[Fin] Still Extremely Fishy

[TawnyAngel]

He didn't quite know what he'd expected in response to the report he and Tam had submitted but he'd expected more than what boiled down to 'that's nice dear'. The lacklustre response frustrated him, yes, but more than that it made him suspicious. So far as he saw it either a) this was seen as 'too big' for a pair of Agents and was being investigated further without them or b) whatever was out there belonged to the Team but was above their clearance level. The only possible answer of course was to investigate further, to bloody well investigate until they found some answers or were explicitly told to stop.

They had a plan, another plan that was, and this time it involved ghosts. As they alighted on the beach Aulus climbed off Red's back, turned to Tambery and nodded, his mouth set in a thin serious line. "Right, it's going to be a little different this time. Hopefully." He'd had Puck for over a year now and thoroughly trusted the Gengar in the field on her own, she might not yet be as powerful as his older pokemon but she was tough enough and quite able to look after herself. He hoped. Maybe he should have loaded her up with defensive moves but it would have been a real pain to have to have her re-learn all her current ones for the sake of just one mission. One potentially dangerous mission.... But she'd be invisible and incorporeal, she'd be okay.

"I don't like this," Aulus added to Tambery after a moment. "It's... fishy, and not just the mystery out there," he waved his metal hand at it, "I mean the reaction to our report.... What's your take on it?" He hadn't wanted to talk about it too much on base, call him paranoid but it had seemed like it might be bad for their collective health.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey petted Pygi's neck as she dismounted; sure it was probably quicker to have Lasi 'jet pack' her around but Aulus was flying Pidgeot, and Pygi was a lot less... visible than a bright pink Crobat. It was also much more comfortable to fly by Pidgeot than by Crobat, in her opinion.

She lifted her goggles up onto her forehead after dismounting, and reached into a hip bag to retrieve her glasses.

The scientist gave a wary smile, nodding, as she palmed Gauntlet's ball; it was difficult to have a take on it; her mind was somewhat occupied by the idea that a shark had... died by being dead, and there was a weird foggy something out there shooting missiles.
"Well... They, um, don't always respond to lab reports either." She pointed out, but then gave a more obvious nod. "But given Asgard was greeted by missiles, it does seem somewhat, uh, less of a response than I might have expected?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yeah," Aulus nodded, "mysterious fog and missiles, kinda unusual." Well he thought it was, perhaps it was just another day in the office to those above them. "Well all we can do is carry on off our own backs right?" Aulus continued with a shrug. "Unless we want to let it drop of course and I don't." He wanted to find whatever had shot at Asgard - and possibly controlled or influenced those Sharpedo? - and educate it as to the error of its ways. Painfully.

Right then, next step - Aulus reached to his belt for Puck's pokeball and released the Gengar onto the sand; she appeared standing just above it, leaning back as though slouching against a wall. Next he let Rose out for translation purposes.

"Alright, shall we have a last brief before they set out?" Aulus suggested to Tam. Puck had already been told what was going to happen but it bore repeating he felt, and there was also time for last minute thoughts and questions.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mhm. I think, um, we need to be somewhat careful though. We know they have missiles and, uh, some /kind/ of cloaking capability, with that fog... But we don't know who they are, how many, uh, people they have, the pokémon they have or anything... I don't want to drop it either but, uh, I think we should caution Puck and Gauntlet to flee from any substantial trouble..."

She knew Gauntlet would just... follow the leader to be helpful unless he was informed to retreat, and so by giving them that kind of directive, he, at least, would remember what he was told and press the issue

Gauntlet joined Puck after Tambrey gave a nod to Aulus' question, hovering cheerfully beside the Gengar.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Right," Aulus nodded agreement with Tam and then pointed pointedly at Puck. "Be careful, don't get yourself... re-killed or whatever. If you start taking fire you're going to have to retreat, we're banking on you not being detected here not sending in a raiding party. Kapish?"

Puck sighed and waved a hand. <>

<> Rose said with a grin.

Aulus snorted and shook his head. "Sure she did. Right though, just get out there and see what you can find but take care okay?" Tam was right, they didn't know anything much really so they had to assume the worst they could imagine just to be safe.  

