"Y--yeah...You?!"

His muscles had demanded to give in, his knees starting to quick to buckle quickly under his weight as Laurence tried to stand up. Raging Bolt had hardly given them any time to adjust, its force was something it demonstrated easily, and judging by how Laurence's Scolipede had struggled to get back up, it had seemed there was little time at all before the party before it be decommissioned. Howard had relied on what Pokemon he had left, the doctor witnessing even the most stout giants fall to the beast's strength. Even his own roster had been no exception, Mandibuzz had been shot from the sky with stray bolts from the heavens, and Toxicroak had gone entirely still with paralysis. What Pokemon he had left would essentially be fighting what could only be seen as a losing battle. 

However, it was a battle to be fought nonetheless. It had seemed Howard had known that, and Laurence would have to have learned it as well, and that started with Armaldo charging in. 

"Scolipede, Megahorn, now!" 

His command came out weak as he tried to right himself back up, watching his Scolipede get to its command with a mad dash towards the Paradox, its head lowered as its antennae grew much larger in an attempt to pierce the flesh of it. He had hoped this duo would at least get some sort of merit from simultaneously assaulting, the two bug Pokémon heading towards to deal as much damage as they could to it. 

howard slayte

Blasted doctor. The admin stabilized his postures. His knees were weak from the static shock produced by this monstrous Raikou, and its nature as a 'dinosaur' made Howard want to wring its overlong neck. It was mocking him. Its existence was mocking him.

He was an archaeologist, and he had to contend with a creature that Tera Crystals had made with the drop of a hat? There was no record of this thing, no glory to its discovery. It was nothing more than a nonsensical creature mocking them. Howard wondered what happened to the original Raikou during the war in Johto.

Somehow, he suspected it was laughing at them now.

Claw and horn dug into flesh, which bled a deep red as the Raging Bolt howled. The whirr of electricity rang in the cloud around its maw as it charged up a strike. Before Howard could react, it unleashed an electrical strike; a Thunder Clap/.

Celpho stumbled back, obviously shocked. Flickers of electricity arced across its body as Paralysis set in. The Paradox slammed its neck down in the Armaldo's direction, leaving Laurence's Megahorn to strike at its leisure.

Now was the time.

---

Laurence Whateley

The Raging Bolt commanded lightning as if it were nothing, sending a bolt towards Armaldo in its attempt to strike back from its previous attempt, yet completely forgetting about the Scolipede that had quickly been in its vicinity. 

"Scolipede, Venoshock!" 

Laurence barked at it, quick to capitalize on what he could do, if it had only gotten Armaldo, then Scolipede would pick up where it left off! The insect moved back a bit before its stingers shot out a dark and ominous liquid from them, the force almost like a fire hose being shot at it, and it wouldn't have taken long for the dinosaur to be covered, the toxin painting over the canvas of the Raging Bolt in mere seconds.

It wouldn't have been much damage to it, but it was exactly what the Doctor wanted, the toxins of the Scolipede worked quick, and soon what skin it covered seeped in effortlessly...Only then would the Raging Bolt feel what would happen. It's skin slowly began to blanch, the striking yellow paling in certain areas, as the veins began to darken, revealing a purple hue to them. It was fast working, that Scolipede poison. It wouldn't be much longer before it'd reach throughout the entire body either, making it at least somewhat a bit more manageable for the two.

howard slayte

When a strike could barely pierce a beast's hide, you lathered the dagger with poison.

It was ironic that a doctor would wield poison so casually, but Rocket's forces consisted of those who were capable of putting moral scruples to the side in favor of their own personal goals. Whatever Laurence's were, Howard did not know.

Wait, he did. The man's daughter. Of course Laurence would coat himself in venom in order to protect her.

The poison did good work, turning an unmanageable threat into a manageable one with remarkable ease. Where raw strength could not close the gap, poison did. It let Howard's Armaldo lunge forward with a primal wrath that rivaled the Raging Bolt. Its X-Scissor carved its mark into flesh, and the Raging Bolt responded by sending a Draco Meteor falling down from the sky.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Meteors fell like leaves, with one crashing into Celpho. The fossil stumbled for a moment, before collapsing in a defeated heap. With its prey defeated, the Raging Bolt directed its full attention onto Laurence and his Scolipede.

