Welcome to Gaia! ::

[This RP is reserved for those with slots in this month's raid.]

Team Rocket had run a lot of missions. They weren't anything new. Some were big, some were small. Every Rocket who'd been involved in a mission before knew that they varied and despite their size, one mission wasn't generally more important than the other.

This mission was important.

Packed into a helicopter en-route to southern Kodo, Mau, Luxury, Inigo, Aila, Aulus, Faleen, Izaya, Tambrey, Sierra, Panther, 1337 and Hayes had already been briefed on the seriousness of their task. Led by Kunai, they were headed straight for Galactic Headquarters. Nyx has been there for over a week now. She was given enough time to gather crucial information, using Deimos' attraction to her as protection. Once that week was up, Newton, her Driflbim, had orders to use his ghostly abilities to escape whatever holding area her pokemon would no doubt be contained in, and float outside Galactic HQ's sensor range to transmit a homing signal using a device he'd been supplied. Hours ago, that signal had been activated.

The team's orders were simple. Get in, find Nyx and, if she could supply the necessary information, disrupt Team Galactic's plans, whatever they may be. They were up to something; Lucere was sure of it. Their plots ran deeper than stealing pokemon. They had an end game and it had to be dealt with. The world only had room for one major crime organization. Team Rocket.

This mission would start with undercover work, which explained why Kunai was leading. She was the head of Infiltration & Espionage, after all. Every Rocket in the helicopter was currently dressed in alarmingly accurate Galactic uniforms. Lucky for them, Deimos didn't really go in for the teal wig thing like Cyrus did, though any Rockets who'd had extensive dealings with Galactic in the past and risked being recognized would find themselves wearing some other wig and possibly makeup to hide their identity.

The helicopter flew low as it drew close. They'd have to go some distance on foot to avoid detection. At the conclusion of the long flight they landed in a valley among some rolling hills.

Luxury did not like this one little bit. She knew she'd eventually have to fly in a chopper, but the things scared her. What if the blades broke? What if they ran out of fuel? So many things could go wrong so far up in the sky. And what about the landing? What if something happened and they tipped over? What if a pokemon rushed them? What if Galactic had spotters out, and attacked the second they landed? Ok, so, she could handle that, but what if they attacked before they landed? Anxiously she tugged at her costume.

Trying to keep these thoughts from her head, the grunt concentrated on the mission ahead of her, and looked up at Agent Panther to remind herself she wasn't alone. Luxury had met him some time before, and they had already done a little side work together. Aside from her newbie-ness and his tendency to be childish sometimes, they did good. Of course, the girl knew that here, in the mist of a raid, when it really mattered most, Luxury knew that she would be ok with the Agent watching her back. She trusted him, something she couldn't say about anyone else on this planet. Which was good, since he was the one flying this mechanical thing.

Nakura was there with them as well, and that, too, offered her comfort. He was a grunt, like her, so that also helped. Unfortunately the girl hadn't met very many Rockets during her time so far, and she suspected this mission would change that.

Ok, so this was her first mission. This was important. She could not let her fellow Rockets down, not one little bit. They were a team, and if one failed they all failed. Looking around, she etched the faces of the others in her mind. These were the people she would be keeping an eye out for, as they would be keeping an eye our for her. The mission was simple: Get Nyx, keep eyes open, kick butt if need be, get out. Simple. Right? Right. Yes. This would be smooth. Easy as pie.

And if she kept telling herself that, she figured she just might not hyperventilate.

Sierra took a deep, calming breath, silently reassuring herself that she was ready for this, even in light of Elite Agent Kunai's added threats. Yes, she was technically only a Grunt...but she'd been with the organization for a long time. In fact, she remembered when she and Agent 1337 had been fellow Grunts on her first official Team Rocket mission. What a long time ago that was...

She'd run training missions since then, sure, but this was to be her first official raid. She'd heard the stories of what had happened on past missions and she had no illusions that anything that ever happened on such a trip would be easy. Still, while she'd failed thus far regarding promotions, her personal training had been her primary focus for months. Her team had grown strong, as well as their connections with one another.

