Unlike other members of Team Rocket—or people in general—Zev was not interested in the interpersonal relationships and drama of his workplace. The knowledge was only useful if he could leverage those tensions to his advantage; otherwise, it was irrelevant background noise. [break][break]

So he did not know what Elisabeth thought of Bee or the nature of their entanglement. Zev did know from her report that she was sending all her intel and updates to the admin; that reason was likely why following her had revealed this limited information to Matias. [break][break]

But affection? Did Elisabeth have it in her shriveled, spiteful heart to care for another person besides herself? Zev found himself surprised. Amused, even. [break][break]

Mirroring her amused smile, the Beast laced his fingers together and rested them in his lap. "Silph must be delusional. You do not have a single affectionate bone in your body." Then Zev paused, suppressing laughter. "Unless…?" [break][break]

He doubted any fondness for Matias. Bee, though, was her colleague. And Zev had not missed the way some grunts swooned over the admin when they thought the upper brass weren't paying attention.

TAGS – Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
NOTES – social

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The very fabric of the world shifted. [break][break]

Unlike Illeana, Zev's perception of space was only what he drew from the well of Necrozma's memories and emotions. Even so, he sensed on an intuitive level the way she countered his manipulations. Threads warped and wended, sent into disarray by their opposing demands. [break][break]

"Our powers are entangled—one cannot exist without the other." [break][break]

Even as Zev scoffed at such a notion, he knew it to be true. Space, gravity, creation, destruction, light, darkness. He observed the cycles as they spanned millennia. One made way for the other. One could not exist if the other did not. [break][break]

Still, he maintained his grasp on the laws of the universe under his command. To relent was to acknowledge that truth, when just moments ago he said there could only be one of them. [break][break]

"As long as you stand in our way, Alchemist, we will fight you. You and everyone else keeping us from achieving our goals. Rocket, League, or Megalopolan—all will perish." [break][break]

Mirroring the impasse of their Avatars, the shards of Necrozma and Palkia locked together in a struggle, each one attempting to overpower the other. Each one unable to gain the upper hand.

TAGS – illeana reyes[break]
NOTES – mission (repeat)

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Writhe or scream? Smoke's mouth, usually turned up in a grin, immediately flipped into a deep frown. He shook his head at Oscar and said matter-of-factly, "Gengar, gengar-gengar." [break][break]

The scientist didn't seem to heed the warning, however, and proceeded with the experiment. When the needles sank into Zev's limbs, he twitched in his sleep and groaned in pain, an instinctive reaction. But the expulsion of energy from his body had been so taxing that he didn't wake. [break][break]

Smoke continued to watch his master as the machine whirred to life. Inside the capsule, the Floette screamed and thrashed wildly, but the Gengar ignored the other Pokémon. He had to be sure nothing went wrong, because if something did, he'd have to kill Oscar. [break][break]

The hum of power reached a crescendo. Infinity Energy siphoned down the tubes into Zev's body. Thirty seconds passed, and the man's eyes flew open. [break][break]

Every vein, every nerve, every fiber within his body overflowed with power. He was instantly rejuvenated. The small, everyday aches and nuisances of his mortal body had vanished. His mind was alert and whirring with a keenness felt only after several nights of solid rest. And most importantly, the gnawing hunger was gone. [break][break]

He tried sitting up, but the restraints held him fast to the table. "It's working, Oscar!" Zev yelled over the roar of machinery.

