Dream mist would be weaponized one day. It was an inevitability for humanity to eventually plumb the depths of their knowledge in an attempt to turn everything ever studied into an engine of war. That was the burden of man, to watch as everything became a tool for which to instill misery in others.

It was a tale as old as time, and it was a tale that Howard had read many, many times. Nobody knew that fact as well as he did.

"This feels really weird, Lulu..." Howard's voice rang out from the mist. "Shit."

Howard's eye opened to the pinnacle of Victory Road and the sight of a man waging a war against a god. Its utterances shook Howard's bones. This was no manmade construct like the Regice he possessed. This was a deity of the land and world.

A god.

"Can he see us, Lulu?" Howard's voice was a low whisper as his senses adjusted. "Lulu?"

---

Lulu Flint Josh Devlin

Toukon. Willpower. The need to move forward. The will to do what needed to be done. The drive to push against any opposition to reach for the future.

"Huh." Howard frowned as he looked back at the woman next to him. She had a purpose. Andrea had a reason to keep going. A reason to live. A reason to love. A reason to keep fighting. Even if that reason was for a Fuecoco named Jalapeño of all things. "Your son?"

Howard was so confused by Andrea's claim that he temporarily forgot to be depressed. Even Doug was forgotten amidst this new revelation.

"So does that mean..." He gestured vaguely at Andrea's contained Pokémon, attempting to process this new information about the genealogical struggles of humans and Pokémon sharing a family tree. "Does that mean the Hydreigon is your brother?"

Deja vu.

---

Andrea Vaneau

What kind of person would Noel Parker be if he ran away?

"You'd be an alive one!" Howard shouted at him as his Pupitar continued to shoot around the battlefield like a rocket. As it shattered the bodies of Nihilegos like glass, a path forward opened up. "Wait for me!"

Thus the duo went into the breach. Without his Pokeballs, the admin was forced to leave Serizawa behind. The Pupitar elected to follow for once, though, ejecting gas so that it could lunge forward at a remarkable pace. As they reached the town square, several Nihilegos followed and began harassing Dewford's citizens.

To live on this island was to accept strife as the only reward.

"Alright, I'll take one side, you can take the other. We'll reconvene on the other side of the plaza!" Howard snapped his fingers as they ran. Noel had his whole team with him, but Howard had Serizawa, one of the strongest Pupitars in existence. He would never lose.

Never.

"Alright, let's g-" Howard shuddered as a tentacle slid over his shoulder with a texture similar to glass "go...?"

The archaeologist felt the ground disappear beneath him as he was dragged up into the sky. He shuddered as he felt the familiar sting of the alien tentacle. There was a brief flash of pain.

Then the screaming began.

---

Noel Parker

Oh, right. That report. He had made a copy to throw at oscar clayton, but it wouldn't surprise Howard if it was currently being used as a coaster for whatever Oscar spiked his coffee with in the morning.

"You've got this, little lady." Howard beamed with pride as they trudged through the bamboo forest. Learning the Megalopolan script was hard, but if Eris kept at it, he was confident that she could do it. Time and commitment were the salves for ignorance. "Keep at it, a-"

The Celesteela rose from the ground like an elevator ascending from a shaft. The size of the Ultra Beast was striking, but Howard was less afraid of it than he was of the Kartana. Celesteela was a big thing. He could deal with big things. Evil paper, not so much.

"Little lady..." He whispered to Eris. "Back up, slowly..."

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up.

---

Eris Halla

It was a fairy tale, but a necessary one to tell. Mankind's greatest asset was their ability to produce stories. Even greater still was their capacity to believe in them. They had to believe in this one, even if it was a lie. If they believed with enough fervency, that lie could become truth.

Was that transmutation of fiction into fact worth it, though? Wasn't it the admin's duty as a historian to sift through lies to find the truth?

"Not at first. It was originally for Dynamax Bands and money. The ore goes for a hefty sum on the market." He admitted with a nod. The extraction of resources from the Ultra Deep Sea was subsidized by the League. It made the ore expensive, and Rocket had used that fact to garner a large sum. "But I realized something."

