"From a friend." A dead one, whose funeral he had never visited. "He loved fishing and sailing and I got dragged along to clean whatever he caught."

Whenever Tempest didn't feel like cutting the line and letting the fish slip away, at least. He had always been this strange anomaly to the admin, halfway between a bloodthirsty murderer and someone who genuinely cared for life under the sea. The Rocket Beast had always cared more for the lives of Pokémon than people. That wasn't a problem.

the problem arose when he started tossing lives aside like dross.

"I'm not that good at sailing, actually, but it's remarkably similar to traversing the desert. You're still tracking wind and sand currents. Plus salvaging undersea wrecks is an appealing pastime." Only then did he give her a sheepish smile, like a child caught in the middle of a naughty act. "I like getting paid."

If he could pull something valuable from the shipwreck, he'd be able to make rent.

Yet as Alina spoke of Olivine and Johto, Howard simply nodded and stared out to sea, occasionally checking his Probopass's Pokeball to ensure they were still going in the right direction.

"Olivine is a good place to call home. That lighthouse saved a lot of lives. It saves a lot of lives." He paused, about to speak, before the Dewpider let out a gurgling squeak. "Ah."

The ship slowly came to a halt. Through the ocean's shimmering waves, the dilapidated husk of a ship emblazoned with Team Rocket's emblem lie abandoned atop a pink shelf of Corsola.

"We're here." He raised an eyebrow at Alina. "Ready?"

---

Alina Hamako

Howard Slayte reeked of alcohol and tobacco and shame. The signs of an addict that would eventually dig himself too deep a pit to crawl from. A day would come where his edge was dulled and he finally fell on the battlefield, or he'd find a knife between his ribs.

There was only one way his story could end.

When he spoke, his voice was soft. He hugged the chemist tight and gave her a pat on the back, comforting.

"Everyone in Team Rocket has been rejected by the world. We are the people who have placed ourselves above everyone else, because nobody else bothered to check and ensure that we were okay. We placed our dreams above the safety of others. Our happiness comes at the extent of others."

'We'. Howard supposed that by this point, he was Rocket. He sat at the table and dictated policy. He rebuilt what they broke. He stacked a mountain of corpses so high that he could no longer see the peak, so very far the pile had grown.

"I despise them. I despise you, but..." He paused, thoughtful. "...I'll never turn my back from you or any of them."

Because if Team Rocket betrayed Absinthe Blackwood, there was no group alive that would accept her. She would stand alone against the malignance of her own species. If the world had decried her an enemy, then Team Rocket would stand with her. That was the vicious cycle of this world.

"Just promise me, when the time comes..." He hugged her tight. "... that you'll keep your promise."

His eye flicked open, a violent, vindictive magenta.

"And use that bird to help kill a god."

---

Absinthe Blackwood

Okidogi's head flew from its body, which slumped to its knees, lifeless.

"...fuck." Howard groaned, spent from the scuffle. Memories of Shirley flashed in his other eye. It made his vision almost completely dysfunctional. To save his mind, the admin ended the connection and felt himself return to the ground once more. "I guess..."

Howard looked towards the decapitated body, towards the head and the lolling tongue.

"...it was pretty strong."

But really, how strong could Okidogi have been, to lose to the weakest Rocket Beast and the weakest admin?

"Alright, come on..." He nudged Hitoshi with his foot, but the man had been spent of everything barring the last drop of blood. "Stupid dog."

His smile was faint.

"You always do push yourself too hard."

---

Hitoshi Inoue

Slowly, the golem turned to face Theo. Ancient contours groaned as it regarded the underboss.

It was hard to know if Regirock was going to kill him or not. There was no indicator of its plans. No proof to its actions. It simply acted as its programming decreed, and if that programming required it to protect or raze Theo, it would do so. That made it impossible to predict.

A poor image of life.

⠍⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗. It repeated. ⠇⠕⠎⠞.

Regarding the Pokeball that the admin held, Regirock pawed at it, incapable of grasping at the capsule that Howard had temporarily stored it in. Yet Howard seemed to grasp the construct's meaning.

"Yeah." He smashed the Pokeball beneath his foot, plastic and metal crunching as he did so. "There we go."

The admin picked up the buried Pokeball that had originally housed the golem years ago, when it was owned by another trainer. He tossed it up, thoughtfully.

⠺⠓⠑⠗⠑?

Where?

Where was Katherine Fairburne?

