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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Probably not. But how often are you gonna get a chance like this?" The witches had been a similarly insurmountable foe, but trying had given Isaac and his team a hell of a workout. Chaining those two events into each other, and finishing with the Thousand Hands, would turn this simulator into a danger room in no time.[break][break]

" 'Sides. I'm not alone."[break][break]

Before, he was outnumbered three to two. With the breakaway on his belt pulled, now that had become a two to one advantage for him. Ricochet joined Luck & Pluck in the skies, bouncing off of the Aegislash's shield to boot Walsh's GLiscor viciously in the face. Luck & Pluck were quick to follow up, sailing past the Hawlucha to stab at the dazed Gliscor with a Night Slash aimed for its vitals.[break][break]

As Ogrelord was pushed onto the back foot by Walsh's Nidoking, a Garchomp burst from beneath the ground to even the odds. Sidon's Dig allowed him to hook his sickles around the Nidoking's ankles, letting Ogrelord viciously pummel it with Hammer Arm after Hammer Arm.[break][break]

Walsh's Hypno found itself being blocked by a small Alolan Sandshrew, the ice-type doing its best to puff up the snow on his back in a threat display. The Hypno was not impressed. It swung its pendulum back and forth, tossing Geets away with contemptuous ease. However, as the Alolan Sandshrew flew away, it spewed a cloud of dense Mist to block its vision. Again, no issue for Hypno. It closed its eyes and opened its mind, ready to use psychic powers to make up for its failing vision.[break][break]

Bad move. Valfrey descended from above, the Volcarona's wings ringing as it pulsed a Bug Buzz down below. It was enough to leave the Hypno's head spinning.[break][break]

In a "fair" fight, these stacked odds may have turned things around in Isaac's favor. But this was not a fair fight. With each strike Isaac's team got off, Walsh's team seemed to vanish again. With each disappearance, Isaac pursued further into the maze, his team hot on his heels. With each advance, the walls grew tighter and more numerous, all as the fake Walshes stretched further and further away.[break][break]

Isaac's meticulous plan quickly became a nightmare. Walsh's sneak attacks became more numerous and more pointed, his outnumbered team seemingly attacking from all sides. Even if Isaac could block two of the incoming strikes, the third always slipped past his guard. His Pokemon tried to cover each other, but invisible walls blocked their approach and left them wide open for attack. At times, Isaac himself was on the receiving end of it, narrowly avoiding being gored by Nidoking's Drill Rush in a particularly harrowing ambush.[break][break]

One by one, his team started to drop off. Nidoking picked Geets up mid-Rollout and roasted him with a full-force Flamethrower. Gliscor looped around Ricochet's flying kicks with a show of Acrobatics, slamming her into the ground after she smashed into an invisible wall. The rest of the team was growing weary from Hypno's swaying pendulum and blasts of psionic power.[break][break]

All the while, those false Walshes waited out of view, staring holes through Isaac's soul. He couldn't wait until he could wipe that death glare off of his face.[break][break]

That was how Walsh wanted him to feel, wasn't it?[break][break]

He'd been a fool. He played right into Walsh's hands, and now his team was paying the price for it. It was time to do what he did best and start breaking the rules. Sidon smashed into the ground with all of his might, his claws shattering tile and rending the foundation beneath. This wouldn't be the easiest terrain to tunnel through, but it was worth getting away from the worst of Walsh's ambushes. Isaac, Ogrelord, and Valfrey followed Sidon's lead like their lives depended on it.[break][break]

It was a risky gambit. Walsh's Nidoking grinned sadistically as he held his hands high, ready to bring their tunnel down on top of them with an Earthquake. However, before it could make impact, a golden disk sailed in the way to block the blow. Luck & Pluck had remained behind, and his King's Shield was just enough to stop the sure-kill blow in its tracks.[break][break]

It had bought Luck & Pluck a second, and a second was all it needed. He sailed hilt-first into the Nidoking's palm, tassels coiling tightly around its arms. The Nidoking's eyes flashed white, the only warning Hypno would have before it sailed around and smashed Luck & Pluck right into it. Such was the power of Luck & Pluck's Z-Move, the Grudge Calibur draining life from one foe to empower a strike against another.[break][break]

