Not so far outside the quiet little town of Geosenge, a Fearow sat high on a tree branch. Concealed by the thick foliage, it watched, irritable and bored, as the humans below went about their business. Keen eyes built for spotting prey from high in the sky worked equally as well for spying on this “Team Flare” from a considerable distance. The problem was that they weren’t doing anything particularly interesting.
Since Fearow and its Spearow helpers had arrived, all they had seen was a bare handful of these odd humans with their bright red-orange clothing simply walking around. There weren’t nearly as many present as there had been when the flock first arrived, and all they seemed to be doing was walking around a rock formation in broad loops. They were nowhere even close to where the bird Pokémon were nestled, so there was little risk despite the humans’ constant scanning the skies.
Fearow grumbled irritably at the many long hours of forced inaction. Its kind weren’t built for stealth – they took what they wanted and strutted where they willed. What made it worse is that every time it saw one of those wretched uniforms, it recalled seeing what the humans’ flock-mates had done to its fellows, and then what they had done to it. Its chest still ached from receiving a point-blank Thundershock in the brief engagement. Anger simmered inside of it.
“We ought to be fighting them,” one Spearow gave voice to its grumbles. “Since when does the flock just let anyone attack it and get away?”
“Yeah,” another muttered. “They’re all alone in the forest. We could pick them off one by one.”
“Quiet,” Fearow held up a wing.
“Why? You ain’t ‘mon enough to-”
“You challenging me?” Fearow glared down at the smaller bird, who immediately flinched and then shook its head. “That’s what I thought. Now quiet.”
An hour passed. Then another. Then still another, and nothing was happening. The Spearow began to grow more restless. Fearow silenced their chattering when it came up, but in truth knew just what they were coming from. This was boring and pointless. Why were they sitting here when it was obvious the humans wouldn’t do anything major unless their nest was disturbed?
It was only after they had been sitting there well into the night hours that there finally came a rumble of movement from the rock formation the humans had been guarding. As Fearow watched, one of the massive slabs of stone slid slowly into the earth, revealing a metal tunnel behind. Five small vehicles soon zipped out at a surprising speed, each bearing a single human on its back.
“Hey, wake up!” Fearow whispered to its cohorts, waving a wing in their faces to dispel sleep. “One of you, get ready to fly back to Lady Luna.”
“It’s night, I don’t wanna,” one Spearow moaned.
“Too bad.”
The four-wheeled, roofless vehicles handled the off-road terrain better than any other ground-bound human contraption that Fearow had ever seen. They ate up the rocky ground like it was nothing, driving southwest along the same forest the Pokémon were perched in. As they grew closer, they could make out more of the features of the riders. Four were men and women dressed in the same red suit and hairstyles all the humans outside the base seemed to be wearing, though one was wearing what looked to be some kind of dress outfit and a visor across her face. Twin blue lights emerged from it right about where her eyes would have been.
The humans came closer and closer to where the Pokémon were. The other four seemed mostly concentrated on the path ahead, but the woman with the visor kept sweeping her gaze in all directions. It was when her gaze finally fell on their exact hiding spot that she held up one hand, and all five vehicles pulled to a surprisingly fast stop. The apparent leader’s in particular swerved as it braked so it directly faced the bird Pokémon.
“Well, what do we have here?” her voice was sharp and clear, tinged with an easily confidence. “Little birdies far from the nest? Or maybe… spies?”
“Should we run?” one of the Spearow whispered.
Fearow glared down. There were only five of them. And they were so far from help. And no Fearow worth their feathers would ever decline a challenge.
“No,” it whispered back.
Fearow rose up to its true height and flared its wings, then shrieked in challenge. The Spearow around it flapped up to surround their leader, adding their screeching voices to the mix.
“So you do want to come out and play?” she smirked. “Weavile and Houndoom, let’s have a little warm up.”
She tossed two red and white balls into the air, and in twin bursts of silver light her Pokémon appeared. One was a horned black dog with red muzzle and underbelly and a pointed tail. The other was a short, humanoid black creature with a prominent red crest atop its head. It didn’t take long for Fearow to weight the odds: eight on two.
With another piercing cry, Fearow swept down from its perch, silver energy of Aerial Ace trailing behind it. Seven Spearow flocked in its wake, beaks shining with energy of their own.
“Show them how it’s done, ladies!” the woman commanded. “Weavile, Ice Shard!”
The smaller black Pokémon leapt into the air, ice crystals already taking shape about her body. As Fearow came soaring in, beak-first, Weavile launched a dozen fist-sized chunks of ice straight for its face. The bird nimbly dodged most of them, but one struck its wing and a second its neck, sending it hurdled backwards. The seven Spearow almost immediately mobbed it as it fell back to earth, sharp beaks pummeling the squirming Ice-type from all directions.
“Weavile, use Protect!”
Weavile’s arms tucked over its chest, and legs tucked over its arms. A bubble of turquoise energy enveloped the Pokémon as she hit the earth, almost immediately engulfed by Spearow.
“Now Houndoom, Flamethrower!”
The doglike Pokémon opened her mouth wide and sprayed a torrent of bright red flames all over the struggling opponents. Weavile was safe under her protective barrier. The Spearow, not so lucky, squawked as the cone of fire burned at their feathers. They rose quickly into the air, flapping hard as they could to escape the pain.
“Use Icy Wind!”
