PTA: Heralds of a New Dawn (IC)

[MesiDoomstalker]

The screen flits to a page with a bunch of numerical figures. Several, about half a dozen, are highlighted and zoomed in. The amounts are huge. ^560,000,000, ^1,200,000,00, ^320,000,000, ^96,000,000, ^301,000,000, ^745,000,000. All to the same place. Pokemon League Cares: Support fund for abandoned Growlithe Pups. As you can see, Devon wasn't too good at hiding their support. If you like, you can search for the charity online. You won't find it. I don't think exposing this will do much, they will create the charity before it gets called into question.

The screen flits again to images of four men, one of which you recognize as Steven Stone. Next to him is an older man who looks somewhat like Steven. The other two men, who seem to be twins, have angular faces and a serious demanor. You may recognize former Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone. Next to him is his father, Aldoulfus Stone. Aldoulfus is reigning CEO. After Steven relieved his position, he took up the VP seat. The other two men, the twins, are the head researchers for Devon, William and Stan Alterin. We have recordings of these four men discussing secret deals with League officials. Not inherently illegal, but bad for publicity. Agian, we can't expose this, you'll have to show how you found the info to be credible.

Again the screen flits to maps of Unova, Sinnoh and Hoenn, circling a few locations in each. Devon has complete market dominance in Sinnoh and Hoenn, and thats where the majority of their major production lines and facilities are, but there are a few such faciliities here in Unova. Each circled area is zoomed in for a moment, noting location and what was there.

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Hoenn:
Rustboro City: Home Office, Pokeball production line
Slateport: Shipyard
Mauville: New power plant, powers most of Hoenn, Game Corner
Fallabor: Annette’s Lab (Funded)
Lavardige: Hot spring spa and resort
Lilycove: Department Store, Grand Contest Hall, Docks (former Aqua hideout)
Mossdeep: Steven’s home, Space Center

Sinnoh:
Jubilife: Global Trade Center (cooperative with Silph), Poketch (subsidiary) home office and factory, Trainer School (funded)
Oreburgh: Oreburgh Mining Company (subsidiary)
Hearthome: Grand Contest Hall, Amity Square (Funded) and Cultural Center (Funded), TM factory
Veilstone: Department Store, Game Corner, Former Galactic Headquarters (for sale), Shipyard
Pastoria: Great Marsh Project (Founded and Funded)
Iron Island: Oreburgh Mining Company: Iron Island Branch
Sunnyshore: Sinnoh Solar Works
Not in a city: Valley Windworks, Feugo Ironworks
Battle Frontier (Hoenn and Sinnoh)

Unova:
Striaton City: Fennel’s Dream Smoke Laboratory and Dreamyard (funded and rebuilding)
Castelia: Many office buildings, shipyard, Main Potion Line
NImbasa: Theme Park, Musical Theatre, Big Stadium, Small Court
Driftveil: Cold Storage
Mistralton: Airfield (owned by Skyla, but Devon has stake in it)

[Gaekub]

Vladmir flips open the folder, searching for the sheet of numbers that had been shown on the screen. If he finds it, he circles the sets of numbers that had been highlighted on the screen, and then dog ears the page for later reference.

[BluesEclipse]

Nodding at the information given, Aidan says, "So we'd have to catch them ourselves in order to have anything viable to reveal..." he says, more to himself than anyone else. Looking around the table, he says, "What if we arranged the creation of the charity ourselves, through a third party, and then went public? Would it be feasible to back them into a corner that way?"

[MintyNinja]

"You know," Donny begins, "Veilstone City has quite a few targets. We could rob the Game Corner, drop the sales in the Dept. Store, and really ruin the Shipyard. One fell swoop and we drop three of Devon's eggs." He starts considering their schedule. They have a month. That's enough time to do some scouting, track some escape routes, and maybe even acquire more intel.

