"Everything is a job to me, but seizing your life isn't one. It's not mine to take, unless I beat you in the field. Call it the right of conquest. Better me than another. Better a king than a god. I'm just tomorrow's slave."

The admin inspected his other arm, peering at an armored fist where he knew cracks of Dynergy formed within. He was just a puppet in this body, waiting for the moment that the genuine article could be recovered. Yet even now, he did not accept a world where he danced to the strings of some divine notion.

"Work. Passion. Fate. Destiny. Love. Hate. Food. Drink." The admin lounged on his chair and looked up at the sun, glimmering through the sand. "We spend our lives drunk on something. But I ramble."

He crossed his arms thoughtfully, eye flicking from Yuina to the Celebi that floated beside her. What he wouldn't give to align himself with that sprite, to seize its power and travel back through time to verify various historical facts with it. With it, he could discern what Regieleki's ruins once looked like.

Alas.

"If I order it, Regirock will drop a mountain on us and kill us both. Or we can sit here and wait for Regice to arrive from Route 102. Claydol should be back with it sooner rather than later. Machines always fulfill their purposes. They always give it their all."

The admin shrugged again, his bleeding arm hanging limp.

"How do you want to proceed? Which path?"

---

Yuina Higashi

Barriers shattered. The amount was lost in the storm, but Dynergy that had crystallized into barriers rained down from the heavens onto Montgomery. Dynergy distorted the senses and gnawed at the mind, bringing demons from the past to life in the present.

Montgomery James had a lot of demons.

The words flickered on the screen as the deputy's perception was assaulted and his mind was besieged by poison extracted from divinity and preserved in eternal ice.

I LOVE YOU.

I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU. I HATE YOU.

The words finally ended on the intended sentence as one emotion won out.

I LOVE YOU.

"Goodbye."

The Max Hailstorm struck the Crafty Shield, and there was a precise moment where it held. Then the full weight of Dewford's destroyer crashed down on the Runegrius and the shield began to fail. It wasn't a shield formed from Necrozma's metal, wielded by a Galarian hero.

It just belonged to a normal Pokemon.

So it broke.

And everything froze.

---

Montgomery James

"Ow... Ow... Ow...!" The admin looked up, a bruise forming on his forehead where he had run into the wall. A few tears were welling in his eyes as he held his head. "This hurts! Fuck!"

If the fact that Howard Slayte, archaeologist extraordinaire, had gotten mauled in a cave of Dreepy without putting up much of a fight, his capability would become the stuff of jokes. Forget that he fought Terrakion, Suicune, Mesprit, and Wo-chien in rapid succession. No, the fact that he and Adrian had lost to Dreepy would ruin their credibility.

This secret could never leak.

Yet to keep such a secret would ruin the admin's belief in free knowledge. Howard looked at Adrian's phone, frowning. There were a few funny images in there. Hm...

"You can't leak those, Adrian. They'll kill our credibility. If I see those on the internet, I'll kill you." Howard chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Unless we distort the truth, like myths of old..."

What this would result in was a mystery, for the cave entrance was approaching.

---

Adrian Malcolm

The admin watched the emerald star descend with a trail of yellow lightning.

"Regice." An eerie level of calm settled over him as he nudged the giant's body with an armored hand, gauntlets clinking with ice as he did so. His eye didn't leave the star as it descended, so he simply watched as Regice went through its reboot process. "If you don't move now, we're going to lose."

⠊ ⠁⠍ ⠁⠺⠁⠗⠑ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠗⠑⠃⠕⠕⠞⠊⠝⠛.

"Not enough time."

⠗⠕⠉⠅?

"Heading towards Rustboro."

⠓⠕⠺ ⠥⠝⠋⠕⠗⠞⠥⠝⠁⠞⠑.

"You're right." The admin chuckled. Strangely bemused at the ridiculousness of this fight, he smiled at the absurdity that had led him to this point. There had been a chance where victory had been his. It had been swept away by a random chance. "⠓⠕⠺ ⠥⠝⠋⠕⠗⠞⠥⠝⠁⠞⠑, ⠊⠝⠙⠑⠑⠙."

The Dragon Ascent hit.

An explosion sent the golem skidding backwards, crushing forests and streams and lakes as it did so. There was a series of hideous cracks that made the admin's skin crawl.

Howard actually felt glad that Regirock wasn't here. Rayquaza excelled at destroying large rocks, after all. No reason to make its conquest too easy. Though if he had it here, maybe it could actually turn the tide a bit more. Block an attack or ten, maybe. As for June, he should've expected it. She always got into situations that weren't his business.

Alas.