[Gwennythe]

<> chimed Gauntlet, helpfully then looked surprised at Aulus. He felt like he'd better fact check that with his fellow ghost.
<> and then Rose 'translated'.
<> He tried to continue being helpful and inform the fighting type of his mistake.

"Mmhm. You know what you need to do. Take care of each other and, uh, Gauntlet, you stick close to Puck, okay? Remember don't let yourselves get into too much trouble... Good luck, we'll, uh, see you in a bit. I'll have a chocolate bar waiting, okay?"

<> The promise of a chocolate bar meant Gauntlet realised the sooner they went, the sooner they could be back and he could have it.  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Puck rolled her eyes, <> With a mock salute the Gengar pointed in the direction they'd been told to take, turned invisible, and took off as quickly as she could. <> Puck said as she glided along above the water.

As the ghosts quite literally vanished Aulus stared after them, hands clasped behind his back and brows knit in a deep frown. "I hope they're okay," he muttered. "Whatever this is.... It feels big. It's either us, or it's an enemy that our superiors don't want us knowing about. I guess it could just be that they really are looking into it and just don't want to admit ignorance but...." He trailed off and shook his head. "I don't like it Tam." He wasn't afraid but he was definitely anxious. What the hell was out there shooting those huge missiles at Asgard, making that fog, controlling those pokemon? They had to get to the bottom of it!  

[Gwennythe]

<< WHY WOULD YOU WISH TO SMELL THEM LATER? CAN YOU NOT SMELL THEM NOW?>> Gauntlet inquired, rather confused by the expression. He followed suit when Puck vanished, following her, and staying close, along the direction she'd pointed and taken off in, making sure he could sense her as much as possible. He'd been told to stay close, after all, and it did only make sense.
He just wished /she/ made sense...
<>

"I know..." Tambrey sympathized, but let Aulus continue with his speculation. "I'm not, um, entirely comfortable with the whole thing either, but... it's mostly because of that Sharpedo..." She followed Aulus gaze "They can... make a Sharpedo did with no sign of how... and if we connect the Sharpedo to our, uh, mystery fog bank... Well, they also have missiles. Whether it's, uh, 'us' or not, it's probably not going to be an overall pleasant time finding out..."  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Puck cackled as they headed further out over the water, leaving the beach behind them. <>

"I don't like it," Aulus repeated, pulling off a boot and hopping to remove the sock too before repeating the process with the other foot. "But yeah, I don't see this being a bed of roses. Seen as we can't do crap all other than wait, might as well wait usefully. Rose! Let's spar!"

Rose grinned and moved forward to meet his trainer. <>

Aulus gave a serious nod and then turned to look at Tam. "You mind if I work off some stupid male frustration here? Truly testosterone is a curse." Less that, more his own personal nature which tended towards the viciously anxious but Tam knew that without him having to admit it.  

[Gwennythe]

<< I DO NOT POSSESS AN EXCELLENT OLFACTORY CAPABILITY. IF YOU ARE ALWAYS SMELLING THEM PERHAPS YOU PHYSIOLOGY IS ABNORMAL?>> He crackled slightly as he processed Puck's next comments, looking ahead to see if he could spot the fog there were supposed to find, but his mind on the other ghosts' odd words for the moment.
<< I DO NOT BELIEVE IT IS EXCREMENT THAT IS FIRING MISSILES.>> Interestingly, he didn't argue against it being possible, however. <>

"Hm? No. You go ahead." Tambrey smiled, then looked at the sand. She didn't bring a blanket to sit on... Well... It was only sand... She'd probably be finding it for weeks whether she sat or not. And so, she sat.
"I'm, um, going to let Franklin out. I didn't bring her bucket and spade, but she'll still enjoy the sand, I think." She felt it was better to give a warning; sometimes Franklin just decided she was interested in everybody else instead of playing quietly.  

