[FIN] Burning Questions

[BlackFireKitsune]

While his research into Team Rocket had so far been successful, it had mostly been limited to what he could find in the library and on the internet - books, magazine and newspaper articles, media coverage, and the like - all secondhand sources. As helpful and useful as they were, Ion couldn't help but desire answers from people firsthand. He wanted to speak with them, to ask them questions, to find out their thoughts and opinions and experiences, in order to fulfill his parents' request for as thorough a report as he could create during his time there.

His research into Team Rocket had also shown him a perfect path toward that end, a path that ended at an organization named Special Operations. From what he'd learned of it thus far, it had been brought over from other, larger regions, and a branch created here specifically to combat Team Rocket. That fact alone was significant enough to warrant further investigation, both into the organization itself, as well as into the organization they faced.

Jozette walked beside Ion as the latter gently pushed open the door and stepped inside, holding it long enough for the Braixen to pass through as well, and spared a few moments to study the interior in his curiosity. The fire-type, though, didn't want to stand around and dawdle, so with a quiet huff she nudged the trainer, and he laid a hand atop her head with a smile. Acquiescing, he moved to a nearby desk, addressing the secretary behind it with a soft tone and an apologetic smile, "Hello. I'm sorry to bother you, but would I be able to speak with someone and learn more about Special Operations, and maybe also about Team Rocket?"  

[Suudonym]

The man who was always stationed at the main desk of the League building replied with a welcoming smile of his own, "Sure, I can arrange that. Is there someone in particular you were hoping to speak to today?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion returned the smile with a brighter one of his own, less apologetic now and more pleased, though offered a quick shake of his head. "Oh, no; I didn't have anyone in particular in mind, though I'm sorry to admit I don't know anyone to ask for." The apologetic smile returned. "I'm afraid I don't know much about Special Operations, which is why I came here, to ask questions and to learn."  

[Suudonym]

The secretary nodded his understanding, "No problem; I'll see who's available." He turned to his computer and typed for a few moments, then picked up the phone and dialed a short number. He listened briefly, then returned the handset to the cradle. "I'm sorry to say that the best candidate for a discussion like that, Commander Rall, isn't in at the moment. However, there are a number of officers in today. If it's acceptable to you, you can take a seat in the lounge just past here," he gestured to the hallway the lobby led into, "and I'll call someone in to speak with you."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The trainer waited patiently, the fingers of one hand playing idly over the decorative staff held loosely in his grip, as the secretary searched. At his apology once he finished, Ion shook his head with a smile, "There's no need to apologize. I would love to speak to any of the available officers, if they aren't busy and don't mind making some time to meet with me. Thank you for your help," he said with a smile and a polite dip of his head. He waited for any further responses from the secretary before he and Jozette moved to seat themselves in the lobby he'd previously indicated.  

[Suudonym]

With a promise that it would only be a short wait, the secretary picked up the phone again as the visitor made his way to the lounge.

After about ten minutes, another individual arrived in the area from further down the hall. "Sorry for the wait," he said, moving to a space opposite the seat Ion occupied, "I-- Oh." The redheaded officer blinked in surprise, recovering his composure with a pleasant smile. "We met before, didn't we? In Sandalwood?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion didn't mind waiting at all - unlike Jozette, who sighed and huffed and fidgeted and made all manner of impatient noises and motions in her seat - and the trainer took the time to set the staff against his chair and study the lounge's interior with interest.

In the space of those ten minutes, Ion had found an informational pamphlet on a nearby table and was busy reading it, while Jozette had sprawled herself in a languid pose over the chair, her tail near its top and her head hanging over the seat, groaning intermittently as if doing so would shorten their wait. Her trainer didn't seem to notice. As footsteps approached and a voice addressed him, he straightened up with a smile and lowered the pamphlet so he could properly address his company, but a look of surprise and recognition passed over his features quickly. "Oh, we did!" How could he forget the young man who had so kindly gone out of his way to stop and aid him, and then had sat with him for a while to ensure he was all right? It wasn't difficult to recall the memory, given the various things that had happened that evening, though it was a little more difficult to recall his name. Not so difficult that he couldn't do it, though. "It's wonderful to see you again, Luke. Have you been well since then?"  

