Somehow, against all odds, Howard managed to look even more sheepish.

"Well, I'm glad you asked, see..." His voice made it clear that he was not glad that Noel asked. However, due to social customs, it was expected that Howard give a valid reason as to why he was disrupting Dewford's thriving streets with Serizawa's unfathomably heavy form. "I left it behind! I wanted this to be a friendship building exercise!"

He beamed at Noel with such radiant pride that the deputy's loss burned even brighter. How could someone with such a powerful Pokemon be so utterly incompetent?

It was truly a mystery...

"Pupitar's carapace is made of a highly durable rock called..." As Noel tried to lift Pupitar, he was greeted to a speech about geology, Pupitar stone composition, and Larvitar soil diets. Despite being utterly incapable of properly raising a Pokémon, Howard was a pro when it came to monologuing about them.

"Tar." Serizawa added as Noel tried to lift him.

"...and that's why Pupitars weigh over four hundred po-"

Suddenly, a scream filled the air. Nearby, a woman and her child were caressed and scooped up by a horde of Nihilego. Their glass-like bodies made it difficult for anyone to see them coming, yet come they did. Without Dewford's sheriff to cull the hordes of Ultra Beasts, Dewford was left undefended.

"GET AWAY! STOP! HEEEEEELP!"

"Guh! Hey!" Howard recognized the Nihilego immediately. He reached for his belt to produce Regice, before stopping. "Shit...!"

He didn't have it. The golem was on Howard's desk at home.

---

Noel Parker

Typically, when one performed an experiment, they were typically attempting to validate a theory. Not that Howard expected much from a royal. He doubted that she ever even went to college, or suffered through university. Hell, she probably had been given everything on a silver plat-

It always came down to that line of thought. Every time he had a chat with a Galarian noble, Howard automatically thought of him. His predecessor. The one who had held the title of 'Admin Fox'.

He steadied his breathing as he inspected the Walking Wake.

"You have Terastalized it. Nice work." His voice was dry enough to make a desert seem like a vast ocean. "That's pretty standard. I suspect that the energy readings would be in line with other specimens..."

A typical Terastal reaction, as far as Howard knew. He tended to avoid Terastalizing his Pokémon. The energy readings, though... Howard reached for his belt and found nothing.

Damn. He wished he had mint frost's energy reader on him. The beast would've likely wanted the readings for Project Infinity.

"We can do a field test, if you want. I'm admittedly no battler, but it's up to you." He attempted to console her, as if this experiment hadn't been a complete waste of his time. "Regice would make for a sufficient foe."

---

Diana Cavendish

"Dewford?" Every time that town came up, Howard could feel his soul curdling slightly. The island town was where Howard lived currently, but he suspected that it wouldn't be for long. "Hopefully the port is quiet over there."

It likely was. Dewford's sheriff was currently overworking himself to the bone, last time Howard saw him. Michael Navidson hardly visited Dewford anymore due to kyle lopez's death and his promotion to Elite Four.

Sure, Dewford's police department was capable, but Navy was Navy. He was worth a thousand deputies. If he was the sun, then the rest of the police were mere sparks. Without the sheriff there, Walter would be able to smuggle and pilfer without issue. If Navy caught him smuggling Eternatus's remnants, though?

Walter's ship wouldn't be the only thing that sank.

"What the...?" The nut clattered against the floor. Instinctively, Howard took a step back, as if expecting the nut to explode. It reminded the admin of Shred Zeppelin's Meltan, kinda. Was that offensive, to say all Meltan nuts looked the same? "Let me see."

He picked up the nut and inspected it. His eye narrowed in on a small, mite-sized piece of tech latched to the inside of the nut. A tracker. Shit.

"Walter." Howard tossed the nut to him. "Keep an eye on your ship."

---

walter delmar

The fact that Eris had expected nothing from Howard should've been a bigger hurt to his ego. Unfortunately, Howard's dignity had collapsed in on itself long ago. He was just scrambling to defend what little still existed.