In the wake of such an assault, the Hypno had fallen. It was just a shame that, trapped behind enemy lines, Luck & Pluck would inevitably follow.[break][break]

His sacrifice bought Isaac just enough time. Sidon breached out from the ground, having brought the group right back where they started. Had their progress been for nothing? No. Their progress had been a trap in the first place. Drawing deeper into the maze was just what Walsh wanted. Here, free from the dense network of invisible walls, Isaac's team could no longer be divided and conquered.[break][break]

Unfortunately, they could still be conquered the old fashioned way. Walsh's Gliscor descended from the skies, biting into the triumphant Garchomp's neck with a vicious Ice Fang. Ogrelord pried it off, slamming it spitefully into the ground, for good measure, but he was too late. His battle brother had fallen, and now they were stuck in a fair two on two.[break][break]

Ogrelord rushed towards the fallen Gliscor, his entire body glowing a brilliant white. The hair covering his upper body spread down to his lower body, making his legs bigger and stronger as he brutally stomped down on the Gliscor. Each vicious stomp was not only a flex of his new Mega Evolved power, but also an attempt at demotivating his foe through sheer cruelty. Could it fight back after such a Spirit Break?

Ogrelord wouldn't have time to find out. A Sludge Wave burst out from Walsh's ambush spot, washing over Ogrelord. Would the Mega be overwhelmed before he could even turn around?[break][break]

A shimmer of crystal made it clear that it wouldn't be quite so easy. Valfrey had swooped down just in the nick of time, Terastalization further protecting him from the danger Nidoking's toxins posed. With a body encased in amber crystal and fighting type energy pulsing through his veins, Valfrey's wings flexed in anticipation of a fight.[break][break]

He wasn't the only one. As Walsh emerged, Nidoking in tow, Valfrey tried to snag them with a pulse of Psychic power. Walsh was able to avoid the blow, but Nidoking barreled right into it. The two pushed back and forth, Nidoking overcoming the type difference to trundle towards Valfrey like an immovable object. It was unquestionable that Walsh's team was stronger. Even with all the tricks in Isaac's book, even with him escaping the ambush killzone, once Nidoking arrived on the scene he knew the battle would come to a decisive end.[break][break]

That was why he had to try something reckless.[break][break]

With Walsh separated from his Pokemon, Isaac saw his chance. Emerging from Sidon's tunnel, Isaac charged out from behind and leaped for Walsh's back. If he could just throw him on balance and catch him in a sleeper hold, he could at least force this fight into a draw.[break][break]

The last thing Isaac remembered was seeing Walsh turn to stare him dead in the eye. The boss' hand shot out to catch Isaac by the throat, his hopes snuffed out just as quickly as breath was. Were it not for the scene starting to warp and change around him, Isaac 's time in the simulation would have come to a far more decisive end.[break][break]

Saved by the bell.

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Zev shook his head as Isaac dashed off into the maze to fight the younger version of Declan Walsh. The Beast listened to the sounds of battle for a few minutes, noting how they faded as Isaac forced his way deeper into the maze.[break][break]

But Zev eventually lost interest. He resumed his walk toward the gym's exit, assuming that the simulation would end one way or another.[break][break]

Whether Isaac lost, or whether Zev left the building.[break][break]

When the door opened, however, the scene did not change. Instead, Zev found himself staring out at the ruins of Fuschia City. Buildings blazed and crumbled. Pillars of dark smoke reached for the sky.[break][break]

And in that moment, Zev was transported back to the takeover of Kanto, his chest filling with a familiar thrill.

