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Zev found Neffatari Nzingha at her observatory in Mossdeep. He watched from a short distance as the shining, deadly form of Dawn Wings Necrozma descended from a WORMHOLE in the sky to greet the woman, as if familiar with her. She extended her hand toward it, unafraid.[break][break]

As Zev neared, both woman and beast turned to acknowledge him. A smile spread across Nenet's face; she reached for her husband. He took her hand and brought it to his lips, planting a gentle kiss on her knuckles.[break][break]

Dawn Wings Necrozma glowed with a brilliant, searing light. When it faded, two Pokémon loomed over the humans instead of one: Necrozma with all its razor edges and terrible darkness, and Lunala with shining wings of starlit night.[break][break]

With his free hand, Zev removed a Pokéball from his pocket. Nenet turned her gaze toward it, curiosity sparking in her eyes.[break][break]

"Is that—?" she asked.[break][break]

"Solgaleo," Zev confirmed.[break][break]

A hungry gleam entered the scientist's eyes. She took the Pokéball from him, caressing the sphere with her fingers as if it were a precious artifact. Looking up into his face, her smile turned mischievous. "Shall we?"[break][break]

A thrill swept through Zev at her eagerness. He'd known when agreeing to marry Nenet that she would support him in his endeavors, but he had not imagined they would be so aligned. His subjugation of Hoenn had removed all obstacles to her ambitions, and she repaid him daily with her devotion.[break][break]

Now, with Solgaleo in their possession, none of the worlds could stand in their way.[break][break]

Zev returned Nenet's smile with a grin of his own and a nod of his head. She opened the capsule to release the magnificent white lion. It took in its surroundings and backed up defensively, a rumble deep in its throat.[break][break]

But then Lunala neared, chirping soothing notes. The two Pokémon seemed to confer with each other.[break][break]

Necrozma simply watched and waited.[break][break]

After a moment, Solgaleo submitted. Lunala rubbed a cheek against its companion's face, then lifted into the air, great wings spread wide. Solgaleo turned to Necrozma and gave a regal nod of its majestic head. Reaching out, Necrozma grasped Solgaleo with a massive, crystalling claw. At once, the same white light from earlier engulfed them.[break][break]

When it faded, only Dusk Mane Necrozma stood where the two had been.[break][break]

Zev turned to Nenet, still holding her hand, still grinning with a vicious delight. "After you, wife."[break][break]

He helped her onto the Prism Pokémon's back, then climbed up after her. At a wordless command, Necrozma leaped into the wormhole, Lunala following it. Hoenn quickly fell away as the great void of Ultra Space engulfed them.[break][break]

A million stars glittered brightly, promising countless worlds ripe for the conquest.

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TAGS – Rhys Collins[break]
NOTES – mission

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Kyle fell hard to the ground. Zev was on him in a flash, one hand pinning him down, one arm drawn back. A crystalline spike extended from the back of Zev's hand, black as the void and malice-sharp.[break][break]

In the background, Huntail screamed with the last of her lifeforce. The Metagross' weight, combined with the scalding metal of its body, crushed her bones and burned through her body. Her jaws released its limb as she collapsed backward, dead.[break][break]

HIDDEN POWER pushed back Zev's Hatterene. With a cry of frustration, she turned her attention back to the Mightyena, countering with SPRINGTIDE STORM.[break][break]

Kyle asked his question, a certainty in his words despite the slight quiver in his voice. But Zev had no answer. Inside him, there existed no empathy, no reluctance, no guilt.[break][break]

But then, unbidden, words echoed in the Beast's head from the DREAM OF GALAR: "You're talking to Ho-oh's Avatar. I don't die. I respawn."[break][break]

The spike plunged down toward Kyle's heart.

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Zev nodded, his gaze focused on the slumped bodies of the League members. They all seemed to have fallen under the SPELL of SLEEP POWDER, not a single one faking it. "We're fine."[break][break]

He did not bother asking if she was. Instead, he patched into Team Rocket's communications network and gave the dispatcher their coordinates. "Send someone this way to wrangle the Leaguers before they wake up," he ordered.[break][break]

Then he beckoned his Type: Null over. The large Pokémon picked its way over the sleeping bodies and stopped beside his master. Carefully, Type: Null knelt down onto its forelegs.[break][break]

"You can ride with me," he said to Xiura, crouching down and lacing his hands together so he could give her a lift up onto Type: Null's back. Once he confirmed she was secure, he'd swing up behind her.[break][break]

They still had to get to the relay station, and quickly.

