Shirona's Story

"Dung and body fluids are acceptable, but under one condition," Shirona replied. "We Ruulans have experimented with genetic modification of indigenous fauna in the past, and the results ended up far too powerful for us to control, resulting in great loss of life. Therefore, you may replicate them from their samples, but I forbid any subsequent recombination. Do you agree to these terms? If so, I will have one of our agents accompany you into the forest to assist in acquiring samples."

Come on, Voyagers, where the heck are you?

"We find these terms...acceptable." Though disappointed, the voice of the being that was only a quarter flesh didn't show it. After all, it was a typed message...though, even if they had spoken it their voice modulators wouldn't have been able to pick up on the nuances of disappointment and made it evident through their voice.

Once directed, the ship would reach where it was directed to go within the city. The engines buzzing and whirring while it traveled.

"Once samples are collected, we shall offer a gift. A trade. It will be worth your while." The message read, the word 'gift' included a pop-up to a strange box within their cargo hold. Said box looked like a ship's engine of sorts, however it was glowing a deep blue and looked like it was being powered without being plugged in or feeding off of any sort of energy source. The design certainly wasn't one of The 6th Order's, that was for sure. It was far too advanced for this rinky dink ship and their crew of scavengers.

With this though, their plans were being set into motion...they were getting closer and closer, and would make the High Commander proud.

Shirona was smarter than to take this gift sight unseen. She had some of her handlers and grunts accept it on her behalf, then directed them to an older man standing at the entrance to the forest. He would be their guide, apparently.

"I ask but two things. One, stay out of the tall grass. That is where the creatures live. I can defend myself adequately, but if you wander off your safety cannot be guaranteed. Two, do not trespass in the Old Chateau. There lie hauntings and mysteries...more practically, they do not leave any useful traces for your mission here."

A few bridges over water attended by a couple fat hikers stood between them and the forest proper, and they seemed to be raring for a fight. "Stand back. They will not let us pass unless we indulge their lust for battle. I shall take them on." In this manner the 6th Order got to be treated to a real life Pokémon battle, with a fire-breathing dog managing to get the better of what seemed like hunks of living rock called Houndoom and Geodude respectively.

"Sorry that took so long, boys. But now we can enter the forest and begin our search."

---

It was dark in there, even if it was midday...the forest canopy was just that fucking thick. Bearing west, the aforementioned chateau was off to their right...just looking at it seemed to give a creepy vibe and a shiver down one's spine. The old man moved surprisingly quickly for his age, ducking into a patch of overgrown weeds. "Aha! This will be perfect!" He scooped up some half-eaten berries. "Buneary must have been gnawing on these. Surely they've left their saliva behind, plus you get samples of the local flora as well! Will this suffice, or does your search require more samples? Several more species inhabit this forest, though the Buneary I mentioned are unique to this area."

"Arceus damn it," a woman with long blonde hair swore as her black fur-trimmed coat billowed in the winds. The ferry had drills mounted on the front to help it break through the ice on its trips to and from the Battle Zone, but she didn't wait for it to dock, instead leaping to terra firma while the craft was still at least 10 feet out and running to the impact zone, hoping to avert another Lumiose-scale incident. "Lucario, on deck. Search for any wounded, escort them to the city. Candice will be in charge of setting up a shelter in town. Let's move, people!"

A young woman with a sleepy expression yawned as she followed several uniformed Battle Frontier workers out. "Tell me again why we're doing this, Shirona? And why you had to drag me here?"

"It's simple, Caitlin. With your extraordinary psychic powers and connections to Unova and Johto, you're the best option we have to promote cross-regional coordination for these kinds of events until such time as Iris gets off her ass and names enough Voyagers so that they can answer the bell on this stuff. Your butler will take Castle challengers as usual and Grimsley is retired, so right now you have more power to act unilaterally than usual, and we need that in this time of crisis."

"Understood. This is your region, Champion Shirona, so I'll follow your lead."

"Right. We got reports from both Mossdeep and Hokulani about a meteor on impact courses, but they decelerated faster than atmospheric friction would account for. We have to assume these are occupied and they mean us harm. Now let's get a perimeter going. I want that thing found and contained, but do not engage unless it strikes first."

The Viper droid knew it was probably seen by the passing ship but there was little it could do but relay the design and markings back to the fleet. It still had it's primary mission to finish so it hovered along above the snow heading towards the city as fast as possible without bringing more attention to itself if it could. But with the ship sighting the droid was on alert in case anyone was tracking it.

Meanwhile above the planet a cloaked Imperial Class Star Destroyer called The Nexu entered high orbit over the city the ship would be invisible to sight and even the best sensors would at best only pick up a strange anomaly.