"Can't answer that, sorry." Howard pressed the Pokeball against Regirock's chest, and it was enveloped in a red haze. "But this is a Pokeball that suits you. It's better than any I could have offered to you."

His eye flickered.

"We do what we can to remember those important to us."

Whether they were a fisherman father or a malevolent mother.

---

THEO BECKETT

BOOM! An explosion caused a mushroom cloud of sand to reach up and scrape against the hollow dome of this world. Howard peered at it, before hissing in annoyance as the wind began to pick up, blowing it towards them.

"Damn." The drunkard slipped away, leaving the wandering archaeologist who had spent almost a decade roaming the deserts of the world in search of some greater truth. More than most in Team Rocket, the admin was intimately familiar with sandstorms. More than most, given that Johto and Galar weren't known for their vast, scorching plains.

"Get down, you two." Howard shouted, his hat flapping in the wind as a wall of sand pushed up by the massive attack blew towards them. Grabbing Makoto's shoulders, he pushed them into the septic tank's pit. "Ameena!"

The illustrious Crumble appeared with a flash, its multiple eyes reduced to flat lines as it erected a wall of psychic power to stall the sand for a few moments.

"Hurry!"

---

SANDSTORM POG
ameena abadi Makoto Kurumi

"They do. Those people I've fought besides..." He insisted as she pushed past him to enter the final section of the temple. "Because you're not an idea. You're you. Even if the Iron Serpent gives you powers, you're still June. It doesn't matter if you change your name to August or July or September, you're you."

There were two Boundless, but only one June. It didn't matter who she delivered packages for, and it didn't matter what side she stood on, she was going to fly.

And, as if heeding her demands, the temple opened to her. Ancient doors creaked open and lights ignited in her presence, alternating between electric lights and antique torches, flames guttering and sputtering in the air.

"I have fought with and against wonderful people. I've stood shoulder to shoulder with criminals and I have fought against people who want to protect the innocent. I've done the opposite. I've seen heroes get knighted, and I've seen normal people fight for things they want to protect."

He ran before her and blocked her way. Behind him was a table with an ornate blade.

"We move forward for them. We..." He looked over her shoulder and paled. "Ameena?"

In her place was an ornate golden coffin, radiating a golden glow, as if something great and powerful powered its every movement. Nestled into the sarcophagus's head was the head of ameena abadi.

"June." It was happening again. "Run."

A tendril of shadow impaled him in the heart.

---

june sleigh

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?"

---

Roy Aker freya morningstar

The plop of a sandwich against soggy moss is not a sound to wet the appetite. As various ingredients and fillings oozed into the moss, the admin grimaced.

"I wouldn't think so." A Caterpie emerged from the moss, munching happily on the bread. If the five second rule did exist, that Caterpie had dragged it out behind the Dyna Tree and shot it dead. Rather than mourn the sandwich, the admin simply buried the sorrow at losing an Aurelie sandwich in his heart and looked at the book in his hand.

"The Violet Book. It's something that manifested out of nowhere, as far as I know. It contains a series of fairy tales of a Galar that nobody seems to remember." His eye met hers. "But Calyrex seems to. You do, as well."

Twenty years in Galar. Howard had gotten to experience three months in the epilogue of that great tale, when all the heroes had left that world behind.

The fairy tale didn't have an impact on him. It was a tragedy that he didn't get to feel the same connection to it that Aurelie did, but Howard's tale had come after, and would be honored in memory alone. Any trials he and Navy had gone through had been etched into a blade of steel.

"It's odd because it's so similar to the Galar that I experienced, but so distinct. Nothing in this book happened in my journey, but it's familiar all the same." He frowned and inclined his head, musing on the implications. "It means that the world you all experienced must have been quite magical, indeed."

He blinked once.

"I used to be envious of the fact that I'd never see that world, but after experiencing my own, it's likely for the best." The violet serpent on the cover of the book gleamed in the light. "As for why I told the story to Calyrex..."

He shrugged.

"Just felt right."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

"You're not a fool, Theo."

He was many things. A murderer, a villain, a warmonger, and a criminal. Yet nobody would ever say that Theo was a fool. There was a reason he had survived for so long and risen so high without falling back down to earth.

"But for your own sake, believe what I tell you. The only other person who can verify or deny what I'm telling you is your fellow underboss." Lie. Lie. Lie. "Ask her."

This story was not going to hold. Elisabeth knew it. He knew it. Why did they dance around such mocking charades, desperately hoping that it would hold up under scrutiny? Howard suspected that she knew it was going to fail, and just wanted to watch her victim squirm.

