Mostly Because Of The Lack Of Gravity, Which Opens A Tons Of A New Possibilities.

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 7. Never the same. "Entering Hoenn airspace!" announced the navigator. "Current speed - 100 km/h, altitude - 10 km." "Coolant temperature… normal," added mechanic. "Reactor’s working at optimal capacity. Main propellers rotating at 300 rpm, blades angle set at position 4." "Good," responded the captain, looking in the front window. "Rad-scans?" "I think directed rad-scanners are picking up something in the Meteor Falls… looks like our target," said the radiation safety officer. "Pilot - drop us down to 3 kms and lower the speed to 30 km/h. When we'll be directly above the Meteor Falls - shut down the primary propulsion and deploy the auxiliary thrusters, then transfer the control to me." "Acknowledged, commencing corrections," replied the pilot, slightly shifting joystick and thrust control rudder. "Good," noted the captain, then relaxed a bit. Right now, they were escorted by a few of military helicopters, tiltjets and some Hoennian military Pokemon, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea upon seeing such a great airship. After all, it was equipped with a nuclear reactor for power source and, should the rest of the airship be destroyed and the ultra-durable protective shell breached, will cause a lot of contamination… ---- "Your Majesty… your Majesty..." a scientist in Zemlino carefully tried to wake up the Emperor, who was sitting asleep in the chair near the ORBCOM station, after all those crazy events of yesterday. "Hm?.. If there's a third moon around the Red Planet - notify the Team 37, especially if it turns out to be an… eyed balloon or something…" the Emperor replied without actually awakening, being, apparently, in the midst of some bizarre and adventurous dream. "Again…" the Empress, who has just recently arrived to the flight control center, sighed, knowing a bit too well, just how enthusiastic her husband could get about anything aerospace-related. Especially after the first manned flight, when he has, somehow, managed to get into the SP-04 "Black Bird" spaceplane and, therefore, become the first human in space... "Anyway… now with the "Red Explorer" around the Moon, "Hauler" preparing to deorbit and "Dreamwing" back in hangar… we need to decide, how to direct the space program," said director of Zemlino FCC. "During the last nine months, it was directed solely towards building and launching the nuclear pulse battleship to open the road towards the skies again, with a few resupply vessels for it, but now, once we did it and made our intentions on keeping it open clear… what do we do?" "Honestly…" Empress started, in uneasy voice, "... I don't know. I mean, yes, we've opened the road to space again and people of the Empire are very happy about that, as well as showing Nation, that we're no jokes, but… I'm not really sure, what kind of directions are to be made of greater priority." "Orbital factories," Emperor replied, waking up upon hearing it at once. "Factories? Well… yes, they can be of use, but…" began director, only for the Emperor to interrupt him: "No buts. Even though I'm not big at ruling, I think we should capitalize on our success and get the info about the materials, which can be produced only in microgravity, and how they can help to improve the lives on the ground. I think info about the orbital hospitals can also help, since they are something everyday human can understand. If they start telling, that it'll be only available to aristocracy and rich - we should capitalize on grandiosity of our new Integrated Program Plan. It's finally time to put it back into action and make it reality." "... I guess," sighed Empress, thinking about words of her husband. "No time for guessing. We must make them realize, that the only way for them to get access to all the cool space stuff is to support the space program and help it grow as never before. We're on the verge of greatness now and we must achieve it." "Hopefully, you succeed at this," said director of the FCC, "because I'd hate the program falling apart, after all we've done..." "We all would," replied the Emperor and the Empress at the same time. ---- "So… that's it," murmured Damien, seeing gigantic nuclear-powered airship soar through the skies back to Soris, carrying highly radioactive corpse of Rayquaza inside the shielded cargo section. For all of the Draconid People, it was one heck of a blow - not only the Dragon Lord was killed, but they could not even bury it properly, having to allow sorisians to stuff it into an underground nuclear waste dump. And, what's worse, none of them could do anything about it - not only Rayquaza's corpse was radioactive enough to be able to give human a fatal radiation poisoning in matter of a few minutes, burying it in classic way would've allowed the leaking isotopes to, eventually, contaminate the groundwater and cause a big ecological catastrophe. "Grannie…" started Helian, "... What will happen now? With no Dragon Lord?" "I don't know," said the Elder, looking at the airship too. "But I think, that the world will never be the same…" ---- "So, we're done with preliminary checks," sighed mechanic, who was servicing the "Dreamwing" in the hangar #2 of Zemlino Space Center. "So far, everything looks fine." "Great," replied commander of the spaceplane. "Hopefully, our birdie will stay fine in the future too." "Hopefully… but