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Chap. 64: Inter(roggetive/mission)

"What the hell," Elle muttered as she looked down at the keyboard of her rented laptop. It was perched on the edge of the small desk in her and Alex's room at the South Cerulean PMC, where they had been staying for almost a week now. Robin had asked them twice if they were prepared to move for 'operational security', but neither had been willing.

It wasn't that they underestimated the threat of Team Rocket knowing where they were, Alex had told her after the second time, it was that they didn't think simply changing rooms or going to a different PMC or likely Rocket-owned hotel would make a difference. They would know where the trio were, regardless.

That had little to do with why she was staring at the other world's technology so strangely, though. The lettering, the general format and shape of the device were familiar. A, B, C, etc, all corresponded to what she was familiar with, despite Kanto supposedly being a "Nipponese Region". The laptop flipped open between keyboard and screen, had several ports including for a mostly-similar data cable like a CAT-8 (behind the times to her, but nothing too bad), and a coaxial power line.

There, the similarities ended. "What's wrong?" Alex asked, sounding tired as he stepped out of the bathroom. They'd spent the first half of the day, as they had for the last week, training with Robin, Megumi, and Kinta. The second half had been, to his dismay and her secret delight, shopping. For a night out on the town, as Robin and Elle had been planning for a while.

And Elle had to admit, the rosette was growing on her. She was on Alex, too, her frequent nudity alone doing a lot toward it. But her frank, open and honest nature (unless that was a front too, but Elle thought it was a damned good one if so) was working to do even more. Alex couldn't seem to help but desire her, and he was starting to trust her. Elle was, too, despite herself. Did she want to fuck the girl? Sure, absolutely. Did she want Alex to? Absolutely yes, as well. And Megumi, she was gorgeous.

But she didn't trust her. Not yet. There was always that hidden, almost undefinable layer of secrecy and misdirection about everything Robin did that just made her seem suspicious, even if she had not yet been caught in a lie, and made it a point to be incredibly open, and honest to a fault. Maybe that was it? Maybe she was too honest?

Elle sighed, unwilling and unable to dwell too much on the abstract. She had a real problem right now, if a minor one, to deal with. "This keyboard's layout is fucked up."

He stood behind her, a bag of his new clothes (she had insisted) in one arm and the other holding a recycled paper cup of coffee in the other despite it being after six, and looked down. It took him about twelve seconds to spot what she'd noticed right off, "What the…? Why's it… what, alphabetical?"

"I don't know," Elle muttered, glaring at the laptop as if it has personally offended her. "I mean, there's still those weirdos who like the alphabetic keyboards on Earth- our Earth, anyway- but like, everyone uses Qwerty. This is just… it seems obscene, somehow. Like… an abomination."

"Maybe Qwerty was never invented here," he shrugged, "but either way, you're gonna have to get over it if you're gonna use that one. I didn't see any other options at the rental place, anyway."

Elle sighed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just… weird. I'll probably make tons of typos until I get used to it, and I'm not someone who can't type."

"Sorry," he chuckled, and patted her head like she was a child.

She leaned into his touch without conscious thought, and he rubbed her a bit more. "Ooh, someone likes their head pats, huh?"

"Mm, hmm," she moaned. It was strange… she'd never have thought of herself as someone who did, but something about her lover giving her that kind of attention and affection spoke to the very core of her personality. There was no way she could deny that it felt… nice. Really good, in fact.

After Alex had patted her head for a good minute, he resumed packing away his new day-clothing, more shirts and shorts along with a new pair of hiking shoes (not quite boots, but not running shoes, either, something she hadn't known existed), and largely left her to her work as she started setting up a use profile using entirely false data, with frequent pauses to set up an email account, and even some rudimentary paperwork.

In short, establishing an online- and 'real-world' identity in a world she had not been born in.

After a while, Alex handed her the coffee, which she took gratefully and chugged down though it was starting to get cold. "That seems super interesting, but also boring as fuck."

