The admin rolled his eye, and leaned backwards as a stool of stone manifested from an Earth Power. He flexed an arm, hissing in pain as he did so. Red light leaked from the wounds like a gas leak, creating a haze around the admin.

"Yuina Higashi, twenty-five, blood-type... something or other. Curator. What, do you think it's some big secret after the prison? Even if Legendary Pokémon holders area a dime a dozen, I can still count past twelve. Maybe that's why I get six figures and the people I employ get five."

Good on Tempest Quinn for befriending civilians while the admin hung out in his office and drank himself silly. If the admin was afraid, he didn't show it. Cowardice was expected from the admin, but a craven he was not. That was something he had overcome.

"I'm dealing with a human. That is the highest level of respect that I can offer. Fate is a sham. If I decide your future, it'll only happen because I beat you and my strength surpassed yours." The admin let out a laugh that echoed with static between a distant, shifting sandstorm. "Not that it'll happen. After all..."

Regirock looked down from the heavens, red light emerging from cracks in the contusions of the golem's surface.

"...I'm not that strong."

---

Yuina Higashi
Earth power to make a chair cannot believe I spent 10k on this shit are you fucking SHITTING M-

There was an acute disruption in space. A ripple that echoed across magenta mist as Ryu appeared on the admin. As soon as the Arcanine made landfall on Regirock, red lines of Dynergy began to creep up the the canine's legs. Being in proximity to such toxicity was bad for the body.

Howard, meanwhile, was mostly unaffected. His flesh was already saturated with Dynergy, and he was ███████████████.

"Alright, Kano. Let's play." The admin turned, cape flapping, to face the Shadow Arcanine. Even a year later, and the admin still recognized the curator's Hisuian menagerie. "Wait, you're not Kano. Then who-"

The dog lunged. The admin met it with an open palm, attempting to use an Earth Power on the Arcanine's skull. No power thrummed from the Sygna Suit, for there was no Pokémon outside of its ball to enable the connection. The admin scrambled for his Claydol's Pokeball, before being teleported away.

Incapable of swinging now that its trainer was endangered, Regirock resorted to a Max Guard that caused the Focus Blast to fizzle. The admin's eye narrowed from behind his helmet at the woman standing before him, and at the Arcanine whose fangs were attempting to burrow into his Sygna Suit-turned-armor.

"It is you." Howard blinked once, before reaching for his belt. His Claydol appeared in a flash, before promptly Teleporting away. "Damn."

He let out a static-filled sigh.

"Tell the dog to let me go before I level the route with another attack. Teleport as much as you want, that won't save you."

His eye fell on the Celebi.

"That might, though."

---

Yuina Higashi
Lock On = Max Guard
3 barriers

"Hmmmm?" Howard looked up from his spooky doomsday notes. Remarkably, his paper bag had dried again, though he hadn't seemed to notice. Yet with Howard, predicting what was going through his head sometimes was impossible. "Yeah, I'm famished."

He stood, tucking several journals into his pocket for later. They were historical records, and GIDEON GRAVES would likely appreciate copies for the museum when this was all over. The originals could sit in Howard's apartment next to his notes on Unown documentation and Vivillon napkins.

"It's good that they disappeared, actually. If it was one or two reports, then I'd chalk it up to a coincidence that I'd have to look into. As it is, there's a pattern between the disappearances. If we track when the journals cut off..."

He raised a gloved finger.

"We can predict our own disappearances, and prepare against it." Howard's wisdom was quickly cut off by him taking a quaff of his wine bottle, before shamelessly devouring several crackers shaped like Pumpkaboos from a nearby table as they poked around the banquet hall. "Arceus above, I haven't bought groceries in a month."

He popped a cracker into his mouth, his visage reflected in Alabaster pillars.

"Haven't eaten in ages."

---

HOWARD HATES READING CONFIRMED???
Takes journal stuff with him, proposes using the disappearances to date when the people at the party are going to disappear
Agrees with Cillian and goes to raid the banquet table
RIDDLE: ALABASTER (teal is going to hell)

Regice had destroyed Dewford. Regirock had leveled Petalburg. There was only so much to be done about a giant that rewrote the laws of the land with a single attack. Yet it was human nature to rage against nature, so Thomas and Tapu Koko were encouraged to rage as much as they liked.

