Howard watched Amor Rose saunter off, then looked at Makoto. "I've seen his file. You think he knows I'm older than him?"

Blasted Head Scientist. Howard silently prayed for a stray car to crash into the casino and run him over. Howard's eye flicked over to the Stakataka surveillance brick. Nothing heinous yet. Howard wondered if the League had these same issues, or if the League had a party that was also filled with nutcases, sycophants, and Amor Roses.

He chuckled quietly to himself. Nah. The League was likely full of completely normal people, with minimal corruption.

Meanwhile, a single Stakataka surveillance brick rolled towards Shred Zeppelin to inspect the rare and elusive Meltan. The brick blinked at it.

"We always need more scientists. It's a pleasure. I'm a scientist too, after a sense. Archaeology." Howard said politely. He decided that he liked this Violet Fairbanks fellow. Anyone who hated mint frost and his choice in music had to be somewhat sane. Besides, being on good terms with as many Team Rocket members as possible was important. Networking was the key to success.

"Demeaning my boss is one of the few pleasures left to me. Pardon me. I need to ensure that nobody bought gifts with my own money." Howard clapped Makoto on their shoulder as he stood up and walked off, leaving Tsukiko with Makoto.

Instead, he walked over to check the gifts. He wondered if the legendary priam conrad body pillow truly existed, or if this was one of those rumors that graced the Team Rocket Grunt Fanzine that one could allegedly purchase in Cleaning Closet #3 for 41 PD. Howard hadn't been able to buy it since his promotion, but it was apparently printing some wacky stuff, like the existence of a fan club of some kind?

He'd need to ask Kouji Matsubara to buy him a copy.

"Oh...?" Howard picked up his gift, surprised at the weight. With trembling arms, he unwrapped it and gasped. Oh, what a beauty this is. A ornately carved jade statue of a Hisuian Arcanine? No, not ornately carved. Beautifully carved. This was a work of art that deserved to be in a museum.

This made it all worth it.

"Who...?" Howard asked as he looked around, unaware that it was dorian westcliff  that had such fine taste in gifts. "Who gifted this? Who gi-"

Suddenly, Howard's eye was blinded as Mint got his revenge at Howard's quiet shitting on his taste in music with a kiss cam. Howard was going to load that man into a trebuchet and launch him at Ever Grande. All the Rocket Beast did was idiosyncratic nonsense like this, take selfies, and have the worst taste in music known to man.

If Howard Slayte was in a bunker with both Zev Harcourt and Mint Frost with a gun and two bullets, he'd shoot Mint twice.

"I... erm... hm." At least Mint had the decency to pair Howard up with a hottie. The glasses were an extra point. People wanted but they couldn't have, and Howard couldn't properly use glasses with one of his eyes missing. As he glanced at Caspian, Howard's face reddened slightly and he rubbed his temples.

Fuuuuuuuck.

"Let's give him what he wants, so he'll bully the next person. It's been a while since college, but..." Howard put his hand under Caspian's put a hand under Caspian's chin and lifted upwards, his lips brushing with the doctor's.

---

TLDR
MINOR CHATTING WITH VIO/MAKOTO BEFORE GOING OFF TO DIE
GOD I HATE MINT FROST
COOL STATUE THANKS DORIAN
I HATE MY LIFE
STAKATAKA BRICK V MELTAN WHO WILL WIN

"Yes, fight! Fight! Death to abominations!"

Howard hated Genesects. They were a tool before they were a Pokémon. A hideous mockery and perversion of ancient predators, turned into engines of war by Team Rocket. It was a spit in the face of archaeology, to know that prehistoric Pokémon had been turned into tools. Howard wouldn't subject one of his fossils to such a humiliating and destructive transformation.

Death would be preferable.

To join Xenon's entourage, a swarm of ancient Pokémon support Xenon's futuristic brigade, aiding with a slew of Reflects, Light Screens, and even Gravity to bring the Genesect crashing to the ground. Xenon's Pokémon would pick at them, despite a slew of wounds.

It was a strange sight, seeing Pokémon of the future dance alongside ancient sentries for civilizations long gone. Despite his hatred for Genesect, Howard did not hate the Paradox Pokémon from the future. Those, at least, had the decency to be from a possible future that Howard had no interest in pursuing. Those that came from the past, meanwhile, spat on everything that Howard held dear.

It was hypocritical, after a fact, but that didn't stop the archaeologist from viewing the walking paradoxes as such.