it may get replaced with the new nuclear-powered spaceplane soon, when they iron out the hiccups of nuclear turboramjets and aerodynamics of the aft. I've heard Emperor got opposed to the idea of jettisonable aerodynamic tail cone and they're busy developing something, which will allow everything to come up and down in one piece." "Cool. Almost like our machine." "Yeah. From what I've heard, test flights of the SPN-01 "Blizzard", the first BLUEBIRD spaceplane, should start pretty soon. And with no Rayquaza around, they should be safe enough." "Safe, you say… the debris is still in place, though. And I don't think, that this spaceplane can be as armored as the battleship we've launched recently." "Well… yeah. Still, we've managed to take a flight to the "Red Explorer" and spend some time up there, so, maybe it won't be as bad. Besides, I've heard some rumors about how there are plans for dual-purpose weaponized satellites, which can both destroy targets in space and use their weapons for clearing space junk." "Hm… Interesting and kinda makes sense. I guess those laser researches in the ISFs 5 and 9 will be put to good use, after all." "I guess." "Hi, guys," said the engineer of the "Dreamwing", approaching the two men on this catwalk. "Anything wrong with sensors?" "No, nothing is wrong with them," replied mechanic and was a bit surprised upon seeing, how crewmembers of the "Dreamwing" suddenly got grimier and exchanged looks of understanding. "I guess we may have another dragon problem soon enough…" stated the commander, looking at the machine. "And who knows, if we'll have to resort to warships again…" ---- Awake. Alive. Those were the first thoughts of the young dragon. Right now, it did not understand the situation yet, but some strange memories, belonging both to the dragon and not to it at the same time, were flooding its mind. It was slowly to understand some things, but not too fast. It understood, that its name was Rayquaza, the Sky High Pokemon. It understood, that it exists to protect the skies and deal with Groudon and Kyogre. It understood, that something must've happened to its predecessor, if it was awakened right now. With those thoughts, young dragon has struck the hard shell of the egg and broke it apart, freeing itself. As it has just remembered, despite most of the Legendaries, like itself, being near-immortal, there were still contingency protocols in events of something exceptional happening. And, apparently, something exceptional it was. The young dragon has remembered the last moments of the old dragon, when it fought some huge cone-cylindrical metallic construct and, somehow, was struck down by it. Whatever moves this construct was using, they've had near-infernal power. And young dragon could not allow itself to suffer the fate of its predecessor. For now, it will lay low and explore, as it grows back to the power level of a full Legendary. Then… it will depend on circumstances. With those thoughts, young pitch-black serpentine dragon took off, flew past the obstacles and left the cave, well-hidden in the mountain range. Right now, it had to, first and foremost, survive and grow up. ---- Inside the bridge of the huge sorisian airship, there was not much action now. Rayquaza's highly-radioactive corpse was now in the reinforced storage, they were en route home, everything on the airship worked perfectly… honestly, it was kind of boring. "Guys…" started the navigator, "Do you remember our first assignment? The aerial expedition to Alola?" "Oh, I sure do!" replied the pilot, shifting in the chair a bit. "How we all have flown to it, how we've spent a decent amount of hydrogen burnfuel for our recon plane and heavy-lift helicopter, how technicians were able to assemble the mooring masts in just three days… that was the time!" "Especially with how we've managed to bring some Flygon eggs to Soris. Who knew, that those insect-dragons will become so popular at our home!" "Well… they did become popular with our colonists, didn't they? I mean, by the end of our stay there, quite a few people liked their partner 'Spirits of Change'. Including you." "... Yeah. Also…" With those words said, pilot reached out for one of his MFDs, quickly selected "security camera feeds" options and looked at the feed from the top hangar a bit. In it, an insect-dragon was quietly sleeping, curled near the tandem-rotor helicopter - much like during their return from the expedition. "... Nah, she's fine. Took Sunny form for some reason, though." "I would've said because of our cargo, but it'd be stupid. By the way… strangely enough, but native Alolan Flygon seem to be extinct nowadays, with Hoennian subspecies, somehow, having replaced them." "Hoopa's shenanigans again?" "Likely. May also be combined with the fact, that Hoennian Flygon, while lacking the sheer versatility of its Alolan progenitor, is better adapted to the desert conditions. I guess they've just lost the competition there." "And our region has preserved those dragon-bugs. Cool." "I guess. I've heard from some of my friends in ISF 4, that some scientists from Hoenn and Alola would be really happy to get more data about the extinct-for-them Alolan Flygon." "Likely." Author's notes: ISF - Imperial Science Facility. ORBCOM - Orbiter Communicator. MFD - Multi-Function Display. Sorisian nuclear airship is based on that. BLUEBIRD spaceplane is based on the real M(G)-19 "Gurkolyot". Alolan Flygons are based on that wonderful picture.

