Return of the King

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Who the fuck had time for a day job when there were sick ass mountains to climb? Goro the croagunk sure didn't, that's for sure.

Well, no, he absolutely had time to work. But he'd also just got done putting in some serious overtime and it was time for some leave. Sure, he'd only gotten started, like, four or five weeks ago tops, but goddamn it, he'd done some serious stuff in that timeframe. Like get his butt whooped by his new boss, put up with two weeks' travel to and from a haunted house, kick some ghost ass, deal with a god (?), and came home to punch a demon in the face so hard that he broke his own hand. Seriously.

It hurt.

He was easily identifiable from other croagunks by the totally broken and misshapen left hand that he was very careful to keep still. On his right bicep was a blue ribbon stained suspiciously red, and held in his arm dangling over his right shoulder was a bindle. At first glance, he looked like a homeless vagrant down on his luck, which honestly wasn't too far from the truth. He was, in fact, a semi-homeless criminal enforcer who got bored and wandered a bit too far from home.

But this seemed like a pretty cool place to kill some time. Goro looked around him, taking in the misty air and mountainous terrain he was surrounded by. There wasn't any proper mountain trail - or if there was, he was way off the beaten path. The frog pokemon shrugged and continued on, ambling along with a carefree and leisurely air around him.

(29 - 16 = 13 energy)

Hmm. The house certainly sounded like a strange case, especially with it being planted in the middle of nowhere. Shawn tried to recall if he had seen any buildings in that area before that may have led to the formation of such a strange anomaly...? No, no; he was still certain that there had been nothing before this. It must have been a fresh discovery all of it's own, which was an exciting prospect - it implied that there were still fresh discoveries to be made. As much as it was a sour subject for him still... Shawn had enjoyed his days of exploring. The feeling of discovery definitely still-

Oh god an Archen jumped down in front of them. Shawn immediately stopped thinking about other things in favor of addressing th new variable in this equation.

"Hey there, strangers! Havn't seen you 'round the bend before! Got a second?"

Shawn grimaced internally as the Archen approached them. "Oh, do fuck off," he thought to himself with the utmost venom that his brain could muster. There was no room for uninvited guests in this party, and Shawn was not especially okay with this guy just inserting himself into whatever situation he pleased at the time. Unfortunately, this was kind of a common trait among all the lower life forms that lived around these parts - unchecked friendliness that was borderline rude. It really peeved the crap out of the little fox. Still, he kept his composure. No sense in stooping to the same level, or worse - blowing his cover, by letting out an unnecessary outburst. Instead, he let the seedy-looking intruder continue their interruption.

"I don't often see your types comin' around these parts; unless you got some kinda guild affiliation going on. 'S that it? You're with the guild?" the dirty Archen rasped. Shawn already saw miles through it. He knew what a highway robber looked like when he saw one - no, he knew an amateur highway robber when he saw one. These types loved to target explorers specifically due to their high capacity for items, but rarely did they ever confront them. It was way too risky to directly confront a guild member and get caught. Maybe he had some other kind of plan, then...? Either way, Shawn scoffed at the pitiful attempt at being clever.


Shawn the Zorua - 1 energy (new page)
((ooc- Don't tempt Shawn. /S H O T))

What Beryl said was true enough. Goro was fortunate that he had a very powerful dark type by his side during that trip. Less fortunate at certain moments than others, of course, but generally his leader was the reason that he got out of that place alive. Of course, she was also the reason that he went in there, but that was beside the point. She was an incredibly useful asset against the many ghost types that they tangled with. He nodded along as the steel type next to him spoke, letting the androgynous voice wash over him. Beryl spoke a lot.

The pair of travelers had happened on a bit of an incline, now, and Goro bit back a curse. He didn't climbing in the first place. Even without baggage and an injury it just wasn't something he liked to do. Maybe one could say that it was good training, but what good was training when you slipped on a rock, tumbled down a mountain, and busted your fool head open?

He was drawn from his musings when a colorful bird fluttered down in front of them and immediately started yapping. Goro felt his shoulders rise and he was clenching down hard on his bindle before he knew it. Fantastic, a new annoyance. He stared at the pokemon critically, unashamedly sizing it up like a piece of meat. He'd grown up surrounded by lowlifes and miscreants - he knew one when he saw one. The manner of speech combined with the state of uncleanliness, the overt forwardness, and faux friendliness; one or two of these traits on their own might just be a weirdo, but altogether in one pokemon made for a pokemon he wasn't interested in knowing. Further building his own credibility in Goro's eyes, Beryl seemed to reach the same conclusion almost immediately and cut the bird off curtly.

The archen sputtered at the rude reply but recovered shortly. "Easy, fella, I didn't mean nothin' by it. I'm just askin' questions, is all."

