"This world should not exist."

There was no other way than to describe Ultra Plant than with that single sentence. It explained every other world in Ultra Space as well. Alternate worlds that had been consigned to humanity's scrap heap when they had failed for one reason or another. Whether it was due to the Megalopolans or DRK Triad meddling, this world had lost its purpose.

It was a world that had lost its ideals, and Howard and Clover were simply scurrying over the blackened bones of this dead world.

"But it does. This Stakataka remains, whether as some natural evolution to this world's environment or due to being tossed here like worthless dross." There was no Earth Mother here. A shuffling of papers appeared as Howard pulled out some scribbled notes from a prior journey here. "It's why I'm here with you. Nothing else should exist here, but they're dangerous."

"This world is the remnant of a war. There is something here that I once sought, but it eluded me."

---

FIND NOTES ULTRA BEASTS AREN'T REAL
clover matamata

No, not a Stakataka. Something bigger, before she had taken it and ruined everything.

Yet that story wasn't relevant. It wasn't here. It had been caught, stuffed into a Pokeball, and returned to the world it had been born in. There was no use crying over spilled milk. He'd cross that road when he came to it, and it wouldn't be with Clover.

He was just a guide for the kid, nothing more.

That, and a storyteller.

"Yeah, something like that. A really big Stakataka." No need for them to know the truth. They'd never see it again. "A few years back, rifts opened everywhere around the region. It's a byproduct of when the Ultra Beasts invaded our world."

A gross oversimplification, but it was better than telling a seventeen year old that reality was ending.

"But I'm not a scientist. This is another world but how it works is... funky. I don't know all the specifics. Not my field."

---

clover matamata

Cute was subjective, but Howard agreed. Clover's Archen was the cutest boy in the whole wide world, even if his species was fundamentally defeatist in nature. The admin's eye sparkled as he regarded the prehistoric Pokémon.

Cute little fella.

"I'm sure we can find your Archen a friend. I can likely get you one." Cillian Quinn had a fossil restoration machine in his manse, somewhere. If the admin groveled enough and supplied something worthful, maybe the underboss would let him revive something in it. Otherwise, it was back to Rustboro to do it himself.

He really didn't want to do it himself.

"Fallarbor has a lot of fossil freaks. Big community out there. Doesn't surprise me, given all they can do is farm or look up at the stars." Nothing better to do than mark time by the stars and mark the passage in the earth. "We'll see what we can find here."

Behind the admin, his Stakataka roused itself from the wall it disguised itself as. It gave Clover's Archen a side-glance, before the individual bricks began to roll towards the exit.

"Much of the life here was electrified and turned into ash." A distant moan emerged from an electrical current and Howard trembled. "I doubt we'll find much that explains what happened here. We'll learn what this world was like, though."

Likely eerily similar to their own.

---

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GET LEAD BY STAKATAKA

"Let's learn, then." He echoed the youths words with increasing excitement. "If we're quick, we can bring back some good specimens."

Archaeology was not a quick process. It was the act of ripping imprints of life from the earth and ensuring that it did not get forgotten over the course of millennia. Such a hobby required patience, a deftness of hand, and a gentleness that few possessed. When dealing with rocks thousands of times older than the average human, it was easy to act hardhanded.

Such hardhandedness resulted in the loss of valuable artifacts, and such pieces could never be replaced.

Near the power plant, they found a large cliff of earth where layers of rock bent and crushed each other under their own monumental bulk. It was good to be out of the building, where the electricity whispered in the guise of human tongues.

"I have an Archen, actually. I'll show you her next time." The admin whistled as he inspected the wall. "Let's get to work."

---

clover matamata
THE LIGHTNING TALKS TO MEEEEEEEEE

He looked at Clover like they were asking if getting stabbed hurt.

"Yes. You'll bring the whole damn wall down." Howard rolled his eye and began inspecting it. "Be gentle. In terms of archaeology, stone is indistinguishable from glass. Both are equally fragile in our eyes."

Besides, he didn't trust an Archen to do this work. They were, put simply, birdbrains. The bird would have to help by breaking large rocks that were safe to break.

"You're gonna strike the wall here, here, and here..." His voice trailed off as they began their work in earnest. As they tapped at the wall, a storm began to brew, and something shifted within.

The shard of a legacy.

---

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