[Suudonym]

"Very well, actually," he said with a nod, "especially lately. The whole amnesia thing came to an end a couple weeks ago, so things are a bit more comfortable than they were before." He stopped himself, wearing an expression of sudden recollection, and shook his head, "Sorry, that's not what you came here to talk about, is it? I'm still a fairly new officer, so most of what I know about Special Ops is basic information, but I've got a pretty decent amount of knowledge when it comes to Team Rocket."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The news that he had been well - and had even recovered from him amnesia - was most welcome news indeed, and Ion's demeanor brightened in light of that. "It isn't, but then, I had no idea you worked here," he pointed out with a smile as he shifted a little in his seat, to better face his company with a more proper posture. "I'm very happy to hear that though, Luke, and I'm glad you've since recovered." Bits and pieces of their first encounter flitted through his mind - his uncertainty, his troubled expression, and how he'd nearly gotten stuck in French - but he pushed them aside for now in favor of the subject Luke switched to. It helped that it was a subject that he was personally interested in, too.

Hearing that Luke did know quite a lot about Team Rocket both pleased and worried him, though - he had been seeking firsthand information from people, which meant firsthand experiences. While he was glad to have found someone of which he could ask questions, he was troubled that it was Luke, as that meant he had in all likelihood had firsthand experience with Team Rocket. Most of what he'd read thus far hadn't been very pleasant about what the criminal organization had done or accomplished, and it saddened him to think that such a kind person as Luke would have experienced anything like that firsthand.

He shook his head, both to dispatch the unpleasant line of thought, as well as to dismiss Luke's words, "Please don't worry about being new, as I know very little of Special Operations. I know they created a branch here specifically to oppose Team Rocket, but I don't know much else," the green-haired trainer admitted with a sheepish, apologetic smile.  

[Suudonym]

He replied with a smile and a word of thanks, finding his way to a seat perpendicular to Ion's for the sake of a more comfortable discussion.

"That's true, yeah," he said with a nod. "In other regions, Special Ops deals with things like poaching, hoarding, abuse, and other pokemon-related crime. Naturally, we're not supposed to turn a blind eye or anything if we come across something like that, but the reason Special Ops is in Kodo at all is to combat the threat that Team Rocket presents to the region, so that's the focus of our activities." He tented his fingers thoughtfully as he paused to recall specific details, "Petra Rall - at the time an officer of Kanto - came to Kodo when the Rocket headquarters building was found for the sake of helping to lead an effort against them. After that, a Special Ops branch was permanently established here, and Petra was transferred over and made the branch's commander. So, Special Ops has been functioning in Kodo for just short of a year. Team Rocket has been understandably quiet following the loss of their base, though, so unfortunately it's been difficult to get a solid lead on where we should go from here. Right now we know that there are still Rockets on the island, but we don't know to what extent - let alone where they're operating from."

He ran through his thoughts once more, evaluating what he had explained. "I think that pretty much covers the basics about Special Ops... unless there's something else you wanted to know?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion listened attentively, nodding every so often at facts he'd read about before, but more often mentally noting the facts he hadn't known, as well as trying to commit names to memory. Petra Rall. Commander Rall, as the secretary had called her, and Luke had said 'the commander' - so did that mean there was only one commander for the branch? Briefly he wondered about the organization's hierarchy, but pushed that aside for now in favor of more important questions. "Thank you for explaining that to me," he said with an appreciative smile, his hands folded loosely over his lap. "I don't know as much about Team Rocket as I would like to yet, but it's good to know there's at least one organization here specifically dedicated to oppose them."

Something else, something else... There were a lot of something else's that he wanted to know, but first he had to organize his thoughts and questions into a proper order. "I read that their base had been found and assaulted, and a number of their members had been arrested in the process, but most of what I read seemed to focus on a few specific points of what happened, rather than the event in its entirety. Do you know more about what happened, and if so, would you mind telling me about it?"  

