Lose? Howard almost laughed in the underboss's face.

"I've been losing for my entire fucking life." Ever since pursued a field with no opportunities, no hope for progression, no hope for living. From the moment his brain had formulated what it had wanted to do, Howard's life had turned into hell.

Archaeology was a dead-end field. Howard's life had ended from the moment he had picked up the trowel.

"His name." Cillian would not understand. There was no need in pursuing this line of discussion. "Forget it."

There were more important topics at hand.

"Something fucked with my golem. It did not malfunction, but how is that possible? Nobody alive knows how those things work more than me. So what happened?"

Howard would not accept Regice as malfunctioning. If it was, the ancients had failed their successors and the region was fucked. That was an unacceptable conclusion. Thus, it had to be wrong.

---

Cillian Quinn

If he was a braver man, he would've pushed Cillian Quinn further. There was a world where the brains of Admin Slayte splattered across the walls of this cell.

Nobody would've missed him. Nobody would've lamented his passing. He would've been another cautionary tale to those who came after, to not blunder on the battlefield. There was a world where Howard kept talking. Instead of putting down the shovel, he would've dug deeper and deeper until Cillian's shadow miasma surrounded him.

That was not this world. Howard was too cowardly to die, even to escape Rocket's clutches.

"No, I don't think so. I was being attacked on all sides, and Regice was the only reason I didn't immediately falter." Howard puffed up his lips and exhaled. "I apologize, I was not keeping track."

A poor suit for battle.

"Wait." His scowl darkened as a memory came crawling back. A rare look of contempt blossomed forth. "No. What's the deal with the fire chick? Penelope?"

His foe.

---

Cillian Quinn

"It can feel, for better or worse. Its emotions are unfathomably limited. Regice was not designed to feel."

Yet occasionally, it did.

The stuttering of Jayden's name didn't go unnoticed. If Howard hadn't been teetering on the edge of execution, he would've questioned the underboss on it, but he suspected that there was no need to. The Ruinous Beasts were a cancer that ate away at the humanity of those who held them.

jayden cross was, for better or worse, human. His wrath, his love, his hate, they were all human elements blackened and cursed by that feline that stalked him.

Admin Cross was cursed, and always would be.

"Yeah, the fish made of fire. It tried to swim through Regice, but it's too cold. It couldn't melt the ice." Howard frowned as he remembered what Penelope had said. It was hard to forget. Every time he closed his eye to sleep, he heard her voice taunting him. "She mocked me for missing the shot."

Howard's face contorted with rage.

"She knew what she was doing. That bitch."

---

Cillian Quinn

"I could feel it."

The admin crossed his arms in thought. It was not uncommon for Legendary Pokémon to connect with trainers; most of Rocket's high command consisted of Avatars by this point. Even declan walsh had Darkrai whispering in his ear. Who wasn't contaminated at this point? Amor Rose? THEO BECKETT? Shred? Himself?

Rocket was being ruled more by demigods than humans every day.

"I spoke to it once, but on this I am confident, Quinn. You do not build a defender with emotions, because emotions are the death of duty." Or perhaps they were the life of them. Howard's lips tightened at the mention of priam conrad. Each time he tried to find the grunt, he was off on assignment or hiding in the submarine's gym.

"I'll look into it, but if you're giving me consent to go after Priam, then that means..." The admin rose to face Cillian. "I'm..."

He almost dared not say the words.

"...good to go?"

---

Cillian Quinn