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[attr="class","itemcolicon"]

[attr="class","itemcolname"]significant figure event

[attr="class","lgdcol"]

[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]WALSH 1-B

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]After a harrowing battle, Declan Walsh manages to gain the upper hand. His style of fighting is one of subterfuge, feints, and precise strikes.[break][break]

However, despite the assassin-like attacks, he spares you. His Pokemon remain at his side before being recalled.[break][break]

"let tonight be a testament to team rocket's unstoppable force. we'll overtake johto too and seize the indigo plateau for ourselves. no one, not even you can stop us."[break][break]

He leaves the gym as the sounds of a burning Fuschia City rattle outside the building's walls.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]With a strain in his throat, and his out-cold team scattered around the Fuschia Gym, Isaac was left to his thoughts.[break][break]

He liked to play the numbers game. He liked to keep his foes off balance. Sometimes he did it by breaking out every trick in the book. At other times, it came down to haymaker after haymaker. It was a style that, if he was being honest, was more like his father's than he cared to admit.[break][break]

Walsh wasn't entirely dissimilar. He backed tricks, deception, and a stacked deck up with an overwhelming force. However, where Isaaf cast the net wide to try and find what worked, Walsh forced the battle on his terms. He systematically dissected Isaac's team in a battlefield of his own creation, poking at all the weak spots in the go-wide strategy. By the time Isaac figured the great game out, it was too late to rebound.[break][break]

If he was ever going to fight on Walsh's level, he couldn't just fight hard and fight dirty. He'd have to fight smart, too.[break][break]

If he didn't, he might not survive the next battle like this.[break][break]

Planning was never Isaac's style. He was more of a free form improviser. That didn't mean he couldn't hone his craft. He'd just need to stop thinking one step ahead and start thinking two or three. Even that little change alone could pay off huge.[break][break]

There didn't seem to be a secret to this station, but maybe there wasn't supposed to be. Maybe this was just a snapshot of a moment in time, and it was up to Isaac to draw meaning from it. He shuddered to his feet, going over the battle in his head as he watched Fuschia burn.

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The door to the gym opened again and Isaac stepped through, his gaze distant as if he were looking inward. No Pokémon strode beside him. His throat was red and bruised, each long stroke suggesting the fingers of a choking hand.[break][break]

"I told you," Zev said, regarding Isaac with cold apathy before turning his gaze back to the burning city.[break][break]

In the distance, people cried out in terror.[break][break]

"Even if you had defeated him, Fuschia is already burning. The war is already won, and someone else would just rise up in his place."

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Huh?"[break][break]

For a second, Isaac hadn't processed what Zev said. The man half-lectured, half-murmured as he stared out into the distance. The smoke and cinder enveloping the city swallowed up most of his words, leaving only faint echoes to pierce through Isaac's innermost thoughts.[break][break]

When he realized what Zev was saying, his eye narrowed in frustration.[break][break]

"I mean, duh?" Isaac said. Between the pressure crushed into his throat and his absolute confusion at Zev's words, his words were slow and hesitance. The roots of annoyance crept beneath his voice, but they had yet to blossom into anything further. "You, uh. You do remember we're in a simulation, right?"[break][break]

Was Zev lapsing into a flashback of his own? Before Isaac had rushed into his impossible battle, he remembered Zev reminiscing about Fuschia with surprising fondness. Hoenn was not Rocket's territory. Zev, for all of his gains, still had to contort his face into the shape of a normal person's. He still needed to stay his hand and keep his head down through the day by day. He still needed to pretend that the people he met on the street had some semblance of value.[break][break]

In Kanto's bloodiest moments, he was free of all of that. It was easy to see how he could lose himself to the memory.

At least Isaac's confusion was genuine. A practiced chameleon like Zev would be able to tell that apart from sarcastic mockery. The more important question was whether he cared. Being questioned was something he was never fond of, regardless of the reasons.

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A spike of irritation lanced through Zev at Isaac's retort, evident in the way his eyes flashed as he glared at the younger man. Had the battle with the false Walsh rattled his brain so hard that he couldn't think properly?[break][break]

"Don't be dense, Isaac. I'm not talking about the simulation," Zev said, exasperation coloring his tone.[break][break]

He began making his way down the stairs into the burning city. The machine had not changed their surroundings yet, suggesting he and Isaac had time to explore and observe the carnage unfolding around them.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]"Then what are you-?"[break][break]

The truth smashed into Isaac's gut like a sack full of bricks. This wasn't about Kanto at all, was it? It was simply the reminder, the blazing symbol of what Hoenn could - and, in Zev's estimation, should - be. After that, Sinnoh. Then Unova. Kalos, Alola, Galar, Paldea. A loop back to Johto for completion's sake.[break][break]

