"Of course," Ameena acknowledged. "My dream data has already been collected, so all we have to do is run the simulation." She tapped away at the computer. "I have not actually been through a dual session with Lulu Flint 's machine just yet. But I suspect we will have good results. The Darkrai components should prevent the simulation from being boring, at least." Nightmares gave her a dark amusement, though the dream collected had started off pleasant. [break][break]

The machine beeped positive. "Okay, we can get locked in now." Much like the RKS simulation, they could 'plug in.' [break][break]

Once under, reality would melt into a flurry of abstract colors and reform into a Galarian battlefield. The battle in question was actually historical and far before Ameena's time; soldiers on both sides had muskets, and the combat was disorganized where pokemon were involved because such fighting had not yet been refined. Ameena's face split into a grin as she examined the ancient gun in her hand. This was the good part of the dream, far before Darkrai's influence twisted it. "Are you familiar with muskets?"

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Zev took in his surroundings with a detached, clinical gaze. The soldiers on the battlefield had not seemed to notice him and Ameena, firing instead at each other. He glanced down at the device in her hands when she asked him about it. [break][break]

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "I never had a reason to study older gun models." [break][break]

Raising his own hands, he blinked in surprise at the automatic rifle cradled in them. In that historic setting, it was out of place, but he recognized the make and model instantly. [break][break]

"This is more my speed. It's a Howa Type 89, standard issue for the Kanto Army." [break][break]

Zev's hands moved with speed and precision, flipping on the safety, ejecting the magazine. He peered into the chamber to confirm it was empty and restored the firearm within seconds. The movements were as natural to him as breathing. [break][break]

Finally, he looked down at himself. Instead of the suit and tie he normally wore, he was dressed in army fatigues. The same ones he used to wear as a soldier, no less.

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

He was quite a sight as a soldier. She spared a glance at his weapon. Her military career was filled with lots of long ranged weaponry, but she had always favored a small caliber handgun over everything else. There was pleasure to take in the skill of a longshot, yet the handgun's efficiency spoke to her more. Her .22 Wrangler revolver- [break][break]

It appeared in the hand of a man approaching her; she made no sense of what he was wearing and fired. Dream logic gave the musket the force to clear the man's body more completely than could ever be possible in reality. She knew, as people in dreams knew things they couldn't, that she would be able to get more shots off somehow, but she dropped it in favor of her handgun. [break][break]

"A battlefield is a quaint connection between our minds. There is something to be said of violence and the order-disorder of military structure surrounding it." But she wasn't much a poet. "When does Darkrai make it scary, I wonder..." She looked to the sky instinctively, wary. "Something horrid from space, I bet."

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Zev saw the approaching dream-man in the same moment Ameena did, but she acted more quickly. He watched as the corpse thudded to the ground and dissolved into a stream of fluttering Butterfree. Then they dropped, too, one-by-one, their corpses turned inside-out like the Caterpie he used to dissect as a boy. [break][break]

Unfazed, he raised his gaze higher as Ameena mentioned something horrid from space. As if on cue, the cloudless blue sky darkened to black. A shadow eclipsed over the sun. Figments of the dream, both Pokémon and human, screamed in terror. [break][break]

A wormhole opened above them, and clawed hands reached through it. Necrozma's angular body emerged, its prism-like eyes flashing with the whole spectrum of colors. [break][break]

"Is that what you were imagining?" Zev asked Ameena without taking his eyes off the enormous creature. He recalled she was from Galar; had she lived through Necrozma's reign of terror there? [break][break]

Blood splashed under his boots as he took a few steps toward the great cosmic entity. The battlefield had transformed into a sea of red; the soldiers were brutalized corpses, strewn about in irreverent disarray. [break][break]

Zev glanced back at Ameena, his eyes bright with the light of a thousand dying suns.

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The sky yawns open, and she finds herself unable to fight a shiver. "Eternatus..?" She begins quietly, but no -- the demon that emerges is black, sharp edges, and looks so artificially inorganic that it sets off the prey instinct in her. No, this thing was not the large snake-like Eternatus but something wholly possessed of darkness. [break][break]

"Why?" She had not thought of Necrozma in years. Her time in Alola had protected her from the Sootopolis attack. Still, the symphony of terrified screams among the battlefield rival the worst nightmares she's ever experienced. This horror is too singular to stem from war, which encompassed one in a hopelessness that you could at least take some comfort in sharing with other survivors, that you at least trauma bonded with the debris of your community. [break][break]

