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It had been his first forray into the Giant Chasm. He might have expected some vast, desolate land of rock and stone, separated only by deep ravines settling between its peaks. This was nothing akin to his imagination. It was its own ecosystem, a habitat of some utopian design. He did not feel ill at ease, but he should have.[break][break]

"..." The gouges taken out of the earth with these alleged 'footprints' were not so decisively identified, at least to Adrian's eyes. He would never think to dismiss the possibility, and yet... he did not know what creatures lurked here—so he couldn't say.[break][break]

Yet he's no stranger to being a yes man.[break][break]

"Sure, sure. Could be." At his waist a belt had several pokeballs latched to it, his fingers polishing over one such item, thinking to release the pokemon contained therein. But he did not wish to draw unnecessary attention. And so he wouldn't.[break][break]

It struck him as odd. Already Howard was busiedly pursuing the next Regi, putting Adrian to work, though he knew not on whose orders. He had not ever personally met the man—Declan Walsh.[break][break]

He might've liked to keep it that way.[break][break]

Though the trampling of earth beneath their feet gave him pause, as he couldn't hear the world's ambiance around them for their loud footsteps, he liked even less the idea of leaving his back to anything for more than a moment's time.[break][break]

"Shall we keep going then?" Though he has had ample practice, Howard would be able to tell through his impatient façade that Adrian was growing slightly more nervous the further they spelunked.

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"Patrolling?" Adrian is not sure he gets their meaning. Had he meant Regirock intended to surveil the landscape, to guard it... or perhaps simply to explore? To him, the aimless tracks could just be that—aimless—as the entity failed to guide itself through an alien environment.[break][break]

In order to better gauge that, he would need to understand how a Regi perceived the world around it—and that simply wasn't fathomable.
And so he relied on Howard's intuition—for what it was worth.[break][break]

"How did it get here, anyways?" Adrian does not overly familiarize himself with Rocket reports—preferring not to arouse suspicion—so he is ignorant to the events that followed the landmass appearing just beyond the island of Dewford. He remembers pitching in during their effort to plunder the ephemeral island, but made a retreat in short order after Copperajah was heavily wounded.[break][break]

But now he had nothing but time to burn, and an emphatic storyteller to regale him with starry-eyed recollections... It might prove rather interesting.

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Adrian offers a solemn nod, though he's as yet undeterred. Much and more has happened since the Desert Ruins sank. He has to believe he's become more competent since then.[break][break]

It is strange that Howard believes in himself so little, considering the power he wields. But as he ponders it more, the pair of them trekking across dirt and stone, he considers their dilemma for a moment...[break][break]

"...Have the Regis ever battled before?"[break][break]

He's not even confident they've encountered one another before, but it seems unlikely they would do battle with one another. Especially if Howard's theories on them held true. Machine minds...[break][break]

They would be inextricably bound then, he figured.[break][break]

Adrian considers for himself the size and stature of Regirock. In spite of its weaknesses, it would prove a daunting foe to any pokemon; there is only one to whom he entrusts the task: His rock, his strength...[break][break]

"We'll be alright." Adrian did share their doubts, but of their safety he was assured... mostly.

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"Couldn't it be a matter of simple type advantage?" Rock smashes ice, it wasn't a novel concept—though Howard must've felt there was something more to it, or he wouldn't appear as troubled by the matter.[break][break]

That didn't seem to satisfy either of them, so he mulled it over some more. But nothing really made sense. Could it be perhaps that time had ravaged one more than the other? Without knowing the fundamentals which they were created and operated under, he could do no more than ponder over theories, unproveable as they were. Next question.[break][break]

"It had tried to before, but it seemed to use my fragment as the epicenter." As far as he knew, that fragment had been special; so he wondered how another might've taken its place, or fulfilled its purpose. "...Could another have been found? But how could it look without..."[break][break]

However vexing the matter of whether this is Regirock reassembled, or another instance of foreign pokemon invading their world, Adrian suddenly finds himself in a series of critical thought—[break][break]

Without a physical body, Regirock couldn't have searched—It hits Adrian all at once. He throws Howard a quizzical stare, wondering if his musings held any merit—or if they were just ramblings.[break][break]

"So this Regirock is searching for an even larger fragment than one it already has?"[break][break]

It's almost a statement and not a question, but Adrian remains uncertain in the face of academic scrutiny. Perhaps Howard will offer a rebuttal, or at least refuse any of his scholarly affirmation. But when he considers the massive crystal formations dotting the chasm, the emergence of tera crystals and dynamax shards... It seems like the Giant Chasm is precisely where Regirock would want to be.[break][break]

Just the same as the League, or Team Rocket; it sought a power to manifest its own idyllic destiny.[break][break]

"What are the fragments made out of?"[break][break]

Adrian might have already known, but he couldn't help wondering what a bit of research had turned up.

