Despite his tenure with Rocket, Howard still did not understand the RKS System.

It was a miracle machine that worked wonders by creating a false world within a machine. Sentient circuitry turned into synapses that caused data to pulse. Zeroes and ones became a world as real as the genuine article. To the Head Scientists and eggheads in Rocket, the RKS System was an invaluable asset.

To Howard, it was a mockery of the genuine article. Reality being so easily emulated made Howard want to rage.

"Watch out, Laurence!" The admin shouted from the back of his Cyclizar. He swerved between two Techno Blasts, courtesy of his riding experience with Josh Devlin. The admin dipped and bobbed through traffic and the neon city of lights. Hopefully, the doctor would follow his lead.

"If you want field experience, this is the best way to get it!" Howard turned into the alleyway in an attempt to dodge the swarm of lasers.

---

Laurence Whateley
THROUGH THE ALLEYWAYS

He wondered if this was what birth was like waking up in the moment. His mind formed in whatever situation he'd been placed in, where the lights had seemed to be blindingly neon, the roads only illuminated by billboard signs and the various colored streetlamps that lit the way. He hadn't fully realized that he'd been moving, until the sounds of sirens blared into his ears, the loud cries of the genesects grabbing his attention. Behind him were not civilians, but a police force clad in black clothes, the red and blue lighting only highlighting their features for the second as the Pokemon chased after the two.

“Shit, Howard, what the hell is this?!”

Laurence demanded answers, his question half slurred due to the winds, as he and the cyclizar swerved through the streets. He tried to focus on Howard, the archeologist’s figure blurring as he ducked in and out of the glare of street lamps. A white light shot passed him, forcing his cyclizar to jerk for a moment. Eyes on the road. He could feel his heart almost skip a beat, the destruction of the Techno blast commanding him to focus on trying to survive this encounter. They were in a simulation, but everything had felt so real.

“So this is what you think is fieldwork experience? Not a damn smuggling, but a chase?”

He was slowly starting to get used to the speed, yet the feeling of being caught slowly crept on him as well, Laurence tried to speed up a bit more, to increase that shortening gap between him and his fearful captors, quick to follow Howard into the depths of the alleyway.

“So why is this all made? To what, bring better scenarios? What could being put here help?”

The doctor asked, he gripped the handlebars of the cyclizar as he dodged various trashcans that obstructed his path, each one revealing itself in the radiance of patriotic red, white, and blue.

---

howard slayte

"Couldn't tell you! It's just a bunch of disjointed scenarios, tied together through things I don't get! I'm not good at this whole 'tech' thing!" Howard's attention was dedicated to dodging the oncoming fire as both he and Laurence navigated the urban maze. "Head Scientist Sato would know!"

Naomi Sato had forgotten more about the RKS System than Howard would ever know. He didn't even know how to turn it on. He simply snapped his fingers, and grunts moved to obey.

"They'll be on us, soon!" Howard had been in this simulation before. While he wasn't as familiar with each scenario as many members of Rocket, he had done this one before. If he was correct, then the ending would be coming up shortly. "Just do your best."

He made no attempt to answer Laurence's question about fieldwork. Whether he liked it or not, this was good practice.

As he saw the dead end, he knew what was coming. One. Two. Three.

The lights shut off.

As someone who had lost his eye in an accident and was left with a void where half of his sight should've been, Howard hated the darkness. Much of his vision had been stripped away, but to take it all left him with little. If he was a stronger man, it would've filled him with rage. As he was, it was jarring.

Fear.

"What's the plan?" He asked Laurence as his eye adjusted to the darkness. "Hurry!"

---

Laurence Whateley
OPEN, PICK ESCAPE OR FIGHT

He couldn't understand how exactly someone so up there couldn't grasp their own work, but that was something to worry about for another time. Right now, the barrage of fire towards them would take precedence over any sort of question about the inner machinations of this simulation. However, he would keep in mind the name of Head Scientist Sato. He'd seen her before, but he'd have never spoken to her in person. Maybe that'd change.

Howard's declaration of their pursuers had been true, as they quickly rode through the alleyway before them would soon be a wall, Laurence's dream of an escape route dashed before his eyes. Shit. The cyclizar began to slow, Laurence's grip on the bars loosening as they approached the dead end. The forces would be on them any second now.

Think...Think...Think..!