She shrugged, "It can be. It's important, though. There's no way I can get into certain systems like the Pokémon Registration for the League, or even the League's Trainer database, without having a presence myself. We are registered in the League, of course. GF made sure of that, all the Beta testers- in the 'special' Beta or not- are in the League by default. But that's the only paperwork they got for us. We're all registered as from random places, mostly from Pallet, some from other Regions. But do you think a town that size would have three hundred or more Trainers in one batch?"

"No," he muttered, "That had to raise flags."

"Exactly. One of the things I'm doing is putting out a presence for us. Finding a place for each of us to be 'from' that makes sense, building a history of birth, medical visits, small-time run-ins with the law like traffic warnings, things like that. To prove we're 'real', mostly. It takes some time, but it isn't that hard. Just a lot of making up stuff and trying to keep it consistent."

"You sound like you've done this before."

"I did. Remember how old I am? GF's official records list my age as twenty-one. Maybe twenty, I forgot which. Their official records say that because I made them say that. And so does every bit of important paperwork, including the digital copies of my birth certificate that Pacific MC uses in their own records. This is… well, probably more in-depth, but not any harder. Just more tedious 'cause I have to create the documents whole instead of edit parts of them."

"Oh."

"You may's well go to sleep, stud," she sighed, "or go spend time with Robin. I'm gonna be here a while, probably all night. I'm definitely gonna want to rest tomorrow, too."

"Er… You know I don't trust her, right?"

"Do I? Come on," Elle snorted, looking over her shoulder to find him sprawled out over their shared bed on his stomach, his feet in the air as he watched her idly. "But she's clearly not going anywhere, and unless we're gonna actively drive her off, we may as well either let her in, and show her some trust. She's been pretty vocal about not wanting Rocket to win, and is definitely both hot and cold about GF. Seems like she's being straight about her personal goals, anyway."

"Yeah," he admitted, "but still. I don't just want to…"

"Liar," she laughed, turning back to the screen, "I know you want to fuck her. It's pretty obvious. Seriously, I didn't care about that Riina chick. I enjoyed that too, remember? Hell, if you don't want to go have fun with Rosey, go wet your dick in Megu. She'd love it, you know she would. Or hell, even the local Nurse Joy."

He frowned, and she knew exactly why. His last experience with one, at least one he'd tried to sleep with, had not gone well. The Viridian Nurse Joy was very vocally into women, and wanted nothing to do with him.

Not for the first time, Elle cursed herself for not taking advantage of that at the time. Still, maybe they'd be headed back. She had to have her rematch against Nadine Minier eventually, right?

"Fuck one of the mon's then. You're distracting me, just laying there like that. Hell, go to sleep if you aren't horny."

He was silent for a few seconds longer, then huffed, "Fine. I'll go take a walk then, figure out what I want to do."

"Or who," she reminded him as she headed for the door, "seriously, go get laid, Alex. I know you're antsy, and I'm sorry I can't be the one right now, but this is important, and it's gotta be done before our meeting with the Rocket lady."

"Yeah, I know," he muttered, then shut the door behind him, his belt, as always, on his hip.

None of them dared go anywhere without their teams, not after Megumi and Kinta had been temporarily kidnapped by Team Rocket.

Alex sighed as he sat down on the bench in the same park near the PMC that they'd been using to practice for the last several days. It wasn't that Elle wasn't right, he was desperately horny. And they- she- had promised to always be there for his relief if he wanted it. But she was also busy, and he knew what she was doing was important.

Of course her various other options were all equally valid… he just couldn't bring himself to do any of them. Gobbler, maybe… but he'd never just started that on his own, it had always been Elle who instigated it, or the Weepinbell herself. Lingus would be able to get him off too, of course, but she was sleeping in her ball, exhausted from a hard day's training. She was actually shrinking, losing some of her fat and gaining muscle in its place, she'd been working so hard.

They all had. All of them needed to blow off some steam.

So why couldn't he just go to Megumi, or hell, even Robin?

Hell, he'd been severely attracted to the Nipponese woman since their first meeting, and she clearly was too, since her note the day after had been signed with an "ISquirtle4U".

And the rosette… he would love to just bend her over and shove his cock into her probably very tight pussy… but he didn't trust her. It was weird, he trusted Chris and Riina, who they'd only just met that morning, more than Robin, who he'd now known for more than eight days, and spent most of his waking time with.

