Rubira's Story

The citizens of Nimbasa City cheered as the Miso Force was literally drove out of town. Many a trainer pumped a fist in the air and many a Pokemon followed suit in the miniature celebration. They did it. They banded together and saved their home.

As the massive group of people began to divide into large packs to discuss what had just happened, many a Pokemon was recalled into their Pokeballs. However, a surprising numerous amount of Pokemon stayed out. The AXIS Peacekeepers ship still loomed above them. Now that the threat dissipated from the entertainment hub of Unova, the fleet should at the very least follow suit towards the Miso Force and the Fireknaughts, who had proceeded to the desert. In all honesty, the Ruulans were hoping that the big scary ships would at least go away with hope that they would never be seen again. Until the sky was clear and blue once more, many a trainer was reluctant to call the fight over yet, although no one was attacking.

Overlooking the spectacle, the group of Pokemon continued to bicker among themselves.

"Where did they go?" Siena was looking down the path they had come from, "Didn't they follow us?"

"Do I even need to comment on how silly that statement sounds?" Skyball leaned against the wall of a building laxly. Lumi chuckled a bit. Siena shot daggers at the two of them.

"No, I mean where could they have changed direction? And why? And why did they bring Sabre with them?"

"Cause they offered to carry Sabre before," Gambit offered as an explanation, "And I don't see Radegast letting him go anytime soon...not after what we saw from him in the desert."

"Yeah, that was a break from the calm exterior he always wears," Siena muttered under it's breath before a large galloping sound began to make it's way closer to them.

The next thing anyone knew, a large Rapidash was running in blazing circles around them. Pitch cowered in fear instantly, but the others recognized this Pokemon immediately, especially the two electric fuzzballs.

"RUBIRA!" Lumi and Skyball cried in unison as they both ran towards the fire horse and proceeded to hug it. Rubira reared back a little bit.

"Hey, watch it!" she exclaimed, "Don't you dare accidentally Nuzzle me again!"

Siena approached, a coy smile on the Shaymin's face, "Hey Ruby. Haven't seen you in a little bit, huh? I see you're keeping the hooligans in line." She added that last bit with a tiny smudge of sarcasm in her tone.

Rubira caught onto it immediately, "It's not my fault! I don't know if you knew this or not, but wild Rapidashes running rampid through a city doesn't exactly help out an incognito mission. I've been looping around the outskirts the whole time."

"Speaking of the incognito mission," Dee looked towards Lumi and Skyball accusingly, "They let the Nidorina escape."

"Dee!" Lumi's jaw dropped open in protest, "You weren't supposed to tell them that!"

Dee just shrugged in response.

Lumi let her eyes drop. "Yeah, she ended up getting away," she admitted, "But how was I supposed to know she's protected by some friggin' gang who set up camp in Nimbasa?"

"Wait, hold up," Gambit hovered lower, brows furrowed, "Gangs? Human run gangs?"

"No, Pokemon run gangs," Skyball replied, "We stumbled onto an all-out Turf War. Lumi got knocked out and I got poisoned, but I did end up defeating the Nidorina. I just had to save Lumi. She was my priority to me."

Siena nodded understandingly, "I am grateful you two made it out okay. And we can always deal with the Nidorina later. For right now-"

A mournful cry erupted through the conversation, shaking every wild Pokemon present to their core. Everyone looked out near the baseball fields where the sound seemed to come from. It was a call...a summoning for them.

"W-who do you think made that call?" Pitch backed towards Glow, apprehension settled in his gaze.

"I don't know," Siena answered, "But we need to strategize and formulate a game plan here."

And then Radegast appeared, apologizing for bailing towards the sewer tunnels and following orders and the like.

"It's alright," Siena answered back, hoping Radegast could understand well enough to know what the Shayin was saying, "So long as you came back safe and sound...and with our little prickly friend in tow. We kind of need him."

Sabre said nothing. He just continued to glare and sulk.

"I see he may have stumbled across some old friends," Gambit whispered to the Shaymin, looking towards Margriet and Logan nervously. The last time the three of them crossed paths, a fairly decent sized fight broke out. Siena recognized them too, but held a blank face.

