A day had passed since the agreement with everyone. Jack, Jackson and the twin sisters were out in the city acquiring the neccessary materials while everyone else was at the battlefield training.

The elderly man watched on from his laboratory above with his hands in his pocket while a steampunk style clockwork pokemon watched on from behind..

Braixen and lucario were having the occasional sparring match, practicing drills while kirlia was helping Grotle and galvantula with target practice. Iris and kiki were hanging out, girl talk..

However our story isn't with David this time, it is with Lily, jenna and the twin brothers on they're errand run for modification parts.

Parked at a local steampunk landing platform both twin brothers and sisters made they're way to a large w as warehouse where vehicles dropped off scrap.

Lily: a scrapyard? What are we looking for exactly?

Jack: we have a few things we need to buy. But in short we need a shit ton of plumbing and pneumatic equipment. Mother and father are going to be assisting us with the configurations.

Avoiding the question entirely, jack answered lily's question as vague as possible making both sisters very curious to what they had in mind.

Jackson: you see me and jack here are very... special when it comes to engineering and designing things, we've made air pneumatic anti tank rifles, homemade arcane engines.

Jack: don't forget the watermelon cannon. That was fun lobbing over city hall.

Lily and jenna shared a look of mild disbelief as the twin brothers laughed cheekily.

Jenna: you guys make weapons? Are you guys like firearm manufacturers?

Jack: not a bad guess, we are actually wespon designers. We use arcane science and use it to further improve our technology that provincia has. I understand that other regions around the world are significantly more advanced but we provincians are quite isolated.

Jack pointed to the city outskirts and further beyond it, the mountains that loomed overhead. The brothers hummed as they entered the building and came face to face with the greatest and most organized surplus material in the city.

They smile with metaphorical hearts in they're eyes before looking around.

Jackson: the mountains act as a natural barrier between us and the rest of the continent. Unova to the east and the forgotten cities of old to the west.

Jenna: cities of old? What do you mean?

The twin brothers looked to one another and gently nod at one another. They enter into an aisle with large pipes and pneumatic stuff.

Jack: the cities of old provincia, large Victorian buildings made from stone and bricks and a military to boot.

Jackson: the military and navy the old cities once held were vast and highly powerful. One such naval ship is within these city limits.

The group came to a halt as a particular set of material caught the brothers attention. Jack reached up and grabbed the needed parts for a wonderful modification on they're ship.

Jack: it's called the liberty dreadnought. A massive ship of 450+ meters, an ironclad ship with carbon fiber wings, arcane engines and powerful arcane cannons. It's time of construction are... however... unknown.

Lily: I mean if what you say is true then the ship has to be estimated to be around the time Nikola was around.

The twin brothers shrug.

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An hour goes by, the group converse with one another. Sharing stories with they're encounters with the knights and other perilous events.

By that time however the twins have gotten everything they needed and were now making way back home on the airship. Lily and jenna were in the airships bridge, looking at the many buttons, levers and hand cranks the ship had to offer.

They were truly mesmerized by the steampunkish style environment. Not much later they would return to the mansion and see David, Kirlia and the others training, hell even Meloetta was interacting with others.

The vibe was nice and calm....

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Something the seas of kalos and alola doesn't have.

Massive muzzle flashes from the horizon was the only thing Drake was able to see in the distance. His ship: greyhound was 20 miles from the spotted scarlet fleet and they too were in the air like drakes was.

He stood in the bridge of his ship with hands behind his back and violently narrowed eyes.

Drake: FIRE!!!

A collection of 6 loud bangs erupted from the turrets of his airship as missiles flew by from his escorting flying destroyers.

Distant explosions occur nearby the enemy airships, none fell and all returned fire.

XO: AIRBURST IMPACT!!!!

6 large rounds fell beneath the ship and detonated on the oceans surface while one detonated 45 meters away from the hull. Turbelance was the result of the explosion.

Drake: all cruisers turn to bearing 329 and align all guns. fire at will!!!

The arcane engines of the greyhound roared to life and began to slowly bank to the left, tilting the ship like it would on water. The guns of the ship rose to equal level and unleashed a full broadside.

A cloud of smoke blinded Drake and the greyhound momentarily before coming face to face with rising flames and smoke from an enemy cruiser.

Drakes eyes widen as did the artillery officer on deck. They're jaws dropped as the artillery officer turned to Drake.

Arty officer: E-Enemy cruiser has sunk sir!!! Estimated landing of the ovens surface t- 45 seconds.

As the cruiser fell out of the sky another sequence of muzzle flashes and detonations occur on the Greyhounds portside.

XO: AIRBURST IMPACT PORTSIDE!!!

A loud bang ensued and the following shock wave shook the ship violently side to side, the Greyhound counter fired along with its escorts. The two fleets were getting closer to one another and the time between muzzle flashes to detonations did as well.

Drake: damn it, order the reconnaissance teams to return and flank from below, I want to drive the fleet back to unova.

Messenger: yes sir!!!

Another explosion rang out and one of the Greyhounds cruiser escorts ignited and began to fall out of the sky. People and pokemon alike fled the descending ships before randavouing to the others.

Arty officer: f-firing!

The Greyhound fired off its first and second batteries, they explode beside the lead battleship shaking it. Not destroying it. Drake grits his teeth before taking a deep breath.

