Can't Get a Break
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their wrespective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Kanto North
Chapter 1: Can't Get a Break
***
Several morphic pokemon sat around the meeting table of the northern kanto headquarters of Team Rocket. The first of this group was a middle-aged alakazam male, who headed the meeting in the executive chair at the end. In the seat right of him was a gaunt ampharos male, leaning back casually. Across from the ampharos sat a somewhat ragged looking absol male, who was occupied looking through a folder at his seat. Finally, a seat down from the absol sat a farfetch'd, the immediate area about him grayed slightly as he exhaled smoke, a half-burned cigarette sitting in his bill.
The absol was a somewhat tall character, he looked to stand a few inches over his comrades within the room. At the same time, his head fur had a ruffled look about it; a more noticeable feature being his head blade, which had been cleanly snapped off only an inch above the base. His eyes were a deep red typical of his species, standing out from the rest of his face; the fur covering his short-muzzled face being a very deep gray. At this time, the absol was dressed in a white button up and set of black slacks, falling in line with the dress of the rest of his companions. He had a slightly flustered look, his eyes narrowed with teeth halfway bared as his paws ran through the documents in his folder.
Of course, he does not notice as everyone starts to stare at him. The alakazam, an older man who was in the possession of an impressive beard turned his head to address the absol, the light glancing off the round, thick glasses that rest on his muzzle as he does so, "Alexei," he says, watching as the absol looks up from his papers, "Is there something that is troubling you about what I have just said?"
The absol nods a couple of times, as his eyes glance to the side. He huffs a few times before he finds his voice to respond, "I am..." he stumbled for a second, "going to have to voice an objection to the arrival of this Theodore." He takes another breath, "As futile as I know it is... I feel this is a poor decision by the high command."
The alakazam shakes his head slowly, "My hands are tied, Alexei. But I will consider letting them hear your protest."
Alexei blinks a few times at this response, taking another deep breath before he responds, "That's it, then? High command can just send their tools wherever they please?"
The ampharos craned his head up at this, giving the absol a little grin before he sits right up in his chair. Folding his arms down on the table, he leans in before inserting his bit of wisdom into the fray. "Exactly, friend!" he exclaimed, tilting his head a little, "If you didn't notice, he's part of the Inquisitorial branch. And I'm sure everyone in this room knows what that means." He turns his eyes to the alakazam, "In the end, our leader here, Edward, cannot do anything about it."
Being dismissed so quickly, the absol attempts to speak out again-- only to have the ampharos raise a paw and promptly put down further dissent. "From what I've read, his record is solid and just. In the end, we should have no reason to worry about him."
To this, Alexei could only shake his head, "That's a very ignorant statement. Who's to say that he will not..." Alexei paused for a second, "find something for us to worry about." He gave his own smile in retort as he continued, "The Inquisitorial Branch always finds the enemy within, after all."
With that statement, the farfetch'd finally decided to speak up. Grinding his cigarette into the ashtray next to him, the duck turned his head and locked his golden yellow eyes with the absol's. "That...right there. That..." he narrowed his eyes a bit, almost giving a grin through his bill, "Is the kind of thinking which will get you into trouble with their kind, Alexei So, in all the respect I can muster," he looked him right in the eyes, "just drop it. "
Attacked on all sides, the absol found his protest defeated by this point. "Fine, fine," he snapped, closing his eyes for a second before looking back down into his paperwork, only passing a meek glance to the duck, "I drop my opinion."
"Good, good," the farfetch'd said before turning his head away.
It was time to end this. As he spoke up again, the alakazam cocked and eye ridge, "I think it would be appropriate to end here," he stopped to glance around before he carried on, "unless anyone else has more thoughts or concerns to state."
He was met by shaken heads. "Then I call this meeting closed."
***
Several hours later, Alexei was sitting down at one of the round, polished steel tables within the installation's cafeteria. Staring over a plastic bowl filled with a vegetable soup, his face had a distorted reflection over the dark broth as he idly scratched a claw tip on the cold tabletop. Something bright yellow entered the corner of his eye, causing Alexei to quickly turn his head to the right, looking upward to find Fractal had walked up behind him, his long neck bent down a bit so that his own eyes could meet the absol's.
