The hospital was a wreck, forgotten and casually dusted over by Team Rocket once the city was securely theirs. It had been a surgical strike, meant to kill moral and show the utterly merciless nature that Team Rocket had often bleated of but rarely displayed.

It was meant to harm. There was no other reason to destroy a civilian target.

If Kyle had made it, he would've found that large swaths of the hospital were missing. Massive chunks of rebar and concrete were swept away and deposited in an unknown location. Yet that doesn't matter, because Kyle Lopez does not make it to Petalburg. He was stealthy, but even the sneakiest detective only had to often hide from two eyes, as Navy knew.

Crumble, unfortunately, had eight.

Which is why, through the trees and brush and craters and every other snag and hiccup between Oldale and Petalburg, the Top Champion detective is met with a Claydol. Immediately, its eyes glow red and a loud siren began to blare out.

'WEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

---

kyle lopez
+10 (post)
+50 (tag a character)

Nobody could deny that kyle lopez was a smart man. Even at his stupidest, which was when he was playing video games, he was smarter than most of his contemporaries. The term for this was 'common sense'. Some would say it was in shockingly short supply.

'WEEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEE OOOO-'

Crumble's alarm sputtered to a stop as quickly as it began, though it echoed through Route 102, ringing into Petalburg and rebounding off of artificial mountain ranges that had not been there the month before. Crumble's eyes flickered red with rage as it turned to face the detective. The fact that an automaton could get enraged by a mere taunt was ridiculous, but it had succeeded.

No need to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.

Still, the faint siren echoed.

Furious, the Claydol's charged up a standard attack for an automaton to wield: a Hyper Beam blasted towards Kyle and his Gyarados, turning the ground into a molten slurry of dirt and glass.

---

kyle lopez
+20 (posts)
+50 (tag)
+50 (spotlight character strength)

Howard Slayte did not train his Pokémon. They existed as a form of utility, designed to delegate tasks that the admin did not want to accomplish himself. Crumble excavated fossils and cleaned dust from ancient relics. Now, they surveyed Petalburg while the admin drank himself silly.

While the Claydol recharged from the Hyper Beam, the Gyarados's Power Whip sent the doll crashing into a nearby tree, which fell over with a thud.

So much for keeping secret. The Claydol struggled to float, its Levitate struggling to keep it aloft in the face of such dire straits. Crumble was a spade, rather than a sword.

The battle echoed, joining the distant sirens as the echoing dirge that rang from Route 102 and into Petalburg City. After a long moment, the ground began to shake and crack beneath the Gyarados. The latticework expanded with red energy, which curled up into claws of Dynergy.

⠗⠕⠥⠎⠊⠝⠛

The ground exploded, and a giant emerged. Seven dots ignited into a constellation of stars that burned into the detective's soul.

---

kyle lopez
+30 (posts)
+50 (tag)
+50 (spotlight character strength)
+50 (character weakness)

The Thunder Wave finds purchase. Regirock ran on its own programming, ceaselessly tracking down the intruder with little care for their identity. Many people have encountered the golem over the years, whether it be in its ruin, Area Zero, or while it was under Katherine Fairburne's control.

Yet those memories do not save people from crudely designed stone fists. Especially when Kyle Lopez exists as an anomaly corrected by the world itself.

His correction is too severe. Thus, as the golem sluggishly moves under its paralysis, it decides that the Emergant detective has to die. A Rock Slide descends from the heavens, causing nearby trees to crack and splinter under the weight of large boulders.

Meanwhile, a signal is sent out.

⠉⠕⠍⠑

---

kyle lopez

People improve Pokemon. They allow them to fight better and live more fulfilling lives. The Electivire does so as Kyle injected it with power, which caused the earth to tremble and the large construct to fall over. Rocks rattled free and fell loose, and the golem's size diminished slightly as the quake continued.

Yet Regirock is alone. There is no person to improve its function, for it has already reached its zenith a thousand years prior. There's no human to give value to its struggle, nor is there anyone to activate an ability to charge it further.

So it meets the Earthquake with a Bulldoze. Fallen trees and scrapped buildings are systemically leveled and pressed into the earth, creating a flat terrain with little room to hide. In the background, Crumble floats about.

It has a role to play, but not here and not for this Regi.

Raising a colossal fist, the golem Locks On as it attempts to predict the Electivire's path. The Pokemon is too fast, and Regirock far too slow to reasonably get a grip on it. Rather than elect to play the Electric-type's game, Regirock elects to destroy the board. Dynergy coalesces in its fist, and it prepares to swing.

"WAIT!"

Someone steps into the clearing, clothing askew. His hat is askew. There's the faint smell of whiskey emanating from him, as if recently roused from a hangover. Through the dust and stone, Howard Slayte's eye widens in amazement.

"...Kyle?"

---

kyle lopez

The drunken mind moved slowly, attempting to shift through memories in an attempt to communicate with this ghost.

"No, you met me but you never knew me. Why would you? I'm insignificant. But you?" He shook his head, eye wide and ecstatic. "You shine like the sun."

Howard fell to his knees. His hero was alive. Even after Bosch and Cooper had disappeared into the void, Kyle was still here. Kyle was alive. He was alive. The tears came quickly, and the admin wiped them from his still working eye. Even still, liquid fell from his marred one. Drunken tears fell freely.

"I always knew you'd come back. I had faith." He staggered to his feet. "I never stopped believing!"

His voice dripped with pride upon making that statement.

"And now that you're back, you can fix the region! You can solve everything! You can end the war!"

---

kyle lopez

"...what?"

Howard's eye flickered with confusion, like a dying star burning through the last of its hydrogen before collapsing inwards. This was wrong. Something was horribly wrong, and he didn't know how to process it. He took a staggering step forward towards the Top Champion...

...towards the Emergant...

...towards the hero...

...before stopping short.

"What does that mean? For six years, you've been performing miracles. I have all of your merch. I've seen your exhibition matches! I've watched them a thousand times! You're my hero!" His voice cracked. First Elisabeth Fiorelli, and now Kyle. How many ghosts were going to return from the other side to continue haunting him?

What sort of grudge was this?

"I get it." Howard chuckled and shook his head. He held out a finger and waggled it. "This is all a big joke. I see. Where's Navy or Matias or Josh? Are they in the bushes somewhere?"

The worst part was that he genuinely wanted that lie to be true. If he believed in it, that falsehood would become fact. But to accept that this Kyle was the genuine article would be to enforce a falsehood onto the fabric of the world.

"Kyle." His voice was a rasp. "Please."

---

kyle lopez