//------------------------------//
// Announcement 
// Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures 
// by Snake Staff 
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The woods were as quiet as could expected in the presence of hundreds of Pokémon. Technically they had won, their enemy’s attempt at a breakout foiled before it ever got very far, but not many felt triumphant. The battle had ended too suddenly and anticlimactically, and they had little to show for their efforts but bruises and burns. As she walked in their midst Luna judged their mood sullen, at best. Still, far better than some situations she had seen. What occupied more of her attention was the sister walking beside her.

“One?” Luna repeated, in a low voice. 

“One,” Celestia nodded grimly. “Only one.”

“That is… distressing,” Luna closed her eyes, bowing her head briefly in ancient ritual.

“Whatever did it ripped trees from the ground and toppled them like they were nothing, utterly annihilating almost every Pokémon on the scene” her sister went on, after a moment of silence. “And seems to have done it all in a single strike.”

“They have been holding some manner of foulness back,” the dark alicorn concluded immediately. “A secret and final gambit for a decisive battle.”

“Perhaps…” Celestia looked up a little. “But it seems to me that such a potent weapon could have been used against us more directly.” She looked over to the towering mecha. “Perhaps to destroy that machine. The question is: why didn’t they?”

“You think they avoided using the weapon on our main force deliberately?” Luna frowned as she considered it. “But that could only mean that the entire battle was nothing more than a distraction. A ruse that their hidden weapon might break our siege for a moment.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Celestia said grimly. “Because if they would go to such trouble and risk just to let something slip by us, then it must have been of great importance.”

“Do you think it could be the missing piece? Whatever it is that they require to activate this ultimate weapon of theirs?”

“I don’t know,” the white alicorn said. “But I don’t think we’ll like the answer either.”

“Are you proposing we should launch our assault prematurely?” Luna’s already furrowed brow sunk deeper. “We have injured, and most all are tired. It would ill suit us to throw everything into a head-on attack on a fortified position and fail before our reinforcements arrive.”

“I’m unsure,” Celestia confessed. “If we do, and we lose, we could be handing the world over to Lysandre on a silver platter. But if we don’t, and it turns out that they can activate the weapon now and it is everything that they say, then we could be wiped off the face of the earth any second.”

Luna sighed heavily, her mind returning to wars long past. It had never been this difficult to make a call back then, she remembered. The enemy, whether besieged or clashing blades on an open field, had always been refreshingly simple and direct in its tactics. At stake was land, or honor, or simple revenge. No one had ever wanted to wipe out the world in some fit of apocalyptic madness. No one had so reduced sapients to mindless slaves.

Still, war always changes. And a good commander must be ready for anything. The princess of the night bit her lip, ruffled her feathers, and came to a decision.

“All severely injured fall back to the rally point!” Luna’s voice boomed out. “Those of you who can still fight, find your packs and get in formation! Every last one of you: prepare for battle!”



In the deep forest south of Geosenge Town stood row upon row of might grey stone monoliths jutting from the earth. Time and erosion had worn away most of their distinct features, leaving them little more than lumpy slabs, but an echo of their power still hung over their clearing. No trees would grow near then and no plant at all, not even the hardiest vines and moss, would grow on the ancient stone. The grove where they stood had long been shunned as a cursed place by people and Pokémon alike, and it bore no name.

But, for the first time in a long time, the clearing was now abuzz with activity. The age-old silence was broken by the sounds of hurried industry, as shining new chains were rapidly and crudely hammered into the hard rock. Dozens of dead-eyed Pokémon stared emotionlessly at men and women in bright orange clothing as lengths of chain were wound around their bodies, showing no reaction as they were quickly secured in place. All they knew was that they existed to fight and to obey, to question their masters or feel fear was now far beyond them.

Of course, even in such a place and with the enemy in disarray, such rampant commotion could not fail to attract the prying eyes of locals or enemies. Sentries, with those Pokémon whose time on the monoliths had not yet come, dealt with any creature they spotted in a swift and permanent fashion, any pretense of the formal niceties of battle long gone. A bare few free Pokémon, stealthier or quicker than their brethren, did manage to draw close enough for a look before escaping back into the trees, bearing a warning that might already be too late.



Amidst the hustle and bustle of hundreds of wild Pokémon moving about in bewildering fashion beneath a massive mecha, Clemont was on one knee, gingering applying a Super Potion to his Luxray. The blue and black Pokémon winced at the stinging stuff, but with its trainer’s hand reassuringly on its head, bit down and refused to voice its discomfort.

“You did a great job back there, buddy,” the Gym Leader said, patting his Pokémon affectionately on the head. 

“Yeah,” Bonnie agreed, smiling as Luxray’s wounds began to slowly fade. “It takes a lot of guts to take on one of the Elite Four.”

Clemont’s face fell a bit. “I still can’t believe she would do something like that,” he said. “And I still don’t understand why Lysandre is doing this.”

“I know what you mean, he always seemed so nice before,” his little sister replied, before glancing up at his backpack. “Hey, what’s up with your Holo Caster?”

“Hmmm? I set it to silent, but who would be calling at right now anyway?” Clemont reached back and pulled out the small blue device, a small light blinking to indicate a call marked as urgent. Frowning, he activated it and a holographic projection immediately appeared in front of his face. He recoiled briefly, recognizing the symbol.

“Hey guys?” Clemont did his best to make himself heard over the bark, yaps, and squawks of hundreds of wild Pokémon. “I think you’ll want to see this!”



Many miles away, over the pristine blue of the ocean, a custom jet aircraft tore through the sky at speeds just short of dangerously taxing the engines. In a finely appointed cabin just behind the cockpit, an uncommonly anxious Giovanni stared in brooding silence at a screen on the wall showing his plane’s progress and estimated arrival time. Persian was in his lap as always, but for once was not being stroked. A delectable teriyaki steak dinner sat all but untouched on a tray beside him, a drained glass of sake the only evidence he had even looked at it on the hours-long flight.

