Bring! Bring! Bring!

Click.

"Hey, you've reached Howard Slayte and Shirley! Leave a message at the... Hey Shirley, put down the phon- "

Beep.

The silence of Granite Cave was suffocating in the dark, swallowing Howard's voicemail as he descended into the bowels of the island. Armor repaired by oscar clayton moved seamlessly with oiled precision. Not a single piece of metal scraped against another, not a single joint creaked as Admin Fox delved deeper.

Not Howard. Admin Fox. That was who he needed to be for this plan to succeed.

That, and silence. Silence and speed. Navy would follow. His first response would be to rush to Granite Cave's defense and ensure Eternatus remained undisturbed. Between a few years of Dewford and twenty of Galar, the latter would always triumph, no matter what the sheriff said.

A few Gible wandered behind Admin Fox, intimate and familiar with Howard's scent. Their maws opened expectantly, waiting for the saltine cracker that typically followed.

The treats were not Admin Fox's to give, but he threw a few to the Gibles as he walked along. Even now, he prioritized their happiness. That should have been the tell to abandon the attack now and return to Sootopolis, but the die had been cast. It was time to commit.

A growl cut through the darkness. The maws of two Garchomp emerged from their umbral curtains. Four eyes stared at Admin Fox, the eyes of predators peering into the eye of the prey.

"Vortimer. Rowena." Admin Fox took off his helmet and smiled at the two guardians. "How're you two doing? I've missed you both."

Their eyes relaxed as Howard reached out his hand. A moment of self-preservation saved the admin from losing an arm. At the end of the day, they were both Garchomp. The strongest creatures in the cave, beyond the Nihilego that emerged in an attempt to see the cerulean sky.

He threw them a pair of saltine crackers.

"Come along." The helmet clicked on with a hiss as the group descended into the cave. "There is work to be done."

---

Michael Navidson

To misinterpret the only logical conclusion from a string of events was nothing short of folly, but the two people descending towards the rift were experts at deluding themselves from the truth of the world.

To elucidate the truth was to pull away the veil that Howard and Navy's friendship was a sham was to reveal the hollowness of their journey. It was a lie. It was a lie born of circumstance, but a lie nonetheless. The weight of the world could only be shouldered by the gentle caress of deception.

"We're here." The massive gash in reality sat at the lowest level of the cavern, surrounded by the echoes of forgotten civilizations. Murals of Groudon and Kyogre grew more prevalent at this depth, and the truth of Hoenn's formation was carved to the ceiling. History was etched in stone, for stories and fiction were not to be trusted with the weight of humanity's legacy. "The breach."

Was that a betrayal to the linguist in him? The historian? Did it matter? No.

Eternatus would not care. Why should he?

"Will you two follow me? I'm not your trainer, but..." Two roars of affirmation rang out, echoing above towards Michael Navidson 's ears, so close yet oh so far. "Thank you."

How did Michael Navidson inspire such loyalty in those he fostered?

Vortimer and Rowena reminded Admin Fox of Shirley. The thought of his Aerodactyl made his heart ache. He was doing this for her. For children like Eris Halla amd those like her. This war had broken too many households and ruined too many lives, how many more would end when Eternatus woke up?

This had to be done.

A promise to Isaac Merlo to protect her smile.

He stepped through the rift.

---

Michael Navidson

The difference between Elisabeth Fiorelli and howard slayte is that the latter had not yet matured. The adult viper was frugal with the toxins swirling in her fangs, aiming to paralyze and incapacitate, but not to kill. Where the elder had experience, the younger had vitriol.

A smarter man would've allowed this connection to marinate and grow in strength, allowing the bond between the sheriff and his confidant to swell into something delectable, before sapping it of every profitable drop. Admin Fox did not do that. Under the pressure of Cillian Quinn and BARNABY FINCH and a dozen other scrutinizers, the admin had went directly for the heart of his friend with the intention of razing it all to the ground.

That had not been the intention, but Team Rocket had a tendency to end all good things, and history agreed with the organizations modus operandi. Even a failure could be twisted into a success, with the right outlook. Elisabeth had told him that in the aftermath of kyle lopez's death.

No longer.

Nihilego surrounded the admin in this barren wasteland of the damned. Tentacles outstretched in desire towards a new prize. Eternatus would be pleased with this one's death.

"Open." Regice stood next to its owner and received the command. The temperature dropped by another twenty degrees as latent Dynergy coursed through the closed system. "Fire."