And as the blade met a barrier formed from Dynergy, the Ceruledge would learn a dire lesson: Regice did not melt. It could feel pain, but it did not melt like the common Cryogonal.

Dynamax was a ridiculous equalizer. Even if for a moment, it allowed Team Rocket's weakest admin to content with a former member of Hoenn's Elite Four. Even if the power was borrowed, even if it wasn't Howard's, it would suffice for a spell.

Instead, Mordred and Tapu Koko were met with a Max Hailstorm that blotted out the sun, destined to strike the land spirit, now that it had been Locked On.

---

Thomas Benoit

The Dynergy Barriers softened the blow. Yet they did not break it.

As Higuemi's blast lunged towards the mountain-sized Pokemon with the ferocity that his Breakneck Blitz entailed, he got remarkably close to Regirock, before being met with the golem's barriers. Dynergy gnawed away at space, turning an inch into a meter and a meter into a centimeter. An attack that should have landed instantly took moments, and an attack that took moments took seconds.

"That looks like a Blood Moon. How many Hisuian Ursaluna are here in Hoenn, right now?" It wasn't a common species, but the admin recognized a few of them. Doug had a lot of friends, after all, and the Ursaluna was a stalwart ally of Howard's through thick and thin. "Can't be more than... ten?"

His eye narrowed in on the woman standing so far below, through the sheen of Dynergy. His eye twitched when he recognized his fellow historian.

"Why'd Doug have to make this personal? Damn you, Lele. Dammit!"

Damn. N owonder Regirock had sensed Tapu Lele around here. Yuina reeked of the land spirit.

Crack. A Dynergy barrier shattered. That got the admin's attention. Snarling, Howard spoke something in an ancient language to the colossus. Words older than dirt fell over his lips in twisted pronunciations, before the golem's eyes glowed red as a second barrier shattered.

Rather than release a typical Max Knuckle, Regirock began to run forward, a building-sized limb ripping up several tons of earth as it dragged across the ground, before releasing a Max Move towards the Ursaluna.

Earth blotted out the moon, and a fist fell.

---

Yuina Higashi
SUPERPOWER = MAX KNUCKLE
Earth falls from the sky
3 barriers (z-move = 2)

Tempest Quinn was suicidal. He wrangled a bird of destruction for no other reason than to prove that he could. Yet Howard couldn't mock the Rocket Beast for it. Had he looked like that, climbing Regirock, while shouldering the curse of fear and annihilation?

He could not deny the Temp's aspirations, now. All he could do was allow Cillian to try to overturn his husband's face with love and affection. However far the Harbinger went for his husband, that was not for Howard to determine.

Temp had buried him in the Ultra Deep Sea with a monster. Perhaps, in some small way, this was what the Rocket Beast deserved. Yet his desires still deserved to be respected. His actions could matter. They deserved to matter. If a man could tame a stallion, than Tempest Quinn could tame a god.

Crack.

A Z-Crystal shattered under the admin's heel, and the various cracks that made up Regirock's body glowed with raw power, distinct from the Dynergy that allowed it to move. The admin closed his eye, thoughtful, as the golem lunged forward with remarkable speed.

"The things we do to defeat death." The admin's eye narrowed. "Here we go!"

ROYAL DECREE: EARTH-CRACKING FIST
BY CHANNELING THE WILL OF ITS CREATOR, REGIROCK IS CAPABLE OF DELIVERING A MIGHTY BLOW THAT PIERCES DEFENSES AND SETS A SANDSTORM.

A fist swung down, and the light's intensity made the Harbinger's aura harsher than before.

"...how bright."

---

Cillian Quinn Hitoshi Inoue Tempest Quinn

'We are faster.'

"Faster to die, maybe." Howard muttered to himself as the Max Wyrmwind was dispersed by a dragon's divine wingbeat. The admin scowled in frustration, annoyed by these developments. His type matchup was superior. Dynamax was superior. Yet Rayquaza squirmed and howled against the storm and Freya raged along with it.

She was strong. Dammit, she was likely stronger than him. It just meant he'd need to hammer on her before she bridged the gap with her superior skill. Dynamax was a sledgehammer, so he'd need to shatter the hollow bones of a dragon not meant for land before he could deal with Freya.

"Good at one thing?" The admin was sent several feet backwards by the Springtide Storm, almost falling off of Regice's slick surface as it corrected itself. If Regice had fallen, it would've been felt as far away as Rustboro. "On that..."

