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)

After waiting around with the box of items for a good while- a goooood while- Shawn decided that, yes. He did indeed need to go looking for the frog. Apparently, the frog just could not handle whatever it was that had impeded his progress... disappointing, and annoying. Here he was, a lower level than the frog now having to go save him. In some way, though... it made Shawn happy. It felt right, in a way of speaking. Before leaving, Shawn took a look around at his handywork to the area. He had thrown around rocks, blown up some dirt, scattered and scarred more rocks... generally leaving evidence that there had been a massive struggle.

He wasn't worried about leaving the items for now. He was fairly certain he had taken good care of the current threats in the area... and that diglett hadn't taken long to bring back that report. Goro couldn't have gotten *that* far.

And indeed, he had not. He slunk through the large rocks as Beryl, trying to stay as concealed as possible, but it did not take him long before he came across the familiar purple form being bombarded by two fully-evolved pokemon - with a coward sitting idly by in the background. Shawn watched with a frown. He took a moment to wonder how a weaker pokemon such as a poochyena had come to be the leader of a posse of powerful pokemon like Mightyena, but ultimately it didn't matter. If anything, it was a benefit- the poochyena would be easier to spook...

But how? Shawn considered charging in as Beryl and just doing enough to buy Goro time and opportunities to hit the Mightyena. That seemed the safest option in the interest of keeping up the ruse with Goro. On the other paw, it meant directly placing himself in the path of two Mightyena, as well as risking his illusions directly in front of Goro. No... that was bad. That wouldn't work. It would also be a red flag to Goro if Beryl was forced to play too passive.

...Thankfully, Shawn had recently seen their scout- AND had heard their voice. It had been a male, not too hard for him to mimic if he just practiced a bit first. "Hrrrm-mmmm, help me- Help me- Help me!!" There, that would do. He shrunk his illusion down until it merely camoflaged him into the background, and then approached.


"What...?" the Poochyena asked, startled and clearly confused. "What are you doing here?!? Shouldn't you be patrolling?!"


Shawn prayed that Goro was intelligent enough to get the hint.

Meanwhile, the poochyena fell silent, looking deathly afraid. Shawn wasn't aware that dark types were capable of going pale. "You can't be serious... all of them?!? That can't be...!"

Goro was initially unaware of the false diglett appearing in the quarry; he had his hands full with a big rabid dog. As he purposefully left himself wide open, the mightyena's fire fang hit home cleanly. It hurt like hell, but it was necessary for the move he had in mind. The croagunk kept the pain of sharp teeth and scorching flame in mind, his Revenge move manifesting in his right fist. His left hand snapped up and grasped a fistful of the mightyena's mangy fur, keeping it in place. Goro turned his shoulders, rotated his hips, and brought his right hand up with as much force as he possibly could, crashing his most powerful move into the dark-type's ribcage.

A shrill, deafening yelp erupted from the mutt, almost managing to drown out the sound of bones cracking under the force. It hit the ground almost immediately, the pain evidently too much as it fainted on the spot. Goro, for his part, didn't look too much better. He stood there up against the rock wall with an open wound on his shoulder, a thin plume of smoke wafting up from it. It was at this point that he cued into the conversation between the poochyena and the enemy scout, only catching on to the tail-end of their exchange. Goro was left visibly confused by the news; who was pummeling who there? He couldn't imagine Beryl taking on an aggron... but did he not have to? What did the diglett mean by 'everyone vanished'?

"Did you think we were gonna come here without a game plan?" the croagunk spat irritably, rolling his wounded shoulder as if to cast off the wound. "O'course we got ways to deal with your heavy hitters. You ain't the ones who played us; we're playin' you." he finished, dusting himself off as he stepped forward with a grin.

It was complete bullshit, of course. Goro was bluffing - he had no idea what Beryl did or didn't manage to do inside, but if this little weird ground-nugget was panicking, something happened in there to make them doubt themselves. It was a boost in confidence for him and a blow to morale for them; whether it was the sight of Goro dropping the other mightyena or the news of developments in the cave, the other fully-evolved dark-type took one look at the croagunk before turning and bounding away. The rapid flapping of wings signaled something similar above; he looked upward, and the archen were flying off to who-knows-where.

That one was less surprising. It seemed like all archen were cowards if the cards weren't in their favor.

Seeing the archen fleeing put another layer of stress on the poochyena leading the charge. He looked around in a panic, at his last remaining team member and then at the diglett who had apparently just barely evaded being disapporated by a man on the inside- and he snarled in frustration and panic. "Urrr.... what the hell are you all doing?!? Letting yourselves get outplayed like this!!!"