First two - when I’ve heard, that there’ll be a SM anime.

Fifth - me looking at the preview pictures.

Third - me reading the plot previews.

Fourth - overall impression.

Which face accurately represents your thoughts on the new Pokémon Sun and Moon anime?

Business (mini-fic)

- Approaching designated randevu point! - announced Cherie, carefully pulling engine control throttles and making the Azoth Kingdom-built airship descend.

- Still nothing, boss, - reported Levi. - All radars give clear picture. By the way, the lateral turning motor of the main parabolic radar broke once again, looks like short-circuit. Any ideas why?

- Levi, did you forget to apply varnish? -  asked him Alva in exasperated voice.

- No, boss, I’ve triple-checked this before we’ve gone flight. You know, it’s kinda uncomfortable, when your main radar loses ability to turn and can only scan the last direction. Good thing it stopped at zero-zero.

- Then no ideas, beside obvious humidity build-up somewhere.

- There we are! - announced Cherie, flicking switches and putting the engines of the airship to hovering mode. - Anchored and ready!

- If not for your words and sensor readings, I’d have never noticed it, - said Alva in pleased voice. - Great piloting.

- Thanks, boss, - replied somewhat shy Cherie, checking the ship’s systems. - Everything’s normal, no scratches or like this, our girl is healthy’n’good.

- Besides the main radar. Sixth time already, - murmured Levi, then began to announce. - All radars...

Man’s voice faded when a huge signature suddenly appeared on all radars. Outside of the ship, a big airship, somewhat similar to the classic “Hunt-3R″, but bigger, with sleeker lines and more visible weaponry, de-cloaked and landed less then 300 meters from the airship of cabinet minister, two bow-mounted autocannon turrets aimed near the bridge.

- This ship looks like she was built by “Kirasawa Shipyards”, - finally managed to squeeze out a word Levi.

- But she wasn’t, - objected Alva, who was already studying the newcomer. - “Kirasawa”, most of time, puts external hangars and cargo containers, which often have more height that the ship herself, on the sides of main hull, while this one has containers half the ship’s height mounted between main hull and external engine pods. Also, bridge is too small and too deep into hull, and I never saw any ship from the “Kirasawa Shipyards” with that much weapons - those two turrets are definitely just part of point defence system.