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He can only roll his eyes. Perhaps he hadn't exactly gotten his point across, or many of these realizations came as nothing new. He could only surrender to their insight, though he fostered a curiosity. Perhaps Regirock was trying to gorge itself on any present power, now that an old threat had been reawakened...[break][break]

Dynergy, then. It only made sense.[break][break]

"It might not want them, now that they're fragmented." When the housing unit had been struck, perhaps they had leaked their power, or could not serve their purpose correctly—such as a capacitor that could no longer hold as great a charge. Regirock would have fought for the shards back then, but may have found them defunct.[break][break]

Or had simply already filled the void.[break][break]

Adrian is conflicted at the thought of Regirock toppling Ever Grande, however. Howard may notice the smile he forced contradicted the troubled crinkle of his brow.[break][break]But no more.[break][break]

A small huff of laughter seems to suggest he'd enjoy that, too. He's full glad when Howard changes the pace of the conversation to something he's more comfortable discussing.

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"You mean other than not letting it squish you," he quipped with a shit-eating grin.[break][break]

"In all seriousness..." Adrian sighed.[break][break]

"It took a concerted effort to reduce Regirock from its empow— dynamaxed state. Meanwhile, it KO'd everything indiscriminately." He paused, reflecting on it more.[break][break]

"Obviously the scale and intensity of its attacks was devastating. But more than anything, it was deceptively fast."[break][break]

Adrian realized these weren't really answers—but they were strong considerations. These Regis were not so easily brought down, and so he wanted them to understand that a battle with them would be protracted. He would have to simply outlast them.[break][break]

"If you're going to fight it, you can't hold back anything. Z-Moves, Mega Evolution; anything and everything..." Adrian glances towards them, hoping they could fill in the blank: Dynamax, Terastallization; all of it brought to bear.[break][break]

"Exploit its weaknesses, use the environment. And if you can dodge, try that before defending against a direct attack" Adrian was not confident most pokemon could defend against the Titan's unbridled might—trying might be suicidal.

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Adrian could tell Howard seemed less than inspired by his answers; Adrian had done more to build the legend around Regirock with his words than to illustrate a solution. Thinking back to when they had brought the creature to heel, he considered summing up the underlying solution to their triumph over Regirock:[break][break]

"...Back then, we flooded the arena with water, and based our final attacks around that. In doing so, we might've slowed down its movements, and given our type-effective attacks an environmental advantage..." It was a strategy that might have saved them the heartache if they'd have gone with it from the beginning—but at the time they were a disorganized mess.[break][break]

"But practice never hurt anybody's chances." If Howard was so poorly convinced of his own strength, it might do him good to test it—and see how he measured up against others. He might surprise himself someday. Howard is wracked with a cough briefly, before suggesting an ambush.[break][break]

"Could be." Adrian had wanted to try a similar approach with the DRK Triad before—lure them in somewhere, and trap them—but had never been given the chance. Perhaps they had given up on him, then.[break][break]

Oh well. Adrian had more confidence it could work with Regirock anyways. He nodded, turning his attention towards the crystalline chasm.[break][break]

"Where will you find your bait?"

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Nodding along with Howard's initial idea, he saw the potential. But their second notion, stemming from the first, seemed to resonate more with Adrian's own thoughts. If Regirock was searching here, it might not be interested in Regice itself—but the Wishing Stars...[break][break]

While they were walking along, Adrian noticed the debris clattering around them. But just as he went to look up, Howard rushed him—shouting abruptly. Where he might've expected to hear a shuddering of crushing stone bearing down, they instead heard a geyser of gushing water. The air around them felt humid, steamy—it was uncomfortable.[break][break]

It takes a moment to shake off the disorientation of his fall, but eventually Adrian does, before then looking to the creature dropping down from the bluffs. Howards mouths the words run, but from his prone position Adrian thinks better than to try.[break][break]

"Wouldn't get far..." He hacks, rummaging for his pokeballs. A shit-eating smirk spreads across his face when he feels that familiar sharkskin texture of a weathered pokeball dragging under his fingertips...[break]

---

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In a burst of crimson radiant, Furor emerges from its pokeball, its massive body a buffer between them.[break][break]

Adrian manages to shove Howard off of him, clambering to his knees before finding his footing.[break][break]

Furor's lumbering head swings back to catch his eyes in a hard stare—only to find the creature's malice mirrored in his own—before turning its toothy maw back towards the aggressor. A roar erupts from Furor that only Adrian resists shying away from.[break][break]

Walking Wake bellows back. Both lurch forward violently—Walking Wake the quicker of the two.[break][break]

"Crush 'em, Furor!" As the raptor darts nimbly, Furor is forced to react defensively, bringing its tail out in front of itself as the dinosaur lunges forward, latching onto its scaly hide with claws that catch and rake. Gyarados' tail thrashes in the painful throes.[break][break]

...But then Furor leveraged its weight, winding back its tail before smashing it against the nearby cavern wall, mashing the draconid between stone-and-scale.[break][break]

'...What the Hell is that thing, anyways...?'