He hated the constricting feeling that the sub gave him, the idea of being in such a matchbox ship in the middle of an hoennite sea unnerved him more than it should. He tried to distract himself, focusing rather on the smoke that the Admin breathed out.

“Or you continue to beat your ideals until something gives in, not caring about the laws of nature. Same results. Different methods and reasonings."

The doctor said it under his breath, his eyes on the flowers but not truly focusing on them. He itched for his own pack of cigarettes but was smart enough to not bring them aboard. He cared for the inhabitants…Something Howard hadn’t fully done. When the man asked about his daughter though, he flinched. The man had grown too casual about saying her name, as he noted before, and Laurence would never get over it. But Howard wouldn’t stop if he knew how much it made him squirm.

“Fine. She’s living without an idea of what transpires here and only needs to focus on herself. That’s all a father can ask for. But you’re not one for idle chit-chat, what do you want Howard? Why are we on the submarine and not in the offices?”

howard slayte

"I love idle chit-chat. Ask me about fossils and I'll talk about them for hours. I'll try to refrain, though. I'd have to pay you by the hour if I started talking aimlessly now."

Another laugh caused smoke to pour from the admin's mouth. Howard's eye had bags with dark circles. There was no need for medical experience to determine that Howard was suffering from something, whether it be stress, overwork, or something else. Howard knew what the main cause was: Dynergy.

He kept that secret, though. Best to not let Laurence think that Howard was losing his mind.

"I brought you here specifically," Howard's eye watched a Butterfree land on a flower, before fluttering off into the garden, "for a reminder. I felt this conversation would have more meaning if we had it here."

There was nothing wrong with a change of scenery, especially when Howard was going to ask something abhorrent from the doctor.

"I need you to prepare for a trip to Dewford." Howard let the cigarette dangle between his fingers as he looked onward. "I've prepared a ship."

walter delmar would provide it, but Laurence didn't need to know that yet.

---

Laurence Whateley

“Is that so huh?”


The times that he had decided to look up and glance, he could see just how haggard the archeologist was. For a second, he debated on bringing it up, wanting to go and ask due to how unsettling his look had been. He’d been fine weeks before, in that grocery store, but now…He looked damn near like a walking corpse.

I brought you here for a reminder.

He hadn’t needed to guess on what he was going to remind him of. There was a war. He’d have to fight, less he, and his daughter, and the people of Sootopolis would die. It was a war—It was always a war with Howard. But whatever war he spoke of, he had yet to bear witness to it…Until now.

Dewford. They'd be going to Dewford City.

“Prepared a ship? I thought I’d be a doctor, you’re going to have me fight on the frontlines? Howard we did not talk about this.”

He tried not to sound so accusatory, to not sound disgusted that the idea of this war slowly coming into view. Laurence paled for a moment, though he’d never let the doctor know it yet.

howard slayte

A laugh filled the garden as the admin regarded the doctor. Laurence was right. This was not what they had agreed upon, but circumstances changed quickly, as nebulous as the waves crashing against the Rocket submarine.

"I did. You're right." Howard's voice became distant as he regarded a bush of flowers. He plucked one and inspected it. He held it up to Laurence for the doctor to inspectt. Blue petals reflected vibrant colors into Howard's eye. "The paradigm has changed. I don't need you on the front lines. I need your medical skills to ensure nobody is hurt."

He didn't know much of Laurence's experience on the field, beyond what he had showed in the Giant Chasm and Area Zero.

"Man or woman. Adult or child. League of Rocket." The flower twisted in the admin's palm. He offered it to Laurence. It was a fragile thing, much like the child he protected. He hoped that guilt would soften the doctor's wariness. "Eternatus is rousing under the island. I need to ensure it remains stable."

And to show his loyalty to Rocket.

"For the region. For those who can't defend themselves, like your daughter." He raised the flower to the doctor. "What say you?"

---

Laurence Whateley

He laughed to no joke, a sick thing to do when the gravity of the situation had changed so drastically, and had taken a turn much further south than had been expected. His laugh was sickening, and with the way his sickly body looked, he could have hacked up a lung soon enough. Laurence waited a moment, and let Howard finish his guffaw.

“Nobody is hurt? You’re going to spare the civilians? And where will they go when you take the damn place? Are you going to make another version of Sootopolis?”


