I asked the editor to say "Eternatus" while I was writing the last scene. She knew why I asked, and I tried to write the result as I heard it.
Hop had changed his team again. Victor hadn't seen the Heatmor before, or the Trevenant, and once again the only Pokémon he really knew was Jojo, who as a Rillaboom was a bit less deserving of the nickname than he had been at the start. Despite his concern for the constant Pokémon-swapping, Victor put it aside to face his old friend in battle as the rival Hop wanted him to be.
Of course Victor won.
With yet another victory, he started to worry about his friend. Hop did seem fine with Victor winning, but Victor knew his friend well enough to know that Hop's dreams were slowly being crushed.
"I want to beat Lee," he said when asked. "I want to be known for beating the unbeatable Champion. Do you think I can?"
"Beat Leon? Of course, you can."
Victor was sure that Hop could beat his brother in battle. He just wasn't sure if Hop could follow in his brother's footsteps like he wanted to.
Luckily, that was good enough for Hop. He healed his team, and then Victor's, and then started off with the promise to battle again after the battles at Circhester Gym.
Victor let Gloria take the lead this time, and she got into quite a few battles with wild Liepard that seemed to love to chase her down. Luckily, Ace evolved into his final form soon after the first one and had U-Turn to do serious damage and switch out for Harry, who likewise evolved not long after.
"That took longer than I thought," Victor commented, and Gloria rolled her eyes theatrically.
"You haven't needed my team lately," she pointed out. "Of course, they'll be falling behind."
Behind her, Harry's encounter with a Perrserker turned even more violent. Strangely, the Fairy-type seemed to be winning. Gloria didn't even seem to notice.
They left the Liepard gang behind eventually, where they found their way to a maze of ruins. There, they were chased by Gurdurr instead, with Rufflet swooping down on them as they fled for their lives.
There was one more thing, however. As they ran for shelter, Gloria caught the attention of a Pawniard. And instead of bribing it with dirt curry, she threw a clump of dirt at it and pointed at the Rufflet when it looked at her.
"I'll give you a Kelpsy Berry if you get rid of it," she promised, pointing at the bird.
Pawniard tilted its head in confusion. Then it looked up at Rufflet and seemed to know what it was supposed to do.
After the battle, Pawniard rejected the Kelpsy Berry, digging through Gloria's bag for a Sitrus instead. As the Pokémon was digging, Gloria pulled the bag aside.
"You can take a berry," she said, "or you can come with us and get dirt curry made with a lot of berries."
"Do it," said Hattie. "I know you don't know us, but do it."
Pawniard stared for a moment, first at Hattie, then at Gloria, then at the Sitrus Berry punctured on its claw. Then, shrugging it off, it handed the berry back to Gloria as Victor scanned the Pawniard.
"Female," he stated. "What are you going to call her?"
"Stabitha," Gloria answered as if it should have been obvious, letting the Pawniard technically capture herself.
Victor nodded, having seen this coming. "Of course you do." He tossed her a pack of sausages he'd bought for her curry. "Go on, then, give her the first meal as part of our team!"
"So, what did you want to show me?" Leon asked as the elevator reached lower floors than he'd thought the building had.
Rose just chuckled as the elevator neared its destination. "You'll see for yourself."
As the doors opened, all of Leon's questions came to a head at once. "Rose, you never actually told me what it is exactly that you're working on. I know you're trying to harvest energy from Wishing Stars to solve the world energy crisis, but how exactly do you intend to do that?"
"I may have discovered the key to that," Rose explained as they walked down the hallway. "We created a device that could detect the energy signature of Wishing Stars so we can find more for experimentation and exportation of energy once we found it, but the scanners picked up something with a high amount of energy from something big... and moving."
They turned the corner, and Leon was greeted by the sight of a giant orb-shaped glass container filled with red and purple smog. What surprised him the most, though, were the specks of light that moved in the clouds. It only took a moment longer for him to realize that those were glowing eyes staring him down. If he looked closer, he could make out the outlines of a claw, a tail, and what looked like some kind of inhuman skull. The imprisoned creature let out a low growl, and a small wave of red energy was released into the world. Leon blinked and attempted to regain his composure, turning to the chairman with a clenched jaw to keep his mouth from falling open. "What is that...that thing?"
"That, my dear friend, is Eternat-tat... Eterna-na-na... Eter-Eter..." Rose sputtered before giving up. "A big dragon."
"And that's your project?" Leon asked. "The...big dragon?"
"Of course. It's a living incarnation of Dynamax energy!" Rose was smiling, but it wasn't maniacal. It was a confident smile of a man who was saving the world.
"What have you been doing with it?"
"So far, we've been doing simple testing. Preferred food, preferred temperature, response to stress..."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "What kinds of methods does that last one include?" he asked.
"I poked it with a stick repeatedly," Rose answered, as if it was the rational thing to do. "We also tried to Dynamax it, but our attempts remain futile. It seems to absorb any energy we feed into it. But we theorize that once it absorbs enough energy, it can turn into a powerful Pokémon. Perhaps a Pokémon powerful enough to convert its Dynamax energy into a usable resource."
Leon took a step back. "This seems insane and dangerous."
"Yes, it's both of those things," Rose said casually. "That's why we only barely started."
"I don't know, Rose. Maybe we shouldn't be playing with forces we don't understand."
"Well, I think this is a clear sign we should now," Rose said as his patience was starting to diminish. "It was months before we even got those readings, and it was clear that this Pokémon was simply passing by the region once we traced its movement pattern. What if we let it go, and we lose our one and only chance? It's like that myth where Prometheus stole fire from gods to bring the human race fire, a vital resource. This is the modern rendition of that myth. I'm bringing the world a vital resource, too: energy! I am the modern Prometheus!"
Leon put a hand on Rose's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "They said the same about Victor Frankenstein when he played God."
"I'm not playing God!" Rose insisted, pulling away from the friendly contact. "I might be playing Moses a bit, but..."
"That's not...did you even read the Bible?" Leon shook the thought from his head. "No. We're not getting into a Bible study. I'm just worried that you might be a bit in over your head."
"Don't worry. I have a plan, but I need you in order for it to work."
Leon looked around once more, drinking in the scene and giving himself one last chance to take in all this insanity. "I... I need to go process all of this," he said before turning to leave. "We'll talk later, but don't do anything else." Leon turned the corner, and he was gone.
"Other way," Rose called after him, not even looking.
Leon then walked down the hall in the opposite direction, and he was gone once more.
"I promise not to do much else," he said before turning his attention to his strange guest with another smile. "He's a good guy. You'll like him." Rose patted the glass as he punctuated the sentence
It turns out, much like a fish, the Pokémon did not like having the glass tapped. Then, unlike a fish, it charged at the glass in its limited space and slammed into it, causing a large crack to appear at the place of the impact.
"Olive," Rose called out to the area behind him. "No, Olivia? Oh! Oleana! Oleana, can you do the thing?"
"On it, sir," Oleana said as she grabbed a roll of duct tape and applied a single strip to the crack as if it was able to fix everything.
Rose took in a deep breath and heavily exhaled. "This is fine," he said in a small attempt to reassure all who had witnessed that.
Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Axew
Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Galarian Linoone) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatenna) Harry (Morgrem) Stabitha (Pawniard)