"Haha, don't mention the Bubble Tea Incident." Howard said cheerfully as he accepted the handshake. Internally, his soul was dying as he remembered his boba tea being Eevee-flavored. "I haven't gotten the taste of defeat out of my mouth."

Despite that, the Admin wasn't too upset at the jape. He was a recent promotion, pulled from the masses of Team Rocket's grunts. A lot of Rocket's higher ups were either deranged, insane, murderous, or power-hungry. Howard just wanted to be left alone with his rocks and artifacts.

Ah, the contest. Howard had forgotten that Aurelie was there. Not because she wasn't noteworthy, but because Tempest Quinn had been busy causing general mayhem. He did remember her vaguely from the Route 119 Incident. That was good. It'd require less explaining than if she hadn't fought the Megalopolans on that route.

The Megalopolans, their magenta chain, and the strange bear that had fought against them. If Team Rocket and the League wanted to fight against this threat, they'd need better tools. That started with the Gigaton Ball clipped to Howard's belt. An item that could only be repaired by the brightest of Hoenn's smiths.

Like the one standing across from him.

"I need a custom job." Howard reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded blueprint. He offered it to Aurelie and held the Gigaton Ball in his other hand. "The Pokeball that houses the Bloodmoon Beast is damaged. I need it repaired."

He gestured towards the front desk, intending to unfold the blueprint. "May I?"

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"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

"That's a good name. Reminds me of my postgrad thesis." Howard's specific field was branching languages, runes, and glyphs. He was fine with a simple, if wordy name. "I'll call it GBO when I feel lazy, yeah?"

After a few moments, Howard scrunched his brow as if forgetting something. After a moment, his face brightened. He dropped a thickly padded envelope on the table.

"A forward deposit. This will cover materials and small labor costs. You'll get the amount for the rest of your labor at completion. I believe it to be reasonable, for the work quality." Howard was poor, but Rocket was not. The archaeologist was particularly good at cutting useless price sinks from Rocket.

His most recent budget cut involved the Rocket submarine, which had a cooling system powered by Regice. Nonetheless, he strove to pay workers fairly. A lifetime of student debt and job hunting helped with that, especially given the recentness of his promotion. Lower ranking members of Rocket deserved as much respect as a higher member.

That included Aurelie and her smithing work. Passion needed to be rewarded and fostered. That was how talent was cultivated, and how skills like forging remained in the modern world. It'd break his heart to see Hisuian Pokeballs fully vanish from the world, now that they had acquired one. It'd also break his heart to see forging fully vanish in favor of industrialization.

Ah, the industrial revolution and its consequences.

"The schematic? Hell, I'll pay you to keep it." Howard snickered. "I've made about twelve already for museums and universities. Please, take it. It and my experience with Hisui are yours. I'd be happy to help out in any way possible."

Click. The Gigaton Ball suddenly vibrated. After a moment, it burst open, and a massive bear appeared in the shop. It looked around, opened its maw, and growled. "Grrr?" Howard's muffled voice rang out from behind Doug. "That's why I want it fixed!"

---

Aurelie Lefevre

Most members of Rocket's upper ranks were broken by circumstance, poisoned by their role. It was something that seeped into them from the chair that they sat in. Howard had heard that they had all been somewhat normal, once. Cross, Bee, Quinn, Fiorelli. All of them had been shattered at some point, and only after putting themselves back together had they risen through the ranks.

When would Howard break? He didn't know. He wanted to remain as he was, unchanging. He wouldn't forget where he came from, and he wouldn't forget where he would fall to if Rocket deemed his promotion an error.

Yet until that day, he was Admin Slayte, or Admin Fox, or the Galarian.

"Yeah, welcome to my world. Did I mention how he breaks out of his ball every few nights and crushes my ribcage? Because he does that. Constantly." Howard grinned good-naturedly as he clapped Doug on the head and scratched his ears. Doug yawned and his eyes flickered into slumber. "Il est grand, oui?"

Ancient languages weren't the only thing he spoke.

While Aurelie was forced to rework her schedule, the archaeologist grimmaced apologetically. Rank nonwithstanding, this was a request from a potential customer to another. He looked at Doug and scowled.

