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

[fauxtographs]

I hope you know how to double battle.

[These two aren't messing around, it seems...

...good! Emmy can feel adrenaline starting to pound through her body, and she clenches her fists, trying not to act too excited.

...she's still pretty excited. She'd be more excited if she wasn't stuck battling with Archer, but, well...it could be worse.

...somehow.]

Slow me down all you like, it won't matter! Simon, use Brick Break!

[That Lvl 42 Mightyena should probably brace itself; he may be plodding along, but Simon is still rather determined to see his Brick Break attack connect.]

[sadisticwarfare]

You make it sound as though this might be a challenge.

[Archer smirks at that, but the expression quickly fades when the Alakazam lets him know exactly how powerful the Pokémon they're facing are. What kind of Grunts have Pokémon that are this strong??

The Alakazam uses Protect to block the attack, then counters with Disable. Because you know, it's Archer. And clearly he has to try to be a jerk to these Grunts.]

[katostrophic]

[Kato and Ranpu similarly perk up at the sound of that intercom. Finally, they've made it to Cinnabar! Who knew it would take so damn long to get there?

...it's probably also due to the fact that he's practically shaking from anticipation, but you know. He can't help but get excited! It's been so long since he and Dist have had a chance to put their talents to use in the field, after all.

Grinning, he nods at Dist's question - adding a wink once he's answered.]

Always.

[Nodding to Ranpu, Kato tightens his grip on Dist's chair as they prepare to lift off properly; it would hardly do to fall off, especially in front of all these other members! Fortunately, he's fairly familiar with how the chair moves, and he knows Dist can pilot it properly.

...is 'pilot' the correct word to use? Oh well, close enough.]

We're going to arrive in style, Dist; rather appropriate, don't you think? I must say, I'm desperate to get started! I'm going to make these fools my finest work of art yet!

[grapeeater]

A psychic type? Interesting. I have one of those with me, myself. They're... a little difficult to work with.

[It's just idle conversation, really, but it's conversation at least. Not like he can't entertain himself... but being alone with his thoughts isn't really something he wants right now.]

[grapeeater]

Poison. Something he should have expected, but he didn't bring along anything specifically for that. He can deal with it later. Aki should be strong enough to get through this. If she's not... well, he's got some backup, though she's his best chance for this.

"Discharge!"

Aki sways a little bit from the poison, but gathers electricity around her and lets it fly at the bat. Micchy tries to remember what's good against Poison while he waits for her next move. Fire? No, that's not right. Psychic, maybe? That makes no sense but it rings a bell.

[whos_that]

Grunts aren't very bright for the most part, but there's clearly something going on over there with his opponent, and while he'd like to know what, he's a little preoccupied with the fact that Mightyena is once again on fire and also hurt by its burn. And also hurt by the recoil.

“Roar!”

He knows it can't really deal with being set on fire again, and nothing he's got would fare any better right now, so his best bet is to try and force a switch here. Maybe it'll work? Or the move'll fail and Mightyena gets incinerated. Who knows?

[divinitea]

Well, that Roar will certainly do its job; Beatrice's eyes widen as she's sucked back into her Pokeball, and Celes rolls hers as a random member of her team pops out onto the field. She's always hated that move...

...at least the Pokemon that came out is a decent one, however. Not that any of hers aren't decent, but you know.

"Don't waste my time with such stupid techniques. Finish it with Jump Kick, Isabella."

Celes' Lopunny, Isabella, immediately leaps into action, taking a few quick steps towards the Mightyena before launching herself into the air, one foot extended and aimed right at its face.

[ortion]

Of course, we can't afford to lose our style even in a dingy place like this. It'll be a work of art by the time we're done.

[But that's why they're invading in the first place: this base is in desperate need of redecorating!

Y'know, with Rocket stuff and also some structural damage from explosions and Pokemon attacks. Totally much more fabulous than whatever these Magma savages could ever come up with.

After having a brief chat with Rosamund, he returns her to her Pokeball for the time being. She'll be safer in there on the way down. By this time, their fellow Rockets are making their own leaps out of the side of the helicopter. It'll be their turn next.

