>>22795868
hold out

send a message back to base. The message is both a report and a request for relief.

>Hold out, send messenger back to base.

You pull Carla's ball off and release her quickly. She snaps to attention as she sees you. "Carla, I need you to get into the Rocket Base. Tell them to send a grunt or two out this way to monitor for Team Aqua activity. Okay?" You tell her.

"Yes!" She replies sharply, turning and running off, sticking to the shadows as she goes. You turn back towards the sea to keep an eye on it while she gets your reinforcements.

There was a moment where you thought you saw someone coming, but it was just a passing trainer, too far out to make an attempt on. "Master! I brought back grunts!" Carla calls out. You turn around to see a guy and a girl in civilian clothes looking miserable standing behind Carla.

"Right. That island over there is what you need to keep an eye on. I saw an Aqua member head out their earlier today. Call me if you see anyone leave the island." You order them. They grumbled, but consent, setting themselves up on the rocks around the beach. Now, you're free to do as you need.

[]Go home, rest up for when that Aqua member returns
[]Go train some
-[]Where?
[]Stalk a route for trainers
[]Write in

>>22796323
stalk route for trainers

>>22796335
this

You quickly recall Carla and Rie, leaving Ripley on your back. Tonight seems like a good night to go hunting for trainers again, so you head back through town to Route 121. As you trek along the route, you notice most people are traveling in groups, making it a difficult prospect to try and ambush them. Mount Pyre is relatively close by, though, or you could try Route 120 instead. Or, maybe, you can take out a group of people?

[]To the mountains!
[]Route 120!
[]Try and ambush a group!
[]Write in

the mountains probably have tougher trainers... and rarer pokemon. lets go there

>>22796815
Mountains. Also, lets see if we can get some blankets for the guys on the beach. No sense in them being uncomfortable, and they can claim they're just on a date if Aqua spies them.

>Mountains

You decide to make your way towards Mount Pyre. You have to run and hurry, but you make it in time for the last ferry of the night. Ripley clings tightly to your back, eyes clenched tight as you cross the choppy water. You look up at the imposing mountain, the fog clinging to its side obscuring most of the pathways from view, though the cave entrance on the bottom level is rather imposing. You shake your fears off slightly, and head in.

Inside, everything is deathly quiet. It seems people don't like hanging out in graveyards after dark, and you're not certain you can blame them. Were it not for Ripley's grip on your shoulder, you might even be a little afraid. With a shudder you finally find the exit to the summit. You shiver in the cold night air, especially at this elevation, and wish you'd brought something a little warmer. Creepily enough, there's no one here either. You thought you remembered hearing about an elderly couple who watched over some kind of ancient set of jewels or something, but there's no sign of them. You almost want to run away, but you feel like there's something subtly encouraging you to move forward.

[]Ancient Jewels? Loot!
[]Investigate this...feeling
[]Flee
[]Write in

>>22797301
Investigate feeling. Our gut hasn't let us down yet!

>>22797301
>[X]Investigate this...feeling
search your feeling you know there to be loot

>>22797349
>>22797353

Seconding.
The Feeling must be investigated

>Investigate your feelings, you know them to be true

You decide to trust your gut in this case, ignoring the promise of ancient jewels and treasures. Then again, those would be kind of hard to fence, so its probably for the best. You sneak up the mountain, the fog drifting slowly across the damaged stone steps. The chill in your spine grows worse and eventually you find yourself on the very peak of the mountain. Ahead of you floats a Chimecho, and underneath it on the ground something glints. The Chimecho makes a sound of tinkling bells, and suddenly its gone. Too quietly for it to have been a Teleport. You can hear your heartbeat pounding through your ears as you step forward. On the ground in front of you is a lustrous red orb. You find yourself reach out and grabbing it, holding it up to the moonlight.

"Beautiful..." You whisper. Even Ripley seems entranced with it.

"Who's there!?" An old woman calls out suddenly from somewhere in the fog. You quickly

[]Pocket the orb!
[]Drop the orb!

and

[]Hide
[]Act innocent
[]Run!

[]Pocket the orb!
[]Act innocent
Tell her you thought you heard something up here and were investigating it. Maybe a rare wild pokemon 'hold up a pokeball' and smile like your an innocent tamer.

>>22797519
Pocket and run. That old lady won't be able to catch you.

pocket and run

[]Pocket the orb!
and
[]Act innocent

>>22797519

[]Pocket the orb!


[]Act innocent
we are we just found it on the ground

>>22797559

i second this motion.
we may learn something about the magical orb, the feeling we are having or the mysteriously disappearing Chimecho

>>22797519

Act innocent for sure. We haven't done anything wrong yet.

>>22797640
Yup, you found an item on the ground. That shit happens like all the time.

>Pocket the Orb
>Act Innocent

You quickly shove the orb into a pocket on the inside of your coat and school your features into a surprised and innocent expression just as the old lady comes into view.

"What are you doing here?" She demands, squinting at you.