"Xenon, let's go! Another stage is coming up!" Howard hadn't been into the RKS, but he had read enough about it from reports to understand how it worked. That didn't make it any less odd, but it made the experience far less of a train wreck.

The next stage awaited the Admin and Executive.

---

Xenon Antheil

"People should plan better, then."

The words are uttered stiffly and without character. Dangerous words. Threatening words. They're words that, if uttered in the wrong tone to the wrong person at the wrong time, could destroy Howard's position within Rocket, and snuff out his life to boot. Team Rocket was filled with those who highly valued prestige and power.

This was not some highly evolved democracy, like the Pokémon League. Rocket was ruled by a vindictive king who raised up monsters, and those monsters could execute whoever they desired.

Yet the expression Chu-e gave him now made Howard want to hurl. Who was this man, who had fallen far from the glory and power that he had once had, to look at Howard like a gnat? He'd accept that from an Underboss, he'd accept it from Walsh, he'd even accept it from Necrozma's puppet.

He would not accept it from this man.

Chu-e's question was answered with a slap to the face. Howard stood up as his one good eye glared balefully at Chu-e.

"Out." A direct order. "Feel lucky I don't put your head on a spike and mail it to Ever Grande."

---

Chu-e Choi

"Nonsense. The soil shouldn't have any methane in it. You should be perfectly fine!" Howard leaned down and gave the plants a firm sniffa. He looked up at her, frowning in confusion. "See, perfectly fine."

He turned to Azalea. "Right?"

The Shaymin gave no reply. Another win for Howard Slayte.

"Right." Doug growled in agreement, and Howard leaned forward to pluck the receipt from Eris's fingers. Who knew how much irreparable damage had been done to Eris's developing brain? Yet it was an important lesson to teach the young trainer: the lesson of financial mismanagement.

Something that had brought empires to heel in the old days.

"That's not too many zeroes. If you want to see a lot of zeroes, you should see the Kalosian duke's crown that I bought the other week at auction. Now there's an expensive piece!"

---

Eris Halla

"I'm not a rich idiot!" Leave it to a kid to call out a brutal truth without softening the blow. Howard now knew what Eris—and all children's—purpose was in life: to tell the truth and make Howard's life miserable.

"A rich idiot," he waved a finger as he lectured Eris, "doesn't appreciate what he buys. He simply buys it because he believes it to be valuable. If I sold you this clump of dirt for 20,000 PD, and told you that everyone thought it was worth that much, and then you bought it, you'd be a rich idiot. You don't know why you're buying something, other than that it's valuable."

Howard put his hand on his chest, and took a bow.

"I simply ensure that people who value rare items go to people who can appreciate them. Whether that person is Declan Walsh, Gideon Graves, or anywhere in between... It simply helps if they have money to spare."

Yeggo waffles filled the silence with delectable crispness. Howard looked down at Eris and deflated slightly. It had been his plans, but now?

"Would I bring you along if that was my plan?" He asked her. "What would the point be, besides making you sad?"

---

Eris Halla

"It's not just Dynergy."

The archaeologist said as he walked up to Mint Frost, and looked up at the Regice. His breath frosted in the air, and his clothes were already beginning to freeze. Of course Mint Frost would be fine with it, Howard's winter coat was beginning to feel like frozen cardboard. Howard was used to the cold, but not this cold.

What the hell was Mint Frost's winter training regimen?

"This is an automaton born from a shard of Eternatus, so naturally it outputs Dynergy. That's it's whole shtick, right?" Calling the fundamental state of being for a god like Eternatus a 'shtick' seemed disrespectful, but Howard didn't hold the monster in much reverence. "But it's also a Pokémon. It outputs Infinity Energy as well, I theorize. I'd kill to know how the ancients of Hoenn constructed such a work of art."

Regice didn't seem to respond to that, and its beeping had become slow and methodical. That wasn't surprising. Howard wasn't even sure if the machine could feel.

"We could try to dive down there, but I suspect that much of the ruin has been crushed by the pressure. That, and those blasted crystals." Howard said aloud. "How many sources of energy do we have catalogued?"

---

mint frost

"You're quite the saleswoman, aren't you?" Howard looks up at Aurelie. It wasn't an uncommon thing for a craftsman to peddle her wares. No, it was more uncommon to look that far into the future. If Aurelie did good work, Howard would likely come back. She knew that. A Rocket Admin made for a valuable customer. "Sorry, that was rude. You're passionate."

