The fanfare in her head was glorious, trained squires holding cornets fluttering with heraldic banners. The fanfare in real life was nonexistent, unless you counted the rhythmic click-click-click of Durant legs.

That's fine. I'll take a drumroll.

Just inside the castle gates the insects marched, real-life drones with gauntleted legs clattering on the cobblestones. The formation was military, orderly, and utterly impressive. Chryssa had no doubt that training wild Pokemon to do something like this as part of a show was far out of the Warden's ability-- this was clearly just how Durant were. Perhaps in the wild, they would do so at the heart of an iron anthill. Here in the artificial streets of the castle, they lined up as neatly as traffic.

One stepped out of line, startled as she passed, and Chryssa whirled on it with a flare of blue skirts. "Halt, soldier!" she cried, and the bug waggled its antennae at her in alarm. "General, are you going to take this sloppiness in your ranks?" she addressed another ant, who also wiggled its antennae at her. Chryssa liked to think they were communicating. Regardless of the information being conveyed, the march continued, and the two Durant were left behind by the relentless passage of their bretheren.

The second Durant turned on the first, snapping its mandibles. Clearly, the situation was the former's fault.

"Thank you, General. I'm promoting you to my personal guard. Dismissed!" Chryssa waved a hand at the first ant, who hurried back into line. The second one she caught in a Safari Ball, pleased to have made one of the steely soldiers her own.

^{safari balls: 2
CATCHING DURANT}

She was tempted to fall into step with the Durant guard, but decided not to test her luck. She had yet to bring out any Pokemon to defend herself with, and if one of the vicious ants lacked discipline, she might have her bones sheared through as easily as sheet metal. Chryssa had seen first-hand what the bug-types could do to a car.

Speaking of Pokemon, should she have one out? To fit the setting? Who would make appropriate ladies in waiting, or bodyguards?

After a moment of hesitation, she sent out her Gothorita and Slowbro. "Let's go to the castle, peons!" she said. Her language didn't seem to affect the Pokemon, who were apparently used to being called strange names, and the pair fell into step as the girl made her way down the cobblestone path, cane clicking as she did.

She was met with a Kalos-style flower garden, perfectly symmetrical and lined with neatly-trimmed hedges. Chryssa wondered idly who was trimming them-- surely not the Durant. On either side of the walkway flowed two clear channels of water, and as the trio passed through them, lacy-tailed Goldeen leapt from stream to stream in shimmering arcs above their heads.

Fenella turned her head up to watch as a pale orange one soared overhead like a living kite before plopping back into the waters on the other side. They didn't really suit her aesthetic, but she couldn't help but admire the view. 

Lachlan didn't even glance at the beautiful goldfish-- he just had his sidearm cocked and ready, shoulders rolling low as he prowled along at Chryssa's side. This place creeped him out. Too fake and frilly. But hell, at least the girls were enjoying themselves. 

^{safari balls: 2
SKIPPING GOLDEEN}

The path was blocked.

Halfway up the grand steps to the castle, Chryssa saw it standing there. A lone knight, decorated with pieces of Durant carapace for its helm and pauldrons. In one paw it bore a blade of liquid energy, its toe-beans curled around a shell-shaped pommel.

Lachlan sneered visibly and raised his sidearm, not even glancing at the girl for permission. Chryssa made no move to stop the blast of concussive poison that hurtled towards the lone protector, and she didn't need to-- the otter leapt with a self-propelled Aqua Jet, the turquoise of its blade flowing and changing into a living shield.

The Oshawott hovered there in a column of water as if to say just try and get past me.

"Marvelous," Chryssa said, eyes glued to the water-type, and then "Who dares to block my way?"

Fenella had been floating her up the stairs via Telekinesis to spare her legs the trouble (there was a wheelchair-accessible ramp off to the side, but Chryssa insisted on a grand entrance) and the Gothorita said something catty to her Slowbro partner.

Lachlan huffed as he hurtled the last few steps to the top, swinging his heavy Shellder for momentum. He soared up the last step and was smashed into from the side, a burst of cherry-blossom petals emerging from the impact like a spray of pastel blood. Retaliate, Chryssa thought, impressed, as her Slowbro sprawled across the ground. From his stomach, he attempted to aim his sidearm again, but the Oshawott was already on him at close range, a Razor Shell held to his soft throat.

Chryssa and Fenella finished floating to the top level and the Oshawott straddled the back of Lachlann's neck, pressing the jagged blade even harder against his skin. The Slowbro gurgled something, eyes bugging out.

