victory_road | Twenty-Third Sacrament: Unity

Entry tags:

Twenty-Third Sacrament: Unity

Who: Walter, Diana, Jinx and Vanitas
Where: Fuchsia City
When: 5th March
Summary: Four traitors uniting to form something new...?
Rating: T for mentions of Pokemon abuse?

Log:

The meeting place, arranged by simple, cryptic letters ferried by Pokemon or sent over Gears, was a small, hole-in-wall cafe, off the beaten path nearby the studio. The Purrloin's Paw was a humble place, most often sought by locals as the Starmiebucks around the corner attracted the eyes of tourists and the famous/infamous workers of the studio. On this particular day it was extremely empty, with only two employees behind the counter, quietly talking to themselves.

Walter was already inside, seated at a corner table that let him see the doorway but hid him from direct line of sight. Assumption was sat at his side, club on his lap as he ate a poffin. Gloom was in his shadow, waiting for his command. Once everyone was gathered and general polite welcomes had been made, she had her orders; hypnotise the workers into a deep sleep and lock the door, flipping the sign to 'Sorry! We're Closed!' Then, they could discuss their 'problem' with Team Rocket.

Once they had their chats and made their preparations, they'd simply stroll out into the sunshine, leaving the cafe and it's sleeping workers as it was...possibly minus some treats from the display counter.

[ While this is made for the group to talk as one, feel free to start threads between characters privately to catch up and assume that there's some casual banter going on too! ]

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"Grab a couple of croissant for Me and Destiny, I'll get the honey and jams."

Jinx was already helping to make the little meeting more substantial for a meal by grabbing various spreads and condiments from another part of the counter. Destiny the Cleffa was sitting on her head looking only slightly less pink then Jinx's own hair. Occasionally she would tug on a pawful of hair and Jinx would wince.

"Alright alright I'll get this one too. Sheesh you're needy."

Rising back to her feet she grinned with an armful of options bringing them back to the table. "Fresh jar of Nutella too. I haven't had any in awhile."

Edited 2018-03-05 23:27 (UTC)

Walter politely refused; he had paid for something to eat and drink while he was waiting and Assumption copied his gesture. He'd had his poffin! Once everyone had grabbed food and somewhat settled, he spoke. There was time to idly chat later. For now, he needed everyone on the same page.

"Team Rocket has come after me for abandoning them and taking from them. I imagine they have come for you as well, or will seek to do so." He opened, finishing off the coffee he had purchased and putting the mug down on the table. "But, they are pathetic. Their strength only comes in numbers...and I do not think, we will have been the only ones to leave them." He let the suggestion hang, gauging their reactions. Assumption stood on his chair, so he could easily be part of the discussion.

Vanitas just snorted, leaning back in his seat and tucking his arms behind his head. He had passed on the food as well--for now. (Though nothing would stop Flood from stuffing her face and the face of little Veritas who was seated on Vanitas's lap currently.)

"Honestly I don't know how anyone stays with them. They're more pathetic than some of the morons I dealt with back home," he mused, glancing down to make sure his Phantump partner was being careful with the quiet little Cubone before glancing at Walter then at the girls. "If there's more like us, we could outnumber them. Or at least over power them. It's not like they're that much of a threat, like Walter said."

He smirked, shrugging absently.

"I mean, they have people like Jack in charge. Real scary."

"Are you saying you don't find Pop's scary, Vani?" Diana flashes him a grin playfully as she coos at the little Cubone and offer her half a brownie.

She leans back against her seat, taking a bite from the rest brownie. "I think there could be others, that got away. Because, I just don't think that Team Rocket are that smart."

Her hand reaches to idly pet Isla's head. "I figured we'd have a harder time. Running off and stuff. But, even with the ones that showed up, we've been okay. And can see others slipping out."

Her gaze switches to Jinx. "And Ji seems to having fun with some particularity dumb ones."

Jinx had been looking a little sheepish at all the disparaging of Team Rocket, possibly because out of the four of them, she was starting to realize she might have been the only one who had legitimately wanted to be a part of it. At least until the end.