It'd taken some time, and she'd been frustrated along the way, but she finally thought she knew why she'd been left behind as a mere Grunt while those who had joined the same time as she had long since become Agents, or even Elite Agents. For Sierra, she never wanted to be the one to cause trouble, so she did all she could to fly under the radar. With her past, that had come easily and naturally to her. So yes, while she'd never gotten in any serious trouble since joining Team Rocket...apparently, she'd not really been noticed either. She had to find a way to make herself stand out if she ever hoped to rise above her current standing, to prove that she wasn't a failure...

So, here she was volunteering for a raid. She didn't know the Elite Agent on covert mission inside Galactic, but that didn't matter. She was a teammate, even if they'd never met. There might be some competition in the ranks for promotions and such, but when it all came down to it, they were a team. The team goal was what was most important. Sierra would be doing her best to prove that she could be a valuable asset to the team in the process...nothing wrong with that.

She glanced around at the faces in the helicopter, few familiar to her. She'd only ever crossed paths with 1337 before, and even then, it had been a passing encounter at best. Err...not that his 'face' was familiar exactly... Still, she got the feeling that they'd all be getting to know one another rather quickly. Judging by their briefing, she figured that her best chance would be to help out with the infiltration and espionage portion of the mission. She'd always held skill in her ability to move just out of the range of others' vision, to keep from drawing attention to herself. How ironic that she hoped to prove herself by not being noticed.

A grunt at the very end of one of the rows of passengers smiled quietly to himself at the words of Kunai's threat. The superior of his department never failed to amuse him. He had had to look away to hide his giggles at the initial sight of her without her usual pigtails. Now he just couldn't afford to look at her, so he stared out the window instead.

"Perhaps if you actually thought to wear undergarments, that might not have been as uncomfortable as it sounds," Grunt Nakura commented casually out the corner of his mouth when he heard 1337's comment. He had heard more than enough of the rumors that the agent normally went commando and doubted he would have changed his habits for the sake of the mission. He still had his easily-compromising headgear, after all.

He didn't really seem to mind the change of uniforms himself and, for once, sat quietly in his seat pondering the events that had yet to occur. Glancing at his partner, though, Nakura smirked at the frown on her lips as she continued to tug at her shirt like a discontented child forced to wear formal attire. "Are we there yet?" he whined, apparently as oblivious to Kunai's warning about seriousness as 1337 seemed to be. However, something was off about the trouble-maker.

The grunt himself appeared to be uncharacteristically mellow; almost even bored. He didn't expect the mission to be anything interesting. Nyx had done well so far; why was there any reason to believe anything would go wrong at this stage of her mission? They were just picking her up, after all. Like a child from class after school. Just how many Rockets did it even need to take?

Of course, Nakura had never gotten a chance to see or meet any of the Galactics before, so that posed its own novelty. This was assuming there was enough of an interaction between Team Rocket and their opponents to actually learn about their enemy members, though, which the grunt didn't have high hopes for.

"That hair color looks good on you," he told Faleen with a cheerful smile, making it difficult to tell whether he was mocking her or he really meant it.

Inigo reached up to tug at the collar of his Galactic uniform, his brow furrowed slightly. It felt really weird wearing this instead of his normal Rocket outfit, both in looks and in comfort, but it was necessary so he tried not to let it bother him too much. In all honesty, it wasn't that hard to do. Not a lot bothered him anyway.

He glanced around the 'copter at the rest of the Rockets, a placid and mildly curious expression on his face. He recognized Aila, of course, as well as Izaya and Tambrey, but most of the others he didn't. Vaguely he thought he might have possibly seen them around the base before - he'd had to, at some point, considering they were all Rockets - but beyond that he didn't recognize the rest, so he made an effort to memorize their faces in case anything happened. The grunt wasn't exactly... sure about this - it would be his first official mission and he'd only been promoted just last week - but since they'd picked him they must've thought he could handle it. ...either that or they figured he was expendable, he didn't know. Either way he hoped he wouldn't screw anything up - Aila's displeased conversation about the... lack of variety on his team was still fresh in his mind, even though it had been a while ago.

