The afternoon sun was just beginning its long, slow descent into the orange of evening. The air was dry and warm, the breeze was mild and clean, and an avalanche of people and Pokémon was crashing through the forest at a breakneck pace. After one quick look ahead, Celosia gave a signal, then pulled hard on the handlebar breaks. Her vehicle came to a halt with a smooth and practiced ease, others of Team Flare skidding past her while attempting to control their own mounts.
Ahead of them the Houndour and Electrike had suddenly come to a halt, and it didn’t take long to figure out why. Even without her visor, Celosia could see tracks from dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Pokémon all crisscrossing one another on the forest floor. Magnification confirmed what was already obvious: several different species at a minimum, including some that ought to have been predator and prey.
Celosia stepped off her transport, too preoccupied to enjoy the chance to stretch. A couple of her saddle-sore subordinates were already doing just that, but the scientist simply knelt down for a closer look. The computer system built into her visor began analysis, and within seconds was informing her that almost all of these tracks seemed to be fairly recent. She swept it over a few other patches just to make certain, but the results came back the same. There was no clear age correlated with a particular species’ presence. Which meant that they were here at the same time, all working together.
Not good.
When she looked up again, she saw one particular dead-eyed Houndour standing there, staring patiently at her. Celosia frowned and stood back up, hands on hips.
“So, I take it this is the place they were meeting?” she asked.
Houndour nodded once.
“I see,” she turned to her henchmen. “Alright, call out your Pokémon and fan out! I want a perimeter created twenty-five yards in every direction! Keep an eye on the trees and watch out for tunnels in the ground! Lock down this area, they can’t have gone far!”
“Yes ma’am!” her grunts saluted, some more enthusiastically than others.
“Manectric!” Celosia called, and her Pokémon bounded to her side almost at once. Despite all the running, it showed no signs of exhaustion. “Get the rest of them together and get their scent and direction as best you can. They probably split up, so focus on the alien if you can find it.”
“Manec!” the blue-yellow hound answered. “Tric!”
“That’s a good girl,” Celosia smiled, and Manectric wagged her tail. “If you can find her I promise there’s something really nice in it for you.”
“Tric!” Manectric barked happily, before pressing her nose to the earth.
The next few minutes were a tense mix of anticipation and nervous energy. Doglike Pokémon wandered this way and that, trying to pick out individual scent trails amidst the mix. Flare grunt eyed the surrounding deep forests uneasily, sticking close to their Pokémon. Celosia herself paced back and forth, hands behind her back, pondering just what to do next. From the way Manectric and her cohorts were prowling a dozen different directions at once in small groups, it looked like the enemy had somehow got word of their coming and scattered to the winds.
Normally, that would be a good thing, and Celosia would happily declare victory and head home. After all, a pack of naturally contentious wild Pokémon couldn’t be expected to stand together against a united attack from Team Flare. But this creature, this Luna, had demonstrated a greater aptitude for tactics than the forest dwellers. More important, she was apparently accepted as leader by species not her own. Equally as important, she’d humiliated the scientist before her master, and right before the new world was due to be born! If she wasn’t hunted down now, vengeance would soon be forever out of Celosia’s reach. The idea of an eternal blemish on her record in the perfect new world was far too horrifying to accept.
Celosia clenched her fists. For threatening the vision of a perfect world and for threatening her station in it, Luna had to be destroyed. Or, even better, taken and made to fuel the cleansing flame with her life energy. After the debacle at the campsite, the prospect of watching a dead-eyed alien drained away to nothing as mere wood on the fire warmed the recesses of her heart.
“Tric! Tric man!” her loyal pet’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“Saddle up, ladies and gentlemen!” Celosia commanded after a few seconds, to general groans. “We have our heading!”
Several minutes of continued riding followed, Team Flare continuing to smash their way through the jungle in the wake of their hunting pack of Pokémon. Beyond the racket they themselves created, the evening forest seemed entirely still. Unnaturally so. Celosia’s visor could penetrate the trees and detect the body heat of living things out to a considerable distance, yet during the whole time she spotted not even a single Wurmple crawling on a tree.
Without warning, Manectric suddenly came to a halt. The Electrike and Houndour around it continued racing forwards, but Celosia’s personal Pokémon simply stood there in the middle of the woods, sniffing and growling. A hand signal was enough to call her lackies behind her to a halt, but she had to shout to stop the smaller hounds running any further ahead.