"Yeah it's become pretty clear we're not dealing with the best and brightest on the ground level." She agreed as her Cleffa stole the half of Jinx's croissant that Jinx hadn't had a chance to finish. "But that's the thing...these are just the ground level thugs. All the real smart ones never bother getting their hands dirty right?"

She paused to see if anyone would disagree there.

"Walter you got up higher then we did so you saw the nerd squad in the lab. What about the Admins? Have you spent much time with them? I mean...come on Team Rocket can't be as big as they are just because there are enough losers in this world who somehow can't hack it as pokemon trainers...can it?"

If it turned out that even the Bosses of Team Rocket were all as stupid as their minions, Jinx was never going to have any pride or ego left frankly.

"I have been spoken to twice by the Admins. The first time was to be punished after the prom they held; I had attempted to warn someone I cared about to not attend, or to leave early. Their idea of a punishment was to have me clean every toilet in the base." It was clear from Walters tone and completely flat expression that they might as well have put him in time out. "At that same time they punished another girl...Anthy. Her punishment was to not be able to eat from the cafeteria, and they warned everyone else to not give her food. They must have forgotten, that it is possible for us to obtain food elsewhere, especially if we send our Pokemon to bring it to us."

He shook his head. "The second time, they merely ordered me to not tell anyone of the research project involving Alessa. And I didn't." He had shown the girls the labs and no-one had noticed a thing. "If there's more intelligent minds higher up the chain of command, then their orders do not extend far down it. And even then, their vision is weak. I stole a Pokemon from them long before I set Alessa free. They never noticed, even when I had him accompany me in the base."

Vanitas stays quiet and let's the others talk, just absorbing what they have to say. He was the newest of the four of them to Team Rocket and had probably the least amount of experience from what he was gathering. The only thing he'd been involved in that was organized in any way had been the heist on the Pokemon Centers. Outside of that? Nothing.

"What's their overall goal, anyway?" he asked in all seriousness, dropping his arms from behind his head so he could wrap them around the Cubone in his lap. "Do they even have a purpose out of being dicks just to be dicks? My master back home had a long term plan. Everything he did was for a reason. These idiots don't seem to have anything like that going for them."

He glanced down at Veritas as the Cubone huffed softly, her paws covered in bits of poffin. She blinked and looked at him before holding her paws up and he didn't hesitate to gently wipe them off with his sleeve.

"Which makes it easy to keep away from them and to mess with them, if we wanted to."

"They put a kid in charge." Diana pointed out, recalling Wrath's name being mentioned at the same event Walter was alluding too. "I don't think anyone who's got half a brain and some kind of plan would put a kid in charge."

And she'd lived with kids in charge.

"I don't know if half of them know what they're doing. I stopped getting Pokemon for them after Walter showed me the labs. It took like a month or something for them to try and talk to me about it. I never went to the meetings and just-" She makes a gesture with her hand to indicate she walked out.

"If I can do that, there's gotta be people way more competent than me doing it."

"As far as I can tell..." Jinx started leaning forward and lacing her fingers together "The original goal of the organization was money and power. The two basics for most criminal empires. You get some charismatic and intelligent people who realize that the best way to get a lot of money and power is to have people...or pokemon, earn it for you."

In this case however things seemed to have...stalled out.

"The original leaders seem to have fallen silent for the time being, maybe working on something, maybe they just got lazy and decided to sit back and let the money keep rolling in. But we saw those new admins pop up after Prom and...then what happened? More radio silence."

Destiny had slid down from Jinx's hair and was eyeing up some of the food in front of Diana. To avoid a fight Jinx swiftly slid another cupcake in front of the greedy pokemon so she could continue.

"So we have a lot of lower level drones going about their day to day business. Some slightly higher level mooks like the scientists who are furthering their own interests at the cost of the organization, and then one or two low level grunts who have been promoted for taking initiative. But what have any of them done with their newfound power?"

"Wrath had plans. He has yet to implement them, from what I am aware, but some plans require time." Walter added. It had taken several months for him to act on his escape with Alessa, after all.

Walter looked over to Assumption, petting his head.