Goro merely croaked, long and quiet and doubting. He figured the bird wanted something but was too cowardly to come out and ask for it. As it should be, he reckoned. Beryl seemed tough enough to handle himself and Goro was confident in his own strength. Unless Beryl changed his mind rather quickly, it wasn't going to be getting any handouts here.

Still, he made the mistake of making noise and drawing the stupid fucking bird's attention to him. "What about you, croagunk? You look like you've seen some action. You work at the guild?"

"Nope," His reply was nearly immediate, and he eyed the creature disdainfully, doing his best to convey his annoyance and judgment. "Why don't ya go hustle someone else, Peckers?"

(+1 energy)

It was hard to tell if the Archen was flustered by the revalation, or if it had been what he had wanted all along and he just had an absolutely god-awful poker face. "I see, I see... neither of you are from the guild, but you're hard-working lookin' fellas. You must be pulling some serious work," the creature commented with a... strangely confused tone. Almost like he didn't know exactly what he was doing. It sounded half-sincere, half-scripted - like he was pulling all of it out of his ass in a situation that was familiar to him. His grin was borderline disgusting. "Does the job pay well?" he asked, still stalling.


More annoying. This Archen was only growing more annoying. Shawn was admittedly starting to feel quite eager to get this over with, if for no other reason than he didn't like the other pokemon's intentions no matter what they were. Neither he nor Goro were from the guild, and neither of them appeared to be simple pedestrians either - yet this buffoon still insisted on messing with them. There was a game here, and the only thing that the Archen was good at guarding about it was exactly what that game was. It was time to analyze this deeper - any other clue would be better than this.

Thankfully, Shawn didn't have to wait long. As soon as "Beryl" had gotten demanding, the bird jumped skittishly and panicked a bit. "Well... no need to be so unkind! Just tryin' to be friendly, yea?" he chittered defensively through his plastic smile. Not exactly the panic that Shawn would have expected out of a cowardly species such as this one, though, which meant that there was something that was making him feel brave enough to stay... and that's when Shawn caught the Archen's eyes darting about franticlly. Up, down, left, right; quick movements that were occasionally punctuated with a slightly longer gaze. Not exactly the way one who's afraid typically avoids eye contact - no, this was more. That fucker was looking for something.

Shawn immediately began scanning the environment himself. He looked high and low, left and right... but he didn't find much. Not until he caught a lone pebble tumbling down the rock face to his and Goro's right. Shawn took a harder look up the cliff and saw... a poorly hidden Archen among the black rocks. The colorful plumage made it impossible to miss.


At the onset of a new threat, five more pokemon suddenly appeared out of various places in the landscape. Two archen, two poochyena, and a cubone suddenly jumped out and backed up the first Archen, boxing Goro and Beryl in. The Archen just kind of smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "In our defense, you're on private property."


"It's true... but hey, you guys seem to know the drill," the Archen responded, still not sounding especially confident but rolling with it, "you drop some stuff of worth for us and we let you move on without incident. Probably."


It was a bluff. Shawn was just poor.

"Doubtful," the Archen remarked, "but even if you're refusing, there are other ways you can pay." His tone sounded entirely antagonistic and couldn't be misconstrued to mean anything else.


This was not good. Shawn would have preferred to stay out of combat. The risk of exposure was far too high to justify that kind of thing, not to mention that - though his moves were entirely plausible for a Bisharp - Shawn's arsenal wasn't exactly mind-blowing. He continued to press on intimidation, hoping that it would be enough to reason the Archen out of his poor life choices.

To say things were moving fast would be an understatement.

Goro had honestly pegged this guy as some kind of beggar - the type to shuffle up to stronger or better-off looking folk and try to worm his way into getting something out of them. Either by strong-arming them somehow, making them feel anxious and awkward enough to just give something up and get the situation over with, or appearing pitiful enough that he might get a handout. He'd expected the bird to launch into some kind of sob story or something, but... no.

He stood back and watched as Beryl went back and forth with the little bird. At about the point where he wondered why they were entertaining it at all, Beryl realized what was happening. They were surrounded. The croagunk turned at that revelation, taking in all the different kinds of pokemon suddenly scaling down the rocks around them, effectively trapping them. Another two of the bird, two poochyena, and a cubone. He knew those last two species.

"Beryl," Despite the situation, Goro's tone was subdued and relaxed. "You think you can take an earthquake? I got a way to solve this problem real quick."

Honestly, this was a breath of fresh air. The total lack of tension had kind of been getting to him. Plus, if these guys really did make a habit out of stealing things from travelers, then maybe they had some good stuff hidden somewhere. He could knock them all out and then he and Beryl could raid their stash. The sheer risk of using earthquake on a mountain trail didn't occur to him at all, nor did the notion of surrendering.