He hadn’t gotten to the part of hearing that a beast had slumbered under the island…Rather, the idea that he was to save and displace thousands had weighed on him almost enough to cut it out, however, once hearing it the doctor nearly choked on his breath.

“Eternatus? That thing is under them?”


He took a shaken breath, his eyes almost accusatory of such, as if the man had been known for lying. Eternatus had been talked about sparingly between the two of Laurence asking what it had been, why it had been around, and what destruction it had wrecked on the city. The former, however, had spared no detail on Rocket's agenda and of its plan to at least attempt to contain it... And in a sick way of trying to minimize the destruction that it could have raised, Howard offered a flower, the blue a gloomy color, Laurence could feel something tug at him, likely his conscience. 

“So, are you going to move them somewhere before it starts? What would a war on Dewford accomplish that explanation wouldn’t?”

The question was dumb, likely naive for the doctor to have asked, but regardless Howard would know exactly why he had asked such. 

howard slayte

"Not another Sootopolis. We're not claiming the city for Rocket's banner."

Not yet, anyway.

While many of the higher ups in the organization looked after the island with a jealous and salivating glare, the logistics for occupying the island were not possible. Instead, the organization looked towards Mossdeep, with the island's proximity and space center serving as the main motivations.

"We will go in. Scuffle, and get out. I suspect that the sheriff in charge of the town will move the populace to safety. If not, the grunts will stay their hands." The admin's gaze turned hard. "Or else."

The garden grew cold, the memory of Regice chilled the admin to his core. The memory of the icy freeze dissipated as Laurence asked a question he already knew the answer to.

"If words could solve this, we wouldn't be fighting a goddamn war." Howard closed the gap between him and Laurence, his breath hot and his eye wild. "We are dealing with something... that you have never seen on this planet before."

Eternatus.

"Understand?"

---

Laurence Whateley

They…weren’t going to take it over. They weren’t going to take it over. It took a moment to have his mind wrap his mind around it, to keep that guilt of a possibility from strangling him. It wasn’t going to end up like Sootopolis, trapping people there to their fates. That wasn’t to happen.



The Admin’s plan had been simple, though too close for comfort. It relied on the sheriffs to get people to safety, something that was never so easy. He’d seen how it had resulted in his own home, how he’d not noticed the change until it was too late.



“We are just getting in and getting out then…Fine, fine. But, I will not harm anyone from this, even if there’s a ticking bomb under them, I am just going to treat them, I’m no monster.”



He had said the last part more as a reassurance to himself, to keep the idea of this down. He’d not be on the frontlines, no, he couldn’t bring himself to be on the frontlines, he knew it’d eat him more than just participating in this already. But, that didn’t matter to the admin, he just needed members.



“I know that. I know that, Howard…I get it.”



He couldn’t even respond to the chastising that the man administered, of course, he knew words wouldn’t have saved this if it had been done. But closed mouths never seemed fed, and he needed to explore whatever avenue could have worked. But it had seemed the easy way had been detoured, there was no other option but to go on and do it. Say yes.



“I understand. I’ll be there.”

howard slayte

"Good. I'll send a detachment of grunts to grab you. Settle your affairs and ensure that your daughter has a sitter."

Laurence lived with the hope that her daughter knew nothing of what transpired here, and that she could only think of herself. That would not happen if Eternatus woke. A purple sky filled the admin's gaze as he envisioned Eternatus torching the land and sky, burning the world a harsh magenta as it did so.

That would not happen. The young should not need to live in a world born of the sins of the old.

Especially if people like Howard and Laurence could change it.

"For Sophia, Laurence." The admin clapped him on the shoulder as he left the doctor alone in the garden. "For the good of all mankind."

---

Laurence Whateley

"On it...Just let me know when this is all starting. I'll make sure a friend of mine can watch her."

And well, that was it...He had signed himself up for something that he truly couldn't avoid, while the admin clapped his shoulder in approval for his only choice, Laurence shook his head. Now he wanted to smoke...The only issue was, he didn't trust being in the damn submarine to do such, no matter how comfortable Howard was with it. The small affirmation Howard had said had been something that broke through his small trance he was on. 

"For Sophia...For the good of all mankind..."

The doctor moved, letting the man's hand fall from him, before Howard would be left alone in the greenhouse. 

---

howard slayte