You have no chance to survive

[these_balls]

Who: Rocket Grunts, Magma Grunts, and Aqua Grunts! Basically all the Grunts!
Where: The Whirl Islands and Cinnabar Island
When: February 1st
Summary: Pretty much this
Rating: PG-13? It doesn't need to higher than that? Right, guys?
Log:

The orders are pretty simple. Go in. Wipe out the Team Aqua and Magma Grunts. That's it. So there's not going to be any farewell speeches or anything like that from the Admins because they're of the opinion that you guys have totally got this.

And if you don't...

Well, don't worry about that for now.

Instead, just worry about getting to the nearest base and boarding a helicopter. After that, you've got a short (or long, depending on which base you're heading to) ride ahead of you to some islands in the middle of the ocean, inhabited by a bunch of Aqua and Magma Grunts who have no idea this surprise is on the way. So just do what you do best, Rockets!

And as far as the Admins are concerned what you do best should be to win at all costs. Anything less and well, that would just be an embarrassing return to the region for them. And nobody wants that.


QUICK LINKS
EVENT INFO | QUESTIONS | PLOTTING POST

☆ HELICOPTER RIDE THREAD ☆ TEAM AQUA BASE THREAD ☆ TEAM MAGMA BASE THREAD ☆ AFTERMATH THREAD

Comments

TEAM MAGMA BASE

[these_balls]

Now if you're being dispatched to the Team Magma base, you have a slightly tougher way of entering. The base is below Cinnabar Island, so the entrance happens to be on the side of the island. The actual side. So you'll basically be jumping from the copter into the entrance. The Rocket pilot has mercifully gotten close enough that any idiot could make the jump, but still, that's a thing to be aware of.

Which might look suspicious to anyone that's familiar with Cinnabar Island. Here's this entrance to a super secret base constructed on the side of an island that's basically undergone perpetual construction forever? Could the construction company on Cinnabar be a front for Team Magma? Or just glitched into an infinite loop of constructing nothing forever?

Conspiracy theories aside, there's no map leading to the base, it's a simple straightfoward path leading into the Team Magma base. Oddly enough the layout and lootable items are almost identical to the Team Aqua one. So maybe there is something up with that construction company after all.

The Grunts are about as likely to take your arrival about as well as their counterparts too. So stay sharp, Rockets!

(frozen comment) WHAT YOU CAN STEAL

[these_balls]

-WAY TOO MANY ESCAPE ROPES (seriously take as many as you want)
-1 Nugget or Rare Candy per Grunt
-1 of these or an Incense per Grunt
-1 Heat Rock per Grunt
-1 scarf per Grunt. They don't do anything, but man do they look cool!
-Various berries
-Various Pokeballs (Mostly of the Poke, Great, and Ultra variety. No Master Ball here, sorry)

[divinitea]

[Celes had remained silent during the helicopter trip, keeping her cap pulled down low over her eyes and hovering near the back, away from the others. She's still not quite sure what possessed her to respond to the orders, but...well, she was frankly getting sick of lying around in her bedroom, and the thought of beating up some random criminals sounded just up her alley. Hopefully she'll be able to smash some things, too. That sounded nice.

...now if only the uniform wasn't quite so stupid. This skirt with these boots....horrendous...

At least she has Victoria the Gothitelle to help her make it to the ground without embarrassing herself.

So if you happen to be a member of Team Magma, you might notice a female grunt with (DANGAN RONPA SPOILERS) short black hair and rather pale eyes, walking silently through one of the rooms in the base, accompanied by a Gothitelle.

...speaking of which-]

You're rather happy today, you know.

[It's true; Celes has never seen Victoria quite this...exuberant. Could it be because of all this Team Rocket nonsense? Hmmm...

...well. Anyway, Celes will keep walking around the room, her hands linked together in front of her. Maybe there's something worth stealing in here...that's what Team Rocket does, isn't it? Steal things?

...

...oh, whatever.]

[whos_that]

Patrolling the base, patrolling the base, why is he even patrolling, there's nobody here besides Team Magma? Seriously, they've been here for a really long time and not once has he run into any intruders. Probably because of the whole entrance in the side of a volcano thing, but still. There's usually nobody here ever.

Which makes it weird that the door to that one room with the crates of scarves is open. Why they even have so many scarves is beyond him, but hey, Maxie sent them here, so there must be some reason. He'll just poke his head in here to see what's going on, and...

...um.

Who is that? And why does that look like a Team Rocket uniform?

“Who are you? What are you doing in here?”