He stood shakily.

"...we can agree."

Dynergy swirled around the admin from the redirected attack. Flashes of memories from a garden nobody remembered, as well as a thousand memories of shedding a body of ice and stone to reach for true divinity gnawed at the recesses of his mind. Yet the admin was already saturated with Eternatus's leavings. There was only so much of a hold the Skeleton Gigantic could have on Howard Slayte.

One could say he was too human.

"GO FOR TH-"

ZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

Regice went limp, and seven suns died at once as divine machinery was shut off by the power of a paradox. It made no sense for a machine with no electricity and no mechanism to misfire in the face of an avatar's power, but the Boundless was not a misnomer. Limits were meant to be breached by humanity. If not in yesterday, then in tomorrow.

Dynergy barriers flickered off for a moment.

"What...?" Howard had never felt more defenseless in his entire life. No barriers. No defenses. Nothing standing between him and the Ascendant. "YOU...! WHY!?"

Why was she here? Their agreement did not include deploying Miraidon on the battlefield. June delivered things on behalf of the admin, but all she was delivering to him was his defeat and skull on a silver platter.

---

june sleigh freya morningstar
REGICE DEADGA FOR UN MOMENTO
HOWARD YAPPING, NO ACTIONS

Nina Larson wasn't the first to think he was strange. She would not be the last.

"A thief that doesn't care about money? This is a good piece. You could coast on it for a few weeks, easily. Luxury is hard to find, now. Doubt there are many people in Hoenn that can afford to be decadent, with the war." He jingled it for a moment, and it looked as if gore and bloodshed was reflected in crystal facets. "You sure?"

Yet she insisted, so Howard sighed and slipped the necklace into a pocket, shrugging as he did so. It was a piece stained in the blood of thousands of innocents, but anything of historical relevance was like that. Time would lessen the grief, just as it did for the gems and bones and artifacts that the admin worked with daily.

Blood could eventually dry, given millennia.

"It's okay. I'll hold onto it. Petalburg is my fault, to an extent. If something of note shines through the rubble, I'm obligated to preserve it. Call it a historical itch, call it guilt. We save what we can, and remember what we can't."

He shrugged again.

---

nina larson

"Great. Howard coughed into his fist, his helmet making it sound like a clap of static. "I'm used to that. If you want to get what you want, then step over my corpse. If you're stronger, then your desire will supersede my own."

Though the admin would be loathe to admit that he was going to lose to a Tapu. Unreliable nature spirits masquerading as guardians, even if Tapu Bulu had tried to prove him wrong with Genevieve Cromwell. Yet that had been a mistake. An error. It had been an anomaly compared to the other three.

But first, he had to get past Thomas. He was as strong as any member of the Elite Four, so the admin rolled his shoulders.

"Alright, Regice. Let's get to work!" The Pokeball flew into the air, before cracking open and layering the Electric Terrain with a thin layer of ice as Regice stood proud. Instinctively, it Locked On to the god of lightning. The admin's Dynamax Band gleamed, before forcing the golem to Dynamax.

The resulting explosion of Dynergy as the golem grew in size sent Rockets flying in every direction.

---

Thomas Benoit

There comes a time in every man's life where he has to bend his archenemy over the game table and fuck them in the ass...






...in Poker.

"You're fucked, Shreddums. This hand is the best thing since the 1648 Kalosian Revolution. Placed a pauper king on the throne for a decade before his head finally rolled. Best government those fuckers have had in eight hundred years."

The admin flicked up his hand, his gaze turning from Shred to the cards that would guide him to victory. Luck was a part of skill, and the admin's skill at anything other than embezzling funds and signing blank checks for Nomi and Lulu was questionable at best, unless it included Varoom Kart 64.

This hand fucking sucked.

"Pucker up, those ten dollars will be mine." The admin's eye fell on a crumpled up bill that made up the pot. Ten dollars could pay for a lot. It'd certainly give the admin a much-needed boost on rent this month. Yung-i-oh would've been easier to win at, but oh well. "Hit me. If I win, I get to take the Cyclizar for a joyride."

Cyclizar. Koraidon. Whatever.

---

1. roll five times. these five rolls represent your character’s poker hand.

2. each roll will fall into the ranges listed below. note these ranges and compare them to the hand combinations also listed.

