Tail Laundering (Operation Slowpoke) [F]

Striding forward intent on reaching his the goal of his assignment, Tobias stopped his movements as he heard the spiteful and cruel words of a trainer up ahead. In a way, the owner of the voice sounded all too familiar but he remained as rooted to the spot as a tree as he let the unknown figure come closer to him. By the time the two figures had come in view of one another, it became clear to the other just who had crossed their paths. Tobias' expression composed as neutral and unemotional as ever, he barely faltered any facial features as he stopped dead in his tracks, blocked by none other than the wretched child who had twice now tried to claim dominance over Tobias. The barely noticeable grimace at the corner of his lips was near enough impossible to view but there was no hiding it was there. Considering they had just bumped into one another on the outskirts of Azalea, it was inane to think he could have got stronger in such a meaninglessly short amount of time. Observing as Silver spat out with a nasty accusation, Tobias brushed past acknowledging that it was indeed himself. "I am surprised to see you here." Straightened up his tie back to the top of his collar, Tobias scrutinised his glare. "The sound thrashing I dealt to you and your Pokemon should by rights have sent you into hiding over such shame."

Shaking his head, he lamented his mistaken thoughts. "The arrogance of youth." Looking deep into Silver's eyes, it was almost as if he was reminded of himself at a much younger age. The very same arrogance Tobias had as a child had been what had landed him face to face with the dragon husk that was Kyurem. And the infliction of his scar. Making a cruel smirk, Tobias' couldn't help but entertain the idea in his head that the same fate would befall Silver. Not that he had any sympathy or compassion. Kyurem could feast on the boy's scrawny behind if it wanted. At least it'd give the eye patched criminal enough of a chance to try and slay the zombified husk. As Silver incessantly drivelled on, Tobias rolled his eye and responded. "Hmph, I will be getting past you. You couldn't stop me when you accidentally stumbled across me outside of Azalea. What ridiculous notion instils you with the confidence you will be able to thwart me here? When I am prepared no less?!" Thinking about it, along with how much Silver hated Team Rocket, was the child even aware as to what truthfully went on down here. "Hah. I do believe you fail to realise why I am truly here. Let's put it this way, given my affiliation and the fact I am prepared to be in such a place... I shall let your juvenile mind do the maths."

Watching as he sent forth the cackling wraith, Tobias let out a belligerent sigh. He had knocked it out so easily before, what would make this any different? "I hope you have prepared your team a bit better this time around. There is no way you'll stomp out Team Rocket in such a pathetic state." Retrieving a Pokeball from his jacket, he held it forward as he tightened his grasp on the spherical device. As he did, a beam of light shot forward at the ground, sending forth his chosen Pokemon. "Tch. Old man." Tobias was right, Silver was truly filled with the arrogance only a youth could possess. "Slick, time to wash up this irritating child." Without so much giving it thought, Tobias yelled out an order. "You won't prevent me from my goal both in the short term and the long! Slick! Bubblebeam!" Flopping up and down on the damp, cave floor, Slick had a particularly slimy looking sneer over his expression. Was this laughing fart of a ghost really going to pose all that much of a problem. "Listen fart face, clear outta here before I gotta get serious on ya, wiseguy." Opening its mouth, the Tympole decided to speed up the proceedings despite its warning and instead go ahead with fulfilling Tobias' order.

Daggering his cold, precise gaze at Silver, Tobias made a small bemused grimace at the boy's unrelenting persistence. "No... I suppose I wouldn't. Your brain addled sense of determination really needs to understand it has outlived its welcome. After the second fray, you've become nothing more than a common bug that I crush on sight." His grimace thawing out completely, Tobias' face was left with nothing but sheer neutrality as Silver boasted the improved strength of his Pokemon. In such a short space of time since their last encounter to boot. "Do not fool yourself." Taking one look at the Gastly cackling around before him, Tobias was astute enough to be able to tell it had barely been levelled all that far. It was still as much of a breath of hot air as it was the last time they crossed swords. However, as he finished with his words, he noticed the incoming advance of the Gastly towards Slick. Something the tadpole wasn't all too pleased with as he broke out in his Brooklyn like accent. "I warned ya fart breath. Now get offa my turf." Sending forth a concentrated flurry like beam of bubbles, the ghost was pelted with a barrage of bubbles that pushed the wraith like ghost back. However, it wasn't quite enough.

