Wanderer
xxx
Naturally, Ash wasn't the only one keeping a discreet eye on the new field researcher. The Kanto league officials were a good place to start. Given that they had access to the records of millions of unobtrusive cameras throughout every city and town in their jurisdiction, it was easy enough for them to track her movements even with the way she seemed to dissappear at times.
That was actually why they were so interested in tracking her... because she didn't seem to be actively trying to avoid their notice, but was more difficult to track than some who did.
Connections had been quickly made between her and the redhead who showed up every so often. A new Rocket Grunt, apparently, despite that she wasn't wearing the uniform, but an outfit similar to the field researcher's choice of dress. Eerily similar. In fact, it was confirmed after a few checks that they were wearing the exact same damn outfit. A hypothesis was formed.
The Field Researcher and the Rocket Grunt were the same person. Pleased with this deduction, the matter was shelved and ignored. What did they care if someone decided to try to pull down two seperate paychecks?
There were, of course, others who didn't shelve things so easily and looked more deeply into the matter.
xxx
The shadowy figure raised an arm and gestured to a nearby, indistinct figure.
"Report."
"As you directed, I looked into the matter. She has no records, for either of her persona. No home town, no parents, no birth records, no medical records... nothing. According to the computer trails, she only just came into existence recently, when Professor Ash gave her a starter. Just a couple of days ago."
"Interesting... continue."
"Well, despite her relative nonexistence and lack of... any official study whatsoever, she's taken to things like a fish to water. Far better than expected."
"And about her persona?"
"Ah... that's the interesting thing. I've confirmed that she's using the same Kirlia in both her persona, but that's not the most intriguing thing. Simply put, it's not possible. I've collected samples of hairs left behind from where she sleeps. Samples of both forms. The DNA readings confirm that she's actually two different people. That's not possible. I'd been writing it off before that as her just being a quick-change artist, or wearing wigs or something. It's just not-"
"Not possible, yes. Stop all DNA testings."
"Sir?"
"Stop them, now. And have all the current results classified to levels where they aren't allowed to be thought about, delete all recorded data and send me all the hard copies."
"Yes sir."
There was silence for a moment as the flunkie left.
"... And your report?"
"Well... all I can say is that she's definitely unconvential, but has produced results. Note that she raised her starter significantly in a matter of days... more than enough to cream the brat's choices in a two on one match. Also, she has a noted attitude shift depending on whether she's 'Rei' or 'Ranma' at the time. Maybe schitzophrenia?"
"Last I checked, mental diseases don't cause physical changes over such short periods of time."
"Huh. Whatever... you're the boss, Mr. Giovanni."
Giovanni leaned back into his chair as the second flunkie left, and grinned, then hit a few keys on a nearby board to send details of the next mission for the grunt. Not exactly the usual fetch-carry-deliver stuff that grunts were assigned, but nobody would question him. He was the boss.
"Such an interesting girl you are, miss Ayanami. Interesting indeed. I wonder what will happen when the other organizations begin to turn their curious gazes to you?"
He carefully held his fingertips together as he leaned back into the chair once more. The only thing missing from the tableau of 'evil mastermind' was a Persian... but he was allergic to shed feline hairs. Pity.
xxx
Ranma sneezed in the middle of demonstrating a new kata to Kirlia, then rubbed at her nose in confusion. Then she decided that her hair was probably long enough to put in a pigtail again, and still growing at a rapid pace, so it would be a good idea to do that soon. Hair flying loose and into her face was starting to get really annoying.
"Saotome, a question. Is it possible that the Telekinesis Kirlia has exhibited can be turned upon itself rather than an opponent or part of the landscape, and thus exhibit a reasonable fascimile of independent flight?"
A large sweatdrop rolled down Ranma's head and she flicked a finger at Kirlia.
"If you understood anything of whatever the hell she just said, then go ahead and try it."
Kirlia slowly cocked her head to the side, then gave the appearance of shrugging and lifted slowly off the ground.
'Hn... Oh! I get it now. You couldn't have just said 'Can she try to fly?''