The archen's head reared back at his suggestion. He had spoken low enough that he and Beryl were the only pokemon to hear him. The stupid thing looked at him like he was crazy. "You gotta be pulling my leg." Its own voice was hushed and exasperated like it didn't totally believe the fact that they would rather fight back than give up what they had.

"I guess the birds won't give a shit, but it'll cut their numbers in half, at least. Then we just clean them up and see what they got." Goro smiled cruelly and clenched his good hand, effectively ignoring the archen entirely as he addressed his companion. These guys really didn't know who they were messing with.

Goro unsubtly took note of their positions, swinging his head around to look at them all. The mutts had positioned themselves behind the pair, - smart, considering he was a fighting type and Beryl was... well, big and scary. The cubone took Beryl's side, probably waiting for a chance to get at the steel type with a ground move. The extra birds had backed up their friend, standing in front of the duo; and also, facing down Goro, the fighting type. Whatever else you wanted to say about these guys, they at least had a smidge of tactical know-how.

He heard the crunch of gravel and recognized it as pokemon digging their haunches into the ground. The lack of cue from their stupefied leader wasn't about to stop these pokemon from taking what they wanted for much longer. Goro's smile widened.

NO. NO NO NO. OH FUCK. Shawn hated what he was hearing out of this frog. There was no way he could take an earthquake from that kind of high-leveled pokemon. MORE IMPORTANTLY, even if he COULD, the damage from the earthquake would without a doubt upset his illusion. As convenient as that move would be in eliminating these annoyances, there was just too much risk. ...Unless they could stall out long enough for Shawn to get out of the range of Goro's attack, but since Shawn had drawn a lot of the attention he would doubtlessly be followed... granted, that might not be so bad if the pursuer were one of those Archen. He might be able to deal with that.... Shawn immediately began conceiving a counter-plan.


Unfortunately, their opposition wasn't just frozen in time. The Archen had been chewing on his colorful plumage anxiously, staring at the two goons who seemed to actually be considering fighting the five of them. It... wasn't entirely implausible that the two could beat them, honestly. The appeared to be more competent and of higher level. Whether it was enough to over power their numbers, he just couldn't say. He looked at the other Archen nervously, and their face seemed to mimic his thoughts. They couldn't allow the strangers any more time to mull things over if they were going to get aggressive.

"Time's up for talking, what'll it be? It sounds like you're considering the wrong choices!!!" the Archen yelled agrresively, readying some rocks as threateningly as he could. The other pokemon seemed to follow suit: the cubone raised it's club, the two poochyena's jaws began to crackle with electricity and ice, and the other archen raised some rocks as well, although they seemed pensive about the prospect. He was very clearly watching the leading Archen.

Shawn didn't really want to start a lot of violence and goad Goro into making a rash move, like releasing the earthquake anyways, but their time in limbo was running thin. This was the ultimate test of how much Goro actually respected him, honestly. He was now faced with a choice that would ultimately knock his new friend "Beryl" out of existence. Whether or not he made that choice would prove whether there was honor among this thief or not. Though it would undoubtedly be bad for Shawn in one way or another... it would certainly tell Shawn a lot about Goro.

Goro exhaled, disappointed at Beryl's response. Maybe he did ask for a bit much, actually. Earthquake wasn't nothing to fuck with, after all, and it was a weakness of Beryl's as well. He tried not to let the disappointment show after that out of respect, though. If he were in his companion's shoes that would be a bummer. No one liked to feel like their weakness was a burden on others, after all. He'd been acquainted with that feeling a lot lately and it wasn't something he wanted to make someone else feel. It's not as if the situation was dire, anyways.

"That's fine, then. Jus' a thought." The croagunk shrugged, rolling his shoulders and dropping his bindle at his feet. He'd need both hands here, injury be damned.  "This might be funner, anyways."

The alternative was actually kind of a pain in the ass for him. A ground type and three flying types would be quite the handful for him to deal with, especially with one bad hand and a pile of items to guard. The three poochyena would make for fantastic Drain Punch fodder, though. If he took a few super effective hits, he could just sap them dry and jump back in the fray. Plus he had Beryl fighting with him - he wasn't in a bad spot at all. Just an inconvenient one.

"Alright! You had your chance to walk, you morons! Swarm 'em, boys!" The archen in front of them shouted in a huff, beating his wings and actually lifting himself in the air a few feet in his nervous enthusiasm. "Take 'em for everything they got!"

The others moved on the signal. Both of the archen framing their leader immediately heaved their rocks at him one after another; apparently, the croagunk looked easier to take down. Having long since been accustomed to more deadly and intimidating attacks, Goro merely swayed to one side to dodge one rock, and smoothly ducked the other, ending in a ready crouch, waiting for someone to approach him. Lowering his sense of gravity might have been a mistake, though, because immediately the croagunk felt the sharp sensation of teeth tearing into his left shoulder and a significant weight on his back.