"If they were acting hostile, I don't think they would've come with Radegast," Siena reasoned. Gambit nodded in agreement.

"Okay, new plan!" Siena seemed to work like a commander amongst the group, "We have three interest points. Follow up on that call near the baseball field, follow up on the alien invaders who went off into the desert, and taking Sabre back to the rendezvous point. To do this, we're going to have to split into groups."

"Rubira," the Shaymin looked at the Rapidash first, "Because you're the fastest here, I want you to go after the ones that were driven out of town. Do not engage unless they attack first. Keep an eye on them and make sure they leave for good. Any odd behavior they exhibit or action they take while on the planet must be made note of. Hopefully, they're heading towards a space ship of their own to leave. If not, record their behavior and report back."

"Coolio, more running," she grumbled before turning around and galloping towards the desert with incredible speed. The citizens wouldn't notice or even care about a wild Rapidash running out of the town, not after they day they had.

"Next, Lumi, Skyball, and Dee. I want you three to head towards the baseball field and discover the source of that call. Find out why it was called in and figure out how we can help them." Siena turned towards Glow and the company she led. "If you guys want to help out, you can join those three on that expedition. If not, I understand. If you'd like, we can introduce ourselves later." Siena turned it's head to rest it's eyes on Sabre.

"And finally you. Gambit, you and I are going to take this little rascal back to the rendezvous point so we can get it out of Radegast's hands and he can move on with his own quest."

"Sounds like a plan," Gambit began to circle the troublemaker, realizing a patch of wet fur on the Sandslash's front, "Were...were you licked?"

"Alright team, let's do this!" Siena shouted before leading Radegast back to the warehouse building from where they had come from, Gambit taking the rear while Siena took the lead. Lumi, Skyball, and Dee all bounded with incredible speed towards the baseball fields to answer the call. Pitch stepped forward and looked back to Glow, "I think we should help them. They seem to be doing something important."

---

Rubira had made her way just to the outskirts of the city and was now looking for the aliens in the open when he spotted another figure running not too far up ahead. Curious, she galloped harder and caught up to the other Pokemon running. It appeared to be a Meganium...not the fastest creature to walk the land, but certainly determined.

"Hey!" Rubira called up to the Meganium, "You after these aliens too?"

Skyva walked into what she thought was Nimbasa city. All her pokemon in their balls, she stood at the entrance and looked around. It looked more like a war zone, but despite her gut feeling she kept on walking. Some of the streets were messed up and the deeper she went in the more she saw flyers on the ground. "What the hell happened here?" She thought and she made her way down an okay street. She found where the flyers were coming from, they were raining down from the sky. "Good gosh.." She sighed. The town seemed abandoned and a sense of fear made her go tensed.

"What if I just walked into a damn war?" She thought. Skyva scrambled to grab a flyer. It read:

We are here to help! We are AXIS Peacekeepers! This is not an invasion! Please flee to shelter! We will protect you!

Gripping the flyer in her hand she looked around to where she could hide. "Buildings would be stupid...and I have no idea what they have here! Bomb shelters?!" She frantically thought. She ran around town looking for something that could resemble an entrance to underground. It was when she got to the last street that Skyva heard voices, lots of voices. Without thinking she ran towards them. Just past a large building she saw them, a guy bent over picking up the flyers and the rest seemed happy.

"Hey! HEY! Can you he-FUH!" She ran and shouted at the same time, not looking around or being careful. Her foot slipped on one of the flyers and she fell face first.

Ivy nodded "Uh, yeah." She just wanted to get away from the crowd, from the loud noises, to see what those strange aliens were up to. She glanced at the Rapidash. "Where are you from?"

Glow sighed. "I really don't know, Pitch. But whatever it is, must mean trouble. And I've had so much more than my share of that for the last few days to last me a year." She smiled after that. "But I'm glad I have you guys to help me get through it."

Aurora sighed. "Glow, I think we all have" He paused. "I do wonder what that sound was though."