Grinning himself now, he secures his own grip on the arms of the chair, the fingers of his right hand gliding over the control panel on that arm. With a few taps into the panel, the magnetic Pokemon on the back and bottom of his chair come to life, and the chair rises and moves forward toward the door.]

You're going to want to hold on very tight, Kato. It'll be jarring at first, but I promise you'll find it quite exhilarating once we get going.

[He gives Kato a few more seconds to get situated as the remaining Rockets jump, clearing the way for them. Then...]

Now!

[He jams his finger onto the control panel to activate full flight mode. The sound of electricity can be heard pulsating through the chair and Pokemon powering it, and suddenly they jolt forward and upward at an incredible speed as the safety of the helicopter falls away behind them, leaving only open ocean and the enormous cliffside of Cinnabar Island dead ahead.

Dist has always been one to make an exist in style.]

Now this is more like it! Team Magma, prepare yourselves!

[And he may also be laughing, just a little bit.]

[whos_that]

Let's see. Level 100 Brick Break vs. Level 42 Mightyena. As slow as that was to land, when it actually lands, it's going to do a ton of damage, which leaves Mightyena barely still in the battle and the Grunt completely shocked.

“No way!”

However since her partner's annoyed with Crunch being disabled, he'll change things up a bit.

“Taunt Scrafty! Try and get it to hit you so we can wash it away!”

Unfortunately no one explained to this Grunt that Taunt just makes the Pokemon attack for several turns and doesn't actually...draw its fire towards a specific Pokemon. How he ended up with a Pokemon in the 80s and never learned that is anyone's guess. Apparently no one explained that Mightyena can't actually wash anything away either.

Meanwhile since he's attacking Scrafty now, she'll go after Alakazam.

“Assurance!”

And there's a headfirst charge directed at Alakazam now. They're both trying, at least.

[aufsassig]

So like..."consider yourself grounded"?

[fauxtographs]

Well it certainly won't be one for me!

[With a smug look at Archer, Emmy returns her focus to the battlefield, where Simon is currently looking furious thanks to that Taunt. It was certainly an...odd choice of attack, admittedly, but if these two are less than competent, she's hardly going to complain.]

Use Brick Break again!

[Why mess with a good thing? Besides, Emmy has always been the sort to prefer just getting in there and attacking with all her might, rather than getting too strategic. Simon has a clear advantage over these two, so why not take advantage of it? Now to see how he'll do against that clearly stronger Mightyena.]

[whos_that]

“Gonna have to do better than that if you expect to turn this tide!”

Tough talk, but she's thinking she's pretty lucky that Golbat didn't get paralyzed here. That could've been really bad. And it's a shame that Pachirisu wasn't poisoned so she'll just try another status attack.

“Confuse Ray!”

Golbat emits a brief flash of light, hoping to make Pachirisu about as confused as...well about as confused as the Team Aqua Grunts are as to why Team Rocket's in their base today.

[sadisticwarfare]

[You know, when he disabled that attack he wasn't planning on having the other one come attack with another Dark-type move. Rude.

It connects, but even with Alakazam's low defenses, she manages to stay standing. She still looks bored, but she counters moments later with Dazzling Gleam. Good thing he bothered loading up his Pokémon with useful TMs because otherwise this Alakazam would be doing nothing. She's definitely not going to be able to take another hit from that other Mightyena though, so that's definitely something to look out for.]

[grapeeater]

Uh oh. That could be trouble. He'll just have to keep trying... she's tough, she can make it through it. Probably.

"Try a Thunder Wave!"

Aki tries to charge up and then... falls on her face. It's very very tempting to facepalm here, but he resists the urge. Barely.

[dressofheaven]

Stealth is not really Ilya's forte, and she's not even bothering to use it here. Riding into the base on the back of her loyal Metagross, she casually lets her eyes flick over to see if there's anything worth taking with her as she makes her way through, each step kicking up quite a bit of racket.

Which is just how she wants it. Whether she attracts the attention of her fellow Rockets or Team Aqua, what she wants to do is get this over with as quickly as possible and get back to her friends. Preferably before they become suspicious.