TAGS – oscar clayton[break]
NOTES – mission

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Bee responded with such confidence that Zev had no reason to doubt him. So, without a second thought for the other man, he stepped into the opening. Gravity warped. His descent was steady, the speed almost leisurely. Above all, he did not want to rush in without knowing what was inside. [break][break]

And all around him, the Dynergy grew. He could almost taste it on his tongue. In fact, it took more mental fortitude than he'd expected to suppress the urge to suck some in. All across Zev's body, crystals emerged—as if the living metal knew where he was going. The shards rippled along his skin in anticipation. [break][break]

Finally, he and Bee reached the bottom. The accumulation of Dynergy there was almost overwhelming. Zev swallowed, teeth clenched. He tried to focus on their surroundings: the moss oozing poison, the cries of maddened Pokémon. [break][break]

A person? He squinted. Yes, a person lurked in the shadows nearby. [break][break]

Zev withdrew a flashlight from his kit and clicked it on. Its beam found the skulking figure, illuminating a pair of glasses, brown hair, plain clothes, and a large backpack. The man flinched from the light. [break][break]

"Bee, look," Zev said, pointing the flashlight at the stranger's shoes. Dark liquid splattered across them. "Blood." [break][break]

TAGS – BARNABY FINCH[break]
NOTES – the rks simulation: extraction

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Ah. [break][break]

Zev frowned at the door, weighing his options. Howard was not commanding him to act, which was within his power as an admin. He described the problem and suggested a plan, hoping for Zev's cooperation. That alone made him more tolerable in the Rocket Beast's eyes. [break][break]

He knew that if he refused to help, Team Rocket risked losing access to the Dynite Ore and Wishing Stars beyond the door. And though the League had no one in their ranks who could feast upon Dynergy like he could, they would find a way to claim such precious resources if the crime syndicate did not seize the opportunity first. He was certain of that. [break][break]

He was certain, too, that he could handle the Dynergy. When he'd first consumed it months ago, he hadn't known what to expect. Now that he was familiar with the effects on his body, he could control it, surely. [break][break]

Such was Zev's arrogance and folly. [break][break]

"Open the door."

TAGS – howard slayte[break]
NOTES – mission

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The very sky trembled as Necrozma and Palkia exchanged blows. With every clash, stars died and formed, meteors collided into moons and planets, and comets burned to nothing in foreign atmospheres. Every earth-shattering roar rippled through space and time, the aftershocks brushing against worlds not yet known. [break][break]

As Zev's swiping hand reached for Illeana, she changed. Her very essence transformed, melting away into nothingness and reforming in safety. Like a cloud of gas and dust coalescing into a new sun. [break][break]

And then he felt it, the pull of gravity. Not the planet's steady hand, not his controlled one, but hers—the recklessness of her fingers upon the threads that held the universe together. [break][break]

Annoyance spiked through him. Of course she would think to wield it too, inexperienced as she was. [break][break]

But space bent to gravity's will, not the other way around. [break][break]

"Very well. Since you asked for it," Zev said, his voice underscored with an alien reverb. With his mind, he seized the brilliant strings connecting Illeana to the planet and applied force. [break][break]

Let her body crumble. Let her cells split into their subatomic particles and her blood evaporate on the very air. Let her essence become nothing before she can draw breath to scream.

TAGS – illeana reyes[break]
NOTES – mission (repeat)

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Zev recalled the confidential report Elisabeth had forwarded to him. It had preceded her request to engage in more combat training, specifically in simulations against Groudon's Avatar. He hadn't asked for details, but that was then. This was now. [break][break]

"I'm aware, though I didn't think revealing the codenames or identifying features of our organization's leadership was part of it," Zev said. Though his words implied damnation, his tone was neutral, almost aloof. Like he didn't care. [break][break]

He crossed his arms over his chest, already taking a guess at Elisabeth's answer. "So how did Silph find out?"

TAGS – Elisabeth Fiorelli[break]
NOTES – social

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Smoke perked up when Oscar returned with a Pokéball in hand. The ghost watched from where he hovered above his master's slumbering body as the scientist released the strangely colored Floette into the capsule. [break][break]

It did indeed look depressed, though Smoke didn't mind. After all, he was quite happy with how things were going, and that was all that mattered. [break][break]

When Oscar asked if he knew HYPNOSIS, the Gengar shook his head, grinning widely. The Floette would just have to put up with whatever the thin human wanted to do to it, pain or no pain.