"How do you get everyone to do stuff for you by snoring and sleeping!" Howard hissed at him, eye flicking to Aurelie as she rescheduled another client.

"Grr." Doug snored.

Helpful.

"Howard's fine. We're not on the clock." He gave a gentle smile. It only became Admin Slayte when someone needed him, or when he was being yelled at. "I've never been good at training Pokemon, but Doug's a sweetheart. Unless you have Megalopolans hiding behind sword racks, we should be f-"

Berries were mentioned. Doug awoke. The bear lumbered towards Aurelie's desk and stared at her when she mentioned hints of berries and other delicious treats. The Ursaluna feasted like a king under Howard's employ, but Doug wouldn't say no to more delectable treats.

"Grrr." Doug growled, then licked Aurelie's face. Howard gave a thumbs-up of approval as it happened.

"It's settled!" Howard straightened his cowboy hat. "Let us begin."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

He listened to Aurelie as she explained her plan to repair the Pokeball. His eye grew as large as the Gigaton Ball itself by the time it was over.

"That's incredible. I only caught the gears and the strings when I tried to poke at it. How'd you get so good at this?"

The answer was obvious, of course. Practice. Practice and practice and practice. This was the type of skill that blossomed after years of hammering on ingots to make gears, springs, and other works of metallic art that danced the fine line between pristine and practical. Practice was the greatest whetstone in the world, and time was the greatest dullard.

"I recommend a heavier spring. It shouldn't break while I have it, but Hisuians didn't have access to the premiere ore we use today. This was probably the strongest they could make. No wonder it broke." His eye flicked to hers. "You have no such limitations."

In the corner, Doug munched contently on the berries. As the two chatted, he eventually rolled onto his back and began to snore. Hopefully he wouldn't wake up from his rest for a while. Howard could only accept his ribs being crushed once a week, and infringing on Aurelie's hospitality was both rude and uncouth.

"The Hisuians believed that making Pokeballs was an art form. It was the ultimate symbol of trust between humanity and Pokémon. Each Pokeball was a symbol of utter love and care." His fingers danced over the engraving as he lectured. "It's art because they believed it as such."

Yuina Higashi knew more about Hisui than Howard did, but the admin was no slouch in the field. Howard looked over the schematic again, then turned to the smith.

"How do you get the ore for projects like these?"

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"The internet, huh?"

Damn. Howard had hoped it wouldn't come to that. He could talk about Kalosian suppliers, shipping lanes, and supply chains for hours and hours. He could ramble about how the Kalosian ports of Cyllage and Coumarine and ore shipments, but instead it came down to the elusive 'internet' that Howard still hadn't figured out.

Having a grunt set up his computer was one of the most awkward experiences in his life. Man, the internet... Wasn't there an app called Grubbinhub or something?

Howard realized that Aurelie was talking.

"Yeah, I've got it. We use something similar for dusting off fossils when we excavate them. Replace rust with dust, but it's the same concept. Dusting away to reveal what's underneath. It's similar to what you said about perfection..."

The admin's hand rested on the box for a second as he gathered his thoughts.

"There's an idea of perfection, but nobody knows what it is. When you forge a sword, there's an idea of that blade in your mind. An idea that you try to recreate in reality. Fossils are similar. When you extract one, you hope for a flawless specimen. An ideal that you desperately hope to reach."

The green box opened and shut with a clang and a click.

Perhaps it was due to the recent promotion, but being ordered around didn't bother Howard much. Getting tools was far easier than cleaning out the bathroom during one of Wo-Chien's many rages. The other admins would loathe him for it, but the rank of admin felt wrong on the archaeologist.

He loved the field and the open outdoors. He loved the feeling of stone and dirt and sand. To trade that for a pencil and paper and a soft cushy chair had been a stark contrast. It had been nice for the first week, but now... what was he? In a sense, he envied Aurelie. She was a grunt and blacksmith both.

Kill the archaeologist and let the admin be born.

"Here." He handed the brush to Aurelie, before peering at the Pokeball. "I've worked with artifact restoration, but carbon steel is bold. You're not afraid of scratching the metal?"

---

Aurelie Lefevre