Team Plasma's grunts were hardly seen favorably among the citizens of Unova. Between the safe release of their imprisoned pokemon, and the reasonably over-the-top methods for doing so, anyone could understand why.
As such, Team Plasma's operations, while ultimately good in intention, had been relegated to the dark alleys and corners of Castelia City. Just about anyone could tell you that Plasma was present, likely within a thousand feet of anyone at any time, few could tell you where exactly that might be.
One girl had taken far too much interest in the shadowy organization's whereabouts in the past couple days.
"Your orders come from Ghetsis himself. Deal with the newcomer who is seeking out Plasma hideouts within Castelia. Check in when you have dealt with the problem. Over."
The voice, distorted by radio frequencies and sheer distance, came through loud and clear for one particular Plasma grunt.
Sam Calla couldn't help but smile through her newfound excitement. "Affirmative. Over and out." With no time to waste, she turned off her walkie-talkie and slid it into one of her tabard's inside pockets.
In her giddiness, she couldn't help but mumble to herself as she made her way to the assigned location. "There's no way I'll let the sages down! They'll have to notice me after this."
Her expression then turned from excited to grim. "Whatever you do, Sam, do not fail."
Finding evidence of Team Plasma activity in the bustling city had been far from difficult. On the contrary, it had been as simple as visiting the police station.
Directed to Aster, Zinnia allowed a brief complaint to surface. "If only infiltrating team Aqua and Team Magma had been this easy."
Based on what they found out from the station, Team Plasma operated out of the dark alleys and abandoned buildings within the city. One passerby, a ginger girl in her mid-teens, also mentioned that Plasma was almost always lurking around the alleys behind the pokemon gym in town.
Zinnia would have asked her for a bit more information, but the girl had all but disappeared when a larger crowd passed between them.
So, despite the overwhelming sense that this was some sort of trap or, worse, a dead end with no helpful information, Zinnia made her way to the pokemon gym after checking in with Burgh.
"I can go with you if you want," he had said. "Team Plasma is tricky, and I wouldn't want you to be captured or hurt."
Zinnia had declined the offer. "I can handle myself. I've only been bested by a couple trainers in my life, I doubt some pseudo-vegans can put a dent in my lineup."
With that thought in mind, she had carefully approached the darkest part of Castelia City.
A narrow walkway beside the gym and some random office building, around six feet across at the most, showed its age through the poorly maintained pavement making up the path. There was ample space above, as no rooftops connected, allowing what little sunlight reached this area to provide some amount of heat. Off in the distance, a trash can lay on its side, knocked over an indeterminant amount of time before. Even the smell of this place, reminiscent of dust and rotting fruit, betrayed its ages since common use. Off to the side, an empty syringe rested just feet away from an intersecting alleyway. As far as anyone could tell, this place was as empty as empty gets.
"Nothing. Had a feeling it was a bunch of crap. Let's go Aster." Only a dead-end and an intersecting walkway had met her here. Aster hastily pointed out the other walkway, but Zinnia shook her head. "I'm not trapping myself in a maze in a city I don't know. Sorry, that's just a bad ide-"
"HEY! Come on! I devised this devious trap for you and you won't even trip it off?!" Came a voice from around the corner to Zinnia's left.
Aster jumped at the loud noise and hid behind Zinnia's leg. Even Zinnia flinched when the unknown person yelled out, but she turned quickly and maintained her composure.
"Who's there?"
A giggle which can only be described as the overdone laughter of a teenaged girl met the duo. "Why don't you come over and see?"
Zinnia stared at the corner on her left intently. "No way, you already told me there was a trap here. I'm not stupid, you know."
The hooded head of a Team Plasma Grunt poked around the corner. "Oh, shit. I did, huh?"
A few moments of silence passed between the two. Zinnia couldn't help but facepalm in the situation.
"You realize you've now, without a doubt, revealed yourself, right? Unless there's someone approaching from behind," she glanced at Aster, who shook her head, "You have to do whatever you were planning right now."
The grunt huffed. "Fine. Just battle me already so I can free your pokemon."
As she turned the corner and stood face-to-face with Zinnia, both girls adopted a stance.
On one side, Sam stood fast, reminiscent of a knight preparing to strike with their sword.
On the other, Zinnia stood low to the ground, a crazy look overtaking her, as if she might eat her opponent in the end. As she quickly bounced back and forth, Aster found cover further back. The trash can which had long since had its contents spread about now served as a barrier for the undoubtedly explosive battle before it.
Sam made the first move. The ginger threw out her pokeball. "Go get 'em, Sandile!"
Zinnia, not totally certain how to proceed, allowed instinct to take over as she sent out her pokemon. "Let's do this, Salamence!"
The pokemon stood facing each other momentarily, sizing each other up. Sandile, admittedly a little chubby as far as sandiles went, betrayed his fear for the pokemon in front of him nearly instantly.
"No Sandile! Stand fast!"
The pokemon hesitantly spread his legs and lowered himself to the ground. "Sand…"
Salamence smiled maniacally toward the pokemon before him. His mere presence had intimidated the small creature, and Zinnia knew full well he was the type to mock those who feared him.
"Not the time, buddy. Salamence, use your dragon claw attack."
The dragon nodded his understanding and began to centralize his power into his claws. He quickly took off, straight into the air, and began his speedy descent.
Sam took note of his trajectory and formulated her own idea. "Sandile, quick! Dig!"
