"Tsk." Howard frowned as his helmet frosted over with Regice's freezing aura. He wiped it away as he watched Isaac wage his war for the sake of his ideals. "History loves a hero."

Isaac Merlo. History loved to build itself up around a great hero and warrior. Could a man with such a heart truly move mountains with his will alone? No. Unacceptable. Isaac Merlo was the enemy. He was the enemy. A defector from Rocket who had to be silenced, and yet...

"You're falling apart! You can't keep this up!" Howard shouted over the freezing wind. "Is this the hill you want to die on?"

The man's confidence as he fought back against Tempest Quinn 's Zarude and Howard's Regice caused the archaeologist to stop and laugh.

This was the hill that Isaac Merlo had chosen.

Huh. Howard thought to himself as Neo Mega Evolved. I like Isaac Merlo. I didn't want to, but the Pokémon League needs men like him. Howard and Isaac both believed themselves to be different from Rocket, that they were more human. Yet Rocket had broken them both, and Howard was fighting on a battlefield for a cause he didn't believe in.

Yet he wanted to believe, for that man. He'd believe in this meaningless war for Shred .

"No." His words rebuffed Isaac's own as a shadow appeared over the battlefield. "I won't take him away from his purpose, because he's strong."

"Stronger than your friend. Stronger than both of us." A Blacephalon burst overhead, and Shred's glorious chanting filled his ears. All Howard could do was laugh.

Then Lugia landed on the battlefield.

"They're all yours, Blackbird!" Howard shouted in delight, despite his contempt for Cillian Quinn . "I was getting tired!"

Strange. He thought he heard the distant screaming of Eris Halla . It wasn't proper for a kid to be on the battlefield. He longed to continue his war with Isaac, but Howard was no warrior. As soon as Regice fell, the archaeologist would be on the backfoot. He was weak, but he compensated his weakness with competent Pokémon that didn't need his orders.

Instead, he turned to face another front of boiling magma. He watched as a dome collapsed, and put a hand on his hip, cape fluttering in the wind.

"Councilwoman." It's a cheery, albeit weary response from a man who had just fought several other people. He was tired, yet Regice stood proud. Bits of boiling magma froze and chilled into stone within its presence. "It's been a cold reception, but I suppose you'll change that, hm?"

After a moment, Howard took a seat on a frozen rock. What was that fish by Penelope's side. It gave out a familiar vibe, akin to what Howard felt whenever he shared a room with Elisabeth Fiorelli or jayden cross .

"I'm tired. I'm weary. There's so much to see, and I have much more to chronicle. Ah..." Howard frowned as he saw PENELOPE LIVY 's charred body. "You're hurt. That's not a good look for a head of the League."

The helmet glinted. "Lucky me."

Regice let out a shrill whirr as it fired a Zap Cannon at Chi-yu.

---

Howard realizes that he likes Isaac Merlo.
Shred Zeppelin's dream will never end!
Abandons the front with Isaac to fight Penny
Regice uses Zap Cannon

"This is disadvantageous to me, I cannot win this fight. Yet I'll have to try. PENELOPE LIVY , yo-"

The world shifted, and Howard stopped. Something was wrong. Penelope was forgotten for a moment. The councilwoman was not worthy of his attention.

A greater foe had taken the stage. A god had found its chosen.

His eye, torn out long ago in a ruin he tried to forget twitched in its missing socket. The nerves had been fried long ago, an offering in exchange for the world's truth. It ached, it hurt, and it caused Howard's face to twitch in pain. He wasn't the only one. Palkia's chosen was also struggling, he could tell. Hers was a physical pain. His was an emotional one.

Distantly, he thought he heard Shred screaming.

"No. No." Howard turned from the Treasure of Ruin, his eye now stuck on the far grander prize. This couldn't be happening. The League's Head Professor had been chosen by a deity. Not an artifact of history, that had observed epochs of time since the world was born.

No, this was something that birthed the world. The alpha and the omega. A shard of heaven. That which reassembled the shell of Arceus's egg into the world itself. It had chosen a mortal. Now, that mortal raged.

"No, this can't be." Howard took a step back, hissing in a mix of rage and glorious joy. He wanted to cry tears of joy for Hoenn and tears of despair for Shred. It was like great ropes were wrapping around him, and he was pulling a great weight. With illeana reyes 's ascension, that weight grew heavier.