But no one says she can't have some fun first. Gesturing at Talos to go faster, she snickers to herself as her Pokemon's heavy footsteps echo down the hallways...

[whos_that]

And Jump Kick KO's Mightyena! And also succeeds in kicking it into a wall.

So funny story, that was actually this Grunt's strongest Pokemon, so he's going to recall it and just sort of try and figure out just what the heck he's going to do now. And apparently that's send out another Mightyena, this one's level 38. Probably not going to do much here, but after talking about how great Team Magma is, he doesn't really feel like he can back out of it now. Besides, there's no running from a trainer battle!

“Mightyena! Use Sand Attack! Blind that bunny with the power of the earth itself!”

...wow, that was really overdramatic for “kick sand in that thing's face.”

[whos_that]

There's usually a fair amount of noise in the base, because otherwise it's quiet and boring, so more isn't really too out of the ordinary. But what is out of the ordinary is this weird metal stomping noise. None of the Grunts here have any sort of steel Pokemon, so that really shouldn't be something this Grunt is hearing right now.

So she'll just step out into the hall and...

“What is that doing here?!”

Okay, she was probably supposed to say something threatening, but she wasn't expecting to see a giant metal crab tank stomping through the hall. That's definitely not an everyday sight here.

[unkinder]

[Nagi inclines his head in something of a nod, his focus back on the Pokeball in his hands.]

Mm...Not many people train them.

[Either because they're heard they're difficult to work with, or the lack of training and study makes them difficult to work with because nobody knows what to do. It could really go both ways.

Basically, he finds that he can relate to them in that regard.]

[whos_that]

Wow, okay, that combo of Dazzling Gleam and Brick Break hurts, but the stronger Mightyena's still hanging on. The level 42 one, not so much. That one's done. But it's okay because a level 62 one quickly takes its place.

What, were you expecting Water Pokemon from Team Aqua?

“Roar! Switch that Scrafty out for something else!”

Looks like they're switching again since it's the female Grunt giving that command. And on the other side of things since it seemed to work okay for her Pokemon, he'll just copy what she did last turn.

“Assurance! Take that Alakazam down!”

[grapeeater]

Yoshiro - my Kadabra - is... frustrating. At least he follows directions, most of the time.

[He mostly just uses him to teleport around, because it's super convenient once you get over the feeling of your stomach not following as fast as you'd like it to.]

[unkinder]

[While it doesn't appear to much outwardly, that does get a reaction out of Nagi as his brows furrow slightly. He turns the pokeball over again.]

That's good for you, then.

[grapeeater]

What about your Xatu?

[How does conversation in this situation.]

[nostabbing]

[At last, all of those months of casing the security systems of jewelry stores in Goldenrod City to keep her skills honed are finally coming in handy! When Parker lands at the cave outside the Aqua Base, her natural first inclination is to check both her gear and the layout of things, looking for structural advantages that she might be able to put to her use — air vents, service corridors, particularly large sewer systems.

(The first thing she actually does, upon a moment of reflection, is to check and see who's here with her; this is a team setting, that's right, and she has both people to watch out for and people to support her now. Right.)

That said, being here at the base like this on Rocket orders isn't...quite sitting right with her, somehow. Of course she was at Tohjo on Halloween, and of course she remembers that Team Aqua had just as much to do with possibly ending the world as anyone else did, but even so...

It's...weird, right? Going after bad guys on a bad guy's orders? It's just...weird, somehow.

Maybe it'd be better to take this one slowly and see what it's all about first, before rushing right in to attack things like the organization wants.]

[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...]

[fauxtographs]

Another Mightyena, really-hey!

[Emmy can't help but take a surprised step back as Simon disappears back into the Pokeball at her belt, thanks to that Roar. The one who then pops out happens to be her Greninja, who looks rather pleased to be getting the chance to fight.]

Right! If that's how you want to play it - Fiona, use Water Pulse!

[She'll aim her attack for that female grunt's Mightyena, then!

...

...seriously do these guys have any Water Pokemon, or]