"Hey there," the ampharos said softly to him, giving Alexei a small grin along with it as he slides down in the chair across from him, the red orb on his tail clacking against the leg of the seat. As he blinked a few times, the absol's claw gave another scrape at the table as he adjusted his posture to be a bit more proper. "Hey there yourself," he responded to Fractal, his voice carrying a harder tone.
Tilting his head slightly, Fractal kept that little smile on his muzzle as he leaned in a bit.
"My, my..." he chided, blinking a few times, "What's ruffling your fur, friend?" At this, the mildly ragged absol's eyes started to narrow a little, claw tip pausing. "Heh...bad expression, I suppose." At this, the ampharos stopped for a second, before he chirped a little bit more. "You know what I mean to say?"
Slowly, Alexei nodded, easing his eyes as his paw moved to lie flat. "I do," he responded flatly, letting his gaze sink down from the ampharo's eyes back to his soup. "And you know what's...'ruffling my fur', Fractal."
"Theo?" asked Fractal, bringing his face a bit closer to the absol's, "You sound very upset by the arrival of this agent, though it's probably just going be a standard inspection by the Inquisitorial Branch..." he found the absol just starting into his eyes again, this time his features bare of much emotion. Fractal nods slowly at this, easing his neck back a little bit, "Hm...should I leave you alone on this?"
Alexei's response to this was as cut and dry as anything else. "Yes." With that, he took the spoon from his tray and helped himself to a few tastes of his dinner before looking to Fractal again, who had brought his neck back entirely by this point.
The ampharo's eyes darted to the left for a moment, before slowly sliding back to meet Alexei's before he cautiously let a paw cross the table, resting it on the absol's right shoulder. "Heh..." he smiled, blinking slowly, "sorry if I seemed a bit too critical of you back there; don't take it personally, Alexei."
The absol seems to soften a bit as he feels Fractal's paw on his shoulder. "I understand," he said as the edge in his voice dulled, "Just frustrating-- it almost seems like it has become a theme of our meetings." The ampharos tilts his head at this as he waited for his friend to pick up again. "You know, everyone jumping to attack whatever opinion that I may voice." With that, the absol took another couple of spoonfuls of his soup.
"Grow a thicker skin; I just said not to take it personally, but you did anyway." Fractal says flatly at Alexei's reason. "Seriously."
The absol lets an eye drift up from his soup to the ampharos upon hearing this. Blinking a few times, he looks back down. "Fuck off. Seriously."
"That's not nice," Fractal says flatly as he starts to slide back in his chair, standing up in another second. "And don't you see?"
Alexei looks up again. "Don't you see you should just go fuck miles of off?"
Fractal glances his eyes to the side, gritting his teeth. "Fine, I'll leave you now." With that, he turns away from the table, tail orb glowing a dull red as it swishes behind him as he makes his way to the steel double doors. The absol keeping his head up to watch as his friend made his way out. With that out of the way, the absol settled down to finish his dinner undisturbed.
"Good," whispers the absol to himself.
***
As the day starts to reach its end, Alexei locked himself up in his quarters. The room was almost a closet next to the server room. The absol sat down at a corner desk in the bare concrete room. Staring up at the ceiling for the better part of an hour, he yawns and padded over to his mostly unmade bed.
Slumping down on it with equal disregard, he slid the wrinkled sheets over himself and pressed his head into the pillow, letting his eyes slowly close. Not even bothering to turn the light off, the absol fell asleep and promptly began to roll back and forth, his breath becoming rapid. In a few hours, he jumped bolt upright; his eyes opened wide as his head swung around to survey small and bare room before it gently fell back to the pillow again. With a few ragged breaths, the dark type threw the sheets off himself, slowly getting back up and out of bed. Still in his work clothes from yesterday, which were now equally as wrinkled as his bedsheets, he made his way out from his room.
Leaving the server area, he passed down the polished steel corridors. Eventually, he arrived at the garden. Stepping in through the plate glass door, he looked up to see the half moon shining far above, its light illuminating the room dully in a pillar though the skylight and down the long shaft through the mountain, several heavy shutters waiting to close off this one source of natural light at the slightest sign of trouble from outside.
