Empire, Bellona Battaglia

Bellona Battaglia

THERE IS NO RETREATING - I WILL CUT YOU DOWN TO SIZE

It could probably be guessed by the name, but the Battaglia family of Citadel are a family that earned their wealth and power through a long history of service in battle. Since one of the first of the Empire's great military leaders, General Duilio Battaglia, they have been counselors, soldiers, generals, and everywhere in between. It's something of a family tradition - every heir to the family, and every child of the family who wants to stay in their good graces, heir or otherwise, will join the military, and will be held to a certain standard. To achieve this standards, the current head of the house will push his or her children to their absolute limits through training, education, and sink-or-swim survival exercises, to make his or her successors as strong as humanly possible. If they fail to meet the family's standards, reject this brutal upbringing, or are broken by it all, they are disowned and abandoned. The result of this tradition is a long history of leaders with strong bodies, strong minds, strong wills, and strong Pokemon. But because of the harsh upbringing, those who survive it usally come out as ruthless and heartless people. Indeed, the kind of heartlessness it produces may be what's necessary to keep the tradition going through the next generation.

Enter Bellona, the current generation heir to the Battaglia family. She was given the cozy life of a noble child for only a few years, just long enough for her to start learning and training with positive results. After that, she received the first important lesson of her life: a free ride never lasts forever. From that day, she was subjected to the family's harsh training and education, keeping her active and wearing herself out all day, with only short breaks in between. Even sleep was only a brief respite, because she was woken up at the crack of dawn or earlier to continue the next day. All of her father's children were subjected to this, but the family was especially rough on Bellona for being a woman. Whatever one wants to believe, women on average are weaker and less physically capable than men on average, and the Battaglias saw nothing else to do but to push her even harder to compensate.

On top of physical and mental training, Bellona was forced to learn to survive on her own. This included learning how to make it out of the wilderness or deal with wild Pokemon without any of her own to match them. In fact, she wasn't allowed anywhere near her parents' or other relatives' Pokemon for the first fifteen years of her life. She was frequently compared to them though, as though she was supposed to match them in ability. Believing that her parents wouldn't accept anything less, Bellona pushed herself to be a capable enough fighter to take on Pokemon herself. This unfortunately, resulted in her nearly dying multiple times. Even though the training only broke her down to the point of putting her in critical condition once, nearly being cut open by a Kricketune or punched by a Machoke was not quite as forgiving. But each time, Bellona recovered, and came back even stronger and more determined. Even when her father thought he'd have to give up on her and abandon her, as was the family tradition, she refused to submit even to death itself.

So she survived, and when she was fifteen she was introduced to a newly bred Pawniard. This was to be her Pokemon, her parents said, but only when she graduated from military training. Still, she was allowed to bond and work with him now, as a reward for making it as far as she did. She was still forced through the same brutal training regimen, but she now worked with the Pawniard, who she named Basilikos.

A year later, though, she moved to Southwall to join the military. Her family's reputation preceded her, but she was still assigned one Pokemon (a Snover) and sent through basic training like everyone else. Having already been through such a harsh upbringing, she steamrolled her way through training. Which wasn't to say she never lost or failed, but whenever she did she just came back stronger and more determined than before. She learned sadism here, from the first time she defeated a sparring opponent. She was overwhelmingly more capable than him, a man she quickly determined was cocky and arrogant. So when she won, she didn't stop there, but forced him to bow before her and admit his weakness. Then she stepped on him and forced his face into the dirt, because it amused her. This trend would continue through the rest of her training, and she became increasingly brutal as time went on, but despite that her actions never went outside the realm of whatever her commanders deemed acceptable, and she soon graduated with flying colors.