[IrnBruAddict]

When Ennis reads the files, she notices she has the other 4 in her file, so she immediately takes Donny's once he's finished with in and reads what they have on her. Her past with Aqua was gone, but after Rayquaza calling her a Sea Bringer, at least a few of them should have their suspicions. But she was gad her name wasn't on the document. That was one secret she would rather keep hidden. Also, if they had a faked file on her, she most likely had a faked file on the rest. Not everyone here was what they seemed.

'I think you are getting a little bit ahead of yourself Sabrina. "Here are your files, we know all about you,so go out and risk your lives for our ideals." And what pray tell do we get for risking our lives on these missions? I'm not an idealist, I don't do stuff for free. And I'm guessing Snag boy is the same. He's only joining you cos he hates the Rangers, not the League. And don't get me started on the silent ninja over there.Only the doc and the hotshot mystic have real reasons for working with you. How do you know you can trust us?' She takes a drag of her cigarette.

'Hell, the only reason I even came and considered joining the rebellion was on the off chance of taking on a Dragon Master.' I'll assume you are listening in on my thoughts Sabrina. The fact that the route we took happened across Rayquaza's domain, and I just so happened to be given a task, and the best people to help me are you guys, forcing me to join your group. Does it not look a bit too ... convenient? Is Rayquaza on your side, or did you just use your powers and know that this would happen if I met him? And it goes without saying that if I work for you I expect some Rebellion help tracking down Kyougre and Groudon.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Ennis

First off, Rayquaza's domain is the entire sky. Its impossible to avoid it if we travel by plane. And second, I don't have any precognitive abilities. And we will see about getting help locating them, but you'll have to tell the higher ups first.

Everyone

You'll be payed handsomely Ms. Martillo, among other rewards. As for trusting you... well if you can trust us, we can trust you. I believe we can make it worth each of your whiles to continue working with us. We have the resources to hunt down and destroy Snagger tech that Mr. Lucernce so dispises. With training and our support, Mr. Green can confront his father's killer. And you, Ms. Martillo. We can assist you in many ways. First and foremost, we have excellent catalogues of Dragon sightings across the world. Help us, and you have access to them. Second, we have no true Dragon Master on our side. By simply allying with us, you'll have every single one to hunt down and defeat. And they will gladly take your challenge. And those are the tip of the iceberg. Do well, and you'll have facilities here to do with as you please. Labratories, training simulators, the works. Now tell me, are you not enticed now, Ms. Martillo?

[IrnBruAddict]

'All the Dragon Masters in the world against me, a girl who isn't even a fully fledged Dragon Tamer yet? Sounds fun.' Ennis licks her lips. 'Since Cynthia lost, that means she's gone downhill. Lance is now the number one in the world, I refuse to think Bruno is stronger than Lance. So, I suppose if Blue is Mr Green's target, then Lance and the other Dragon Masters are mine.'

'I'm liking you more and more Sabrina!'

[Gaekub]

"Vhy are you being so delicate Sabrina?" the doctor asks, slumping over the table with his chin cradled in one hand. "You're leaving out a very important detail. Ve vere all seen at that riot. Ve vere all invited by the league, something I'm sure the rangers are avare of. Vhich means ve all just had var declared on us."

He looks around the table gloomily. "Before, when the league was controlled by the Aura Guardians, they vould have been content to let us go on as long as ve didn't commit any crimes. Do you really think Bruno vill offer the same mercy?"

[MesiDoomstalker]

I'm glad you asked Doctor. We have wiped your identities from the systems. The Trainer Registry, Criminal records, Birthdates. All gone. You don't exist. Its an extra precaution. And yes, we expect Bruno to be much more aggressive. Thats what we have grunt soldiers for. You are free to recreate yourselves in the records, I suggest you do so before hitting a Center. They'll pick you up as unregistered trainers, which won't look good. We are hoping, with your help and other teams like yours, that we will get a descisive first strike, crippingly them before they can fully mobolize.

