AETHER VS. ULTRA

[indigo_league]

Who: The Aether Foundation, the Ultra Beasts, and YOU!
Where: Aether Headquarters on the Sevii Islands.
When: October 30th-31st, immediately after the Emergency News Bulletin
Summary: Showdown at the Aether HQ! The Ultra Beasts have found what they were looking for...
Rating: PG for action violence.
Log:


If there's one thing that can be said about several weeks straight of chaos, it's made the general response-time of rescue teams and emergency services across Johto and Kanto alike extremely quick. Within moments of the urgent news bulletin regarding the Aether HQ going live, relief efforts start taking off from every feasible point. With volunteers eager to watch the Aether Foundation go down in flames help any way they can hopping on board with the rescue forces, aid is coming, and fast.

... But not as fast as them.

At the exact moment of the broadcast, almost as though heralded by some unknown frequency, every Ultra Beast in land, sea, or sky drops whatever they're doing and turns their heads (or... headlike appendages, in most cases) to the south. And then they'll take off, pausing ONLY if they happen to have befriended a human or two over the weeks. These ones will gesture-- beckoning, dancing, even dabbing (because you KNOW at least one person taught one to dab)-- anything at all that they may have picked up throughout the month in order to communicate with the "aliens" they've met in this world.

Wherever they're headed, they want their strange allies to come with them.

And, if their invitation is accepted, they will sweep a trainer or two right off their feet and shoot off for the Sevii Islands.

_______

The temporary Aether Foundation HQ, a rather advanced building considering it went up in a matter of weeks after they first arrived that year-and-a-half-or-so ago, sits on the water's edge with its floating Pokemon sanctuary (which many consider to be the Foundation's crown jewel) neatly attached.

It's normally a pretty peaceful place, with volunteers coming and going as they please. While no small amount of property damage and general chaos has gone down on the mainland over the course of October, at no point had the marauding Beasts launched a concentrated, or indeed deliberate-seeming, attack against any one location at all.

This is clearly no longer the case.

An explosion sends billowing smoke (and a fancy white golf-cart) high into the air above the palm trees surrounding the building. Local islanders and wild Pokemon spill onto the beach to escape what has seemingly become an all-out warzone between Aether agents and Ultra Beasts of all shapes and sizes...

But while there is definitely fighting going on, taking a closer look will tell anyone that the Beasts are focused mainly on the building... and not just destroying it, either. The battering they're delivering seems to be with the intent to find a way inside, only stopping to attack humans and Pokemon who try to get in the way.

But why?

What's in there?

Whatever it is... those Aether agents who haven't already fled aren't keen to let anyone, human or Ultra Beast, too close!



[Happy Halloween! See the updated info post for more info... and comment below to join the fray...]

Comments

[sassymaru]

Mere volunteers, and yet they defend this place as strongly as if they were a security force of their own.

[He'd be more inclined to agree if, you know, these people weren't throwing out pokemon battles left and right. Mostly, Shadowmaru has been staying out of them, which his Venipede does not appreciate.]

Have you another suggestion for getting them clear of the building?

[schachmeister]

I don't think they are protecting the building as much as the pokemon they are taking care of. And considering the way those creatures are acting, I'm not sure they are wrong to.

[Armin didn't bond with any of the ultra beasts, so his only real experiences with them are needing to battle them. As such, he isn't as trusting of them as some of the other people here are.]

We should try talking to them. Explain why we are here. And we should probably find a way to get those creatures from focussing on the dome. Whatever problem they have with the Foundation, it can't be with those pokemon inside the dome.

[Armin has a sobble, ok. Artie couldn't hurt a fly. Which makes Armin feel that whatever the beasts are trying to achieve, they are taking out their misplaced anger on the collected Sobble, Scorbunny and Grooky.]

[sassymaru]

This is not the first time the creatures have attacked, is it?

[He thinks he remembers it -- he knows it happened at the camping adventure. But he'd stayed mostly topside. Ghosts were fine in pokemon form, but there were potentially other spirits he didn't want to encounter.]

[For a moment, he pauses, his expression clouding.]

I have no pokemon powerful enough to -- [His Venipede leaps from his shoulder, dramatically. Starting to trundle toward the action.] ... I will reiterate. I have no pokemon powerful enough to take on those creatures, even for a distraction.

[As he reaches down to snag up his Venipede in one hand.]

[schachmeister]

No, there have been at least two other occasions.

[And Armin had the dubious luck of being present for both of those events.]

That's all right. I think I can try and do something about that. Do you think you could try talking to the employees? Convince them we mean no harm and there is no waste time fighting us. Or, if that won't work, try talking to some of the other trainers? Anyone you might know.

[sassymaru]

My dear Armin. Are you requesting I use my charm and wit to assist the situation?

[Venipede looks like it wants to punch something. While Shadowmaru bows.]

I would be delighted. Consider it done!

[schachmeister]

[That is... how does he even deal with that? How does anyone deal with this?]

Uhm. All right. I'll leave it up to you then.

[sassymaru]

Never fear.

I shall not let you down, my dear Armin.

[... yeah he's still doing that. Just ignore him. It's what his Pokemon do when he gets embarrassing.]