- Boss, you know a lot! - said impressed Cherie

- I need to. After all, our kingdom continues to lose position on the airship market, and “Kirasawa Shipyards” is just after the corporations in the list of competitors. It’s like this ship was purposely built to fool those who know too little to think it was built by “Kirasawa”, but to let those who know style of those shipyards understand that it’s not... - Alva made a strange motion, as if shrugging something off. - Anyway, here they are, so I’m going in. Levi - open the hatch and prepare the elevator, Cherie - stay here, keep engines warm and ready. I feel far from good about this...

- Yeah... - replied Levi, remembering seeing records of the cabinet minister’s talks with this Hunter. While Hunter J, who has mysteriously disappeared not so long ago, was somewhat scary on her own, K...

                                                     ***

- So, cabinet minister of the Azoth Kingdom, huh? I’m happy to have such a client! - said woman with a jet-black hair, slowly moving across her small quarters, presumaby onboard of her ship. Levi couldn’t explain it, but something in her made him feel wrong and, from what it seemed, Alva too. For most of people, it would’ve been impossible to spot, but Levi knew his superior for long enough to notice he was nervous.

- So am I. Miss K, - Alva took an opportunity, trying to direct this talk into where he wanted it to go, - I want you to give me Pokemon from this list.

Cabinet minister quickly pressed some keys on his personal terminal, sending a message to her. Woman sat down on chair, reading the message without any hurry, then slowly rose from it and said:

- So, perfect stats; does not matter if Shiny or not; abilities, that work great together if those Pokemon fight side-by-side; some Egg moves; does not matter, if bred or hunted and all capable of Mega Evolution? Am I witnessing revolution, that is about to happen?

- I knew it’ll be obvious... - replied cabinet minister. - Sort of. Some of them will be needed for other, non-political purposes. And, if this info gets out...

- No need to worry, I never tell anyone about the details! - said K with somewhat menacing curved smile. - Contract privacy is contract privacy, no matter what. Also, I’m not into politics, as long as they don’t touch me. So, what about payment?

- Twenty millions total, ten - now, ten - after getting Pokemon.

- Fair enough. I’ll give you coordinates of the randevu point in two weeks. K out, - finished the talk woman and cut the channel. Alva opened a drawer, grabbed a small bottle of Azoth-produced “Cog Oil” whiskey, poured himself a shot and took it in a single long gulp. From what Levi saw in this recording, minister was still nervous about this K. Something in her was just plain wrong, but neither he, nor Cherie or Alva could point out, what exactly.

- It’s not like we have other options, - commented cabinet minister, stopping the video and shutting down his terminal. - She’s our best option now - both in price and quality.

- So, cabinet minister Alva, I suppose? - said one of the K henchmen, when Alva approached her airship, still feeling uncomfortable of CIWS turrets and her henchmen, which’ve already released their Pokemon to establish defense perimeter around her airship. - Commander K will be there very soon.

- Good, - replied cabinet minister, taking a closer look on the ship. Even now, he could see several characteristic coverings of missile tubes and two retractable machine gun turrets near the opened frontal hatch. For all of her worth, this ship could be easily classified as a full-fledged heavy assault ship. Considering, what kind of team was now guarding the airship, the implications were far from good.

- Glad to see you, - sounded beautiful, but, for some strange reason, scary voice. Alva turned back to the lowered frontal hatch and saw a woman with jet-black hair slowly walking down to him, carrying a small case.

- Same, Miss K, - said Alva in gentle voice, then pointed his staff at the case. - All of them? Loyalty imprinting?

- Of course to both, - responded Hunter, opening the case and presenting it’s contents to cabinet minister. Inside, there were 15 standard Pokeballs, lying in small holders.

- May I commit a small test right now? - asked her Alva, gently closing the case and taking it from her hands.