A world broken into submission by monsters, so some sociopath could get off to his worst impulses.[break][break]

Isaac wasn't stupid. He knew his loyalty, doubting since Meteno and outright strained since the Ultra Deep Sea, was under question. Cillian Quinn made sure of that fact. Only a mix of continued use to the organization and lingering fondness from several key players kept his head on his shoulders. Clearly, Zev believed Isaac needed another reminder. He may have chosen this location just to be sure.[break][break]

Clearly, he'd found it insufficient.[break][break]

"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Isaac asked. He'd be lying if he said the idea of defeating Walsh wasn't a satisfying one. But if complete dissolution of its Hoenn branch couldn't stop Rocket, beating up a big bad shadow man sure wouldn't. "We both know Rocket's way bigger than one guy."[break][break]

It was a symbol. It was a self-sustaining colossus, grinding its victims into fuel and contorting its servants into parts. All that power was in service of one man, true. But that man wasn't Declan Walsh. It was Rocket Boss. Were the machine to deem it so, even he would be expendable so that a better fit could take the head.[break][break]

Such was the nature of organizations, Rocket and League alike. It was comforting to think they served their people, but their only true goal was their own survival.[break][break]

If they kept operating as is, would they survive? Zev seemed sure of it. Zev had also seemed sure his brother was hypnotized into submission because being denied was unthinkable in his worldview. He was never fully wrong; Chu-e Choi's secrets gave even this paranoia its context. He was never fully right, either. Even his actual grandeur was dwarfed by his delusions of it.[break][break]

"And how the hell can you seriously think we've already won?"

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Was Isaac yelling at him? Him?[break][break]

A memory flashed hot and vivid through Zev's mind: Caleb Harcourt screaming with rage right before punching Zev in the face. A scuffle on the floor of the Ultra Deep Sea.[break][break]

White-hot agony. Bright red blood.[break][break]

Zev whirled on Isaac, his body moving automatically. His arm snapped out, the back of his open hand smashing into the side of Isaac's face.[break][break]

"Don't you fucking argue with me, Isaac," the Beast snarled, eyes blazing fury.[break][break]

"For someone who claims to be so fucking smart, you still don't understand what I'm saying, do you? What I've been saying for the past Arceus-damned year."[break][break]

Survival in Team Rocket meant understanding their expectations. Becoming a weapon so dangerous, so valuable, that the knives at one's back couldn't pierce it.[break][break]

It meant being willing to bloody one's hands with atrocity.[break][break]

Zev had tried to instill this lesson into Isaac since the beginning. Become unkillable. Because once Team Rocket has sunken its claws, the killable can just as easily be replaced.[break][break]

"When will you get it through that thick skull of yours that the reality of Team Rocket isn't a game you can talk or trick your way out of?"

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]The flames and screams of Fuschia City fell silent, pierced by the crack of bone on bone.[break][break]

One second, Zev was still. The next, his hand had already crashed through Isaac's face. Completely unprepared, he spiraled down to the ground like a freshly melted Icarus. His face snapped to the side hard enough to wrench his neck, and his wrist shuddered as his palm hit dirt and stone.[break][break]

Isaac's knees tensed. His other hand shuddered, every muscle in his body twisting it into a fist. For a moment, he looked ready to spring off of the ground and into a desperate, lunging punch. Instead, he relented, the fist once primed to strike now gingerly touching an already-darkening bruise. Only his eye remained fixed on Zev, a rarely seen hatred burning out from it.[break][break]

It was back to business as usual. Laying down and taking it as Zev looked down on him, lecturing him over how stupid he was.[break][break]

The man didn't have a lot to say. The more words Zev had to use, the angrier he got. No, no. To him, Isaac's little rebellion wasn't worth the effort. Instead, he continued on in his typical fashion. Curt, to the point, and dredged in his worldview. Same as it ever was.[break][break]

Isaac listened. He waited.[break][break]

And then he laughed.[break][break]

"Believe me, I know." It was a short, weary wheeze. If anything, it sounded more like a punctured lung than any actual joy. "I knew the second we were shipped out to die and take the region down with us. All so Walsh could play with some rocks."[break][break]