Out of the corner of his eye, moving at the same time as the others, he saw the cubone make a leap for Beryl. It had its eye on the steel type from the start, and now it surged forward with its bone club in hand, swinging it in a tight overhand arc at the steel type.

A second later and a powerful jolt ran through his entire body - the poochyena was using an electric move! Goro grit his teeth as the pokemon dug in deep, biting through skin and shocking the fuck out of him. The second mutt was lingering behind, unseen by Goro, pacing back and forth as it surveyed the situation. His good right hand immediately shot up to grasp the dog pokemon by its fur collar, and he quickly lifted. Its fangs were in deep, though, and it took several strong tugs for him to get it loose.

With a grunt of effort, Goro turned, raised the pooch up with one hand, and slammed it down hard onto the rocky ground. It let loose a sharp whine of pain, but Goro didn't follow up. He fished around with his foot, feeling purchase with his bindle and kicked the item behind him. He backed up with it, keeping it safe. The fighting type pulled his good hand back once more, ready to punch at whatever came at him next. The two archen were raised up on their haunches, wings spread and looking ready to throw down. Their leader still lingered behind them, looking equal parts frantic and excited by the fight erupting in front of him. The second poochyena, on the other hand, trotted its way behind its downed friend, icy crackles still emanating from its sharp fangs. It was obviously smarter than its allies; waiting for a better opportunity to strike at either him or Beryl.

"Funner". Pfft. Shawn scoffed internally at Goro's butchering of good language. That was absolutely not a word.

There was no time to be amused by this folly. It seemed that one particular pokemon - a cubone with a pension for brute force - had targeted Shawn specifically with his club and perceived type advantage. The small black fox got a kicked out of having fooled the pokemon so thoroughly, and found it easy to dodge the move itself while manipulating his illusion to look like it had dodged as well. Shawn was fairly sure of his ability to dodge direct, head-on attacks if he was properly aware of them... it was the stray attacks of pokemon that weren't engaging him that he was most worried about. He didn't want to risk being outed by something he wasn't accounting for, so he tried as best as he possibly could to maneuver his fight to the outside of the combat zone so he could cover all of his blind spots.

For now, he allowed Goro to attract most of the attention. He was certain the more experienced pokemon could handle it, and there was something that he was curious about... he had heard things about the species Archen. He had been exposed to them through his affiliation with the guild, and through that experience he had noticed a very important quality about them - they weakened considerably in combat when they were under heavy attention. It made them cowards. They would often flee at the first sign of disadvantage because of how aware they were of their own flaws. The leader of the group, and his companion... their behavior matched this pattern considerably. They stood back, launching attacks from a distance, slow to engage but quick to try and get in a cheap shot. In summation, they were no different.

He needed to get the Cubone and the nearby Poochyena out of the way... and the seed at his feet gave him an idea.


Shawn the Zorua - 1 energy yolo haha

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

-1 Bound Seed from inventory

He'd taken care of his bindle at least. Goro's biggest worry during this fight was getting all of his shit taken from him during the chaos of the battle - not that he had anything truly valuable (aside from the shiny disc thing he just found), but it was mostly on principle. No way was he gonna let these scumbags get away with his stuff. The poochyena that he'd slammed down hadn't gotten back up yet either, and it seemed like Beryl was handling the cubone and the other mutt by himself. That just left him with the birds for now. Goro raised both hands, another smile blooming on his face as he faced down the two colorful cowards. They'd practically waited for their entire team to go down before they jumped in the fray.

He was content to just wait for them to come to him before he heard Beryl's voice call out to him. Archen - he supposed that was the name of these freaky looking birds.

Well, he wasn't sure why it was so urgent, but far be it from him to be a bad sport about it. The croagunk shrugged his shoulders and dashed forward, eyes intent on the pair of birds who had tried to rob him. The one in front met his charge courageously, beating its wings powerfully and lifting itself off the ground. It let the momentum of its spontaneous flight carry it into the air and swung a strong looking wing attack in his direction. Goro tried to duck the move as he closed the distance between them, but he still got grazed by the decently powerful flying type move on his failed attempt to go under it. His head rocked back a little bit, his face suddenly aching. It didn't stop him from counterattacking.

His right fist swung around diagonally in a wide overhand strike and crashed into the archen's face. The force and momentum behind the punch carried the bird right out of the air and sent it crashing into the ground at Goro's feet. He took a moment to grind his fist into the flying-type's skull, raising his head to stare at the leader once more. As he felt drain punch working its magic, healing the blow that he had just taken from the archen, he grinned at the one who had watched nearly all of his subordinates try and fail to take him down.