"Regardless...it is likely our betrayals will have been counted somewhere. Inactive as they have been, it is difficult to assume that they will not gather their resources to hunt for us. And their resources are not something we should disregard." Their numbers, equipment and bases could easily be used to capture and contain them, if they made a wrong step.

"Which is why I suggested this. I do not think we can dismantle or defeat Team Rocket. And that is not my intent. But I think we can prevent them from coming near us."

"Wrath is easy to manipulate. He's got a child-like wonder that makes him easy to steer down certain paths. Say what he wants to hear and you've got him in your pocket," Vanitas added after Walter spoke about the boy, tilting his head. "Even if he has plans of his own he probably won't be much of a threat in the long run."

He goes quiet as Walter continues and he's a bit surprised at what the other has to say.

"You're suggesting we watch each other's backs," he said slowly, glancing at Diana then Jinx, clearly thinking that over before he focused on Walter again. "That would just make us an easier target if we're all together. They'd catch on quick."

Unless...

An eyebrow arches and Vanitas leans forward, propping an elbow on the table as he keeps his other arm around Veritas, chin resting in his hand.

"Or are you suggesting we make it hard for them and make something of our own to keep them on their toes?"

Diana raises her brow skeptically at Walter. "He's a kid. Not a super genius. Not some teen with a gods complex. A small kid who runs around in halls, digs in trash cans and moves in vents because he feels like it. You think that is coming up with a plan more complex that 'take this thing'?" Diana had been a part of one of his plans, it involved running towards people and shouting.

"It makes sense not to go it alone." Echoing the sentiment she'd incidentally put forward to Walter a month or so ago.

Diana was alright with preventative measures, so long as it didn't go from 'necessary protection' to 'needless aggression'. At least on her part. The bird in her arms stirs.

"You want us to find these others, don't you?"

Jinx couldn't help but smile as the plan became more apparent.

"Well now that is an interesting proposition. Instead of keeping scattered to the winds we circle the wagons. Use our knowledge of the organization to lash out and make sure they know they can't keep chasing us."

Tracing her finger over the lip of her drink she settled her eyes on Walter.

"But how far are we taking it? Do we just make sure they leave us alone? Or do we go out of our way to stop them from doing the dark nasty crap we don't like?"

How much of the game was going to be defense and how much would it be offense?

Walter gauged their reactions before speaking again. He pulled a book from his bag; one of the plain notebooks he kept and filled with observations and notes as he traveled the Pokemon world. Essentially his diary. "Wrath is a child...but he is a child like me. He was dead, and resurrected. But he is not our primary concern. Our primary concern is our survival. But, if we can hinder their operations...we can prevent them from chasing us effectively. And prevent others from suffering."

It was clear he was thinking of the Pokemon rather than any people. He flipped the journal open and pushed it into the centre of the table, showing the pages to them. There was a list of the towns in Kanto and Johto that Walter had visited, with 'pros' and 'cons'. He had marked the ones that were home to Rocket bases and dorms. On the other page there was a list of names with numbers beside them and town names; their phone numbers and their location.

"We are not the first to leave Team Rocket. Others who are native to this world have also abandoned their cause. They are not hard to find. I have also been looking at locations. And if we are to have people and resources, we will need a location. Somewhere we can hold, should it be discovered."

Rather than lean forward to look at the notebook itself, Vanitas was watching Walter. He was studying the other man and listening to his words, rolling them around in his head as he thought about what he was getting himself into now and what could come of this. Team Rocket wasn't going to leave them alone; they all knew that. They were going to be a thorn in their sides until they left this world most likely. So why not be a thorn in their sides in return? And if they could find someplace to settle down, so to speak, and use as a central locale for everyone to report back to if they needed anything--just a rallying point...

"Are you thinking just one place or two? Because I'm pretty sure I could secure us someplace in Johto eventually," he offered, moving to set Veritas on the table now so he could scoot forward properly and rest his arms on the table itself. "Someplace here in Kanto to start would be a good idea, though. Team Rocket doesn't seem to have a big presence here, not like they do in Johto. You have any ideas yet on one in particular?"

Vanitas was in. From this point forward he was definitely in.