When he actually thought about it, it seemed rather amusing. He, a being of the night, going to sleep when the moon appeared in the sky? Stranger things have happened, he figured at this momentarily distracting thought. Still-- it was a more comfortable idea to mull over than what was placed on his shoulders again not a second after. Feeling the cool blades of grass against his footpaws, he made his way over to one of the benches lining the edges of the garden, sitting down in it and enjoying the cool of the night when contrasted the heat and hum that constantly invaded his room.
And it was here he let his head lower, eyes drooping before he slid off the bench, undoing his shirt and dropping it to the side as he curls up on the soft grass like a feral would. Eventually, he was woken as he felt someone's paw shake his shoulder. Vision being a dull red, the absol cracked his eyes open. A very blue blur in his vision shaped itself to be the face of a nidoqueen with a sharp-angled muzzle looking down at him.
"Wake up," she ordered, green eyes narrowed. Blinking a few times, the absol moved to rub his eyes, sitting up and reaching for his shirt a second after. Still looking up at the nidoqueen anthro, he let his eyes glance to the side.
"Shameful," she scolded, moving back up to her feet. She stood easily a good foot or two over Alexei, her thick frame dressed in a plain white dress shirt and slacks, a lab coat over that. All of this having spots in it which allow her back spines through, the bottom two segments of the nidoqueen anthro's tail sticking out from the bottom of the coat.
"Please... Sophia," Alexei replied, throwing the shirt back on. Looking down to button it, he let his eyes move up to meet hers again. "We've all caught you trying to dig burrows here every season." He gave a small smile-- and she gave one back. "It makes less sense than taking a rest under the moon. I'd argue that's extremely unnatural for me."
"Others bad behavior does not excuse yours, Agent Alexei," she responded coolly, flicking one of her large ears. "Make sure this does not happen again, we cannot stand to have any more permanent reverts."
"Where were you yesterday; I didn't see you at the meeting," said the absol in an attempt to change topic.
The nidoqueen met it with a shrug, then a tilt of her head. "Distraction," she said, keeping that little smile, "Don't try to excuse your bad behavior. Once again, we do not want any reverts."
"Fine, fine..." the absol grumbled as he stood. Running his paws down his shirt to smooth the wrinkles, he gave Sophia a nod before he turned and made his way out.
***
Four hours later, Edward the alakazam was sitting in his office. Running his eyes back and forth, the older pokemorph scanned through several large sheets of paper on his desk, appearing to be floor plans for future excavations into the mountain.
Hearing a knock at his door, he looked up and adjusts his lenses for a second. "Come in," he said, watching the door open and seeing the farfetch'd step in, a yellow envelope folded underneath his elbow. "Good day, agent Datan," Edward greeted with a small smile, motioning with a paw for the duck to pull up a chair that sat in the corner.
The farfetch'd complied and dragged it over. Sitting, he slapped the envelope down on the desk. "Just pulled these off the central database, I'm sure you'll be pleased to have a look at them."
The alakazam blinked at this statement, "You just pulled something off the central database, agent?" He took the envelope in paw, slowly opening it and pulling out several glossy photographs, looking over them for a couple of seconds before he stared right into Datan's eyes. "That's downright reckless, do you have spontaneous amnesia or did you take countermeasures so our new arrival won't know?"
"Though a proxy, of course," Datan quacks, "Even if Theodore pays her a little visit and decides to convince her to reveal the source of the order, she has no idea who really told her to-- it looks like one of his fellow witch hunters ordered the information, which should look benign to him."
"Still, Datan," the alakazam said flatly, "What we are attempting is what my former pupil considers to be the most dangerous thing; dangerous to the stagnant status quo that he strives to maintain that is."
"Your pet," the farfetch'd inserted, barely stifling a chuckle, "Oh yes, reintroducing him and that absol to the team after their little unapproved vacation was something else." Something that made him glad the nidoking wouldn't remember his face and that absol was still under his thumb from what he could tell. Edward just glared at him for a second, then looked back down to the photos. "I miss being a reeducation agen--"
"That's enough," the alakazam finally cut him off as he raised a paw and shook his head, "I don't want to hear about it."
"Fair enough," the duck shrugged casually, "I'm just here to do the necessary things you cannot do," craning his head in to glance over the photos on the desk for a second, "Back on topic, don't those glyphs just perfectly resemble what we found just a few weeks ago while digging in? It's from Johto."