One on one.

---

Laurence Whateley

He hadn't seen a Draco Meteor so close, the brilliance of what could only be seen as God-like, raining down destruction from above. The shower of fallen shards and flares came down with what force it could, bringing scorching heat with it, and before the Armaldo had time to respond, it found itself in the flurry of it all. Smoke erupted, blanketing everything in its wake, only when it cleared would Laurence be also to witness himself from the distraught sight of Armald, fainted on the ground. It left him and Scolipede now. 

"Shit shit shit, Scolipede, still fighting?!"

Laurence called out to his Pokémon standing tall amongst the carnage that had been unleashed on it, the Scolipede letting out a guttural sound as it responded to its concerned trainer. The air began to crackle, hairs on the duo's arms sticking up as dark clouds gathered around them, Raging Bolt was charging another attack, one final thunderclap to send the rest of its prey to a shallow grave. The doctor had to manage to survive a one-on-one with the beast. 

"Scolipede, hurry and use double edge!" 

And with such, the Scolipede took into a mad dash, only had Raging Bolt gone and attempted to strike Scolipede when it collided with it, would it have gotten a point-blank thunder on it. However, it would be another great sight of true progress, as once Scolipede connected with it, would the Raging Bolt's large body be moved a bit, the impact enough to cause another uproar of dust to begin, clouding each party. Laurence tried to find his own Pokemon, however, even he knew that it too would have been knocked out from the brawl...it could only take so much. 

howard slayte

As predicted, Scolipede fell.

There was no shame to its defeat. It fought hard, and in the end it fell protecting Laurence. What was it supposed to do against a Draco Meteor that lit up the sky? Blow it away? The only upside was the fact that Laurence was still kicking. The doctor was stronger than Howard realized.

"Bad. This is bad." Howard struggled to his feet yet again. He wanted to fall over and take a nap, but there was no rest for the wicked. If he fell asleep, he'd likely never wake up. "Laurence..."

If it had been anyone else, this wouldn't have happened. Shred would've won this fight with contempt on his lips and rage in his soul. Tempest Quinn would've beaten this thing within an inch of its life. All of them would've been better choices than Howard Slayte. Laurence should've been with them, not with him.

No. This was not the end. Howard remembered his conversation with Laurence from earlier, back when they discussed mankind's never-ending malice. Humanity had built weapons to avoid extinction, and Howard had one of them on his belt. He had wanted to prove that he could take this thing on without relying on it, but that had obviously failed him.

"Fine." Howard reached for his belt. "We're not going to die here. I won't lose to some twisted mockery of Raikou in a shithole like this."

A Pokeball coated in ice flew through the air, before opening in a flash. A coat of frost covered everything in the area, from Scolipede to Laurence to Howard himself. It grew cold, blisteringly so. As the temperature dropped, a titan larger than the Raging Bolt emerged.

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"Hyper Beam." A blast of light engulfed the Raging Bolt, sending it careening through several rock formations as it was blasted back by raw power. Regice was a hammer, and the Raging Bolt was the nail. As the Paradox Pokemon crashed into a cliffside, it grew still.

Alive. Barely breathing.

---

Laurence Whateley

They were out of options. Out of time. The toxins would be working their way into the Raging Bolt's system, but it wouldn't be enough to take it out unless they were given a miracle by Arceus itself, and right now...Any miracles they had had ran out long ago. They could only accept the fate that had been handed to them, a bad had they could do nothing but play with. The only thing he could hope for was that whatever would happen to him, Sophia wouldn't grieve him too long. A picture of her came to his mind, his nerves calmed down from the aching and screaming they did, but he'd be ripped from the comfort when he heard Howard's voice.

The doctor's vision was blurry, hazy from the debris and smoke that had assaulted the group from the relentless battling, but he was certain enough that he could see Howard reaching for another Pokeball on his belt. He still continued to fight, even though it had seemed like the odds were stacked against them...In a way, he couldn't help but hope it would fall through.

The Archeologist's comment had made Laurence suck in a breath, the refusal of going out in such a way almost an admonishment on his immediate defeatism. Get up. That was what he was saying. However, once Howard released that Pokeball, little did Laurence know what he would see, for it would take nothing for the area they occupied to go white with an ethereal and frozen mist.