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Zev ignored Elisabeth's caustic remarks as he approached a machine he recognized as the radio. Situating himself in front of it, he put on the headphones and began turning the dial to tune into various channels.[break][break]

The topic of LESSER MEGALOPOLIS and its former inhabitants drew Zev's attention from the static and chatter on the other end.[break][break]

"The city has been abandoned for a reason," he said, his tone apathetic. "A lot of it is in disrepair, like it's been that way for a very long time. We can still gain resources from it, mostly in terms of data and technology. The tower has a lot of interesting information inside it."[break][break]

He paused to listen to orders from the Rangers, but he heard nothing of FERNANDO SILPH in the dispatch.[break][break]

"As for the Megalopolans…" Zev shrugged and turned the radio dial again. "I don't trust them completely. They have their own agendas besides Team Rocket's interests. But like any tool, they can be manipulated to certain ends."[break][break]

Suddenly, a voice crackled over the League's comms. "…cover Councilman Silph as he takes the route along the southwestern coast."[break][break]

Zev ripped off the headset and extended it to Elisabeth. "I got him. Listen to this."

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TAGS – John Sullivan[break]
NOTES[break]
– Zev is wearing combat gear + a mask to hide his identity[break]
– MP total: 40 (posts)[break]
– Corviknight uses BODY PRESS on Accelgor + the ship

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They put kyle lopez in chains, the kind forged from shards of black metal.[break][break]

And while prisoners were normally shoved into one of the many sky cells built into Sootopolis' cliffside, one wall open to the sheer, vertigo-inducing drop, they were ill-suited for housing Avatars who could disintegrate into ash on a whim.[break][break]

Instead, Zev stood facing the Top Champion in a small, dark basement cell. The chains held Kyle fast against the wall opposite the door, his arms spread uselessly to either side. Blood had dried on his face, though the wounds had already healed.[break][break]

Despite his circumstances, Kyle smiled. "You missed me that much, did you?" he said. Beneath the casual words, Zev noticed the tightness in his tone.[break][break]

Zev's own voice was hard as steel and sharp as malice. "We were never friends, Lopez."[break][break]

To the Rocket Boss' surprise, Kyle's smile took on a certain ruefulness. "You say that, but you're still my first visitor. I'd expect your brother or another pawn, but that's not what's happening."[break][break]

His laugh was full of tension, too. "This is a scene straight out of an RPG, you know."[break][break]

Zev's face twisted with mild exasperation. "This isn't one of your games, Kyle. Your capture has nothing to do with whatever friendship you perceived between us." He removed a Pokéball from his pocket, one very familiar to the man who had been Top Champion.[break][break]

Understanding flickered in Kyle's eyes. He lowered his gaze to the floor, the rueful smile persisting. "Solgaleo. Of course. With it, you can conquer the world. Maybe even ULTRA SPACE." He raised his head. "What do you need me for, then? Why chain me up here? Kill me instead."[break][break]

Zev's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a fool. You can't be killed." Not while Ho-oh's blessing still resided in him. "So you'll stay here and rot in your isolation."[break][break]

He made to leave, but Kyle's voice stopped him in his tracks.[break][break]

"Maybe I will, or maybe I won't." His smile had become amused. "I think you'll get bored. I look forward to our next chat, Zev."[break][break]

The Rocket Boss said nothing. He simply slammed the door shut as he exited and stalked away. Only later did he realize he'd called Kyle by his first name, as if they had been old friends after all.[break][break]

A slip of the tongue, of course. Nothing more.

