Sugar and Spice...or not [O]

There wasn’t much to do in Galactic HQ.

After doing some system maintenance, and reviewing reports, filing them correctly and such, Athena had nothing to do. Who knew being such a genius could be such a burden? She had finished earlier than expected, which left her with ample time to probably get on with her experiments.

Since Mercury’s evolution, Athena had stayed clear of accessing any of the laboratories and facilities, and everytime she punished the metal-type, it would gladly take it. Was it thankful that her experiment had failed? Clearly, it was, giving Athena more reason to hurt and punish Mercury even more so than he deserved.

What Athena hated the most was cleaning up after other people’s mess, whether it was her Pokemon’s or someone else’s. But someone else’s mistake was still no excuse to stop Athena from conducting her experiments. So she decided to head to the storage room and see how Rotom changed forms. She had yet to experiment on that, and hopefully, she could find how it did and if there were any other possible forms it could change.

Her line of thought was interrupted by a somewhat familiar voice. Not in the way that she knew the person, but the feel of kissing ass. She glanced sideways, and then turned to fully face the brave soul, returning the greeting with an ambiguous smile.

“Caine… was it?” She got closer to him, as always, trying to get a good look. Their faces would be an inch away from each other as she inspected her new, would be material. “Hmmm… aren’t you a little skinny, fragile and naive to be working for a crime organization? What do you hope to achieve here?”

Athena blinked a few times and squinted at the strange little being before him, still not giving him the personal space he so desired, judging by how he moved back. It was refreshing, that the scientist could admit. Surely enough there were multitudes of personalities within Galactic derived from years of precarious extortion and deception,

But today she’d found what she could define as a 'pure, unadulterated soul'. 

There were a few things that she took into account to come up with such an assumption. First and foremost, the Galactic Uniform. Athena wore whatever the hell she wanted, unless it was a mission or something official. Unlike Rangers, Team Galactic would’ve died a long time ago if it paraded its members in such attires. Which meant this kid was doing it for show and most probably, to impress the higher-ups.

The most important part was his manner of speech.

Rude? Athena accidentally laughed at that one, and finally gave him the space he needed, though she didn’t move from her spot. “Oh my! You think being rude is the worst thing that could happen to you here? “ she continued to laugh some more, crossing her arms beneath her chest. Her laugh presented itself as form of a giggle with a wide smile. “ You’re in a crime.or.ga.ni.za.tion. And you think being rude is offensive?”

The scientist tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. Boy, was he ambitious. Athena was ambitious as well, but at least she was realistic about it. He wanted to be the one to achieve Galactic’s lifelong dream? This Athena would need to dissect bit by bit. “Oh sugar Caine! Dialga and Palkia are only a means to an end. But tell me… what sort of goal do you wish to meet that would require the greater powers of space and time?”

Her eyes were playful, teasing even. It might have been bad to antagonize a new recruit but you would needed more than just patriotism and ambition to get where you wanted. Life was a game of gamble, with no choice but to play. Athena wanted to this ‘potential’ that Caine spoke of with so much pride. “I mean, everyone here has something they want and Galactic can help them achieve that. Things like money, power, glory. Very ridiculous stuff. Often vague, but I don’t really care about that. But you...” She walked in closer to him again, but this time circled around him, like a vulture waiting for a wounded herbivore to die, eyes still on the silver haired kid. “You specifically want to capture Palkia and Dialga… but for what? Galactic’s gonna change it into an entire new world… but let’s say that such a theoretical world-scale phenomena can only occur once, and only once… ”

Athena stopped behind him and whispered in his ear from behin. “you speak of loyalty only because … I don’t know, possibly your goal meets our demands? What are you going to do once Palkia and Dialga are in your possession?”

So much idealism in such a tiny body.