His expression is burned into her mind. "Take it back," she demands, "put it back!" She wants to see the distortion close. She wants to see it close. She wants to see it close. Her mind, her psyche, it resists her urges. She knows, then feels, the absence of the gun in her hands. She has no sword on her hip. She was defenseless before the robbery, but it makes her feel smaller than ever.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Compared to Ameena, Zev maintained a calmness that contrasted starkly with the monstrous terror that surrounded them. "Put it back?" he asked, his tone mocking in its detached apathy. "We're going to use this machine and its data to train grunts, Abadi. Ones like yourself." [break][break]

He tilted his head to regard her more closely. In the sky above, Necrozma unleashed a brilliant laser beam that cleaved the sky in twain. [break][break]

"If you're going to survive this kind of training, then I should be telling you that. So show me." [break][break]

Around them, hazy figures of different shapes and sizes began to coalesce. If Ameena looked closely enough, she might recognize her own Pokémon in some of their incomplete forms. Which ones manifested, however, depended upon her will. [break][break]

Zev made no movement. He simply pinned her with his starlit gaze. "Show me how you'll escape this nightmare."

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

His apathy, she wants to tell herself, is just part of Darkrai's influence on this simulation. That he isn't even here at all, and it's all a result of her own psyche fighting Musharna and Darkrai mist. But it doesn't matter. All that matters is the battle before her; how it got to be here is irrelevant. [break][break]

"Training," she repeats, "not a suicide mission." No single person could hold off a legendary, let alone defeat it. The haze around her shifts and distorts. Her Honedge appears by her side, ever loyal. She wraps a hand around her hilt, feeling much like a durant beneath a regirock. Her Corviknight appears in front of her. "What can I do to a god but taunt it?" Cora takes the cue and flies up, using taunt on the otherworldly intruder. [break][break]

"I escape the nightmare by waking up. Or killing myself. I am not made of the same stuff as this thing..." She thinks to what Amor Rose has said about this very line of thinking: that some of these otherworldly creatures might need something cut from the same cloth to be defeated. She thinks of his Erebus. "...But something is."[break][break]

And the Deoxys forms before her. Of course, she doesn't know what it can do beyond exert PRESSURE, which it does. And unlike Necrozma's sky-splitting beam, the Deoxys bears its chest to unleash a more reasonable flash cannon.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Training," Zev repeated with severity, "because it is no secret that the League has its own Legendaries, and you must be prepared to fight any of them." [break][break]

He raised his gaze to the skies above. Deoxys dealt powerful blows against the obsidian body of the Necrozma. Ameena's Corviknight wove between the two, dodging the attacks with expert aerial maneuvers. [break][break]

"This simulation, if that's what we can call it, is based on our subconscious, though—yours and mine. It's exactly how Tera Crystals and Interdream Mist function. So, of course it uses what we know." [break][break]

He himself made no move to assist. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at the woman. "You know Team Rocket's Deoxys?"

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Sure, yeah, there were gods running around all over the region. But not all of them bore such malice as this one, and she found it hard to believe any amount of training could prepare one person to defeat a deity. She could only hope to buy time. His question was interesting, though, and she was happy to share. She hadn't realized it was so secret, that Amor wouldn't show it off to just any scientist he collaborated with. [break][break]

"My collaboration with Lulu is obvious, but I have worked with Amor almost more than I have with her. He has caught me up to speed with many otherworldly threats, and I did indeed meet Erebus." She considered that perhaps the scientists of Rocket were not as open with the non-researcher members of the organization as they were with fellow scientists. She ought to record more of her shared work for Rocket files, as the interdisciplinary approach of combining her expertise with Amor's studies of space or Cillian's archeological background could be grounds for a breakthrough for some third scientist.[break][break]

The world shifted, putting them in her underground laboratory. She really, really didn't like the sight of Necrozma in her sanctuary. "It is not always obvious where research connects, but we can find a nexus of new information if we try." Deoxys flittered around Necrozma with unreasonable agility, but the otherworldly monster turned focus from it to the Corviknight, which it struck down with a powerful claw. [break][break]

She was being a bit hypocritical about not caring to fight Necrozma and learn. "I just think there are more interesting ways to interact with the gods than to fight them. The combat data... I just think it is less important than understanding what makes a legendary pokemon legendary. I am more interested on what is inside of them than what force they can exert."