[IrnBruAddict]

Ennis sighs. Well, the identity Ennis Martillo never even really existed. So it should be easy to at least keep the name.

'So, can we get a list of allied Gym leaders? Did Winnona and Tate get here okay?'

[MintyNinja]

"Donny Green is an alias already. You probably erased Donald van Gerven from all those records, eh?" Donny asks. He'd been running around as Donny Green for only a few months, not actually in the system. Now he could actually get some 'legal' registration for the name. It felt like another step towards Blue, making his own identity more permanent.

[Gaekub]

The doctor stares at Sabrina for a moment, and then arches his eyebrows slightly, attempting to get her attention. Is Kyle Stanley still in the system? he thinks at her.

[BluesEclipse]

Aidan shrugs, hearing about the identity wipe, and says, "Well, it doesn't matter much to me either way. Even if we develop new cover identities for ourselves, we wouldn't want to openly use those with whatever we do anyway, so we'd need to come up with some alternatives... here's a question for you though, Sabrina. I know most people here haven't really followed events in Orre, so how much do you think the Rangers and the League would know about members of CIPHER? Because if they don't have the info, it might work to masquerade as some of their people when we do whatever it is we do here."

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Tarna had been silent all this time, though with the number of near death experiences it wasn't so surprising. She chose this moment to make an effort and summon her courage.

"Well, I don't know much about stocks, but I don't think going for Steven Stone would be a good idea. But if his dad is getting old, then maybe we could do something there." They must know about her training, well that and the whole Skyla incident: she hoped that they didn't overestimate her arson abilities.

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"Would we be able to impare the company if the CEO became ill? Or worse?"

[BluesEclipse]

Raising an eyebrow at the girl, Aidan says, "While I can see it working, it's an operation that would need a lot of planning and a lot of support, I'd expect. Especially now... they'll probably have enough security to make a direct attack on any VIPs impractical." Thinking for a moment, he looks at Sabrina and Maron, and says, "The only real help we can expect on this is the dropoff? Or are there any supplies or other resources you can provide?"

[MesiDoomstalker]

The Ranger's records only have info on any Cipher activity in League territories, which as you can suspect, is minimal. As for other support, we can spare ^10,000 each for starting funds and if you tell us where your heading we can alert our moles to your plans and they can help.

[IrnBruAddict]

Ennis looks again at the places Devon owns. One stood out to her as a bit strange.

'Is Byron back yet? Well, him and the others. There is something I'd like to ask him.'

[MesiDoomstalker]

He should be... right outside. Sabrina says with a smirk as the door swings open. Standing in the light of the hallway is a tall, gruff figure, shovel slung over his shoulder. Wha'd ya want chicky?

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Tarna defers to Aidan, already embarrassed and realising that she wasn't going to be able to add anything to the plan, her only real success (as the Rebellion would see it) was a complete accident.
"Oh, of course." She muttered in response, "So, then, we go with your thing I guess. I'm good with that, I've er, got a bit of experience with arson." she adds at the end, hoping the mystery might serve to save her reputation after her only comment was shot down almost instantly.

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Read the plan on the pad, I'm ready to go with that.

[IrnBruAddict]

Ennis slaps the defeated looking Ninja on the back. 'Nah, it's a good plan. But not something we can do. If we could, it'd work. Best way to destabilize them. But we don't have the resources. Don't worry though, we'll have plenty of people to kill later... probably.'

She goes over to the large miner. 'I've been looking over the targets, and Iron Island makes no sense. They own the mining works there, right? And you are chief miner. You, a known rebel. That and the Riley kid too, his name is famous from there, right?'

'Considering Devon are listed as owning the shipyard of Veilstone, but not Canalave shipyard, it gets even stranger. Canalave is the only way to get in and out the island. So why are the league leaving you guarding such a precious resource? Looking at it, you should be the number one target. At least Sabrina is in a Rebellion controlled area and has Silph to protect her. So why don't you tell us what's going on? Why are you the chief miner there? Why do so many major rebellion figures have a link to that place? Nothing about it adds up and I wanna know why. If we are risking our lives for your cause, the least we deserve is the intel on what the truth is.'