"That is what I said."
'But with bigger words that I don't know the meaning of.'
"... We're buying a dictionary in the next town. And a thesaurus. Possibly an encyclopaedia as well."
'Encykolwhatia?'
The blast of electric pain, when it came, was powerful enough that Ranma's eyes glazed and it looked like there were sparks shooting out of her right ear for a moment.
"Okay... you just keep running through that kata... while I take a nap."
Ranma fell with a thump to the ground. Only then did Rei remember that she couldn't move their body on her own until they came into contact with hot water.
Naturally, this was the point where their pokedex began ringing like a cell phone. And she couldn't do a thing about it.
If she could move their eyes, they'd be twitching right now.
xxx
In certain conditions, rumors spread faster than sound could carry them. Giovanni knew this, which is why he didn't bother to classify much. Everything else had already spread beyond any possible containment. And directly to all the spies that had been planted in Team Rocket by other organizations.
Nothing to do about it, really. Well... He could, technically, have all the rampant gossipers executed. The original Giovanni would have gone that route. But as the most flagrant yammerers tended to be his most valuable scientists and researchers, he couldn't really afford to have them 'removed'.
So instead, he was very careful about who knew what. Only the most trustworthy and tightlipped were allowed to learn more than they absolutely had to. Even people assigned to working on the same projects would be divided up into groups, one working on one part of the problem, another on a different one, and a third on something else entirely. Usually something completely unrelated to their project at all.
It worked wonders for confusing the hell out of people who were trying to figure out his plans.
Of course, there were times when someone untrustworthy did get ahold of information that would have disastrous consequences should certain people get their hands on it.
A full shift to the genetic level?
Team Rocket had their fingers in quite a few pies, including genetic manipulation. They had created a new, unique Pokemon, an altered clone of the Legendary Mew, after all. And in their first generation to boot. However, they had to learn things from somewhere, and had stolen the keys to the new science from the Cypher Syndicate.
As far as they'd gotten, they were still embarrasingly far behind Cypher's scientists. Things that Rocket's research and development sections would call blatantly impossible were done regularly and without batting an eye in the Orre region. For example, old Johann had decided that it would be a great idea if certain elite grunts could use the techniques of Pokemon and had set the scientists to find out how to do it. He figured they would easily be able to work out some sort of gene splicing mechanism. They couldn't figure out a way, and so wrote it off as impossible.
That was thirty-five years ago. Thirty years ago, Cypher introduced the first of their tank-grown 'Hybrids', probably for no other reason than to poke Johann in the eye and laugh. Now, a full ninety percent of their syndicate were Hybrids, their processes having evolved much further than having to grow them in tubes from scratch. One injection of a few cc's of the weird glowy chemicals that they liked so much plus a few strands of the proper DNA, and presto. A Hybrid.
Of course, there were still bugs to work out. Namely that there was still no way for someone who had undergone the process to revert completely to a human. Once you were changed, it was forever... no going back. And they were having trouble with the experiments to turn Pokemon themselves into Hybrids, it seemed.
If they heard about the oddities of his new operative, they'd waste no time in making every effort to get her on their dissection tables. Which was why he'd had a certain scientist drugged and brought to his own laboratory, where he had a pair of Alakazam waiting, and had certain memories carefully extracted from his skull.
A much more effective trick than simply killing the man off.
xxx
It was with great relief that Rei realized Saotome had begun to stir. And about time as well... the endless ring tone was slowly driving her to the point where she might consider doing something... rash... and without having further orders from Saotome, Kirlia had been running through the kata over and over and was beginning to get slightly wobbly from exhaustion. Silently, she vowed not to be so harsh in correcting Saotome's stupidities in the future.
At least, while she was the one in control of their body anyway.
'Mflurglensherintraa?'
"Saotome."
'Nnnaa?'
"Answer the Pokedex."
'Deeex?'
"Answer the Pokedex. Now."
Ranma groaned as she sat up and reached for the little red rectangle with one hand, waving her other at Kirlia. It gratefully flopped down and began gasping for air. Not particularly cruel by nature, Ranma rolled a couple bottles of water its way.
