Chapter 98 – The Interim Report
Investigation of the Special Counsel into Unlawful Pokémon Experimentation by the Aether Foundation and its President, and any possible collusion with the office of prime minster
Interim Report
Background
In the North-east of the Unova Region, an epic battle of survival has been taking place for centuries. To the east, the ocean pushes inland with its waves, tides, and floods. To the north the misty mountains stretch tall, stealing the evaporate from the ocean's surface, and bringing it back to earth as rain. It is here that the twin rivers of Unova, and their many streams and tributaries have their watershed. As the rivers drain to the coast, they bring with them a steady supply of freshwater and nutrients that makes the lower lying land to the south rich and fertile.
The high winds and saltwater from the ocean assault the coastline, eroding the beaches and the sandbars that protect the soil and killing the vegetation that holds the land together. The rivers respond by taking periods of high rainfall and snowmelt and swelling in size to create floodplains along its bank. As the river floods, it deposits sediments onto these floodplains – fine particles of sand, clay and slit that create a fertile layer of nutrient rich soil.
Along with the mud and silt, the river also brings with it seeds, as does the wind and the Pokémon that inhabit the area. As the seeds settle along the coastal soil, fuelled by energy form the sun, they germinate into mighty oak and cypress trees. They rise high into the air, stretching their leaves wide to capture as much of the sun's rays as possible. And it is in this way that great temperate coastal forests are formed, as rich and diverse in flora and fauna as the Pokémon world itself.
The cypress and oak trees become ideal homes for bird life. Braviary come from all across Unova to lay their eggs during the springtime, and Mandibuzz make their nests among the cool dark canopy. Emolga jump from branch to branch, gliding through the air on wing like membranes beneath their arms. The forest floor is home to Bouffalant and Sawk who eat the vegetation that grows there, and species that prey upon them like Absol, Mienfoo and Serviper.
The steams, inlets, and the eastern river itself support schools of Basculin and Polywag, the unluckiest of whom feed the rafts of Buizel that make their homes on the riverbank. In the springtime, the forest blooms with berries, flowers, and leaves. The abundance of vegetation causes a heaven for plant eating Pokémon, who in turn ensure a large supply of food for the predators. For all Pokémon this is the perfect time to start a family, the mating season.
The mating season bring with it, a newcomer. Packs of Sneasel and Weavile from the north come in great numbers in sources of foods. Most other Pokémon instinctively avoid this species owing to their fierce natures and taste in eggs. Working in pairs, one Sneasel will force Braviary or Deerling from their nests, while the other swipes the eggs. Sneasel claws are long and sharp, perfect for cutting through the diamond-like shells.
For eons nature existed in this way in a somewhat harmonious state. Then oil was discovered, and the rape was on. Oil companies cut down the trees to make room for oil riggs wells and to make way for roads and pipelines. The lands alongside the river were converted to farmland to feed the ever-growing populations in Nimbassa and Castelia.
Great engineering works were built along the Easter River, Dams, locks, barrages, bridges, and levees. The river was caged, the flood plains cut off and limiting the supply of nutrient rich soil, and new seeds. During times of storms and heavy rain the great river rattles the bars of its cage, the channel flowing higher and faster, rising as high up the sides of the levee as it could.
Scars started appearing across the landscape. The Braviary lost their home and the Bouffalant their grass. As the species of prey thinned, so did the predators and none became more desperate than the Sneasel. The pack became more relentless in their pursuit of eggs. And their parents more aggressive in defending, the often-few eggs they were able to produce in a season.
Oil exploration by Altru Inc
In 2012, two geologists were conducting routine survey work in an area to the north of the Giant Chasm. They punched some holes in the ground and struck oil. Not merely a routine hit either – there was a lot of oil. They retreated a couple of kilometres and drilled again...another big hit. Then they tried further to the north...and struck black gold again. The wells were capped, and the reports filed.
The geologists worked for Altru Inc; an oil company based in the Almia Region. Altru was owned by the Hall family. Doyle M. Hall and Brighton Hall had made and lost several fortunes drilling for oil in Alima and southern Sinnoh. Only a decade before, the failure to persuade the Sinnoh government to grant his company mining rights in the Great Marsh near Pastoria City had brough old man Doyle to the brink of bankruptcy.