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Howling at the Moon's plot in the nearby urban garden was no more. Ever since firing all the non-Rocket staff and hiring only members of the crime syndicate, the garden was abandoned, left to shrivel up and die.[break][break]

In lieu of it, Zev ended up with a small garden on his balcony. Neffatari Nzingha proposed the idea initially, and she was its primary caretaker. But he learned how to care for the plants, too—at her insistence, of course.[break][break]

As a result of their combined labor, they were able to harvest berries for their Pokémon and any recipes that required them.[break][break]

Zev happened to be in the kitchen one night when a shattering sound came from the balcony. He rushed to open the door, one hand clutching a chef's knife as an impromptu weapon. But where he expected to see an intruder was, instead, a familiar sight: a Minior.[break][break]

Slowly, Zev stepped onto the balcony and approached the Pokémon. Its outer shell had broken upon impact with a berry plant; fragments of brown shell were scattered amidst pieces of a clay pot and a spray of black dirt.[break][break]

Crouching down beside the Pokémon, Zev considered it for a moment. He recalled that Minior died shortly after their crashes, unless stabilized with a Pokéball. This one was surely dying; the soft glow of its body diminished with every ragged breath.[break][break]

Zev returned inside. Putting down the knife, he exchanged it for an empty Pokéball. Then he stepped back out onto the balcony and tapped the capsule against the Minior's exposed core.[break][break]

Afterward, he sent a text to Nenet.[break][break]

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TAGS – parker jones[break]
NOTES – mission

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"Galar."[break][break]

Zev's mind, convinced that Galar had been nothing more than a ridiculous dream, went immediately to Zamazenta's shield instead. It had turned black and crumbled when the Ruination struck it, shedding black metal fragments. Some had been siphoned into him when he'd neared them, but not all.[break][break]

Kyle must have collected some, Zev decided. Perhaps he'd also gone to LESSER MEGALOPOLIS where the same material coated Guzzlord and Blacephalon in armor.[break][break]

But he had no time to voice these thoughts. Kyle attacked, blade swiping at Zev's body. Crystal rang together as the blade skidded across Zev's arm, raised to block the attack. In retaliation, the Rocket Beast kicked low, attempting to sweep Kyle's feet from under him.[break][break]

The HAMMER ARM crushed Huntail's body, knocking loose scales by the handful. Huntail squirmed beneath the weight of the Metagross, jaws still clenched around one of its legs as she continued to CLAMP down.[break][break]

But her strength was fading fast; she would not last long. Her only hope was for Hatterene's MYSTICAL FIRE to force the Metagross away or kill it.

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"Neither," Zev said at once, his tongue sharp with denial. He stepped away from the map on the table. "I think he made it from the crumbled remains of Zamazenta's shield."[break][break]

Despite the strength of his conviction, a strange itch in the back of his mind told him that was not completely true. Zev did not know why he should know.[break][break]

"Bee, Volchitsa, and I found similar loose metal in Lesser Megalopolis, armoring some ULTRA BEASTS," he explained to Elisabeth while he moved through the camp.[break][break]

Most of the League forces had fled or were incapacitated; they no longer tried to stop him as he searched for the radio.[break][break]

"Lopez must have collected enough to make the knife he wielded."[break][break]

But the answer to how Kyle could have transformed such indestructible material into a weapon was beyond Zev. He himself hadn't tried; he couldn't remove the crystals from his body, and any loose ones he passed by immediately found their way inside him.

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Nenet decided they would go east, so they went east. Their pack of dogs raced ahead while Zev matched Nenet's pace, pleased at how much she'd come to rely on him. He had done his husbandly duty taking care of her, and this increased closeness was his reward.[break][break]

It was a far cry from what their relationship had been like a year ago, mutually beneficial but also mutually distant.[break][break]

"If Luna sits, then they'll sit. Except Jupiter. I don't know if he knows the difference between words yet," Zev said, glancing at the Yamper puppy.[break][break]

They reached the first house in no time, and his Lycanroc led her litter up the steps, the handle of a plastic Pumpkaboo-shaped bowl held between her teeth. Zev stood with Nenet on the sidewalk as their Pokémon begged for candy and poffins.[break][break]

After securing their treats, Luna showed their haul to Zev. He reached in and pulled out a RAGE CANDY BAR.[break][break]

"This one's for me, since you shouldn't eat chocolate," he told the Lycanroc. Then he turned to Nenet. "Want one too?"

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