Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wren appeared in Lentimas Town thanks to the help of Claydol and looked around. "I hear there's someone named Winona that's come to town to help fend off the Neo Plasmas to the South." He announced to himself more than anyone else. "I'll be damned if I let my hometown get sucked into this war without pitching in my own assistance." He told himself as he headed toward his home to visit his parents.

Ashes to Ashes Fertilizer was based out of his parents' home due to his age when he started the company and after leaving their home, he'd simply never bothered to relocate it, choosing to work from his old office there when paperwork needed filing and left it at that. If any of the other Snagems happened to be coming along, they would probably catch sight of him as he headed toward the airstrip. Luckily, his parents didn't live very far away from it.

"I normally wouldn't. But this is my hometown." Wren replied to Keiko without turning to look at her. "I don't like direct conflict like this but if they're dragging Lentimas into the war, I'm going to help as much as I can." He told the woman as he ran his fingers over the six Pokeballs clipped to his waist. He seemed to instinctively know which ones contained his cacti as he paused at the pair of aged Nest Balls that contained the pair.

"I'm going to see my parents first and tell them they need to evacuate the region if they can. I also need to grab a few things from my office at their house before we go talk to this Winona woman who's supposed to be helping with the offensive." He offered. "You can head on to the airfield and let her know we're here to help."

Wren would arrive to the airfield shortly after Keiko. Exactly what had transpired wouldn't be answered just yet but she was free to ask him any time she wanted. One thing that would be different, though, would be the presence of a XTranceiver on his right wrist, opposite the flowering bracelet on his left. He'd only catch the tail end of the short conversation but when he heard Winona's statement about bringing more than two people, he'd smirk. "Just make sure we have enough explosives for this." He told the woman as he looked down at the device on his wrist.

"You may not know me as well as the locals do but I run a company out of this town and I have a small fleet of Flying-types of my own that can help with this." He told the woman. "I won't call them in until we're just about ready to take off for the attack since they're all busy with deliveries at the moment but they will be here when they're needed." He assured the woman with a weary but determined grin. He was already sick of this mission and he hadn't even done anything yet. "And let's get this done as quickly as we can."

Winona would nod to him and motion for the pair of Snagems to follow after her. "If you're going to help out, even if there are only two of you, maybe helping us put together some more bombs would be the best thing you can do for right now? We're still not quite ready to send our forces out yet." She told them as she lead them to the far side of the airstrip, away from the planes that were being prepared for the attack.

"I can manage that, I think. You have a foreman to make sure we don't blow us all up before you're ready to do this thing?" Wren asked, only to receive a nod and be pointed towards a man in a hardhat nearby. He looked like he was busy constructing large-scale mortars.

Winona looked around at the work going on around her and, seeing how things were progressing smoothly for the moment, she paused. "This is only possible due to the Indigo Alliance coming together. We're using old school black powder for this mission. Nothing fancy but certainly effective. Rather than trying to ship tons of pre made powder, we've had Johto and Hoenn ship plenty of materials into Unova to mix with the one ingredient that's readily available here." She explained in an effort to bring the Snagems up to speed on what was going on.

"The Grove has discovered that Twist Mountain is rich in an element commonly referred to as Saltpeter. With Johto shipping in large quantities of Charcoal and Hoenn providing the Sulfur, we have everything we need for these mortars to be useful." The woman explained. "That man at the table is a demolitions expert from Devon Corporation. He'll be doing all the work of mixing the powder so no one dies. All you two need to do is follow his directions to fill the mortars being made and delivered from the other side of the airfield. " She assured the pair and once again directed them to the table. "Good luck, work fast and don't blow up." She told the Snagems.

Wren followed the woman's instructions and walked over to the table to assist. "So tell me, how are we doing this?" He asked the man in the hard hat.

"Simple." The man replied, lifting a hollow mortar shell up to the table. "We got some bits of flint and some rough steel in here." He explained, pointing to a trigger button on the outside of the shell. "And we're pouring black powder inside it so when we drop these buggers, they'll pop on impact." He continued, taking a scoop and digging into a large bin filled with black powder sitting beside him. With his other hand, he grabbed a large funnel and placed it into the hole at the very top of the rounded mortar and poured the powder into it to avoid spilling the mixture. "Once you've got it mostly full, add a wick to it as a failsafe, just in case the wind knocks it off center and prevents impact detonation then finish filling it." Demonstrating for the pair, he finished packing the bomb with powder, using a rod just a bit smaller than the hole he was pouring it through to pack the powder a bit tighter so it would explode better periodically. "Then plug it so it doesn't leak." He finished the explanation and demonstration with the plug, leaving the wick to emerge through it.

Wren nodded a few times throughout the explanation and then, when it was over, he released his two most humanoid Pokemon. "Hemlock, Aconite, you two are going to to help us out here. Follow my lead and be careful." He told them as he took a position nearby with the pair of cacti mimicking him as he began to fill and plug the shells to be used for the coming attack.

Wren and his pokemon worked quickly, assembling their mortars as fast as they were able while staying safe and not causing any explosions. It wouldn't take long for the group to have a large pile of the things together and, when Winona came back to check on them, the hard-hatted foreman spoke for the Snagems. "We've just about exhausted the supplies we have on hand, ma'am. We'll be ready for the raid before much longer."

"Excellent. You two some with me." Winona replied, pointing at Wren and Keiko. "You're going to help me prep the plane for this and start loading it with as many of these mortars as you can." She instructed, leading them pair across the airfield. "There are quite a lot of them near the plane already."