… Then again, she had pretty openly declared she was working to spy on them, in part, for Game Freak. That had put a damper on things immediately.

But then again… Alex sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. It was time to get a cut… yes, that's what he could do. He stood up and glanced around. The park was quieter now that the sun had gone down, but there were still a dozen or more people with their Pokémon, playing, training, or relaxing. One man, he saw, was actively petting his Umbreon between her lower legs as she lay on her side on a blanket in the grass.

The business district where he'd probably find a barber was just a few streets away, and given Cerulean's reputation, he was sure a salon or similar would be open even still. It was only six-thirty or so, anyway. And he really needed to do something to take his mind off… well, everything else.

Because he was an idiot, and he knew it. There was no reason not to trust Robin, as Elle had told him. Yes, she was spying on them for Game Freak. Like the company that hired them wasn't already up-front about their every move being under scrutiny, simply because the pair of them were a combination of moderately talented and with a high Sync Rate. But she'd also just told them. She'd have been a better spy if she'd kept it hidden… but she hadn't, and he knew full well just how smart she was. Possibly even smarter than Elle. Both, he was sure, were more intelligent than him, and he was no slouch.

Maybe a better liar, too… but in the end, did it matter?

No.

If they were going to succeed in stopping… whatever it was that Team Rocket were doing (he still wasn't quite sure on those details, and no one else seemed to know either), or perhaps Game Freak from whatever their mysterious goals were, then they needed to be on the same page. They needed to be a team. Partners.

Equals.

And he was definitely not treating the new girl that way. Megumi… well, she was pretty talented herself, and Kinta improved by the day with their training, but he was also increasingly sure that the others, while above average, would not be able to fight against Gym Leaders at full power. Probably ever. Which meant that while they could definitely help, they probably had a limit, a cap to how good they could be. How good they would be.

So they, at least, might need to be held off a little later. For now, they were more or less on the same level except for Kinta, who was closing the gap every day despite being younger. His motivation of revenge might not be healthy, but it was definitely effective, and he was turning into a pretty heavy-offense style of play that worked well against Robin and Elle both, even if Megumi's more fluid style and his own defensive style were good counters for it.

It took a little over an hour for his time in the queue at the strangely busy salon to come up, but Alex was more surprised by the fact that the stylists, all attractive women of varying ages, did not do their work in a communal space like he was used to. Instead, each one had their own little cubicle. "Good evening, Sir," the thirty-something woman with blonde hair dyed green at the tips said as she put the curtain around him to protect his clothes from stray hair. The devices on the counter, he saw, were very similar to what he was used to, though there was a door on the far side of the cubicle with no handle. "What style are we going for today?"

"Uh, just a trim, I think. I like short hair, it's easier to deal with."

"Alright, we can do that. Anything in particular…?"

"Nah. Just cut it short on the sides and back, and leave the top kind of short. Like it is, I suppose, just shorter."

"Of course," she replied smoothly, no doubt being well used to men who had no idea how to instruct a stylist in what they wanted, and thus left it up to the stylist to interpret their desires. "And what would you prefer this evening?"

He blinked and looked up at her through the mirror, "Uh, excuse me? Didn't we just cover that?"

"For your hair, yes," the woman chuckled, then reached over for a well-used little pamphlet of glossy laminate pages held together by a metal ring. "I meant for your pleasure, Sir. We have several here, and for a nominal surcharge we can have a few more brought in from one of our sister locations, though that takes a bit longer of course. These are the ones we have on-site. All are well-practiced in servicing clients of all types while we work."

He gulped, eyes wide at the pages. There were five Pokémon pictured on the front page, each with a name, and various statistics. One that caught his eye was Bellsprout, with 'excellent oral skills' as one of the notes. The stylist wiggled the pages in front of him expectantly, and, blushing, Alex reached an arm out from underneath the covering to take it. "Er… Is- well, where I'm from this isn't, but is it common practice here to, uh, do this at a salon?"

