Pokepunk: Somar IC

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel
She kind of, instinctively swallows it or whatever and bolts awake.
"Bwah! Whoa I.....Suddenly feel full of energy. like I just had a shot of coffee. What did you give me?
Upon being told its max revive by anyone she says, eyes wide
"...okay. Max Revive. that explains it. I wonder if X Speed also feels like coffee? questions for later. As for the offer....I gotta go do the thing I came in here to do first."
She will hurry off to the nearest computer for trainers and begin pressing buttons. She clicks on the option to retrieve lost trainer identity and enters her trainer code with a few beeps and it prints up a new copy of her ID.....with the picture being completely inaccurate as it still shows her human portrait, but otherwise the same as her old one. Next she uses her ID to get another pokedex and its teleported straight to the podium where you normally get pokeballs, then uses her ID to access what money she has....its not much. She didn't exactly win many pokemon battles before she was a grunt. Living in a world with teleporting machines like this sure is convenient. She walks back to the rest of the group
"Well....I got my dex and ID. don't know how much useful they'd be. I wonder if I should update the dex with info now I can talk to pokemon?"
Directly interviewing pokemon HAS to be more convenient than trying to observe their behavior, and doing something like this could get her in good with researchers and professors.
"But yeah, I'd be willing to go to the Gym, can you give me clothes to ditch the rocket get up I have, mate? I know I'm like, a nidoran hybrid and all but I don't need the uniforms notoritety screwing things up fer me even more."

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Pendra just shrugged, not sure they could trust this strange man but also not seeing any reason to object.

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

Rogue takes a moment trying to think about recovering his information. The only problem it's behind all the weird things they did to his head. "I can't... don't know how I can get my dex data." He drops the subject from his mind before the headache gets any worse. The offer to talk things over doesn't seem to have attracted any ill-feelings from the group.

"Just one thing," he asks of the gym leader before turning to the Eevee. "The ones in the coats, carrying metal, they your pack?"

[Rater202]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

Rogue takes a moment trying to think about recovering his information. The only problem it's behind all the weird things they did to his head. "I can't... don't know how I can get my dex data." He drops the subject from his mind before the headache gets any worse. The offer to talk things over doesn't seem to have attracted any ill-feelings from the group.

"Just one thing," he asks of the gym leader before turning to the Eevee. "The ones in the coats, carrying metal, they your pack?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about... Are you alright?"

"The thingy that made us like this seems to have affected us all differently in the mind space."

"Well, one thing a time. Wiggles, come on out."

From a Pokeball emerges a Wigglytuff. "Whatcha need, Boss," it says in a surprisingly deep voice.

"Wiggles, I need you to teleport our new friends and I back to the Gym."

Assuming you don't resist, you are teleported to a room in the Spinabase Gym.

(This is the part where the story gets less concrete again so any ideas are welcome for OC discussion.)

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel
She will look around the room to get sense of her surroundings and try to look for a new set of clothes to change into while listening to what other people say.

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

"Actually we don't know where he stan-" Rogue begins going on before being cut off by sudden teleportation. Always annoying, never comfortable. Never catch an abra. Rogue tries to get his where-with-all together adjusting to the new area. His eyes flash lavender for a second as the fight or flight instinct tries to rear its head before he calms down.

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel
She finds some spare clothes, discarding any pullover shirts and the like as options, figuring that they would be destroyed by her new nidoran head. Instead she went for a button up shirt and zip up jacket and blue corduroy pants then quietly disposed of the torn rocket uniform in the trash. She comes back, sitting down to think: Okay, this place seemed safe. Now what? she could just keep running but that may not be a winning strategy here. She knew this Poburi or whatever was doing these experiments to make pokehybrids. pokemen? pokefolk. Whatever. And she knew that the Snagem Machine was still in this region. In hands of a corporation that might decide to mass produce it, or Team Rockets hands again. Either would be bad for her now. Her being captured at all would be bad, but the Snagem machine getting out of hand would be doubly bad as they just steal her from any normal trainer dumb enough to catch her rather than listen.