Sadly, there wouldn't be much of a true reprieve for the group, once the Cyclizar came to a complete stop, Laurence could only hop off it as the genesects too slowed down. 

"Put your hands where I can see them!" 

An officer blared, his voice too hoarse to truly be registered, yet both Laurence and Howard knew exactly what the next step in an encounter like this would be. This would be the end, not even moments deep into the simulation and already Laurence would have failed at such a thing...The doctor raised his hands, ready to surrender when the area went pitch black. Then an explosion. In the darkness, concerns of the task force could be heard, the hoarse voice crying out for the others who followed him to stay calm. This may have been exactly the thing he needed. 

What's the plan?

His companion began to whisper, but before Howard would get the chance to make a decision Laurence grabbed whatever he could of the man and yanked him, caring little for being gentle. They'd run on foot dammit, there was little but try to escape from it, and fighting the dark had truly felt like a losing battle. 

"Shut up and just keep running, stay close!"

---

Escape.
howard slayte  

They escaped, and the simulation ended.

One did, anyway.

When Howard's eye opened, he found himself and Laurence in the charred remains of Verdanturf. Blood wetted the sand, making it slick and sticky as trainers and Pokémon slipped in the carnage of others. It took all of Howard's experience to not immediately fall and feel iron flood his mouth.

His eye opened to see SILAS BLACKWELL and FERNANDO SILPH in a standoff together in a battle he had never fought, within circumstances he did not know, inside a world that did not exist. Three layers of falsehood mixed together into one unholy union. A mockery, yet as genuine as Howard Slayte was ever going to witness.

Despite admiring the man, Howard was not kyle lopez .

Yet even a simulated history was one that could be studied. Howard would not deny himself the opportunity to witness Rocket's fall from grace. Rocket, an organization he despised. Rocket, an organization he loved. Rocket, an organization that gave him an opportunity when he was a wandering dreg.

In a world with no witness but a critic, his loyalty shined. In a world with only one genuine artifact, the desire to preserve and chronicle outweighed everything.

"Get Silph. Get his Wish Tag." An order, not a request. The capacity to wish for anything could save him much grief. With a click of the tongue, Shirley lunged forward, her teeth crackling as she prepared to maul the councilman.

Fernando Silph was, after all, just a piece of meat. An infinitely replaceable world would not miss him.

---

WISH TAG
Laurence Whateley

As they ran, it seemed that the ground under them slowly broke away, the dark, littered, alleyway turning into dense sand, the dank air turning heated and hostile as smoke gathered from above. The previous simulation ended...Now they relived something new. The doctor's feet had begun to come to a walk, his eyes taking in the scenery of the aftermath of his new experience. Verdantuf.

"We...We made it..."

Laurence caught his breath, the sound of police forces and genesets finally faded into the background and eventually out of their current scene. His heart could rest easy, though not for too long. His ears quickly picked up another cry, the sound of a new pokemon all together, then the sound of what could only be blows being thrown.

“God we can’t get a break can we…”

The words had been muttered under his breath, but Howard could hear them, a sort of chastise for having him even in such a thing. He was a doctor, a person who dabbled in medicine…Yet this machine refused to give him anything that could keep him close to something he was good at. Repeatedly throwing him in more and more situations that had him out of his element. His eyes went to the two who seemed to orchestrate these sounds, the owner of the two Pokemon locking horns as they stood from harm. Laurence hadn’t been in Rocket long enough to sadly recognize the two, but he could recognize kyle lopez . He’d seen the man on television plenty of times, the champion of the region. So he wasn’t just the fated champion of the place…

Get Silph. Get his Wish Tag.

“The hell is a wish tag–”

The instruction had come out with more questions than answers, but he could at least guess who this FERNANDO SILPH person was, judging from the lack of Rocket symbol that had donned in their person. Howard had been the first to and be so bold, the ancient pokemon taking flight to try to retrieve what its trainer had demanded of it. Laurence too followed in process, raising his hand at the man as Mandibuzz took to the skies with a predatory cry, following just behind the Aerodactyl to provide back up. A shield to make sure the relic pokemon could succeed in its job.

“You going to give a brief explanation for this place too?”

Laurence waited, his eyes not even meeting the archeologist, simply watching as the three far from them engaged in a heated battle, determined to bring one side to their knees.

