Deserts weren't meant to host large swathes of life. Particularly alien deserts filled with radiation, toxins, and aggressive Pokémon.

Yet it would be tamed by Oscar and Howard. Together, the two Rocket members would terraform Ultra Desert into somewhere lush and vibrant. It would become somewhere capable of hosting life. That meant, however, that they'd need to deal with all the excess sand, create functional plumbing, and generally ensuring that their plants didn't die.

"Start drilling! Chop to it!" Howard shouted towards his Rhyperior, which immediately began to dig into the dirt near the oasis. They'd use these to divert water, revitalizing any soil they brought over. Howard's various Rock-types smashed rocks into dirt, and Howard's Golurk carried a large amount of dirt and topsoil, which it dumped onto the ground.

"How's the base coming, Oscar?"

Howard turned to look at his colleague. They'd need a somewhat functional base in order to ensure that the two didn't die of radiation sickness.

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oscar clayton
Prompt: Cultivate a garden

Oscar scratched his chin, his face squished by the weight of his concentration. Eventually he would speak, yelling over the noise coming from Howard's crew. "Move it to the left, like two feet!" Oscar's Conkeldurr, Rosco, nodded and grabbed ahold of the concrete pile he had just placed. Using his extraordinary strength, Rosco picked up the massive pillar of concrete and smashed it down two feet to the left of its original position. The concrete had been mixed by Rosco himself, so it was extra sturdy and extra heavy.

Oscar observed for a moment, tilting his head from one side of the other before giving Rosco a thumbs up. "Alright get these bad boys into the ground!" Rosco once again nodded, jumping into the air to smash down the pile he had relocated into the sand with Hammer Arm. This was just one of thirty two piles, all lined up in columns of four. Once pounded in, they would serve as the foundation of Oscar and Howard's first Ultra Desert base!

Meanwhile, the parts that would serve as the building itself were being organized by Oscar's Kommo-o and Genesect Prime. Kommo-o did all of the heavy lifting while Genesect used its superior intellect to keep everything stayed orderly. The building's walls, which were made from melted down steel type pokemon, had just been sorted by size. Oscar nodded at their progress, content by the work of his hard working pokemon.

By then Howard would call for an update, which Oscar would happily provide. "We are finishing the foundation, should be able to start on the actual building within an hour! How's the agriculture!?"

Prompt
17 begin building a base camp/settlement of some kind.

howard slayte

"I have a six by six by four block set up to test." Howard pointed at a fenced-in patch of dirt that was starkly different from the white and blue sand that made up the majority of Ultra Desert. Howard and Oscar had hauled tons of dirt from all across Hoenn into this alternate world. "If something can grow, it'll grow."

Thanks to his work with Eris Halla , Howard knew that the best soil was from Fallarbor. It wasn't even a close comparison.

With that in mind, dozens of Howard's strongest Pokemon carried massive crates of topsoil. Sand was dug out, carted away, and replaced with fertile dirt that could be used to plant sand radishes and other items. Leading the supply train to dump sand was Howard's abomination. The strange-looking Magneton danced through the sand, creating tracks for other Pokémon to follow.

Yet this was a difficult objective. Farming in an alien world? Seriously? If Walsh or any of the Underbosses knew that this was what their Admin was doing, they'd give him a stern talking to. The thought was horrible.

"Hm..." Howard frowned and he took a knee and inspected the small garden. "Interesting."

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oscar clayton
PROMPT: Utilize a Paradox Pokémon

Solid progress from Howard's farming initiative made Oscar beam. They had not succeeded in anything yet, but their hard work made Oscar optimistic. As he turned his attention back to construction, Oscar would find Rosco pounding in the last pile into the sand. With that it was time to build. Oscar put two fingers in his mouth and whistled, calling his three construction workers to him.

He had one last pokemon join the effort: his Xurkitree, Navitas. With all four pokemon gathered, Oscar would retrieve a personal bag he had brought and take out five construction helmets. "Safety first!" Oscar exclaimed as he handed a hat to each of his workers.

