No matter how oscar clayton wakes, it's in a world that should not be. Time does not flow. Space does not expand. There is simply the absence of law that masquerades as truth. Physics are not a thing in this world. They're aberrations that cannot truly be quantified. Formulas do not work here.

There is no better term for this place than the Distortion World.

"Oh. You're here." A familiar voice rang out as the engineer eventually roused himself from slumber. "Lucky you."

The source of the voice is familiar. It belongs to a man that expected Oscar's best, no matter the scenario and no matter the circumstance. A magenta eye cut through the blurry vision associated with slumber, offering a beacon that the engineer could follow towards the land of corporeal sapience.

"Walsh kept talking about how we'd eventually reach the Distortion World." The admin sat on a throne made of stone. "Didn't think Team Rocket would slowly get kidnapped."

The admin snorted, clearly frustrated.

"Rise and shine, Oscar. I've been waiting for you to wake up for a while, now."

---

oscar clayton

"In the world?" The archaeologist's eye grew as wide as a saucer as he regarded the crown prince. "Incredible! I hope he approves it."

Silently, the admin made a note to keep an eye on Kalos. He'd ask BARNABY FINCH for some pointers on harrying the former admin's precious cargo, though actively messing with it seemed out of the question. One of the things that Howard had learned from his colleagues was to avoid shitting where he ate.

Separate work from play. Separate this life from Team Rocket's life. Keep living the lie, until everything could burn to the ground.

"I lost a Hisuian general's war helm carved from a Cranidos's skull a few months back to smugglers, I think. Never made it to the museum. Really sucked, too. It would've looked great next to the display I was assembling."

Truthfully, the piece was sitting in his office at headquarters. He was pretty sure that Shred drank his whiskey out of it.

"Less project, more academia. I'm drafting a proposal to connect Galar's Darkest Day to Hoenn. Trying to raise awareness on the subject, plus I'd kill for a few more grants..."

The admin's eye grew wistful as he translated grant money into more fossils to buy for his collection. He quickly snapped back to reality.

"If you need help with your project, give me a shout. I don't mean to brag, but..." He puffed out his chest. "Got myself a signed copy of freya morningstar's book. Even got Dr. Morales to sign it, too. They also gave me an Applin."

---

Remiel Calcifet

Many would call a small settlement of abandoned houses a ghost town or the setting for a horror movie. Howard called it a failure of Hoenn's economy. Free housing? Free real estate? Free... everything? Yet nobody bothered to crash in these houses beyond a stray vagrant or a homeless person passing from Verdanturf to Mauville in order to avoid the war.

Jokes on them. Team Rocket was coming, no matter what happened. That vagrant would be joined by thousands of his kin, alongside those who were packing up and leaving their old homes behind to find a world that did not have a large red 'R' in it.

That too was an inevitability.

"Hm." Absinthe's superior, the guy who got paid several times more than she did despite her vastly more impressive degree and field of study, smoked a cigarette as he poked his head through the bushes. "Shit's haunted."

Howard looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Trust me. I know from experience. Nobody leaves a free house just sitting there for the taking. There's probably a dead drop in there or a drug lab or something. If it's not that..." He shrugged, pursing his lips. "...haunted."

---

Absinthe Blackwood

It amused him how similar her complaints were to his when Navy and Zaria taught him how to fight in Galar. No matter how bruised, tired, or weary he was from a thrashing or the night before, they had insisted that he get up and practice, because it might save his life some day.

Being trained by a Pokémon like Zacian was a rare opportunity. If he could spread her teachings, however watered down, to others, he would. That was the point of being the Pale Rider's squire.

"Tell the Dynamaxed Pokémon that when. I'm sure it'll sit still and let you breathe while leveling an entire city block. Get used to feeling like shit. That's practice for you." He smirked as he looked up at the collapsing stones. "Keeps you in shape, too. I doubt noblewomen have gym memberships."

