Loona sat alone inside the ruined shell of an old building. In front of her, shavings and dust of whatever wood she could find nearby. She had in one hand, a rock. She was using it to try to start a fire, striking it repeatedly against a metal guild seal in her other hand, in hopes of creating sparks to light the dust.

She had come into possession of it after her failed attempt to join the guild. She had hoped to join the guild, get in good with it, in hopes of finding someone to help her rescue her missing friend. The pignite outside of it had simply mocked her, beat her, then roughly raped her, in full view of everyone, before laughing and going back inside. Once she had gotten to her feet, she had stolen it without anyone even noticing.

'You take my body, I take your seal.' She thought. It was only fair, in a world that she was quickly learning, was about as unfair as it could get.

She had tried to leave town with it, but the guards wouldn't even let her leave, wouldn't let her go home to the maze, without a guild escort. From the same guild whose second-in-command had so eagerly taken advantage of her in her time of need.

So here she was. Alone. Without a friend left in the world. And the only hope she had left... was that hunk of metal she was striking with a rock to get a fire going. Something that was, at the moment, not going well. She had been at this for what seemed like at least half an hour, and she had yet to produce even a spark let alone a fire.

At long last, a few sparks jumped from the seal and unto the small pile of wood and wood dust in front of her, lighting it up in a small blaze. Loona added some larger pieces of wood, hoping to get it hot enough for what she had in mind next.

IRON. She had heard of it. She had seen it firsthand. Used by the very raichu that had led a bunch of his 'friends' to the maze, with the sole purpose of finding, as they had put it, 'finding savages to fuck'. That bastard that ruined her life, that made off with Shia when things went south. 

In hindsight, she probably should have expected the treatment the guild gave her. That bastard that took Shia had been wearing a guild badge himself.

It had only been some other mons who had come to their aid that she was able to get free. However, she had seen the raichu effortlessly cut open one of them before taking Shia and making off into the maze. That was the power of Iron... the ability to easily slay any mon regardless of type advantage or disadvantage. WIth one swing, IRON could kill.

It was the power she needed. It was the power she was hoping to make with the fire, once it was hot enough. It was the only hope she had left. 

The linoone held the guild seal over the fire. Hoping it would melt, or become malleable. She didn't want to admit it, but she had no idea what she was doing. But... this... was all she had.

"Come on... Come oooonnn!" She uttered to herself as the flames surrounded and licked the bottom of the seal. Unfortunately, all that seemed to be happening was that the bottom part of the seal was starting to turn a bit black from the soot. 
That, and it was starting to get very hot all over. Too hot, in fact, for her hand to hang onto anymore. She let out a cry of pain as her hand let go of the seal of its own accord, the metal falling straight into the fire.

She held her burned hand against herself as pain coursed through her fingers. She looked angrily at the guild seal sitting in the fire, her pain and frustrations quickly turning to anger.

"DAMMIT!" She screamed, kicking the dirt in a fit of blind rage. The dirt flew directly onto the fire, covering it and reducing the small inferno to a smoldering pile in less than a second. It only took a few seconds for the rage to subside, and for Loona to look upon what she had done with a look of horror.

"No, no, no!!" She squatted down, trying to find some small bit of ember, some small hope of lighting it back up, but it was too late. It had gone out as a result of her rash action. 
She would have to start all over again, from scratch. But, at this point, she had begun to realize that this was not going to work anyway. She could not make IRON. Not like this. 

Tears filled her eyes as the last bit of hope left her. She dropped to her knees, and then to her hands. She pounded the ground as she cried. 

Loona jerked herself up, starting at the bright, full moon in the sky. She stretched out her hands, her eyes wet with tears as she spoke.

"Please... I... Someone... SOMETHING! Help me!!" She sobbed loudly at the night sky.

There was no response in the dead of night. No one came to help, to check out the racket, or even to tell her to shut up and go to sleep. There was nothing but dead silence as she continued to stare at the moon, her sobs slowing, her eyes never leaving the large celestial object.

