"FINE, I'LL TWIST! I ADMIT IT! IT WAS LUCK!"

Howard lunged forward with his surfboard, hat flapping in the wind.

---

PRIMARINA
QmFXPfL9

There's a sports bar in Mauville frequently visited by Josh Devlin, situated above a raceway that the Gym Leader held dear to his heart. Having an in with the Master of Faster had its perks, even if Howard occasionally wanted to throttle the Johtoian with his bare hands and punt him into the stratosphere.

Fortunately, he wasn't here today, which meant that Howard got to relax by himself. In exchange, he couldn't get Hoenn's newest champion to foot the bill for him.

It was a sad day to be Howard Slayte.

"Delish~!" The sandwich sat on his plate, half-eaten. "He's a total gearhead, but Mauville's Gym Leader has great taste in food!"

His voice and inflexion were identical to a certain masked fellow from a masquerade a week prior. Enough to jog a certain detective's memory. If only there was another hint...

"I don't know what type of bread this is, but it's insanely good."

There it was.

---

Elaine Highland

Howard quickly followed, his Claydol floating through the molten wall alongside its trainer. His coat and hat flapped in the wind as he fell, and he landed near Aisling in a remarkably graceful fall.

"Ow ow ow..." Howard grimaced as he got to his feet, his cigarette dangling from his mouth. Smoke plumed around his head, creating an aura of tobacco and nicotine and general poverty. He took another drag. "That hurts..."

Curse years of excavations and grubbing around on his knees. He hadn't even scraped thirty and his knees were shot.

In the background, Crumble floated aimlessly, the Claydol's eight eyes all defaulting to the single line that indicated apathy and weariness.

"Shit. Fieldwork... Okay, okay. We're gonna be good." He offered the grunt a hand, his eye peering through the surroundings. "On your feet. We're gonna run."

The Bronzong emerged from the building above. Crumble shot a Hyper Beam at it, and the sky erupted into a red and orange starburst as it exploded.

---

AISLING O'CONNOR

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..."

Howard grinded his teeth to nubs as he and Montgomery sat behind an old steel container stamped with a Blitzle symbol. Something about speedy deliveries at record times, or something like that. Howard didn't particularly care, besides the fact that inside the steel container was a coffin made out of solid gold.

Gold. Something that never rusted or tarnished. Something that was also going to pay for his next year of sustenance.

Oh, and the gangster's alcoholism, most likely.

"You said these guys were trustworthy!" Howard hissed at them as a Fire Blast soared overhead, hitting the wall of the warehouse where the meeting was held. It had gone well for exactly ten minutes, before someone had said something. Maybe it was Howard. Maybe it was Montgomery.

It didn't matter. These other gangsters wanted them dead.

"I'm gonna kill you, you fucked us."

---

Montgomery James

Arceus above, Howard hoped they wouldn't. Dealing with an entire police force would be impossible. They had already caused an upset with this stunt. Having the entire force tearing through Petalburg so close to the invasion seemed like a walking train wreck.

"Take out the Bronzong and pray!" Howard snapped his fingers, causing a localized Rapid Spin to send the freezing Bronzong into the wall. It was a shame. Howard actually liked the sentient bell a lot as a novelty item. "If there are others, we'll have to run."

Using Regice was an option, but leveling an entire city block didn't seem wise.

"Maybe we won't have to..." A Psychic from the Bronzong sent Crumble crashing into the wall. "Nevermind. Melt the wall. Melt it!"

---

AISLING O'CONNOR

Adrian Malcolm shined. His Key Stone shined. It reminded the admin of when his Key Stone was inserted into his socket, how it burned his eye socket as Infinity Energy overflowed from it like an open faucet, burning his flesh and cauterizing the wound that had left him half-blind.

It was a memory for yesterday. Seizing Regirock was an action for today and a hope for tomorrow.

One day, they would seize it. Declan Walsh's goal would be fulfilled. His own goal would be fulfilled. Another piece of Hoenn's legacy would be in his palm, and it would march to kill Eternatus alongside its four siblings. First, they had to bring it down. The Iron Head sent the golem stumbling back even further, though it quickly extracted itself from the wall, stones rumbling as debris accumulated on its body as a barrier.

A Hammer Arm fell on Furor. It did not fully land.

Regice's fist slammed into the golem.

"HOLD IT DOWN!" Howard roared as a red energy coalesced in Regice's core. A Wishing Star thrummed to life, the eternal mechanism that powered Regice's movements preparing to release an outpouring of raw Dynergy. "ADRIAN!"