TAGS – oscar clayton[break]
NOTES – mission

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The last thing Zev expected to see was a grunt using a Skrelp like a water pistol to hold a Kirlia at gunpoint. He almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Both his Gengar and Seviper looked at him as if seeking orders to interfere, but he shook his head. [break][break]

The hesitation was enough for the second Gardevoir, the one locked in a standoff with Seviper. A TELEPORT brought her into Jason's blind spot, her wide eyes glowing with psychic power. [break][break]

"Behind you!" Zev shouted in warning. [break][break]

At the same time, his Gengar vanished with PHANTOM FORCE to intercept the attacking fairy. He slammed into the Gardevoir, knocking her off-balance so that her PSYBEAM careened off into the sky.

TAGS – Jason Huang[break]
NOTES – mission

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Zev walked through the kitchen of Raju Kaur's mansion, grabbing a tray of cold hors d'oeuvres in white-gloved hands. Then he fell into step behind another man dressed in the same black-and-white uniform. A woman in the same outfit joined them, and the three headed up a secret flight of stairs into a great hall. [break][break]

Almost at once, a middle-aged couple in matching formalwear accosted Zev. He stood still, smiling politely at them from behind a well-trimmed beard, as they marveled over the canapés on his tray. After selecting two each, they wandered off. [break][break]

Zev turned and disappeared into a party in full swing, perfectly invisible as a member of the waitstaff. He hugged the wall as he moved, his eyes flickering every so often to the center of all the attention: the Galarian General himself. [break][break]

"I have eyes on Kaur," he murmured into the microphone hidden in his clothing. "There are too many people trying to talk to him, though." [break][break]

The assassin's discreet earpiece crackled as a voice answered him from the other end of the comms.

TAGS – ameena abadi[break]
NOTES – mission

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Zev stood at the lip of the Power Spot found in the depths of New Mauville. He gazed down into its abyssal depths with an intensity of focus unlike any he'd had to employ in the past, for the great well emitted such a high volume of Dynergy. [break][break]

A part of him wanted nothing more than to lose himself to it. He could feel the way it clawed at his willpower, whispering seductively into the far corners of his mind. A mind he shared with Necrozma, who had fought Eternatus to drink deeply of the dragon's nectar. [break][break]

That same cosmic hunger filled Zev, that primordial need to gorge on blood and light. His mouth watered as if he'd been starving for days. But he had to resist. He knew what Dynergy did to his blood, to his body. [break][break]

How much could he handle? And would the war between temptation and resistance kill him first? [break][break]

He had to find out. [break][break]

"I'm going in," he told Bee, who had accompanied him to this entrance into hell. "Can you make your way down by yourself?" [break][break]

The admin seemed unchanged since he'd chased after Galarian Moltres, but Zev knew better than to assume otherwise. Avatarships changed every human. [break][break]

TAGS – BARNABY FINCH[break]
NOTES – the rks simulation: extraction

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[attr="class","itemcolicon"]

[attr="class","itemcolname"]authentic power spots

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[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]STAGE: DESCEND

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]You and your partner travel to The Desert, Route 105, Route 120, New Mauville's lower levels, or Meteor Falls, or other locations known to have an AUTHENTIC POWER SPOT. The Meteor Falls' authentic power spot can be discovered—but it is severely damaged. Broken. Or simply deactivated for one reason or another.[break][break]

These hotspots of dynergy have been created eras ago. It has been hypothesized that Eternatus' visitations to this land have caused them to form—or perhaps, its mere presence in space. Other theories include meteoroid impacts containing dynergy, other extraterrestrial Pokemon, and more.[break][break]

Around you, Poison Tera Crystals, minerals imbued with Dynamax Energy, and more exist for you to mine, harvest, and gather. However, more exists below each power spot. In fact, it is possible to leap into these power spots into dark labyrinthe caves below.[break][break]