[divinitea]

Celes doesn't react to the Magma Grunt's question; Victoria had informed her that he was approaching, so his sudden appearance is no real surprise. That doesn't mean it isn't wanted, though.

"Beatrice."

With a flash, Celes' Ninetales appears, roaring (or, well, making the closest noise to a 'roar' that she can manage) and gnashing her teeth. She doesn't approach the Magma grunt just yet, instead pacing back and forth in front of her trainer, not taking her eyes off her target.

...now is the point where Celes should say something, isn't it...what is it that Team Rocket says?

"Your base belongs to us, now. I'd run, if I were you."

...that was so lame, and yet...kind of...fun?

...whatever.

[aufsassig]

[SHIT YEAH JUMPING OUT OF HELICOPTERS INTO CAVES ON THE CLIFFSIDE OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST MISSION EVER

Quite predictably, Schuldig's wired as fuck when he hits the doors of the Magma Base, and for good reason; someone's throwing him a party, and he's hype as hell to walk in and get it started.

It is, of course, company policy to have his mask on and his distinguishing features obscured, and he's doing his best to suck up to the business these days (having received a grim reminder of why precisely that tends to pay off in a crisis); he doesn't expect to need the physical assistance, though, when he's got his Alakazam and his Hypno ready for action.

And since espionage really isn't his style, he's just going to waltz right in looking for trouble — or waiting for it to find him. Presumably if he goes and ransacks some of the crates in one of the storerooms, someone will clue in to that sooner or later.

Heeeeeeere, nerd-y nerd-y nerd-y...]

[whos_that]

On the other side of the storeroom, there's just this speechless Magma Grunt because what the hell are you doing, bro? Never mind the fact that Team Rocket is here for some reason and they'll need to report that to Maxie, but that this guy just wanders in here with his Pokemon and starts going through their stuff like he owns the place. Seriously. Even for a villain team, where are you manners?

“Hey!” He says, finally finding some words to direct at the intruder. “Get out of those! That's Team Magma property!”

He's hoping to sound authoritative, but that probably came across as a lame declaration instead.

[aufsassig]

He's not precisely surprised when the Grunt ultimately shows up, not least of which because he's been making a fair amount of noise in the hopes that he'd attract one to his position anyway, but he's certainly willing to feign it as the admonition rings out through the room. His hands immediately go up in the universal sign of surrender (or at least, of HOLD UP BRO JUST CALM DOWN WILL YOU), and he straightens up to turn and face his would-be assailant with all the deference that an actually credible threat would warrant.

This'll be more fun if it doesn't immediately devolve into fisticuffs (Poke'cuffs?), anyway.

"Hey, hey, take it easy!" he offers back, aiming to sound legitimately startled. "Where the hell did you come from? Jesus, I thought for sure I swept this room like I was supposed to; what, are you a ninja or something?"

The thought came to mind and I couldn't resist.

[silentscales]

[Snake has been taking the opposite approach to attacking those in the base. Instead of charging right in, he's been trying to strategically pick off a few Magma members in choice locations to make it easier for everyone else to get through.

He had slipped in the room to check it for any supplies he could use in battle, but hides in the crates when he hears someone approach.

And so he's stuffed in a crate with an ekans when Shuldig tears off the lid. Snake will just stare at the other grunt with a blank expression. At least it wasn't a Magma?]

Hahaha! How great!

[aufsassig]

[...Okay, well. Things he might've been expecting when he started digging in the crate:

NOT THIS.

At least he manages to resist the urge to just punch the guy, because while punching is a sensible and mature reaction when it comes to being startled by someone hiding in a crate, it also doesn't do a lot towards team morale.]

Holy shit, what the hell — ?!

[ajustcaws]

[jumping from the copter

jumping from the copter oh man this is so awesome she's just got to just do the best pose when she lands

MAYBE SHE'LL DO A SWEET BACKFLIoh no. Points for trying, Cynthia!! Anyway, it's weird to be wearing a uniform on an actual mission, but since she's going into battle she's put her armor on over it because it looks cool and it's good to be defensively oriented! ...maybe. Anyway, she's... not actively trying to steal anything because that's not terribly heroic, though she might... snag a Rare Candy if she finds one... don't judge her

...MOSTLY, THOUGH, SHE'S GOING TO SEE IF SHE CAN FIGHT A GRUNT. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT SHE'S HERE TO DO RIGHT

KICK SOME BUTTS AND CHEW BUBBLEGUM?]