That was Athena’s impression of sweet little Caine. His expectations were a little on the loose end of fantasy. Decorum? Finessese? It really didn’t matter who or what you were as long as you had the skill to prove you were worth the organization’s time. Following orders was the only rule around here. The organization obviously valued highly talented individuals, emphasis on the former. Most people who showed etiquette were either higher-ups participating in social events or informants, whose silver tongues were like nets.

She had no need for any of that in her line of work. He was rather assuming for someone wanting to make it big, and one day, these ideals would dig his own grave for him. Athena was slightly intrigued to see that happen, but she would have her fun before that happened. Every time this runt spoke, thousand daggers poked at the scientist’s curiosity.

She’d seen such folly a thousand times and again.

Athena sighed and shook her head, clicking her tongue in disapproval, walking past him to settle down and look him in the eye again. “ Yeah, no one cares about your loyalty until it is time to prove it. Say what you want, but right now, you're like Litleo pretending to be a Pyroar." Her smile was conniving, and vicious. Athena loved drilling people like Caine, who wanted to stay true to their ideals despite the hypocrisy of their actions. Athena raised an eyebrow “ … and now you’re just repeating and rephrasing my words. Can I charge you for copyright violations? But that would be ruudeee wouldn’t it?”

She laughed quietly. Caine was such a sweet little child, pretending to be something he was not. It was rare for the organization to accept such a pure soul, but they were built on deceit and manipulation. Caine’s attempt to drive the conversation away from the topic made it all so much sweeter. Athena waved a finger back forth. “Nuh-huh. I asked you first, No questions until I hear the right answer from you…” She leaned forward to meet Caine at eye level. “Now, I’m going to ask you once more, why is it that you need the legendaries power? And please don’t make me repeat myself again. I don’t do  'idiot'...”

Athena raised an eyebrow.

What in the world was he doing? Caine’s personality was all over the place. He obviously hadn’t thought things through very well. Power and ambition did go hand in hand, but testing the legendaries’ power? Manipulate time? All of these things made sense to her, and they did align with her purpose, which was something a scholar would love to research, but the way he strut himself as he said it, they were very vague, which irritated Athena.

It was quite obvious his facade hid his true intentions, and while Athena did not personally care for any of his dramatic back story, Athena could not help herself once her curiosity hit the highest number. Athena could see his smile was confident, and even showed signs of confidence. But he wasn’t there yet, and Athena did not care in the slightest if Caine got angry, excited or whatever emotion was boiling in his loins.

She desired for answers.

“Oh yes, testing the legendary Pokemon's strength!” She mocked in a macho voice, which wasn’t very good, but would probably take effect either way, but sighed and continued. “Who doesn’t want to use the powers of a Legendary Pokemon? No one enlists in a Team without some personal goal in mind though.” She shook her head once more. If she had to, Athena would shut down his baseless arguments one by one until he answered properly. “Now, let’s start a quick lesson! First and foremost, Stopping time will definitely not create alternate dimensions, because in theory, they already exist. Possible futures, different realities, they may cross between science and fiction quite often but they are not dismissed as non-existent. Now, if you take time and convert it to energy, it will follow the same principle. It gets used up, and returns to where it came from. This is how the term “flow of time” was coined, but this is merely a philosophy, and part of pseudoscience, which I don’t do either." She paused for a few minutes to let the little boy absorb some of that and pressed on. “ Now, most the things you want to achieve with their capture can be tested without their capture, and testing a legendary power, there are far stronger opponents out there.” She tilted her head back and walked back a few steps away from him, turning her head ever so slightly to watch him from the corner of her eye. “ Should I continue or should I tell you the real reason why you joined Team Galactic?”

Athena shook her head.

It was clear this boy was very wet behind the ears. Using theories and quoting statements he really didn’t understand. Was he that desperate to impress Athena? No, it looked heavier than that. Athena had come at him with murderous, if not antagonistic, intent, specially since he clearly was naive about how the world worked.

She was getting tired of his helpless attempts, however. Never liked stubbornness, but adding stupidity made it worse.

