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Not hard enough, he might've thought to say...[break][break]

Life on the open seas did not suit him, he felt, clasping a hand to the ship's rail as they broke through open waters. Though he could not fathom the depths of their operations here, Adrian knew enough to understand its importance. Dynite ore, huh? What a treat.[break][break]

Muted echoes of anguish tingle along his arm, a fragmented recollection of times long behind them. It's true that Adrian has seen his fair share, but much and more has escaped him also. The rise of Dynamax is something that has surprised him, among other strange... augmentations that have been rediscovered across Hoenn's mutilated landscape.[break][break]

Would that he could go back to simpler times...[break][break]

"Less so these days." He couldn't claim to have kicked the habit, but his lungs thanked him for the infrequency of his addiction. He manages a curious glance at Howard, wondering what might have provoked this chance encounter. Surely there were important matters—[break][break]

"I'm sure many have seen worse and fared better." Wounded ego aside, there was much and more for him to feel proud having accomplished. Perhaps he cannot look back through rose-tinted lenses, but he does at least acknowledge the good from the bad.[break][break]

Perhaps that is the vein their interest stems from. Though it tires him so, he cannot help but feel himself guessing at ulterior motives when others seek him out with their questions...

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Howard was one to stand on ceremony, then. Adrian plucks the nail from its coffin, tucking it loosely against the corner of his mouth, allowing it to hang limply while he waited for a light, cupping the flame from the turbulent seabreeze.[break][break]

A puff. A drag. A plume of smoke.[break][break]

Adrian used to soak up this sort of validation, but he found himself faraway from his old self. It was a small comfort, but he supposed it better to the alternative: To be treated as some cumbersome vagabond, purposeless and without value. He should be glad of that lasting impression, even after losing his vestige.[break][break]

'I wonder where this is going...'[break][break]

Anticipation welled up within his chest, his mind left to drift in a brief light-headed euphoria.[break][break]

And there it was. The all important question that had seen these two brought together. Regirock.[break][break]

Adrian manages a knowing glance towards his cohort. Though he could not have imagined the exact nature of their question, it was not uncharacteristic for men of their disposition to desire power in all of its manifestations.[break][break]

"What could you possibly ask that hasn't been answered in some verbose report...?"

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It was like pulling teeth. Adrian was being nothing if not difficult, and for little reason as was his nature. But the promise of something in return... It fostered good faith from this kindred spirit. That, and his cooperation would be expected—anything less might be considered treacherous by those less forgiving of his character flaws. "Alright..."[break][break]

Putting his back to the railing, Adrian turns his attention to the fresh haul splattering seawater across their deck. Not unlike the fragment...[break][break]

"The creature itself was depicted on murals, like a sort of guardian deity perhaps,"¹ he began, his memory returning somewhat. One might consider it conjecture, as the actual carvings and allegory could no longer be explored—and many had lacked the foresight to document their findings at the time.[break][break]

"Regirock attacked indiscriminately, but only after we'd triggered several traps and disturbed its sanctum." Another sharp drag followed by a cloud of smoke, the rich menthol dulling the burn that filled his lungs. He couldn't be sure what Howard was hoping to learn, so he reluctantly prattled on, for better or worse.[break][break]

"The ancients depicted what would've been ETERNATUS, in hindsight. I think it was the guardian's foe, but... There was something more it could have been."² Though it would have seemed obvious to them now, he cannot be sure anyone would have made the conclusion before the events that followed only years after.[break][break]

"I believe the guardians were made to be what they are using ETERNATUS' power... But I am not sure how that came to pass." Moreover, he is not able to accurately conclude whether the guardians existed before they had divested the leviathan's power for their own ends.[break][break]

"At the time, I was pursued by Katherine Fairburne for possession of a REGIROCK FRAGMENT. The guardian—Regirock—seemed to protect me for a time, until..." Adrian tried to find the words, though what had actually transpired still escaped him somewhat.[break][break]

"Katherine was able to create an opposing pull, or tether, to Regirock—it was a stalemate... At the time, I tried to steal Regirock's power for myself using... Methods at my sole disposal." Adrian did not lightly share the nature of his abilities as avatar, and no amount of prying would ever change that.[break][break]

Adrian could still remember how it felt. The burning jolt up his arm was nothing like INFINITY ENERGY, the life force of pokemon. And though it responded to his influence, he could not harness it. Moreover, as he pondered over the nature of Regirock's shaky loyalty, it might have been what caused the creature to fall out from under his influence.[break][break]

"At the time I didn't understand it, but I must have antagonized it by attempting as much, forcing it to once more treat me as an intruder. But that power... It had to be dynergy that gave it titanic strength."[break][break]

Adrian turned and cast a suspecting stare in Howard's direction, looking to see any hint of satisfaction—or perhaps even disappointment—painting his features. Though if anything, he thought Howard looked to be expecting something else than what he'd gotten...[break][break]

"Perhaps most of this seems obvious now."[break]

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Their hand to his shoulder is enough to perturb him, even without the chill that seemed to hang in the air. Adrian would tolerate it outwardly, but not-so-secretly he found it revulting—a gesture he would not deign to return. A simple thank you might have sufficed between newly-acquainteds.[break][break]

Adrian could not help feeling that—on some level—they were living beings. Like all life, they contained that spark, and an aura he could draw upon and observe, once upon a time...[break][break]