[whos_that]

The first Grunt that spots Cynthia can't help but think girl, what on earth are you wearing? Because that is seriously an...outfit. Yeah, an outfit. Let's go with that. Her second thought is what are you doing here, get out. Seriously, go take your Rocket fashion disaster elsewhere.

“Hey! Intruder alert! I don't know who you are, but you picked the wrong base to invade, Rocket!”

She'll just pick out a Pokeball now and wait to see what Cynthia does.

[ajustcaws]

It is an awesome outfit, thank you very much!

...and Cynthia is so pumped to tun into the enemy, because she gets to whip out a sweet pose with the first Pokeball on her belt! It's very flashy and not at all embarrassing.

"Well, gee, I kinda wanted to get on the ground floor of this whole operation!" she says enthusiastically, before tossing her Pokeball with a flourish... sending out her Houndoom first! It's a good way to test the waters, because she has no idea what kind of heat Team Magma is packing. ...she guesses, you know, fire, but....

[explosivecombat]

[You know, there are definitely some upsides to having Archer deployed to a different base; while they almost always work together, it's...interesting to do this more or less on his own, for one thing.

For another, it keeps Archer from having a heart attack because Kimblee is seriously pumped about jumping out of a helicopter more or less into a volcano. Adventure!

That said, however, Kimblee isn't terribly interested in screwing around with theft and he isn't adept enough with technology to get anything valuable off the computers; however, since this is a base run by nerds for nerds and Amestris is a country where the nerds reign supreme, the various displays and mechanical...things lying around manage to interest him anyway.

...and let's be honest with ourselves, they weird him out way less than the warp panels. Those warp panels are giving him a serious case of The Wig. So the less he touches those, the better.]

[whos_that]

Hey, guess what? Unfortunately, while Team Magma has awesome gizmos and technological thingies on display, they don't really take too kindly to people invading their base to look at them. So when a Grunt shows up...via warp panel no less, he's going to wonder what the heck is going on.

“Get away from those!”

He'll just add extra emphasis to his command by bringing out a level 100 Camerupt because...apparently he thinks that's threatening.

[twinsanity]

[Alfred is actually more on board with this than he'd thought he would be; really, showing those upstarts from October who's boss sounds like a lovely prospect, as far as he's concerned.

So he's going to not even bother with the stealth route, though old habits die hard as hell and he's still trying to clear rooms as best he can before entering them; this is aided by his...Remoraid, which is being a good gunfish like he wanted.

...No, really, he's carrying her propped up against his shoulder like a goddamn rifle because of course he is.]

[whos_that]

The Grunts in Team Magma have seen some ridiculous...and been responsible for some ridiculous things in their time, but watching this guy pretend his fish is some sort of weapon is an entirely new one. Honestly, she's not even sure whether to say something when she sees him or let him just continue doing...whatever it is he's doing.

But since this is a Team Magma base, they can't have Rockets running around pretending to play laser tag or whatever he's doing because seriously guy, what on earth? So she'll try and get his attention.

“Hey you!”

[ortion]

[As the Rockets begin their raid of Team Magma's base, a particular Rocket has chosen to hang back near the entrance. And by "hang back", he's literally floating several feet in the air on a very large and fancy chair. If looking up from below, one can see the several Magnemites and huge Magnezone attached to the bottom and back of the chair respectively. Presumably they are the ones making the chair's defiance of gravity possible.

While other Rockets are working on taking the base, Dist is monitoring their progress. Specifically, those who are using his experimental Pokemon. He has all of those Pokemon tracked and is carefully watching the data pouring in through his electronic tablet. To him, their success means his success on this mission, so he wants to make sure they're performing to the best of their ability.

Naturally, he doesn't expect the Magma Grunts to just let him sit around like this, being a Rocket and all. For that reason, a Metagross is positioned directly under the chair, keeping watch for any approaching Grunts. Should one come close while Dist isn't watching, Kaiser Dist X-M2 will alert him.

Bring it, nerds. Just try to interrupt his evil science time.]

[whos_that]

Today has certainly been a day of firsts for Team Magma. It's the first time they've had their Cinnabar base invaded. It's also the first time one of them saw some weird guy armed with a fish gun. And now it's the first time any one of them has seen some sort of floating...chair....thing.

She's not even sure what to say there, so as she approaches from across the hall, there's a loud “Hey! Whoever you are! Take you and your...freaky...chair back to whatever base you guys are from!”

Yeah, that'll show him.