"It sure is," she chuckled, "you don't have to be shy or embarrassed about it. We get all sorts, and we're all quite used to it. It comes with the territory of being among the best salons in Cerulean, which is kind of known for its… liberal attitudes regarding sexuality, perhaps more than any other city in Kanto."

"I… see. Well… if you're sure it won't be a bother, I- I guess I've been a bit pent up."

"I assure you it's not," she chuckled, "we get all sorts. Shy newcomers like you, plenty of men and women who come more for the pleasure than the styling, and everything in between. Order what you like, everything on the first five pages is part of the charge anyway, and the last page, or more exotic variety, aren't much of an extra charge, quite affordable."

Alex nodded, finding himself fascinated as the woman began to cut his hair by imagining just how some of the Pokémon listed could be an enjoyable bit of fun. Bellsprout, of course, he already well knew. Ekans, the purple snake the nutcase red-haired Rocket lady had apparently a very large version of, was known for tongue-work. Further in, he found more, stranger examples, but the serpent was among the weirdest.

Metapod (clearly intended more for those who preferred being penetrated, according to the notes), Pikachu, Sandslash, Magikarp, and both of the middle evolutions of the Nidoran line were mentioned, but the ones that had the 'popular' tags tended toward Ninetails, Vaporeon, Gilet, Person, and Growlithe. That wasn't all, though. In the exotic pages, there were ten Pokémon listed, too. Tentacool, Magnemite and Onix (a small specimen, the notes assured), Voltorb, Marowak, and Electabuzz, whose antennae were apparently superior, dildo-like things, and even, he saw, Ditto. If, as the page declaimed, one wanted to be pleasured by a mimicry of themselves.

"Uh… I- I think I'll just take the Bellsprout," he murmured, unwilling to go for a more daring choice just yet. Especially not in front of a stranger, no matter what she said about it being perfectly normal.

"Alright. One moment…" He watched as the stylist punched in a number she had apparently memorized, a six-digit one, into a keypad he'd barely noticed on the wall. A few minutes later, a familiar shape waddled into view on root-like legs. He knew of course that it wasn't Gobbler, but the resemblance was uncanny to how she'd looked before she evolved.

Without a word, the Pokémon hopped up on the leg of the chair and climbed her way under the cover, up his leg, and then whined. "Sprout?"

"She's asking you to open your pants," the stylist told him, "don't be shy."

"O- Oh. R-right. Sorry."

Yes, stripping even underneath the black hair-shield was strange, but the Bellsprout wasted no time in starting to work on him, and in seconds he was hard. She lacked, he thought, some of the technique and personal touch that Elle's Pokémon had, but she went about the task of getting him off diligently and with a fair bit of energy all the same.

The stylist was just about done with his hair, doing the last bits of finishing touches, when he grunted as an orgasm washed through and out of him. "Always so relaxing, isn't it? And Chika here is one of our better ones, not all of our Bellsprouts like their work as much as she does."

"I- It was pretty nice, yeah," Alex murmured, glad for the pleasure, but also because it was, in fact, relaxing to climax after a long day. "Uh…"

"The mess? Don't worry about it," she laughed, "Chika will clean it up. Just tuck yourself away when you're done, unless you need another round. From what I saw of the blanket moving, I might be willing to do it myself, you're nicely hung."

"Er, n- No. No, thank you. That was quite, uh, satisfying."

"Suit yourself, of course," she shrugged, "anyway, I'm just about… done. How does it look?"

As Alex examined his familiar hairstyle in the mirror, the Bellsprout hopped down and, with a last, "Bell!" walked back through the door, pushed it open with a little effort, and slipped through.

It was, he decided as he walked out, a very strange haircut. But also proof at last, real proof, that Robin was right. This was no game. His hair was naturally growing, at the same rate it always had.

And he doubted even Game Freak could've thought of that detail.

"Why," Elle asked around a mouthful of food an hour and a half later, "does coming out of the server always make me feel so hungry? Horny too, but also hungry?"

"Probably the paste and goo they feed us while we're inside," Alex told her, only just able to mind his manners in time to respond with a clear mouth. "But I'm always famished, too. Most of us are, that's probably why this meeting is a dinner one again."