[Suudonym]

He hummed thoughtfully, going backwards point by point until he found a a suitable starting point. "A long time ago, in May of last year I think, there was a battle tournament in Kanto's Vermillion City, hosted by the Pokemon League. Myself, my fiancee, and a handful of our friends made the trip to take part. My fiancee's sister, Faleen, was there as well, and the event was disrupted on the second day when she, who had been participating in the tournament as a League trainer, attacked us along with another individual - we were able to confirm in the encounter that they were both members of Team Rocket.

"This stirred up a lot of distrust in Kodo; someone who was thought to be a trainer turned out to be a Rocket, and it became a lot harder for people to trust one another and to feel safe taking their pokemon journeys in Kodo. In response, the League set up a convention event as an opportunity to have a kind of conference about the Rocket threat to the region so they could address people's fears and discomforts and explain what they were doing to improve the situation. As it turned out, though, the convention had been infiltrated by Rockets, and once they were identified, it became a huge mess with them trying to get away and the League and police presence trying to make arrests. Fortunately, they did manage to arrest several Rockets, though many also managed to escape.

"I assume that they interrogated the Rocket prisoners and eventually were able to get some the information that they needed, because a few months later, the League sent out an emergency summons for any and all individuals, trainers or not, willing and able to lend their manpower to a strike against Team Rocket. It turned out that the location of the base had been confirmed, but somehow Team Rocket knew that the League knew and were performing an evacuation. We intercepted them at as many points as possible and managed to pull off a significant number of arrests, but the Rockets destroyed their base to prevent us from getting to it."

He exhaled lightly at the realization of just how much he'd been talking and smiled passively, "That's about the gist of the long version, I think."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once again he listened closely, making mental notes and nodding at times where appropriate as Luke kindly explained. From what he'd read, everything sounded separate, detached; from how Luke explained it, it sounded much more sequential and made more sense, with one thing leading to the next. It also sounded - and obviously was - personal to a degree, and he couldn't help but feel bad that such a nice, kind person had suffered through such a thing. Things, possibly - from his phrasing, it sounded as if he were involved in at least two of the three events. "That all sounds so awful," he said at length once Luke had finished, his expression sorrowful as he thought about such events that were, in all likelihood, much worse to witness or experience firsthand than to simply hear or talk about after the fact. How many people had been affected by those tragedies? "I hope not many people were hurt during all of that." People probably were, he knew, but he still hoped not many had been.

He was silent a few moments after that as he internalized everything, his gaze shifting off to the side as he sorted his thoughts. It returned to Luke once more before he spoke again, "Thank you; that makes a lot of sense, and I doubt I would've learned of that order from simply reading about Team Rocket." A pause. "You said their base was destroyed - are parts of it still there, in the desert?"  

[Suudonym]

Well, it was certainly awful; as much as Luke would have liked to assuage Ion's worry, to imply anything less would be pure fallacy. "Mm..." He considered how to respond. "Everyone who was has healed, at least." Even if there had been permanent damage done in most of their cases, cosmetic or otherwise. The scars upon his back that had made him so uneasy when he couldn't remember what they were from came to mind.

He nodded in passive reply to the gratitude, wearing a conversational smile despite the gravity of the events he had described. At the question to follow, he responded, "The underground parts were still intact - though filled with all kinds of debris from the blasts. The League repurposed what was left to build one of their two trainer centers."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ion bowed his head briefly at Luke's words, knowing that meant a number of people were injured - probably more than he wanted to know. As solemn as that made him feel, from Luke's phrasing it at least sounded like no one had died from their injuries, and for that he could only be grateful. "Then I'm glad for that, at least," he said softly when he raised his head, his smile returning.

News about the remainder of Team Rocket's previous base being used for something else surprised him, his expression portraying the change clearly, though curious confusion edged in with the surprise after a moment or two. "Really? I hadn't read anything of that - what are trainer centers?"