She thinks about it: She clearly needs to gain power for herself. Running out of the region would just alert the rest of the world to this and who knows how many other companies like Poburi would want in on this? Best that she keeps it to herself to use. Better yet, her logic thinks: if she could transform into a pokemon hybrid once, why not be able to do it again? Ditto could change forms more than any pokemon after all, and wouldn't it be logical to not only figure out how to transform into pokemon, but figure how to switch between hybrid forms due to the fact that each pokemon has different advantages and weaknesses? Furthermore with the Snagem machine out there, any pokemon she caught could be stolen someday but if she could get it the Snagem machine first well...she could keep anyone else from using it, or at least get a copy to steal pokemon back using it.

After all, it has her own weakness and cowardice that made her not try after losing against her first gym, her own weakness and cowardice that made her join Team Rocket. Clearly she needed to become strong, she was no scientist, but if she was correct about her....pokeshifter theory lets call it....perhaps she could become her own kind of pokemon master, not by catching them all, but by turning into them, with a combination of directly interviewing pokemon for the pokedex. Her dream may be still be achievable, just in a different way than she expected. She begins to smile

Gotta turn into them all.

No wait, better idea: find a legendary. turn into a legendary pokemon hybrid.

Yeah that sounds powerful. That sounds like something a master would do AND something that would protect her from her enemies.

Yes....she likes this idea. And with a little salesman spin, perhaps the others could help with achieving this. It wouldn't be lying just.....the truth in a way that they can accept it.

[Rater202]

"Okay, now that you're settled... Can you tell me your stories?"

You've all been provided with one of those cookies the Eevee mentioned, by the way.

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel
She sits down, ears flicking and whiskers twitching all the while
"Its rather pathetic and sad really, yanno? I was a trainer, got my starter pokemon, nidoran when I was 15, tried to do the gym challenge but failed me first gym, gave up and fell in with Team Rocket. Became a grunt for them doing jobs, latest sent me to this region, smuggle a Snag'em Machine into here because this is where the facilities with the expertise to replicate the thing are in Team Rocket. The job went wrong and I ended up being turned into this by Poburi or whatevah ya call it. Team Rocket doesn't like failure so not only am I this hybrid no one's ever seen before, I'm at best, something the rockets just want to capture and study. How we got here is.....strange. We tried to break out Poburi's facilities but they blew up. and then we found ourselves in that stupid white wood forest with the stupid jerk phantumps that wouldn't listen to us and came here. Thats basically it."
She then takes a bite of the cookie.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Pendra just held the cookie for the moment. She didn’t have much appetite. “I was told that I was going to be given a new cancer treatment and then woke up in a fish tank looking like this,” she gestured to herself. She still vividly remembered the tentacle-faced corpse staring back at her when she first woke up…

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

"Don't know how or why I became this way," Rogue responds, already feeling a bit of a tingle as his mind subconsciously tries to make connections. "They messed up my brain, can only remember little glimpses of before. Usually stuff that doesn't matter."

Still not entirely trusting the motivations at play, he leaves out some scant details about his situation. The anger streaks, what they said about trying to test evolution. "So I thought to try the pokemon center to try and get answers first, thinking something would knock my memories loose along the way so I can get my trainer stuff and remember the rest."

[Rater202]

"...The corporation did this? That... Doesn't make any sense."

He's not calling you liars. He seems genuinely confused and a little horrified.

"I know this is a lot to ask of you, but... Do you have any hard proof? A research document, photos of the laboratory, a name tag?"

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

"With the explosions and the people trying to stop us I didn't stop to look around," Rogue replies before taking a sniff and finally a nibble of the cookie. Probably the first real food he's had in a while, the sweetness needs to be taken a little at a time.

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel
Oh no. The gym leader is confused as to why a corporation would do something like this. This means that Poburi had the only thing that could shield them from the natural cynicism of the masses: a good PR team. Just like the old Rocket boss used to. This just got a few times harder.
"Yeah. a blown up facility ain't exactly full of evidence nor did we get the chance to grab anything there.....Dunno what even caused that explosion. It just....happened outta nowhere. Too powerful to be a normal explosion though. Don't think even an Electrode could've caused that....oh right there was this orange....figure flying away like some kind of comet when we we're flying through the air. Couldn't get a good look at them. Was that another experiment they were doing?"
She shakes her head.
"That won't help though: instead I'll pose you this question, gym leader: how the heck else did we become this way, if weren't Poburi? Like yer talking to like, four people who have become pokemon hybrids outta nowhere. Somethin' that has never happened before. If'n ye can't trust me for being a no good Rocket grunt, ye should be able to trust the other three. At the very least, our current situation is proof that somethin' weird is happenin'. We don't got anyone else who can back up our story or evidence sure, but why would we lie about who did this to us? What otha possibility could there be to this as far as I know, unique sitch, that makes you doubt our story?