Drake: take us to heading 240° and align a broadside, prepare to fire all batteries!!!

The artillery officer looked at drake with wide eyes before saluting and shouting through the communication channel.

Drake: hard to port double time!!!

Helmsman: yes sir!!

Seconds later and the XO shouted for another impact.

XO: IMPACT STARBOARD!!!

several explosions rang out terrifyingly close to the Greyhound whilst many of the munitions sank below the airship.

Several alarms go off as drake awaited for a report and sure enough on the PA system everyone was quite relieved for the news.

Engineer: Ricochet sir!!! Were ok!!!

Drake nods his head and narrow his eyes more.

Drake: when can we get that broadside?!

Arty officer: in 20 seconds sir.

Drake: we might not get 20 seconds!!

Things began to look grim as the turrets from the scarlet fleet began to turn they're main batteries towards the Greyhound.

Several muzzle flashes from scarlet destroyers illuminate the clouds before landing on the airship, they ricochet off the hull as the destroyers began to move in front of the rest of the scarlet fleet.

And into secondary battery range.

Drake: all ships hard to port and engage those destroyers!!! Main batteries fire when ready!!

The rest of the greyhounds escorts turned hard to port, the cruisers engaged the fast approaching destroyers of the knights with great accuracy.

Arty officer: ready sir!!!

Drake: ready fire on the lead battleship, do not let them fire those cannons!!! FIRE!!!

the greyhound unleashed a full broadside all the while the secondary batteries released havoc on the destroyers. Missiles flew overhead from ally ships and land against the lead battleship despite its effort with flak and anti missile defense.

Many missiles didn't get through but it was enough for the broadside to do sufficient damage, and it all started with the explosions with the engines.

XO: Explosion off the port stern engines!!! Sequencial explosions off the starboard bow!!! He's sunk!!!!

The distant battleship began to fall beneath the clouds and they soon turned a reddish orange.

Drake: combat speed, heading 280!!

Helmsman: combat speed, Heading 280!!

The battle goes on with both sides suffering some form of casualties. Several of the Greyhounds were perished with an elegant explosion whilst the enemies fell in a fiery inferno.

The battle ended with the retreating of the scarlet fleet away from alola regional waters and the return of the reconnaissance teams. Many were injured with bullet wounds and burns for they helped with the destruction of the lead battleship outside of view.

Many hours go by and the fleet was beginning to return to the kalos dockyards for repairs and refueling. The Greyhound however suffered surprisingly the most and the least.

Drake upon the hours passed sat in his room talking with phoebe whom donned a beautiful dress.

Phoebe: I hear you're battle concluded in you're victory.

Drake: I wouldn't call it a victory, more like staving off defeat and giving the knights a bloody nose.

Phoebe hummed warmly with her smile softening.

Phoebe: you survived, the Greyhound survived. That in of itself is a victory, you pushed the knights out of alolan waters.

Drake sighs.

Drake: but not with cost. 2 cruisers and 3 destroyers with the enemy 1 battleship 3 cruises and 4 destroyers.

Phoebe gasped at the notion of the cruisers felling.

Phoebe: who, passed on?

Drake: caelid and dicky fought admir until the end, launching hellfire missile barrages and broadsides.

Phoebe: d-dicky and Caelid.... t-then that would mean team magma admin Tabiha died...

Tabitha, one of 2 team magma admins next to courtney. Tabitha held immense nautical experience and proficiency, he was given the cruiser Dicky a Baltimore class flying heavy cruiser.

Drake: I know.... a shame we lost a wonderful person. Unfortunately this is war and war is coming for kalos unless we do our part.

Phoebe: right, I'll see you soon Drake.

Drake: see you soon.

The call drops as the elite four lowered his head with a sigh. Sitting next to drake was a picture from before the deployment. Standing with a peace sign was drake, Tabitha, team aqua admin: Matt, aether foundation Wicke and lastly the one who perished on the Caelid team plasma admin Zinzolin.

Tabitha, Zinzolin and everyone that died that day would be honored to the highest degree by the champions and the leaders of each respective organization.

And it was that day that everyone truly realized what war was and what to expect from it in the future. Many people and pokemon felt a rage whilst others a fear. But no matter the emotion it all encouraged them to volunteer.

Many hours would pass and the news of the death and destruction would eventually reach ash and his kalos friends, but also cilan, dawn, brock and N.

The chapter ends with ash and pikachu holding they're gym badge holder staring at 5 gym badges. He smiles sorrowfully as his friends walked up beside him.

Clemont: David will be fine, he's strong, very strong.

Serena smiles and held onto Ash's hand before she to reassured him.

Serena: David has iris, jenna, lily and Alder with him. And if we know him he's probably rallied others to his cause....

Ash: you're right, once we meet again I'm gonna challenge him to another battle, what do you think pikachu?

The electric mouse on his shoulder lifted a paw with a gleeful smile whilst electricity bounces from its cheeks.

------------

Back with David at the days end he and his friends were beginning the modification process of kiki's vessel.

The additions of weapons was going to take some time but with that time the bonds of everyone was only going to become stronger.

And just inside the mansion watching kiki and David modifying the ship was an old man. The clocksmith, kiki's grandfather watched on with an elderly smile it was cheerful in a way.