The attack was familiar to one that Adrian had seen before.

Regirock responded by charging its own blast, preparing to intercept Regice's cannon.

---

Adrian Malcolm

The term piqued the admin's interest. He smiled slightly, in spite of himself.

"History will repeat itself." A prayer echoed on the lips of every historian as they desperately tried to teach others of the failings of their forefathers. Few listened. It was a noble profession often ignored. "But that is calming."

It was hard to imagine Theo as anything other than calm.

"It means we will always win." It sounded absurd, but it was a wholehearted belief. "This is not the first crisis we have faced. We fought Necrozma in the past. We won. We fought Eternatus in the past. We won."

Stalemated.

"As long as we keep pushing forward, we will succeed. Someone will have to face modern heroes on the field. It does not need to be us. Sadly, we probably should. It is our obligation."

---

THEO BECKETT

The man reeks of vice and shame. Instinctively, Howard wrinkled his nose at the odor. Instinctively, he trembled. His natural reaction to fight or flight was to run for the hills. He doubted that he would take two steps before his head was split from his shoulders.

That scared him. Not as much as it used to, though. Howard was used to the nature of swords from Galar.

"It's not an insult." Howard's eye didn't leave the dog. It stared, unblinking. "But fine. I'm sorry. It was rude of me to say."

A ball flew, somehow.

---

Hitoshi Inoue
catching barbaracle

Imprison. A frustrating move, but it was one many security teams held on hand, especially in important buildings such as this. Kouji Matsubara had used Phantom Force, Teleport, and Protect enough over his career that it had essentially become common practice for Team Rocket to use the move for break-ins.

"Can't teleport. Fuck, I am never doing this again. Hitoshi can deal with this next time, if I can find him." Hitoshi at least got pleasure from slaughter. There was no joy on the battlefield for Howard. He was not built for it. That's why Aisling was here. She made for fine hired muscle. "Hope you're good in a fight. I'm not."

Thirty seconds? Too little time. Too much to do. Every second was going feel like an eternity in this room. On the other side, a guard slammed on the door. They were likely the one using Imprison.

"Get read-"

The door blew off its hinges, and a Bronzong entered the server room with glowing red eyes.

---

AISLING O'CONNOR

He stumbled to his knees, gasping for air. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to live. It hurt to exist.

Good. His heart was still beating. Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki's poison was still beating through his veins. All of Rocket's best healers were near the rear, or fighting in Mossdeep. If Isaac were still on his side, the Liberator would be able to free him from these miserable shackles. His rejuvenating aura matched Elisabeth pound for pound.

Unfortunately, he had finally liberated himself of that which had blinded him for the past year.

"It's never been about something greater. Never. Not once. Nobody as shortsighted as you could understand what this world requires." He did not know about Ruination. About Regirock's clash with Ting-Lu. His bond was written in blood and stone, not in contracts and corruption. Regirock's memories were its own, and so were Howard's.

There was one thing he knew for certain, though: Elisabeth Fiorelli could offer nothing more to Team Rocket.

Thus, she had to die. That was not destiny. It was not fate. It was simply his will versus hers, and his would always triumph.

Regirock recoiled from the Ruinous Beast's makeshift barrier, familiar with the snail's tactics. It bellowed in pain, before attempting to release a Dynamax Cannon into Wo-chien's visage. The attack was halfhearted, though, as Regirock began to disassemble under the force of Elisabeth's powers.

Avatars.

Another threat to the world.

"ELISABETH!" He snarled at her, dying plants wrapping around his Sygna Suit as he did so. In the distance, Regice turned towards its struggling kin, beeping in alarm. "YOU CANNOT STOP THIS! OUR LEGACY, ECHOING THROUGH ETERNITY!"

A desperate stone hand reached out for the snail as the body crumbled. The admin's voice rasped.

"After all I did to get this. You'd take it away? For what?"

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli

Through the toxic sand, the admin emerged, limping. He had not fared as well as the Scorned, for his body refused to knit itself back together beyond a desperate cobbling of possibilities into a vaguely human form.

"Your order has been superseded. Monroe announced its seizure. Walsh demanded its capture. I do not balk to an underboss when Hoenn and Kanto stand at my back." His eye flashed red, as malignant and derisive to Wo-chien as Regirock was. Above them, Regice stood as a frozen obelisk, scraping the dome of the world. "You deny Monroe. You deny me."