3. if you don’t like your hand, you may edit your post and bluff. more info on this below.

RANGES:
RANGE 1: 1–20
RANGE 2: 21–40
RANGE 3: 41–60
RANGE 4: 61–80
RANGE 5: 81–100

COMBINATIONS:
ROYAL FLUSH: all five rolls are within the same range.
FOUR OF A KIND: four rolls are within the same range.
FULL HOUSE: three rolls are within the same range, and two rolls are within a different range (for example: three rolls between 61 and 80, two rolls between 21 and 40).
STRAIGHT: there is one roll from each of all the five ranges. (for example: 15, 31, 55, 72, 96 – they do not need to be rolled in consecutive order).
THREE OF A KIND: three rolls are within the same range.
TWO PAIR: two rolls are within one range, and two rolls are within a different range.
ONE PAIR: two rolls are within the same range.
HIGH ROLL: no combinations. highest roll wins in case of tie.

(royal flush in the strongest hand, followed by four of a kind, then full house, etc.)

BLUFFING: if your hand is weaker than a royal flush, you may edit and roll one more time to “bluff”. if this roll is 96-100, compare the highest of your first five rolls to the highest roll of the winning player. unless they have a royal flush, the highest single roll between the two hands wins.

ROYAL FLUSH: in the case of a royal flush, a player cannot be beat via bluffing, and wins the game if no one else has achieved a royal flush.

TIEBREAKER: in the case that the two best hands have the same combination, the player with the highest single roll wins.
7PKu4NbT

Howard Slayte did not train his Pokémon. They existed as a form of utility, designed to delegate tasks that the admin did not want to accomplish himself. Crumble excavated fossils and cleaned dust from ancient relics. Now, they surveyed Petalburg while the admin drank himself silly.

While the Claydol recharged from the Hyper Beam, the Gyarados's Power Whip sent the doll crashing into a nearby tree, which fell over with a thud.

So much for keeping secret. The Claydol struggled to float, its Levitate struggling to keep it aloft in the face of such dire straits. Crumble was a spade, rather than a sword.

The battle echoed, joining the distant sirens as the echoing dirge that rang from Route 102 and into Petalburg City. After a long moment, the ground began to shake and crack beneath the Gyarados. The latticework expanded with red energy, which curled up into claws of Dynergy.

⠗⠕⠥⠎⠊⠝⠛

The ground exploded, and a giant emerged. Seven dots ignited into a constellation of stars that burned into the detective's soul.

---

kyle lopez
+30 (posts)
+50 (tag)
+50 (spotlight character strength)
+50 (character weakness)

Step. Step. Step.

Steel-toed boots stepped over the battlefield. Several limbs of groaning Rockets grasped desperately for the armored figure that had appeared at Route 102. A cloak draped over steel and alloyed metal scraped against the ground, and the helmeted figure looked at the pile of bodies that Thomas had accumulated.

"Quite the view from that mountain of corpses, Thomas." The admin said dryly, hand on a frozen Pokeball that he tossed up and down. "That's you, right? I've never seen you on the field. Probably for the best."

His eye fell on Tapu Koko.

"Interesting." He turned back to Thomas, taking a silent note of the Ceruledge and their silent vigor. "Oh, the guy from Kanto? Can't give him to you, sorry. He's a piece of shit, but he's also a member of Team Rocket. If I betrayed him, then nobody in this world would have his back."

If Thomas did kill him, though, Howard wouldn't complain. Kanto Rockets were beasts in human clothing.

---

Thomas Benoit

'Vaguely displeased' was Lulu's default expression, as far as the admin was concerned.

"Joy. I wish you and the God General good fortune on that matter. If you need funds, let me know." When the name fell from her lips, the admin immediately censored it so that it was nothing more than a buzz of static. Infuriating. Frustrating, even. Processing his name was impossible. "I wonder what he's looking for?"

Likely more ways to increase his own power while masking it under the cover of aiding Team Rocket. Not that the admin could blame him when Team Rocket had enabled his seizure of Regice and Regirock.

"See if you can find a way to Land Hoenn, will you? I left something there." He popped a joint in his neck, releasing a spark of Dynergy. "Regidrago."

The mist receded, leaving them alone in the cavern.

"Give me a heads up before we depart, will you? I'll throw all my paperwork onto someone's desk while we're gone."

---

Lulu Flint