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Ameena was mistaken. Zev had no intention of training grunts how to defeat Legendary Pokémon, or whatever else their psyches conjured. He had been specific in his demand: survive. [break][break]

Their surroundings transformed as the scientist spoke of her collaborative work with both Lulu Flint and Amor Rose. The battlefield bled away, crimson hues paling into the stark white of laboratory walls. Swatted out of the air, Ameena's Corviknight crashed through the ceiling and vanished in a puff of acrid, chemical fumes. [break][break]

"You can do that on your own time, when you are safely ensconced in your office," Zev said of her interest in studying the divine quality of the gods. "But this region does not guarantee safety." [break][break]

He turned away, appearing to tire of the conversation. [break][break]

"Enough talk. Let's end this." [break][break]

Before Ameena's eyes, Zev transformed. Pale skin rippled like an ebbing tide, revealing black shards buried beneath the surface. They spread across his form like rapid necrosis, covering him from head to toe. In less than a minute, the man appeared no more than a silhouette cut into space itself, a void that consumed all light. [break][break]

Above them, the Necrozma changed, too. Its prism-like body shed metal fragments in curtains, revealing stony skin of a deep red hue and wicked, shovel-like claws. Golden light emitted from between scales reminiscent of tectonic plates. [break][break]

"Survive for as long as possible, Abadi." [break][break]

The dream-Groudon opened its mouth and spewed forth an ERUPTION into the laboratory.

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

This region does not guarantee safety. No, nothing did. [break][break]

Even the most prepared can be overwhelmed, the most suspicious tricked, the most giving taken. There is no trait or combination of traits to guarantee safety. There are no guarantees besides death. Zev transforms, and Necrozma transforms, and the laboratory is suddenly a coffin. [break][break]

But she has Erebus, and she little interest in disappointing someone whose help she may need again. The Deoxys rapidly moves her from the Groundon's attack and launches a follow-up attack of ice beam. Ameena tightened her grip on Hanya's hilt and tossed her at Zev for the use of sacred sword. She focused on the appearance of another of her team, summoning Koffing. The gas pokemon prepares for the only move its ever been asked to use. [break][break]

She wasn't satisfied with survival being the benchmark. "Survival and victory are not always the same thing." She would never forget her lieutenant who made a suicidal play to buy her time. She had to fight to win; anything less was unfitting of an Abadi, and unfitting of the woman she wanted her mum to know. The Koffing used explosion.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Though Zev did not need a sword to survive the oncoming lava flow, he snatched the Honedge out of the air anyway. In that dreamscape, her SACRED SWORD cleaved the deluge of fire in two, sparing him the need to endure it. [break][break]

"Of course they're not," he said, tossing aside the Honedge so she could continue fighting on her own terms. "But until we find a way to stop the spread of Tera Crystals and stop Interdream Mist from seeping into our universe, survival is the absolute minimum. If you can't do even that, you're useless to us." [break][break]

The EXPLOSION from the Koffing sent the Groudon reeling backward, roaring in pain and frustration. The injury was not enough to bring it low, but it was enough to buy Zev time. [break][break]

The crystals along his right arm twisted and warped, transforming that limb into a cannon-like armature. As he raised his arm, light gathered at the end of it, cradled in wicked claws of alien design. The brilliant swirl of energy grew and grew, blinding in its brilliance. [break][break]

Zev aimed it at the Groudon, gritted his teeth, and fired. A massive beam of light speared the manifestation of the Continent Pokémon, sending it crashing through the walls of the laboratory. Magma rained down upon the two humans. [break][break]

Perhaps it was because they were in a dream, or perhaps something had changed ever since Zev's encounter with Lunala in Ultra Crater, but he did not feel nearly as exhausted as he normally did after firing his laser. As his arm reverted back to its normal shape, he turned to the nearest wall. [break][break]

A door opened, as if willed by his subconscious. "Through there!" he shouted at Ameena as he raced toward the entryway.

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

[attr="class","pkmn"]

The thing about Zev was that he made it look easy. She wasn't sure how he was so comfortable fighting in the dream world, which was wholly unpredictable, when she herself felt out of place fighting in it. She knew he couldn't be more familiar with these dreams than she was, so it must have been his battle prowess and IQ. Still, she wasn't often in a position to feel so inferior, and it stung her ego. [break][break]

She followed without complaint, equally unused to defying a chain of command, and he was clearly the leader here. The new room shifted in blobs of color until it settled into the breakroom. Ameena wanted comfort and safety, so she was glad the chaos of before had shed into something designed for relaxation - within reason, of course. The breakroom had no luxuries. [break][break]

She found a hot cup of tea in her hands. With her heartrate slowing, she considered what Zev had been urging her to understand. "Amor Rose already advised me to keep building my team's strength if I want to survive the coming threats. I will have to spend more time fighting in unfavorable conditions if I want to keep my head." She sighed softly, wishing these realizations had come easier and earlier. It would take more exposure to not feel so inferior before a god. There was obviously no shortage of them. [break][break]

"Besides yourself, and others with your kind of abilities, who would you say has the greatest survivability? I need some... achievable models of success." She was never going to have the capacity Zev did for combat, but she didn't have to be a slouch, either. He was dedicated enough to the organization to support the growth of its members, so she hoped he could point her in a good direction for further growth - and hopefully a more theoretical manner of study.

TAGS – Zev Harcourt [break]
NOTES –

[attr="class","pkmn"]