Kanto North
Chapter 1: Can't Get a Break
***
Several morphic pokemon sat around the meeting table of the northern kanto headquarters of Team Rocket. The first of this group was a middle-aged alakazam male, who headed the meeting in the executive chair at the end. In the seat right of him was a gaunt ampharos male, leaning back casually. Across from the ampharos sat a somewhat ragged looking absol male, who was occupied looking through a folder at his seat. Finally, a seat down from the absol sat a farfetch'd, the immediate area about him grayed slightly as he exhaled smoke, a half-burned cigarette sitting in his bill.
The absol was a somewhat tall character, he looked to stand a few inches over his comrades within the room. At the same time, his head fur had a ruffled look about it; a more noticeable feature being his head blade, which had been cleanly snapped off only an inch above the base. His eyes were a deep red typical of his species, standing out from the rest of his face; the fur covering his short-muzzled face being a very deep gray. At this time, the absol was dressed in a white button up and set of black slacks, falling in line with the dress of the rest of his companions. He had a slightly flustered look, his eyes narrowed with teeth halfway bared as his paws ran through the documents in his folder.
Of course, he does not notice as everyone starts to stare at him. The alakazam, an older man who was in the possession of an impressive beard turned his head to address the absol, the light glancing off the round, thick glasses that rest on his muzzle as he does so, "Alexei," he says, watching as the absol looks up from his papers, "Is there something that is troubling you about what I have just said?"
The absol nods a couple of times, as his eyes glance to the side. He huffs a few times before he finds his voice to respond, "I am..." he stumbled for a second, "going to have to voice an objection to the arrival of this Theodore." He takes another breath, "As futile as I know it is... I feel this is a poor decision by the high command."
The alakazam shakes his head slowly, "My hands are tied, Alexei. But I will consider letting them hear your protest."
Alexei blinks a few times at this response, taking another deep breath before he responds, "That's it, then? High command can just send their tools wherever they please?"
The ampharos craned his head up at this, giving the absol a little grin before he sits right up in his chair. Folding his arms down on the table, he leans in before inserting his bit of wisdom into the fray. "Exactly, friend!" he exclaimed, tilting his head a little, "If you didn't notice, he's part of the Inquisitorial branch. And I'm sure everyone in this room knows what that means." He turns his eyes to the alakazam, "In the end, our leader here, Edward, cannot do anything about it."
Being dismissed so quickly, the absol attempts to speak out again-- only to have the ampharos raise a paw and promptly put down further dissent. "From what I've read, his record is solid and just. In the end, we should have no reason to worry about him."
To this, Alexei could only shake his head, "That's a very ignorant statement. Who's to say that he will not..." Alexei paused for a second, "find something for us to worry about." He gave his own smile in retort as he continued, "The Inquisitorial Branch always finds the enemy within, after all."
With that statement, the farfetch'd finally decided to speak up. Grinding his cigarette into the ashtray next to him, the duck turned his head and locked his golden yellow eyes with the absol's. "That...right there. That..." he narrowed his eyes a bit, almost giving a grin through his bill, "Is the kind of thinking which will get you into trouble with their kind, Alexei So, in all the respect I can muster," he looked him right in the eyes, "just drop it. "
Attacked on all sides, the absol found his protest defeated by this point. "Fine, fine," he snapped, closing his eyes for a second before looking back down into his paperwork, only passing a meek glance to the duck, "I drop my opinion."
"Good, good," the farfetch'd said before turning his head away.
It was time to end this. As he spoke up again, the alakazam cocked and eye ridge, "I think it would be appropriate to end here," he stopped to glance around before he carried on, "unless anyone else has more thoughts or concerns to state."
He was met by shaken heads. "Then I call this meeting closed."
***
Several hours later, Alexei was sitting down at one of the round, polished steel tables within the installation's cafeteria. Staring over a plastic bowl filled with a vegetable soup, his face had a distorted reflection over the dark broth as he idly scratched a claw tip on the cold tabletop. Something bright yellow entered the corner of his eye, causing Alexei to quickly turn his head to the right, looking upward to find Fractal had walked up behind him, his long neck bent down a bit so that his own eyes could meet the absol's.