The only thing that Agent Panther missed about driving the helicopter was not getting to see the disgruntled faces of the other members as they were forced into Galactics horrible sense of style. He himself was wearing a teal wig and removed the sunglasses. The suit was uncomfortable. He doubted that any modifications that would make it actually suitable for everyday wear would change the whole design and make it impossible to blend in. Still it was overly restricting of his arm motion, and made the task of flying very a very uncomfortable experience.

Despite the bothersome suites, he was excited. The very thought of engaging with the enemy got adrenaline racing through his veins. It would be dangerous. They would have to rescue Nyx, who had been gathering information for them. He was ready for this.

But he wondered about some of the grunts. Luxury had done will in his little test mission for her, but the fact they were on a helicopter made everything harder for her. she had looked positively displeased when they boarded. Weather that was from fear of flying, or the very uncomfortable suites he couldn't tell.

Then there was Nukura, he barely recognized him in the make up room, but he remembered something about him being shot on a mission. He wondered at if it was a good idea to bring him on such a sensitive mission.

But they had some trustworthy team members too. Faleen was dependable as was Mau. He still wasn’t sure about Aila, but he figured it didn’t matter on this mission. As long as he didn’t get paired with her he’d be fine. Some of the others he hadn’t had much interaction with yet. He made a note to watch them too.

His own pokemon trembled in their balls. They had all been briefed, but he wouldn't be pulling them out until necessary. They would be infiltrating first.

He listened to some of the complaints about the suits behind him, half imagining the faces with the whines, but didn't engage with them. He didn't want to be distracted. He hadn't voiced his complaints when the costumes were given to them and the wig clipped to his hair but were he back there he would be complaining now, and he had a feeling Kunai was ready to toss 1337 out the back. He was sure that despite her size she would be able to manage it.

The tone in her voice earlier told him she was one woman not to tick off. Seemed team rocket was full of those. He kept his eyes forward.

(Izaya)

Haring her partner’s voice in the set of headphones that they had to wear while in the chopper to properly communicate, the Agent lifted her head, glancing over at him to notice that is was she he was actually talking to, no doubt about the hair color she was forced to change to.

Not fidgeting with her uniform anymore, she reached her hand up to adjust the mouth piece on the headset.
“It’ll do, thankfully I’m not planning on getting used to it.” She replied, with a light shrug.
“You’ll know when we get there, for now just enjoy the ride until its game time,” She grinned at this, This part she did enjoy, flying in a machine, much better then pokemon.

She wouldn’t lie that the behavior was a little unnerving, This was her first mission that she would be on where she actually had a partner. And from what she understood, he had never had any experience with Galactic.
But, cracking jokes in the chopper was one thing, it would be on the actual mission when things mattered, joke around all you want right now.

It took the grunt some effort not to fall on her face and yell 'GROUND!' when she departed the helicopter. Her legs felt weak, but they straightened up by the time they reached the Drifblim waiting for them. It was a very cute pokemon, especially with it's love of jelly, but Luxury didn't really want to know about the insides of a ghost or how it carried the device.

During the brief stop, Luxury took the, well, luxury, of adjusting herself. She too had experienced a not-so-nice wedgie from her uniform, but didn't dare voice it like 1337 did. She discreetly shifted her tights and dress, and pushed back the yellow wig that kept getting in her mouth. Ugh. Of course, by the look of things, everyone was hating their current wear. It didn't really matter, though. Uncomfortable clothing was the least of the grunts worries as she tried to stay near a certain Agent.

At Elite Kunai's order, she pulled out her dex and hit the power button. Of course these needed to go off, they had tracking devices. Oh, and on that thought, Luxury suddenly realized how bad it would be if one were to accidentally drop said dex. Biting her lip, she shoved hers as deep in her pocket as she could. Last thing she needed was to slip up and look like a total bafoon.