It would have been one thing if Rocket stood to make great gains. It would be another thing if this had been some skirmish without consequence. Instead, Rocket risked the continued existence of their region, maybe even their planet, for a few more resources. That was the moment Isaac knew, in Rocket's eyes, no cost was too great and no gain was too small.[break][break]

"You wanna know the reality of Team Rocket?" He was going to die for this. Good thing he was in a computer. Zev's temper would probably settle after killing him once. "Being stuck in a crater and cooped up in a sub, risking our lives so people like you can live out your glory days. Think, Zev! They already beat us out of existence before! We're only winning now because the League's got a hand behind its back and a crisis every day. You know what happens when they start trying? Johto happens!"[break][break]

"There'll never be another Kanto. We can't win until we stop pretending."

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Behind Zev, the flames surged as one building collapsed into another, feeding the fires burning through it. The light on the ground around him brightened, darkening his shadow at the same time.[break][break]

The shadow that fell over Isaac's prone form, encasing him like a nightmarish cage.[break][break]

The boy was outright defiant now, screaming, every sentence punctuated with vehemence and bile. His single eye glowered at Zev with a rare hatred, the same look he'd given his mentor months ago when Zev had asked Isaac to strike him down in the training room.[break][break]

In the darkness of Fuschia's demise, Zev laughed, too. But it was not a wheeze, weary and beleaguered. It was a wicked sound, rough like stone, as savage as rending fangs.[break][break]

"Do you think I give a shit about what happened in Johto? Why do you think I'm really here, Isaac?" he asked.[break][break]

He crouched down in front of the younger man. In the firelight, his smile took on a deadly edge, the expression eclipsed by a terrible darkness.[break][break]

"I'm here because the League stole something from me. They turned my brother against me and deserve every tragedy these hands can wreak upon it."[break][break]

Zev spread his hands as black crystals turned them into razor-sharp claws.[break][break]

"You think I'm here because I care about Team Rocket's conquest? You're wrong. I'm here to make a hell for every person in the League. Every single man, woman, and child Caleb loves."[break][break]

Every word dripped with malice.[break][break]

"He thinks he's suffering now in that shitty basement cell, but he won't be able to fathom the suffering I will cause him outside it."

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac thought he'd finally found the true Zev; a cruel, ambitious sociopath who served Rocket loyally so long as it enabled him to live another day and indulge in his worst impulses. He was no true believer. He was simply an opportunist who relished in the power and control his position gave him. This had to be the monster beneath the thin veneer of kan.[break][break]

Then he tore this mask off to reveal one even more sinister.[break][break]

It wasn't about living another day. It wasn't about using Team Rocket as a means to an end. It wasn't even about the general cruelty his position let him indulge in. It was a pure, targeted venom. It was a petulant child's tantrum in the face of his favorite toy getting broken.[break][break]

In that moment, Isaac wondered what he'd ever admired about Zev.[break][break]

He was no longer a monster. He was a boogeyman, a nightmare in human form, equal parts stunningly childish and unfathomably horrific. The shadows and crystals stretched around Isaac on all sides, leaving him nowhere else to turn but his dead eyes and predator's smile.[break][break]

"Fitting." Because it was, more than any suave barman or Rocket leader could have ever been. "But I'm shocked. Didn't think you'd start by going to hell of your own making."[break][break]

It was the truth, wasn't it? For all their differences, for all their antagonism, for all their encounters ended in hateful violence, Isaac knew there was a part of Caleb Harcourt that would always love Zev.

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Zev's smile twisted into a smirk. "Because Caleb loves me? Please, don't assume I give a shit. If he wasn't so much of a fool, he would have figured that out sooner."[break][break]

The Beast stood, forcing distance between himself and Isaac. His grin faded into a cold indifference.[break][break]

"Caleb was all mine. He was safe; he wanted for nothing. And he threw all of it away." A sneer curled Zev's lip. "He no longer deserves the right to love me."[break][break]

Someone else did, now.[break][break]

Above the two men, the smoke-filled sky began to dissolve, the simulation finally giving way to a new scenario.

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