'I don't know why...' Loona thought to herself, 'but... whenever I'm upset, staring at the moon... it's always brought me comfort, however small.' It was no small coincidence that reason she'd taken the name 'Loona' upon her evolution, as she'd always had a strange... fixation with the night sky, and the moon in particular. 
Her tears began to slow, and then to dry as she stared up into the comforting sight of the celestial heavens. She was not completely calm now. How could she be, with everything she'd just been through? But she felt slightly better, if only, slightly.

Loona was just about to put an end to this ritual for now, to curl up and go to sleep, when something caught her eye. She did not know why, but her gaze was drawn to one particular sight.

"Huh? That light..."

It was off the side of the moon, just enough that it wasn't absorbed by the moon's radiance. A very small, but unusually bright star. She could not understand at first why it caught her attention, as it shivered in the sky. But she was unable to look away from it.

'Is it just me...' Loona thought to herself. 'Or is it getting... bigger?'

As she continued to stare, it became apparent that she was wrong. It wasn't getting bigger, it was getting closer. And fast!

Finally tearing her gaze from the object upon that realization, the linoone immediately got up. Some dust fell from her fur, and upon looking down, she realized a small, burned stick had stuck to her fur. Instinctively, she dusted herself off. She had just removed the stick from her fur when her ears perked up to hear a low humming sound, one that was becoming louder by the second. 

Loona's eyes went wide, her pupils likewise shrinking with fear as she saw a huge shadow loom over her in the night. She gulped, turned and looked at the source of the shadow, only to suddenly have a bright light blind her vision. "Aagh!" She yelled as she shielded her eyes with her arms instinctively. It worked, as her vision began to clear and return. However, it was a small comfort considering what was now entering her field of view.

There, a few feet up in the sky, hovering right above her, was a large, metal... thing. Easily the size of the destroyed building she had been squatting in, and then some. It was longer than it was wide, and had a pair of small, unmoving swept-back wings in the back. Her thoughts knew not how else to describe what she was seeing above her. In fact, she was surprised no one else was seeing or hearing this. 

... Or maybe they had, and they'd all ran away? She couldn't hear any panicked screams nor any sounds of footsteps in the background. Not that she could, anyway, with the overwhelmingly loud hum this thing was producing.

"What in the Lost Ways?!" Was all she could mutter with fear to herself at the sight of the imposing object above her. 
Loona took a cautious step back. Her instincts, her very body screamed at her to run away from this thing as fast as she could, or to find a place to hide. 

She wanted to, but she could not. Whether it was the fear, the curiosity, or something else, she found she could not move. It was as if she was paralyzed on the spot.

Suddenly, a pair of purple flashes of light enter her vision in the left corner of her eye. She turned to see what was the source of those flashes. And, in that moment this situation got even more strange and unnerving than it already was.

There, in front and to her left, were two bird-like mons about 2/3rds her own height, only slightly taller than Veera. Mons that she had never seen the likes of, nor heard of in her entire life in The Maze. The best description that her mind could process, was that they seemed to be some sort of strange combination of a charmander and a pidgeotto, having the general shape of the former while having the feathers of the latter. Though that description was not nearly adequate enough to describe the strangely colored, feathered raptor-like creatures. They appeared more on the bird side than the charmander side, but lacked the beaks. They had feathers around their arms, a large tail-like feather in the back, and were covered with down. 
Although she could not make out the colors clearly, the one in front of her appeared to have a lightish brown coat, not unlike her own. However, on the top of his head, his feathers, and his back were colored a light black. A border of a very bright light blue seperated the brown from the black. A single large black feather jutted out of its head, gently folding over behind it.
The one to her left appeared much the same, but their coat was a dull light blue, not unlike Shia's. A dark blue cap instead of a light black, and the bordering line was a deep red instead of very light blue. It also did not have the large feather on its head. 
Both were wearing what appeared to be some sort of hoodless cloak or coat, black in color. Loona didn't dwell upon this for too long, however, for it was at that moment she became aware of a third creature standing to her right. She looked upon its form, and was overcome with a sense of fear from the beast.