Weavile’s protection faded as she regained her feet. Looking upwards with a vengeful smirk, she spread her arms wide and a wide blast of freezing wind laced with ice particles blasted into the small birds as a wide cone. Spearow were flung in all directions like leaves in a hurricane.
“Houndoom, finish Fearow off with Sludge Bomb!”
Houndoom opened her jaws wide a second time, unleashing a dozen black and purple blobs of poisonous slime. Still struggling to rise from the super-effective Ice Shard, the massive bird was in no position to dodge as they pelted it one after the other. Fearow toppled over backwards, barely able to so much as breathe through the toxic miasma now emanating from the goo stuck fast to its feathers.
“We could always use another aerial scout,” it vaguely heard the woman say.
The last thing Fearow saw was a grey and black orb flying through the air.
“And you’ve confirmed this?” Lysandre asked, fingering a fine crystal bordeaux glass. “There is no question?”
“None, sir,” Celosia, the purple-haired woman on his computer, answered. “The images are of admittedly poor quality, but eyewitness accounts from our grunts confirm the unmistakable similarities.”
Her face vanished momentarily. In place was a hazy image of a distant figure, taken through the smoke and flash of a battlefield, but the profile was nonetheless as unmistakable as promise. It had the general form of the other two dimensional interlopers – alicorns, they had been called – but considerably darker. There were a number of Spearow and Fearow surrounding it, further obscuring the details, but overall Rapidash-like form paired with wings could not be denied. After a few seconds, the image vanished and Celosia’s face reappared.
“So if I am to understand the situation,” Lysandre said, idly studying the gold inlays on his glass all the while, “this Pokémon attacked two of our agents, released the Pokémon they had captured, somehow knew to demand details of Dark Balls, and then proceeded to chase the both of them more than a mile and half with a flock of Spearow and Fearow? Upon arrival at our base, it briefly engaged our outer defenses, then retreated with its allies when outnumbered, correct?”
“That is the situation as best we understand it, sir,” Celosia nodded.
“I believe we can safely identify the culprit here as one Luna, sister to the white creature Celestia,” Lysandre informed her. “Our friend mentioned the meddlesome interloper had a darker sister by that name, though she failed to tell me that she had fallen to our plane of existence as well.”
“Perhaps she wasn’t aware.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps she simply lied in order to conceal the presence of her friend.” He shrugged. “It matters little either way.”
“Sir?”
“Consider the facts. She and her followers had two of our agents effectively subdued, then attacked them, but not so effectively as to actually prevent them from running more than a mile in panic. Does that sound like a typical Spearow attack to you? They are known for being easily-provoked and vengeful, not sadistic.”
“So, you think she let them go?”
“So that they could lead her to us? Yes, that is what I believe. I suppose you could argue that it was a simple coincidence,” Lysandre took a sip of his wine, an expensive and exquisite red of a rare vintage. “But I don’t believe in coincidences. I think that she means to oppose us, and this little skirmish was just a way of locating our base and testing our defenses. I would be very surprised if we have seen the last of her.”
“Is she a threat?” Celosia asked.
“Isn’t that obvious? Her sister displays unusual amounts of power, it’s very likely she has access to similar abilities. And she appears to be in opposition to us and have attained a following amongst local Pokémon. I don’t care for the implications of that at all, especially not when we’re so close.”
“What should we do, sir?”
“Simple.” Lysandre took another swallow of wine. “Locate this princess, and bring her around to our way of thinking.”
“As you wish.”
“Very good. Dismissed.” Lysandre tapped a key, and Celosia’s face vanished from the screen.
The entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist took a moment to drain his glass rather more quickly than he should have. He sighed, then idly considered that since none of the makers of this particular vintage were in Team Flare, it was probably the last bottle he would ever have. Then, vaguely annoyed with himself for even considering that at all next to far greater sacrifices he must endure, tapped a few more keys. It took almost a minute for the call to connect this time.
“Lysandre?” the face of Kalos’ Pokémon League Champion, Diantha, appeared and yawned. “It’s late, couldn’t this wait until morning?”
“My apologies. My schedule frequently forces me to keep unusual hours,” he said with a slightly self-depreciating smile. “I had only recently heard that you had accepted the invitation to Johto as keynote speaker for their fifteenth International Film Conference, and I had wanted to offer my congratulations before you left in the morning.”
“Well… thanks?” she still sounded sleepy.
“I know we’d had our differences lately, and I just wanted to apologize if I seemed overly combative when last we met. I didn’t want you heading overseas thinking I thought anything but the best of you.”
“Apology accepted,” Diantha said. “You know, I’d heard Lysandre Labs was taking a major sponsoring role in this year’s conference. There wouldn’t be any truth to that, would there?”
“There are always rumors, you of all people should know how that goes,” he answered with another smile.
“Uh huh,” she sounded unconvinced. “And I only received a keynote invitation after we had our little argument in the café. You wouldn’t have pulled any strings just to say you’re sorry, would you?”
“Who, me?” he said in an innocent tone. “I’m almost offended you would think that little of me.”
“But you’re not denying it either,” she noted slyly. “Well, on the off chance you did, I suppose I should say thanks.”
“I still say it was a choice made entirely on merit. But I hope you enjoy it all the same.”
“Thanks,” she yawned again. “It’s still late, so…”
“Don’t worry,” he smiled. “I won’t keep you any longer. Pleasant dreams and a safe flight.”
“Goodbye,” she said. “And goodnight.”
The screen went blank again.
“Yes,” Lysandre said quietly. “Goodbye, old friend.”