A young news reporter from Slateport Public Broadcasting smooths out her pencil skirt before taking the stand. She rises from her seat with a nervous grace, lump caught in her throat as she swallows to clear it. This will be the biggest news story of her fledgling career—as long as she can get someone to answer.

"To the Gym Leaders," her voice rings clear over the sound of her microphone. "What measures are you taking to secure your respective cities in the face of the frequent threats our region is facing?"

It's a softball question, one easy enough to answer without painting anyone in a bad light. This, she hopes, will get her the headline for her next article.

noah faber Katherine Fairburne Alexei Ivanov Selena Desmarais maverick noah ryder

"I have a question." One reporter spoke up, above the din. "Not long after the Battle of Mauville, there was a change to one FERNANDO SILPH's Piki Page. It read, and I quote:" She glanced down at her papers, face flat and unchanging despite the mess about to come out of her mouth.

"'Fernando Silph likes to pull his dick through his sleeve, so people will shake his dick.' It then continues with 'The head of the Silph Co. once came in first place in the Posterchild for Abortion contest, and went on to pioneer several semen based cooking recipes.' Now," Looking back up, she raised a brow slightly. "This is clearly the work of a child but it's an example of how easy misinformation and confusion were spread, either through ignorance or malicious parties, directly after the battle. How will the League respond to emergencies in the future to ensure that the public does not have to do guesswork themselves?"

---

Andy Blackadder

post in question

god allowed me the ability to write and i'm making it everyone else's problem

unaccostumed to such events, noah seems a little out of place. his gym uniform lacks the fabrics of formality, and his impulsive personality spills past clumsily on his tongue. there is no refined vocabulary: just feelings.

still, he does his best to answer. leaning forward against the table, noah comes terribly close to nudging the windscreens of the microphones.

"uh, so, noah faber here. verdanturf gym leader." he says, raising a hand. "at verdanturf's gym, we've been training a reserve of fighting-type pokemon and gym trainers to become an additional force to help officers and rangers in the local area."

he scratches his neck, fingers clawing at the stiff short hairs.

"but considering all of the craziness from the underground, i've been sending out gym trainers to rusturf tunnel to not only train there, but to patrol the area. and also, i plan on meeting with Billi Marsh, since he recently became petalburg's gym leader, to see if we can uh, figure out a regular schedule of communication in case any worries should come about and if we need to warn each other of anything we see around our respective cities."

he leans back in his chair. cheeks puff as he exhales nervous breath against the barrage of flash photography.

@pressconference

In the midst of excited murmurs and camera flashes, a man whose lanyard marks him as a representative of the infamous 'HNN' rises to his feet. He takes the stand with confidence and clears his throat.

"Has there been any word of the escaped convict, Jules Cotillard, since his breakout in September? What security measures have been taken at Slateport Penitentiary to ensure that General Smohke will not escape?"

(referenced volume 4 - issue 1 and volume 4 - issue 2.)

Standing there, listening to the talk of safety of towns and criminal break outs. There was something lingering on the older man's face. Their badge regarded them as someone from a small news network than the HNN but one that was able to stay afloat anyway.

"What about ensuring the safety of the youth on their journey's? Yes we have ways for them to travel faster between towns but there are still the youth who will rough it in the wilds. Now the danger alone isn't wild pokemon, potential war can happen again if we aren't careful." The old news reporter questioned. "What is the league going to do to ensure that the youth can do their pokemon journeys without parents fearing something could go wrong? Or actual harm coming to them? The gym leaders alone can't watch their respective cities, the League is suppose to be a large group yes? But even then, you can't just watch every youngster who thinks they can handle traveling from town to town with their inexperience?"

Sure the phones in this age helped them greatly. But still...it's not like cops were on ever route, or stations set up for kids to rest in. Besides...what good would those do if a second war happened? There had to be something done before that possibility became a reality.

dahlia pauses before the microphones. her small chin is a perfect length away from their metal cages and as she speaks, every word is carried by the steadiest of rhythms.