And if ye still need proof, well then....we get the important question: what are ye willing to do to get it? Cause if what we say is true, Poburi just kidnapped four people to turn them into poke-hybrids in secret. What else will they do without people knowin' eh? What will they do ta you if yeh snoop around trying to get their secrets? Yer only safe if what we say ain't true. The guilty and powerful tend to try and cover up and get rid of those who try to find things out, and Poburi is plenty powerful. So really, it all comes down to how safe you think looking into this more is, yanno? Which only you can decide.""
Rachel crosses her arms
"And we? may not have forever to wait for your decision. We gots to form a plan sooner or later, or else somebody's gonna come looking and eventually find us. and I've got a few ideas of how to start, we gots to agree a plan for it to be a plan yanno? and if yer not up for finding out for sure...well....can't really include yeh in that, can we?"

[Kareeah_Indaga]

During Rachel”s long, impassioned spiel, Pendra wordlessly fishes out the security badge she’d grabbed during the group’s escape and flashes it.

[Rater202]

The Gym Leader takes the keycard and examines it closely.

"...This is bad. The corporation runs everything... Even I'm technically on their payroll... You, you all kind hide here as long as you need too, but..."

He seems to be having a panic attack.

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel:
She considers this then turns to the rest of the group.
"Yeah, thats not going to work long term. So here is my plan: We have two foes: Team Rocket and Poburi. We know they want to make pokemon hybrids. We know that Poburi might have the Snag'em Machine from taking it from Team Rocket. My logic is: why would Poburi stop at us? tech research doesn't stop with one success. Why wouldn't they go further and try to get a pokemon hybrid like a ditto, or even a legendary? If they're willing to kidnap people off the street for their experiments, why not use snag balls to steal pokemon? Neither of these groups can be trusted with such technology, right, so why not destroy or take it from them? And if we find the ones probably working on the ditto hybrid that might exist well...there is potential to use that to get everyone who wants to, to transform back to normal. I have different plans in mind, but I figure at least some of you guys might want that. Myself I figure that if I could acquire the ability to become any pokemon I want, then use the snag'em machine on team rocket on themselves to get their pokemon out of serving an evil criminal organization, I'd pretty well on my way to becoming a pokemon master."
She smiles a bit.
"After all, do you really want all those pokemon to continue serving those jerks? Its not as if using the Snag' Em Machine like that doesn't have precedent."

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Pendra wasn’t sure what the man in grey was panicking over; no one was dragging him off to a lab, and from what little context she had he was too visible for PoBORI to ‘disappear’ him.

But whatever. He seemed to need a minute, so she’d give him a minute.

“Wait, why do they need a machine for that?” Pendra admittedly had no meaningful experience with Pokémon theft but she’d been under the impression you just took the little ball the Pokémon lived in. And if you wanted to let them go, wasn’t there a button to push???

[Lord Raziere]

Pendra wasn’t sure what the man in grey was panicking over; no one was dragging him off to a lab, and from what little context she had he was too visible for PoBORI to ‘disappear’ him.

But whatever. He seemed to need a minute, so she’d give him a minute.

“Wait, why do they need a machine for that?” Pendra admittedly had no meaningful experience with Pokémon theft but she’d been under the impression you just took the little ball the Pokémon lived in. And if you wanted to let them go, wasn’t there a button to push???

"Ah well, huh guess you don't know, its not something that comes up because no one tries I guess. Short answer: pokeballs are all computers, the same systems used to find your
stolen phones are used to teleport your stolen pokemon back to you and the snag'em machine hacks it so it doesn't work.