How long until Howard's back broke from the strain?

"This is wrong. This has never happened before. History has fundamentally changed. The books have been rewritten. This can't... Don't...I will not..."

Kyurem was disappearing. Shred's dream, his chain. It was vanishing, slipping away into a pocket dimension.

"I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIS DREAM AWAY, REYES!"

[break]

The blinding light of a Hyper Beam followed the shrill scream of Regice, several times the size of the one that Isaac that had parried with Neo. Earth began to melt and bubble as the strike charged, then fired. An impossible strike, capable of pushing back the Skeleton Gigantic back into another world.

Yet the only one capable of parrying such a strike...

...was a god.

---

ILLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Howard is having a breakdown (is it good or bad, find out next episode)
Regice is using a Hyper Beam!
All yours Captain/Nikki, cook.
INSHALLAH MY ONE REGI IS JOBBING SAVE ME SHIV AAAAAAAA

[attr="class","penelopepog"]

[attr="class","body"]
"You're hurt. That's not a good look for a head of the League."
[break][break]
The coveted's expression twitched, darkening at his words. They expelled all the worst sides of her: the vulnerable and the bitter. The vindictive and the judgmental. When the Zap Canon arrived, it would miss its destination. She waved her hand, sending the beam out toward any other direction, away from Chi-yu, whose body seared a line of magma through the snow.
[break][break]


"I'd worry more about how Rocket looks..."
[break][break]


In that moment, the world shifted all for the worse. Resentment wrung her heart as pink light swashed the skies, announcing to the world: I am here. I am all powerful, I am all-almighty, and I am here. Penelope's gaze flickered to Chi-yu - did it feel it to?
[break][break]


"...especially now."
[break][break]


Again, the hyper beam would be misdirected, this time aimed to reach Shred instead. [Up to rp discretion!!!] Both with this attack and the last - anyone hit would share this burn. This deep seeded sensation of jealousy gnawing on skin and bone.
[break][break]


"Uh-oh! You should pay better attention," the councilwoman's chuckle resounded through the harrowing hills of snow. To her side, Chi-yu was already preparing retaliation, face fitting a heavy MEAN LOOK. The sinners would pay with brimstone and fire.

[break][break]

NOTES

- Penny redirects howard slayte 's hyper beam to another random member + the second hyper beam aimed for Palkia to Shred ( Up to rp discretion!!! anyone hit would feel the burn of envy. suggestion tho? Toward illeana reyes fufufufu) [break]
- Chiyu uses MEAN LOOK on Regice and howard[break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

when chi-yu is on the field, penelope can confer the DECOY battle status on one target at a time.
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[break]

targets with this status will be preferentially or forcibly attacked by allies and/or enemies. moves that target multiple enemies, such as Ominous Wind (but not moves like Magnitude which target both allies and enemies), will target only the decoy if possible.
[break]
[break]

those who strike this enemy will receive the BURN condition.
[break][break]

First decoy: Gunner Graves[break]

Current Decoy: Shred

You've failed.

You couldn't stop Kyurem from being torn apart. Hell, you couldn't even land a single hit on Palkia. The dragon of space doesn't even so much as tilt its head in your direction. Its all-seeing eyes do not even spare you a singular glance. But it isn't out of ignorance, no, it is fully aware that you are there. It is simply choosing not to acknowledge, you because it is so high, and you are so low.

Hierarchy. That's what it always is. The blessed and the wretched. The good and the bad. Her and you. Them and you. It's how its always been. For some reason, you hoped that if you denied the world, rejected the laws and morals of a world that hated you for the simple circumstances of your life, you could shed that yoke. When you reached the upper echelons of Team Rocket, when you earned the title of Rocket Beast with your own efforts, you thought you had done it. And yet, here you are, helpless before the power of this supposed God and its foremost disciple. All of your efforts were meaningless. No amount of struggle can allow an unfortunate soul to overcome a fortunate one.

This was all for nothing. You've lost.

And yet, as spacial distortions rip outward, illeana reyes's Blacephalon extends its Protect to you. You, the enemy. You, the defeated. You, undeserving on any help, and yet receiving it anyway. You look towards the alchemist with an expression that can only be described as awe.

"Why--"

You never get to finish that sentence.



The Hyper Beam hits.