"Good. Let me make a quick call, then." Wren spoke up as he pulled the XTransceiver from his pocket that he'd carried in with him and activated it. Setting the device to the correct settings, he'd send out a call. After a moment of nothing, someone answered on the other end. "Hey Ma. I need you to call for the delivery team to meet me at Lentimas Airfield. They should be mostly done with their deliveries by now so it shouldn't disrupt business too much." He spoke up when the woman answered.

"Why, though? What are you up to?" The woman questioned.

"Don't worry about it, Ma. It's important they get here quickly, though. I need the whole crew." Wren replied, shaking his head.

"Alright, dear." Wren's mother replied a clicking sound indicating she had ended the call.

"It shouldn't take long for them to arrive and while they might not be able to carry but one or two shells each, they should give us a much larger range to attack from and help disorient our enemy." He told both Winona and Keiko. While he had ensured his parents had evacuated, he'd also made certain that his business could continue operating as much as possible. He also made sure he could call on his delivery team for things like this.

With Keiko and Wren helping load the plan, neither would be likely to notice at first as the airfield grew dark. Before too long, the plane would be mostly loaded and, with the darkening sky, Winona was beginning to worry that the attack would be as successful as she had hoped. Until the sound of beating wings filling the air.

"Sounds like they're here." Wren announced as he heard the sounds from outside the plane, where he'd been unloading what appeared to be one of the last few mortars that would fit inside.

"How...." Winona gasped as she looked outside.

"How many are there?" Wren asked from behind her, approaching to see if the entire crew had arrived as he had requested. "Everyone's here so... About 30 altogether?" He told the gym leader.

"How do you care for so many?!" Winona asked. Her birds were easy to care for when she had many at once since birds didn't typically eat much at any time.

"Oh, that." Wren replied with a laugh. "I own a very successful business specializing in fertilizers. Some of our varieties are very nutritious for Grass-type Pokemon as well. Most of them don't eat much aside from a bit of of water and sunlight to go with the fertilizers we use with their bedding." He explained. "They absorb a large amount of their daily nutrients while they sleep and rest between deliveries." Walking out and looking at the remaining mortars versus the number of Pokemon he had called in, he did a bit of quick math. "The Jumpluff can't carry more than one of these each, I don't think but that's twenty bombs scattered apart from the main plane. The Tropius should be able to carry two a piece so that's another twenty scattered farther out."

"Do we even have that many mortars left?" Winona asked as she exited the plane and looked at the remaining pile of of them. "It looks like it'll be a close cut but we should have at least thirty left over. Whatever we don't have, I'll send the rest of my crew home."

Winona nodded and began to move among the Pokemon. "Keiko, do you want to help me get everyone ready?" Wren asked Keiko as Winona walked away to try and figure out how much work this would take to prepare them all. "Just explain to the Jumpluff what we need them doing here. I'll talk to the Tropius." With that, he'd walk into the crowd of Flying-types and quickly segregated them to make communication with the group a bit easier.

As Keiko arrived, he nodded. "So are the Tropius." He informed her as he gave a thumbs up to Winona to let her know that his crew was prepared to join the attack. "Hey..." He spoke up as Winona walked off, turning back to Keiko again. "I know you don't like this. I can see it in your face." He told her, his own ice blue eyes showing the pain he felt from asking this of his business Pokemon or any other, really. "But there is no way that Winona's plane will be enough on it's own and this airfield isn't big enough to support many more planes even if we had more to use." He pointed out. "I hate this. I really do. I just know better than to think we can do this alone."

Once Winona gave him the signal that everyone was ready, he took stock of who was left. "So there wasn't enough for everyone after all, huh?" He asked. Six of the Tropius were left unarmed but the remainder of the crew were all prepared. "You guys can head on home for now." He told the Tropius, giving each one a rub on their side to let them know they had done well simply by answering his call.

"Keiko, jump on one of the Tropius. I'll be riding another. We can each take half of the crew with us and we'll help direct them where we need them. After they drop their mortar, direct them to head home." He instructed. These Pokemon were trained to focus on their deliveries and only their deliveries until work was over. If they were told to drop their mortars and leave, they would without question and none of them would be worries about the aftermath of releasing their packages. Once they let go, their job would be done. That was the one thing Wren was glad for.

Wren nodded silently before looking up at the plane nearby. It looked like Winona was inside and preparing to take off for the offensive. "Looks like we're getting ready to go." He pointed out. "Let's see where she takes the plane and we'll head the other way. I'm hoping she aims to take out that ship since she's got more firepower on that aircraft that we've got here, though." He admitted with a small sigh. "I probably should have talked to her about that before we got everything loaded up, though..."

"Attention you two!" Winona's voice called out over an intercom. "I'm heading for the water. I want you two distracting the ground forces while I bomb the frigate heading for land." She announced via the plane's apparent exterior communication system.

"Huh... Guess she was thinking the same thing." Wren realized aloud, letting out a small breath of relief. "Let's see if we can't scatter their forces without killing anyone, at least. I'd prefer to not have blood on my hands, war or not. I'm pretty sure you agree." He said to Keiko as he patted his Tropius on the side and directed it skyward.

Once the small platoon of aerial Pokemon were in the sky, Winona would take off and lead the attack toward their destination. Along the way, she would break away over the open water and head toward the frigate down below. Once she was gone, Wren would lead the way toward Nacrene City, calling for his squadron of Jumpluff to use Tailwind in unison and press their flight onward a bit faster. Hopefully Keiko would catch on and indicate hers should do the same. The attack was on!