---

howard slayte

"GET. HIS. WISH. TAG!" The admin roared. He respected questions, but there was no time. In a simulated reality, he didn't know what Jirachi's Wish Tag could do. A simulated wish could do much in a simulated world, after all. To risk it was to invite folly.

No, the bigger issue was whether or not they could beat Fernando in this world. Howard had done it once, but that had been a fluke. How strong could a simulation possibly be?

The admin left Laurence in the dust, leaving him with unanswered questions. He wasn't surprised that the doctor didn't know about Jirachi's ability to grant wishes. It was believed to be a myth, yet the Wish Tag was very real.

Long ago, a Rocket boss had stolen Jirachi and taken it far away. When it had been recovered, many had died to the abominations corrupted wishes had manifested.

"I won't let a wish belong to him! He doesn't deserve that power, even now! He'd flounder it!"

Fernando's Kecleon smacked him as he lunged forward, causing the admin to stumble. The simulated battle immediately pivoted, unaware of how to proceed now that this event flag had been reached. As the admin wrestled with the councilman, the Wish Tag had gotten loose. Fernando Silph was meant to lose it in this simulated event.

Yet that did not mean Howard was to attain it.

"THE TAG!" Howard watched as a gust of wind blew the tag away. Perhaps it was the flapping of his Aerodactyl's or Laurence's Mandibuzz's wings, but they had sent the tag careening away...

...into the hands of Laurence.

Wish. The tag whispered in his ear. Write down your wish.

Fulfill your heart's desire.

---

Laurence Whateley

His question had been for nothing, only leaving Howard to bark another command. Laurence would have barked back, however, that'd get nothing done, so in defeat, he simply shut up, his attention on the Pokémon trying to follow behind Shirly. That was all it could do, follow. All he could do. 

Howard was quick to go into the fray, leaving Laurence there to almost be forced to catch up to the tumbling match that he and the simulation of Fernando got into, each clawing at each other no similar to the Pokémon they had. This hadn't even been real, and yet Howard had found himself damn well determined to risk it all for a simulation. 

Their fighting for the wishing tag, however, had been fruitless, because due to both of their carelessness, the tag soon enough ended in Laurence's hands. Laurence stared at it, his body almost not recognizing that the item had been fatefully placed in his grasp, and all for him to make a wish on it. 

Wish. Write down your wish. Fulfill your heart's desire.

Something had called to him, but the voice so clear and familiar that Laurence did a quick double take to see had his daughter had been there. 

Wish.

It said again. He hadn't known exactly what he could wish for, there were plenty of things that he could have wanted. Sophia to be safe, for this simulation to soon end, for more paid time off, but it had seemed that the tag had ignored those. No, it knew exactly what the doctor wanted, even if the thought of it hadn't come up consciously. And it'd be granted in that brief moment. A white light enveloped the area, consuming all in that exact moment in what could only be welcoming warmth. Laurence closed his eyes, trying to shield himself from the harsh rays that had surrounded them.

However, once he opened them, he found that he wasn't there anymore, the battlefield of Verdanturf far gone and replaced with the newest update of the simulation. But, even the change of scenery hadn't stopped what felt like a pit had opened in him. Guilt. Part of him knew exactly what he had wished for. 

howard slayte

As Laurence made his wish, the admin turned to look at him. He watched as the simulation ended and Laurence made his wish.

"Why?" He asked as the simulation ended. For a painstaking moment, there was nothing. No Laurence Whateley, no Howard Slayte, and nothing within the RKS Simulation. After a few moments, the system recognized the anomaly.

Rebooting... Next stage.

When Howard remembered to live, the smell of ancient stone and sand filled his nostrils. Before his mind roused itself, his body knew the feeling of ancient ruins. His lifeblood, his passion, his everything. The feeling of exhilaration flowed through his body like water.

The admin's eye opened to screaming as bodies splattered across walls carved from ancient glyphs. The ballads of the dead rang in the minds of the living as those who still breathed were crushed by the uncaring might of a titan of stone. As something blinked with a strange noise from beyond his vision, the admin thought he heard something familiar.

"Regice?"

As he said it, he knew it was wrong. Regirock stood over him, covered in blood, as it swung down a mighty fist.

By Laurence's foot, a Pokeball ridden with frost lie dormant. It was one he was intimately familiar with, from Area Zero.

---

Laurence Whateley
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