- If it does not mean injury or destruction of my property, - replied K, pointing to a small clear zone next to the starboard of her ship. Cabinet minister travelled to this spot and, surrounded by K’s henchmen, released the Pokemon one by one, then pulled his own Pokeball out of many pockets of his coat and added his own Gengar to this team.

- You can easily assault a palace and dethrone the king with team like this, - commented one of the henchmen.

- But they are not for it, - replied Alva, changing a grip of his staff and passing two fingers above the small dark-violet stone, embedded in the unusually shaped pommel. - Mega Wave!

- ... Can you sell a device like this to me? - asked amazed K, looking at 16 Pokemon, which were all Mega-Evolved at once. - I can pay up to a billion for a such a gadget!

- Not yet, - said cabinet minister, passing the fingers above the stone again, reversing the effect, then taking out two wristbands with similar dark-violet stones out of another pocket of his coat and unleashing the second Mega Wave with one of them. - They are fragile, dependant on Master Stone - one per several devices, have limited worktime until shutdown, require some time to relax between activations to prevent malfunctions, often need repairs... In short, there are still many problems with them. However, once I iron those problems out, I might consider putting them on sale - our kingdom will really benefit from it.

- Then I’ll wait, - responded K, seeing, how Alva, after three Mega Waves and successful testing of all devices, returned his Pokemon back into Pokeballs. - By the way - do you really need to say words when activating them?

- Yes, you need to, - replied violet-haired man, putting most of the Pokeballs, bar the one with his personal Gengar, back into the case and closing it. - I’m sure you won’t like it to suddenly activate just because you waved your hand the wrong way!

- Of course! - let a somewhat scary laugh Hunter. - So, what’s about the second part of payment?

- Right now, - said Alva, taking his PDA out of one of his pockets and tapping the polarized touchscreen, contents of which were invisible to anyone bar cabinet minister, several times.

- I see, - murmured K, looking at her own PDA. - However, I thought we agreed on ten millions! Of course, it’s pleasant, but...

- But I do appreciate the great quality of the Pokemon you brought to me and want to give you some bonus for such a nice work! - replied cabinet minister, giving Hunter a gentle nod and taking a case with Pokeballs in his hand. - Goodbye, Miss K.

- Goodbye, cabinet minister Alva, - said she, ordering her troops to return to the airship with a simple gesture and walking back to the frontal hatch. - I hope that some time later, you will be my customer once more.

- ...And I surely hope not to, - whispered Alva, once his was back aboard his airship.

- Boss, the K’s ship has gone flight and cloaked once again! - sounded the Levi’s voice in the intercom.

- That’s great, - replied minister, putting the case with Pokeballs on the wall bench and taking a seat on it himself. - Levi - close the hatch. Cherie - lift off and take us back home. I’ll be on the bottom deck for some time.

- As you wish, boss, - replied his two trusted henchmen. With hydraulic whirr, the cargo platform collapsed and hatch started to close, while airship started to to gain altitude. Alva spent nearly half of hour like this, but, after it, focused and took a trip back to the bridge, where Levi and Cherie were already waiting him.

- We’re glad to see you, - greeted him Levi. -"Chancellor Cocktail”, the one you like, in the cupholder. Temperature optimal and everything.

- Do you think of me like some kind of an alcoholic? - asked him Alva, placing the case and staff near his chair and then taking a seat, though not before ensuring, that control is all transferred to Cherie.

- No, boss, but we do see, how do you feel after speaking with... her, - shuddered woman.

-... You know what? You’re damn right! - replied minister, taking a shot. - Nice. Who was one preparing it?

- Me, boss, - said Levi. - Cherie couldn’t bring herself out of her seat all the time you were ashore.

- Levi, I just wanted to get out of here ASAP! - told him Cherie. - I’m sure none of us wanted to be there anymore than needed. Those autocannons and goons...

- Uh-huh, - said her co-pilot. - Cherie, by the way - would you like to try to pilot the assault ship of this K?

