The admin looked dreadful as he lumbered into the tent, weary and tired. It looked as if he had just lost a fight with a mountain. Sand, dust, and gravel caked his hair and shoulders. In his hand was a curled up map of a small section of Area Zero that he had personally charted.

"Sorry for the wait. I just had a mountain thrown at me. Good day, Lulu. Xenon." Howard bowed his head as he noticed the dark specter in the corner. "Boss Walsh. Underboss Beckett."

God, he hated this woman. Most of the time, she yelled at him. The rest of the time, she judged him. Past and future were branches that extended from the present, but the future was more uncontrollable of the two. The past was set in stone, an ironclad wall that could only accumulate more events set in stone.

The future? It was unreliable. Finnicky. Explosive.

At least she wasn't as derisive as before. Hopefully he could get through this meeting with minimal headache and then get some rest. Until then, introductions. It was a formality. He suspected that Walsh and Theo knew everything about every individual in this tent, from their credit card number to what they had for lunch a month ago.

Still, formalities were a shield. A paper one, but a shield nonetheless.

"Admin Fox. Geologist. Archaeologist." Howard raised his head and peered at Xenon's technobabble setup. He had no clue how it worked, but he kept his confusion hidden. "What's on the list?"

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Xenon Antheil Lulu Flint THEO BECKETT declan walsh

So this is the one that @cillian had mentioned to him. Amor pushed himself into the tent to find a few people that he recognized there, along with the big boss himself. A quirk of his brow formed, but he said nothing, and instead listened to Xenon Antheil introduce themselves, then one after the other the rest introduced themselves. He figured it was his turn.

"Head Scientist Amor Rose, I specialize in the various types of energy found in Hoenn, Primal, Infinity, and now I am expanding that to Tera, and Dynergy. Along with their effects on various phenomenon, and my other focused research is Avatars, and their associated legendaries." He expressed, and he took the seat next to howard slayte the person he was most familiar with in this setting. Of course he knew of the others, but he wasn't going to be presumptuous, and sit next to an Underboss, and he didn't think he, and Lulu Flint were at the 'sitting next to each other' stage in their relationship.

Some part of him still felt like she would just drive a knife into his thigh. So Howard was the safest bet, he gave his fellow Nebula operative a pleasant smile, and he remained silent so as to not interrupt their host.

declan walsh , howard slayte , THEO BECKETT , Xenon Antheil, Lulu Flint

Amor for his part was getting tired of all the legends giving them vague prophecies with zero actual hint on what to do....Why couldn't they just say what they wanted them do? It would have made life so much easier for the lot of them.

"Was there anything more to the Prophecy?" He asked THEO BECKETT, it was a surprisingly short one, and he'd want to know more if there was more. Still for the moment there was little to contribute lest he just rehash what the others said. At all of their gazes turning to howard slayte he just flashed his companion a smile. While he didn't think Howard was a bore like the rest, he didn't necessarily appreciate this unknown grunts rudeness to the admin. Though he'd let it slide if for no other reason than he figured it wasn't worth dealing with at the moment.

"Do we know if this is the same Hoopa that was bound to someone from the League?" Amor only knew about this due to Adontis. His Pikachu had apparently gotten into a scuffle with the little genie at some function he attended a long time ago, though he struggled to remember who it belonged to. Perhaps a quick search of the League records from his newly acquired hacker might provide some insight.

howard slayte Lulu Flint THEO BECKETT declan walsh Xenon Antheil

"That's me. The bore."

Xenon's mockery is met with a genial tone as the admin flicked through some ledgers and reports. There's no need to defend his honor in front of so much of upper command. Each time the scientist spoke, she slandered herself. Instead of biting back with his own words, Howard lets THEO BECKETT speak for his subordinate. When he chastises Xenon, all the admin does is raise an eyebrow at her.

There is no need to interrupt your opponent when she is making a mistake.

"I do." The admin nods at Theo and Amor in gratitude. Bonds build through cooperation often paid dividends over bonds formed from derision. "I have a guess, though not from my travels. I've been taking some time to read up on the various knickknacks we've been collecting in the RKS Simulation."

Howard reading anything from the RKS Simulation was a big surprise, given he didn't even know how the simulated world worked.

"There's a bottle in there made from Arceus's plates. That is likely the key. I have a question, though. I leave this up to the veterans."

He gestures at Lulu, Theo, and Amor. For a man on the verge of collapsing from overwork, his eye was very alert. It gleamed with the same light that it got whenever a new shipment of bones arrived at Sootopolis.

"Can we trust Hoopa's word?" He crossed his arms. "Why would it tell us anything that would further our cause, and not its own? Is there any chance that this could be a trick?"

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Xenon Antheil THEO BECKETT Lulu Flint Amor Rose declan walsh