It was a huge creature, one that mostly resembled an all-white mightyena in terms of body shape and color, but that's where any sense of familiarity ended. For starters, this creature was massive, larger than any mightyena. It was easily 6ft tall, dwarfing even the Ampharos guard that had denied her passage back to her home, let alone herself. But that was not the strangest part. The strange part was its body. It appeared to be wearing a strange, Iron-like armor around its upper legs and hips. Or, at least, Loona had presumed it was some sort of armor. But, within moments, a realization came to her. 
The 'armor' wasn't being worn around its legs and hips. The armor was part of its legs and hips. She had heard of 'mons like this, made of a strange metal. But had never seen one before. And certainly none like this. 
Said 'mons could still be hurt and killed by IRON, or so she had heard. This one however? Loona had her doubts. 
Its chest and upper arms were similar, made out of metal instead of being simply a worn armor like she had first thought. On the sides of the legs and armors were two pairs of large, black ovals, both displaying some sort of light blue, glowing symbol that she did not recognize: a circle with three feathers   
But the strangest, and most unnerving part was its face. Or more accurately, lack thereof. Where its face should have been, was a large, rounded, jet black mask or visor. Loona could not tell if this was merely a mask, or actually part of the creature like the legs and chest were. Given that, she could only presume the latter. 
Upon its shiny smooth surface, was what appeared to be a glowing, blue 'face'. Similar in nature to the symbols on calves and shoulders, yet different. 
Upon noting that she was staring, Loona was shocked when the expression, which she had thought was merely painted on with some sort of weird glowing paint, changed. It had been a neutral one before, with large dots for eyes, a straight 'mouth' for an expression. In less than a second, it had changed, its formerly straight mouth now resembling a smile, its formerly dotted eyes now forming a bent, upward pointing line. The kind of expression one might use when they were trying to appear friendly.
Loona could not tell whether this creature was trying to be genuinely comforting, or ironically intimidating. But to her, it was most certainly intimidating.

Needless to say, Loona was now very, very frightened. Yet, she still could not bring herself to run from the situation, no matter how much her brain wanted her to.

"Ummm... Hi?" She managed to sputter out weakly. "Ca-Can I help... you?"

One of the smaller, bird-like creatures, the one with a brown coat and a large feather in its head, began to speak.
"☝︎☼︎☜︎☜︎❄︎✋︎☠︎☝︎💧︎ 💧︎☜︎☠︎❄︎✋︎☜︎☠︎❄︎ 👍︎☼︎☜︎✌︎❄︎🕆︎☼︎☜︎ ⚐︎☞︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ 🏱︎☹︎✌︎☠︎☜︎❄︎📪︎ 🕈︎☜︎ 👍︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎ ✋︎☠︎ 🏱︎☜︎✌︎👍︎☜︎✏︎"
"... What? Umm..." She couldn't understand a word it said.

Suddenly, a crazy idea popped into her head. ... Just moments before, she had begged the heavens to help her, in some way, somehow in her loneliest, most hopeless hour. And just like that, stood these... things. 
It was a longshot. But it was worth a try.

"I know this is going to sound a bit odd right out of the blue..." Loona began, "But... I'm in need of help. My friends and I were attacked by a raichu and his dirty rapist friends. I tried to join one of these guilds and-"

The blue-coated bird creature tilted its head at her words, while the other one put its fingers up to its face.
"☹︎⚐︎⚐︎😐︎💧︎ ☹︎✋︎😐︎☜︎ ⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ❄︎☼︎✌︎☠︎💧︎☹︎✌︎❄︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎ 💧︎⚐︎☞︎❄︎🕈︎✌︎☼︎☜︎ ☠︎☜︎☜︎👎︎💧︎ 🕆︎🏱︎👎︎✌︎❄︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎ 🕈︎⚐︎☼︎☹︎👎︎📬︎  The brown one muttered under its breath, in its alien dialect.