He could believe they were machine-like, but he did not believe ancient sciences alone could induce this level of autonomity in mere constructs. In these automatons, they had created a simulacrum of life, even in this proto-stage. Surely, a higher power had been at play.[break][break]

This was a feeling he had, and nothing more. But to his mind, their actions reflected the confusion of one waking from a deep slumber, he felt, just as much as machines responding to archaic, corrupted command prompts.[break][break]

But Adrian found their expression to be purely rhetorical, and was not interested in challenging academic belief with a feeling, so he kept his opinion to himself rather than contribute to any fruitless discourse. Instead, he pacified himself with thoughts of dynergy, watching the cigarette plummet for the roiling abyss below.[break][break]

"Not so far as I can remember..." There was a time, somewhere faraway and disconnected from this reality, that he felt himself probing at—thoughts of Furor on some draconian rampage—but he is unsure of the phenomenon. Adrian fidgets with a ring wrought around his finger, remembering this modicum of peace separated by entire realities. "I hear it's dangerous."[break][break]

His eyes betray a fiendish interest, as of one who coveted power, when he turns his attention to Howard for elaboration.

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Adrian is no stranger to the danger posed when one lightly brandishes these greater powers, but he would not have counted on the repercussions of the transformation being so damning. Even if it could be done without a Dynamax Band, it was a fatalistic process—something that would have been learned firsthand before it was documented... Who found that one out?[break][break]

Adrian manages his sympathy before locking his eyes with the pokeball hurtling skywardly. He did not count on Howard having in his possession another Regi, though with how lightly he handled it, perhaps the knowledge was not so much guarded as he was simply ignorant to it.[break][break]

His instinct to know compels him then to glance in Howard's direction—his eyes strain as if trying to discern something about him—but it proves a fruitless gesture. A thin smile breaks up the intensity of his stare, as fingers run over his face and through tousles of hair, a sort of tic. Of course, there was nothing off about Howard...[break][break]

...Save that he wears no Dynamax Band...[break][break]

"Yeah... It does." Mostly in how the eyes were formed. Outside of that, its body was comprised solely of its designated material, in this case the ice that chilled the seabed around them.[break][break]

But more than that—he feels the pressure of its presence weighing down on him; daunting enough that his heart skips a beat.[break][break]

Adrian manages a hard stare at the monolithic creature. It presents a troubling problem for him—how could he ever hope to challenge something of this caliber, that can be so easily conjured by simply wearing the requisite band?[break][break]

The titan takes to the transformation naturally, its influence spreading over the waters in spite of their turbulence. Adrian manages another side glance along Howard's wrists, his brow quirked quietly. Perhaps such things were simply best worn discretely, to avoid theft.[break][break]

"Are there no other conditions necessary...?"[break][break]

Adrian wanted, needed to know more.

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It is chilling to see man's ravenous pursuit of power mirrored in Howard, just as it had once gripped him, without the other seeming to be fazed by their own power lust. Even for Rocket, Adrian was surprised to see others take to these new outlets so readily, undeterred by such a hefty setback. Truly, in some ways they seemed heartless.[break][break]

Where was the apprehension of any sane being?[break][break]

Adrian watched as a Gyarados broke through the surface, impressed by its size and stature, hoping to see its demonstrable power—perhaps hoping to gauge Furor's capacity with Dynamax—but the leviathan was swatted away almost as quickly as the upstart had surged through the rapids. Their vessel buoys with the turbulent waves, forcing them to deepen the buffer distancing them from the conflict.[break][break]

POWER—AND PURPOSE

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It reeks of the clandestine nature of Yveltal's work. Through its many musings, Adrian came to know the gifts these creatures imparted on them were always burdened with a greater purpose. And for now, Howard had perhaps revealed to him the very charge that had brought Regice into his possession.[break][break]

"...And exactly which god would that be?"[break][break]

Adrian was not one to make conditional pledges in ignorance, not after what it'd costed him.

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He might've thought Howard to mean anything but ETERNATUS, but the answer is able to satisfy his curiosity. It was not the likes of any peaceable creature upon which he wished harm—one might even consider it deserving. Retribution for its many crimes against mankind and pokemon both—and perhaps even more than that.[break][break]

"...I'm not even sure it can be killed."[break][break]

Many of these awful yet awe-inspiring creatures were forces of nature deified. The permanence of death was a thing of mortal convention—beings of a higher order were not so easily brought to their end.[break][break]

He did not doubt a thing could be destroyed, or even buried—but the tenacity of these amortals was mistakeable for immortality—and such an errand spelled certain doom for those foolhardy enough to try. Not that they would be left with ample alternative when disaster next razed Hoenn's marred landscape.[break][break]

Adrian steadies his hands to the ship's rails, staring back towards the mainland. At those jutting peaks guarding that island oasis; a land that was itself a house of memories, fond and foul. In times past he had been quick to defend it, and time had not so greatly changed his inclinations... And yet—[break][break]

It might have meant something once, to be held in such esteem—but now he equally considers his own expendability—especially to those as intended to wield him. And it makes him hesitant to promise anything more—to give anymore than he already has.[break][break]

"I do not doubt that I will make myself useful, if and when the moment calls for it—but I can promise you nothing beyond that." He stares.[break][break]

As with all things, he would have to find his own way, even if he had to muddle through it indelicately.[break][break]

He would not allow himself to be used.[break][break]

That had been his last lesson—he needn't revisit it.