It was safe to say that the ambush had failed spectacularly. Now the coward was the only one left. Goro wasted no time going after this one as well, but it had other ideas. At the same time Goro leaped forward, the archen took to the air. He thrust his fist in front of him with all due haste, watching it harden into a metallic-looking bullet punch, but even the speed of his fastest attack just barely shaved the archen as it fled into the open skies. He'd aimed for its stupid looking face but ended up clipping his right wing, and was treated to the sight of the cowardly flying type rising into the skies lopsidedly.

"Shit!! Why don't you shut your stupid mouth, huh?!" The bird had risen about twenty feet in the air, beating its wings erratically as it shouted down at Beryl. The left one was flapping a bit harder than the other to keep him from careening to one side. Goro smiled at the sight and turned around, eyeing the fallen poochyena and archen briefly before seeing how Beryl's fight was going.

(+9 energy from Drain Punch)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , , , , , , , ,

Shawn was getting sick of these cretins. This Cubone, specifically. It hadn't exactly chased him down relentlessly or anything, but it had just been a general annoyance and the wide swing of that club was particularly hard to dodge. He was ready to be rid of it's annoying presence. He sneered as he took a few steps back for distance, ready to knock the other pokemon unconscious...

Suddenly, Shawn heard scuttling on the rocks behind him. He turned around and found the Poochyena breaking free of the seed's effects... damn it, those didn't last long enough. He turned around and prepared to to dodge the dog's icy attack while the cubone lay prone...

Unfortunately, the cubone did not remain prone. In desperation, it propped itself up and took a hail mary swing at the area surrounding Bisharp's feet, hoping to knock it's legs out from under it.

Unfortunately, that was enough to make contact with Shawn.


The attack sent both Shawn and the Poochyena off a small ledge nearby and into a field of jagged rocks below. The illusion faded while Shawn was in the air, and his usual dark grey form was the one that landed on a flat rock among the far more menacing pointed ones. The Poochyena faired far worse, landing directly on some sharper rocks and having the wind knocked out of it.

Shawn struggled for a moment as he recovered from the attack. Priority numero uno: Goro. Had he seen?!?!? Shawn looked up and noted that he was still busy with the Archen, so it was possible but highly unlikely. He dove for cover, landing near the Poochyena who snarled and struggled to get at Shawn despite the fall. Still fighting? While loosing this terribly? Seriously? This creature had some gall to it, he would give it that much. Unfortunately for the Poochyena, Shawn was all out of tolerance and only frustration and anger remained. Scratch would not do for this, nor was it likely to knock the sucker out. Oh no. Shawn was ready to resort to his big guns.

All Goro could see was a large, high-powered orb light up the landscape below as it was launched at something. It seemed that the fight was still continuing down below - or it was ending. Hopefully. Exhausted, but triumphant as the Poochyena was crushed under all of his energy, the zorua finally felt he could breathe a sigh of relief. He could barely move, but on the inside he felt much better. Still, he couldn't stand still with much of the rock now blown away. He had to move back into the more plentiful areas of rock so that Goro could not easily pick him out. Shawn made sure to stay low in the darkest rocks, selecting areas that he camouflaged best with. He imagined that Goro was certainly looking now, so he decided to call up and sate his curiosity.

"Sorry - I got cut off! I'll meet back up with you" He didn't plan on staying still though. He had to keep moving, in case Goro felt the need to come down and investigate. He slunk through the rocks, very intentionally keeping from exposing himself too much in Goro's direction. It was hard, and the energy was completely drained from his body, but he only really needed a few minutes. Just a few. If he could just hold out a few minutes longer, he could get his head together and use whatever energy he regained to restore his illusion.

Well, that didn't look good. Goro put his hand on his hip and stared at the empty space where Beryl was the last time he saw him. The cubone was the only pokemon over there and it was standing all victorious-like. Even more worryingly, it was peering over the edge of the cliff they were on like it was searching for something. Goro was capable of putting two and two together; Beryl must have fallen off the goddamn mountain path while he was fighting. What a pain! He was a steel type so he was probably hardy enough to take the fall. But it wouldn't do for these chumps to get a second wind in the face of this good news.

The archen was still hovering up above out of his reach - still invested in the fight, but not about to risk getting involved again out of cowardice. The poochyena he'd slammed down earlier was stirring as well, standing up on shaky feet and looking around. But the second archen was definitely out for the count - Goro toed its head for a moment, nudging it this way and that. Yep, definitely unconscious.

So. The cubone, a weakened poochyena, and the leading archen were still left. He rushed forward at a fast jog, making his way over to the dog. It saw him coming and growled weakly in its throat, electricity crackling in its maw again. Goro was not intimidated - the sneak attack from last time hurt pretty bad, but he'd be able to see it coming face-to-face. It lunged at him bodily, leaping forward with a strength born of desperation. Goro merely sidestepped to the right, tucking his right hand by his hip and rotating powerfully once he dodged.