He decided that he liked this Rocket smith. Someone who was as committed to their passion as he was. That, or Howard was spending too much time around sycophants, sociopaths, and madmen. It was refreshing to find someone who just enjoyed committing to their craft. Besides, her first time making something like this?

More people needed opportunities to try something, and fail. Howard wouldn't be in Rocket if more people had been willing to hire him.

"Doug would look terrifying in armor! I'm sure he'd like the extra protection too, when those Megalopolans strike back. He had a close call back on the battlefield."

Too close. He'd never let the Bloodmoon Beast be harmed again. Not only was Doug a valuable asset to understanding Space-time Distortions, Hisui, and the Megalopolans, but Howard was starting to like the bear. Doug was a sweetheart, even if he had almost broken Howard's next by breaking out of his ball in the middle of the night.

"That's perfectly fine. I doubt that there's a master smith in Hoenn that won't blab if I come into his smithy with heaps of cash. Even if I wave veiled threats about, which tends to cause more problems than not." Howard rolled his eye to the heavens and tapped several parts on the Gigaton Ball's schematic.

"The wind-up mechanism is shot. It doesn't keep the ball shut for long periods of time. See here? That's where the hydraulics and steam help keep the ball wound shut. It's all metal, and Hisuian Pokeballs are more about mechanics than technology." Howard let out a sigh and tapped the rim of the Gigaton Ball on the schematics. "You'll have to take the blasted thing apart, which means that my Ursaluna will be out and about. It's not ideal, but..."

Howard shrugged sheepishly. The thought of a Bloodmoon Ursaluna running around Lilycove bothered him, but Howard didn't know what to do besides shrug at the sky.

"That's the process, yeah? I'd like to sit in on the process, if possible. Not as your boss, but as a historian. The process is exciting."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"Good answer, Himiko." Howard snapped his fingers. After a short pause, a Sigilyth came flying into the room. The ancient sentinel stared at Himiko blankly for several seconds, before Howard whistled quietly and murmured something in a strange, foreign tongue. Whatever language it was, the Sigilyth listened.

The ancient Pokemon turned to face a strange, ornate table that covered Eastern Hoenn's ocean topography. After a few seconds, a projection of Sky Pillar appeared on the table through the use of Light Screen. Poor for actual combat, but very useful for an individual who did minimal fighting.

"Sky Pillar is a sacred site. The League will not appreciate a shameless sacking of Rayquaza's precious domain, but alas..." Howard shrugged apathetically. "Nobody can get close to it, with our occupation of Sootopolis. Such a shame. It'd be best if the items within were doled out to the people, so they could be appreciated by the masses. I hope you're not afraid of earning the ire of a deity."

Howard's eye was fixed squarely on the projection, but it was a studied gaze.

Her suspicion was valid, but Howard was not a traditional Rocket Admin. He was a hidden man who schemed behind closed doors, and he was also a recent promotion, plucked from the wide draft of Rocket Grunts that made up the bulk of Team Rocket's forces. He was not as impressive on the field as Admin Frost, nor did he have an eye for deception like Admin Delaney or Admin Bee.

No, instead he simply watched and observed. Not every quiet scheme deserved a reaction. Not yet.

Instead, he carried onward.

"What do you do publically?" Howard asked conversationally. "In public life."

---

yamaguchi himiko

According to Sapphire's analysis of New Mauville, there wasn't much down in the bowels of New Mauville. Rocket had not delved into New Mauville themselves to confirm, so this would be new ground for the criminal organization. Howard had explored ruins before, but ruins that weren't even there? That was new. Super new.

They'd be lucky to find anything other than stray Magnemites and Voltorbs.

"This is the entrance? You're right, I never would've found it on my own." Howard said as he peered at it. He could've pulled the building plans or a map of Mauville and its surrounding territories, but it still would've been difficult. Likely just as difficult as exploring it would be. Shirley likely wouldn't be enough.

Luckily, Howard had brought his fossils. Rampardos, Cradily, Shirley, Armaldo, and Carracosta. Then, there was Regice. Its ball was cold to the touch, but Howard wouldn't need to field it. Even if absolutely necessary. It had two purposes: to interact with the ruins that would not be there, and the other...

Well, that wasn't important.

"After you, Josh." Howard stepped aside to let the Gym Leader lead the way.

---

Josh Devlin