"Ah, nothing really. Just...chasing a Pokemon and a gut feeling." You tell her. She glares at you suspiciously before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Careful with those gut feelings around here. Ghosts and a few Psychics tend to prey on unsuspecting humans that way. Taunt them with the illusion of something the person has been seeking for type of thing." The old woman tells you. Well, you certainly hadn't been seeking any orbs. Maybe the Chimecho, but merely because its a Pokemon.

"Well...I did see a Chimecho up here." You tell her. She stiffens slightly.

"Did you...catch it?" She asked. You shake your head.

"Nope. Just disappeared almost as soon as I saw it." You answer. The old woman begins to frantically search around you for something.

"Not here...maybe..." She mumbles before turning and stalking off into the fog. "Come with me!" She snaps. You follow her, not certain what she's doing. Eventually she leads you to a small shrine with a stone table. On the table are two indents, each with an orb in it. One red, one blue. While the lady is glaring at them, her back to you, you reach into your pocket. The orb is missing from your pocket. You quickly pull your hand out of your pocket and the old lady turns to glare at you one last time. As she does so, you feel the orb's weight in your pocket again and it seems to have disappeared from the slab. "Well...it seems there's nothing wrong. You'd best leave the mountain, its quite dangerous at night." The old lady tells you.

[]Listen to her advice, head home
[]Listen to her advice, but head somewhere esle
-[]Where?
[]Tell her about the orb
[]Write in

Listen and leave, but somewhere else.

>>22797801
ask her about the alter

Right, lets head to route 120, apparently theres no trainers here. We'll have to get the other orb later.

>>22797801
Tell her about the Orb. Considering her actual worry about you, she can provide info (that we OOC already know). Should the Rockets decide to steal them later, we're not linked.

Head home, grab some grub, check on the dopes in the beach.

>Listen, but head elsewhere
>Route 120

"Ah, alright." You agree. She nods in satisfaction, and walks with you on the way down. The graveyards are far less chilling on the way down with her than they were on the way up. As you step out, she stops you.

"If anything...strange happens, come and find me." She tells you.

"Alright, yeah...Sure." You tell her, a little unnerved by the glare she's giving you. Eventually she lets you go, and you run out to the ferry that's been waiting for you this entire time. The boat ride back is uneventful, though you unconsciously find yourself holding onto the Orb in your pocket. As you hit land, you make your way West. At this point you see no Trainer's left roaming about on the roads. Most are probably in the cities, sleeping, but you might still catch a late night straggler. You find a good ambush spot on Route 120, and settle in, holding the Orb in one hand and gazing at it as you wait. As you rotate it, even in the moonlight, it seems to glow almost like a hot coal. Its gaze is rather entrancing, too. Without realizing it, you drift off into sleep, holding the Orb tight in your hands.

You dream, dream of darkness and fire, warmth and stability all around you. You are great, expansive, pervading through everything. When you shift, the world shifts to accommodate you. Its intoxicating and powerful. But there is one that resists. When you remove its spiteful presence in one place, it moves to another. For so long you chase it, growing angrier with each moment, until finally...

You snap awake with a gasp, and glance about nervously. Ripley is asleep on your back, and it looks like dawn is just beginning to break. It doesn't seem anyone noticed you in the night, and there's no sign of any trainers around right now.

[]Go Home, sleep
[]Report to Dr. Musashi
[]Visit the Old Lady, tell her of the dream
[]Research this Orb and Mount Pyre
[]Write in

>>22798283
Go home.
Sleep.
It's probably nothing, I have weird dreams whenever I sleep somewhere strange.

>>22798283
Report to Doctor Musashi, don't know if we should tell her about the orb. Grab breakfast, hide the Orb.

>>22798283

Research the orb.
No need to report yet, we don't have any worthwhile information on Aqua.
No need to sleep as we just woke up, though we should get an earlier night tonight.
We could visit the old lady IF we can't find any information about the orb.

>>22798553
this.

Reseach the orb, the altar and any recurring ghost stories about the graveyard and that place where we found the orb

>Orb Research

You stand and stretch, suppressing a grunt of pain from sleeping in such an odd position, and begin making your way back to Lilycove. You figure you might stop by the library, see if maybe you can find something about this Orb or Mount Pyre.

Most of what you find is useless, but you do find that the shrine on the top of the mountain is dedicated to two ancient Pokemon who helped to make the continent of Hoenn. One Pokemon was of the earth, and the other was of the sea. They fought for millennia, until an outside force calmed them down and they slumbered away the eons. As well, it seems the eco-terrorist groups Magma and Aqua have adopted these ancient Pokemon as their mascots.

[]Report to Dr. Musashi about the Orb
[]Talk to the old lady
[]Train
[]Check on the kids, Agent, and Eliza
[]Check on the watch you set up
[]Write in

>>22798910
[x]Check on the kids, Agent, and Eliza

Check on watch.