In 2012, the company was owned by Brighton's son Blake Hall. By the time the company passed to Blake, it's youngest ever president, the family was rich again, and more importantly had access to other people's money. He was quicky convinced that his two geologists had just tapped a major reserve. At that time Altru Inc did not have a presence in the Unova Region. The geologists were PhD students, and Blake Hall had managed to secure the exploration licences from the Unovan Government under the guise of research.
Securing extraction rights was another matter entirely. Pokémon rights had ensure that, despite the advance of industry, large stretches of land were not developed at all. The intent was to ensure that wild Pokémon did not feel pressured. But Blake Hall had a powerful weapon, Cash. He begun using it on the politicians and bureaucrats, lobbying for the Regional Government to grant him access to the great alpine forests, and strategically donating to candidates in key races. He made inroads in both major political parties.
In the ends, this strategy worked. New petroleum lease legislation was passed by Unova's Parliament, and Altru Inc was able to attain a licence to gouge his way through the forests and build his oil riggs. Overnight, large aches of the forest south of Vertress City disappeared, and Blake Hall could smell a trillion Pokémon in oil money.
The impact upon the environment was almost immediate. The flying types that had once filled the trees disappeared, seeking other forests in which to nest, and the egg supply dried up. The Sneasel and Weavile Clans moved further south and east in search of foods, brining themselves into competition not only with increasingly desperate other species, but also others of their own kind. While Sneasel are known for being aggressive, the violence that followed was beyond anything observed by Pokémon experts before.
Different clans fought and massacred each other over the dwindling egg supply, and it wasn't long before the forests were filled with the bodies of dead Sneasel. To make matters worse, the heart of the new oil reserve was near a natural gathering and breeding ground for Absol. The loss of their natural breeding ground meant that this species also had to migrate to the south-east.
While Absol do not feed on eggs, they are a predator species feeding on Deerling, Quilava and even Charmeleon. They are adept hunters, armed with a sharp blade on their heads. They preyed on the Sneasel and Weavile decimating their numbers further. Battles between Sneasel clans and Absol pack were even more violent than between the Sneasel clans themselves.
Enter the Aether Foundation...
The Aether Foundation's Litigation
The Aether Foundation Inc is a Pokémon conservation and research organisation based in the Alola Region but with a national and international Prescence. It's stated aims are to advocate for Pokémon land rights and the protection of the natural environment, to protect weaker Pokémon from the stronger of their kind and to protect all Pokémon from poacher and organisations like Team Rocket and Team Skull.
The Aether Foundation does not have a major presence in Unova. However, following Altru Inc being granted the extraction leases, Lusamine commissioned research of the effects on Pokémon in the area. The foundation regularly takes on young graduate students interested in environmental science and Pokémon behaviour, employing them at a high salary and agreeing to fund their doctorate if they research a topic the foundation wants researched.
A young graduate student from Puzzle University named Lyte was sent to Unova to conduct research on Sneasel behaviour in the area. He had written a master's thesis on Sneasel mating behaviour and patterns in Sinnoh two years previously, and so was well qualified to undertake the study. A second graduate student was sent to research Absol. The two researchers combined studies confirmed the above. The loss of habitat in the are due to oil extraction by Altru Inc was creating pressure on each species.
With this new data, the Aether Foundation filed lawsuits in the Supreme Court of Unova, the Planning and Environment Court of Unova, and the Federal Court, of Pokémon Nation seeking injunctions in each jurisdiction to stop the drilling. In The Supreme Court, the Aether Foundation sought Judicial Review of the decision to grant the petroleum lease. The committee responsible for the lease, which was five members of the Cabinet, had failed to take into consideration the impacts of extraction on these species as required under the legislation.
The Planning and Environment Lawsuit dealt with the terms of the extraction lease. Altru Inc, they argued, should be responsible for the rehousing and protecting Absol and Sneasel. The road and pipeline routes accessing the sites should travel westward rather than South and avoid Absol habitat. A condition that would come with three times the invoice as the current plan.
In the Federal Court, the Aether Foundation sued under statutes designed to protect nationally important eco-systems, and to protect discriminated against species like Sneasel and Weavile. Sneasel and Weavile are despised among breeders because they prey on eggs. So despised were they, that Pokémon Centres sometimes even refused to allow them out of their Pokéballs inside, and once or twice had even refused to treat them.