Perhaps he had always known the truth that he was about to utter.

"Regice is weak, Grigori. It's really weak. I'm weak." The admin clenched a fist in despair. When he began to lose against random trainers in Lilycove's tournament, when he lost against Gwyar Wledig in Mossdeep, when he needed Noelani Kekoa's help to vanquish several Nihilego. "It's just not up to snuff. It couldn't beat Kyurem. It couldn't beat Palkia. It couldn't save Shr-"

He stopped as the flash of light from Regice's Hyper Beam danced before his eye. It was a memory he wanted to forget, but never could.

"It can't even beat that monster in Ultra Plant. How is it supposed to beat Eternatus, like the texts claim?" His voice cracked as he stared at Grigori. "I'm failing."

The words hung in the air.

"We will raid Dewford, but you will stay your hand. Do not reenact Kanto."

---

Grigori Sokolov

"A Rampardos battering ram..." Howard contemplated the idea for a few moments. "Not bad, actually. You've been hitting the books."

Cranidos and Rampardos skulls had been used by ancient civilizations for years and years. Their skulls were durable, destructive, and perfectly sized to fit onto human heads. Whether it was a battering ram, a helmet, or the tip of a club, mankind had proven themselves perfectly willing to adapt the best assets of Pokémon for their own uses.

"Sit." Howard gestured at a comfy chair in front of his desk. The admin walked behind the desk and looked up. There, a map of Hoenn sat with several bright pins indicating safe houses, smuggling routes, and important docks. "This shouldn't take long."

He turned to Walter.

"I need you and your crew to clear your schedules a week from now, and ferry me and several colleagues to Dewford."

---

walter delmar

"I love this garden, Laurence." As his mouth opened, smoke fell from Howard's mouth like a Salamence preparing to breath fire. For someone who claimed to love it so much, it hadn't stopped the admin from lighting a cigarette.

"It's a testament to what we're capable of. Nothing should be growing here, underwater, but we made it happen anyway through sheer force of will."

Roses bloomed amidst the recycled air from the ventilation system far above. Howard never understood why the submarine had a garden, but he figured that it was the pet project of a long-gone Rocket executive, likely dead on some forgotten battlefield.

Their body had died, yet their dream continued.

"How's Sophia?" Howard tapped the cigarette against his finger, spreading ash as he did so. "Well?"

---

Laurence Whateley

Rocket Headquarters was massive. The submarine stretched far under the waters of Sootopolis, ready to leave the city behind at a moment's notice to wherever the newest battle was. Within the spanning series of hallways was Admin Fox's office.

"Hey, Walt." Howard turned from a Rampardos skeleton to the ship captain. "Check out this skeleton. Perfect specimen. Cost me an arm and a leg."

Howard's office was a cabinet of curiosities, overflowing with rare artifacts, glimmering gemstones shined on his desk. Ancient fossils and rare stones were stacked on shelves with displays everywhere. The amount of wealth concentrated in the room was likely more than what Walter would make in a lifetime.

Yet Howard still struggled to pay rent. The struggle of juggling passion with survival.

"What do you think?"

---

walter delmar

Kartana were stupid and Howard hated them. fern delaney had stashed one in his pile of paperwork back at headquarters, and Howard had gotten his desk split in half before noticing what his fellow admin had done. Since then, he had sworn off the paper-thin monsters.

"Little lady, what report are you talking about?" The admin parsed his lips as they trekked through the bamboo forest that made up a large swath of this dimension. There were so many reports between League and Rocket at this point that the admin could do little but rub his forehead and groan. "Wait, it was in the report? Why're you reading reports?"

Probably stealing from Isaac Merlo's mailbox again, knowing her. Howard was shocked that the kid could even reach Isaac's mailbox.

"Huh." Howard sniffed the air as Eris's Kartana split the forest apart with its very existence. Kartana was a weapon, but it was a different type of weapon from the ones the admin was familiar with. It was not a weapon with intent. It was not built or designed to wage war. It simply existed, and that was too much. "Storm's coming."

The archaeologist refused to elaborate.

---

Eris Halla