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[attr="class","skullbody"]The longer Project Lockbox rolled onward, the more carefully the operation needed to be handled to ensure it was clandestine. Bunkers abandoned in the heat of the moment were easy enough to infiltrate and scout out. However, months after the meteor had ceased to be an issue, that relief gave way to curiosity. Family members searching for their relatives' buried secrets. Treasure hunters looking to see what had been left in their wake. Perhaps even independent investigations from small-time rangers or officers.[break][break]

No official decree had jeopardized the project. But to keep that from becoming a "yet", caution and patience were the key. Only by lingering around in the base could Rocket ensure that nobody else was coming to take advantage. They needed these secrets to have an emphasis on the secret. Audiences to their meddling needed to stopped, and bases prone to such meddling needed to be abandoned.[break][break]

All of that importance didn't change the fact that this job was going to be a whole lot of sitting around. No wonder his companion for the day was striking up a conversation. It was for the best. If Isaac was stuck with one of those quiet types on a job like this, he'd probably go crazy.[break][break]

" 'Bout a year and a month," Isaac said. To some Rockets, that would sound like forever. To others, he was little more than a fresh-faced baby. For a moment, Isaac wondered which category Hitoshi fell under. "How about you?"

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"Two months."[break][break]

The Rocket of two months ago and the Rocket Isaac joined couldn't have been more different. To a degree, he found it difficult to imagine. When he joined, Rocket seemed like a better way compared to a failing League. What was the Rocket of today offering? A one-way ticket to the meat grinder?[break][break]

Always busy, indeed. Kouji didn't even know the half of it.[break][break]

"Some ways, it gets easier. Other ways, you'll never be used to it," Isaac cautioned. Even before Mt. Pyre turned everything on its head, Isaac had been running himself ragged on mission after mission. To a degree, he was still coasting on his reputation from those good old days. It was only recently that some started to wonder if he was truly a model grunt. "It's all the more reason to keep your feet on the ground, if you ask me. You can't just live for the mission."[break][break]

If Kouji did, there'd be nothing of him left.[break][break]

Kouji's next words left Isaac cocking an eyebrow. Oh well. The least he could do was give him an answer. "Little odd jobs here and there, usually," Isaac said. "Got myself something stable these days, though. Been doing a bartending gig." It was nice. It was just a shame, instead of an exit, it had only been a further in.[break][break]

"So. How do I seem, anyway?" That little comment wasn't slipping away that easily!

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]The idea of even being here for another year and a half made Isaac's skin crawl. It wasn't anything personal to his present company, or to the Howling. It was the idea of the Hoenn region, his home, being ravaged for another year of this forever war. It was the idea that, for all he continued to doubt and question, he'd never find the strength to put his momey where his mouth was.[break][break]

It was the idea that he'd be back to being that sadsack drifter, small and grey, helplessly following a fate he didn't believe in.[break][break]

"Well, you have a point. Most people have two of 'em." Isaac couldn't help but smirk at his own joke. It had been too damn long since someome walked into an eye joke. Maybe by now, he carried himself with such composure that people didn't register the eyepatch. It was night and day from how frail he felt when he got the damn thing.[break][break]

Still, he understood what Kouji meant. He understood it even more as he laid his cards out on the table. He wasn't wrong about there being blood in the water. There always had been. The machine ran on it, even when it tried to play at wanting better. Playtime was over now, and the old guard demanded it flowed. This region changed since Meteno.[break][break]

Isaac felt increasingly like some pup trying to make it in the wolf's den.[break][break]

"Believe it or not? Lots of it." It felt strange to hear coming from someone so warm and outwardly serene, yet the conviction in his voice made it clear he wasn't messing around. "But not the kind that's helpful. At least, not anymore. So I keep it to myself."[break][break]

"How about you?"

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Oh. This was where their chat was going.[break][break]

Isaac had always grouped Rocket up into a few mental groups. There were those who slipped through the cracks, seeing Rocket as their only shot at survival in a world where they had nothing. There were those who took a wrong turn in life and were now painted with the Rocket brush. There were those who, against all odds, genuinely believed in Rocket's mission and thought the world would be better under their rule. There were those who sought to exploit those true believers for their own gain. Then there were the psychos who just wanted to use their spot for sick, murderous thrills.[break][break]

Then there was Kouji, who seemed ready to tear down the very idea of public safety.[break][break]

"Really, now?" Isaac's quirked eyebrow wasn't visible behind his mask, but it was clear Kaname's response caught his attention. "We've had cannibals from another world, Ultra Beasts swarming the region, Necrozma's bloody rampage, the Dark Triad scheming in the shadows, and a meteor sent to wipe us all out thanks to a god that hates us."[break][break]

All that, without even addressing the Rocket-shaped elephant in the room. They weren't even in the top 5 causes of Rocket's turmoil. They were just there to make it worse and exploit it for all it was worth. This region was doing a perfectly good job hurtling towards destruction without them.[break][break]

"And you think all that's peaceful?"