“What is it, girl?” the scientist asked. “What are you smelling?”
“Tric tric! Manec!” Manectric jerked her head off to the side, showing fangs. “Tric!”
“You’re saying the princess went that way?” After a nod of confirmation, Celosia went on. “But the others continued onwards?”
“Manectric!” she nodded again, a silver collar briefly visible amidst her fur.
“You think she’s alone then?”
“Manec.”
“I see…” Celosia considered that for a moment, then smirked. “Ha! Nice try, princess.”
“Ma’am?” one of her grunts asked.
“Isn’t she our objective?” another said.
“Don’t you fools get it?” the purple-haired woman chuckled. “She’s trying to pull the same trick on us twice! She’s using herself as bait, first to lure us away from the bulk of her allies, and then trying to get us to chase her into the forest by herself. She can fly, and we can’t. If we chase her by herself, she’ll be able to lead us on a merry dance through the woods, always somewhere our Pokémon can smell but out of reach. Until we run ourselves ragged and are left stranded in the middle of the forest, easy prey to be picked off bit by bit. She honestly believes that we’re that stupid! Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Why was she with Pokémon at all if all she wanted was to get us to chase her by herself?” a third grunt chimed in.
“To make it less obvious what she was doing. I’m sure she hoped we’d just mindlessly chase her tail and ignore the others heading away from her. That would give them time to disappear amidst the trees.” Celosia tapped her forehead with two fingers. “Fortunately we have me, and I’m not going to be fooled by the same ploy twice.”
“Then what do we do, ma’am?”
“Do I have to explain everything to you people?” she sighed. “If she wants us to chase her and ignore the others, instead of the other way around, what does that tell you about her?”
“That… she cares about them?” one grunt guessed.
“Exactly,” Celosia grinned. “And we can use that to our advantage. Manectric! Electrike! Houndour!”
A chorus of growls and barks answered her words, her own Pokémon foremost among them.
“Ignore the alien! Follow the trail of the other Pokémon!” Celosia pointed. “Ready the Dark Balls, we’re taking them alive!”
It took perhaps another twenty minutes of hard riding through the thick forests. Team Flare’s quarry knew the lands far better than they did and did their best to weave through terrain that would be difficult for their mechanical steeds. All the same, the humans were ably assisted by strong runners as mounts and pack predators well adapted for long chases themselves. They closed the distance slowly but surely, until at last Celosia caught sight of a dark purple Pokemon slipping away into a distant bush.
“Manectric, Thunder Wave now!” she ordered.
Her Pokémon howled triumphantly as she unleashed several pulses of electrical energy. These bright yellow rings seared away the brush on the first two strikes, while the third took the scampering Pokémon from behind. It cried out in terror as its muscles seized up and it fell to the ground, paralyzed.
“Stunky, eh?” Celosia made a sour expression. “Dark Ball that thing before it ruins my perfume!”
One of her grunts obligingly tossed a black ball at the helpless creature. It hurdled through the air, almost making it before a glob of vile-smelling fluid struck it from nowhere. The delicate technology, already half-melted from Acid Spray, smashed itself to fragments on a nearby rock instead.
“S-Stun…” the Pokémon on the ground moaned.
“Stunky. Ky!” another, deeper voice said as a second one stepped from amidst the undergrowth. “Ky!”
“Stun stun!” agreed a third voice.
Celosia watched with distaste as several more Stunky emerged from the amidst the forest, bounding back towards their downed friend. They stood protectively over the paralyzed Pokémon, tails high and faces masks of determination. Several hissed and spat or raked the ground with their paws.
“Stunky…” the downed one whimpered with tears in its eyes. “K-Ky!”
“Stun,” another replied, sounding resigned.
“Aw, no mon left behind, is that it?” Celosia clasped her hands together and batted her eyelashes. “That kind of dedication… it just brings tears to my poor jaded eyes!”
“Really?” one of her slower subordinates asked. “I can’t see your eyes.”
“No, you idiot!” she snapped at him, then returned her attention to the Pokémon packs. “Manectric, Electrike! Thunder Wave all together!”