Zap's tail swished back and fourth as he added "All of this is kinda weird for me. Where did those aliens come from anyways?" He shook a paper off of his paw. "And why the HECK did they have to leave these freaking papers everywhere?"

Fluff looked at the group, a sad sigh held in her mind. "Well, um, I guess I'll see you around" She said as she stretched her wings out, about to take off.

Glow glanced at Fluff. "Don't go!" She said quickly, before she had a chance to think. "I'm sorry!"

Fluff paused. And let her wing fall back to her sides. "I-it's okay."

An awkward silence arose between the two.

Zap glanced from Glow to the altaria. He said "Is there something I missed while Pitch and I were in the vents?

"I'm glad you're all with me too," Pitch gave a warm smile to everyone who he had bonded with over the past couple of days. Specifically, Glow and Zap had the biggest impact on him. He'd like to get to know Mud and Aurora a bit more in the future, but that could happen at it's own pace. Right now, there was too much going on. It was hard to even think coherently at the chaos erupting around them. Pitch could barely keep track of any of it.

It was then that he noticed the Altaria for the first time and turned to Glow with confusion. The Eevee had to agree with Zap on this one. He had no idea what possible beef the two may have had with one another while they were in there. He guessed it was time to find out.

"Who are you?" Pitch stepped forward a bit, staying by Glow's side, "What's your name?"

---

"Eh, around the block a time or two," Rubira the Rapidash responded, winking at the Meganium she was running beside, "There's not many places I haven't been. I guess home for right now would be in the Kalos Region."

The two ventured further and further away from Nimbasa City, the massive skyline fading away into nothing more than a neon hue that seemed to shine bright, despite the time of day. It had it's own serenity to the look.

"Hey, look!" Rubira pointed out the trio of Fireknaughts that seemed to be walking back the way they had come, a Machamp, a Voltorb, and a Geodude among them, "I think those are some of the ones that were involved with the invasion of Nimbasa City. Now I was instructed not to attack, just to keep an eye out for the suspicious ones. I don't think any of them seem bad, so we should keep mov-oh."

Rubira realized she had been monologuing to the Meganium with as much intel as an operative soldier and that she was speaking about a mile a minute, "Er, sorry. Just my typical routine. Let's start a bit simpler. What's your name?"

The three Fireknaughts kept moving until they saw a Rapidash and Meganium associating like friends. The Firenaughts were fully understand of Pokemon, but the two were polar opposites and literally looked like they were talking to each other in their language. The squad leader placed his right hand on his helm and began snapping images of the two to log their visual info into their Pokesystem.

"You think they'd talk to our Pokemon?" The squad leader spoke.

"It's a possibility. If you recall just a couple hours ago they talked to each other in Nimbasa. I don't see any reason anything would be different here." One squad member returned.

"Very true. Maybe Machamp can talk to them and turn them around before they end up running into the Miso Squad and the Pharaoh." The squad leader responded and was quickly responded to, "Worth a try."

"Machamp, do you want to go turn those two around so they don't run into the boss?" The squad leader spoke to Machamp.

The Pokemon nodded and gave a thumbs up as he moved towards the Rapidash and Meganium, "You two might not want to go that way, there's a good reason we're heading this way. Not going to stop you, but you might not like what you find too far ahead. "

Ivy looked at the Machamp "Why should we listen to you?" He was a Pokemon from the bad people after all. And Ivy was not falling for any traps.

Before the Meganium could answer, the Machamp had approached them, warning the two vaguely that they shouldn't head in that direction. Rubira wasn't sure who to believe here. All she knew was that chaos had erupted around Nimbasa City and that these soldiers were involved with it. But one thing was made clear to her. Something was going on up ahead...something the Machamp didn't want either of them to see.

Meaning Rubira had to see it.

"I think we can hold our own," Rubira stared down the nose at the Machamp, "I have a job to do after all."

"I'm not telling you to turn around, i'm asking you to turn around. The situation seems delicate and not something we should mess up. While we are Pokemon and the original creatures of this world, we have to understand the humans have their own issues, some beyond our power... So i'm begging you, please turn around and come with us, it's not worth going to those other humans. We should be worrying about the ones that flew over Nimbasa City." Machamp spoke to the Pokemon once again.

