as much as he wants to give response to what can be perceived to be a threat, kyle doesn't give one, partly since he doesn't want to risk further souring their nonexistent relationship, and partly since he's ready to vacate the premises.

one kick from the railings knocks it off cleanly. rust has weakened the metal holding it, and it'll further deteriorate as it drops down the ocean with a clean splosh.

he makes a quick switch as he jumps off. the pyroar goes in, and the gyarados comes out. kyle manages to secure his way home.

with his position better than what it had been earlier, he decides to be polite and finally give the man a proper response.

"please don't! it's a waste of time!"

it wasn't meant to be testing of nature, but words were open to interpretations. given the context, what kyle might have meant could differ from any other meaning of it.

"y-yeah," she would confirm. "t-that's why it's important to get everything we can from this place! we're not sure how long we have before the entire place falls apart."

the only ones left on hoenn are the ones that have better things in their life than their safety, or at least, that's what kyle thinks. for this researcher, it probably was undying curiosity that got her in the field.

he doesn't personally understand it, but he's seen enough of these kinds of personalities that he gets how important their drive is to them.

"just follow mister delfino over here," he tells her, "and i can handle the rear."

the gyarados was already in position to support from the waters if needed, as well as defer any pokemon that might find interest in the action, but kyle's biggest motivation of staying in the rear was social interaction.

if things go wrong, she'd probably interact with the person leading the way more.

"t-t-the toxapex!" the scientist cried.

she immediately runs behind them as soon as the golisopod cuts the door open. on her hands was a musharna, whose dream mist trails behind on their wake.

"i-it's just me, i-if that's what you're asking," he clarifies, using the moment of reprieve to adjust her glasses. "i stayed behind the team since i thought this was the last time i can check these things out..."

"is it because of kyogre or..." kyle peeks inside the room, and instead, finds what the researcher was here for: the unruly state of the wild pokemon. "oh. that."

a pile of toxapex hung on one side of a panel of a floor, slanted towards the water as their weight dragged the floors to the deeps. kyle supposed it was the same tilt that brought the blockage against the doors.

the surprise factor was the terastalization of these wild pokemon to a dark-typing.

"i had my musharna put them to sleep, but..."

kyle's gyarados pops its head on the other side of the room. a hand from its trainer lazily motions to the pokemon with a shooing gesture, of which the gyarados starts dragging them back to the depths.

the gyarados hasn't returned yet from the simple scouting mission, and though kyle can make a few assumptions, he doesn't voice them. instead, he trusts the process and silently prays for the worst case scenario to never happen.

kyle hopes that it was the case. having to fend off a wild pokemon on the middle of a rescue operation was more work than it needs to be, considering the fact that they'll have to be looking out for more things than themselves.

with the golisopod clearing the way, they manage to cross over the obstacle, only to come across another one.

banging can be heard from a door blocked with debris. "help! is anyone out there?!" a frantic voice yells.

kyle gestures for silverio to the door, silently inviting him to talk to the worried voice behind the door.

in the mean time, kyle looks around for signs of disruption that caused the push for the dilapidated nature reserve to finally crumble down. without finding anything, he can only assume it's from inside the room or outside the hull.

he's more surprised they actually found something. kyle was content to just actually put in the effort but not actually accomplish anything, but he supposed luck favors the bold.

it was miyako's luck, but he'll tag along if it benefits him.

when she motions to the surface, kyle starts to paddle up. although there were no direct instructions for the gyarados this time, it conveys a message clear enough for it.

as soon as it drags the dondozo to the ground, it swims back up, chasing after its trainer and his companion. it takes a direction that brings it closer to them, allowing kyle to ride along the pokemon and letting himself be dragged by its fins by a handhold.

it surfaces, having brought along the two for the ride on its back had they took hold of it underwater.

"you actually found something?" he asks her, surprised.

he doesn't mean it, but actual thoughts leak into his manner of speaking. it was as if he questions why she actually put in the effort, casting doubt despite the positive result.

while he might not have any connections deep within the organization, guesses and approximations can be made from the region's current situation. it wouldn't be too surprising if numbers are stretched thin with the rising tensions.

"i'm glad you feel that way," he says in jest, continuing the small talk as they go further in. "it helps to pay the bills."

the tone was too nonchalant and casual that it appears tone deaf despite the attempt to jest.

it was cut in a timely fashion by a faint call for help.

coming from across the wall, their only way in was a flooring slanted towards the waters, submerging itself. given a choice to dip underneath deep waters that housed wild pokemon agitated by invading humans or a risk in the structural integrity of the facility, kyle chooses to release his gyarados.