Diana brow furrowed as she peered at the book. "You want to make a base?" It wasn't a bad idea, she thought, fingers playing with the corner of a page. "Like a safe house."

Her mind flickers to the Academy, the town. The lake. But it wasn't the same. They weren't made to be hidden, weren't... It was different. And that was good.

"If we're staying in Kanto, and I think we should since we're all on the run here." Diana flashes a grin at everyone at the table. "I don't think we should have more than one. Not right now. Don't wanna stretch ourselves too thin and snap before we even get started, right?"

Her finger hovers over the pages and she uses her fingertip to draw invisible lines through names like Celadon and Saffron. "I think we should avoid big cities. Less foot traffic. I know it's easier to blend when there's more people, but when there's less it's easier to know everyone. Spot someone new."

She picks up some more food from her pile. "Gossip can work out for us too. Little towns talk, sure. But if get locals to like us, they'll talk to us, let us keep to ourselves, tell us if people come around asking questions." A shrug of her shoulders. "That whole 'look after our own' mentality."

DiDi opens her eyes and makes a chirping noise. Diana, without looking down, moves the muffin she was about to take a bite out of down and lets the tiny bird take a big beakful before returning to eating it herself.

"Exactly! God you would have done great at Villain school back home." Jinx beamed delighted at Diana's logic train.

"In a small town it's easier to win over the loyalty of the populace. The citizens in Pokeworld who are native to this place are dim bulbs at best. But a big enough crowd of idiots is still dangerous and if they turned on us it'd be game over. Buuuut it's way easier to convince a sleepy little town that we mean well if we chase out any trouble that knocks on their door."

She sipped her drink carefully before continuing.

"Think of it like community service on the side. Maybe some wild pokemon is causing them trouble? We sort it out. And especially if Rockets show up we clean their clocks. Let's have a look at that list."

She peered over the cities names and then took out her pokegear to start pulling up information about the cities she was unfamiliar with.

"It's been too long since I had a good secret base. I'm gonna have to start saving links to furniture and traps to make it cozy and secure. Who do we know that's really good with technology? We might need help installing alarms and things."

So...Jinx is apparently all in now.

Everyone was in it seemed. Walter smiled; a genuine, confident smile as he took in their suggestions. They were all making very good points too.

"With only looking at the map, I would say Pewter City and Lavender Town are the most promising options here, and as I intend to obtain the gym badges, I will be sure to make notes on the places I travel through." He nodded to Vanitas. "Once we have established ourselves here... you already have a place in mind for Johto."

At their talk of small quiet towns, he couldn't help thinking of his hometown. Small, quiet Silent Hill. The orphanage. What the people had missed, thinking that the priests were so kind and good...he tensed, expression darkening before clarity sank in and chased it away. A revelation.

"Jinx. Your community service idea...we could run some kind of shelter. For unfortunate Pokemon. The community will not look too deeply into what we do, if we are putting forward a good image. And if we obtain Pokemon from Team Rocket, it will not seem strange for us to have them in our care." A Pokemon shelter would be expected to take in hurt and abused Pokemon, wouldn't it? Walter had experience with working with the Joys in the Pokemon Centre. And while he didn't know how to help with emotional trauma... he had experience in living with people who'd gone through such things.

"Lavender Town doesn't have a gym, does it? That might be a good place to set our roots. Less foot traffic, so to speak," Vanitas offered before grinning. "Yeah, I've got a place in mind for Johto when the time comes." Mahogany would be a good central location and he wasn't all that concerned about anyone there causing them issues. He'd spent enough time there that he was familiar face to most so it wouldn't be odd for him to return and settle in again.

He tilted his head at Jinx's commentary, noting the same thing Walter did apparently though the other man seemed to already have far more thought process regarding it.

"A shelter...huh." That could actually work. And it would definitely paint them as model citizens and earn them the trust of anyone in Lavender Town. "That's not a bad idea at all. Even if Team Rocket tried to pull anything by outing us as former members, we'd have a reputation as shelter running, Pokemon loving individuals that just wanted to make a better life for themselves. Kind of hard to argue with that."