"Yeeaah?"
The voice on the other end of the line was crackly with static.
"About time, Grunt. I've been paging you for hours."
"Sorry boss. You seem to have caught me napping."
There was a slightly amused 'Hrumph' from the line.
"In any case, there's a job for you. Straight from the top, if you can believe it. Giovanni seems to have taken a direct interest in you."
"Thrilling."
The boss on the line either didn't catch the sarcasm or didn't care.
"Sending you the mission specs now. Enjoy."
Ranma paused for a moment, staring at the screen, before Rei mentally pointed out which buttons to press.
'That's interesting. There's a couple Team Aqua Grunts causing trouble for Vermillion. Officially, the league police are supposed to be handling this.'
"But unofficially, they're leaving it to us to expel the foreign Team members."
'So. Vermillion is south of here, right? Let's get going.'
Kirlia quickly finished off the second bottle of water and hopped to its feet, crushing the bottles with telekinesis and launching them away.
xxx
"Sir, we've recieved confirmation and have the backup standing by in case of the operative's failure."
"Good... Good."
"Sir... if I may be so bold as to ask, just why are you allowing a grunt to take on this mission? Even with an agent as backup-"
"That is none of your concern. Suffice to say that if reports of this task impress me, the grunt may be in line for a promotion."
"... You're the boss, Mr. Giovanni."
"Indeed."
xxx
"Twenty minutes between Saffron and Vermillion." Ranma muttered. "And that's at a slow walk. Freaking ridiculous."
There was a tug at Ranma's pants. She looked down at a grinning kid.
"Hey, Hey! Did you hear about the captain of the S.S.Tidal? They say that he's a master of sword techniques and if you ask nicely, he'll teach your Pokemon how to use Cut!"
"That's... nice. Get lost kid."
The child grinned and ignored her.
"He taught my Paras! Wanna see?"
"No."
The child frowned and muttered "Meanie." before kicking her in the shin and running off with a giggle. Ranma glowered after her.
"I. Hate. Kids." She shook her head lightly. "'Sides, we got work to do."
"The reports indicate that the attacks happen just outside the east gate."
'Good. We go, deal with them, call the boss and we're done. Maybe we can sneak onto the Tidal afterwards.'
"You wish to have the captain teach Cut?"
'Hell no. I just want to fight him. Not with Pokemon, but a straight up fight. If he really is a 'Master of sword techniques' then he might know something I haven't seen yet.'
"Ah. If I might make a suggestion-"
"Halt!"
Ranma casually drew to a stop as the two Aqua Grunts they'd been sent to deal with leapt out of a tree.
'Huh. Easiest job ever.'
"Hand over your Pokemon, your money, your food, your pack, and all your clothes and we might think about letting you walk away from this."
Ranma casually lifted a hand and extended a single finger. Both the grunts turned red.
"Fine. If that's the way you want it, then you can take a grand tour of the ocean floor! Sharpedo, Go!"
"Ludiculo, you're up!"
Ranma held up her hand as Kirlia began to hop forward.
"Now, now. We want the others to have their fun too."
'Can you transfer mental commands to the others?'
Kirlia's eyes flashed as it settled back down and she felt something like a wet spiderweb wrap around her brain. She nodded and tossed two pokeballs, relasing Glaceon and the Dratini Leria. The spiderweb tingled for a minute signaling, she assumed, an established mental link.
'I'll work with Leria.'
"One moment. I memorized the available movesets earlier-" Ranma nearly sweatdropped at the mental sound of rustling paper. "Here."
The fight was brutal. And short. Very short. Less than sixty seconds later the Sharpedo was frozen inside a very large block of ice and the Ludiculo was approaching 'Deep-Fried'. She sighed and recalled her battlers.
"That was... really pathetic."
"Yeah... well... OMG, MEWTWO!"
