the van to a skidding halt sideways just behind the leading transport. With ha loud, metallic creak, the cargo transport's rear axle at last tilted and landed mere feet away from the driver's door with a loud "PHWUMF!"

Thank goodness for seat belts, was Harvard's first biting thought. She may have jarred her right arm from holding onto the hand hold during all of that, though, and she grimaced at the twing as she let go and opened her door to climb out. "Everyone alright? Is anyone hurt?"

Based on an attack like that, this encounter was just getting started.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Virus let out a chirp of recognition when it spotted Faleen from over Zacharie's shoulder. "Oh, it's been great!" The teen said enthusiastically. "Virus is really very quick to learn things and it's great at reminding me of---!" He lurched forward as the car jostled and then came to a sharp stop, nearly losing his grip on his Porygon. Said Porygon let out an shrill, alarmed noise and pressed further into the boy's hold. Once he righted himself his hand immediately went down to the pokeballs attached to his belt. All three of them were unharmed. "What was that?" He grumbled, turning to peer out the window. He couldn't really see anything though, much to his displeasure.  

[Catzandbirdz]

The sound of whoops and cheers led Harvard to walk forward and look around the front of their van. If anyone else were to get out to check with her, they would see that up ahead was a handful of Trainers, in their mid-teens by the looks of them. As the dust settled, the wall of ice that had stopped the cargo truck was starting to come into view. Whatever ice attack they had used, the jagged spikes created by the brief splash glistened menacingly in the desert sun. There were no vehicles in sight, and one Trainer was still climbing down from the back of a Rapidash. They must've taken the initiative and set out on their own to find themselves a group of Rockets.

Idiots.

Harvard gave the group of Trainers a deadpanned look. She then turned to the vehicle and its occupants, at last answering Zacharie's question about what had stopped them. "Children. Thinking they'll be the next champions."

((Slight edit made for clarification))