He kept the fifth hat for himself, securing it on his head as he gave instructions. "We have concrete slabs for floors. There are slots to put the walls in, and each wall has small holes for you to place in fitting pipes. Y'know, to keep everything sturdy! Make sure all of the walls are welded tight, we don't want any radiation leaking in. Same with the ceiling structure. Hop to it and good luck!" Oscar pumped up his fist, and his four pokemon imitated the gesture before running off to fulfill their duties.

Oscar meanwhile walked over to Howard to see what he had discovered with his sample garden. "What's the test site showing? Only good things I hope."

howard slayte

"This will work, but it'll be tough. The soil is going to naturally degrade as we do this, and the radiation will make it worse." Howard took some soil to his lips, tasting the life-filled dirt, before dropping it down in clumps. He pointed at the small rows of King's Herb and sand radishes, which were now growing thanks to the work of Howard's Excadrill.

Rototiller was quite the useful move. Howard would need to teach more of his Pokémon how to use it, moving forward.

Reaching over to the fence, Howard picked up a hoe that was leaning up. Its metallic sheen gleamed in the sunlight. Howard studied it for a moment, before swinging it down to expand the area of dirt where things could grow.

"Hup!" He swung it again. "Hup!"

As he worked, Howard laughed slightly. As he and his Pokémon worked, Howard laughed harder. It was strange. He and Oscar were parts of Team Rocket, hired criminals who put their goals above the law. Yet here they were, farming. No, Howard wasn't a criminal. Oscar might've been, but Howard wasn't.

He was different.

Rhyperior continued to drill ditches connected to the oasis. The water would need to flow deep into the earth, in order to revitalize it. This would be a long process. Together with Pokémon, they would tame this other world. Howard laughed again.

"It's funny." The archaeologist finally said.

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oscar clayton

Oscar watched Howard work the hoe, more than a little glad to hear that their dream of forcing this wild world into submission was a true possibility. I mean, Oscar had been optimistic but the news that Howard dropped made him downright giddy! It would seem that it made Howard giddy too, as the admin would suddenly find himself laughing at random intervals.

Unaware of Howard's inner thoughts, Oscar would find himself laughing alongside him--just because other people laughing made him laugh. The two would exchange episodes of laughter as their pokemon worked tirelessly in the background. Their occasional pauses would be intercut with the sounds of welding and folding earth--before more laughter would occur.

Howard eventually commented that something was funny, causing Oscar to realize that he had in-fact been laughing at nothing. Blissfully unaware of what Howard might say, he finally thought to ask: "What's funny?"

howard slayte

"Huh?" Howard's eye blinked, before turning to Oscar. "I'm just thinking about how strange it is for someone like me to be doing something like this with someone like you. Can you imagine another Underboss, Admin, or Beast doing something like this?"

There was one. bryan delarosa would've done this without complaint. The Beast had quite the green thumb. Bryan was a titan, and an incredible warrior. Was everyone in Rocket so complex, so two-faced?

What about Oscar Clayton?

"We can almost pretend, for a moment, that we're ordinary people doing ordinary things. That we're not wanted by the League. There's something about farming. It's honest, wholesome, respected." Howard leaned down and inspected the King's Herb and sand radishes. "Simple."

Yes, it was delightfully simple. Right now, they weren't in Team Rocket. They weren't Admin Slayte and Scientist Clayton. They were simply Howard and Oscar.

"A lot could go wrong. We should find a way to avoid sandstorms. Maybe we can collect Castforms to forecast the weather and Psyducks to stall the weather? What's that skill called? Air Nine?"

His inexperience in battle was showing again.

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oscar clayton
PROMPT: King Herb/Sand Radish Gardening

Oscar received Howard's fantasy like a parent hearing out the dream of a child. Perhaps his expression of joy was a little patronizing, but he was just happy that Howard felt comfortable enough to share his inner thoughts with him. Oscar did not see it the same way though, and in the spirit of honesty he would make this known.

"Howard, your perspective is an absolute delight. This is anything but simple though! You and I are embarking upon an amazing journey. We are making the impossible possible, bending an alien ecosystem to our will! That's--fuckin' incredible! The scope of our project reaches beyond the prosaic needs of Rocket. We are making history!"