- Nah, I won’t exchange our little “Kamiya” for anything, - nearly purred woman, gently stroking the surface of the pilot’s station, - She serves us well and I’m used to her. Even her little cargo bay doesn’t mean anything - “Traveller-4″ class can take three time it’s own mass into air on external, and our girl was upgraded by our boss to be able to take four times her own mass.

- And the main radar breaks every two damn weeks after this damn second scanning run, when this damn Volcanion hit us with Steam Eruption, - grunted Levi. - Boss, I was outside and fiddled with it - yep, short circuit in secondary control scheme. I've replaced it and the corresponding circuit breaker, but this is a temporary solution. I think I know how to rework it, so it will at least break once in two months instead of every two weeks. Do you authorize me to do it once we are back home?

- I do, - replied Alva, making some notes in his PDA. - By the way - after we return to Azoth Kingdom, I give you two weeks of vacation and then you start training with MWDs and your new Pokemon.

- OK, boss! - said Levi and Cherie at the same time, then Levi continued. - About the Pokemon, boss - are you really happy with your purchase?

- I am, but I don't want to do business with people like that anymore, - murmured the minister before falling asleep from lack of sleep beforehand and today's stress. His henchmen exchanged looks, then continued piloting ship like if nothing happened, alllowing Alva to silently snore right on the bridge.

In the ”Pocket Monsters: The Animation” light novels, written by Takeshi Shudo - director of the original series, person became legally adult at age ten. Also, in it, Delia got pregnant at 18. Make your own conclusions. TV Tropes page for further shocking discoveries - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation

Link to the translated versions - http://pokemonthenovel.dreamwidth.org/380.html

Thrilling, fast-paced, thought-provoking dialog of Pokemon, the Animated Series.

Demiurg-scientist dies, problem of the “time’s cancer” is solved by travelling through multi-dimensional time.

Spoil the ending of your favorite book without context

Keep an eye out for this very specific but very vague landscape and say hi to the alien who may or may not be there

Not a fanfic: beta request.

Please, if possible, I need beta, who: 1) Can help me with writing battle scenes - specificially, turning them from something, akin to summation, to the actual action/tragic/tense scenes. 2) Can gelp me on expanding personalities of characters. 3) Can help me in worldbuilding, especially since the later chapters are going to involve space exploration major time and a possible decline in Leagues' popularity. I will be very grateful to you.  

@blackjackgabbiani

Equipment (mini-fic)

(Author's Note: this story was previously submitted to the villain story contest in @allhailpokemonvillains. Because the contest is over, I'm finally publishing it here.

Chronologically, it's set after "Promise" and before "Business")

- So, Levi, - started the cabinet minister in sinisterly gentle voice, - can you tell me, why there’s no VTOL gravplane on the aft landing pad of my airship?

- Well… - began his henchman.

- Twenty words or less, - taped Alva, gripping his staff harder and pointing it at the Levi.

- I’ve forgot to moor it after the scanning sweep in area, where bringing entire airship wouldn’t have been an option, so…

- Twenty, - stopped him minister. - Cherie - what’s your excuse?

- We were forced to commence emergency evasion maneuver soon after Levi's return, so, unmoored gravplane fell off the airship, - said the woman, looking at the sharp tip of the staff, which was now pointed at her. - At least it, during the fall, has collided with the Volcanion, which tried to attack us, and absorbed a decent part of its Overheat while simultaneously throwing its aim away, which is why we were able to bring the airship with barely working aft levitation engine here, back to the docks. If not for the gravplane, the ship would’ve been crashed wreck now.

-… OK, I accept this explanation, - replied minister, changing the grip position of his staff to the less threatening one. - After all, I saw the damaged parts of the airship. However, it does not change the situation, that, thanks to your doings, I’ve lost my private gravplane - not a cheap one, by the way, and almost lost my airship - a pricy one too. Had I ever told you “Now, these airship and gravplane are completely yours. Use them as you wish!”?

- No… - began Levi.