Along with Basilikos, Bellona was given a Honedge in place of her Snover for becoming a soldier. The Honedge was believed to be 'cursed' because of a history of 'accidentially' killing cadets who treated him like a normal sword. Bellona wasn't sure whether him being given to her was out of faith that she could handle him, or a silent hope that the monster they'd just turned out would die quietly and not terrorize her fellow graduates any more. But either way, Bellona accepted the Honedge and, naming him Mercurius, managed to get on his good side. Then, in her first year of active duty, she quickly became known for her brutality. Whatever it was, whether it be putting down a protest or rebellion, breaking up a black market ring, knocking down upstarts who thought they were something special, or even just reminding the citizenry who was in charge, Bellona did it with an effectiveness and ruthlessness that would eventually earn her the name of the War Goddess. She rose through the ranks quickly, becoming an officer within a couple years, and occasionally turned her ruthlessness on new cadets, subjecting them to the kind of training she had received from her family. But still, she yearned for a proper battle. She wanted another region to attack, or for a decent rebellion to rise up, or even for the empire's leadership to collapse enough to justify turning the soldiers under her command on them and taking over. But for years, it wouldn't come. Eventually, she was given the opportunity to return to her family and take over as the head of the house. But she turned it down. The last thing she wanted was to get away from what little battle she had. Even so, her 'service' (the miltary called it that, but Bellona thought it was a joke without a real war) earned her the attention of the Emperor and, soon after, a position on the council. She accepted it, on the condition (one she set herself, whether anyone else liked it or not) that she could still get out and fight whenever she felt the need. But with such an unequal relationship in the Empire, there still wasn't enough of a fight to really excite her.

Not until her twelfth year in the military. That was the year of the Newhaven riots. The riots were put down quickly, before Bellona could justify taking the field herself. But in the aftermath, a rebel group called Spectre was formed. Although several of its members and sympathizers were quickly caught and executed, the rest proved elusive enough to avoid being crushed for a full year. The idea of an enemy she couldn't catch as effortlessly as the last few groups she'd dealt with excited Bellona. Now they just had to prove capable in a fight as well.



Name Basilikos
Species Bisharp
Gender Male
Ability Defiant
Moveset Iron Head | Sucker Punch | Dual Chop | Swords Dance
Origin A gift from the Battaglia family for graduating military training.
Personality If a Pokemon were to take Bellona's place, it would probably be Basilikos. He's aggressive, competitive, ruthless, and utterly indomitable. He can take on a commander role with Bellona's other Pokemon as well, much like other Bisharp do with Pawniard subordinates.


Name Fimbulvetr
Species Froslass
Gender Female
Ability Snow Cloak
Moveset Hail | Blizzard | Shadow Ball | Thunderbolt
Origin A gift from the Battaglia family for becoming a military officer.
Personality Haughty and arrogant, and easily bored. True to her nature, Fimbulvetr likes to keep a collection of frozen trophies, the result of getting bored and finding other ways to pass the time. She's also prone to flash freezing lesser life forms (these being most humans and quite a few Pokemon) that annoy her.


Name Mercurius
Species Aegislash
Gender Male
Ability Stance Change
Moveset Shadow Sneak | Iron Head | Sacred Sword | King's Shield
Origin Issued by the military upon graduating military training
Personality Stoic and distant, and avoids people when possible. Mercurius has a history of 'accidentally' killing cadets who thought he was a sword, and later a pair of swords, then a sword and shield. Not that he has any remorse, he's just sick and tired of dealing with idiots.


Name Ivaldi
Species Medicham
Gender Female
Ability Pure Power
Moveset Zen Headbutt | Drain Punch | Ice Punch | Bullet Punch
Origin 'Graciously' given by the leader of an unaffiliated rebel group after being defeated.
Personality Formerly a noble and pacifistic hermit who seemed a bit senile, Ivaldi has turned her mysterious hermit strength to destruction after being taken and recruited by Bellona. She still advocates wisdom over aggression, but like any unassuming guru type, will utterly destroy anyone or anything that threatens her.


Name Maltet
Species Mamoswine
Gender Male
Ability Thick Fat
Moveset Ice Shard | Icicle Crash | Earthquake | Superpower
Origin Gift for being promoted to Counselor.
Personality Despite his size and capacity for destruction, Maltet is normally pretty gentle. He loves attention and being petted or ridden, and will frequently try to play around with anyone he likes. Oh, and he hits like a tank and will still do so whenever ordered, with the readiness of a dog being told to sit or fetch.

[b]AKAME GA KILL!, esdeath[/b] as [i]Bellona Battaglia[/i]