Just as the poochyena landed back on its feet, it was met with a powerful right hook sinking into its left side. His fist crashed into what felt like a cluster of ribs. A sharp, frenzied cry escaped from it and drew the cubone's attention immediately. Goro followed through on the attack, pushing mightily with his fist and sending the dark type sprawling onto the rocky ground, blissfully silent. Drain punch always worked wonders; his shoulder was already feeling better.

Two left now. Practically one - the cubone had made his way over and the leading archen had actually perched. It'd found a rocky incline about thirty feet vertically up on the mountain. He was nursing his clipped wing, looking down on the failed ambush with a sour and defeated look on its face. Goro smiled cruelly at his last opponent.

"Looks like yer boss just called it quits. If you want, you can just lead me and my buddy to -" Goro was cut off by a bright flash of light from under the side of the mountain trail. It drew his attention for a moment, and then a voice called up. Beryl was okay; that was good -

A rush of movement in his peripheral caused him to spring back. The cubone had charged forward and swung its weapon - the bone club scraped his left wrist, his bad hand. Goro erupted with a pained scream for just a moment before cutting himself off, snapping his mouth shut. His teeth grinded together furiously, one eye clenched shut as he instinctively clenched his left arm at the elbow with his good hand. It was still broken, it was definitely still broken because it felt like it was on fire and it wasn't stopping.

Goro staggered back a few steps more, hunching over and breathing strenuously. He stared up at the opportunistic ground type in front of him hatefully. He was going to pay for that one. Beryl would have to wait.

(0 energy lol)

The Archen looked down at Goro taunting him with a look of distaste and pain. On one hand, he hated that pokemon's snide demeanor over this situation and he wanted to stick behind to see the creature get a much-deserved pummeling. On the other hand... he clearly wasn't going to get it. They hadn't been bluffing, those two were actually strong enough to take on multiple pokemon at the same time and win. He honestly wished the boss made better calls; it wasn't like that hadn't been at least somewhat obvious. They hadn't exactly had a plethora of type advantages either. As much as it hurt his pride, they were better off just abandoning the fight and holing up in another part of the mountain for a while. Unfortunately... his accompaniment didn't seem to be getting the memo.

He screeched at him, but got no reply. He doubted the ground type had even heard it. Well, fine then. The archen ruffled his feather and then hopped off in a huff. If the cubone had any sense, he would follow.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the cliff: Ow. Shawn was still forcing himself to crawl through the rocks to void detection, but honestly it was like crawling through mud with how exhausted he was. It was a chore just to make an inch happen between himself and his landing position, and it took an obscene amount of time. Finally, he just had to let himself flop down and rest. There was nothing he could do if he kept spending his energy as he regained it, and he needed to be able to reset his illusion.

Once he finally just stopped, his energy began to return to him much more quickly. He assessed the situation once again, and honestly... it looked like it was going to work out for him again. Goro hadn't come down looking for him after all; it seemed the reassurance from Beryl had been enough to get him to stay up on the cliff. The only movement up there was now that of the cubone and Goro, who were having it out in some "last stand" of some sort. The Archen was nowhere to be seen up there: as Shawn predicted, it seemed to have fled. Not that it mattered with no one left awake to follow in retreat.

Shawn soon felt well enough to prop himself into a proper sitting position, recovering faster with every passing minute now. He observed Goro fighting nonchalantly, running over the details of Beryl's appearance in the back of his mind while he waited. To be honest... he couldn't remember the exact placement of all of Beryl's scars... Just the important ones that stuck out in his mind. He did his best to fix that and memorize more this time, but frankly... He didn't think it would be that much of a big deal. He had to add more scuffs and dirt from the fall anyways, so the body would be largely obscured from it's original appearance anyways.

By the time the fight was wrapping up, Shawn felt his priceless ability returned to him. It wasn't like a flash or anything that notified him of it's presence... he just felt a "click" in his mind that he had just come to associate with the return of his power. It had taken him a long time to fully understand it since he hadn't utilized the ability much, and frankly he still didn't get the specifics. He just understood the basic feeling. He immediately released the power, grinning as he bent the light around him and collected his rocks.

He began to walk Beryl and himself back over to the cliff and climb it, albeit more slowly while he finished recovering. He would be fine from this point forward as long as he didn't get hit again, though. The ruse was still afoot.

Shawn the Zoruer - Also 0 energy w h o o p s

As the cubone twirled his club and backed up, Goro took a deep breath, ignoring the stinging, burning pain in his hand and forearm, and exhaled softly. He just had to deal with the last guy and then he was done here. He was looking forward to seeing what kind of goodies they had stashed away wherever they kept them. No doubt they had a stash someplace - they had too many numbers to be completely unsuccessful.