Oscar's look of wonder as he reflected upon the underlying grandeur of their endeavor mirrored Howard's--just for the opposite reason. Perhaps it was macabre to be elated by the subjugation of another world, but to Oscar it was everything. To prove that his ambitions of branching out to other worlds was possible, why it was a dream come true. He was a mad man with mad dreams, but at least he was very honest about it.

Howard's concerns would bring Oscar back down to earth, and the more experienced trainer would clap his hands together to give this dilemma some thought. "The problem is, castform can predict every weather condition except sandstorms. It's a peculiar imperfection in an otherwise perfect weather forecaster. Cloud nine might work, though these Ultra Sandstorms may be too powerful to completely negate. It can at the very least slow it down. We could possibly utilize other weather conditions to weaken a sandstorm, but something tells me that a Rain Dance or Sunny Day may make our lives harder."

Oscar looked to their base, which nearly had half of the walls up. "Of course if we're lucky, the base will be completed by the time a sandstorm comes around and we won't have to worry at all." Oscar turned back to Howard. "I don't have a psyduck, do you?"

@howard

"You think we're making history?" Howard asked, bemused. He laughed again. "I suppose you're right! This could end up in a book some day. We'll have to write it down and chronicle it!"

Alas, Howard didn't have a Psyduck. He shook his head.

The plan was to eventually turn a large swath of land into lush farmland. Even beyond resource allocation, it was a tall order. Could they really protect dozens, even hundreds of acres from sandstorms? From Buzzwoles and Pheromosas that roamed these lands? It was a classic tale of man attempting to tame the land, but could they succeed? Had they even succeeded in taming Hoenn?

"Oscar Clayton," Howard said. "I can see why Zapdos chose you. You see things clearly, for what they are. This. Team Rocket. It's all a dream. What we leave behind is far more important."

He clapped a dirt-stained hand on Oscar's shoulder.

"Glad you realize that."

In that moment, Howard could've sworn that he had seen something zip past overhead. A whistle rang out, and Howard turned to it. An alarm? In the distance, Howard's abomination was trekking with several of his other Pokemon. They had returned from the sand-dumping excursion.

Sandy Shocks, Golurk, Claydol, and several other Pokemon returned to the base. Howard raised a hand in greeting, before stopping as the Sandy Shocks approached him and Oscar.

Abomination. Howard thought to himself as the Paradox Pokemon grew closer. In its weird, magnet-like hands were several cacti. It offered them to Howard and Oscar.

"Oh, thanks..." Howard said, taking a few. He sniffed it, then frowned. "I was thinking we could study these, see what the biology is for plants that grow out here is. I was thinking about asking Beast Delarosa. What do you think?"

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oscar clayton

Why Zapdos chose him? Oscar chuckled nervously as his pale face turned slightly red, "You and I are cut from the same cloth Howard. A couple forward thinkers." Oscar looked down, trying not give into self doubt. Zapdos had not chosen him, nothing has. He did not need such patronage, but would he fulfill his dreams without it? His ambitions were indeed getting larger and larger, and the scope of their project was unraveling before their eyes. Could they alone manage this incredible feat?

Howard's dusty clasp on Oscar's shoulders pulled the scientist back to reality, and he found his morale boosted by Howard's mere presence. No wonder he was an admin, the man had natural charisma. Missing the strange thing that zipped overhead, Oscar's attention was locked onto Howard's gathered pokemon. His weird mutant magneton had brought them a couple of cacti, and Oscar agreed that they would be worth studying.

"Yeah I mean, if these guys can survive out here surely we can get other plants on board. I wonder if we can drink the water inside?" Oscar had an impulse to split one of the cacti open then and there, but something held him back. He half expected their insides to be full of acid or something worse.

Sand brushed past Oscar's face, more intensely than normal. Oscar looked up toward the horizon, and indeed the winds seemed to be picking up. "Just our luck I guess." Oscar mused. "Sandstorm's building! We gotta get into the base!" Oscar turned toward said base and to his exasperation the roof had not been placed yet. Oscar clapped his hands together, "Alright double time that roof we don't have much time!" Oscar ran into the makeshift entrance of the base and began directing his pokemon on the proper placement of their steel roof.

howard slayte

"Me? I only think backwards. It's safer than looking forward. It's more reliable. The past has never burned me before." Howard waved a hand. "You keep looking forward, though. That's your part. I've never been one for vision, given I'm missing half of it."