Only one hundred years previously, the Sinnoh variant of the species, known as Hisuian Sneasel and its evolved from Sneasler, had gone extinct due to poaching, poisoning and murder. The Federal government had vowed never to allow another species to face this type of discrimination and genocide again and had passed laws protecting vulnerable species. The Aether Foundation sought a permanent injunction against drilling and seven billion Poké in damages for the environmental destruction and harm to the Sneasel's already done.
Interlocutory injunctions were granted at both the Federal and State Courts while each Application was being considered. Blake Hall went over the edge. He spent weeks with his lawyers plotting and scheme. Altru Inc would spare no expense to win. Do whatever it took, was Blake's instructions. Break any rule, violate any ethic, hire any expert, commission any study, cut any throat, spend any amount of money, just win the damned lawsuits.
Altru's Solicitors and Barrister's went to work. They filed thick applications in both courts seeking to strike out the pleadings and attain summary judgement on the grounds the Aether Foundation could not succeed on any of their claims...denied. They asked the court to allow drilling to continue while the matters were on foot...denied. They tried to exclude the expert witness reports prepared by Lyte as not meeting expert witness requirements...Denied again.
They tried to bury the Aether Foundation's lawyers, a boutique firm from Rhyme city, in pages and pages of disclosure documents, and crush them beneath thousands and thousands of interrogatories and Notices to Admit. The courts were forced to give more interlocutory rulings confining the scope of discovery and striking out certain interrogatories. Both sides applied for costs. Scientists, experts, engineers, directors, and accountants were flown all around Pokémon Nation for depositions.
After over a year of move and counter-move, interlocutory applications, pre-trial procedures and two failed mediations, the matter was ready for trial. The Federal Court and the Planning and Environment Court stayed the respective cases before them, believing correctly that may become moot should the Aether Foundation be successful in the Supreme Court of Unova. The trial we held at the Supreme Court building in Nimbassa City and lasted two weeks.
The Judge hearing the case agreed with the Aether Foundation. Even under the newly enacted legislative scheme for granting petroleum leases, the ministers on the committee had failed to consider relevant considerations. Procedures under the overarching Administrative procedures statues had not been followed. The decision was quashed, and the government ordered to re-make the decision.
Pokémon rights legislation in Unova requires, when approving major development, consideration of the needs of Pokémon and their environments at the time the decision is made. This applied even under the new petroleum extraction scheme. The Government would need to consider the information about Sneasel and Absol populations in Northern Unova afresh.
Which in turn led both litigants to try a new range of sordid and illegal tricks...
The arrival of Shadow the Darkrai in Unova
After the decision to gran petroleum extraction leases was quashed both Altru Inc and the Aether Foundation took legal advice about the new application to the committee. An oil and gas lawyer in Castelia City prepared an advice suggesting that if the number of Sneasel were to dwindle below the minimum viable population, it would no longer be a determinative factor in the decision.
A report prepared by an academic at Celadon University for Altru Inc suggested that, if the Sneasel were to die out in Unova, balance would be restored to the delicate forest eco-system. The Absol would likely prey on Mienfoo and Buizel and flying type would no longer be under threat from egg thieves.
The terms of reference to the Special Counsel do not include wrongdoing by either Blake Hall or the Altru Inc. However, it is view of the Special Counsel that the company transplanted a Darkrai, a legendry Pokémon native to the Sinnoh region, to the region of Unova. The Darkrai's name was Shadow.
Within a month of arriving in Unova, Shadow formed an attachment to a Sneasel named Blade. Blade was the runt of a clan of Sneasel and Weavile led by a Weavile named Cleave. He was the smallest member of the clan and the weakest, incapable of contributing to hunting or protecting the group.
Lyte's research, which would form a significant portion of the evidence filed in court, was focused on the behaviour of this clan. Lyte had observed that Cleave had rejected Blade from the pack. As a runt he was a burden to the pack at a time when food and resources were scares and needed protection from the others against near daily Absol attack.
Shadow formed a strong emotional attachment to Blade after finding him injured under a tree following the capture of his pack. The pack's capture was due to trainers in the area, legally catching Pokémon and is unrelated to this investigation. Shadow's attachment was either strongly platonic or romantic.