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]Hard times created strong men. Strong men created good times. Good times created weak men. Weak men created hard times.[break][break]

What a load.[break][break]

Isaac had been through hard times. He'd been through more hard times in the last year than many should have been through in their lifetimes. He didn't have the backing of a League. He didn't have the backing of a god. He didn't have the authority to make dozens, if not hundreds, hang on his every word. He was just one little grunt swept up in the tide, punching above his weight class time and time again just to survive.[break][break]

Was it those hardships that made Isaac stronger? Isaac couldn't lie, they were benchmark after benchmark, forcing him to rise to the occasion lest he be swept up in the high tides. However, they were far from the only hardships he'd faced. Before this year of frights and fights was twenty two slow, simmering years of neglect. These hardships took his spark and smothered it, to the point where he'd nearly surrendered his life to Maldacena.[break][break]

It wasn't hardship that made Isaac strong. It was his will that made him strong. Had the Isaac of then faced the Isaac of today's reality, he'd be crushed without a thought.[break][break]

"Seems like you've got it backwards to me." Isaac's tone wasn't harsh or accusatory. If anything, there was a curiosity to it, as if he was still turning Kouji's words over in his head. "Way I see it, hard times push us. And they push, and push, and push, until we have to bend. Some people can take it. Other people break. That's not making 'em stronger, its just getting rid of the ones who can't take it."[break][break]

"Guess to some, that might as well be the same thing."[break][break]

Maldacena pushed, and Isaac broke. The only reason he stood here today was because he got a second chance and used it to say "never again." Most in the region weren't so lucky. They wouldn't know how breaking felt until it was too late. It almost felt unfair to judge them for it.[break][break]

"Think about the strongest Pokemon in our region. Salamence. Metagross. Before they're all grown, they can barely fight their way out of a paper bag. You try to judge 'em then, you'll wonder why you're even bothering. But help 'em find their strength, and there's nothing that compares."[break][break]

"Feels like we can learn a lot from Pokemon, sometimes."

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]The two agreed more than they'd thought, but the devil lay in the details. To Kouji, it was binary. There are the people who Can't, and the people who Can, and the world would be better off if the former got out of the latter's way.[break][break]

To Isaac, it was a spectrum. If a promising young Pokemon was cut down before its prime, what chance did it have to get stronger? A corpse couldn't learn. A ghost couldn't train. Wasted potential could never live up to itself. What was Isaac supposed to consider everyone left behind by an uncaring world? What was he supposed to consider everyone pushed under Rocket's thumb into perfect, controlled servants?[break][break]

Kouji wanted the League and Rocket to keep clashing, honing what little remained of their war a sharpened blade. Isaac just wanted them both to get out of everyone's way.[break][break]

"You don't get a chance to toughen up if you're dead," Isaac said. "War's no teacher. War's a final exam. And if you're making someone face it without knowing what they're in for, you're not giving them a chance. You're just giving them a death sentence."[break][break]

"That's what this is, you know? War. Not between the League and Rocket. Between our region and a cosmos full of dangers. We're in a war of attrition for the fate of our whole damn universe, and we're never gonna make it if we cut off everyone we don't think can handle it."[break][break]

"Wars aren't won by averages."[break][break]

There was no binary Make or Break. You could survive an Ultra Beast attack, but be picked apart by the cunning brutality of the Megalopians. You could survive their onslaught, but crumble in the face of Necrozma's overwhelming force. You could handle all of that, but how could anyone stand to Arceus? Each culling would make the region smaller and smaller, and their hopes of survival dimmer and dimmer.[break][break]

"My ideal?" It almost seemed strange going back to the subject. Kouji's ideal differed so heavily from his he'd forgotten this was how they'd gotten here. "I just a world where everyone's got a shot."

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Isaac Merlo[break][break]

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[attr="class","skullbody"]"Used to think I wasn't. Too full of anger and spite for all that." He used to believe bice people were people like El Sunderland, sweet cinnammon rolls who'd never done anything wrong in their entire lives. Someone like him never seemed to deserve the title. "Guess I've had 'em aimed in the right direction all along."[break][break]

Kouji was an enigma, and Isaac was finally starting to crack the code. He wanted to crush Isaac's dream, but not out of disdain or hatred for it. Rather, he wanted to make sure it was worthy of coming true. In a weird, fucked up way, it was almost a compliment. In that sense, there was no way for Kouji to truly lose. If he lost, he deserved it. If he won, he was right.[break][break]

The last thing Isaac wanted was for anyone to throw their life away for some philosophy. But that was half of this whole damn war, aasn't it?[break][break]

"And I'll keep looking for the worth in everyone I meet. We'll see if I can bring it out before you can snuff it out." Maybe he'd inspire. Maybe he'd train. Maybe he'd just keep standing defiantly in the face of oblivion. Isaac had no idea what mark he'd make on the world, but he'd be damned if he didn't make at least one. "One way or another, this world's gonna be extraordinary."[break][break]

Perhaps it was a philosophy too nice for Rocket. "I knew since the day we met about Meteno," Isaac said, voice sobering up a tad. "Can't say I was too big on the news back then. Only paid enough attention to keep my ass out of the fire. I came here in the first place cause I stuck my nose where it didn't belong. They said I'd be spared if I joined, and, well, living was all I had left."[break][break]

"I met a lot of good people here. People that deserved better. I wasn't ways a bleeding heart, but I got my second chance. Figured they deserved one, too." Isaac always told himself he was doing more good for them through Rocket than against it. Way back then, before Meteno, he could actually believe it.

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