The first thing he could feel was the sense of isolation, the mist itself shrouding the world around him entirely, covering what it could in what had felt almost too similar to a permafrost, the second he felt was the cold that had slowly began to sneak up on him, gnaw on him. 

"Howard! Howard!"

He called out, yet dared not move an inch, fearful of what he could have walked into had he gone wandering about the haze. But the response he wanted had gone cold, replaced with incoherent beeps and buzzes and then with a looming shadow, something that only dwarfed what he could remember of the Paradox Pokemon. Something new was here, but it wouldn't stay hidden for long...It attacked.

Hyperbeam.

Light engulfed the area, followed by a heat that had eradicated what haze had been first generated, leaving behind the sight of the Raging Bolt much further than it had been, the ground before it singed a dark black from the blast. Laurence turned to see what had caused it, and froze. Behind him, stood the culprit, a titan made from what could be only described as crystalline ice, Regice. 

"Is that..."

The question had come out rather than stayed as a thought, the thing that stood before him was no ordinary Pokemon, rather it had been something that had been only talked about in legends and folktales, however, it stood tall and real. Laurence's eyes erratically tried to find something to anchor it to reality for him to make sure he truly hadn't died in the attack against Raging Bolt, however, they easily landed on him. It's trainer, standing beside it just as battered and bruised as from before. 

"Howard, don't tell me you have..."

howard slayte

"...the legacy of our species. This is the wisdom of humanity." The admin took a deep breath as he turned towards the doctor. Frost crept across his body like a gentle blanket, and he took a deep breath, relishing in the cold and the Dynergy. "This is the malice I told you of. Our greatest boon and our greatest shame."

Cold. Cold and power. Even if he struggled to defeat other Pokémon with his Rock-types, Regice never failed. It was infallible, even when weakened. Nothing in this cave network was its equal. With it, Howard sat as high as a Rocket Beast.

He was strong. Yes, he and this Pokémon were strong.

"I salvaged this golem with my two hands. I put it back together. It listens to me, now." The admin clenched a fist, relishing in a moment of control that he hadn't had moments ago. When his Claydol fell, and his Armaldo, and all his other Pokémon, he had felt weak. Not now. "Laurence."

The admin tossed the doctor a Pokeball in a high arc, letting him decide whether or not to grab it.

"Catch it. Cure it. You poisoned it, right?" The admin took a deep breath as he returned Regice to its Pokeball. The admin swayed in place, dizzy. "I'll tell you about it later. For now..."

He collapsed in a heap, with Regice's Pokeball frozen to his hand, stuck. Laurence was now alone with the Raging Bolt an unconscious Rocket Admin.

---

Laurence Whateley

If he had any trouble with comprehending anything, it would have been now. He couldn't understand why Howard had gotten his hands on such a thing, or what this greatest shame could have been now, no, rather the doctor could only mutely stare at the titan. His understanding had been that he was standing before a legend of Hoenn itself. 

It listens to me. 

That had been something difficult to chew, the idea of something so autonomous and powerful falling in line to another human. Laurence could only conjure up the idea of Howard once dying on his cot, the blackened ice that grew on him, and his eyes barely hanging onto life. He was human.

Luckily his body had at least managed to make up for what his mind lacked currently, when Howard tossed him the Pokeball, instinctively he had tossed it toward the heavily injured Raging Bolt, it easily not putting up a fight as it settled inside. The entire time, however, his brain had not registered any of it. He wouldn't be snapped from it until Howard had accused him of poisoning the Pokemon. 

"Yeah...I have a cure back at the lab... I'll administer it when we get back. It shouldn't be too difficult. We should head back, speaking of that--"

The doctor had begun to turn and hopefully get his own Pokémon back into their respective Pokeballs when the thump from behind him took his attention. Howard had fallen then and there...The doctor was quick to grab hold of the man, relieved that his lungs expelled the cool air it took in. Shit, he had passed out, here of all places. The doctor brought the man up a bit resting his body against him to make sure he wouldn't choke, hoping that he could at least care for the limp body without interaction...This would be a problem, he wasn't exactly in the best condition either, and the doctor swore at the situation. 

"Howard... Dammit, you better not have died here..."

howard slayte