"can you check if it's safe down there?" he asks his pokemon before turning to silv. "er, or do you think we should just rush? it might be an emergency."

"holding back?" he repeats in confusion. "i'm just trying to survive!"

this guy was beyond talking. he's interacted with these kinds of people before, and he knows the only way to placate them is to play their own game.

the gears in his head start to turn. anything that can limit the lucario will always result to the destruction of the place, and between them, kyle guesses only one actually cares for its integrity.

he whistles a certain tune, then he yells. "flamethrower!"

rust riddled metal from the floor crumbles with the excessive heat, aiming to build a chasm between them. the pyroar slowly backs away as huge volumes of flames threaten to burn.

between himself and the facility's structure, kyle easily makes the decision.

the surprise for the entei comes unexpectedly in the form of Josh Devlin.

it wanted to scowl. to turn around and leave. to defer further involvement. it has already tampered enough with the event given that it doesn't have a reason to participate in this scuffle, but it all ends with the same entity that has overcome its code and rewritten functions.

ho-oh, and by extension, entei, may not have approved of the gym leader, but the emergent has. the same indulgent favoritism that brought entei to investigate cave of origin for the sake of ho-oh's avatar brings it to soften down and see josh in the same lens as kyle lopez saw him.

a cleansing sacred fire bursts from entei, applying the same first aid that tamed the primal poisoning in MATIAS SILPH.

entei leans down, allowing josh's weight to position himself on his back. as quick as entei has shifted his opinions on matters he shouldn't have been complicating, he turns around and leaves the scene.

josh would soon find itself in front of his gym, having no witnesses for entei's delivery.

• purifies josh of any poisoning
• takes josh to mauville
• extreme speeds away from sootopolis

a blast from kyogre knocks him out of the branch of the dyna tree, throwing him down from the lower branches. the strength from the dyna fruit might have given him enough to withstand a direct hit, but it's the least of the damage that it needs to worry about.

entei is no ho-oh. it is nothing but an ember of a flame-- a remnant of the greatness that performed miracles comparable to stories of fantasies.

this front is to be abandoned. there is no more hope in this angle, and another venture might be needed to find another glimpse of victory for the entei's fleeting dreams.

eyes befell Mitsuru Kagami in her trubbish's final moments. despair welled on the individual, but entei is aware of consequences regarding the meddling of affairs. he has done more than what he already should have had.

entei turns and leaves her, brought across precarious waters with legs of extreme speed barely breaking water tension.

it takes one last glance of the chaos from the last surfacing tops of the crater's ridges by the west. it knows as much as those involved in this particular chapter's affairs about what happens next, and to experience it is the greatest honor it can bestow with its current situation.

• extreme speeds away from the tree/area
• moves to one of the ridges of sootopolis and watches things happen

"you talk weird, dude," he points out as he tries to duck away from the battered flames. "normal people don't talk like that!"

what he says should have no impact on anyone who chose to reside in this region. there is no one left on hoenn that can be considered normal.

"the weapon!" he shouts to his pyroar. "psychic fangs!"

metallic thumps from both the trainer and pokemon hide from the battle cries of both beasts in the field. while kyle goes from the center of the deck to its railings, the pyroar intercepts the attack.

psychic fangs was a move effective against barriers. the same logic is used on projections such as bone rush in an attempt to break it and disarm.

pyroar pounces on the lucario, putting its entire weight atop the pokemon while its fangs wrestled against the staff of energy.

if he could leave her here, he would.

trying to stop someone who already decided their course of action was more work than ignoring them, and it is only when the aftermath of it would prove to be more troublesome that kyle can convince himself to act.

patiently, he waits for his gyarados to turn the right angle until he appears on his peripheral. a small moment of seeing its trainer with a thumbs down motion alerts the pokemon of the instruction it needed to do.

the crunch follows up the punch when the dondozo turns to miyako, fangs attempting to grip through the dondozo's scales to drag it deeper into the water.

kyle would swim and fetch miyako, but he doesn't want to be in the radius of the fight. if she did die from scuffling with a wild pokemon, there had to be someone to break the sad news to her family and friends.

despite him repeating the words 'one must imagine sisyphus happy', kyle can't imagine it for the case to be.

there was just no way for anyone who keeps repeating the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result but being proven wrong every time, to be happy. kyle wouldn't, he thinks.

still, the grind is embedded on him. it's in his blood now, and he'll do a magikarp splash at least once if he can.