"The only complaint I have, Freya..." He told to everyone and nobody. "Is that you were born two thousand years too late."

Regice shrunk, and the admin fell.

---

june sleigh freya morningstar

The admin rolled an eye, huffing as he did so.

"You're so excited that I can't help but let you lead the way. Take it as a sign of respect. Besides, I'm missing Regirock. I'd rather not lead the charge. You're stronger, so light the way forward. That's our purpose, right? To light the way?"

Whether Team Rocket consisted of academics, engineers, soldiers, or murderers, there were enough enlightened individuals to light a path through this distorted reality. They would understand this world. That was Oscar's purpose. That was Howard's purpose. Death was worth it if they could find the truth.

Yet they would not die.

"I remember during the first expedition into Area Zero, when Regirock was first sighted, the Distortion World's portals were detected. I never could figure out why, but now, I think I can." Howard looked up at the mass of stone and omnidirectional water, his hat fluttering as he did so. "I think it was building a replica of Area Zero."

He pointed at their destination.

"And I think that's it."

---

oscar clayton

There was a brief stint of satisfaction as Montgomery and his Illumina Skarmory were blown away. For all of his bragging in the deserts of Unova, that wasn't a trick that the gangster had taught him. How did you teach someone to fight against an explosion the size of a building?

How was a deputy supposed to dodge the weight of a star?

"MONTGOMERY!" The admin roared as Regice slid backwards, forcing the deputy and Pipsqueak to chase the titan down Route 104. Every step spread the gap further and further, before Howard was comfortable with the distance. "This is beyond you, now! The nineteen people that died in Dewford? That was me! The thousands of people who died in Petalburg? THAT WAS ME!"

A Max Hailstorm descended from the heavens. A great white orb of glacial ice descended towards the earth.

"Don't you understand, Montgomery? I'm a bigger villain than you ever were!" The admin disappeared in a flash of white as the orb cracked, releasing a snowstorm on the battlefield. "There's nothing left to save, so let's fight for my future! Just know that you can't match me, deputy!"

The storm expanded, engulfing the golem, admin, and deputy.

"Die."

---

Montgomery James
BLIZZARD/AVALANCE = MAX HAILSTORM

A Braixen died. The admin's heart died a little more. Yet the cry of one Pokémon did not roar over the orchestra of the slain. A thousand dead bodies were piled at the admin's feet, and both Petalburg and Dewford screamed for his annihilation.

By the time this was over, Hoenn would hate him. Yet that was for history to decide.

Crack. Shatter. Crack. Shatter. Two more barriers fell over the battlefield. Four left. Enough to beat Thomas, if the admin was smart. Rather than let the duo continue to beat on its frozen body, Regice stepped backwards, defying the constraints of Dynamax, before swinging a fist towards Dewford's guardian with a Max Knuckle.

For a moment, Dewford's protector and its destroyer met each other. A reminder that they were destined to wage a war against each other.

Then the fist landed.

---

Thomas Benoit

Tempest Quinn died.

In retrospect, it wasn't much of a surprise. What sort of death god found itself incapable of swinging a scythe and reaping a handful of souls? In a moment of clarity, Yveltal's execution had been too smooth. It had fallen too easily. It had flown too confidently, fought too angrily, and died as expected.

Yet death, like all things, was a cycle.

"TEMP!" The admin shouted his name, wishing he could feel more than an iota of empathy for the man that had once left him to due in the Ultra Deep Sea. This was what Tempest Quinn had offered him, and this was what Tempest Quinn deserved after consigning thousands of lives to the funeral pyre.

This was the end of Team Rocket's final Gym Leader.

"We can't get him out. That cocoon is as hard as rock. If we crack it open, it'll kill us all." The admin chewed his lip in frustration. Shit. What would happen if they broke into Hades? Would they turn into stone? Die? Wander this world forever? "He's dead. FUCK!"

After bryan delarosa, losing another Rocket Beast was a blow.

"We're going back!" The admin snapped his fingers, and Regirock turned from the cocoon. It lumbered off, flashing signals to its sibling as they left the cocoon alone. "Retreat! Cillian, we need to-"

The admin's expression faltered.

"Cillian?"

---

Cillian Quinn Tempest Quinn Hitoshi Inoue

You against all worlds.

What an exciting prospect.

There was no better way to prove that mankind would eventually crawl towards the zenith than to deny every other universe the right to exist. This was a battle between their world and all others, and it was one that the admin was excited to observe.

Win or lose, humanity would come out stronger than before.

"And yet by felling prospective candidates, new ones arise in their places. History is full of duplicates and spares, after all. There is not a single person alive who is irreplaceable across millennia." If Necrozma could jump ship from one vessel to another, if Groudon and Rayquaza could as well, then so could every Legendary Pokemon in this room. "That is how we win."