It is unclear how long the two remained in the area, or if they remained in Unova for the next few months. While the oil riggs stood idle, awaiting the decision of the courts and the executive government, Pokémon were gradually able to reclaim the area surrounding them. Flying types returned to the trees and Sawk to the forest floors. The Sneasel and Absol expanded their feeding opportunities.
Lyte continued to research in the area. The vast difference between the forest eco-system during and after the drilling operations would be crucial in forming the Aether Foundation's case in both objecting to the issue of a new lease, and in the Planning and Environment Court. Lyte, who had tagged members of Cleave's pack, observed that the Weavile had formed a new, stronger clan.
About a week prior to the due date for the filing of submissions objecting to the lease to the Department of Natural Resources, Blade and Shadow returned to north-east Unova. While it is not know exactly what happened, Shadow is believed to have massacred Cleave and his new pack. It is believed that the entire Sneasel clan was killed leaving the status of Sneasel in the area questionable.
The Aether Foundation therefore decided to move against Shadow.
A conspiracy between the Aether Foundation and local Unova villains
Around the same time as the trials, a new movement had been growing in Unova. An eccentric group known as Team Plasma appeared in Unova. They started holding rallies throughout the region during which would preach Pokémon liberation. They were named as a terrorist organisation after a series of incidents, including an attack Oppelucid City from their flying machine, the Plasma Frigate.
While Team Plasma is not an offshoot of the Aether Foundation, and the Aether Foundation did not fund the organisation, at least initially, there were close links between the two organisations. Two members of the seven sages, Team Plasma's admins, had connections to Lusamine. One, Bronius had worked for the Aether Foundation as a scientist five years earlier, conducting research on Oshawott populations along the eastern coast.
Another Ryoku, was a friend of the Aether Branch Chief Sauboh Faba. Faba and Ryoku arranged a meeting between Lusamine and Team Plasma's leader Ghetsis in the Medal Office in Castelia City. The Special Counsel has witness statements from eyewitnesses working in the building who attest that this meeting took place. While the evidence to support what occurred next is circumstantial, it is believe that Lusamine and Ghetsis made agreements to do the following.
Firstly, a Team Plasma laboratory was established on an island off the coast of Castelia City. This was the P2 Laboratory. The island is leased from the Unova Government, and the leasing records show a number of numbered corporate entities involved in attaining the site and setting up the research facility. These eventually trace back to Lusamine.
Secondly, a series of payments in cryptocurrency were made to Pokémon Hunters to capture experiments, including Shadow and Blade. It was Lusamine's belief that by incapacitating Shadow, the Sneasel population in Unova could recover. Other Pokémon including Mew, Charmander and Raichu were also captured and experimented on.
Third, the facility would create experimental Pokémon for the benefit of Team Plasma. A Mewtwo, and Pokémon created by implanting DNA into the foetus of a pregnant Mew, and Genesect, a Kabutops fitted with a metal exoskeleton. Fourth, Team Plasma would then pay for the creation of Genesect in crypto currency.
The laboratory was run by a number of scientists including Faba. Aether Foundation travel logs provided to the Special Counsel by an informant reveal Faba travelled over 28 times between Unova and Alola in a year. The scientists responsible for operating this facility have been indicted. Several had agreed to provide evidence to the Special Counsel.
Shadow as brought to the facility with Blade, a Charmander named Pyre and a Raichu named Raiee. They were believed to be captured together by a Pokémon Hunter. DNA was taken from Pyre and Raiee and inserted into Shadow. Raiee was also implanted with an egg containing the DNA of a Zygarde Core, in an attempt to cause her to give birth to a new core.
Zygarde is a legendary Pokémon that consists of individual cells and cores that function as a single organism. Cores can control cells. It was believed that by creating a Zygarde-Pichu, the scientists would gain the ability to control this Pokémon. This experiment was directly authorised by the Aether Foundation. Six billion in 'Trumpcoin' was paid to conduct this experiment.
The Zygarde-Pichu never came to be. The scientists lost control of Mewtwo, who caused and explosion in the facility and escaped. The damage to the buildings allowed the remaining Pokémon in the facility to escape, including Shadow, Blade, Pyre and Raiee. The current location of Blade is unknown, and Raiee is known to have died. Pyre the Charmander is a Pokémon informant to this investigation.