Before the drone could make it to the city, it was stopped by a couple of uniformed guards bearing an insignia of three half-circles behind a larger stylized pokéball, with a polar bear standing on two feet between them, its massive front paws ready to slap someone silly as it let out a mighty roar.

"Stop right where you are! If you keep moving we'll be forced to attack!"

The probe droid came to a halt. It had clearly moved to close to the city. The droid beeped madly as it scanned the group sending a message to the Nexu as it would attempt to flee. If the droid was followed it would open fire to defend itself.



On board the Nexu an officer ran up to the Captain "Sir our Probe Droid has confirmed that this area is rich in the crystals needed for our cloaking device...But the droid has been detected by the locals...it is attempting to flee...."

The captain frowned "...The droid...well these locals will have a nasty surprise should they follow it. Prepare the ground forces... and send word to rest of the fleet...I have a feeling it will soon be time to meet these locals..."

As the drone tried to make it's escape, it passed by a woman that bore a rather unmistakable uniform, she regarded the fleeing drone and the pursuing guards for a moment.

"This isn't good.." The woman said, while her communicator chimed. "I'm going to have to call this in..." She said, looking back to the city itself, Haruko reached for her sidearm and shouted towards the fleeing drone.

"Stop right there!" She called out.

But the drone was too fast for the woman on foot. So she turned back to the guards and the polar bear pokemon.

"You! I need to meet with your governing body immediately, we have a potential breach of the Underdeveloped Planets Preservation Pact, and I need to call this in!"

"Present," Shirona answered in response to the officer. "The mayor of the nearby town is making sure everyone stays safely in their homes while we deal with this. We're currently trying to establish a defensive perimeter around the thing. I'd appreciate it if you helped us fence it in while we wait for your backup to arrive. Caitlin there will tell you where to go, she's leading the rest of the Frontier operatives," she continued, indicating a much smaller girl with the bearing of an aristocrat and a winter coat over what seemed to be pajamas.

"You're authorized to call for backup. We are not having another city go up in flames. We need to know where this thing came from and if there are any more like it sniffing around. I'll start making some calls myself. I'm not optimistic about getting our Grand Champion on the line, but maybe we'll luck out and get someone who is willing and able to speak for her."

The hanger of the Nexu buzzed with activity as a female stormtrooper commander loaded her men and gear into a shuttle.

"Lieutenant Akiran a special mission for you and your squad...from the Admiral herself..." The Captain started. "You are to collect the probe droid and then make contact with the locals....The Admiral wishes for a peaceful set up of mining operations on this planet... so try to keep things...civil... Oh and get your Snowtrooper gear... its cold down there."

Lt. Akiran saluted "I won't fail you."

"I hope not Akiran...for it will be the Admiral you answer to... She is far less forgiving than I am..."

Akiran gulped and the Captain took his leave. Akiran turned to her troopers. "Alright boys and girls gear up for a cold reception"


Moments later the shuttle and it's cloaked TIE Phantom Escorts entered the atmosphere heading toward the probe droid's location. "Alright boys and girls..land, get the droid on board and than we make for the City" Akiran ordered as the shuttle started it's landing.

As Candace left, and the crowd dispersed, Okora reactivated her scouting device, resuming it's tracking functions. The hushed, though still audible beeping sound identified Pitch's location before the beeping stopped, a solid value now displayed for Okora's benefit.

"Bingo. It's still around. I'll track it down later. Right now, I figure I should explore the surrounding area. I can reacquire its signature easily enough."

She would proceed to lift off the ground and fly into the sky, proceeding outside of town in the sky.

---

When her device made an alarming beeping noise, she stopped and looked where it was indicating.

"Okay, so that must be one of the bigger creatures, though there are two signatures. Both are far stronger than the other creatures in this area, and those are stronger than the signatures in the city, so I should be cautious until I know for sure. The last one... That's a ship! But what is it's purpose? It doesn't look like a trade ship. It also has a large power on board. How complex. Maybe entertainment if I play it right."

She would fly towards the scene, intending on keeping a distance where she could observe events.

The Galaxy Police officer offered a swift nod, but that was briefly broken by the approaching shuttle.

"I want you to form a perimeter around the city and tell the citizens to hunker down. I'll get on the comms with my superiors and get some backup on the way; hopefully they won't be needed." She said, while making a run towards the landing site.

She seemed to run quite a bit faster than a normal human, easily reaching running speeds of about thirty miles per hour. Her legs were moving swiftly, and she was kicking up a small plume of dust.