Unfortunately, that didn't include defending it from the little lady unpacking her backpack.

"Eheheheheh..." Howard drooled as Eris revealed a large spread of lunchboxes, capable of feeding Howard for days, weeks, and months, and even years!

Likely just days.

"You really do care about me, little lady! You couldn't sit and let me starve, could you?"

His enthusiasm was infectious as he patted Eris on the head, cackling to himself about the food bill he wouldn't have to pay.

---

Eris Halla

It was easy to forget that Cillian Quinn was no fool.

As soon as Howard had been prepared to depart for Dewford, he had gotten an urgent call from Underboss Quinn. It was as if the underboss was watching him, waiting on his every move. If Cillian was watching, he had chosen the perfect opportunity to call in Admin Fox. Howard was thoroughly unprepared for this encounter.

Luckily, he was remarkably good at improv. If he could dig himself out of a travesty of an interrogation regarding Shred's incapacitation, he could deal with Cillian.

Howard Slayte was at his best when his back was to the wall.

"I've been called." Howard nodded respectfully to Cillian's secretary. He was pleasant, but he wasn't particularly pleased. "I'll be seeing myself in."

Fucking Cillian. Howard had been so close to sailing for Dewford. There, he would've been able to put his plan into motion. Instead, he had to spend time playing politics with a man who knew most of his plays.

---

Cillian Quinn

"It can feel, for better or worse. Its emotions are unfathomably limited. Regice was not designed to feel."

Yet occasionally, it did.

The stuttering of Jayden's name didn't go unnoticed. If Howard hadn't been teetering on the edge of execution, he would've questioned the underboss on it, but he suspected that there was no need to. The Ruinous Beasts were a cancer that ate away at the humanity of those who held them.

jayden cross was, for better or worse, human. His wrath, his love, his hate, they were all human elements blackened and cursed by that feline that stalked him.

Admin Cross was cursed, and always would be.

"Yeah, the fish made of fire. It tried to swim through Regice, but it's too cold. It couldn't melt the ice." Howard frowned as he remembered what Penelope had said. It was hard to forget. Every time he closed his eye to sleep, he heard her voice taunting him. "She mocked me for missing the shot."

Howard's face contorted with rage.

"She knew what she was doing. That bitch."

---

Cillian Quinn

The joy of Regice's survival melted away as quickly as a summer snow as Tsubaki's voice dragged Howard back to reality.

Reality, that old bitch. Her kisses were dry and dusty and promised naught but despair and restriction. Yet reality and Howard were old friends, he was used to her beckoned call, as much as he hated to answer. Regice was alive, which defied every known law of Dynamax as a phenomenon. The history books could be rewritten. If he took this knowledge back to Rocket, someone would be able to do something with it!

Yet instead, he had to face Tsubaki. A less lovely motivation, but a necessary one. He couldn't lie to her. He could not lie to Michael Navidson's child.

He turned to face her.

"Not a lie," he told her. "I was a historian and archaeologist first. Those were my first two loves. My first memory was one of old pages and dusty relics, not of blood and battle."

Even his voice betrays cowardice and fear, a resignation to a fate they both know he cannot change. He is not a grunt, some nameless face known by few. He could not disappear and be stricken from the records of history like some historian's error. They both know that the admin would rather die than erase historical records.

It was cowardly, but it was cowardice with a cause.

Howard Slayte was not Isaac Merlo. Howard Slayte was not Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki. He was something worse. A man with convictions, yet too blind to see that there had been an ending that resulted in his freedom. Every bad decision that had led him here was his own. There was nobody else to blame but himself.

Him and his passion.

"I don't know why it's not dead. I genuinely don't." Howard's voice was a whisper over the screaming cold. "But Navy... he's dying, Tsubaki. We need to get him out of here."

He took a step forward.

"I didn't hurt you in that submarine."

Another step.

"Or here."

Closer.

"But Navy cannot be allowed to die. He is needed. We need him. You need him." Where would Tsubaki be without her guiding hand. "I trusted Navy with my secret. He could've given me up, but he didn't."

