Joy is absent from the dog's world when blood sprays the white ground. Blood, in this business, marks one's passage from this life to the next. His opponent did not deserve to die. By all objective metrics such things are judged, she has more of a right to life than he does. She slips into unconsciousness, with only a Pokemon to stop him from taking the final blow.[break][break]His packmates are preoccupied, his leaders fighting their own vicious wars. Humans blessed with the power of gods bicker like the heroes history will remember them as. It will little remember the bloodstained maw of a dog.[break][break]Amber eyes look down, fixated on the edge of his sword. It watches the blood drip. It would be so easy to press on, so easy to kill. A life ending and a life's continuation are separated by a few pounds of pressure to the right spot with the right tool. All he has to do is take that step, apply that pressure. Her story will end.[break][break]But he can't, and he doesn't. There's too much blood on his hands already, too many who deserve life while this dog obliviously trots through life.[break][break]So, when he could strike, he turns, and walks away.

"AARGGHHHHH...!" Howard's eye was fixed firmly on PENELOPE LIVY 's Chi-yu. He couldn't look away from it. It stared into his soul, locking his muscles in place. He had been Mean Looked by Zubats and Golbats before, but this was like comparing a spark to the sun.

The Ruinous Beast's power was overwhelming. It was a glorious artifact. So blinding that it scalded him, so magnificent that he couldn't look away. He hated that such a vessel for envy could hold any sway over him.

He envied that he couldn't have it.

Yet there was something else to be done. Something else to fight for. This treasure, this glorious treasure... He had traveled the world looking for such magnificent specimens. If he detonated Regice and took out everyone around him, victory would be his. His Regice was failing, anyway. A damaged artifact was a meaningless one.

No.

What?

This is not you.

It was. He was a scoundrel. Shred was dead. Howard had indulged his friend's delusions, and now there was nothing left. The story was over. Everything had ended here. There was no reason to keep fighting, no reason to stay living. He would close this chapter, and let illeana reyes write a new one as Palkia's chosen.

She could save Hoenn.

Howard's dream of preservation ended, but someone else would pick it up. Isaac Merlo , with his unwillingness to bend. Grigori Sokolov , with his path towards redemption. Eris Halla , with her undying desire for family. They all had something personal to fight for. There was no need for Howard Slayte to get up.

Get up. Turn.

"I can't do it." He couldn't break this Mean Look. He couldn't turn away. He was a coward, a weak-willed brat playing at fossils on the battlefield. The strong would trample his corpse as they climbed to loftier heights.

Get up.

"I'm trying... I can't!" Howard's neck strained, his pupil dilated. All he could feel was envy. Penelope Livy was too tall a mountain to climb.

You promised to see everything that history had to offer. Do not become a page in their history book. Write your own. Write the accurate version.

Jade beads met one good eye.

This is not you. Remember your promise.

He turned away, and left his feelings of envy and destruction behind.

"Ha... Ha... Ha..." Howard's forehead was slick with sweat. He wiped it with a shaking hand, forgetting that his visor was still on. "I'm... sorry. I'll have to turn my back on a woman too. My fiancée never forgave me, so don't feel the need to, either."

His eye flicked to the husk of Shred Zeppelin , which continued its march towards Illeana and Palkia. The sight of him marching filled Howard's heart with courage and hope. This was the power of the indominable human spirit.

"Regice." He shambled forwards as Regice reached one braille dot. "Stall. Defend. You understand that much, right?"

The automaton stopped, and turned to face Chi-yu. In the moment before detonation, its body glowed brightly. Yet in that bright sheen was a flaw. There was no power source. Not only was Regice missing a Power Spot, but it was missing a core. Despite that, it turned to face its foe.

"You can't kill Regice." Howard rasped as he stumbled over his cape towards the Rocket Beast. "It's a guardian of Hoenn, a fruit of humanity's wisdom. There will come a day where it will defend you when no one else will."

It, and all its colleagues.

"Shred..." Howard trudged forward, past the retreating annalise henderson and the various other Rockets and League members battling. "I've..."

He reached out and grabbed the man's shoulder.

"...got you."

The Rocket Beast was too light. Skin and bones. Everything else had been burned away. There was too little left of Shred Zeppelin. All that was left was Paul Meatles.

Fine. Howard would protect him too, just as Regice protected Howard. The Ruination struck, seeping into the golem, striving deeper and deeper for any for anything to corrupt. Chi-yu's envious tendrils found Dynergy leylines and ice eons older than the most primal icebergs. Delving greedily, it found a cavity for a core.

A core that was not there.

⠎⠓⠥⠞⠞⠊⠝⠛ ⠙⠕⠺⠝. Regice slumped down from the strike. ⠛⠕⠕⠙⠃⠽⠑ ⠃⠗⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗⠎ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠎⠊⠎⠞⠑⠗⠎.

The braille pattern flickered, then went dark.

"We give up." Howard looked up at Illeana, still struggling to control her powers. "You've won. I'm throwing down my sword. You've a strong heart, Reyes."

Space continued to corrode. He should've ran away, but he felt strong. His emotional fears were tamped down, and in their place was courage. Courage that didn't seem real to Howard, but he would not complain.

"I shouldn't have struck you. I'm not a good fit for the heat of battle." Howard admitted, his cracked visor flickering. His frozen cape flapped in the wind like a stiff sheet. He had lost himself fighting alongside Shred. That hadn't been him. He had festered in battle.

He had been weak.

"You've rewritten the history books. This is good! Excellent, even!" Howard heard Regice collapse to the ground. This was bad. The League would take it into custody when they took Howard and Shred. A Beast, an Admin, and a Legendary disappearing? It'd be a disaster for Rocket, yet that didn't matter to Howard. History was being written. This was his passion.

"If a god has chosen you, then the only thing you can do is what we can't. Please. Use this power for good. Defend our region. Defend our home."

Mesprit appeared above Howard and Shred, with Regice returning to its Pokeball.

"You must-"

The trio disappeared as Mesprit teleported them away.

Those feelings... was that you? Howard's last thoughts rang out as he was zapped away.

No, they were always yours.

---

Overcomes Mean Look through SHEER FUCKING WILL ft. Mesprit
Runs to Shred, happy he's kicking
"You won, Illie and Penny."
Howard/Shred/Regice teleport away

TSDT(L)

A little late to the party.

What a mess of a battlefield.

This had been one of the more chaotic frontlines in Hoenn, despite how brief it had been.

With one of the Pseudo-Sword of justice machines hoisted over his shoulder like a freshly hunted Sawsbuck, the blonde man overlooked the remaining struggles between the Hoenn league and the rockets with a worried look in his eye.

None seemed to recognize the madness of working together one moment and immediately switching to murdering each other the next. Say what you will about strange bed fellows and what not, but something about these continued occurrences felt fake. Ordained?

"The triad's are doing as they please." He mumbled to himself... before turning his gaze towards the sound of steel steps on ice.

He found himself staring at yet another iron effigy of the swords of justice, the green steel gleaming under the sun.

Hoooh... Discount Virizion?

Well, if he couldn't study the real thing...

---

TL;DR:
-Done here.