A Hyper Beam emerged from the golem and melted the swarm of Nihilego like glass. The walls of the Ultra Deep Sea shuddered. Something groaned, deep below. He knew the path to the depths by now. Just as well as Navy, by any case. The academic was no fighter, but he could retain information.

If Howard forgot something, who would remember?

"You two have done well. Get out of here. Go some place warm and glorious. Go back to the sheriff." Howard's voice rang out from beneath Admin Fox's helmet. "Go."

Vortimer and Rowena deserved sun and sand, not the freezing caress of a construct that could not care to recall their names. They deserved the father that birthed them, and not the one that would bring annihilation.

"Soon, Regice. I can't make you stronger by myself. I'm no trainer, but..." Words failed him. Why had Rocket cursed him with something that he lacked the skill to use? Why? "I can give you a heart."

He descended into the core.

---

Michael Navidson

The sheriff arrives to see a star in the sky obscured by the vastness of Atlas's bulk. The Golurk flies, obeying the whims of the person who reclaimed it from annihilation and the Ultra Deep Sea. It pries at a giant Wishing Star embedded into the flesh of a god. Human wisdom tries its hardest to make a lasting impact when dealing with the uncaring weight of the divine.

At Navy's behest, Admin Fox turned to face him. The reflection of the Elite Four member stares back at him, distorted in the visor of the helmet, a mockery of the man's likeness.

The hurt in his voice made Howard want to cry, but they froze to his face before they could fall.

"Sheriff." The hiss of the mechanism unlocking joined the violent thrumming of Eternatus's core in an unholy harmony. Howard looked towards his friend with a hard expression and a cold eye. No eyepatch accented his face, only the glint of a Key Stone filled the socket. "No, Navy. That's your name. I should use your name."

"I couldn't keep the guise up for long. I couldn't keep them from finding out."

He cringed at the man's rage, but the threat of his colleagues scared Howard even more. If Naomi Sato could not broker a lasting alliance, how could Howard? How could Navy?

"You came straight down. How fares the war on the surface?"

---

Michael Navidson

"Homes can be rebuilt. You've rebuilt them before, and we repeat the past." The admin shrugged. "Casualties will be minimal."

A small lighter flame flickers in the chilling cold as a cigarette is lit. This is not a hospitable realm, and Regice does not improve it with its presence. The golem was capable of preserving an entire city in ice while it was dormant, but that dream had shattered like a thin pane of glass when humanity had breached its inner sanctum.

The city was destroyed. Regice was excised. History was lost beneath the waves, never to be seen again. As soon as humanity had touched it, everything had fallen apart.

The true nature of people like Navy had not developed one step beyond the stone age.

"He prodded, he pressured, he threatened. My loyalty was doubted. Now you and I must perform to appease him and the rest. We must provide a spectacle." The words are hollow and mocking, utterly dripping in self-loathing and contempt. He sounded like the man that Navy had found at the Island Cave, moments before the archaeologist's will threatened to collapse.

It still could.

"This is the crucible of a god. The belly of the beast." Howard turned towards Eternatus's heart, a plume of smoke rose upwards as he did so. "Regice and Eternatus are similar."

A drag preludes the explanation.

"They both need a heart."

---

Michael Navidson

"I'll live with it. It's just another memory."

He could have asked. It dawned on him as he prepared for battle against someone that he knew he couldn't beat. Hell would freeze over before Howard could beat Navy in a fight. The man had been forged in a purgatory with twenty years of experience to his name.

Yet as the admin looked around and saw Eternatus's innards coated in frost, he let out a chuckle. Hell had frozen over.

There was a chance.

Somewhere, Naomi Sato's Unown observed the clash between the League's newest Elite Four member and Rocket's newest admin. Yet there was little to see. Howard could feel its gaze penetrating his armor. Yet one of Arceus's angels would see little. The Dynergy readings were too high, and the pressure too intense.

How could the Visionary see so much, yet be so shortsighted?

"But I'll shoulder it better than you. I won't shut down just because my best friend died. I've already shouldered that burden." Shred Zeppelin's screams raged in Howard's ear. He squeezed his eye shut. The eye of prey opened to reveal the eye of a predator. "There are people that need us."

The Wishing Star above rumbled slightly as Atlas dislodged it.

"Come." The admin's helmet clicked on. "Mount your horse, sheriff."

An alien pattern flashed on Regice's seven-dotted face. Dynergy surged forth as a Blizzard erupted. Flashes of reddish-purple lightning danced between snow crystals as it enveloped Vortigern and Navy.

---

Michael Navidson