Long answer: pokeballs have built in security systems to make sure you don't capture pokemon from other trainers, a shield that automatically springs up if you use a pokeball on a trainer's pokemon. And every pokeball is registered to a certain trainer on the wider pokeball network. Every single pokeball in the world has a little computer chip that is connected to this network, thus allowing the network to transport all pokeballs to and from the trainer and automatically teleports any seventh pokemon away to the ranch or lab you originally registered your pokedex at, in keeping with international pokemon disarmament laws. you can in theory of course take a trainer's pokeball with a pokemon in it yes, but the practical problem of this network existing is that every pokeball is trackable on a global positioning system, as the whole teleportation thing uses it to teleport your seventh pokeball when your out in the wilderness. Thus getting your pokeball from a thief is actually as simple as contacting the operators of this network, saying a pokemon of yours was stolen from you, telling them which one and giving your trainer ID, the operator can then simply compare where most of your pokeballs are with the one taken and teleport the taken ball back to you. makes it a bit hard to do.

and sure its possible to say, steal the pokeballs and the trainer ID to make sure they don't do this and to scam the operators to make sure they teleport the pokemon to YOU instead if things ever go wrong, six pokeballs aren't exactly something you can pickpocket quickly all at once. A single ball is possible, maybe two, but six? Nah. you want all six, thats gonna be a fight and the more time you spend fighting, the more time your not getting away. and thieves tend not to be good fighters.

It is even possible to get a pokeball's chip removed or modified to a different network with a guy whose good with the tech and has no morals. But you gotta do that quick, cause even the dumbest trainer might remember they can just call the pokeball network operators or be reminded they can by their buddies within a day or two, but if they're smarter and remember this fact themselves it can be fast as hours or minutes. Thats why when you want to steal pokemon in their balls you gotta do it in bulk, because the system is generally designed to teleport one at a time to each individual trainer. you steal a lot of filled pokeballs at once, even if the operators are contacted you can accept a few losses if you get most of them dechipped. And there is always a chance that trainers could flood them with such teleportation requests and crash the local server instead of physically pursuing you.

All this is why Team Rocket typically tries to capture pokemon OUTSIDE of balls without using pokeballs ourselves. Because if we don't, we have to go through that whole trouble I just explained. a Snag'Em Machine changes all that, by basically turning a normal pokeball into a Snag Ball, which allows them to hack the pokeball of an owned pokemon when thrown so that its not registered to the trainer anymore. the operator of the network wouldn't be able to find it in your database of caught pokemon, because that registration would be deleted. Making it as if the pokemon was never caught, thus no protection. The downside of course is that snag balls while functional aren't connected to this network so that some computer whiz can't just look up the thief, see their registered pokemon, compare the date/time of their capture with the time that the person claims that it was taken from them and probably do computer wizard magic to just re-register and teleport the pokemon back to the victim. Thus snag balls if they're stolen from you have to be taken back physically.

The Snag' Em Machine thus makes the process of stealing pokemon much easier and simpler. no need to make inventions to take pokemon outside a ball, no need to do a bunch of hacker nonsense to make sure you can take even one pokemon, just throw a special ball and they're yours. The protections you have against your pokemon getting taken will be gone. The tech's rare now but if an organization were to say, study it and begin replicating it well....thats a problem for everyone else, now isn't it?"

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

Slowly nibbling down on his cookie, kind of eating the edges before the whole thing eventually disappears. As the others start discussing what is essentially a techonological horror of the modern age, Rogue takes a moment to speak with the currently freaking out gym leader.

"Listen, we wouldn't be the first they've messed with our lives. I don't even know who I was, but what's left is a desire to burn it all around them."
While truthful... that may not have been very motivational./

[Rater202]

"Marrow Forest!"

"That place in the middle of blood island?"

"Yes. For the last few months, there have been reports of people, usually lone travelers, disappearing from the forest. The league has it closed down and are forcing people to go around instead of through but we haven't been able to look into it yet... And some people manage to get past the barricades. ...You all can't be the first people who they did this to, if... If you can find just a little more hard evidence we might be able to convince some people to of what's happening and... If, if you're willing. If I go in the cooperation will know I know..."

"Or, or one of you could help me interview the mutant Gyarados. With the chip removed, it might be more stable or lucid?"