"Hey there," the ampharos said softly to him, giving Alexei a small grin along with it as he slides down in the chair across from him, the red orb on his tail clacking against the leg of the seat. As he blinked a few times, the absol's claw gave another scrape at the table as he adjusted his posture to be a bit more proper. "Hey there yourself," he responded to Fractal, his voice carrying a harder tone.
Tilting his head slightly, Fractal kept that little smile on his muzzle as he leaned in a bit.
"My, my..." he chided, blinking a few times, "What's ruffling your fur, friend?" At this, the mildly ragged absol's eyes started to narrow a little, claw tip pausing. "Heh...bad expression, I suppose." At this, the ampharos stopped for a second, before he chirped a little bit more. "You know what I mean to say?"
Slowly, Alexei nodded, easing his eyes as his paw moved to lie flat. "I do," he responded flatly, letting his gaze sink down from the ampharo's eyes back to his soup. "And you know what's...'ruffling my fur', Fractal."
"Theo?" asked Fractal, bringing his face a bit closer to the absol's, "You sound very upset by the arrival of this agent, though it's probably just going be a standard inspection by the Inquisitorial Branch..." he found the absol just starting into his eyes again, this time his features bare of much emotion. Fractal nods slowly at this, easing his neck back a little bit, "Hm...should I leave you alone on this?"
Alexei's response to this was as cut and dry as anything else. "Yes." With that, he took the spoon from his tray and helped himself to a few tastes of his dinner before looking to Fractal again, who had brought his neck back entirely by this point.
The ampharo's eyes darted to the left for a moment, before slowly sliding back to meet Alexei's before he cautiously let a paw cross the table, resting it on the absol's right shoulder. "Heh..." he smiled, blinking slowly, "sorry if I seemed a bit too critical of you back there; don't take it personally, Alexei."
The absol seems to soften a bit as he feels Fractal's paw on his shoulder. "I understand," he said as the edge in his voice dulled, "Just frustrating-- it almost seems like it has become a theme of our meetings." The ampharos tilts his head at this as he waited for his friend to pick up again. "You know, everyone jumping to attack whatever opinion that I may voice." With that, the absol took another couple of spoonfuls of his soup.
"Grow a thicker skin; I just said not to take it personally, but you did anyway." Fractal says flatly at Alexei's reason. "Seriously."
The absol lets an eye drift up from his soup to the ampharos upon hearing this. Blinking a few times, he looks back down. "Fuck off. Seriously."
"That's not nice," Fractal says flatly as he starts to slide back in his chair, standing up in another second. "And don't you see?"
Alexei looks up again. "Don't you see you should just go fuck miles of off?"
Fractal glances his eyes to the side, gritting his teeth. "Fine, I'll leave you now." With that, he turns away from the table, tail orb glowing a dull red as it swishes behind him as he makes his way to the steel double doors. The absol keeping his head up to watch as his friend made his way out. With that out of the way, the absol settled down to finish his dinner undisturbed.
"Good," whispers the absol to himself.
***
As the day starts to reach its end, Alexei locked himself up in his quarters. The room was almost a closet next to the server room. The absol sat down at a corner desk in the bare concrete room. Staring up at the ceiling for the better part of an hour, he yawns and padded over to his mostly unmade bed.
Slumping down on it with equal disregard, he slid the wrinkled sheets over himself and pressed his head into the pillow, letting his eyes slowly close. Not even bothering to turn the light off, the absol fell asleep and promptly began to roll back and forth, his breath becoming rapid. In a few hours, he jumped bolt upright; his eyes opened wide as his head swung around to survey small and bare room before it gently fell back to the pillow again. With a few ragged breaths, the dark type threw the sheets off himself, slowly getting back up and out of bed. Still in his work clothes from yesterday, which were now equally as wrinkled as his bedsheets, he made his way out from his room.
Leaving the server area, he passed down the polished steel corridors. Eventually, he arrived at the garden. Stepping in through the plate glass door, he looked up to see the half moon shining far above, its light illuminating the room dully in a pillar though the skylight and down the long shaft through the mountain, several heavy shutters waiting to close off this one source of natural light at the slightest sign of trouble from outside.