The Stunky opened their mouths at the same time Team Flare’s Pokémon were charging up. As one, they unleashed a cloud of greenish-black, toxic, rancid-smelling gasses at their enemies. They were consumed by it all but immediately, and the Electric-types were left firing blind into the midst of it. Unfortunately, however heroic the gesture they were outnumbered more than three to one and their attackers already had a vague idea of their locations.
Celosia held her breath and pinched off her nose as the foul-smelling cloud washed over the lot of them. She could hear her subordinates and their Pokémon coughing and retching all around her, and her skin crawled at it. Nonetheless, the attack didn’t last long and all it took was a mild breeze to dissipate it. The scientist took a deep breath, then immediately pinched her nose tight again. There was no gentle way of putting it – she stank, and so did everything else.
Her anger was only partly sated by the sight of all the Stunky lying in the dirt, struggling to move despite the paralysis. They were given no such chance. She pointed, and her now-putrid minions tossed yet more of their Dark Balls at them. This time, there was no one left to defend them. One by one, they were dragged inside to have their minds stolen.
But Celosia wasn’t done yet. The princess couldn’t have simply left them to run off on their own and hide – in a forest this large, there might be no way to find to find them ever again. If she wanted to reassemble her split forces in a timely manner, there had to be some way of getting into contact with each other quickly. Since they didn’t have technology, there could only be one way…
There!
Her visor, again set to detect heat, zeroed in on a small Pokémon huddled amidst a tree’s branches, well concealed by leaves. Smirking, she leveled a finger at its location. Almost immediately, Manectric unleashed another Thunder Wave. A moment later, a Spearow came tumbling down onto the forest floor. One of her grunts held up a Dark Ball, but she restrained him with a simple gesture.
Celosia hopped off of her vehicle, finally enjoying the opportunity to stretch. After a moment of relieving her sore legs, she walked calmly over to where the Stunky had made their brief and futile stand and picked up a Dark Ball at random. Still pinching the bridge of her nose against the overpowering reek, she made her way over to the stunned Pokémon. She towered over Spearow, idly tossing and catching the black orb with one hand.
“Useful little things, these,” she told it, almost conversationally. “Did you know that they instantly render any Pokémon absolutely obedient to any order whatsoever? They haven’t the slightest regard even for their own lives.”
Spearow twitched and groaned, terror etched clearly on its features.
“It’s true,” Celosia said, tossing the Dark Ball into the air. “Here, let me show you!”
A flash of dark energy brought one of the Stunky back into being. It stared down at its former comrade with a totally passive, soulless expression.
“Stay there and do absolutely nothing until I give the order,” she told it, putting away the Dark Ball for a more normal red and white orb.
When the second ball opened, it brought out a massively-oversized purple scorpion in a flash of silver light. Celosia pointed at Stunky, and her Drapion laid a single claw on its back, easily the size of the smaller Pokémon’s head. The dead-eyed captive didn’t react in the slightest.
“If you want to avoid that fate, you’re going to deliver a message from me to your leader. Understand?”
Spearow could only manage a weak nod.
“That’s a good Pokémon,” Celosia smirked. “Now then, I’m going to use a Paralyze Heal on you in just a moment, and you’re going to fly back to your dear Luna and tell her that she’s going to come and meet me. We’ll be waiting right here for her. She will come, alone, and face me. Woman to alien. If she defeats me, then I’ll allow all these poor Pokémon I just caught to go free.” She paused, then shrugged. “What the heck, I’ll even throw in that Houndour I caught during her raid and all the others we have here in Dark Balls. Aren’t I generous?”
There was total silence.
“Buuuut…” Celosia held up a finger. “There is a catch. For every hour that she doesn’t show up, one of these poor dears…” she reached down and patted the unresponsive Stunky softly on the head. “Will be very sorry. Get the idea?”
Spearow, staring up at her with wide eyes, nodded its head as best it could.
“Excellent!” Celosia stood up, placing a hand on her hip.
"Is directly challenging her wise, ma'am?" one of her grunts asked. "I heard that she's really strong."
"Oh, don't you worry," Celosia pulled back one of her sleeves, exposing a delicate-looking gold chain around her wrist, a beautiful rainbow gemstone hanging in its center. "Master Lysandre gave me just what I need to take her down a notch."
"Is that..." the woman gasped but was ignored.
“Before you go though," the scientist returned her attention to the Spearow, "one last demonstration. Drapion?”
“Drap,” it nodded.
“Show Spearow here that we mean it.”