Meanwhile, Shawn stood his ground entirely too close to the Poochyena while he maintained the illusion of the hole the diglett had escaped through. He panicked, but he tried to contain his breathing so that it stayed very, very soft. Nobody had better come over here. He urged the dumb mutts to just run in his mind so that Goro would stop paying attention and wouldn't notice this stupid hole in the ground disappearing. He had half a mind to even start chucking rocks.

The poochyena looked sufficiently swayed, backing up another pace. "But that's not.... we don't run!!" He clearly wanted to, but his thin string of pride just kept him frozen there.

"If we loose many more people, there's not going to be a 'we' left!!! Make a decision!!!" the mightyena snarled back.

"I don't mind if you stick around, honestly. I could use some drain punch fodder," Goro suggested amicably, stepping closer to the dark-types. "Your buddy got me pretty good. But if I hold you down and wail on ya a couple of times, then I'll be right as rain." he elaborated, spreading his hands out as he explained it. From the tone of his voice and his relaxed body language, it seemed more fitting for him to be describing the change in climate or something else mundane, and not a strategic beating.

"Agh... I... fine! But this isn't over, you hear me?! We'll be back!!" the poochyena finally barked, turning and running like a bat out of hell. That seemed to be all the signal that the mightyena needed, as it, too, followed the smaller dark-type and fled.

That seemed to be all it took for the wind to evaporate from Goro's sails, as he deflated visibly and audibly. The poison-type heaved a long sigh, his posture drooping slightly. In the silence, he inspected the bite on his shoulder, touching it gently before gasping very quietly at the pain it caused. It left no lasting burn behind, but until he found something that could take two or three good drain punches, he was going to be very, very sore.

Looking sore and lethargic after the struggle, the croagunk simply turned back and walked toward the entrance. He'd packed some stuff in his bindle, right? Maybe he had something for this.

(15 + 1 from new page: 16 current energy)

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

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Good riddance, those dark type pokemon had been unbearable. Shawn finally let his breath out, though slowly and quietly. He also kept all of his muscles tensed. He wouldn't be here for long- he was simply watching Goro until he saw a point where the frog stopped paying attention and Shawn could make a run for it. He just needed a moment where Goro wouldn't see the hole in the ground suddenly vanish from existence.

....There, right there. Goro turned away to inspect his shoulder wound, creating a gap in his perception that Shawn wasted no time exploiting. The diglett hole vanished as Shawn set up cover for himself- and then the small fox screamed back into the rocks with pulse-destroying speed. He made sure he darted behind all the rocks possible, staying completely out of site until he returned to where he came from. In reality he didn't have to go that far to give the illusion of meeting Goro halfway, but A.) he wanted to chack on the items, and B.) he wanted to take the opportunity to heal himself if he could. Surely those pokemon had some kind of healing supplies in their stock.

It took Shawn nothing less than diving into the box nose-first, but he did manage to dredge up a reviver seed from the bottom of the box. He hurriedly ate it, feeling his energy being restored to him as the food item broke apart between his sharp fangs. He signed in relief, taking a moment to relax and re-focus himself. ....He considered dipping into the items before Goro returned, but his greed wasn't so insatiable that he'd risk being found out or gaining Goro's ire over it. No, he would be much better off getting the frog and bringing him here so that he could heal himself back up as well. Shawn found he could access his abilities without strain again, and as he donned Beryl once more he smiled to himself at his mastery of tactics. Goro now owed him one more- well, he owed Beryl one more. Shawn readied his rocks and then began walking back towards Goro at a casual place.


Shawn the Zorua - 0 + 1 + 10 (oran berry) = 11 energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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Goro looked up to see Beryl's form coming to greet him, and he immediately smiled. The croagunk's posture straightened up somewhat, a little bit of life returning to him now that he had someone he preferred not to look weak in front of. "I'm good, I'm good. Chased 'em off but one of their mutts gave me somethin' to remember it by." he explained, moving his arm around as he flexed the shoulder wound. "How 'bout you, though, hotshot? One of their flunkies came out screamin' about how you cleared them all out. What happened in there?" the croagunk inquired playfully walking up to the steel-type's side.

Goro found himself actually hoping that the diglett spoke the truth. If that was the case, then Beryl had done at least as much as he did, dealing with a bunch of hostile pokemon inside while he did the ones outside. That'd make them equals, in a way, and this little working relationship they had would be all the better for it. He didn't have many friends, honestly, and the ones he did have didn't operate in the same fashion he did. Why couldn't the folks back home be like this bisharp? Instead, he had Solus, the boss' bratty little pet, as the closest thing to a peer as him... and that was just sad.

(smashing that trawl orb i just rolled)

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

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Yes. Phenominal for that situation, actually. Maybe you consider actually doing that next time.