The smaller pokemon, more out of fear than the result of his trainer's order, scraped away at the ground below him, tearing concrete and stones out of the ground as he quickly dove beneath the surface.
With no target left on the surface and minimal wiggle room on either side of him, Salamence flexed his wings and redirected his momentum to fly back upward.
Sam saw her opportunity and took it. "Sandile, Now's your chance! Stone edge!"
The small pokemon emerged from his hole and set to work focusing his energy on the newly-dug stones around him. In moments, they were flung by an intangible force and flew right toward Salamence, his back still to the battlefield.
Zinnia gritted her teeth. For a kid, this grunt isn't half bad.
"Salamence, evasive maneuvers!" The dragon pokemon spared a glance backward, calculating his next movements. With a simple barrel roll and momentarily tucked in wing, he managed to avoid the attack entirely. "Now, dragon claw once more!"
"Sandile, dig again!" The small crocodile attempted in vain to dig himself a safe shelter, but the dragon had been in position to quickly reach terminal velocity. Almost faster than either trainer could watch, the blue and red streak collided spectacularly with the ground, as well as a very small pokemon.
Zinnia, prepared for such a move, lifted the collar of her cloak to cover her face. Sam only watched in horror as a cloud of debris rushed toward her.
The dust eventually settled, at least one trainer in the midst of a coughing fit, before either could see the victorious salamence nudging his unconscious opponent.
"Sandile!" Sam rushed to her fallen pokemon, barely holding back tears. "Sandile, are you okay?!"
Zinnia also approached the scene, hand held out to pat Salamence's head. "I doubt he's conscious, but he'll be fine. That was only a single attack, after all."
The Plasma grunt recalled her pokemon and stood to face the woman who beat her. She took a breath, and Zinnia prepared for the complaining and whining a something-like-fifteen-year-old would inevitably do after losing as handily as her. What happened next caught her off guard.
"That was AWESOME!" The girl's eyes lit up, as if they, themselves, contained stars. "The way your Salamence just crashed down into the ground! NYOOOOOOOOOOMBUAGH!" Her retelling of the events, while comedic, was certainly unexpected. Her arms mimicked the movements of an explosion as she put her whole body into retelling and reimagining the scenario.
"Aren't you mad that I beat you, or something?" Zinnia recalled her salamence, who grinned up until he disappeared entirely. "And, while I'm at it, shouldn't you be irked that I used a pokemon as a 'tool' to beat you, or something?"
The hooded girl stopped making sound effects momentarily to think up a response. "Well, it was really cool. And your Salamence obviously respects you. I disagree with pokemon training as a practice, but every so often someone gets it right, I suppose." The girl went back to reimagining the scene, but suddenly tripped on something Zinnia had not been aware of.
A thin, nigh-invisible string knocked over a long pole when caught onto the grunt's foot. This caused a bucket on top to come crashing down and empty its contents, water, right onto the girl's head.
"Owwwwww…"
Zinnia snorted and erupted into laughter, only calming once Aster came to see if she was okay. "THAT was your trap?! Oh my god, that shit was pure gold!"
Wet, defeated, yet still in good spirits, the girl couldn't keep herself from mimicking the older woman's laughter. "I can't believe I forgot about that too! I must have stepped over the string when I started the battle!"
The two continued like this for some time before they both calmed down. That's when both got back to business.
Sam asked the first question after an uncomfortable silence.
"Why are you interested in Team Plasma?"
Zinnia stared directly at the girl. "I want to infiltrate your organization for the purpose of collecting data, to be used for my own purposes." She pointed back toward the crater Salamence had made earlier. "And there's no way you're going to stop me."
Sam gulped at that. Zinnia shrugged, indifferent to her response.
Zinnia continued. "My turn. Why do you work with Team Plasma? You seem to enjoy pokemon battles, and you're awfully young. Plasma cares for neither of these things."
The girl gazed upward momentarily before giving her best answer. "Well, I know that pokemon are abused by their trainers. I also know that pokemon are forcefully captured from the wild by trainers. They're seen as cheap labor, and as 'tools' for the furthering of mankind. I disagree with that."
Zinnia rebutted. "Yet, Team Plasma uses pokemon to 'liberate' everyone else's. That's like, mega hypocritical, don't you think?"
Silence followed that point. Sam seemed genuinely interested in pondering it further, when a buzzing noise was heard, followed by a voice.
"All units, begin operation dragonstone. Repeat: begin operation dragonstone."
Zinnia, now alert, jumped up and made a grab for the girl in front of her. "What's that? What is operation dragonstone?"
Forced to stand, her only resistance being her hands in front of her face, Sam responded. "It-it's when we go to Pinwheel Forest to cover the escape of operatives stealing something from the museum in Nacrene city. That's all I know, honest!" Fear presented itself on the girl's face when confronted with Zinnia's leer.
Zinnia released her hold on the girl. "Go. I'm going to follow you."
Terrified, Sam nodded and turned to run toward the eastern gateway into town. Before she got far, however, Zinnia grabbed the end of her tabard from the back.
"If you sell me out, I can guarantee your operation fails. I will not interfere; I only want to observe."
With a gulp and a nod for assurance, the girl felt relief from the woman's hold. She proceeded to run as fast as she could out of town. Zinnia allowed a couple of minutes for the girl to get out of sight before following, tracking her by scent more than anything else. Oddly, she smelled a bit like coconut. She did not seem the type for the Team Plasma crowd. Regardless, Zinnia wordlessly followed Sam through Castelia City.
I'll be damned if I let this chance get away from me.