Ranma's eyebrows shot up with complete and total disbelief but decided to play along, for the amusement factor if nothing else. Sure enough, when she glanced over her shoulder there was nothing there, and by the time she'd turned back around, the miniature glacier was empty, as was the charred black ring, and the Aqua Grunts were busy making tracks.
She shook her head and hefted Kirlia to sit on her shoulder.
"Teleport."
The moment that she phased back into existence, she grabbed hold of the Aqua's heads and smacked them together with a sound like coconuts.
"I was just going to tie you to a tree or something and phone the cops. Now? You've gone and pissed me off. So..."
She grinned and cracked her knuckles.
"Hand over your money, your pack, your food, and your clothes, and I might think about letting you walk away. No promises, though."
Fifteen minutes later, the two grunts were left dangling by their ankles from a low branch in nothing but their underwear, arms tied behind their back, and their single pokeball each stuffed in their mouths. Ranma herself was cheerfully whistling as she hefted over her shoulder what is professionally termed a 'Sack o' Swag'.
xxx
"End recording."
There was silence for a moment.
"So boss... Dunno about you, but to me... that was pretty damn impressive."
"It was adequate. Prepare the test to promote her to operative class."
"Right away, boss!"
xxx
"Decent haul. What did that bring us up to?"
Rei tapped a couple of buttons on the pokedex.
'Our account has stored approximately fifteen thousand credits.'
"Nice! And that's just with selling the clothes and spare pokeballs. Finished hacking their account yet?"
'One moment. The line is processing the request and... we're in.'
"..."
"That's... a SHITLOAD of money! Drain it, drain it! Hahahaha!"
'Setting up alternate, encrypted accounts now.'
Rei's fingers were positively flying across the keyboard as pages flew across the miniature monitor on the 'dex.
'Accounts opened. Draining Aqua account now.'
"We're rich, we're rich, we're rich!"
'Draining complete. We now have approximately seventy million credits spread out across twelve encrypted accounts. We are indeed quite rich. A question?'
"Shoot."
'It will swiftly become obvious that Team Aqua's hoards have gone missing, and thence where they went. Should we leave a trail, allowing them to track us down, or... I could download a virus into their networks.'
"Well on the one hand they could be good training, so long as they aren't so worthless as the two losers from before. On the other, it would get real annoying, real fast. Send the virus."
'Sending now.'
Within minutes, the headquarters of Team Aqua, on an entirely different continent, would be plunged into absolute chaos. Rei closed down the pokedex and dipped a finger into the surf.
"Ah... a good day's work. Now, lets see the rest of this."
Ranma dumped the sack on the beach.
"'Kay, these look like elemental rocks. Wanna hang on to those. Spray on potions, we keep them... bottles of little pills? Sell those, I guess. That leaves us with... whatever the hell this crap is."
There was a distracting flash as Kirlia spontaneously evolved, doubling in size again, and not so coincidentally driving Ranma face-first into the ground with the sudden increase of weight on her shoulders.
"... Ow. Geddff."
Obediently, Gardevoir stood up, allowing Ranma to pry her head out of the face-shaped indentation in the sand, then knelt back down and began poking through the small pile of 'junk'.
"I don't suppose you know what to do with any of that crap?" Ranma wondered aloud.
Almost in response, she began digging through the pile. The first thing out was an odd item that looked like someone had taken a set of night-vision goggles, painted them gold, and cut them in half. This went over an eye. Then was a little decorative bell on a fine chain, shaped like a tiny oyster with a pearl for a clapper, which was looped around a wrist. Then, Gardevoir grabbed two fistfuls of the leaves and tossed them into the air while spinning madly in place. Ranma sweatdropped at the display, and slight mental giggle.
"That... didn't answer any of my questions, and brought up a whole lot more."
"Didn't you wish to visit the captain?"
Ranma paused and considered. Her gaze swung to the freight in the harbor, to the pile of junk to sort through, and back to the freight again.
"Right. Junk later, fun now!"
Mentally Rei shook her head at how easy Ranma was to appease. It was the work of a moment to stuff most of the little trinkets back in the sack, and then to hide it beneath the docks. Gardevoir easily relenquished everything except the bell, and Ranma was easily convinced to let it keep it.