He teleported out of the way of a boulder. If Vestivius unleashed the maximum power of Dynamax, it'd be almost impossible to avoid. It was a good thing he was avoiding it, then. Explaining that Diana had been crushed by a boulder would be messy, to say the least.

Crumble comboed into the Breaking Swipe with a Rapid Spin. The shattering of Dynergy Barriers rang out, and Vestivius toppled to his side as the Coalossal's leg gave out.

The quake that followed could be detected in Mauville as Vestivius began to shrink.

"Nice." Howard frowned at her, adjusting his hat as he did so. "Pretty sure Lavaridge knows we're here. You did good."

---

Diana Cavendish

"Ha... Ha..."

Howard wiped his mouth from exertion as the sun beat down on the duo standing amidst shifting sands. They had both agreed that it was the optimal place for their Pokemon to fight, though as Howard had quickly realized, it had not been. His Nosepass had sunk into the sand and had been quickly dispatched, and his Anorith had been picked off with similar impunity.

It was absurd how easy it had been for the gangster to get ahead, despite them both using three Pokémon. Howard's team consisted of academic specimens, meant to serve a purpose rather than sit and collect dust on a shelf and be used in battle. His Nosepass was a compass, his Anorith an excavator.

The only exception to that rule was the Aerodactyl that snarled in disdain at the Claydol that stared her down.

"I've got you on the ropes, bastard." The admin said from his hat's shade. "Dodge this!"

Shirley flew forward, fangs glimmering with frost as they closed in on the Claydol.

---

Montgomery James

The immediate reaction to the world created from the archaeologist's memories was that everything was slightly off. The spatial dimensions were distorted, a reminder that the admin's vision was marred slightly by a lack of depth perception that caused him to perceive the world differently.

In a dream, Howard could have two eyes. Yet it had been so long since his sight had been whole that even in a world without the limitations of damaged flesh, Howard could not dream of a world where he was complete. There was no world where he could fly, because he worked in chains and dreamed of them when he slept.

A hospital room. Food.

"You got any food?"

"What do you remember?"

Besides that, the dream was remarkably pristine. Stable. A year of hiding within Rocket had made it remarkably easy for Howard to compartmentalize his thoughts and allow June and Ameena into this precise moment. It was not perfect, by any means, but it would suffice for what they were trying to do.

"You collapsed and went to the hospital." Howard murmured slightly. "I called Grigori. He couldn't appear immediately, so here we are. You always work way too hard."

It was strange, looking at Howard and June like this.

"My old body. I almost forgot what I looked like."

---

june sleigh ameena abadi

Realistically, if Ameena bothered to explain how Howard and June's messed up brains were likely to ruin the experiment, it had a fifty-fifty chance of causing them to either fall asleep due boredom or start freaking out. Especially if the earth started to tremble and quake again.

It was best not to think about that, though. Howard was getting good at avoiding thoughts in order to get through the day without punching a wall. Another perversion of the ideal that academics sought. They were supposed to uncover and discuss uncomfortable truths, not balk from them in favor of reassurance and safety.

Howard's eye twitched.

"My dream as the base, right?" His voice was still muffled from beneath the hat. The couch felt remarkably abrasive, all of a sudden, like it was threatening to scratch and scrape his skin. "Lucky you, then."

The admin smiled wryly from beneath the hat as mist flickered with visions of a hospital room.

"I've got a good memory."

This could get her out of Team Rocket, and it'd all be over. No muss, no fuss, no need to give a damn about anything that ever happened with this woman again. She'd be out of Rocket when she remembered what happened, and they'd be back to square one. Howard envied that.

Sometimes he wished he could get that back as well.

---

ameena abadi june sleigh

"Hm." The admin poked his head up over a fallen log, joining his redheaded colleague in surveying the clearing with the wooden cottage planted innocently in center. Between Howard and Aurelie, they had a grand total of two working eyes. They got along like a house on fire, as a result. "Hm..."

