"Eh..." Howard looked at Roy, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere once the archaeologist began to scream his head off. "This is..."

Roy asked the question. In spite of everything, Howard found himself smiling in remembrance. He tucked his head to his chest, recalling memories of Meteor Falls and Petalburg Woods from their youth. From beneath a half-lidded eye, Howard recalled a few exchanges.

'That's the Dragon's Den!'

'That's fossilized Drampa dung!'

'That's a Dreepy fossil from when it was first alive! Cool!'

'That's... a D minus on your homework. Were you even studying!?'

Good times. Terrorizing Rustboro had been a lot more fun when it had been ditching class and going on adventures, rather than waging war for the sake of the world and other obscene doodads. When had Howard Slayte changed so much? The realization made him sad.

"That, Roy, is a cell!" Howard beamed, clapping the man on the shoulder as he peered down at the crevice. It had taken him a moment to recall it from Amor's notes, but he had gotten there in the end. "I didn't know they could be found here!"

Eris Halla spent a lot of her time chasing them in the Mechanical Kingdom. The fact that they were in Meteor Falls was... concerning. Or perhaps it was always meant to be. Fernando's Zygarde was no small secret, especially since Howard had fought it a few times now.

"Normally they just run away and hide behind gears and whatnot." He looked at Roy, thoughtful. "Do you..."

He blinked, before waving a hand. It was unimportant.

"Should I get a shovel? Dig it out?"

---

Roy Aker freya morningstar

"Ah, let her dig, Roy." Secretly, the archaeologist was glad to be rid of the obligation to pick up his shovel to go digging for cells. "Flygon are good with the earth. Sand is preferable, but better Pescis than me.

Of the two, the admin actually loathed digging through sand more than stone. Sand excavations required large pits, which meant more work. Besides, the grains occasionally got under his eyepatch and between his Key Stone and the socket around it. A frustrating experience that made the admin almost swear off deserts entirely.

Unfortunately, deserts often called to him. Unova's Desert Resort. Hoenn's desert. The ruins that sat beneath...

"Guess we'll have to catch the damn thing, hm?" From his bag's pocket, Howard produced a thermos with coffee spiked with liquor. He quickly drained it. "I've never seen one caught in a Pokeball, so..."

He tossed the thermos to Roy.

"You have those crazy Rustboro reflexes. You do it." Shirley disappeared into a Pokeball while Howard's Probopass emerged. Three noses created a small field around the trio, Blocking any potential escapes. "There."

Howard nodded, clearly pleased with himself.

"That'll do it."

---

freya morningstar Roy Aker

If Howard knew that this was the true form of FERNANDO SILPH's Zygarde that kept causing him so much grief, he would've went to Ever Grande, strutted into his office, and laughed in his face. It'd almost be worth getting arrested for crimes against humanity at that point.

The cell was so remarkably small. Howard had never seen one in person, before. He had heard reports on it, but seeing the little green cell worm around was bemusing.

"Oh, wow. Look at the little guy~!" Howard gushed, half-expecting Roy to stuff it into the thermos. Instead, he pulled out an odd artifact. "Huh?"

The Zygarde Cube was an anomaly. The admin had never seen anything like it in years of pouring over ancient texts. Admittedly, if the piece was Draconid-adjacent, Howard wouldn't know much about it. Draconid were tied to the blood of Hoenn, but that did not mean that the masses of the region could recall the land's progenitors.

They had been forgotten in favor of their own heroes, after all.

"What is that, Roy?" Howard appeared in Roy's peripheral vision, his eye as wide as a saucer as he regarded the strange cube. "I've never seen it before. It acts like an antique Pokeball, and yet..."

He cocked his head.

"...it's so truncated."

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freya morningstar Roy Aker

Judging from how Freya and Roy were speaking, his friend had been holding onto this cube for a hot minute. People were running into a lot of strange tools, these days.

Objects like this cube would have become international sensations if they had been discovered a few decades ago. There would be years of deliberation on what the cube was, where it came from, and what its true purpose was. Yet in 2024, it was just another random artifact that held incredible power, all in the hands of a standoffish person that Howard had known for years.

He didn't know if this was a tragedy or a comedy. Perhaps it was both. Howard had his own collection of random artifacts as well, such as the statues and Wishing Stars stored in the chests of his golems.

"It's like I said." Howard nudged it once, as if expecting a cell to emerge from the cube. "An antique Pokeball, likely designed to deal with cells so minute they don't even register as Pokémon." How many cells could it hold, though? What happened when it was full? "It's definitely not made from an apricorn, to be sure."

He frowned and scratched his head.

"What was the message?"

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Roy Aker freya morningstar