"Or both. It would take me a few days to find a way for me to smuggle you to Blood Island and back... And while you're gone, I can use my connections and authority as a Gym Leader to track down leads on where the corporation might be storing any experimental tech they're working on. I can't guarantee that it would turn up anything about what they've done to you or where they're keeping the 'Snag'em' machine you're talking about, if they're smart they're keeping their legitimate research separate from this, but..."

[Kareeah_Indaga]

“What would constitute ‘hard evidence?’” Pendra didn’t have a phone for obvious reasons, nor anything else with a camera, and anyway, pictures could be faked. And apparently existing as a Pokémon hybrid and being an eye-witness to PoBURI’s experiments wasn’t hard enough evidence in and of itself, so Pendra was feeling a bit stumped as to what would qualify.

[Lord Raziere]

Rachel:
"Yeah, we kinda have no reason to lie here. No matter how much evidence we gather, Poburi's gonna oppose us and they control everything. Kinda why Team Rocket wanted to smuggle the Snag' Em Machine in the first place, its all corporate controlled so laws are looser. So hard proof? Wait for some poburi goons to come asking questions about us. They'll probably want us back. and we're so obvious unless we stay in the wilderness the rest of our lives, we are going to be caught on a phone or camera at some point and explode all over the media. If they truly care, they'll do whatever it takes to PR control it all so they look good. While a bit harder evidence to connect the fact that pokemon hybrids exist to Poburi might be needed, if only because some people might try to point it at Team Rocket doing it instead and try to spin a narrative that Team Rocket was using Poburi to make us like how they used the Celadon Game Corner as a front or had scientists in Silph Co. working for them in their Kanto days, when that isn't true for Poburi.....the fact of the matter is that you not believing us? doesn't give us a lot of confidence given the freakish circumstances you encountered us in. seems a bit willful denial."
She shrugs
"But hey, I'll wait for you all to realize we can't play nice. If they care enough to go after us, then they care enough that fighting them might be something we have to do. A lot. So marrow forest? We came from it and had to run from the phantump there. The only move I have to fight them is poison sting, since they're ghosts. If we could get other moves, maybe TMs.....perhaps we'd have a better chance. We'll at least need some preparation and we can't sure what peoples reactions will be when we go to the pokemart. Also food. We should figure out how to get that consistently."

[Rater202]

"That was Osteo forest. We're not even on the same island. Osteo forest has bone-white bark, marrow forest on blood island has sap that's blood-red... I can remember that but I can't remember if I have a last name."

"In this case, hard proof would be photos of something cooperation branded being tied to human abductions. I can get you cameras"

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

All this talk about blood and bone forests... how exactly did people end up in this region anyway? It seems entirely less pleasant than nature should be. When the subject of what kind of evidence would pass he does have an insight to bring up. "Any cameras should be sealed, and shock resistant if possible. Stuff does seem to happen a lot."

Rogue takes a moment to think over everything, and notices nobody volunteered to talk to the Gyarados. "I can talk to our angry friend in the meantime."

[Rater202]

The Gym leader leads Rogue off into a side room with a decent bit of floor space and releases the mutated Gyarados.

It's still injured, but he uses a revive on it and it begins to stir.

"...Where, what?"

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

Rogue takes a moment to think over what to say. Ever since he was changed he's been operating on fighty-instinct. This could be the first time he volunteered to do something more... human?

"You're going to be safe here. Nobody wants to hurt you. Do you remember what happened earlier today?"

[Rater202]

"Cold, white room. No water. Pain, bad pain... Then, oher room. Tank, water, still hurt, then... I changed. But, I didn't change the right way and... A Voice in my head, telling me to collect the... human eggs and bring them back."

[MCerberus]

Rogue the Rockruff Hybrid

"If you can remember anything else, can you make sure to tell the humans? We're looking to get to who did this to you, to stop the pain."
The idea of lost memory immediately tones Rogue's response. He doesn't think he'll be able to get much information, and they've got to be as tired as him at this point.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Pendra was still more than a little suspicious of the man in grey, so while he was out of the room she excused herself under the guise of looking for the ladies’ room and then slipped out of the building entirely. She made her way to the coast and the most the others ever saw of her afterwards was the occasional news report of a mysterious figure with glowing red eyes pulling sailors out of sinking ships and swimmers out of whirlpools.