[MintyNinja]

Donny nods with the ninja's plan, liking the idea of it. It would be quick, direct, and strike at the heart of the company in more ways than one. Of course, it would be difficult as hell. Aidan spoke up and voiced those thoughts, along with a decent reason why. More questions were asked and answered, and soon the big man with the steel snake came into the room. Ennis left the table and started talking to him, while Donny resumed flipping through his folder. A week here... a couple days there... a long trip by sea, maybe another eight... that should leave us with enough time to hit the other one. Then all we'd have to do is make it back here and we're home free. The logistics of a plan began forming in his mind and all of a sudden this mission looked plausible. Looks like we'll be fine in the end.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Byron sighs and shoves his way into the room, closing the door. Without the bright light from the corridor, you can get a better view of the man. He stands a strong 6 foot 3. His hair and clothes suggest they've never been washed. But beyond the dirt and grime, there seems to be fresh stains. Irregular and dark all over his front, and a long line of this mysterious stain across his back. He hacks, and spits a thick loogie onto the floor, mixed with blood. He swings around to look at you each in turn, a wet splash is with every turn as leftover blood flies from his shovel.

Returning his gaze to Ennis, he stares at her for an uncomfortable length of time. I am not supposed to talk about it. But I'm tired of being quiet! He slams his spade into the floor, a sickening screech as the metal pierces concrete. He sits down on chair that wasn't there before. He rests his elbows on the table. First you must understand my connection with Riley. Back during the great war, my family the Ferrons had vast land claims here in Sinnoh. Riley's family, the Aaron's, were our neighbors to the north. The Ferron's owned most of south Sinnoh, from Oreburgh along the east side of Mt. Coronet all the way to Eterna. The Aaron's owned most of the North and west. Our families had land disputes for centuries, both wanting to claim Mt. Coronet for themselves for its rich ore deposits. Niether could hold it though, due to the wild pokemon who lived there. A few years before the Great War started, my Ancestor, Duke Tarus Ferron discovered Iron Island and its rich deposits. On the same day, Riley's ancestor, Sir Vale Aaron, discorved the Island as well. The families old rivalries instantly rekindled. They began fighting over ownership of the island. This fighitng was some of the first of the Great War.

As the war dragged on, all sides were desperatly looking for a linch pin. Something that could clinch victory. Tarus found it, buried deep within Iron Island. He unlocked it and tried to use it against Vale in battle. But it was beyond his control. Together, Tarus and Vale brought it under control and resealed it away. It was then the Aura Gaurdian's approached Vale and Tarus. Seeing how the two, once mortal enemies, would put aside their differences to stop a greater threat showed to them they were the ones to bring an end to the war.

From there, the two men worked to convince all faction to stop fighting by showing them the reality of the war. They were causing their own destruction, ravaging the land and depleting their resources. One by one, the factions ceased fighting. Under this idea of brotherhood, and guidance from the Gaurdians, Vale and Tarus established the Pokemon League to protect the people from infighting and to train the youths to be prepared for the wilds that layed behind the fortified walls of cities.

Afterwards, Vale and Tarus knew the weapon that was sealed inside Iron Island must never be released. The two families decided they would share the burden of gaurding the Island. As teh generations went on, we discorvered the Island replentists itself of its ore. In time, we knew how to mine what areas that would replenish quickest and not harm the prison. More recently, when Devon was established Aldous Stone the First appraoched my great grandfather about purchasing Iron Island so he may use its ore for pokeballs. At first, my great grandfather refused, afraid the mining opperation would get out of control and pierce the prison again. Determined, Aldous continued to plea, and finally my great grandfather caved. He allowed Devon to set up mining operations on Iron Island, on the condition my Great Grandfather and his descendant's would retain the position of the head miner. And so it has. I inherited the position from my father, he from his fatehr and he from his father. We have maintained the prison for over a thousand years and I will not let anyone dare breach it again.

