Stabbed to death. Beaten to death. Howard remembered a DRK Triad grunt dead on the ground, his face caved in.

Grigori Sokolov. Damn.

"Two days."

---

june sleigh

'Because you've lost Regieleki.'

'You've lost Regieleki.'

YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. YOU'VE LOST. 

How the fuck did he know? That was secret. There were no records of Regieleki's seizure and the admin had kept it that way. Nobody looked into the Ultra Plant besides the ones salvaging Megalopolan tech for their own aims.

His eye twitched. Violently. Howard was going to break this man's jaw when this meeting was over. If he knew, then he knew about june sleigh . If that was true, then things were going to get messy.

If he knew about her, then his patron was like hers. He couldn't let his surprise show, nor could he allow himself to stumble here. All he had to do was wait until the meeting was over, then he'd bash Shred's head against the wall and see if his blood was red or painted in an orichalcum hue.

"A temporary setback." He said simply. "Where'd you hear about this?"

---

Cillian Quinn raises a good point. He had not been aware of the curiosity behind Shadow Lugia's existence. It was a tale that he had not bore witness too, nor did he know about the pound of flesh that it owed to Sea Hoenn. Not that it mattered. The admin was far more interested in its land-based counterpart.

"Touché." Howard admitted, taking another drag and tapping the burned dregs of the stick from the edge. "Though exceptions do not make the rule."

Elisabeth Fiorelli had been an anomaly—a woman with two Legendary Pokémon bestowing power onto her—but that did not stop a stone from crushing her, no matter how exceptional she may have been. She was incapable of overcoming her mortality, and that proved that the anomalous could bleed.

The admin's eye lingered on ■■■ (Zev Harcourt) as he pondered that realization.

Yet it was Shred who snapped the admin from his musing. A magenta eye met its orichalcum counterpart. This game unnerved him. This persona enraged him. It had been easier to treat Shred as an ally when he had been limited by the constraints of his own mediocrity.

"You were never in my shadow, Shred." He blew smoke at the Boundless as the admin lounged in his chair. "You were always stuck in yours. Building a throne doesn't make you a king, no matter what material you construct it from."

Howard rose, mechanical joints creaking as he did so. He put his hands on the table and leaned across, eye twitching.

"And why would that be difficult, Shred Zeppelin?"

---

Shred
FUCK YOU SHRED WE BALL FIGHT ME ON DEADLOCK

"I don't like using her for battle. What if she gets hurt?"

As the words left his mouth, a man's screams were cut short with the sickening crunch of flesh. The Aerodactyl roared, a lasting memory of an era that nobody would live to see again. Primordial flesh revitalized by modern technology ended lives with apathy and rage.

"What to we-" Another roar shook as flesh crunched. "Do with the coffin?"

Lugging it around was going to be a chore.

---

Montgomery James

"That won't be necessary. Give Hideo Kino my regards, though." Howard grasped onto the topic like a life preserver. I'll find something in Dewford. Navy can hook me up."

Who knew how out of date all the reports at the sheriff's office were. Tsubaki did most of it, but he was also sure that counted as child labor. Alternatively, he could just magic a few dollars out of existence from Team Rocket and say it was money from managing Granite Cave.

There were options, and those options didn't include stealing a kid's lunch money.

"Hideo always impressed me, though. I know kids and adults can be equal in Pokémon battles, but still... strong kid."

---

Eris Halla

Dad. They were entering dangerous territory. This was a story that had been whispered of for a year. A ghost who had compelled June to do what few ever had and seize ancient power for herself, and then step even further to reach the domain of avatarship.

A nameless ghost could do no harm, but Gabriel Sleigh could. Even now, his death shaped the world around him. Howard wondered if he had ever wanted that. Unlikely. Few did. Yet two people capable of changing the world sat in a car on the way to an impound lot, discussing Grigori Sokolov's biggest shame and sin.

"You didn't." She knew that, but the fact that she asked terrified him. Memories were missing, but she wanted to tell him anyway. "But if you want to tell me, I'll listen."

It was his obligation and his desire to chronicle the world. In the same way that he hadn't forgotten about the Excadrills or the mountain of suffering that this region had shouldered.

"Because if it's you, I want to know."

---

june sleigh

As Pon made the shocking realization that the monkey was not, in fact, dory, she would bear witness as the monkey disappeared into a catastrophic explosion that sent him flying up into the sky, twinkling like a star.

"AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Ding. With that, Munkidori was gone.

"Oh? It wasn't? I apologize, little ogre. My eyesight isn't quite what it was when I was younger. When I was an Ursaring, it was far easier to see." Doug complained with the same cadence as an grandpa struggling to reach for his smoking pipe, despite the fact that his Mind's Eye made sure that he could see the monkey perfectly. "But a villain was vanquished."

Pon didn't need to know that the Blood Moon wasn't an accident.

"But if that wasn't Munkidori... where is he?"

---

Andrea Vaneau

Team Rocket didn't pretend that they were noble, but it made the lie easier to swallow. If enough people embraced it, a lie could become the truth.

As it was, Howard could play at alturism if he focused on reconstruction and rebuild what was destroyed into something far grander. Team Rocket would rule cities of ivory and gold with Kanto's help, and western Hoenn would become a beating heart of wealth that would pump money throughout the region.

When Hoenn grew reliant on that wealth, Howard would stop that beating heart with his will alone.