- Right, I never did such a thing. However, the gravplane is no more and airship is seriously damaged. What the time it is, when you come back with damaged equipment, no gravplane and no results?

- Third, boss, - said Cherie in exhausted voice.

- That’s right, you come back with no gravplane and no… Stop, you did come with some results this time! - suddenly cheered Alva, activating the projector, switching to the map of Azoth Kingdom's surroundings and pointing at it with his staff. - From what it looks like, Volcanion protects this specific region - even more specific, the Nebel Plateau. Each time you’ve tried to approach the Plateau, this Pokemon suddenly attacked you, as to if prevent you from ever getting a chance to perform a scanning sweep! Maybe, what it’s trying to hide is exactly what we are searching for.

- So… wait ‘till repairs are over and commence search-and-retrieval operation? But…

- No, not like that, - said cabinet minister with strange and menacing smile. - I’ll make sure airship gets some armoring this time and you… you will get the presents I was talking about for the long time already.

- MWDs? - asked Levi and Cherie at the same time.

- Yes, Mega Wave Devices, I’ve almost finished testing the final prototypes, so, in following months, you’ll get them along with Mega-able Pokemon. It’s kinda bad Hunter J has disappeared somewhere, so, I’ll have to work with either this new K girl or some smaller players at the black market… Anyway, you two are dismissed!

Alva’s henchmen has happily left his room, while the cabinet minister placed his staff away and took a tablet with a scanned images of Nikola’s design diagrams - specificially, Flying Fortress and Magearna.

“A year or so - and the kingdom will receive two rulers, which will finally guide it back to the ways of might and glory!” - thought Alva, analyzing the designs of the Soul Heart and the Fortress’ cannon’s power source’s cradle. - “And I’ll finally fulfill my promise!”

Past of the future, future of the past...

Interlude. Different Points.

Soris Region, near Chernoholmsk, Imperial Rocket Factory #2.

Nikolai walked along the assembly line, checking the sounding rockets, before they'll get packed up, loaded into containers and delivered to the Zemlino Space Center.

Three months ago, the Rayquaza has destroyed both of the space stations in orbit, killed twelve cosmonauts and reduced the satellite groups of both Soris Empire and the Pokemon Nation to pretty much nothing. And that's not counting the destruction of anything, that goes higher than troposphere, such as research drones or high-altitude planes.

Since then, the Imperial Space Program took a hit, but, thanks to the personal support of the Empress, stayed strong. Right now, their primary priority was set to the atmospheric research, so, they've commissioned several hundreds of the modified A-100 sounding rockets - the fastest rockets in the world, capable of 100g of acceleration!

Speaking of which...

"... Why are those sounding rockets like this?" the worker thought, doing a check on the hull. "No ablative protection, which is very strange, considering their accelerations and resulting ram heating in the atmosphere, unusual science payload adapter, attitude jets instead of steering fins and, for what it looks like, radio command flight guidance system…"

"Surprised by how those rockets look?" asked him superior, who approached the worker undetected. "I'm also surprised by this order. It'll make sense, if they'll be used in space…"

"But what for?"

"... I don't know. And I think we better keep low and silent about it. They didn't double the payment and order me to increase your salaries for nothing."

Hoenn Region, Sootopolis.

"...And for the ending of the "Zap Rangers", we've planned…" TV fell silent.

"Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Over and over again," said Valencia, switching the set off via button on the device itself and walking to the kitchen.

Ever since the Rayquaza got crazy and destroyed most of the stuff in orbit, then began a stratospheric blockade, pure chaos ensued.

In a lot of places cults sprung to life, calling, that the end of the world was near. Some of them had committed mass suicides, some - went into riots, allowing the looters of all sorts to flourish, some went into self-constructed shelters… it was true insanity.

And, as a Cheri Berry on top of that cake, many book and comic writers, along with producers of TV shows and so on, decided to tell everyone their plans on ending their works. The newspapers and networks were pretty much flooded with them. Valencia was even afraid to imagine, how much money they were getting from those exclusive interviews.