Then he was abruptly freed as the Oshawott rolled off the side of him, chortling. While it was distracted, the Gothorita had snuck up on it to use a Tickle attack, and it seemed all its vigilante training hadn't prepared it for that. It rolled on the ground, dropping its scalchop in the process. "Ho ho ho!" Chryssa also laughed triumphantly.

As Fenella continued to tickle the Pokemon, its iron helmet fell off, and Chryssa saw its face! It was-- still an Oshawott!

Lachlan's reaction was stronger, however. He made a strangled, disbelieving sound. The Oshawott was female? He'd been bested by a woman!

"Will you join me, Oshawott? I would far prefer you as my friend over my enemy," Chryssa said, though the water-type was too busy laughing to reply. She touched down on solid ground again, crossing the distance to the little creature by her own two feet. "Never mind. Welcome to the posse, you fought well."

Having justly won her way into the castle, Chryssa tossed a Safari Ball at the helpless lady knight.

^{safari balls: 1
CATCHING OSHAWOTT}

Disappointingly enough, the front doors were fastened shut.

She supposed it made sense that the Safari Wardens hadn't actually constructed a full castle interior decorated with lavish furniture, chandeliers... carpets... well, her imagination fell short, but reality fell even shorter.

Not one to bemoan poor fortune, however, Chryssa simply turned around at the top of the steps and began to descend again back the way she'd come. She'd read once that no actor could resist a flight of stairs, and she made the most of it now even as she half-walked, half-floated back down. Behind her, Fenella hopped from step to step and Lachlan scrambled after them, still massaging his throat.

"Make way," she ordered to no one, envisioning a grand crowd at the bottom of the stairs to welcome her. "Long live the queen! Long live the queen!" she chanted under her breath, then "Fear not, peons, I merely plan to wander my grand castle grounds for a time. Go about your business!"

No one was there to hear her but the leaping Goldeen and a lone Treecko gardener, who was pruning one of the hedges. Ah, so that was who she had to thank for the marvelous display. "Keep up the good work, commoner," she told it as she soared past, brandishing her cane. "The gardens look splendid."

The Treecko doffed an imaginary hat and watched her and her entourage pass, shaking his head in amusement.

^{safari balls: 1 (2? I guess I started with 4 after all!)
SKIPPING TREECKO}

Now that she’d reached the bottom of the steps, Chryssa wasn’t sure where to go next. She’d planned to wander the grounds while forcing her own Pokemon to enable her queen-tier delusions, but it seemed like she’d used up her grand entrance.

She heard a distant fanfare and turned to face it, furrowing her brow. Had another Safari Zone customer entered the area? I’m sure that wasn’t in the package deal, she thought, more annoyed that someone else had gotten trumpets on entry and she’d had to visualize her own. Still, the promise of a playmate (?) was... promising, and so Chryssa touched down lightly on real ground again and strode towards the source of the commotion.

The neck-brace-wearing-so-called-royal was both disappointed and pleased to see the bridge was still up and the gates were still closed— so who had the big entrance been for? A pair of Whismur stood at the near entrance to a spider-silk-draped carriage. One of them was in the process of taking down the steps for the shadowy figure within— whoever was inside, they were important.

“I’ll never let you free that impostor!” Chryssa uttered, throwing a Safari Ball at the Whismur. It swirled away into the light, dropping the steps it had been trying to put up. All according to plan. Now when whoever it was came out of the carriage, they would have to jump onto the ground themselves! Ha!

...Also, she really needed a new Exploud. Her current one was... difficult.

^{safari balls: 1
CATCHING WHISMUR}

True to Chryssa’s prediction, the queenly Lilligant who emerged from the glamorous carriage was stopped short by the fact that there were no steps to descend by. Lacking the long, shapely legs of Tsareena, the grass-type princess wiggled her stubby toes and looked doubtfully down at the gap between the grasses and the platform. Should she jump? That really wouldn’t be elegant though, would it?

Chryssa viewed this inner turmoil with nothing but smug triumph, though that turned into some small pity when one of the little Petilil flanking their monarch fell off the carriage and landed face-first on the cobblestones. Fortunately, she bounced right back, her rubbery-bulb face actually absorbing the shock of the fall and bouncing her right back onto her feet. This (success?) seemed to bolster the queen and her ladies in waiting, who proceeded to fall forward and do the same.

Chryssa fell into peals of laughter watching the Petilil falling and bouncing and ricocheting like rubber balls, and laughed even harder when the Lilligant did the same. Satisfied that she’d somehow proven her superiority here, the girl turned on her heel and made her way back towards the entrance where the Durant had been parading earlier.

^{safari balls: 1
SKIPPING PETILIL}