As the Gastly was pulled back into concentration by the harsh words of Silver, Tobias felt a pang of annoyance what at was to come next. Watching as Slick succumbed to the hypnotic rays of sleep, Tobias began shuffling in the inner reaches of his jacket pocket, looking for something. "Hmph, you obviously got hit on the head while lurking down here. You've forgotten quite a lot it would seem." Pulling out a golden spray, he held onto it as he shook his head despondently. "No, no, no. You tried this cheap trick on me last time and I merely shrugged it off. You're merely delaying the inevitable." Extending his arm forward, he took aim and sprayed the Full Heal all over the tadpole who soon came back to life, bouncing up and down while swearing like a sailor at being so easily influenced. "Why I oughta wash the stink right outta ya $%#@ @~$% &%@#!!" Not sinking to his level by pointing out who was really the pathetic one, he commanded Slick's next move, who proceeded to use it with gusto. "Slick. Bubblebeam. Waste this joke." Stopping with his bounce up and down, the gangster tadpole checked his aim before readying his attack. "Laugh at this one ya schmuck of a wiseguy!"

Item used:

x1 Full Heal

Remaining in his place without so much a budge to his position nor a sign of fidgeting, the eye patched criminal kept a watchful lone eye on the battle with the recalcitrant teenager youth. Despite the feeble returns he tried to exact on Tobias, he cared little. Instead, he was content to see his Pokemon snap out of its bogus paralysis and finally get back on the way to thwarting Silver out of the way. However, no sooner had Slick been healed, that Silver's pest of a Pokemon conveyed yet another annoying infliction. "Hmph, you rely too much on cheap gimmicks. Finish a battle deftly and without sloppy actions." Adjusting his tie, happy that Slick knew his orders, he watched as the grumbly tadpole struggled against his aching bones. "G'damn... If this is what its like to move around in old age, I don't wanna know... Try this one on fer size ya guffawing goon." Shooting forth a propulsion of watery bubbles that were so furious in their number, it was almost as if the gangster tadpole was firing off a beam.

Finally knocking out the Gastly, Tobias was all too aware what was likely to be next. This child never used his bumbling starter until the end and considering they had barely spent any time apart from their last battle... Zubat. That had to be the next selection. "Your pitiful bat brained pest is of no use to you." Recalling Slick pre-emptively as Silver returned his fainted ghost, Tobias sent forth Lateralus. Barely imparting any emotion, the cold program stared analytically at the incessant annoyance and his newly sent out Pokemon. "Au contraire." Shifting his eye at Lateralus, he boomed his now familiar commands to the heartless Pokemon. "Lateralus, run software Psybeam. Target Zubat. Execute!" Amazingly springing into action, the avian like program booted up its proprietary software and sent forth a strange, peculiar ray at the fluttering bat. "Your time in Azalea is a culmination of your previous folleys. All of which ended in failure. Do yourself a favour and resign as a trainer before the defeats I hand to you become any more crushing." Warned the male, wanting nothing more than to be rid of this infantile rash.

Giving the child a petulant look as his Zubat proved too slow on the uptake, the quick processing that Lateralus had demonstrated was sure to make short work of the runt. As the flying bat did its hardest to try and keep up, the sudden propulsion of a psychedelic ray of light was enough to dominate it completely. Pummelling it further with the psychic beam, the Pokemon fell from its lofty heights and landed to the ground with the thud as Lateralus ceased to stop with its attack. Continuing on and on, it was borderline overkill until Tobias extended out his right arm to the side of Lateralus, informing him to stop. "Enough Lateralus. Terminate command." Straightening up his tie, he positioned it back into place. An actual act of mercy from the cold hearted Tobias? Unsurprisingly not however, he merely wished to avoid stepping in any remains on his procession forward. "You still wish to pursue this fruitless battle?" He murmured, shooting a murderous glance at the red headed teen. One shotting a Pokemon clearly wasn't the sort of bartering chip the angsty teen listened to. "Fine, i'll thwart your last effort and be done with you." Glaring his eye with even more malice and venom, he threatened Silver one final time. "Cross my path one more time whelp and there will be your life to pay."