"Shall we?"
xxx
The captain's ears twitched slightly at a faint jingle, followed by a muffled thump. Not obviously peturbed, he took a long, slow sip of his tea, even as his hand tightened beneath the table.
The door was smashed open and he threw the tablecloth at the approaching blur, followed up by his drawing his saber and slashing through it in the same move.
The two halves drifted gently to the ground.
"So, they were right. You are pretty good."
"You aren't authorized to be in here. Leave now."
Ranma chuckled and stepped out of the shadows behind the captain.
"Aw, don't be like that Mr. Captain. We've only just started the fun!"
Ranma ducked under a slash that would have taken her head, hopped over a thrust for her vitals, and shot her legs out into an aerial split to avoid another slash. She landed gently on one foot and smirked.
"I'm thinking... you're just a little bit slower and weaker than Kuno. On the other hand, you aren't that much slower or weaker, and you're a lot more willing to ignore the lines, forms and rules of 'civilized' swordplay. Heh. This is gonna be fu-"
Her pokedex started ringing.
"-un... Dammit. Hold on a moment will you?"
She flipped it open like a cell phone and her face fell.
"Oh. Boss. Hi. Look, I'm kinda... what? Right now? I'm sorta in the middle of something right... Uh-huh. Right now. Okay, sheesh, I get it. I'm going, I'm going."
She tucked the dex away and grimaced.
"Goddamn interfering wretched scumball assholes." She grumbled. "Look, something just came up, apparently, and I need to go. You gonna still be here for the next few days? Ah, never mind. If you aren't, I'll just track you down. I'll be seeing you 'round, Mr. Captain."
Ranma waved cheekily as Gardevoir teleported in with a slight jingle, grabbed her, and teleported out. The captain's head tilted slowly to the side.
"What..." he wondered, "... the hell just happened?"
xxx
Celia blinked as a grubby hand clapped down on her shoulder.
"Hey, girlie. Have I got a deal for you. I works at a Pokemon Breeder Ranch, see, and every so often they has me take one or two of the surplus and find a good trainer to sell them to, below cost. Good business, apparently, but I just do what I'm told. Now for you, I got's this Feebass here, one time offer of a thousand credits, take it or leave it."
"Uh..."
"Very rare, shipped a few eggs in from Hoenn, only tend to show themselves a few weeks out of the year. Skittish, you see."
"Er..."
"Course they're doing very well in captivity, else I wouldn't be offering this one to you."
"Ah..."
About five minutes later Celia stood alone, less a thousand credits, plus a pure white pokeball, and with the distinct feeling that she'd somehow been cheated.
xxx
A.N.
Poor Celia. Feebass is like a rarer Magikarp, but I wanted her to get one and evolve it into Milotic. So hence the con man.
Aside from that, Taro will have a role to play. After all, I'm going to arbitrarily say that all Legendaries are at Lv. 100. Taro's ink trick will only work on them once each, they aren't stupid after all, and at this point neither of them even knows which Legendary they should be looking for. Taro's current plan of 'beat them all up one by one' isn't going to work too well, yanno.
On the Hybrid issue... it's something I've seen recur several times as I stroll through the Pokemon section of FF net(and possibly elsewhere as well, though I'm still working through the trauma of last time I looked elsewhere for inspiration for this fic). I'm thinking it's perfectly reasonable to add it in. And it just might end up being a future plot point. (Winks and smirks). Or maybe not. You'll have to guess at that.
Aaand to the dex.
Ranma-
Gardevoir, F (32)
Glaceon, F (S) (19)
Dratini, M (Leria) (22)
Rei-
Gardevoir, F (32)
Glaceon, F (S) (19)
Houndour, M (Demon) (18)
Celia-
Eevee, M (21)
Pidgeotto, F (20)
Clefairy, M (18)
Sandshrew, M (16)
Feebass, F (05)
As you've noticed, the 'level-up-aura' for lack of a better name, works even while the Pokemon are in their balls. Neat, huh?
