For as far back as anyone's memories could reach, Orre had never exactly been a civil land. Its inhabitants tried their best to get along with each other, but the law's grip was weak and the struggle for resources - including wild Pokemon - drove those that might not have otherwise considered it into a life of crime. Due to this, criminal organizations were easy to form and maintain. Anyone promising easy money for easier work had no shortage of employees.

And when you push a company to its limits, they start taking on contractors.

No one in Agate Village had ever seen an air ship the size of the one that had invaded their small retirement community. A small team of people had kept any capable veteran trainers busy while a single woman slipped into Relic Forest and did the unthinkable; she had captured the guardian Celebi and taken it back to her ship. Fortunately, one of the residents of the village had powerful friends, and promptly made an important call.

Now Snagger Leo chases Hunter J through the Orre badlands, his beat up hover bike keeping remarkable pace with J's ship.

She watched the movements of her pursuer carefully through a monitor before her chair on the observation deck. Her palms pushed firmly against the console, venting frustrations. "Fire the adhesive cannon! We can't let him reach the rendezvous point!" The on-board weapons engineer mumbled something about stating the obvious under his breath before beginning the calculations for the heavy gun under the ship. There was a muffled explosion; the monitors watched a pink glob fire from the ship and careen towards Leo's bike and ultimately miss with a simple swerve to the side.

"Keep firing!" J tapped a part of her screen, changing the camera she was focusing on. She looked ahead of the ship; they were approaching a narrow canyon. "There! Take us as close to the top of the canyon as possible. He can't dodge us there."

The adhesive cannon kept firing, and Leo managed to deftly dodge each shot. He was an expert at handling his bike, and much more experience at navigating the desert; all he had to do was close the gap. With the next blast, he gave a short command, attracting the attention of the two Pokemon riding in his sidecar.

"Espeon!"

The small pink Psychic hopped up from his seat to crawl onto Leo's shoulders and focus his attention on the blob of glue flying towards the bike. Its momentum began to slow in midair, coming only a few feet from hitting them before reversing direction and flying towards the airship. The blob splat against the bottom of the ship's rear left engine, gumming up the insides and causing the ship to list. A bad time to it as it approached the canyon, the aft grinding into sandstone.

Leo found his way to a ramp leading up the canyon wall and was soon running alongside the ship...before making a bold leap and landing on the connection between the gummed-up engine and the rest of the ship.

J slammed her fists on her console and leapt to her feet, marching intently to the elevator leading to the ship's surface. "Maintenance team, I want that engine cleared out ASAP." She spoke into her earpiece while in the elevator. "Pilot crew, we're forced to move slowly until then. Keep close to the ground in case we need to make an emergency landing."

Leo watched his bike slow to a halt farther behind him, then turned his attention to the opening hatch on the top of the ship. His Espeon and Umbreon stood with him, hissing and going into ready stances for whatever decided to come up.

The metal iris opened, and J stepped onto the airship's roof. Neither trainer spoke, only glared, all eyes obscured by their respective headwear. J was the first to break the silence, forced to yell thanks to the wind. "I honestly hope you're feeling as surprised as I am by all this! Here I thought you had been left-"

Leo snapped his fingers and threw his arm out to his left side. His Umbreon reared back and fired a Shadow Ball to the right of J's head. "...Not in a talkative mood, I see. I have no choice but to toss you overboard, then!" J produced two Pokeballs and released the Pokemon inside; her Salamence bursting into the air and flying a short distance above, her Drapion preferring to huddle close to what was the rough equivalent of ground. It didn't do too well with heights, but her Ariados didn't stand a chance here.

Salamence opened the game up, circling around behind J and landing on the ship, leveling its neck before firing a Hyper Beam directly at Leo. It had been scolded time and again about accidentally hitting the ship, and in its current state it couldn't afford much more abuse. Espeon moved quickly, standing in front of its trainer to defend, setting up a defensive Light Screen to block the attack. After the shield faded, Umbreon launched forward to unleash its own beam, rays of peculiar light circling around Salamence's face, confusing it. Drapion scrambled up and slapped the Umbreon aside with one of its claws, glowing a deep purple with inherent poison.

Leo sneered and crouched, taking an Ultra Ball from his coat and holding it within the Snag Machine on his arm, charging it. Salamence was trying to fire again, but found itself wobbling uncontrollably, especially when it tried to lift back up into the air. Drapion closed in on Espeon, preparing to strike, until a blast of fire hit it from behind...pushing the monstrous insect to the edge of the ship, threatening to knock it overboard. Leo panicked, hoping to keep the Pokemon from injury, and threw his new Snag Ball; J responded quickly and fired her own weapon, freezing the ball in place, the small orb dropping harmlessly as impenetrable stone.

"I can admire your poacher spirit, but you'll have to do better than that!" J trained her gun on him next, and was prepared to fire...but hesitated, gritting her teeth with her finger on the trigger. Before her drive for success could outweigh any regrets she might feel, a piercing scream blasted into her sensitive headset, scrambling her visor's HUD and make the ship shake as Umbreon's Screech relayed through the cockpit, torturing the pilots. It was followed by a vicious Bite to J's weapon, Umbreon throwing its whole weight into the attack and pulling her body down to the ship's surface.

Drapion had managed to pull itself back up, and skittered over to Espeon. The Psychic turned around and its eyes flashed harmlessly before the Drapion struck him with poisoned claws, sending the small Pokemon skipping across the metal unconscious. Leo recalled it reluctantly, realizing it couldn't battle after that, with Umbreon next. He decided it was better to escape and regroup for now than risk serious injury to his Pokemon. He wasn't too worried about losing J's ship; there were only so many places she could be going with cargo like that.

The next time the ship ground against the rock below, he grit his teeth and jumped...falling and rolling onto the top of the canyon. He watched J's ship leave...and lurch again, Espeon's Future Sight slamming Salamence into the hull, hopefully on top of the Drapion. The engine's began to pour heavy black smoke into the sky; the best tracking device he could ask for as they flew into the horizon.

Leo flipped open his PDA, starting a call while walking back to his bike. "...J was tougher than I expected."

"So are you asking for...help?"

"Not in so many words, Nett."

"Heh. I think I might know some people. It will take time for them to arrive though."

"We don't really have the luxury of waiting around."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"They turn Celebi into a Shadow Pokemon."

"...Right. That put a fire under me. Hang tight, things will start happening soon."

Leo closed his phone and tucked away, still trying to locate his discarded bike. Orre wasn't a civil region. It was full of bandits and con men, but smart people got by. Cipher took advantage of the desert's opportunist inhabitants, and were looking to use them to set the world on fire.

And now it looked like they had his mother's help. This wasn't going to be fun.