The dead body of Shred Zeppelin lands at the feet of illeana reyes with a dull thud, killed by the Hyper Beam fired by howard slayte's Regice. Will history remember that it was PENELOPE LIVY who redirected the attack upon a wounded man, all but condeming him to his death? No. History will forget it, for the ones who write it will have the League standing over their shoulder, watching every letter and every word to correct every "error" and "mistake" that might be made.

And the Rocket Beast won't be more than a footnote. His body was already burnt black by the Mind Blown, and the Hyper Beam has only wrought further destruction. Every identifying feature is little more than char. His coat is little more than ash. His blonde hair is burnt to cinders. Even the mask covering his face has broken away, only to reveal more of the same. Char. Ash. Cinder. All the remains is a selection of loose Pokeballs, the last remnants of a man who is no more.

And then, a miracle happens...

Rabsca used Revival Blessing!

...You drag yourself up to your feet.

You take a deep, painful breath. It hurts. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to think. It hurts to exist. Your right arm is so damaged you can barely move it, and your left arm... Its not there anymore. It's gone. Forever.

Bloodshot eyes look towards illeana reyes. Envy bubbles up within you like a volcano. You can only think of one thing to say.

"IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME."

And then, you stagger forward.

---

TL;DR - A phoenix dies and is reborn.
illeana reyes howard slayte PENELOPE LIVY [googlefont=Rubik Burned]

"You can't-" The words barely left his mouth as the Hyper Beam was parried by this strange power. One struck a League member, and the other had struck-

Howard's mind went blank, and his blood froze to ice.

Avatar powers, blessings and cursed from beyond the veil of mankind.

Such a power was not theirs to tame. It belonged solely in the hands of creatures greater than man. Only the chosen were allowed to take those blessings and use them to further the goals of the divine. Yet humanity's story was one of triumph and reaching for things that existed beyond the reach of mortality. Fire had not belonged to man before they had claimed it. Those who were not blessed could simply roll over and die, their purposes irrelevant.

Shred was correct. There had been a disparity between those who were blessed and those who were cursed from the moment this battle had begun. Envy bubbled up.

I was never chosen. The thought leaked into his mind, burning like black pitch. They gave me this artifact without a second thought. It didn't choose me, it can't choose anything. It's a tool.

It would've been better if Rocket had given Regice to Shred. Howard Slayte had never made a decision for himself from the moment he had joined Team Rocket. The only choice given to him was to fight alongside Shred. That was the only free decision he had ever made.

Penelope stole that. The League had stole that. He had the freedom to reap the consequences of his actions. He had the choice to watch as Shred Zeppelin was atomized by Regice. Howard could've joined him.

Mean Look.

Penelope stole that as well.

Shred's lasts moments were spent in the gaze of enemies. Not a single friend watched him die. The Rocket Beast did not spend that moment with loved ones, though he had few. Grigori Sokolov was miles away, and Howard was forced to parley with the Coveted.

"▂▂▃▃!" The sound that came out of Howard's mouth wasn't human. His neck visibly grinded as Howard tried to turn away from Chi-yu. His tendons strained, threatening to snap. His hand trembled. Why was it trembling? Fear? Was he afraid? "You fucking bitch."

Of course. He was a coward, after all. Coward Slayte.

His visor was cracked. He saw a dozen Chi-yus and a dozen councilwomen. There was nothing left. No victory. No grand conclusion. There was only one logical conclusion: Penelope had cheated. She had cheated. Cheater. Cheater. Cheater.

There was nothing left to do but laugh. Of course the League would try to stamp out the dreams of people.

"You're wrong, Reyes. You can't take a dream. You can take everything but a dream. You would know that if you could control that power." Howard's voice was choked. "He's dead, but his dream isn't. It lives on with me. If you kill me, it'll move on to another."

If this was truly the end, they would rage towards it. Sparks that kept the dream burning, long after the original dreamers had burned out.

As Shred rose, a specter limping forward towards damnation, Regice stopped moving. The pattern on its face glowed brightly as each individual dot winked out as it prepared to explode.

Howard would end. History would not.

"Our dreams..." Howard's visor glinted as another dot winked out. "...will never end!"

---

Staring content with Penny
I HATE PENELOPE I HATE PENELOPE I HATE PENELOPE
No choice, no hope
People's dreams have no end
Regice is preparing to use Explosion