Nearly falling flat on her face, Haruko stopped at the landing site and moved her hand towards her weapon. She looked up, eyes narrowing at the subtle changes in the light.

"Something's up there..." Haruko said, getting into a fighting stance, eyes moving swiftly towards the droid.

"Under the authority of the Underdeveloped Planets Preservation Pact! I demand you identify yourself at once!"

Yes! Pitch thought as he weaved through the trunks of snow-covered evergreen trees surrounding him. She managed to escape the winding city streets of Snowpoint, but now came the next challenge: finding someone that could spread the word to the wildings who needed to hear it. The good news was now that he was in the forest, he was not the only wilding roaming these parts, making him a harder target to track. The bad news was, he didn't know how much time he had before the being known as Okora would find him...if she found him.

Regardless, he kept his eyes out for some Pokemon...any Pokemon that could carry the message. He finally spotted a pack of Snover tromping through the snow down a hill. Quickly, the Eevee raced to cut them off, sliding to a stop in front of them and sending a wave of snow drifting against a tree.

"Hey!...Quick favor!" Pitch panted, out of breath, "Can you guys...send a message...to the Crimson Guild?"

The pack of Snover looked at each other before the head look back towards Pitch, shrugging his shoulder, "We don't know who you're talking about."

Pitch sighed, shaking his head in disappointment, "Alright...thanks anyway..."

He took off running towards the west, searching for another Pokemon he could ask. It wouldn't be a moment later before he heard voices...the sound of conversation between others. He quickened his pace, practically gliding through the snow towards them. It was just over this rise...

"Under the authority of the Underdeveloped Planets Preservation Pact! I demand you identify yourself at once!"

Pitch came to a screeching halt, perking his ears up in partial confusion. That didn't sound like any Pokemon gathering he knew. There was too much vocabulary...vocabulary he expected to hear from humans. Perking his ears in interest, he hid low, not daring to peek his head up, and stayed out of sight. He would listen, but not be seen.

"Already on it, Officer," Shirona replied curtly. "The city's mayor has already been notified and is getting everyone to stay inside under the pretext of a massive snowstorm on the way. Meanwhile, our forces out here are working to form a perimeter around the crash site. We don't want it to get into the city or by the lake where Uxie sleeps!"

Shirona wasn't quite as quick on her feet as Haruko, but long legs afforded by her height enabled her to keep pace for a little while.

"Caitlin! I need a team of speedsters to follow the officer and secure the crash site, I'm going to try to get to Lake Acuity before it does! Let's go, Braviary!"

Hopping on the eagle-like Pokémon to get a better view and be unhindered by terrain, Shirona was sorely disappointed at the sight of Candice entertaining a newcomer. Sure, it was important to keep up appearances, but still, this was government cover-up time. And if what happened in Nimbasa and Lumiose were any indication, this was only the beginning...

The Viper Probe knew it was cornered... but it also knew help was incoming. It scanned the woman shouting at it noting that her uniform bore the same symbol as the ship it saw earlier. It couldn't speak but made an alert sound...a small gun raised from it head but then the droid went quiet and fell to the ground. A remote shutoff?

A few moments later the Imperial Shuttle landed nearby and a deployed Lt. Akiran and her team of six Snowtroopers. One of the troopers held a gatling like gun, another a sniper rifle, the rest standard blaster rifles.

Akiran stepped forward. "Well Hell..this is Awkward." Akiran sighed "I am Lt. Akiran of The Night Raiders. We are here on orders to retrieve that droid and make peaceful contact with the Locals... I assure you we mean no harm.."


Above head the cloaked TIE Phantoms hovered guns aimed at the officer. Akiran was sent a message in her helmet that only she could hear from one of the TIE pilots "She's in our sights ma'am...we have you covered"

Still standing in a defensive stance, Haruko watched the surrounding events unfold. Using her personal communicator, she had sent word to HQ, and they had sent out the call to any available military assets in the area.

She watched the droid go limp, narrowing her eyes she took a step forward, and unsnapped the blaster from her hip; it was a Taiyou weapon, a standard Solar Blaster, which used a combination of Magitech and sophisticated high-power lenses to fire a focused beam of intense light.

She was appalled when the shuttle landed, though, and resolve filled her to the brim, as the weapon was freed from it's holster.

"I am a Galaxy Police officer, operating under the authority of the International Court; your presence here is in violation of the Underdeveloped Planets Preservation Pact, your possession of advanced weapons... landing a warship without clearance from the AXIS or the local government!?"

Haruko was incredulous, but she could sense the TIE Phantoms putting their sights on her, and this made her all the more defensive.