“I really don’t think you should be using quotes you don’t understand… or believe to be a plausible truth. If time is such an illusion, and past, present and future are equal, why differentiate them?” She started walking around him one more time, pacing around to properly observe his reaction. It was a intimidating technique she’d learned not too long ago. Psychology may not be her forte, but she knew a thing or two. “ I understand the concept, but it’s completely irrelevant to what you want to do. Considering you want to use Dialga’s powers, Time is therefore, not an illusion but a source of energy. Sending matter across different time spaces would require a huge amount of energy to convert, which I presume, would be proportionate to the amount matter. Time and Space may go hand in hand, but Caine, Spatial Dimensions are Palkia’s specialty, so you can’t consider Time as Space.”

She paused and sighed quite heavily. “ I really don’t care why you joined, and using Galactic’s resources for one’s benefit is the norm around here. Now, since you asked so nicely, let me rip a hole into your bad boy facade.” She finished circling back in front of him and approached him to whisper in his ear.

“You want to save someone… don’t you?”

Athena would leave Caine moments to panic, cry or whatever little boys did. She stepped back a few feet, with an evil smile on her angelic face. “ Am I correct? It’s just a theory after all. I mean, Time gives legitimacy to our existence. It is the measurement of a person's existence. What else would you with time, if not go back and undo some thing that has happened? In conjecture to the small hints in your careless use of words… perhaps regretted something in the past? Let someone die?”

Athena paused again, but resume shortly. “Don’t get me wrong, a hero using a criminal organization for their own personal goals? I find it hilarious.”

Caine’s reaction was priceless. Somewhere along the lines of what she’d said had struck true. Athena leaned back and circled another time to stand in front of him. But like a Mandibuzz, the prey was starting to show signs of weakness.

Athena nodded in mockery, mentally noting how deep Caine was starting to dig his own grave. This was the brilliance of her breakdown theory. You started with one hypothesis, and depending on their reaction, she could dismiss improbable theories. In other words, the more they talked, the more she found out.

But it was amazing how loose Caine’s lips were, voluntarily and slowly vomiting his life’s story.

“Awww, did I get it wrong? Well, that’s one theory off the list. By the way, there are no wrong answers in science, unless you can prove them wrong…” She smiled sweetly, “But where are my manners! My name’s Athena Elder, budding scientist, a recruit just a year ago.” Athena did not extend a hand or made any welcoming gestures. Caine was lacking in so many areas that Athena deemed necessary to be part of Team Galactic. If he was going to be of any use to the Team, he’d need some thorough flogging.

“So the person you’re trying to save isn’t dead, yet? I believe we’re reaching a consensus quite soon. Could it be… a lover, or perhaps a friend? No family members?”

Athena sighed.

Playtime was over. Her intentions were not evil in anyway, she was just extremely curious about knowing things. That’s all. Athena knew instinctively that Caine wasn’t being honest at first. Well, she did attempt to rile him up to see what kind of person he was, and it was a successful experiment.

The scientist listed all of her findings mentally. First and foremost, Caine was very bad at handling himself. The poor boy just didn’t know when to speak, and when to hold back information. He didn’t need to answer her questions, or bite down that insult she’d thrown at him like a bone. If this was interrogation, he’d been screwed already.

It’d be bad if he was ever questioned at the Ranger facilities.

Lastly, he was so very easy to read. He defended himself at anything like his life depended on it. Athena wasn’t sure what potential the recruiters saw in him, that they apparently saw in most recruits. But she was not in that place to refute decisions from upper management… not yet anyway.

“Well, took you long enough.” She rolled her eyes at him. “If this was the Range HQ, you’d be a cute roasted little Tepig!” Athena did tilt her head at the recruit in question. He wanted to know why she’d join Galactic, now did he?

She feigned weakness while answering. “Well, if you must know, I’m a struggling researcher that Team Galactic was kind enough to pick up and provide food and a roof over her head!”