bravenewworld | The Queen of the Citadel

[The feed from the Warp Band flickers and focuses briefly on the face of an unhappy looking young man with his hands bound behind his back before it rotates back around. A severe looking woman is seated upon what seems to be a throne...]

What a curious device. I can see the use though. Am I speaking to the people of Union and Caldera? I am Frea, Matriarch of the Valkyrie tribes of the Citadel. Some of my girls said you gave them a run for their money. Good. It keeps them on their toes.

Anyway, here’s the deal. I've got… about twenty of your people. They’re getting a bit homesick and I don’t really want to keep them. Fact of the matter is, I've got a bit of a situation and they were ripe targets with all that food they were carrying. There’s an enormous Pokémon that’s been thrashing around our territory and burning just about everything it can get to. It’s driving the game away and has messed up a few of our tribes already. My people need food, and this sucker doesn't seem keen on leaving. So here’s my thought. First, I’ll return your people and their equipment to you. Can’t give back the food, already got eaten, sorry about that. If you can help us drive off this Pokémon, though, we can work it off. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, you know how it goes. We've got some things you guys might find interesting and valuable, but I can’t exactly part with any of it while I have an enormous monster of flame and steel beating down my door. Sound good?

[Those who have penetrated far enough into the Rolling Plains have made visual contact with something interesting. Far to the north at the end of the plains, there is a single tree, enormous in size. Frequent flocks of large flying types with mounted female riders can be seen coming to and fro, and the more keen-eyed among you can see that there appears to be an entire city built into the tree. The tree itself, clearly this “Citadel” Frea mentioned, seems to touch the sky, not even fully visible due to the cloud cover.]

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I think I can speak for all of Union when I say that we really wish you hadn't stripped that Councilor when you robbed him. We really could have done without seeing a naked, overweight old man.

You know, my girls expressed the exact same regret.

[She smiles faintly]

I'll keep it in mind.

[she shrugs]

We're not really great at dealing with Steel types.

I take it they were in desperate need of impractical clothing at the time?

Piracy with Flying-types? It's brilliant. Can't believe I never thought of it.

[She seems more interested in helping her people than causing problems. He can see that, so he smiles back at her. She's probably a good person, just a little rough around the edges. He's got a few friends like that.]

Good! Now, you've got a pokémon problem huh? Well, don't worry, I'm sure we can take care of that for you so no one has to go hungry or be attacked by it. You guys weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, were you?

Did anything else unusual happen around the same time it appeared?

We've gone over it but nothing we can tell, it just showed up angry one day.

If we were, we can't figure out what we did. It just showed up and started thrashing around our territory.

He kept screaming about how they couldn't do this to him. They took it as a challenge.

What else would you use? I can't think of anything else as fast or flexible.

Down south on the ocean you can get pretty good speed out of a ship or even a Water-type if you know what you're doing. The larger ones can even carry weaponry that would weigh too much for a bird.

[She then remembers this is technically broadcast to anyone in Union's Warp network who wanted to access it.]

Not that I ever engaged in any uncouth raiding practices or anything of that sort.

Well, I'm sure I can see the advantages. I'm not familiar with the people of the south, if you're in the area you'll have to... tell us more.

[ Haruka smirks. Sure, now you're honest. ]

We can't make promises. And don't try this again.

Well, we'll have to check it out then. I'm sure one of us will be able to figure out what's wrong. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be able to sort it out, I promise.

I think we could learn a lot from each other. Maybe I'll stop by sometime if your place doesn't get burnt down.

[There's a soft snort, and his smile is audible in his voice.]

Never bet anything you aren't willing to lose. He would've learned that if he'd started at the bottom instead of near the top.

I'm sure he's learned a thing or two from this. Maybe it'll even stick.

[And yet their raids were still pretty cleverly done.]

I see. We'll do what we can to help. Some of our Enlightened are able to speak and understand Pokemon fluently, so we'll have someone ready to try reasoning with it and fighters ready in case talking to it fails.

Have you tried talking to it?

We'll try our best to keep that from becoming the case.

It's not terribly responsive, not that many of us are good at talking to Pokemon anyway.

It doesn't seem terribly conversational but if that works I'm not complaining.

I certainly hope so.

If you're lucky. He's your leader, not mine.

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The Queen of the Citadel

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