"cotillard's whereabouts are currently under investigation. more information will be released at a later time." dahlia says. the water in her tall glass remains still. "as for security measures at slateport penitentiary, initial response procedures have been reviewed and tightened under new guidelines set by the league. furthermore, should a convict escape, officers will coordinate with local rangers to deploy escapee recovery teams."

she continues, her breath invisible to the microphone.

"cotillard was able to escape due to what our scientists call stakataka cubes. these were smuggled in due to cover ultra wormhole interference. with the megalopolan threat all but vanquished, we believe such an incident will not occur again. in regards to smohke, we have her confined within an island maximum security prison close to pacifidlog. we are confident that escape is impossible."

Cillian Quinn / press conference

A portly older gentleman was the next of the press to speak up. While not all of the Gym Leaders had spoken up yet, he could still smell a juicy story in the making.

"Why are Gym Leaders being asked to cover the duties that out Region's Interpol, Rangers, and Police should have covered? Gym Leaders are highly skilled individuals, but as far as I was aware they were supposed to act as guides, teachers, and ones who tested skill. With no direct training or authority on how to deal with criminals, are you not simply putting the lives of those under you in danger? A gym trainer walking the streets at night who witnesses a crime may step in to stop it and inadvertently make the situation worse; they are also unable to make the arrest themselves.

"Why is the League allowing these risks?"

For many in attendance, dahlia goode is considered the star of the show. As what many consider the 'head' of the League, being able to probe her answer for a slip up, no matter how small, rouses several reports from their seat. The more she provides the more chances they have to twist her words, the essential cornerstone to sell click-bait headlines and provide their heavy-handed pundits something to analyze live on air.

"Recently, footage from the incident in Littleroot has gone viral again." A raised hand erupts from the sea of heads. A man in a tan suit and thick rimmed glasses stands as if to differentiate himself from those around him. "HNN initially reported video footage showing several individuals including a white-haired woman. Due to their reporting, the blame was put onto these individuals."

"They even tried to implicate councilman FERNANDO SILPH and the Saint of Slateport, Ruby Walker! Miss Walker and several others, including Kaida Adachi who was 'killed' during this incident have gone on record pointing at someone with more sinister intentions." The official wording on Kaida's condition is emphasized with a change in tone to highlight the odd nature of her circumstance.

The fluorescent lighting of the room highlights the reflective intensity of the reporter's glasses. The way it refracts toward the League conference proves blinding at times. He makes a notice to push up the rims with his middle and index finger, casting them in the flashing glow of the room.

"When, acccttualllly, this footage has implicated who may be the real culprits." He pulls out a printed out screenshot of the video in question. priam conrad's angle of Alexei Ivanov's crossing dressing person, Irina, along with Selena Desmarais who seems unrecognizable in her disguise, prove clear enough to outline their figure and some of their features. Blown up on paper, it's easy enough to recognize the people should they be outlined in a line up. Fortunately, their resemblance to who they acccttualllly are goes amiss.

"Interesting enough, several of these videos have been taken down since popping up. Has the League followed up this information? Where did this video come from? Who are these people? Should we be concerned about these 'enemies'?"


THREAD REFERENCED:
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/9008/hnn-volume-3-issue?page=2
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/9017/rage-riddles-resolutions
pkmn-hoenn.boards.net/thread/12737/exposed-bb

Her colleagues will abhor her for choosing this side of war.

But before Selena Desmarais is inaugurated as a gym leader, she is first and foremost, a journalist.

She is among those that walked the hall with overcoats, glasses, and berets on top of their hand, as if the words "PRESS I.D" does not scream enough that they are reporters in the conference. But Selena simply sports a white furcoat and quilted skirt inside the cold room, waiting cross-legged in one of the seats as her fellow journalists warm up their preys. But when the spotlight turns to the pinkette, she can't help but try to retract their attention away from her. After all, the journalist is not the one people should write news about.