"Someone on the council almost killed my friend. In spite of everything, we stuck together through thick and thin and challenged Palkia together. We were going to lose, but that act of rebellion..." It was proof that humanity could challenge a god. "...she used him as a shield. They had a creature of myth and used a human being as a barrier to protect themselves."

They had not needed to do that. But they had.

"There was no reason for them to do that. They didn't need to throw him under the fucking bus." His eye twitched. "But they did."

---

june sleigh

It was an interesting perspective. In a world without Tera Crystals, he would've agreed with them. The universe did follow logic, but the logic of Tera Crystals was impossible to comprehend. They simply did whatever was required of them at whatever given time to ensure that Howard's life was infinitely more miserable than it had to be.

If there was a consistent line of logic to these crystals, that was it.

"Fuuuuuuuuck." The admin paled slightly, cocking his head in recognition of the sound. He had spent much of the early year ripping this place apart and mining resources for Rocket. He was intimately familiar with most Paradox Pokémon. It was best to know their enemy, after all. "That's a Walking Wake. Lucky us."

If, by lucky, he meant 'absolutely fucking not'.

He hated combat. He was poor at it, and had to rely on titans to do the heavy lifting for him. Yet there was a contempt for Walking Wake that went deep into his soul. One had taken his Aerodactyl's eye, after all.

"Stand back, I need to get ready." He kicked the ground. "Hey, wake up!"

The ground remained silent.

---

NIKOLA SAMSA

A small noise of irritation escaped the back of the admin's throat.

"I looked in the mirror when I woke up today, and the person looking back at me was a complete stranger. This isn't my face. This isn't my body. This isn't me. There is no familiarity to it, and I suspect that it's slowly killing me."

There was no reason to tell Lulu any of this, other than that fact that she'd likely never tell. He had never pegged her for a chatterbox, and anyone this invested in the Interdream Mist had to have a mountain of demons in their closet. Who else would want to interface so wholly with dreams and nightmares?

What was there for a Revenant to reclaim?

"Physically. Spiritually. There's just nothing there but a record of humanity that can no longer be verified. I want my old body back."

He didn't want to hate himself when he looked in the mirror.

---

Lulu Flint

“Say the word and I fucking will.”

He almost said it, just to see if she could do what a dozen Wishing Stars, Eternatus, and Regirock could not. The intrusive thought quickly passes. His silence in response to her dare is the only answer June needs. The fact that he was actually considering it. Yet no word came.

"We will take Giratina, and we will crack the Distortion World like an egg in order to pull it out." He doesn't tell her of Katherine Fairburne , of Regirock's prior owner who had held both it and Giratina in her hand. Nor does he tell her of Walsh's plan to lay siege to the alternate world. "Oldale will fall with little resistance. We'll just Dynamax Regirock and Regice and throw them at the town. I won't allow a thing to happen to Mauville."

Mauville would come. It was needed. Navy and Josh Devlin could prepare as much as they wanted, but when the time was right, they would look at the earth and find it rotten, and New Mauville would cause them much despair.

"The League is not perfect. Their leadership..." He remembered Chi-yu's avatar and his eye twitched. "I'm gonna fucking kill them."

He sounded furious.

---

june sleigh

Regirock is made of rock. Stupid Parker. She would've known that if the lead paint wasn't rotting her brain.

"That's a Nomi question. She looks at universes like I look at Varoom Kart 64 or Star Vulpix. We play twenty year old games, she plays with dimensions. That's pretty fucking insane if you think about it." Realistically, the true implications of her question for the admin don't manifest. If they did, it was likely that he'd combust into flames and die on the spot.

It's unfortunate. He's not being very helpful, and his archaeological wisdom fails to shine through.

"I bet there's a universe where Sonic and Shadow aren't little Shaymin hedgehogs."

Ah, there it is. True wisdom, with a smidge of eldritch horror to tie it together. Howard locks in, mirroring Parker in the same way that a younger sibling imitates the older. She's better at the game, so he mimes her as she butts his shoulder. It's a moment of solidarity.

The big fuck-you car is coming further in the level. He can smell it.

"Think there's a universe where our lives aren't complete dogshit?"

---

parker jones

"You're wrong. Justice is what elevates us above the Pokémon we surround ourselves with. It is not just for a Houndoom to devour a Patrat, even if it needs to do so in order to survive. It is the obligation of our species, and of men like you, to define the concept and defend it."

This man reminded him of the sheriff. The gaze is similar. Their disposition is similar. The only thing that changed was different came from experience. Howard knew what sat within the sheriff's heart, but what of the man chosen by a self-proclaimed sword?

What form would his soul take?

"In history, the victors decide the law. When Team Rocket loses, the League will define the term of justice and you will enforce it, unless the system is broken. You must be better." The admin spoke of treason, his hand on his hip as he regarded Eddie. Howard had accepted that the League would win this war and that he would swing.

The ending was clear. His route to reach Ever Grande's gallows? Less so.

He walked around the monument, reading each name carved into stone. Nineteen was a small amount compared to the lives lost in the Ultra Deep Sea, but the nineteen weighed more in his soul. Howard Slayte was fallible, and he was beginning to realize it.

"But Navy's reasons are just. We fight for the same thing, funnily enough. A world without Eternatus." He stopped. "Did he ever tell you why I attacked Dewford?"

---

Eduardo Hisakawa