He tapped his missing eye for emphasis.

No, no vision. Only the cool feeling of stone where an eye once was. Howard agreed with Oscar's silent assessment. In an alien world, filled with radiation, cacti could explode on incision. It was impossible to know.

"Don't do that. We'll dissect it back at base. Maybe we should install a small lab somewhere in the base? I'll get some funding for it."

Again, Oscar was right. Night was coming. Sandstorms were building. He suspected that Ultra Desert's storms would put the Desert Resort and Hoenn's deserts to shame. Ultra Deserts had to have ultra sandstorms, after all. Howard snapped his fingers towards Atlas, his shiny Golurk.

"You heard him! Help with the roof. Ensure everything is stable." The Golurk beeped and moved off. Howard's Dugtrio and Excadrill continued their farmwork, and the rudimentary water system was in place. Diverting directly from the oasis was wise, but they'd need to invest in pumps at some point.

The wind was definitely picking up, now. Howard looked at their base. It was small, but hopefully it would last. Given time, it would expand and grow in size and quality.

"Let's get inside. Chop chop!"

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oscar clayton

"You're good. You're good. You're good. Too far to the right--You're good." Oscar was miraculously keeping calm as he directed the placement of the roof. He was lucky to have the assistance of Howard's golurk, Navitas acted as a natural crane but it did not have the strength to make subtle adjustments on the fly. With golurk's help they were able to fine tune the perfect placement for the roof, causing it to fit snuggly into place as designed.

As the roof was put down, Oscar quickly realized a flaw in his base plan. There was no light inside, the base went completely dark. Oscar was kicking himself, this was like minecraft base building 101 how did he forget to have light? Oh well, he shall improvise. Genesect had been waiting patiently while the roof was being placed, and once everything was in order it would begin using its claws to weld the walls to the roof (Fell Stinger). While Genesect did that, Oscar poked his head outside to call upon their team. The sand was actively hostile now, stinging Oscar's skin as it whipped by.

"The sand's getting rougher, we gotta go!" Oscar stood outside as his and Howard's pokemon piled in. Whenever Howard himself would enter the base, Oscar would follow the admin inside. There was one more slab of steel left, a makeshift door to be used until Oscar could design a hydraulic door that would properly seal in the base. Rosco propped up the steel slab, pushing it into place just as the ultra sandstorm properly began.

Once the steel slab sealed everyone in, the base would briefly become pitch black. This darkness was broken by Navitas, who used Tail Glow to illuminate its bulbous head. Oscar clapped his hands together, "Good thinking Navi, you're always one step ahead you beautiful bastard." Rosco propped himself against the slab, keeping it in place as the sandstorm picked up outside. Oscar rubbed his hands together, he was admittedly a little too excited to see if they could survive this test from the desert.

"Everyone get comfortable, we might be in here for a while."

PROMPT
20 attempt to spend the "night", surviving the elements or any threats.

howard slayte

In a surprising bit of contrast, Howard retreated with a surprising amount of order. He braved the sand gracefully, following Oscar into the makeshift base with the composed nature of a veteran soldier retreating from battle. This was not his first sandstorm, and his experience with the desert was almost unmatched within Team Rocket.

"I'm going! Don't look back! Keep moving forward!" Howard shouted, his voice muffled by the sandstorm. As soon as he stepped through the makeshift door, the wind abated, and sat down with a weary sigh. "Man, that never gets easier. I feel like I'm in my fifties, but I'm only twenty-eight..."

Soon, darkness was replaced with light. The tapping of sand against metal could be heard all around them as the sandstorm battered against Oscar's construct.

"It's like the Desert Resort, all over again..." Howard grumbled as he put his massive backpack down. Pots and pans clinked together as Howard produced an electric stove. the interior of the base was borderline nonexistent, so Howard wasn't concerned about starting a fire.

"I learned how to make this killer soup from this worthless chef I know. You want some? I think I have the stuff here..."

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oscar clayton