At that moment, Giovanni’s musings were interrupted by a soft knock coming from the cockpit door. The copilot gingerly stuck a small part of his head out of a crack.

“Don’t dawdle in doorways,” the Rocket boss told his subordinate without moving his eyes. “If you have something to say, come in here and say it. Otherwise, don’t waste my time.” Persian added a his to his owner’s words.

“Y-Yes sir,” the younger man hastened through, standing up straight as an arrow. “We thought you should be aware, sir, that we’re picking up a very strong signal coming from the Kalos mainland, sir.” He swallowed. “It’s being broadcast simultaneously on more than a dozen different frequencies that we’ve tried so far, sir.”

“Then cease your squirming,” Giovanni deigned to look over at him, “and play this signal for me.”

“Yes sir!” the man saluted and fled back into the cockpit.



At that same moment, all across Kalos and even beyond, every single Holo Caster in operation began buzzing, ringing, and blinking with an urgent call. Television screens went dark across the country as their signals were interrupted. In Lumiose city, massive screens attached to the sides of buildings suddenly switched images to a strange, stylized letter F. This moment had been years in the making and all the nation, whether it liked it or not, was watching.

Very shortly, the stylized letter disappeared and was replaced by a face familiar to many in the region. He bore a hard look on his face and stood in a strange red chamber surrounded by odd machinery.

“People and Pokémon of Kalos,” Lysandre began, the crimson lights shrouding parts of his face in shadows. “I come to you this day with an important announcement. Listen well.” Here he paused momentarily. “Our world has become locked in an inescapable cycle of unsustainable growth and rampant overconsumption. Unproductive fools are consuming our future. If nothing changes, the world will become a blighted, scarred wasteland and conflicts will raze the land from end to end. The great guardians of life and death, Xerneas and Yveltal, have felt it as I have, and their wrath is terrible to behold.”

Here the image panned out, revealing both of the legendary Pokemon standing behind the famous philanthropist. Hundreds of thousands of people across the region stared incredulously as what had been the domain of fairy tales suddenly became awfully, terribly real, cast in sinister shadows by the deep red lights.

“I regret to inform you all that there is only one viable solution.” Lysandre continued. “Team Flare will revive the ultimate weapon, eliminate everyone who isn’t in our group, and return the world to a beautiful, natural state.” He paused for a moment, allowing the terrible pronouncement to begin to sink in. “I repeat. We will use the ultimate weapon to wipe the slate clean.”

All across the region, surprise was swiftly turning to panic. Some people stared at screens in mute, slack-jawed horror. Others ran, screaming, in whatever direction they could find. Others dashed their Holo Casters against the ground, as if by destroying the device they could silence the message. Still more were simply too shocked to do anything, the sheer ludicrousness of what was happening half convincing their minds that it must be some sort of mistake.

“I'm truly sorry, those of you who are not members of Team Flare, but this is adieu to you all." Lysandre took a deep breath. “I suggest that you make your peace now.” The camera’s image now switched back to a pure image of his face, the legendary Pokémon gone from view. “For you’re all about to die.”

With that, the signal cut.



Back in the depths of the forest humans, alicorns, and Pokémon alike stared at the now dead Holo Caster in various shades of horrorstruck, appalled, righteously angry, and simply shocked that the madman would actually go through with it. For everything that they had seen and gone through, no one really wanted to believe that someone could actually be so crazed as to kill the world to “save” the world. Even the massing Pokémon of the forest had all but fallen silent, many straining to catch snippets of what had enthralled their leader. Even those that had heard nothing were quiet, seeming to understand just from the mood.

In the end, it was Luna who first recovered her voice.

“Forget the formations!” she screamed, and the teeming masses were shocked all the more by the sudden note of fear in their previously-indomitable leader’s voice. “Every Pokémon that can fight, we attack now!”Cha

This sent paroxysms of further shock and nervous energy through the ranks of the assembled Pokémon, and they scurried this way and that. Without waiting for anyone else to say or do anything, the dark alicorn took off and landed atop a high and sturdy-looking branch, her face rapidly contorting into a almost feral snarl.

“These cowardly curs have spilt the blood of our friends!” she roared out to the crowd. “Now they would spill the blood of the world itself!” she pounded a hoof, audibly cracking the branch almost twice as wide as herself. “Will we allow it?”

The answer was not a chant, nor a battle cry, nor even a coherent word. It came instead as a roar of noise, of hisses and growls and barks, of gnashing fangs and claws digging deep furrows in the earth. It was electricity in the air, fire in the soul. Shock became anger, fear became hatred, and the feral spirit of the wild became a cry of vengeance.

Shrieking with unrestrained fury, needing no orders, a howling pack of wild Pokémon crashed through the forest, a midnight alicorn at their fore.



Towards the rear, the humans might not have understood what was being said but the certainly grasped the intentions. Team Rocket was already piling desperately into Robo Mega Meowth and firing all engines to maximum when their holographic phone chimed wildly. Meowth hit the acceptance almost absentmindedly between fiddling with a dozen or more controls at his panel, and Giovanni’s face appeared.

“Change of plans,” he said at once, not bothering at all with the usual calm demeanor. “Attack their base of operations right now. Do whatever you can, but don’t let them start firing." Giovanni rang his hands around something. The sight of their boss' naked anxiety might have worried the trio if it had been possible to make them any more scared than they already were. "If you three idiots have a time to do anything right, let it be now.”

“We’re on it, boss!” Jessie, James, and Meowth shouted simultaneously, as the powerful robot began to move.