>>22798976

seconding checking on the kids. let us see how Agent and Eliza got on. don't want to find out that they fed the kids sugar and they have completly crashed after a sugar rush, therefore being unable to perform their duties.

(what are we calling our Not-Rocket group?)

space cadets

>>22799134
I like The Sharpedos.

>>22799134
They called themselves the Rattatas before you came along

>>22799134
Let's call them either Apollo or Soyuz Group

>>22799213
Nah, Rattatas is okay. It can be shortened to an spiting "Rats", like the Nosferatu.

>Check on the Gang

You decide to head back to the house and check on the brats. After all, you haven't seen them in almost 24 hours. The house is still standing when you get back, and actually looking a little better than when you left. As you step into the house, you see Agent waiting on you, several outfits of varying sizes on the table.

"Master. I got the outfits you requested. As well, your grunts reported that they saw a boat leaving the island you had them watching." It tells you.

"Ah, thanks. How have the kids done?" You ask.

"Good. Eliza and I had only a few problems with them this morning. The youngest are currently napping, the others are working on their tasks." Agent informed you. So, you've got them on task and Agent has your new uniforms.

[]Time to Infiltrate! To the Aqua hide out!
[]Maybe we should hunt down Team Magma first, get some intel on them...
[]Report to Dr. Musashi
[]Talk to old Lady
[]Run an analysis on the orb at the Rocket Base

>>22799557
Run analysis.

>>22799557
Check on the kids, or send somebody to, maybe relief them.

I thought you guys were going to smear both of those teams and strike when they were weak?

Any infiltration attempt would require the skillset of the Ditto and the Ghastly. You would have to ambush a member of either team first, though. Best to wait for the opportunity, some public demonstration perhaps?

>>22799828

the plan was that we do pokecenter heists and Devon shipment Hijacking while disguised as Magma. This utalises Aqua's smear campaign against Magma, granting a greater amount of flexibility with our own operations and hindering Magma. OR we do it disguised as Aqua to encourage local Law Enforcement to crack down on Aqua suppressing their capabilities in the area, granting Rocket the opportunity to drive a wedge into the gap created by Aqua's suppression. Magma means we can do more audacious heists and hijacking, Aqua grants the opportunity for greater Rocket presence in the area.
Due to my scientific preferences, i would suggest Magma disguises as it grants us quicker upgrades to our base, and leaves Aqua off guard for when we decide to make a move.


>>22799646
i second this course of action for now however. the above is just something to think about.

>>22800143
I like the way you think.

I recommend talking to the old lady. Bad Things (tm) happen when you ignore the woman near the shrine who gives you a warning.

>Analyze the Orb

You and Agent leave the house and head for the Rocket base. You want to try and run this thing through some tests with some advanced equipment. You quickly find an unused laboratory and seal yourself inside. Agent helps you to set up some of the equipment and you hand it the orb to place in the chamber and you feel the orb appear in your pocket again. "Well...that's interesting." You mutter. You try placing the orb into the chamber yourself, and this time it stays. You quickly lose track of time, analyzing every thing you can think of. Several tests come back with errors, such as the materials test, but others find trace pieces of organic matter in the orb itself. You're in the midst of running a more in depth analysis when you hear Dr. Musashi coming towards the lab.

[]Hide the Orb!
[]Hide nothing

and
[]Flee, there's an emergency exit at the back of the lab!
[]Leave through the front door

>>22800470
[X] Pocket the orb and leave through the front door as if nothing's wrong.

>>22800470
Hide nothing and leave through the front door.

>>22800470

continue the tests. We haven't finished yet. If Dr Musashi asks, just tell her that we have found an item that seems to be linked to Kyogre or Groudon. (this assumes we know their names, if not then ancient legendary pokemon)

hide nothing and continue testing. If she asks we found something interesting that might be related to our Aqua\Magma.

>>22800611
>If Dr Musashi asks, just tell her that we have found an item that seems to be linked to Kyogre or Groudon
And she won't take it away from us to test it herself, never letting us touch it again, because...?

>>22800833
We killed her and replaced her with Ditto.

Well, I'd love to try and run this more but I need to sleep sometime. You guys keep debating on what you want to do, since its tied right now, and we'll continue next week.

>>22800833

because it will magically reappear in our pocket... at least as far as it has been shown to do so...

>>22801072
once again, it has been a pleasure. also, do you have a twitter thing set up to put up when you're thinking about running?

>>22801106
No, but I can make one. Gimme a moment.

Here it is,
https://twitter.com/rats_lab/status/295091550256521216

>>22801431

thank you for that my good sir. also, having done this, as long as you give an advance warning, you should get more participation from the start. just post a 'quest at Xam/pm' then a 'Quest here <insert link>'.

i look forward to the next installment. Enjoy your week LabRat.

>>22800526
>[X] Pocket the orb and leave through the front door as if nothing's wrong.
pretty much this. If we tell her she is going to take it away from us.

>>22800470

[]Hide nothing

ask for help with it

gotta figure out what it does will it lead us to the Pokemon help control it? summon it?