Diego didn't need to reply; it turns out the two had caught the
attention of a pair that actually knew something of flooding...albeit
very little.

  "Why do you need flooding experts?" Peabody asked, Sven giving
the two an odd look.

  The pair of Rockets looked at the pair of Aquas.

  "Flooding experts?" Lauren asked. "Who said anything about
flooding experts?"

  "You did," Sven said plainly.

  "Oh, you misheard me!" Lauren protested. "I didn't say
'flooding experts'! I said 'folding calipers'!"

  "No, you said we needed flooding experts after Eric told us
to..." Diego began, seconds before Lauren cut him off.

  "Please ignore my friend, he's got an active imagination,"
Lauren said, a nervous tone in her voice and her right hand covering
Diego's mouth.

  "And I have eidetic memory," Peabody pointed out. "Someone on
that phone clearly cried out a couple times to 'flood the
continent'. You also mentioned something about Team Rocket. Now that
tells me two things; one, that you're somehow affiliated with that
organization, and two, that your boss may need to start taking
anti-psychotics."

  "What if we are?" Lauren asked.

  "Well one, I'd recommend getting a new line of employment,"
Sven noted. "You want to flood a continent, join up with Team Aqua.
We're dedicated towards decreasing the amount of land, thus providing
more water space for aquatic-based Pokémon. Myself, I wish we'd
hurry up and flood Lavaridge, but that's beside the point. 'Course
flooding a town, let alone a continent, would take time and effort."

  "Really?" Lauren asked.

  "Yeah, you'd need a lot of water for one thing," Sven listed
off, Peabody staring at him in shock during the proceedings. "Getting
that would be extremely hard, seeing as we're in a tropical region
that's not exactly conducive towards heavy precipitation. Plus
there's the whole matter of that volcano to the southwest; very hard
to flood a landmass with one of those things. Plus there's the whole
matter of getting people out of the way and making certain they don't
drown..."

  "I think they have a glimpse of the problems involved, Sven,"
Peabody interrupted. "Now that we've convinced them that it's far
more trouble than it's worth, I think we'd better get going before
something else happens."

  "Hold on a second!" Diego called out, surprising everyone.
"You two are with Team Aqua! You said so yourself!"

  Putting on an intimidating glare, Sven asked, "Yeah, so?"

  "Last time I checked, Aquas and Magmas tended to be arrested
pretty quick," Diego said.

  "Ooh, he's right," Lauren realized. "They arrest you guys on
sight. We don't have a problem, and you do."

  The two Aquas quickly looked to one another. "She's got a
point," Peabody decided. "What should we do?"

  "Kill them and save ourselves some trouble?" Sven suggested,
half-jokingly.

  "And risk dealing with the cops?" Peabody asked. The wheels in
his head silently turning, he turned to Lauren and asked, "Just out
of morbid curiosity; before you got the order to flood the continent,
what were you up to?"

  Knowing full well that they hadn't been doing anything truly
illegal, Lauren admitted, "We were catching Pokémon native to the
region and sending them back home to exchange them for ones that
aren't quite as native."

  An idea arising in his skull, Peabody proposed, "Tell you what; in
exchange for not revealing our presence to the authorities, we will aid
you in performing your current task and in obtaining obscure
aquatic-based Pokémon native only to Hoenn, in the event that your
boss is just suffering from a bout of temporary insanity." Extending
a hand he asked, "Deal?"

TBC!

[NS: Done and done! Sorry it took so long; between homelife and other
stuff on the 'Net I've been busy.]