As per the agreement between the Ferron's and the Aaron's we have both served to guard the prison. Riley has resided on the island since we were children. I am upset that he kept his position in the Guardian's a secret, even from me. But I understand why. I am even more deeply disturbed by the revelation he was an orginator. But that's not what you asked about. My family was always the more industrious ones, it was our task to maintian the prison. The Aaron's were stronger battlers, so they were to gaurd the island form outside threats.

I suppose you asked so you could expose some kind of conspiracy with Devon and the Rebellion. I'll tell you flat out, there is none. No one in Devon even know of the prison's existence. However, you may go and muk up all the mines you like, those grow back in time. Actually, they are about to start drilling again. We go through periods of mining and letting it replenish. Mukking with the mining equipment would put a hurt on their profit margins.

Happy Missy?

[IrnBruAddict]

'Yeah. When I'm told that I'm going into the den of a monster which may be the 2nd most powerful pokemon I've ever seen, I'm totally mukking happy. She takes a long drag of her cigarette.

'I assume you've told your kid? And he knows how big a deal this is? Cos if something happens to you, someone of the Leaague should know. Someone we can trust not to be stupid enough to try and turn that thing into a weapon. And the only two I can think of are Steven and your kid.'

She gives him a pat on the shoulder, even if she does need to tiptoe. 'Thanks for being honest big guy.'

[MintyNinja]

Donny listens to the large man's story and one fact becomes clear: He's a prime target for the League to assassinate. "I have only two questions, sir," he says after the red haired woman stops talking. "One, if we were to arrive in Canalave City on short notice, would you be able to get us up and into the mines on Iron Island?" He pauses for an answer. "And second, the power plant, in Mauville. I've heard a rumor or two that's a Rebel base, but you have it listed as a target." He's addressing the other leaders at this point. "We may be going through the area, should we know anything specific about it?"

[Gaekub]

The doctor leans forward from his position in his chair, having spent the last minute or so considering Byron's story. "So just so ve're clear," he says, carefully. "That thing in the mines. The veapon. Ve're not planning on using that, right? No one here is thinking about trying to use it against the league?"

[IrnBruAddict]

'Muk no. I'm not that stupid, and I doubt anyone else here is, or Sabrina would be holding her head in pain.'

[BluesEclipse]

Raising an eyebrow at the doctor's words, Aidan says, "From the sound of things, it's all but uncontrollable. I can't speak for the others, but it's not something I'd be comfortable using."

[MintyNinja]

Donny looks to the Doctor, not expecting the question. From Byron's story it sounded like two of the most powerful men of the area banded together just to stop it's freedom. Donny held no illusions about his own power, as strange as it was to others, he knew using that weapon would be suicide. "I agree. Leave it be. There's no point in using it to fight if it destroys us as well."

[MesiDoomstalker]

I know the risks of my stance and my son knows his responsibility should I fall. On Mauville's Power Plant. The one on the braniac's list is the new plant. The one rumored to house a rebel base is the abandoned plant. Though we are not allowed to confirm the existence of any other bases beside your home base, which is here in Saigaiha.

If you decided to target the mines, don't venture too far into them. Deeper areas house strong wild pokemon, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to handle it.

[al'Lan Mandrag]

Tarna turns all of this over in her mind: so some people think this weapon is a pokemon, hmm, I guess that makes sense, no point building a 'prison' for a gun, then it'd just be a safety deposit box.

"We should get going then. The longer we stay anywhere the more attention we draw, especially to you Byron, and your position sounds precarious already."

Tarna, not one to take the lead, hovers hoping another will take over and dispatch them since she doesn't have a clue where she's going, but it certainly sounds safer to be with these guys than with Byron and Sabrina who must be quite high priority targets in the war.