Realistically, this was a house that Howard definitely wanted to set on fire. It'd save both him and Aurelie a load of trouble, and some poor influencer could come across the ashes, record them, and then make four times Howard's salary in a day.

Sometimes, life wasn't fair.

"Aurelie, come on. There's no way that we're actually going in there, right? It's clearly haunted!" A few lights flicked on inside of the wooden cabin that had no wiring. Smoke began billowing out of a chimney that smelled a lot like one of Aurelie's Kalosian dishes. "Nevermind, it's super haunted. Do you think ghosts can cook better than you?"

He tucked a strand of white hair behind his ear. A magenta eye narrowed in thought as he regarded the terrain.

"Why'd Doug have to wander off? He'd be super useful right now." Howard complained and crossed his arms. "I'd kill for an attack bear."

---

Aurelie Lefevre

Nobody could deny that kyle lopez was a smart man. Even at his stupidest, which was when he was playing video games, he was smarter than most of his contemporaries. The term for this was 'common sense'. Some would say it was in shockingly short supply.

'WEEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEE OOOO-'

Crumble's alarm sputtered to a stop as quickly as it began, though it echoed through Route 102, ringing into Petalburg and rebounding off of artificial mountain ranges that had not been there the month before. Crumble's eyes flickered red with rage as it turned to face the detective. The fact that an automaton could get enraged by a mere taunt was ridiculous, but it had succeeded.

No need to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth.

Still, the faint siren echoed.

Furious, the Claydol's charged up a standard attack for an automaton to wield: a Hyper Beam blasted towards Kyle and his Gyarados, turning the ground into a molten slurry of dirt and glass.

---

kyle lopez
+20 (posts)
+50 (tag)
+50 (spotlight character strength)

"You will." The admin's voice was soft. "Words aren't enough. Dreams are, but you're not strong enough to realize that."

Her spirit could blaze with the might of a thousand suns, infernal and burning and glorious. Yet she could not rectify the fact that her body was on the verge of collapse, that her Marowak was dead, and that she had clawed her way through a veritable gauntlet to reach a Rocket Admin who was at the top of his game.

Howard Slayte was not strong. Genevieve Cromwell was a better trainer. Yet the gap between their Pokémon was miles long.

Tapus were fickle. They were not heroes or gods. They simply did what they want because they could, not because they were needed. Genevieve could not change Tapu Bulu's nature, because its nature had existed long before she had ever been born. Regirock and Regice were built to kill gods. That was their entire purpose.

They did not need to live. It was secondary to their purpose of slaughter.

Rather than let the Max Overgrowth strike at Regice's Dynergy barriers, Regirock lumbered forward, leveling trees as it strove to intercept the attack. Regice, meanwhile, charged up a Max Thunder. The stone golem met Tapu Bulu's attack head-on, and its body cracked under the weight of the attack.

"Hold fast! Hold on for a few more moments!" Howard shouted, before Regirock exploded into a million pieces of debris, which rained in every direction. A large chunk of stone the size of a sixteen wheeler crashed behind Genevieve, dormant.

The admin reached up to wipe his brow in disbelief, only to see that his helmet had been sheared off. He was bleeding.

"My goals are clear, and truer than yours." The admin looked up at Regice and snapped a finger. "Break a barrier."

From his pocket, he pulled out a Z-Crystal.

"Your Tapu is strong." The admin met her gaze. "Do you truly think you can win this fight?"

---

Genevieve Cromwell
+80 (Post)
+10 (Weather/Terrain)
+50 past thread
+50 tag a character
+50 respect another character
+50 (cast shade on Genny's loyalties)
+50 (dynamax)
+50 (use a legendary to reflect your character)
+50 (rock bottom)
+50 (weakness - refusal to leave rocket)
+50 (strength - double regi)
+50 (get wounded by an attack)
+50 (regrettable decision)
+50 (pokeball 'throw')
+25 (music)

This place had been special to Celebi long before Yuina Higashi had come along. It would be special to Celebi long after Yuina Higashi was gone. No matter the dubious state of her temporal existence, no matter what axis she walked upon, that fact would not change.