It wasn't that it was a secret, they just knew that there was more going on there than what the Pokemon needed to be involved in. Machamp wouldn't stop them unless his master told him to, in which he would do everything he could. Machamp hoped these two would take the warning and turn around.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zaltos would shook his head a little bit, "You're leaving with this information. It's not cheating, as you came for information, you just got it an alternate was that holds more information than you can get from flying around."

While speaking, Zaltos removed his coat and shirt, placing on a rock. He'd then remove the hat he was wearing and place it under the coat to keep it from getting sandy. There Zaltos stood with no shirt, revealing his large muscular form that looked like it had been crafted of a pale marble. On his body was markings that were very Phoenix based and tied to the Kiraxin race. With his Ushanka removed, his hair was not that of an old mans, but more like fine silver elfin hair that had a high luster in the sunlight.

"I hope you all are ready..." The man spoke as he smirked.

The reconnoiters of the Miso Force would spike as the man released his submission of his power and embraced his standard power. The markings on his body would begin to slightly glow red and an extremely transparent red energy would start to spiral around him in a fiery fashion. His blue eyes would focused on the five as he waited for the first to step forward unless they'd make him pick himself.

"Well, can't be helped. Thanks but no thanks. If beating you aside lets us continue, so be it. You asked for it, so don't say you weren't given fair warning." Kinoko stated as she took a few steps back with the others as Slale stepped forward, crossing his arms. "Hmph. I'll go first. If he can't handle me with any ease, he doesn't stand a chance."

If the Reconnoiter readings were affecting them, they didn't show it. Slale cut a smirk, refusing to make the first attack, instead opting to do a few practice punches and kicks that were quite slow compared to the normal speed they fight at. The others chuckled as Maynace spoke. "Oy, buff mate! You're in for a fun time! Misoren is the serious one! He doesn't play around or pull his punches! If you can't beat him with ease, you'd best give up!"

Kinoko clenched a fist with a smug smile. "I'd wager Misoren alone can probably take you. Your power is impressive, but we're not even getting started. Misoren, don't bother with your Giant Form or Super Namekian to start. See if he's worth the trouble!"

Slale nodded. "Of course. He needs to earn the right to see those forms of my power." Everyone's Reconnoiters began recording the fight, constantly reading for Zaltos' fighting style and relative threat level as he battled Slale.

Ivy looked at Rubira nervously and ran after her, leaving the upset machamp behind in the dust.
"What do you think he didn't want us to see?" She asked, trying to keep up up with Rubira's speed.

Rubira made a passing glance to the sky as the Meganium asked him her question, her own eyes widening a bit at what she saw. "Maybe that," he inclined her head towards the two figures launching projectile attacks back and forth upon each other. Both flying humanoid figures seemed to be fighting, thought the context as to why was missing to the Rapidash. The two Pokemon kept their distance as both stopped.

"Huh, I didn't know humans could possess these kinds of abilities on their own...then again, they're not from Ruula," Rubira seemed to be thinking out loud, "And then there's Crimson, of course. So I guess I've seen weirder..." she realized she was still in the company of the Meganium and smiled, "I don't think I ever got your name. Mine's Rubira."

Zaltos noticed the little jelly woman vanish as his blast neared impact, immediately forcing him into alert. By the time he realized where he was going to be struck and his muscles tensed, the elbows hit. Instead of trying to take a full hit, he decided to attempt as moving forward, taking the initial shock off the hit and making it feel no different than a punch to the back muscle.

After taking the hit as best he could, his form vanished again, appearing nearly ten yards away. A smirk crossed his face as he felt his nerves settle and the feeling of the hit washing away as if nothing had happened. While his body would not warp or stand immune to physical attacks, he could heal; bruising never happening as his body can heal non-vital wounds and damage on its own, ranging from seconds to minutes depending on what it was.