None of them were special. That was what made the people in this room strong. The admin's eye fell on Monroe. What an odd outlier. He boasted of the admin's feats and strengths, but those were hollow words bestowed unto a hollow vessel.

Irrelevant.

"But you're right, Admin Bee. Arrogance is blinding." The man nodded in appreciation to BARNABY FINCH 's steadying hand. He brushed a strand of white hair behind his ear as he turned to mint frost . "And of course, Neon. Forgive my untrained tongue. It tends to wag."

He steepled his fingers, looking past declan walsh towards Monroe.

"What now?"

---

aw geez mint frost I misspoke im so sorry ^-^
aw thanks barnaby buzz buzz ^-^
Asks Monroe/Walsh what now

There was a long moment where Howard Slayte thought Absinthe Blackwood was haunted. As she raised her hands to moan at him, he instinctively took a few steps back. Then, the admin realized that he wasn't an idiot, and rolled his eye at the chemist.

"How witty of you. How clever you must feel." He put a hand on his hip, annoyed. He gave her a look, before giving the room a once-over. "I went to college, though. I'm a pretty smart guy. Can't fool me!"

As he spoke, a Lampent appeared behind him, its blue flame flickering. After noticing Absinthe, its eyes grew wide with fright and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Absinthe Blackwood was a scary woman.

"Nope." Howard saw the chemist struggle with the locked door, and immediately walked across the room towards the potentially haunted rocking horse. Grabbing the wooden construct from crudely carved contusions. A lightbulb sparked and died, though the admin emitted a slight glow through the cracks of Dynergy that marred his body. "Fuck this. We're done."

SMASH!!! Howard threw the rocking horse through a window.

Kicking off excess glass, the admin wormed through the window with a remarkable amount of dexterity. In the house's backyard, the admin stopped and narrowed his eye at the object sitting in the middle of an empty yard.

A washing machine?

"What the...?"

---

Absinthe Blackwood

"I am human."

Steel wings rushed towards the frozen colossus's building-sized legs, though it was akin to spitting on it. Thick layers of Dynergy padded the golem's defenses, turning wings as sharp as swords into nothing more than padded sticks. In response to the attack, Regice raised a skyscraper-sized hand, and a finger that glowed with the intensity of a star created a red orb of Dynergy.

It was a Max Wyrmwind in the same way that a tsunami was a Surf.

"Everything I do, I do for the sake of our species. There is no freedom for me. not anymore. I destroyed Dewford. I failed to save Petalburg. Those are my sins, and I'll have to shoulder them for the rest of my life." The admin's eye glowed red as circuitry in his neck sparked. "Because I am human."

He clenched a hand carved from stone. He never looked more like a machine, divinely created for the sole purpose of salvation. Yet he was human. Even if his brain was placed in a jar, even if he was nothing more than a limbless cripple, his will would exist.

Thus, he was something more than the golem he commanded.

"When this war is over, the peace this region will know will be glorious. Even if I die, I will kill the enemy that matters."

He pointed up at the malignant star.

"ETERNATUS!" The admin roared. "MANKIND"S ENEMY!"

He looked down at the deputy, his eye narrowed with hate for the man who had started him down this path of destruction, preservation, and self-loathing.

"And if I die in the end, good riddance."

The star of Dynergy fell towards the deputy, a Max Wyrmwind unlike any other.

---

Montgomery James

"Each golem's construction is distinct. Each one is an impossibility. Regirock is built from stones found all around the world. Regice is made from unmeltable ice not found in this world. Registeel is made from pieces of Necrozma."

The admin shuddered, face pale as he looked at Cillian from across the table of Hoenn. He took the small statue over Route 120 that represented Registeel, rolling it in an artificial hand. Red lines of Dynergy crisscrossed the admin's palm.

"Keep that secret from the God General, if you don't mind. I'd rather seize it while he thinks it beneath his notice. There is no benefit to Rocket that requires him to capture it."

That was more likely to keep the underboss content than any personal vendetta that the duo shared against the Devourer. If Cillian needed an excuse to keep a secret, then that would likely suffice. It did not improve Rocket's standing, so why bother tattling?

His eye wandered across etched alcoves and ancient runes. Braille that hardly required a touch for the admin to translate echoed in his mind.

"Purpose. Eternatus will be dead and my role in this war will be over. Humanity will have won and we will have reigned supreme as the dominant species. After that..." Howard shrugged, apathetic. "...it will be up to humanity to decide their future."

---

Cillian Quinn