A time traveler that was meant to be would outlast one that was not. Yuina reeked of anomaly. She had no reason to be here. There was no commitment to being here. Yet she was.

⠁⠝⠕⠍⠁⠇⠽ ⠙⠑⠞⠑⠉⠞⠑⠙

Errors drew janitors, meant to clean up the source of bugs that gnawed away at reality like a mastiff with a bone. Ironic, given the janitor being summoned was one fueled by an anomalous energy source itself. The ground began to shake and tremble and quake. Trees fell over and Pokémon fled.

⠗⠕⠥⠎⠊⠝⠛

The scent of John Sullivan sealed her fate and death warrant. Amidst a haze of fear, that which shook the ground from below recognized the Jinxed, even his latent traces. It remembered how Tapu Lele had aided it, before harming it, before aiding it again. Ultimately, the emotions of its owner dictated its opinion.

The ground cracked open as acres of woodland and route infrastructure folded in on itself as a Dynamaxed Regirock emerged from the Tera Tunnels below. Seven dots the size of suns basked Route 104 in a magenta haze. On its shoulder stood a man, a microscopic speck clad in armor.

"SULLIVAN!" The voice roared. "WHERE ARE YOU? FACE ME!"

---

Yuina Higashi

There are few people alive who know where the Desert Ruins once were. Those that still draw breath have left the region, and the fewer still that remain are firmly in Team Rocket's grasp. Cillian Quinn . Raziel Beckett . Adrian Malcolm . priam conrad . They were the four that whispered of forgotten legacies buried beneath the sands, but even they would have struggled to find the remains of the ruin that had once towered over the desert.

Yet Regirock remembered. It remembered the concept of home.

Home. What a dubious word. What was Regirock's home? The mound of rubble that Team Rocket and the League had marred? The region itself? The primordial womb that Eternatus had birthed its Dynergy-fueled core from?

The luxuries of nebulous programming. The wonders of a language where one word could be interpreted in a thousand different ways.

"Hmmmm..." The admin peered at the inside of a massive crater almost a kilometer deep. Regirock's fist smoked from the energy required to make such an impact. "Yep. Yep yep yep."

He looked at the underboss with a face that wasn't his, long hair buffeted by the hot wind of the desert.

"This is it. We're lucky Registeel didn't destroy this part of the desert during its fit. Then again, it was probably programmed against destroying it." The admin scratched his cheek with a Dynergy infused fingernail. "Lucky us."

The entrance would be familiar to Cillian. It was the secret passageway that had led deep into the temple's bowels, and away from Regirock. There was no need to fear the temple's guardian, since it was standing next to them, unmoving.

"Shit's probably haunted, man. You guys wrecked it pretty hard. I'm surprised it's still standing."

---

Cillian Quinn

The scream was loud. Annoyingly so. If the admin's BAC levels were higher, that shriek would've done more damage to him than falling off of Regirock. As it was, he simply squinted in annoyance.

"See? Howard sighed melodramatically, hiding the fact that the shriek had startled him. "Someone's dead, probably. Someone's always fuckin' dead.

A Gastly floated overhead, proving his point. There were a lot of dead things here, not that it particularly narrowed down Howard's criteria. After the mansion adventure where Howard had dealt with police officer declan walsh, his tolerance for scary mansions had dropped substantially.

Or was he a detective? Howard didn't remember.

"I guess I'm lucky. I never got a house in Sootopolis. Couldn't afford it." There was also the silent addition of Howard not shitting where he ate. Now that the League was dancing around the drowned corpse of the city, he was lucky that there wasn't a Casa de Slayte lying around. "But regardless..."

They slunk through shadows, sneaking about.

"Let's be off."

---

Cillian Quinn
HOWARD AND CILLIAN SNEAKA AWAY TO PLUNDER AND PILLAGE
DRINKING ERA DOESN'T STOP
OPEN TO BE FOLLOWED/SOCIALS