"I order you to lower your weapons and surrender, I am placing you all under arrest!" She called out, readying her weapon. "You can explain to the International Council why you should be allowed to interact with these people."

----



Seemingly from the shadows of the planet, a lone Taiyou Nagato Class Battleship emerged, the sunlight radiating from it's hull as it presented itself for everyone to see. What this meant for the Umibozu team planet-side no one could foresee.

The crew of the ITN Tokimi Kami Sama (訪希深神様) worked diligently through blaring alarms, and the calls of the Galaxy Police officer to bring itself to bear against the lone star destroyer in orbit of the planet.

Vice Admiral Juzo Okita, an older man with a large, bushy grey beard, and white hair was in charge of this prestigious Taiyou Battleship, and while he had his orders, the call from a Galaxy Police officer was paramount.

His new orders were to, in accordance with the UP3: Intercept and deter the unidentified, larger capital ship from committing further violations of the treaty.

Admiral Okita's call went out to the rest of the nearby fleets in the sector, before his message was transmitted to the Nexus.

"Unidentified Warship, you are in violation of the Underdeveloped Planets Preservation Pact, disengage your weapons and prepare to be boarded, if you resist it will be construed as an act of hostility, and measures will be taken."

The Admiral's voice was gravely, thickly accented, as his grasp of the Common tongue was limited at best, he only hoped wiser heads would prevail in this situation.

"Your only other peaceful option, would be to vacate this star system at once, with all due haste."

With the message transmitted, the Admiral nodded towards his crew.

"Prepare to fight, load all batteries with shock rounds, and fire only on my command."

The Admiral looked back up to the display, as the Taiyou Battleship began to move closer, the shimmering outline of the cloaked vessel coming up on scanners. It didn't take much to defeat the cloaking, and Admiral Okita knew this well, by re-calibrating the wide-spectrum sensor arrays, and tracking the trajectories of both micrometeroids in orbit, and the charged particles of the solar wind emitted by the Ruulan sun they could garner a faint reading, as in order to avoid this method of detection, the ship would have to some how not interact with solid matter at all; the rest he hoped he could bluff, or reveal them for higher fidelity targeting through the use of shock rounds.

The Taiyou ship took it's next action shortly after, with a launch bay opening up near the rear of the ship, Type 99 Cosmo Falcon starfighters began to emerge, one by one, while burning hot towards the planet.

Captain Antori frowned as a ship came into view. it was of an unknown origin to the Captain and his crew. Captain Antori looked annoyed when the vessel hailed demanding surrender...

"This is Captain Antori of the Night Raider vessel Nexu. We do not know who you are or what this treaty you speak of is. We are here under orders From our Grand Admiral to make peaceful contact with the people of this planet. We can not allow you to board our ship, nor can we just leave as we already have a team on the planet on route to contact the locals. We can not leave them behind." he stated.

After turning off the comm an officer spoke up "Sir message from Shuttle Tyconia They are being harrassed by a woman claiming to be part of some sort of galaxy police. They say she spoke of this treaty as well and is trying to arrest them."

Captain Antori sighed "I would love to blow these bastards from the sky...but the Grand Admiral wants a peaceful answer... Tell the Lt. and her squad to go along with this for now..." the Captain then added "and have the B1s on the shuttle locked into standby mode and have the Phantoms move to intercept patterns should this turn... stupid..."


Planetside the Lt. and her troopers lowered their guns "I don't know who you are or what this treaty you speak of is but our commander says we are to comply...."

The Lt. didn't add the for now and her mind was hoping that the Captain knew what the hell he was doing.

Shirona listened to the Lieutenant's request, and after a brief conference with Caitlin, made a counter-offer. "Negative, Lieutenant. As duly chosen representative of the Sinnoh Region, I order you to retrieve your drone and leave without making further contact. We've had enough visitors to Ruula these past couple of years, and most of them tend to do more harm than good. Changing the landscape for their needs with no regard for the wildlife, trying to outright raze a metropolis, the list goes on. One of these days, a crash landing like that might upset a legendary Pokémon, and it would not be a question of if we would be wiped out, but how."

The Frontier grunts and their Beartic took a step forward to close the perimeter, trying to subtly increase the pressure on the landing crew to accept this proposal.

Okora watched the situation unfold from the skies, a safe distance away. Seeing one of the women scream out for whatever was being chased to identify itself, she decided she shouldn't get involved, and thus, she began flying low, giving the conflict center a wide berth as she scouted the area, looking for more of the creatures said to live in the area. She had a Poke Ball she wanted to try out.

---

"Conflicts aside, let's see what I can find."