He faced Hana, with a slight smirk crossing his face while the whispering voice crept into her ears again, "Pain is only weakness leaving my body. I'm begging you, hit me stronger." The voice fading out with a slight laugh behind it.

Zaltos was at his range while the words were spoken and in the blink of an eye, he was gone again, this time reappearing in front of Hana with a left knee for her chest. Following behind this knee and his right foot that snapped to strike underneath her jaw, intending to kick the head backwards as Zaltos released a barrage of fists into the uppertorso, beating on her from waist to face, pushing Hana through the air with each hit. When the series of punches came to an end, Zaltos aimed to finish it off with a powerful right fist that had the glow of fire around it, intending on using this power punch to send the alien into the ground with a cratering force. The fists all moved at a nearly untraceable speed that would prevent even the Majin from responding with an aggressive attack during the assault, forcing them to defend if possible, or take the beating even if it didn't physically harm the alien.

Hana took most of the hits, and after the barrage was done, exhaled a shout as she undid every deformation in her form, returning to a normal state as though nothing happened. As she proceeded to prepare a counter attack, Kinoko called out to her.

"MISONII! RETURN TO US! THIS FIGHT HAS NO FURTHER BENEFITS!"

Instead of launching her counter attack, Hana used her Rapid Movement to land beside Kinoko and the others, where Kinoko spoke further. "The old man isn't a Ruulan. He's at least as strong as us right now, and he isn't even trying. I've recorded all the notes we need on him; access them in the RUL-A55 file. We have a survey to finish, and Galaxy Police to avoid, so let's make it quick. Take your Attack Balls with you! Miso Force! Move out!"

The group would all take to the sky and split into five directions, flying at speeds that would shame land speed records. In short order, each Attack Ball would also rise into the air, and follow each member accordingly at an equivalent speed. They wouldn't be seen again, at least not for a while as they no doubt moved on to other jobs after this one.

Zaltos chuckled as everything went down. Like them, he got what he wanted out of the situation, watching as their ships took off with them. He remained high in the sky, watching the Miso Force take off into the sky for their survey, letting them get far enough away before he lowered himself to the ground. Zaltos walked around the craters in the ground and thought about how the ships looked unscathed.

Zaltos picked up his coat and other items, placing them back on his body before sending a message to his ship above, "Drop the lift and have officers waiting on the main deck."

In seconds, a blue beam of energy stretched from the atmosphere to the ground. This beam could be seen for miles and miles, not trying to hide. This beam would act as the elevator for Zaltos and what was coming with them.

"I'll be back on board in a minute." Zaltos responded to the ship before he changed lines to the signal the Miso Force's Reconnoiters were using, "Try not to get caught by the Galaxy Police while surveying. I'm sending a message out to the Fireknaught to let you be. We cannot speak for the rest of Ruula, but you're welcomed here by us. I suggest next time not illegally entering a planet, especially with your capabilities... it looks rather bad. If you need anything, you now have my personal communication line, and when you're ready to leave, I will have an escort ready to get you off the planet..."

Once Zaltos gave his message, he sent a message to the Fireknaught that lead him here, "Come back to their landing zone."

The squad leader got the message and the group took off in full sprint towards the landing zone. It took a matter of minutes before they reached the site, and when they did, they could see Zaltos standing at the edge of the lift waving them on. With a quick salute, they Fireknaught finished moving to the lift where they and Zaltos would vanish into the sky. As the ground was lifted, the beam retracted behind them, closing off the connection between them and the ground.

The ship would eventually return to its position in the cloud of mechs and starships that defended it, not account the Giga-Mech that was present. When all was done and the ship was stable, Zaltos and the squad he brought with him made way to the main deck. While Zaltos was fine, the three soldiers looked like they were in awe due to not being on a spaceship in some time.

"Men, do not take this the wrong way, but in order to sustain our presence on Ruula and reach our goal of becoming Ruulan, we must deal with the issue in Nimbasa City." Zaltos spoke as he looked through the decks windows at Ruula.

Three Fireknaught came forward with handcuffs and the the three from Ruula knew what was happening. They stuck out their hands in submission but didn't seem to happy about the situation. Once the cuffs were on, their Pokemon and weapons were removed from their forms , leaving them with nothing but their uniform on.