He closed the gap. Regirock lumbered behind Howard, its body massive even without the boon of Dynamax or the Wishing Star that Ting-Lu had denied it.

The terrain died as the two stepped forward. Elisabeth stripped the land of its vigor, salting it and ensuring that nothing grew again. How fitting a power for such a woman, now that she had turned her back on him at the pivotal moment.

"You always hated me." Regirock groaned an approval, stone scraping against stone as sounds impossible for life to produce erupted from the sapient mountain. Flashes of being locked in a bathroom and dying in a hospital bed erupted through his mind. Tapu Lele danced in the background, a mystic specter that was not there.

"And if I must preserve the world by stopping whatever it is that it sees in you, I will." Howard stopped as Wo-chien struck Regirock, sending it reeling back. Its pattern flashed sporadically, its movement hindered, though it did not fall.

Howard slowly turned to Elisabeth. She had always been different from THEO BECKETT and Cillian Quinn . Something had always been off. It finally clicked. She was like him.

A traitor.

"Treason." His voice was soft, his meager strength getting sapped by the terrain at his feet. "Attacking a Rocket asset? That's your plan?"

Regirock marched forward, flint in its form sparking into a Fire Punch as it swung a mighty fist.

"Then I strip you of your rank and sentence you to die."

---

Elisabeth Fiorelli
Howard marches towards Elisabeth, gets fucked by terrain
Regirock EATA da Giga Drain and malds, responds with a Fire Punch
Come outside.

""There is no such thing as destiny. There is no such thing as fate."

He meets Isaac's eyes as Hunu barrels down on the Liberator like a freight train. The mercenary is a fool. Despite Isaac's peaceful heart, he will stop at nothing in face of Eris and Petalburg being threatened. Even if his body shattered into a thousand pieces, Suicune's chosen would keep going through broken fingers.

He reminded Howard of Navy.

"I love you." He meets Isaac's gaze through breathy gasps, his body refusing to function properly in the face of the Nihilego toxin coursing through his veins. It will kill him soon. Painfully. Slowly. Yet there are words that must be uttered. "As a brother. If we were in Rocket at the same time, if I had met you sooner, I would have followed you to the end."

There is a pause. Hunu closed the gap. The man was broken too. He had disobeyed the admin's orders and counted down. Tangaroa would face the consequences of that.

"But." Through the helmet, a wearier, aged face stared back at Isaac. Rocket had taken everything from them. Their bodies. Their minds. Their souls. They were not the same people anymore. "We didn't. So I will offer you the same ultimatum that Navy offered me: fight or die. If you want to become the League's beacon of hope, then give them a leason to look your WAY!"

Regice let out a bellow of Dynergy, knocking the Liberator in Tangaroa Emzar's general direction. The mercenary deserved to be humbled.

Howard rose, unsteadily. His eye locked with Priam, and the two shared a mutual understanding. Cogs in the machine, marching forward. They would fulfill their obligations on this battlefield. This victory did not feel like one. They were merely putting down a pack of stray dogs.

"Two." His voice rang out over the radio. Hoenn's Rocket would not act like Kanto's. They would count to three. Their hand would be stayed. Kazuya Yoshida's loyalty would be rewarded.

"And now-" Howard turned to face Tapu Lele, a malignant grin on the on its mouthless face. It mocked him slyly, before backhanding him towards Regirock's leg. He struggled to rise, rage bubbling up once again. Guardians. Guardians. GUARDIANS.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY." Howard groaned, his vision wavering with visions of the Tapu. Regirock responded quickly, releasing a Hammer Arm onto the guardian as it disappeared into mist. As the stone golem raised its hand, there was no blood.

Doug had escaped.

Yet Lele persisted in his mind. It mocked him from behind Oscar, then Priam, and then the distant Tsubaki. Nobody reacted. When it appeared before him, Regirock did not react.

A phantom. It had cursed him.

"I'll kill that fucking spirit, I swear to Arceus." Howard spat as he looked around. Meanwhile, Regirock turned its massive body towards another on the battlefield, recognizing the admin's latent grudge and attributing it to another.

Seven red eyes found Elisabeth Fiorelli.

They found Wo-chien.

They saw.

And they hated.

---

Yaps at Isaac, tosses him to Hunu
Yaps at Priam
Gets cursed by Lele, starts having a fit because of the poison and Dynergy
Regirock uses Hammer Arm on the vanishing Lele, but fails to hit it
Turns to find the snail, smelling it