Away from the trouble, she spoke softly as she activated her device, which beeped to identify nearby signatures, including one belonging to a small creature with a white upper body and brown lower body in resemblance of a snow-covered tree, two-thirds brown. Interested, she flew over to it, landing before the creature. It's power seemed to be far in excess of the other Ruulans, and was relatively on par with many of the other local creatures.

"Hello, creature of this planet! I am Okora, and I have come here seeking new and ever more difficult challenges! I give you now a proposition, do battle with me and let us test our might against each other! I wish to see if you are fit to join my team in my ever growing travels!

Okora was incredibly serious as she attempted to goad the creature into fighting her, adopting a fighting stance while making a taunting gesture. Fortunately for her, the creature bought it. As it seemed to respond to her, Okora noted the hail that was beginning to fall.

"Hail? Ugh, annoying."

"Snover! Sno! Versnow!"

"That's right, let's battle!"

As she prepared for whatever its first move would be, she took notes on its appearance, to see if she could identify any capabilities beyond the general information her own device presented.

"Hrm. Three points on top of its head. Perhaps they are weak spots? Its feet and tail are stubby, so it can't be that fast, and the two green spikes on its back are probably some kind of defensive measure. It looks like a tree, and may be just as sturdy. I should still go easy, as it doesn't seem to be anywhere near my level, according to my device... Unless it can power itself up somehow. I cannot discount that fact."

However, as she was doing her analysis, she suddenly found herself needing to dodge, giving a momentary expression of surprise as she did so. Several sharp chunks of ice whizzed past her as she dashed sideways before planting a fist into the snow to stop her movement.

"Well, I'll be! He's faster than expected!"

As she stood and raised her hands, the creature froze more chunks of ice that it hurled her way. This time, she quickly fired several energy blasts back at the shards, each small blast of green energy exploding on contact with each chunk of ice, shattering them mid flight.

"Snosno! Over!"

The creature began trying to be offensive to her, and Okora took this opportunity to make a move, she dashed forward with great speed to engage the creature in close range, attempting to throw a punch to its midsection, connecting rather handily, causing it to stagger back from the force.

"Snow!"

"Gotcha! There's more of that where it came from!"

She charged forward, still going easy on the creature as she threw several punches and kicks at it, almost as if encouraging it to try and block her attacks, and in turn, it kept up with her through using its techniques of throwing frozen chunks of ice and shrouding itself in mist. On one attempt at charging it, she ran straight into a gust of chilling wind that made her stop in her tracks and shiver.

"Agh! That's cold!"

She leapt back to create space, and stared down the creature, who seemed ready to rumble still.

"Heh heh heh... I like you. I think we're done here. Tell me your name, proud creature!"

The creature walked up to her again as it kept making noise.

"Snover! Snover! Sno sno! Versno!"

Okora pondered for a moment as the Snover tried to punch her in the side, though this time, she seemed unfazed by the small punches as she thought.

"Hrm. So, I cannot understand anything you are saying, but somehow, I think you are trying to say your name. Well, for now, I'll just call you what you say... Hey, Snover!"

As she spoke the name, it stopped punching her and stood back a bit, looking up at Okora, looking quite pleased. She looked back at it and smiled.

"Very well then! You seem good enough! You heard my proposition, and we had our spar! Let's work together, Snover!"

With the Snover seemingly approving, she threw the Poke Ball she had been gifted at it, trapping it inside the orb, after which, it did not escape. Okora would walk forward and collect the ball that had Snover inside.

"Well, this should be fun. I wonder what we can teach each other? Well, we'll find out. Right now, I could go for some food. No doubt he's hungry too."

She released her Snover, the tree-like Pokemon turning around to look at her. She smiled and moved forward to pick it up, having no trouble doing so. Carrying it with her, she spoke to it.

"Snover, let's go find some food, yeah? I'm starving, and I'm sure you are too!"

She took off into the sky, carrying her Snover with her, being sure she held it close so as to not accidentally drop it, despite it's minor panic at being flown through the air.

---

Okora would fly back toward Snowpoint City, going across the routes where the incident was occurring. She stopped to see if there was any update on the current situation, and noticed that the shuttle had landed and deployed its ground force. She made sure she stayed a safe and decent distance away in the sky, so as not to draw too much attention while she observed the whole situation. She activated her scouting device, keeping a firm hold on Snover nonetheless, who seemed less panicked about being in the air, and more interested in what the sights and views were like from up here, perhaps similar to the mountains he called home.

"The shuttle landed? Although it seems perhaps the local authorities are pressuring the group now for it. I wonder what the issue is that those visitors get the hostile response I usually receive. Hrm..."