He took a few steps forward and was stalled by a quick swing from the ground type. There was no attempt to counter, only a soft sway back to avoid the thick weapon. The ground type wasn't all that skilled with his bone but he hit pretty hard and had good range with it. Plus it was confident. It was sticking it out with Goro right now and obviously had no qualms about taking on Beryl. Add those traits alongside a smidgen of tactical know-how and it wasn't hard at all to see how this one had knocked Beryl off the mountain trail. Goro saw it waiting to sneak up on the steel type before everything went down.

Goro switched his stance and lead with his right shoulder in front, charging ahead again. This time the cubone went for a wide swing aimed at the poison type's head. He ducked it neatly before lunging, lashing out with a compact, incredibly quick bullet punch that landed right under the cubone's mask, sinking into its throat. The impact of the punch sent the cubone staggering back. His fist drew back and struck again; a brutal hook through the only hole in the pokemon's bone helmet - its eye socket. If it was going to play dirty, then so was he. One last form of resistance came in the form of a half-blind swing of its bone club. By that point, Goro had backed up enough that it met nothing but air. The momentum of the ground type's backward stagger caught up to it and its legs gave out, one hand reaching up to its eye. Two openings and he'd put the creature down on its ass.

Goro didn't stop. He stepped forward before lifting his foot and kicking down hard on the creature's chest, slamming it on the rocky ground. A wheezing cry escaped from the pokemon's gullet as Goro doubled down the pressure on his foot, effectively pinning it in place. Ignoring the pokemon's pained sounds, he reached down with his good hand and grabbed the cubone's weapon. It clutched onto the thing desperately, but all Goro had to do was shift his foot from the cubone's chest to its neck. Eventually, it had to abandon the weapon to try and lift the foot off of its windpipe, and Goro was free to take the bone club. He lifted it into the sunlight and inspected it for a moment, turning it this way and that. It was a hefty club, thick and strong. No doubt it served the cubone well - it'd let him graze Goro with a decent swing, after all. Why didn't all pokemon use weapons like this? The extra range and power would make fighting a lot easier. Maybe it was worth looking into himself.

While he was inspecting the club, the cubone managed to push up enough on Goro's foot to take in a gasp of air. The sound drew the fighter's attention, and without looking Goro pulled his foot back. In one brutal motion, he whipped his foot out and kicked the cubone hard in the side, causing it to roll over on its stomach. The creature curled up on itself and Goro laid the bone club on his own shoulder, looking down on the pokemon cruelly.

"Ya know, I was gonna let you walk. The fuckin' words were coming out of my mouth when ya smacked the shit out of my hand." Legends, it was still throbbing. It felt like liquid fire was surging all over his arm, wrist, and forearm - it stung and burnt and felt wrong in every way possible. Unfortunately, he was helpless against the pain, as moving it just made it worse. He just had to grit his teeth and bear it. "But you just had to be an asshole. Did you know my hand was broke when you took yer cute little swing? Hmm?"

He'd stepped closer to the downed pokemon, kicking it lightly upside the head as it lay there. The cubone had curled up and was clutching its stomach, coughing every few seconds as it tried to recover from the surgical beatdown it just suffered - Goro had learned to aim for weak spots in his time working for his employer. The lack of answer only irritated him, and on impulse he kicked at the pokemon's side, aiming for the ribs. He was rewarded with a soft wheeze; that was probably all the air that was left in the guy's lungs. Goro's smile widened and he stomped on the cubone's exposed back, forcing it to the ground. He felt unsatisfied as he looked down on the pokemon at his feet, nevertheless delighting in the sounds and reactions he was getting.

"Opportunistic -" Goro stomped on its back again, "- little -" He kicked at its ribs once more, " - bastard!" The flurry of kicks ended with a stomp to the head. Hitting that bone helmet like that was kinda painful, though. He backed up a few paces, considering something silently. His smile bloomed again and he got an idea.

His grip on the bone club shifted, and he raised it high in the air before swinging it down hard with one hand. It crashed against the cubone's bone mask harshly, but nothing broke. Goro scowled and tried again, and again, and again. On the fifth swing, he heard it crack, prompting another smile. The cubone, who'd only been making small squeaks and cries at this point, howled at the final blow. It raised its hand to cradle the broken eye-piece, bringing it back red with its own blood. The significance of the skull helmet was lost on Goro - he didn't know what they meant to cubone.

"That oughta teach you n' your buddies to pick your marks better." He felt gratified looking over his own handiwork. One archen was knocked unconscious and the other had fled. The mutt was likewise on the ground either playing dead or taking a nap. The last one was bleeding and broken for its little sucker punch. He wasn't sure why he'd gotten so angry over it. Maybe because it'd been so long since he'd let off steam... The cubone had just caught him at a bad time.

Goro lingered for a few moments, hefting the bone club on his shoulder as he tried to gain his breath. Beryl had said to wait, didn't he? Or did he say he was gonna find him? He'd barely heard the guy in the first place. Well, there wasn't any harm in waiting for a minute or two. If Beryl didn't show back up soon, he'd wait for one of the thieves to stir and interrogate the location of their stash from them.

