The Walking Wake thrashed against the Gyarados's jaws. They clenched tight, and still the beast raged. Even as Furor spat it out, the beast raged against the dying embers of its life.

The inferno that the Gyarados represented was a glorious blaze, tall and strong and licking against the dome of the sky. It was a sun to the Walking Wake's flickering sparks. There was minimal contest in this regard. Yet behind the sun stood a star, and the Regice that fought alongside Furor was in a different class of its own.

It was a machine without a heart, a reactor without a core, its power source had long been scraped away by the League to fuel their Dynamax research. The construct that Howard held was naught but the echo of what it once was. What little power remained in the machine was a fraction of its potential.

Yet still, it sat above all that witnessed it.

As the Walking Wake's wounds began to heal from the nearby Tera Crytals, it was forcibly picked up by Regice and began to be crusted with frost. The beast struggled to move, and watched in object horror as it took a Hyper Beam from point blank range.

Adrian and Howard watched as flesh evaporated, with the skeleton following suit.

It was over.

"It's dead. We won." Howard turned to Adrian, nodding in respect to the man and his Gyarados's fight. "You okay?

---

Adrian Malcolm

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A single nod of affirmation.

"Hundreds." He lets the word hang in the air for a moment, to let the implications of what he was saying sink in for Adrian. It was the only way to ensure that Adrian understood the weight of what he just fought. "They don't gestate. They just manifest from the Tera Crystals with the snap of a finger. They are the apex predator of the Giant Chasm and Area Zero."

Well, they had one thing above them on the food chain. Regirock took their skulls and crushed them under its uncaring visage. Alone amongst its siblings, it marched forward without a care as it tried to fulfill its unknown objective. It alone kept their numbers low.

Howard said nothing as Adrian communicated with Furor using something more than words. His Gyarados was a being of rage and fire, capable of leveling towns on its own. It could devour and crush Adrian if it wished, yet the two persisted.

Their bond was strong.

"You learned something today. I don't know how to eloquently describe it, but you learned something." Members of Team Rocket could love their Pokémon, it seemed. Even if Adrian had not always been a member of the organization, he was one now. Yet he loved his Pokémon.

Even monsters could love. He thought of Tempest Quinn and Cillian Quinn.

"We're not going to find Regirock today. We alerted half of the chasm, and I don't like fielding Regice for long." His eye lingered on the Pokémon. Did he care for it, and it for him?

He could not answer.

"Another time." He could wait. Regirock would be seized someday, and declan walsh's order would be fulfilled. Yet it was not yet time. "Soon."

Soon.

---

Adrian Malcolm