Deflecting the old man comment, Tobias bore a rather smug etching over his lips. Older he may be but that was a far more comfortable situation to be in than some inexperienced brain addled youth. "Your Bayleef? The runt is still breathing. Prometheus clearly didn't hurt you hard enough." Provoking a worried chimp from the monkey, Tobias instead decided to focus his thin patience elsewhere. "You should have grabbed better tools than this by now." Taking a step or two back, Tobias rather begrudgingly ordered the next move. It may have seemed peculiar perhaps even nonsensical for him to order such a move but desperate times called for desperate measures. This teenager was popping up far too often to give Tobias a moment's peace to carry out his master plan. "Lateralus! Run software Ice Beam. Target, Bayleef. Execute!" Loading up its software, the floating holographic like computer program engaged with the target as it locked its eyes in with it. Preparing itself, it began to manipulate the very air around it to perform such an attack. Tobias on the other hand was clearly pacing back even further to avoid even feeling the cool chills. Amusingly, Prometheus was heating himself up as his flame crested forehead began to simmer with warmth.

Seeing the boy's infantile outburst, Tobias shook his head deliberately. "Your tools are insufficient. And I am doubly sure that you will be unable to surpass someone such as myself who takes your philosophy that step further. Should any one Pokemon you see myself use before you today become useless, then they will be forever removed." Glaring, he got in a couple of last words before Lateralus finished up readying the start of its Ice Beam. "Either your tools are pathetically weak or I have acquired ones with far greater merit. No matter, you will always wind up a failure. Team Rocket may be in a current state of stagnation and fettering rot but once I assume the mantle... You will never see the end." This was perhaps summed up as the flurry of magical like leaves barely made a scratch on the cold, programmed being. Merely returning with an onslaught of subzero energy, the Bayleef was in no way, shape or form ready for such a brutal hit. Watching as Silver was once again, made to endure another humiliating encounter, Tobias barely even paid attention to his words. Instead, something curious that had arose as the battle concluded had piqued the male's interest. Giving his Porygon a long hard stare, it appeared to be in the middle of... Something.

"Lateralus, status report." Raising an eyebrow indignantly, it was uncharacteristic for his self constructed Porygon to being acting so deaf to his commands. "Lateralus!" Yelled out Tobias as he was beginning to realise what exactly it was that was unfolding. "No... How could they possibly... Silph Co." He muttered angrily as he finished. As it stood, the majority of Porygon that existed in the world had been a creation by the brilliant minds of Silph Co. As such, all Porygon carried with them various protocols and subroutines which ultimately assured their trust not only to the trainer that owned them but perhaps, rather worryingly, Silph Co. itself should the event ever arise. Having made one of his own from scratch, having coded the very Pokemon's data and body himself, Tobias had made one that he had hoped was free of Silph Co.'s meddlesome control. A direct set of eyes belonging to Silph Co. would surely compromise a great deal of his work. Clearly, he had missed out on something while copying over the bulk of Porygon coding and removing the bloating security and IFF protocols. "So those fools would try and assume control of Lateralus? We shall see about that."

Going to grab his Pokeball to return the ever increasingly rogue Porygon, Tobias had to shield his remaining eye as a sudden burst of bright light erupted from the Pokemon. Bathing the entirety of the well's passage they were in, it lasted for a matter of seconds before it died down, leaving a faintly glowing hue of red and blue. Lowering his eyes, Tobias was less than pleased at the new sight.