"Still nothing good?" a question sounded from the kitchen.

"Still nothing good," responded the woman, entering the room. In one of the chairs, a young man sat. If not for a slightly ragged look of his face, it would've been impossible to tell, that he was, actually, a Draconid.

"Damn. Gonna lay low for a few more weeks, I guess?" said Damien. His name was quite unusual for a member of this tribe… but it really helped him to get to his Sootopolian friend for a safe hiding, when the pogroms started. Even though, officially, Hoenn government had nothing against the Draconids, the fact, that those people worshipped Rayquaza, was enough of a trigger to allow humans, driven to hysterical paranoia by the acts of recently-resurfaced Sky High Pokemon and some medias, which were happily exploiting those events, to near-instantly resort to the unprovoked and indiscriminate violence. Even though most of the Draconids had powerful Pokemon with them, it often just made crazed people to switch to the swarming tactics, mixed with dirty fighting. Even great Draconid combatants weren't able to stand against fifty normal trainers and some more non-trainers at once, especially, when those people were specifically targeting the Draconid in question and going for the injuries at least.

"Of course," replied Valencia. She wondered, why the news networks weren't showing anything about Soris now and how they, with their different culture, reacted to what has happened several months ago.

Soris Region, near Zemlino, VAB #3

"Contact zone reached," said the computer system in the cabin of the overhead crane. The slightly aged man threw a quick look at the screen in cabin, at the payload, at the destination, then gently shifted the left control stick, activating the hoist and lowering the turret with railgun, suspended on the crane's hook, to the workers below. Right now, the air conditioning system of the Vertical Assembly Building was being repaired and the clouds started to build up inside. It wasn't raining yet and most of the equipment was water-proofed for this very reason, but the condensation on the glass windows of the cabin was getting annoying for the operator, since it forced him to mostly rely on the instruments.

"Klim, the break is starting about now! Get down here!" sounded from the comm system. Klim Goncharenko, a very experienced crane operator - probably, the best one in the entire Empire, since the Emperor himself called him for participating in this operation - frowned a little.

"Okay, guys, but you know - I'm not into smoking. And know, if you've touched sandwiches, brought here by my wife… well, the unexpected bowel movements should start in roughly a minute or so!"

For a thirty seconds, there was an uneasy silence, soon followed by "Sanyuch, you fraggin' bastard!" and a sound of at least three men sprinting towards the restroom. Klim smiled and started to drive the crane back to the parking position, thinking about his son and sort-of-a-granddaughter, who stayed in the Imperial Science Facility 9.

You mean, Zero? Unforntunately, as for now, Megarig and Mecha-Giratina are destroyed and data about Giratina’s abilities is most likely lost, so, no RescueRig any time soon. Also, Graceland is far from being cooperative in this area and Zero is in jail.

apparently lillie gets lost really easily?? someone save this child

Robur was also above politics in the first book (”Robur the Conqueror”), but went dark in the second (”Master of the World”), when he scrapped more peacefully-built “Albatross” (second one, first “Albatross” was blown up by Prudent and Evans, much like Hikokyuu was brought down by Ash and co.), which had only one short-barreled low-impulse cannon (used for whale hunting and somewhat similar to Hikokyuu’s mortar artillery system) and several explosive charges onboard, for more agressively-built “Terror” with powerful ram for sinking ships. Robur in the first book had some sort of justification - he wanted to prove superiority of heavier-than-air aircraft, so he took two most powerful lighter-than-air lobbiers to let them see HTA vessels superiority with their own eyes, and he also wanted to take revenge for the events in the Weldon Institute. Also, I re-read the book and’ve found, that “Albatross” was capable of landing, so forgive me for giving you false information.

Here’s that picture of the original Hikoukyuu and Melody’s instrument. Articuno has about…twice its mass in tailfeathers…

@mgrgfan check it out.