He looked down at her.

"Now, you've inherited his will. Can I trust you?" His eye glittered with frost. "Can you trust me?"

---

Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

"Simple, my fraudulent friend."

Papers shuffled as Howard opened a folder and peered at the contents. After a moment, a suppressed chuckle escaped his throat as he gave Fern a side-eyed glance. "By pretending. I'm just upholding the status quo. Nobody wants a cowardly admin."

Pretend and lie. Lie and deceive. That was the only way to survive in an organization that demanded the world from him. Howard would not be betrayed by Fern, Jayden, or Barnaby. Thus, he would give them what they expected: an admin way in over his head.

"We're equal in name only. You three vastly outstrip me where it matters, and I'm here to prop you three up." They were strong trainers with impeccable powers who had been members of Rocket for a very long time. In exchange, Howard was a very recent promotion. He lacked weight and experience, but inexperience could fade.

Howard looked up at Fern.

"Is that not what we do? Lie? Pretend? What good does it do to not respect the hierarchy? What good does it do to not be afraid?"

---

fern delaney

If Makoto thought he was, then the admin was well and truly fucked, and he needed their help more than ever.

"No! No! It's not like that, I swear!" His voice was a furious hush as he looked from side to side, as if expecting Rocket spies around every corner. Howard's eye flicked over to Makoto, their eye boring into them. He held up a finger. "Shush. Keep it quiet. I'll explain."

As if Makoto's murmurings could somehow get quieter.

"Makoto, Arceus... no. I'm not betraying Rocket. Never." He'd lied as easily as he breathed. If Howard defected from Rocket, the admin would've been killed before he took one step out of Sootopolis. He was a a cog in the machine, and gears could not act against the whims of the mechanism that held them. "I'm trying to save the region."

He was working with Navy, one of Rocket's biggest enemies, to study Eternatus, to make sure it remained silent and dormant. Yet Rocket likely would not care. His loyalty was shaky, and him moving to Dewford had not assuaged the various admins, beasts, and underbosses that he worked alongside.

But still, Eternatus had to be watched and studied.

For the good of mankind. Eternatus could not move an inch.

"I need unfettered access to the Ultra Deep Sea, which means that Dewford needs to be breached. That way, I can prove my loyalty. Makoto..." He looked at them with a pleading expression. "Do you trust me?"

Loyalty. Friendship. Nebula.

---

Makoto Kurumi

Regice stood in front of Howard and Laurence like a guardian deity, standing as if protecting the two from the raging stone construct. From a casual perspective, it looked fairly even, but Howard knew differently.

"Shit." If this Regirock was the original article, it would've been operating at maximum power. It would have a core, a Power Spot backing it up, and more. It would not be the imitation that the Regirock that Howard had fought would be. It'd be far worse.

Meanwhile, ice faired poorly against rock, and Regice lacked a core. It was running on auxiliary power. Laurence and Howard would have to hope that Regirock's hand would be stayed by its fellow automaton. Immediately, the two golems began to flash at one another, sending hundreds of messages in their strange language.

Then, the flashing stopped. Silence.

SMASH. Regirock's heavy stone fist buried itself in Regice's chest.

"REGICE!" Howard screamed as ice shattered and splintered. Regirock dug its heavy fist around in the body of Howard's golem, as if searching for something. After failing to find it, it tossed the golem aside. As Howard screamed, Regirock turned to face him and Laurence.

Its fist cracked Howard's rib cage as the golem punched him past Laurence and into a wall emblazoned with runes. His back snapped like a twig.

Splatter. Howard's blood joined the archaeologists that littered the chamber.

"Ha... ha..." Howard's breath was light as his lunges rattled. His eye found Laurence. The doctor stood alone against the encroaching golem's march. "Laurence... run."

Yet there was nowhere to go.

---

Laurence Whateley

"Do you really think a god can be held back by something as trivial as a rift?"

Eternatus? One of the four born from Arceus's egg, presumably on the level of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina? All three could wander between the boundaries of the world like they were nonexistent. They were the strongest entities in existence, and nothing could compare.