"Hmph! I can almost see what happened here. Lateralus had become too strong for its own good, Silph Co. found an exploit and... Argh. They forced a systems path upgrade to Porygon2.0 version. One which guarantees their control." Staring at the Pokemon, it was a great matter of trouble in having Silph Co's control stamped over. Thinking it over, Tobias remained resolutely calm as he tried to dismiss the turn of events, still unsure as to how they managed their way in. "No matter. I shall have to write an upgrade of my own. Impossible for them to break through a second time now I have their measure." Grunting, he held out Lateralus' Pokeball and recalled the virtual bird. Placing it away, he turned to Slick who was still sprawled out all over the floor. "Wake up you simpleton." Using a combination of potion and full heal, Slick sprung up. "Jeez Louise, dat schmuck was really tryin' to make a fool outta me. Won't happen again boss." Flopping up and down by Tobias' feet, he looked at Prometheus and nodded.

"With that scruffy little urchin taken care of, I shall assume the operation is safe for the time being. Onwards, we must assist." Moving along as he straightened out his suit's tie, he rather begrudgingly made his way through the ever narrowing cave walls that linked up the entrance of the well to the main cistern. Starting to struggle, Tobias was perhaps thankful that he was thin in regards to some other people of the fat persuasion. Making his way forward, he pushed his way through a fairly difficult tight spot, even for him and almost fell through forward as he made it to the other side. "What an insufferable assignment..." He vehemently muttered to himself. However, his mind was at least preoccupied on something that would take him far, far away from this damp, miserable abode. All the while, he was running over new lines of code to make for his own patch to reclaim full control over Lateralus. Given his expediency, he'd likely have the remedy by the time he left.

Items used:

x1 Potion - Slick
x1 Full Heal - Slick
Auto updating both.

As he pushed his way forward through the claustrophobic, almost suffocating natural made corridors that connected up the whole of the catacombs within Slowpoke Well, Tobias paused as he heard the voice of another up ahead. "Judging from the crotchety moaning... I doubt that is one of our own." Letting the unidentified male rant on further, Tobias did his best to slip forward undetected but his bid for stealth was denied. As he progressed on further, hugging with is back against the wall, he came across the source of the ranting fury. Clearly on his way out, Tobias pushed away from the wall and blocked the path the elderly figure had been taken. Obscured by the flickering of the light around them, Tobias was certain he had come across this person before. However, as he was trying to figure out whom he was, the male clearly took objection to Tobias' presence. "Hmph. If its not old man... Its brat. Enough of the aged name calling. You're in my way so..." Unable to diffuse the man, it instead set him off into even more of a rage. Somehow, Kurt had worked out Tobias' affiliations, despite nothing on the contrary pointing his allegiance. Looking down at his white suit, he pulled a face and tonelessly repelled his accusation.

"Are you senile old man? It would seem you've either beat one too many Rockets and tarnish us all with the same brush or rather... You use that as a ploy to needlessly beat anyone." Looking at the Shuckle at his side, he spat on the ground. "I think its about time you relinquished your Pokemon AND your trainer card. You're clearly too old to be looking after the life of another when you can barely take care of yourself." Certain to needle at the elderly figure, Tobias was quick to rise to the challenge. "Slick! Dispose of this crippled old man." Throwing the Pokeball forward, he let his tadpole gangster pop forward. Hopping up and down, the tadpole nattered out in his indecipherable own tongue. "Sure thing boss, i'll make sure this goombah will rest in piece... With da fishes!" Leering his eye, Tobias expressed hostility. "Assault with Bubblebeam!" As he awaited for his Pokemon to act, it was only then that Tobias recalled who the male was. A look of bemused laughter spread over his lips. "Hmph... To think. We have already met." True enough, when Tobias was scoping out the entirety of Azalea, looking for businesses for Team Rocket to sink their fangs into, he had passed the elderly Kurt off as of no value. The Pokeballs he custom made from Apricorns being nothing more than that of hobbyist level merchandising. "To think someone I had evaluated as nothing more than dead weight would be here putting up such resistance."

Glaring, Tobias picked out a custom Pokeball Kurt had made for him in the form of a Heavy Ball and laughed. "I'll be sure to send you packing back to your hut so you can carry on making these little... Souvenirs." Belittled Tobias as he attempted to place more pressure on the Pokeball smith.