"🕈︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ 👎︎⚐︎ 🕈︎☜︎ 👎︎⚐︎📪︎ ☜︎✋︎☹︎🕆︎💣︎✋︎✍︎ 🕈︎☜︎ ⚐︎👌︎✞︎✋︎⚐︎🕆︎💧︎☹︎✡︎ 👍︎✌︎☠︎🕯︎❄︎ ✌︎💧︎😐︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ 🏱︎☜︎☼︎💣︎✋︎💧︎💧︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ❄︎☟︎✋︎💧︎📬︎" The blue one responded, obviously ignoring her.

"☺︎🕆︎💧︎❄︎ ❄︎✌︎😐︎☜︎ ☟︎☜︎☼︎ 🕈︎✋︎❄︎☟︎ 🕆︎💧︎📬︎ " The brown one replied back.

"👌︎🕆︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎✌︎❄︎🕯︎💧︎ ✌︎ 👌︎☼︎☜︎✌︎👍︎☟︎ ✋︎☠︎ 🏱︎☼︎⚐︎❄︎⚐︎👍︎⚐︎☹︎✏︎" The blue coated one shouted frantically back.

"☠︎⚐︎ ⚐︎☠︎☜︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎ 😐︎☠︎⚐︎🕈︎📬︎ ☠︎✋︎☠︎☜︎📪︎ ✋︎☞︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 🕈︎✋︎☹︎☹︎📬︎" Responded with a lower tone of voice. 

Loona couldn't understand a word they were saying, but what she did understand was that this was obviously going nowhere.
'Great, another dead end.' She sighed. 'I've been fucked over again, and ignored.' She was just about to turn around and leave this strange encounter, to shuffle off to wallow somewhere else when she felt a blunt object jab her back.

"Hey, what gives-" She didn't have time to finish talking, nor turn around before she felt an overwhelming surge of energy coursing through her, sapping her strength in mere moments. She felt her legs losing control, and they soon buckled, her body falling limp, only to be caught by a pair of large, furry arms. 

"Not... agaaaaa" She barely let out in a groan as she fought to keep herself awake and aware. A battle she was destined to lose.

"🕈︎✌︎💧︎ ❄︎☟︎✌︎❄︎ ☼︎☜︎✌︎☹︎☹︎✡︎ ☠︎☜︎👍︎☜︎💧︎💧︎✌︎☼︎✡︎✍︎" She heard one of the two birds, she wasn't sure which one, speak to the other one. The other simply shrugged in response.

It was the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness.

A lone figure watched the scene unfold from a nearby alleyway. He had watched the linoone try to leave the city, and she had peaked his interest, but before he had gotten the chance to talk to her, and hopefully recruit her into his cause, some... 'unexpected complications' had come up, causing him to lose track of her while he... dealt with them.

He had hoped to find her again after his business had been concluded. Instead, he had stumbled upon her being accosted by these strange creatures, and now, taken away.

Those strange creatures. Outsiders. Just like him.

A scowl formed on the cloaked figures's visible features as he brought back old memories. Bad ones.

But the more he thought, he realized that no, they were not like him. He had been an outsider in a pokemon's body. Playing masquerade, and trying to politic his way into a better world. An idea doomed to fail These creatures didn't even try to hide their nature. They came in that strange IRON floating thing, took what they wanted, and left.

'As if humans didn't cause enough trouble last time.' He thought to himself. 'And now they're coming from the sky now too? Not good.' 

The charmander looked where they had vanished with the linoone in question. There was nothing they could do about any of this now. "A pity. She might have made a fine Wallbreaker." He mumbled as he took out his dagger and examined it.

With nothing more to do, Anders left his hiding place, and continued on.