It was working.

"What'd you find, Regirock?" The admin's eye flicked to the stone giant, which had uncovered a dusty red capsule. "..."

A Pokeball.

⠍⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗

---

THEO BECKETT

Judging from the fact that the admin was hissing in pain, he likely wasn't alright, but he still let out an affirmative grunt.

"If we run now, it'll tail us for as long as it wishes. We deal with it now." Even if he wanted to run. Arceus above, he would've killed to have Regirock or Regice with him right now. Both would've been nice, actually. Turning Munkidori into a smear with Raziel's help would've become easy as sin. "We fight them now. We win now. I'm not letting this thing go after kicking my ass in the prison."

He had been laughed at by everyone during the prison's hour of mockery, and he wasn't willing to run away and be mocked with such derision again.

"Cover Doug. He gets tired after using his full power." Howard snapped his fingers, and the Ursaluna let out a low growl as he recognized the Toxic Chain and the Munkidori that now fought them. Channeling his rage into a Blood Moon, the blast carved a large path of destruction as it fell upon the monkey. "Got it!"

As the smoke cleared, the Munkidori was in good health, barring the fringed tips of his Toxic Chain.

"Fuuuuuuuck."

---

Raziel Beckett

There's a moment of pause.

"Yes." His words were strained. Admitting it was a tough pill to swallow. "Regieleki is an upside. The things I could do with it would fill both League and Rocket with awe. Regirock and Regice already follow me, and I'm confident that it will as well."

It was nothing more than a lonely, discarded tin soldier. Regirock and Regice had been buried with their people before entering an eternal slumber. Regieleki had been forced to wander an alien world for years, and nobody had bothered to check on it or attempt to return it home.

Except for him.

Except for her.

"No. If I ask her for it, that would make me no better than the rest of Team Rocket and the League. It's hers. It will remain hers until I need it." He didn't need it yet. June needed every tool at her disposal to survive in a world where Rocket and League both found her guilty.

Best to keep her close while letting her fly.

"I'm simply keeping her safe until the world isn't as hateful. She is free to do as she wishes."

---

annalise henderson

PARADOX, PLANEWALK SIGN-UP

they slither wildly as they slip away across the universe

CHARACTER: howard slayte [break]
PKMN TEAM (6 MAX):
Name: Shirley (Aerodactyl), Ability: Rock Head, Moves: Iron Head/Psychic Fangs/Ancient Power/Stone Edge/Ice Fang/Thunder Fang/Fly, Mega + Stellar
Name: Crumble (Claydol), Ability: Levitate, Moves: Dragon Hammer/Cosmic Power/Earth Power/Rapid Spin/Teleport/Hyper Beam
Name: Steelheart (Illumina Skarmory), Ability: Illuminate, Moves: Peck/Spotlight/Wing Attack/Steel Wing/Spikes/Metal Sound
Name: Regirock, Ability: Clear Body/Sturdy, Moves: Lock On/Dynamax Cannon/Bulldoze/Superpower/Rock Slide/Fire Punch/Stealth Rock/Gravity, Eight Barriers + Z-Move + Stellar
Name: Regice, Ability: Clear Body/Ice Body, Moves: Lock On/Hyper Beam/Zap Cannon/Explosion/Blizzard/Superpower/Dynamax Cannon/Avalanche, Eight Barriers + Z-Move + Stellar
Name: Atlas (Golurk), Ability: No Guard/Iron Fist, Moves: Dynamic Punch/Earthquake/Poltergeist/Ice Punch/Zen Headbutt/Fly
[break]
WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER'S FAVORITE GENRE?: "Brycen-Man is a genre, I swear!"

The dog was remarkably frustrating. Okidogi was a durable beast, on account of the fact that it had taken a rock to the head with little more than a shrug and a continued struggle.

Strength wasn't just about lifting heavy things. It was about getting up against after being knocked down. It was about finding something deep within that forced one to keep going, regardless of how bloody and battered they were. With a deep breath, the admin's hands erupted into energy.

From that energy grew pseudo-fangs.

"Nothing easy is, Hitoshi! We do it anyway, because it must be done!" Shirley scratched at the dog's eyes, temporarily blinding him from anything about to happen. "Every struggle makes us stronger, so do what I promoted you to do..."

He raked Okidogi's back with makeshift Psychic Fangs.

"...and bring me his fucking head!"

---

Hitoshi Inoue