"Seems like we've settled it then." Diana leans back, trying to ignore the oddly pleased feeling in her chest at people running with her idea. "Lavender Town with a shelter as cover. I'm sure it won't be hard to get ourselves a building."

Her lip curls, amused. "I'm sure we've got enough Pokemon already to make it look legit. Then we'll just keep adding ones we get from Rockets."

She turns to look at Jinx. "We haven't been yet but I'm sure we'll make a stop." Then looks around the table again. "Should we meet again there?"

Jinx beamed equally proud of Diana's suggestion and the direction things were taking.

"Sound's like a good plan to me. We hook up again in Lavender and start hunting for locations. Spread a little money around to get started. Then we can furnish it how we need. It'll probably take a few weeks depending on how professional we need it to look." Then her grin grew even wider.

"You know what the best part about a secret base is though? If the space is big enough we can each put in whatever we think is important. Like for example a quality kitchen set up." she mused glancing at Diana "Or proper training quarters to help our mons get even stronger." This time a glance to Vanitas. "And of course facilities for rehabilitating. We just need either money...or knowledge of where what we want is so we can...liberate it."

She let the words hang there for a minute before adding "You know...for a good cause." as if anyone in the room really cared if they had to steal equipment.

Walter nodded at the suggestion of meeting there. But he frowned, remembering a slight issue with their chosen destination.

"There is one problem with Lavender Town; it is a Rocket location. I believe they will be using the Radio Tower, as they do in Goldenrod. Once we have established ourselves and gathered our resources, prepared our Pokemon... we will need to correct that." It was blatantly clear that, if they were to take Lavender, they would need to run Team Rocket out.

"I intend to travel from here to Cinnabar Island, to Viridian City and Pewter City. I can obtain the badges from those gyms and briefly observe those locations, but I will not stay long."

"The kitchen could have the worst stove in the world and still be better than Team Rocket's sad excuse for a lunch room," Vanitas drawled before shooting Jinx a grin as she mentioned a good space for training. Oh he was absolutely down for that. "The more space we have to utilize the better. Never know what may pop up, idea wise, in the future."

Then Walter spoke and Vanitas's eyes narrowed. So Team Rocket was already established in Lavender Town.

"I'll head straight up to Lavender Town," he said once Walter had explained where he was going, Vanitas absently wrapping an arm around Veritas and drawing her in. "Get settled in, keep a low profile. I can send Flood and Sneak in to do some recon on the tower itself and see what sort of presence Rocket actually has there and what it would take to run them out."

Though, honestly, they all knew it wasn't going to take much.

Diana stuck her tongue out at Jinx's comment about kitchens before listening to Walter.

Team Rocket would have to be driven out, there was no other way they'd leave. Diana wasn't pleased at the idea of having to do it, of instigating a fight, but she was also determined to actually pull her weight instead of surviving off others. She nods.

"We'll probably head straight for Lavender too." She gestures to Vanitas with her thumb. "Though, probably slower than this speedster." She grins at the dark haired boy.

"But once we're there I can have Lana and The Pack patrol the place. They tend to stay near the boarders anyway."

"OK so, head to Lavender town, clear out the Rockets. Set up shop there and start building ourselves up to take them down in other places. I like this. I really do!" Jinx insisted dabbing some crumbs off her Cleffa's cheek with a napkin. The Cleffa promptly took the napkin and started trying to eat it.

"The Radio Tower...now that might be something they want back once we have it. Between four of us, six pokemon each, plus the pack and Walter's Flock...the Flock did follow you out here didn't they?"

It had been hard enough to smuggle the entire Pack into Kanto. Either way it had worked.

"We won't have numbers on our sides if Rocket decides to jump on us with both feet...but that's a big IF. In normal criminal organizations they would. But in normal criminal organizations they'd be expanding a lot more effort to catch us. Right now we're an afterthought. After we take the Tower we might end up more of a priority."

She didn't sound worried, more like she was mapping it out in her head.

"So what we have to our advantage will be we're smarter then them, and we have more prep time to get the town on our side and make sure we're dug in hard enough they can't take us back out."

Twenty-Third Sacrament: Unity

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