When he actually thought about it, it seemed rather amusing. He, a being of the night, going to sleep when the moon appeared in the sky? Stranger things have happened, he figured at this momentarily distracting thought. Still-- it was a more comfortable idea to mull over than what was placed on his shoulders again not a second after. Feeling the cool blades of grass against his footpaws, he made his way over to one of the benches lining the edges of the garden, sitting down in it and enjoying the cool of the night when contrasted the heat and hum that constantly invaded his room.
And it was here he let his head lower, eyes drooping before he slid off the bench, undoing his shirt and dropping it to the side as he curls up on the soft grass like a feral would. Eventually, he was woken as he felt someone's paw shake his shoulder. Vision being a dull red, the absol cracked his eyes open. A very blue blur in his vision shaped itself to be the face of a nidoqueen with a sharp-angled muzzle looking down at him.
"Wake up," she ordered, green eyes narrowed. Blinking a few times, the absol moved to rub his eyes, sitting up and reaching for his shirt a second after. Still looking up at the nidoqueen anthro, he let his eyes glance to the side.
"Shameful," she scolded, moving back up to her feet. She stood easily a good foot or two over Alexei, her thick frame dressed in a plain white dress shirt and slacks, a lab coat over that. All of this having spots in it which allow her back spines through, the bottom two segments of the nidoqueen anthro's tail sticking out from the bottom of the coat.
"Please... Sophia," Alexei replied, throwing the shirt back on. Looking down to button it, he let his eyes move up to meet hers again. "We've all caught you trying to dig burrows here every season." He gave a small smile-- and she gave one back. "It makes less sense than taking a rest under the moon. I'd argue that's extremely unnatural for me."
"Others bad behavior does not excuse yours, Agent Alexei," she responded coolly, flicking one of her large ears. "Make sure this does not happen again, we cannot stand to have any more permanent reverts."
"Where were you yesterday; I didn't see you at the meeting," said the absol in an attempt to change topic.
The nidoqueen met it with a shrug, then a tilt of her head. "Distraction," she said, keeping that little smile, "Don't try to excuse your bad behavior. Once again, we do not want any reverts."
"Fine, fine..." the absol grumbled as he stood. Running his paws down his shirt to smooth the wrinkles, he gave Sophia a nod before he turned and made his way out.
***
Four hours later, Edward the alakazam was sitting in his office. Running his eyes back and forth, the older pokemorph scanned through several large sheets of paper on his desk, appearing to be floor plans for future excavations into the mountain.
Hearing a knock at his door, he looked up and adjusts his lenses for a second. "Come in," he said, watching the door open and seeing the farfetch'd step in, a yellow envelope folded underneath his elbow. "Good day, agent Datan," Edward greeted with a small smile, motioning with a paw for the duck to pull up a chair that sat in the corner.
The farfetch'd complied and dragged it over. Sitting, he slapped the envelope down on the desk. "Just pulled these off the central database, I'm sure you'll be pleased to have a look at them."
The alakazam blinked at this statement, "You just pulled something off the central database, agent?" He took the envelope in paw, slowly opening it and pulling out several glossy photographs, looking over them for a couple of seconds before he stared right into Datan's eyes. "That's downright reckless, do you have spontaneous amnesia or did you take countermeasures so our new arrival won't know?"
"Though a proxy, of course," Datan quacks, "Even if Theodore pays her a little visit and decides to convince her to reveal the source of the order, she has no idea who really told her to-- it looks like one of his fellow witch hunters ordered the information, which should look benign to him."
"Still, Datan," the alakazam said flatly, "What we are attempting is what my former pupil considers to be the most dangerous thing; dangerous to the stagnant status quo that he strives to maintain that is."
"Your pet," the farfetch'd inserted, barely stifling a chuckle, "Oh yes, reintroducing him and that absol to the team after their little unapproved vacation was something else." Something that made him glad the nidoking wouldn't remember his face and that absol was still under his thumb from what he could tell. Edward just glared at him for a second, then looked back down to the photos. "I miss being a reeducation agen--"
"That's enough," the alakazam finally cut him off as he raised a paw and shook his head, "I don't want to hear about it."
"Fair enough," the duck shrugged casually, "I'm just here to do the necessary things you cannot do," craning his head in to glance over the photos on the desk for a second, "Back on topic, don't those glyphs just perfectly resemble what we found just a few weeks ago while digging in? It's from Johto."