“You all know me as the Lilycove Gym Leader, Selena Desmarais. I do not come here today as a league officer but as someone who is part of the government watchdog. If you have questions about my association with the aforementioned video, feel free to come by at my gym for another press conference.” Her gaze is piercing like a staraptor who is ready to kill her prey. “But today is not about me. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, though. Since I also have an question.”

She eyes Calliope beside her, who lifts the poketablet with PSYCHIC, presenting her notes as she speaks up.

“This one, I like to probe on League's efforts in solving this Macro Cosmos issue from months ago.” Her screen shifts to an article from HNN last year. “April of 2020, privacy concerns with the MCG's newest and hottest virtual reality roleplaying game took over mass media and effectively decreased the company's shares. While the league is not to be blamed for this, there is a reason to believe that they could have done something especially when the question about where these data went was still left unanswered.”

Screen pages out to another image, showing her the succeeding month's article about the Littleroot incident. “It's even bothering that they are allowed to operate nearby the giant tree on Littleroot, where the unexpected happened when the Ultra Beast called 'blacephalon' reappeared several months after people thought it to be missing.”

Her eyes search for the people behind the table, her voice stable as ever. “Shouldn't the league have control with regards how businesses operates in Hoenn? And if they operate in such a bad way, shouldn't they have the power to take it upon themselves to resolve these problems? Could the league have mishandled some pertinent issues of the past that would have been accounted for our present predicament?”

EVENT: LEAGUE PRESS CONFERENCE

An old, sleep-deprived man rose up his hand, quickly following the gym leader and journalist Selena Desmarais 's intervention. He looked rough, clothes disorganized, but was equipped with a notepad and a pen sitting upon his ear. He proceeded to stand up.

"Carl Carlson from Hoenn News Network here. Adding to what Ms. Desmarais stated, I would also like to ask about the League's view about past and ongoing situations where they have lost controls. I have a small list but let me bring out the three points that I believe are the most important and were not mentioned as of yet."

The man licked his finger before turning a page on his notepad, before taking a deep breath. "On the day of Halloween 2019, Justus Bosch was declared Deceased. Footage released unto multiple new network revealed our commissioner, dahlia goode , to have been the one unplugging the Fortree mayor from the Life Support system. Plus, according to witnesses, she vanished quickly after that footage was revealed. And yet, we haven't heard of anything else upon this situation ever since! No investigation, nothing to discredit the footage or to give peace to the good folks of Fortree! I believe they deserve to know what has truly happened to their beloved mayor, wouldn't you say?"

The journalist licked his finger once more, turning onto a new page of his notepad. "Onto more recent events. We have received information from a source on the field during those events that our beloved champion, Ms. Bailey Cooper and her creature, I quote, 'her giant red dog that produces lava', has almost killed multiple rangers and Galarian soldiers, as well as a child that was on the battlefield. I would like to question the reason for a child's presence on the warfront, but also the ineptitude of our champion in handling her pokemon properly to avoid these kind of situations. War does not excuse possible friendly fire."

Still in the creepy finger-licking fashion, the man turned to another page. "Last but not least, I'd like to point out that someone melted Mauville's forest and no one can identify who did. This forest was home to multiple wild pokemons, but I also want to point out that, for some extremely weird coincidence, another child was there, hiding. No one attempted to save him and he actually got told off as soon as he came out of the woods. While this returns to the question of a child's presence on the battlefield, I'd like to also point the, excuse me for my words, shitty and deplorable actions that the fighters of this war have done to this kid. Surely he will never be the same from all of this! Please enlighten us on these issues." The man proceeded to sit down after asking these questions, judging his job as complete.

---

Referenced threads:
Dahlia vanishes
Moana being almost melted by the Lava Plume
Andy in the forest fire, seconds before getting told off by Balder.

tags: Bailey Cooper FERNANDO SILPH dahlia goode kim cole-essam Laurence Anderson Selena Desmarais