The same cafeteria where they'd had the first and second large meetings in the Game Freak headquarters in Pacific Mega-City was as full as he'd ever seen it, but Alex thought that maybe, just maybe, it was actually a little more crowded. He knew they'd lost some people, twelve now according to Robin, but there was almost no where left to sit.

That's why he wasn't surprised when Megumi, clearly herself despite being just a little less curvy than her in-'game' counterpart, sidled up with a tray in her hands and her brother a little ways behind, "Um… do you mind if we sit here, too?"

"Of course not," Elle replied, sliding into the person next to her a little to make room. "Haven't seen Robin, yet."

"She's in line still," Kinta grunted as he sat next to Alex. "She was about ten behind me, I think."

"Got it," Elle said, looking up and over Alex's shoulder. "And, uh, remember, no talk of our plans here. Not even a hint of them."

"I remember," Kinta muttered, digging into his food quickly.

Robin didn't even ask before she slid into the last spot available on Alex's side moments before a familiar older gentleman and Maline Greengrass walked up onto the small stage. She leaned over to whisper to him quickly, "That's who I know as Dr. Green and Dr. Jones. I don't see Dr. Phillips- oh, there he is, the man in the uniform. I didn't know he was part of the Security Force. Huh. He always seemed like a scientist to me."

"Could be both," Alex replied quietly as the older gentleman of the two now on stage with Maline tapped the old-fashioned microphone.

"Welcome, one and all, to our third big meeting. First, let me introduce myself since most of you don't know me. I'm Robert Jones, Maline's boss, and the VP of R&D. I've been in charge of this project of ours for the last twelve years, and I'm glad to see it's finally coming to fruition thanks to all of your valiant, and dare I say, horny help."

There was a round of polite titters, though clearly he didn't have quite the same crowd appeal his second in command did. "Thanks to you all, we're nearer to the release of Pokémon: Truth and Lies than we've ever been before. And I know full well, that you are all enjoying this special closed Beta test as well as we are!"

This time, there was much more enthusiastic clapping, some cheers, and even some wolf-whistling.

"Well, again, let me run through some quick statistics. There are… let me see, eight players that already have six or more badges, and one of them has the full twelve necessary to participate in the Indigo League Championship at the end of next year! I can tell you, that player, who I'm not going to name, really needs to stop working so hard and take some time to relax… not that his fun is wrong! Enjoy yourself however you want, my friend, just have some fun with all the work!"

Again, polite laughter and clapping, though brief this time. "More than half of you still don't have your first Badge, but don't worry about that. Battling isn't for everyone, and we knew going in that each successive Badge would weed out some of the competition. That's just fine, you're still being employed just to play our game- no Championship needed. But for those of you who are interested, well, now you know how some of you stack up to the person in the lead."

"What Mr. Jones isn't telling you," Maline leaned in with a grin, "is that fully ninety-eight percent of you have now had the pleasure of their or other Pokémon in the game. Look around: in this room, that's about nine people that haven't put their dick in a Pokémon, or had one inside them, or something similar. Just nine! You all are just as excited for that part of the game as we are, aren't you? Well, good going! That's exactly what you're supposed to do, and our research into how it all works, how well it'll be received in the wider audience, proceeds apace. Just keep on as you have, and have all the fun you want!"

This time, there was a lot of cheering, and Alex knew full well why, since all of his companions, even Kinta, were doing the same.

"Anyway, before we let you get back to your dinner in earnest," Mr. Jones picked up again, "I just thought I'd introduce myself, but also to thank you for your hard work… and to give you a piece of advice. Even for those who aren't interested in the League Challenge, remember this: A strong Pokémon is a happy Pokémon. A well-fucked Pokémon is a happy Pokémon… and a stronger one. It takes both to truly excel. And even if you aren't going for the League, well… Team Rocket is always out there, waiting to strike. It never hurts to be… prepared for trouble, am I right?"

The age-old line made even Alex laugh, this time, and despite himself he started warming up to the older gentleman. Maybe, just maybe, Game Freak wasn't as bad as they were worried about.

Maybe.