"I do not like having to do this, and I can promise it will not last long. I understand what you did in Nimbasa City, but we can't afford to lose the faith of Ruula and AXIS due to a misunderstanding between our forces. You will remain in custody until we can arrange a court date." Zaltos spoke with a saddened tone.

"Sir, we understand. I do not like this, as my men were only following my orders, and should not be here." The squad leader spoke.

"Yes, I know, but they do not. We are Fireknaught and there's enough tension from how we arrived here. We will make a special request to have them released, but that decision will come from a Ruulan judge. We have to be an example here. We will talk later, but I have other matters to attend to at this moment." Zaltos responded again, still with a depressed tone.

The three soldiers were escorted to the prison cells on the ship where they would be left till the court date came for them. In that time, Zaltos was messing with his holo-screen computer, going over all files they had from recording the Miso Force. Once viewing these files, he removed the module from his Ushanka and uploaded the files. These were the main files of interest as they got to examine the aliens on the ground and watch the one he fought. He wanted to know what brought these aliens here and what they exactly are.

A soldier then came in and pulled a screen up next to Zaltos showing him two Pokemon, Ivy and Rubira, "Sir, I don't think Pokemon can talk, but should we worry? Maybe there was someone else around, possibly a trainer?"

"No, we were alone. As far as they saw, I was fighting one of them and they all vanished. If anything, they'll think they beat me, and worry about them. I also don't think Pokemon can talk to humans unless it is their master." Zaltos spoke.

"We're working on it. We're having to search databases across the universe to translate the language it's in. Once we can do that, we'll be in."

"Since their ships are in movement, see if you can crack their systems. In fact, see if you can get into their communication device, let's have a little fun." Zaltos finished, now watching the Miso Squad on his screen as they flew through the skies while he sent a message to the Castelia City base, "Jam out all signals in Castelia City when they arrive there. No questions asked."

"Will do. We'll alert you when we are doing so." An operator responded.

"We can't have them finding our base there. We need them to get their look at the city and get out. If they get too close, make them disappear."

"Yes sir. I hope they don't get near enough to worry about, but we will protect our interests in this city."

"It's not just the city, there is a Taiyou prince in Castelia City and if the situation arises, it would be nice to be the ones who protected him." Zaltos responded, "Oh, and if one of these ships," he spoke as sending the image of the Attack Balls, "if one of these start to hit the ground, catch it and relocate it in the prison."

"Yes sir. We're closing the line and recoding the connection. Everything will ready in two minutes." The operator spoke as the line clicked.

With that, the Fireknaughts would no longer interact with the Miso Force unless absolutely forced to. They would keep a keen eye on them, following them with drones as well as scanners across the land and being cast by the ship in space. At this point, the Fireknaught hoped the Miso Force would go without being bothered by the GP or Taiyou and could get off the planet; all while maybe getting one of their ships either now or later.

Ivy watched, thinking to herself They look incredibly silly... She turned to Rubira. "I'm Ivy."

"Ivy, huh?" Rubira nodded her head as she watched the fight in the sky end just as quickly as it had began, "That's a fitting name, I guess..."

The green humanoid-like figure rejoined the other four members of similar attire. Rubira watched as they all took off and split off from one another at such a speed even Rubira knew she couldn't keep up with. The lone figure continued to float in the sky until a bright blue beam sucked him up into seemingly nothingness, though the Rapidash probably knew better. A sigh escaped her lips as she turned to the Meganium. "Well, that's that, I guess. Nothing more to do than to head back."

Rubira turned around and proceeded towards Nimbasa City. He assumed Ivy would follow her, so she brought up another question that had been nagging her, "Say, what drew you towards these guys anyway? Why were you heading this way?"

Ivy replied "I just wanted to make sure they left." She kept a steady pace she did not tire herself.

"Hmm, interesting," Rubira thought out loud as the skyline of Nimbasa came into view, "Tell me, is curiosity one of your strong suits?"

Ivy shrugged. "No, not really."