Shawn had seen everything as he had come up the cliff. He scowled and furrowed his brow underneath the disguise as he processed it all internally. He had to admit - Goro's show of power was commendable. He was certainly punishing that brat for it's meddling and cheap tactics - Shawn was glad to see it. It only continued to escalate - Goro's foot went from its stomach to its neck. He took its weapon. He had no qualms in even going so far as to destroy a peace of the cubone's mother - possibly with another peace of the cubone's mother - to make his point.

That was enough to make Shawn grimace. It was more than he had been exposed to before now. He found it tasteless and crude; there was absolutely no manner of justification to it outside of "Goro was mad." Maybe the frog enjoyed it? Shawn couldn't tell from this angle. Shawn had certainly heard tales of ruthless, violent acts such as this being performed by hardened criminals - but now he knew what it looked like. He forced himself to look at it. He watched every second.

In the end, he still found it tactless. He felt it was beneath him. But did he feel scorn towards Goro for being so frivolous with he it? He felt at least a little disdain, that was for sure. He felt it in the way one might feel sympathy for a feral pokemon gnashing its teeth at you like an uncivilized heathen. Despite how he looked down on it, however, he didn't disown it.

A thought struck Shawn.

Perhaps this was the essence of being a criminal. Perhaps this was the finer meaning of being antagonistic and self-serving. Though Shawn considered himself better than such trite acts, he couldn't stop himself from doing them. If a point needed to be made, he needed to make that point. Perhaps in some cases it was better to stoop to a lower level than to hold back over some silly moral. Perhaps.......

Shawn held firm in Goro's presence as he processed these things in his mind. He had committed himself to immersing himself in this world, and he wasn't about to back down now. If anything he was getting more hyped up with every second that passed.

Beryl didn't take long to show back up. Goro grinned at the sight of the other pokemon when they revealed themself. It would've sucked if they got split up there - the steel-type made for very decent company. He croaked pleasantly, long and satisfied, twirling the cubone's club in his hand. "Took ya long enough," he said, his tone teasing and cheerful.

In truth, Bery probably made pretty good time, considering he had pokemon follow him down the cliff. To dispatch of them that quickly and climb his way back up to Goro in that time, he had to be pretty strong. The croagunk felt pleased by this information. It felt good to hang out with someone who could pull their own weight like this. Too often he'd been surrounding himself with people way stronger or way weaker than him. Someone around his level struck a nice balance when it came to competing.

He said nothing when Beryl snatched up the gang's leader, equally eager to talk to the bird. The frog pokemon was glad to see that it was stirring awake already - he didn't have the patience to wait for one of these guys to wake up. Goro reached out with his bone club, raising it up under the archen's chin and guiding it upward, forcing eye contact. "Wakey wakey, birdbrain," he called.

"Ugh... what, are you gonna gloat?" The archen's voice was rough and quiet, thick with shame.

"I was gonna beat you with this bone 'til you spit out where y'all keep your stash, actually." Goro jabbed the bone club into the bird's throat lightly, eliciting a rasping cough from the defeated bandit. "You could make it easy on yourself and save me the time, though. I got places to be."

"Y-you... I can't just... if I did that, those guys would kill me when they wake up!" Clearly, the thief wanted to save his own skin, but the prospect of losing it later kept it from doing so immediately. Goro wasn't sure if it was trying to reason with them or just win some pity. He didn't much give a shit what happened to the bird after it tried to rob him.

"Please," the archen continued after a split-second passed when Goro didn't say anything. The croagunk shrugged his shoulders, unmoved, but he did turn his head to look at Beryl. He gestured with his chin to the bird with a smile on his face, a silent invitation to get in on the questioning. He didn't want to hog all the fun, after all.

Below where Shawn's rocks had the Archen suspended, the small fox watched with interest as the bird had an internal meltdown. It was no surprise that that cocky attitude had melted away so quickly under pressure - intense fear came naturally to this species in particular. Shawn entertained himself for a while by thinking of all the ways he could possibly make this worse for the Archen. Mostly little things to prod him further - clearing his throat, another squeeze perhaps. Even the silence seemed to be doing the job better than any little thing that he could pester the bird with. Shawn made careful little mental notes on everything he observed.

He wouldn't normally default to such passive aggression, but something about being in the presence of one as lawless as Goro was making him think more about these things. It was... freeing. "When in Rome?" Was that the phrase they used? As long as he was trying to fit in, he ought to explore everything while he had the chance.

There was a point where enough was enough, however. He imagined that Goro didn't have quite the patience that he had, and he didn't want to risk loosing face with him by taking too long. Time to return to character.


Ooc: I left it open so you could have some input on the final outcome of whether or not the Archen complies; we could also leave it up to a coin toss ^^