1/2

[katostrophic]

[Now that he's arrived at the base, Kato doesn't hesitate to get to work quickly. He's got his Lunatone hovering by his head and his laptop hovering on the other side, and Kato is focusing his attention mainly on the latter. All his collars are online and seem to be responding properly, so with any luck, things will go well.

Time to test that theory.

Reaching into his pocket, Kato retrieves a Pokeball and idly tosses it against the wall.]

Lussac.

[His Gengar appears immediately, cackling to himself and rubbing his hands together. He's also wearing one of Kato's collars, strapped around his arm. After a nod from his trainer, he disappears through the wall, and after a moment, he returns.]

None of our members on the other side? Good.

[With a rather arrogant wave, Kato directs Lussac to stand beside the wall...and promptly smirks.]

Surely I don't have to spell it out for you?

[...he doesn't, no. With a mad stream of cackling, Lussac begins to glow white; Ranpu puts up a barrier just in time for Kato to view Lussac using Explosion, blowing a rather large hole in the wall.

...Kato may be cackling a bit himself.]

Good, good! Why bother wasting our time with these warp panels, when we can just go through the-

2/2

[katostrophic]

[...]

-what?

[Now that the smoke has cleared, Kato and Ranpu are treated to the sight of...Lussac lying face down on the ground, clearly fainted. He...doesn't appear to be getting up.]

Impossible! It didn't work!?

[Angrily yanking the floating laptop towards him, Kato begins typing furiously, bringing up one of the windows and cursing when he sees what it is displaying.]

The probe didn't work! I thought I'd fixed that stupid problem it has with Ghost-types! Oh, it doesn't matter...

[Muttering darkly, Kato recalls Lussac to his Pokeball, all the joy he felt from the demolition of the wall promptly fading. Ranpu floats a little closer to his head, but Kato waves him off.]

It's fine. I don't care if these ones fail - I only care about Rosamund's collar. Hers will work perfectly.

[Continuing to curse under his breath, Kato returns his attention to his laptop while Ranpu keeps an eye on the hall. That explosion was loud; they're likely to have drawn some rather unwanted attention.]

[whitehairedprettyboy]

[ Valmont's exit from the helicopter is... actually pretty graceful, surprisingly. Lands on his feet and everything. He hasn't done too much that requires his physical skills in a while, so it's nice to know he's still got it.

All right, so now he's inside, and he's got his Servine and Gothorita out, the latter because it's his strongest Pokémon and the former because, well, it fits with his aesthetic. Even if his aesthetic is almost completely obscured at this point. He's got on the godawful uniform with its stupid mask, like he's some kind of petty bank robber, but what really rankles is the fact that he has to keep his hair up under the (dumb, tacky) hat. Honestly, what's the point of having a beautiful ponytail like his if you can't even show it off to your enemies?

God, he misses his own criminal organization. The Dark Hand didn't have any dress code, that was for sure. Possibly to its detriment.

Well. The sooner he can defeat one of these Magma grunts, or whatever the hell it is they're meant to be doing here, the sooner he can change and go home. Where are the grunts? Perhaps the other team members have taken them all out, and he won't have to get his hands dirty at all. The thought is an appealing one.

In the meantime, he's looking around to see if there's anything even remotely valuable in this base, Servine assisting with opening various crates and Gothorita keeping a lookout. He's not having too much luck. What the hell do they need all these ropes for? ]

[whos_that]

Not that it's any of Team Rocket's business but because one never knows when they'll have to make a hasty exit from their secret subterranean volcano lair. But Valmont's not likely to find that out because once he's spotted, a Grunt's running over there yelling, “Hey! That's our stuff! Get out of there!”

He's already got his hands on a Pokeball, the only one on his belt actually, but he hasn't brought out a Pokemon yet. For what it's worth, he's hoping his yelling is enough of a deterrent, even though it probably won't be.

[silentscales]

[Snake is happy to be getting off the helicopter and into the base, but despite the eagerness he had in jumping from the helicopter, he suddenly gets much more careful inside the base.

He isn't rushing in, shouting for a battle, but instead slipping along the walls and finding a target guarding more strategical positions, like one guarding one of the telepads, or one that might later be able to bottleneck Rocket's grunts.

He just wishes the place was a bit bigger, so that he could move around and spy more properly, but with a base so small it was hard enough to get past some of the unimportant Magma grunts.]

[whos_that]

Guarding the warp panels is probably a sound strategy. Especially since a Team Magma Grunt just warped in. She's not expecting to see anyone, especially not a Rocket Grunt, so there's a few moments of just awkward silence before some sort of standard greeting.

“Hey! Who are you supposed to be? And what do you think you're doing?”