[TawnyAngel]

Puck laughed. <> The Gengar slowed slightly, narrowing her eyes not that it showed. <>

"Ta." Aulus stretched out a bit before starting to circle Rose. The pair traded a few moves, blocking and shifting to avoid behind struck by the other, before Aulus added; "So it's your birthday next month. Kind of off topic but do you want a party? I'm sure we talked about it before but I think I was preoccupied at the time with arm or no arm things." Rose aimed a side kick at his head; Aulus deflected it with his metal hand as though swatting a fly and struck back but Rose moved under his hand like water and flipped over backwards to put some distance between them.  

[Gwennythe]

Gauntlet chose not to comment on Puck being 'super special'. Why would he? He didn't know if she truly was or not, and if she thought she was, then she probably thought so for a reason. He was content to take her at her word.

He, thankfully, understood 'got it?' as a question, and responded appropriately, unfortunately he didn't really seem to have any variation when it came to volume.
<< I UNDERSTAND! I WILL STAY QUIET!>>


Back on the beach, Tambrey'd decided to pull out her covered 'dex and read through a few notes and things she'd taken. Unless you really knew the subject matter, it would probably look like a strange collection of symbols, squiggles and the occasional chart, with blocks of text that often ignored grammatical rules; in short, even if anyone had turned up on the beach they were on, and by some miracle managed to look at her screen, they more than likely wouldn't have a clue what they were seeing. She wasn't worried about studying it in public then, especially on the stretch of beach they were currently on, where they'd met no one before.

While Franklin had swooped about for a while, called 'Hi!' a couple of times in play, and then settled to play in the sand, building up a 'mountain', Tambrey continued to read until Aulus mentioned her birthday.
"Oh! Uh... I don't know. I don't, uh... Really do things for it. Hallowe'en anyway. So, um, always something else going on."  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Puck grinned invisible and then drifted forward into the fog. Couldn't hardly see a few feet away! No wonder Fish-Bird had been taken by surprise.

"Oof!" Aulus hit the sand as Rose threw him but quickly jabbed with his metal arm - no weak points there - and rolled so that he was on top of the fighting type and grinning at his studious partner. "Not what I asked Tam! 'I don't want any fuss' is fine but that's different from- gah!"

Aulus was now on his stomach with his left arm twisted around behind him and Rose's knee on his back.

"-From 'I don't feel like I should ask for a fuss'," he continued, squirming vaguely. "If you'd like some kind of party I can sort something, or we can go into town, but if you'd rather not we can do something quiet like watch horror movies?" Unless she was doing something with Rory of course. ******** Rory, he hated that guy. He didn't deserve her, what had he ever done to show he cared? Right? Right! Tambery deserved somebody - male or female - who knew how special she was, and told her how special she was all the time not just when the calender dictated a special occasion.  

[Gwennythe]

The Rotom, knowing he'd agreed to keep quiet from this point forward, silently followed the Gengar into the fog.
He desperately wanted to comment on how much he couldn't see... But he knew he'd agreed to stay quiet, so he didn't.

"I... guess." Tambrey agreed, she hadn't exactly answered the specific question. "There's usually a Hallowe'en party to go to anyway though, and I quite, um, like that. It's like having both a birthday party /and/ not having a fuss. It's good." She explained "But, apart from that it, uh, might be nice to have a small get together or something, I guess..." She did like the fact that, technically, now she did have friends she -could- hang out with, even if... almost entirely.. they happened to be from the team.
She snorted slightly, seeing Aulus taken off guard, but was sure he probably didn't mind; it meant that Rose was doing well at fighting, and she was pretty sure he'd know she wasn't laughing at him maliciously or anything.

Franklin decided to pipe up.
<< I like cake!>> Cake happened at birthdays; she liked cake.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

All remained eerily quiet within the thick fog for a few moments - indeed, even the sound of the waves below them would sound quieter than before - until the sound of something very large thrashing around in the water drifted upwards. A moment or two later an angry-looking Dragonite darted upwards, pumping its wings as it spiraled up past, practically between the two ghosts, growling the whole way, but it neither noticed them nor did anything but fly up.

The reason why became evident just a split second later, as a massive Twister attack whirled into existence and shot up and around a wide area, snaking upwards after the Dragonite's path, and down below it came a furious, guttural roar.