In moments like this, Howard's faith threatened to shake. How was mankind supposed to stop something like this? How could they manage to wage war against a god that could rip the world apart? Hoenn and Galar had subdued Eternatus with their own weapons, but Eternatus had lived, and it seemed to be a bigger threat than ever before.

"A dream can be just as real as you or me. Dreams guide us all. They're the foundation of what makes us... us. Both unconscious dreams and the dreams that guide us." Aurelie seemed so out of water with this. She was a humble smith who forged. She followed her dream and passion, and she had been entrusted with a shade and an order that could determine the fate of the world.

Poor girl. It didn't seem fair. It was best if he tried to raise her spirits. Seeing her mood dour made the admin feel guilty.

"Yes. There are records, but they're not particularly helpful. What we know is that it is the source of Dynamax and the Wishing Stars that dot Hoenn and Galar, but as for tools, I'm glad you asked..." Howard smiled as he played with his fork. Aurelie's reflection glimmered in shining silver. "We have one. Regice."

The admin's eye widened as he tried the bread.

"Delish~" After realizing how embarrassing that reaction was, Howard desperately tried not to choke. He chewed the bread and swallowed. "Ignore that."

Every second, he could feel his credit as a Rocket Admin going down the drain.

"Hoenn's Legendary Giants fought Eternatus to a standstill. I have one. The other four have been located over the past few years. As for their current locations..." Howard shrugged. "I do not know."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"The schematics?" The admin's eye flicked up at the smith. "I've had practice."

If, by practice, he meant spending dozens upon dozens of hours analyzing the Island Cave and the Regice that had once existed within. To understand history, it was best to understand how people had thought back then. How did people create? How did they build? How did they wage war?

That meant studying. A lot of studying. That much studying had left him lacking on the battlefield, but that was a price he paid when Rocket had placed a pen in his hand instead of a sword. Rocket had plenty of swords, it needed someone to sheathe them every once in a while.

"I'm not an engineer. I didn't study or anything. It's just that..." He sucked air in through his teeth. "When you work with artifacts, you should know what they're made of. How they work. What they do. That way, you can avoid damaging them. Ruins are the same. I can't tell you how many times I've dodged a boulder trap by knowing how the trap was triggered."

It was best to not tell Aurelie how many times he had triggered the trap to figure that out. The number was embarrassing.

Nonetheless, he appreciated the smith's praise. She was a true savant in her field. The Gigaton Ball wasn't likely unique, but he and Yuina Higashi hadn't found any since the distortion manifested. It was more likely that they'd have to produce more.

An enticing prospect.

When she asked for his help in holding and fitting the gears, the admin allowed himself a smile. If Aurelie ever looked back at the admin, he let the smile drop sheepishly. Together, they worked on fitting the gears into the Gigaton Ball. Each time a gear was slotted into place, the excitement in the air grew.

What is this?

"I got this, hold on..." Howard's brow furrowed as they tried to fit the tiniest gear into place. Despite the difficulty, Aurelie didn't seem bothered. This project was simply so enticing that it distracted them both.

What's going on?

Slowly but surely, the Gigaton Ball turned from a mess of disassembled gears and springs to something that resembled the original article. Without the caked on mud, rust, and dirt, it was starting to look like the masterpiece that he and Aurelie both envisioned. As they slotted the final gear, Howard's lip twitched.

"It works!" Then the admin let out a laugh of exhilaration. He rubbed his temples as he gave Aurelie a look. "Nice work!"

I'm enjoying this.

He gave the Gigaton Ball a long look, before checking his phone. As much as he wanted to stay, there was work to be done. Being pulled away from joy to work in an office was one of life's greatest struggles. Alas, there was nothing Howard could do but obey the chain of command.

"I wish I could, but work calls..." Howard's eye went from his phone to Aurelie. "But seriously, Aurelie..."

He smiled at her.

"Thank you. I enjoyed this."

---

Aurelie Lefevre