Shawn scoffed internally at the outlaw's apparent need to look "tough." Without Goro having said anything, Men who had to be man for man's sake were just off-putting and ignorant. A true man should be ready to do whatever is necessary to make progress, even if that thing was traditionally emasculating. Genders barely mattered, anyways. They weren't hard to mimic visually, and "gendered" traits were just traits that could be applied to anyone by anyone who wasn't completely ignorant. He also gagged internally while he had to feign like he returned that playful demeanor. "Hot shot." How original.

Shawn showed him to the box, but he approached his next choice of words with caution. If he assured Goro he hadn't taken anything, Goro might find that suspicious and assume the opposite. If he explained the box's contents in too much detail, that would also appear suspicious as it would absolutely prove he had been through the box. No, this required some finesse. Simplicity was preferred.


A subtle assurance. Not that Goro was necessarily concerned with the fine details over the profit.

Items, huh? It sounded honestly pretty busted. One orb that could do away with six different guys - some of them being huge heavy hitters? Even if Goro himself never dabbled in the use of items, seeing every encounter as a way to test himself, the sheer convenience made it sound worth it to him. The croagunk eyed the bite wound on his shoulder and decided, yeah, if he could have just thrown a ball at those dogs and made them vanish, he would have done it. Maybe he had something to learn here.

Goro followed the bisharp's direction to gaze at the box. "All that was left, huh?" he asked, peering down to look at it. All that trouble they went through with both groups just for a dinky little half-way chest? "That's... pretty shitty. I've found a few of these before - there's a lady in Grassveil who busts 'em up pretty good." he mumbled. He'd never risked it himself because he didn't want to damage whatever goodies were inside.

Nothing for it, though. It wasn't like he was going to haul it all the way back to Grassveil with Beryl just to spit the contents. Might as well do it now, he figured, raising his hand up before swinging it down in a hammer-fist right on top of the box.

(trawl orb 2: electric boogaloo)

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

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The box completely exploded under Goro's arm, cracking it slightly in half before just sending shards of shrapnel damn near everywhere. Shawn panicked at the prospect of being hit by some and revealed, while also simultaneously realizing that if the shrapnel passed through Beryl, Goro might be let on to the fact that the pokemon he was seeing wasn't actually there. Shawn couldn't exactly muster a lot of finesse while he was being bombarded with shit, so he just flailed his rocks up and down Beryl's form in the hopes that some of the box bits glanced off of them. A few shards did successfully get knocked away, but there were definitely a few that didn't.


Internally, Shawn was pissed. The box was open, sure, but at what cost? There was nothing he could do about it now... but one day. One day...

Until then, he plodded over to the pile as Beryl and began to search through it.

Goro was too preoccupied with the pile of new items sitting at his feet to really notice anything strange about Beryl, and the shards of box that went through him. Orbs, berries, seeds, ribbons and bands, a few of those disc thingies... more of the same, it looked like. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, honestly. Given the apparent usefulness of the orb that Beryl said he used, some of this stuff could be useful, but he had no idea what to do with any of it.

The croagunk rubbed his chin with his good hand while he studied their prizes. "Scoop 'em up, then," he said genially, poking around in the pile with the stick-end of his bindle. "We can have them on hand just in case we run into those guys again, and split the rest of this up between us." He was fine with taking anything here home - the exact manner of distribution didn't concern him. Almost all of it would fetch some kind of price, and money was money. "You think there's anything else inside?" he asked, plucking up a choice scarf and studying it with a curious eye.

(trawl oRB 3: TOKYO DRIFT)

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

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Shawn immediately noticed two particular scraps of cloth within the box and grinned widely. Yes, those were the ones. Goro may not have been able to tell them apart from the rest of the various smattering of items- but Shawn sure did. Joy Ribbons. Two of them, even. Shawn had been after them himself so long ago, but actually seeing them in person now for the first time... it actually got his tail wagging- something he refrained from doing normally because it was humiliating.

Goro hummed, staring specifically at the items that Beryl pointed out. Joy Ribbons were something he knew about, at least. He'd come across his pretty early on after leaving home, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't notice a difference after wearing the silly little thing. Improvement just happened faster in general. It was a little tattered now from where it hung on his bicep and stained a very suspiciously red color, but it was nice to have a backup in case his own ripped or something.

And they found some more orbs as well, which were also valuable according to Beryl. "You think they'd fetch a better price if we sold 'em, or should we smash the things and take what they give us?" he wondered aloud, dropping the choice scarf to scoop up a trawl orb. He was very new to making money this way, but he didn't think Beryl was the kind of guy to lie and try to take advantage of him. "Havin' stuff is nice if it's useful, but if not I'd rather get paid." the croagunk elaborated.

Either way, they had some stuff to take home with them. He began the process of opening his bindle and storing away some of their haul. "I can carry yours 'til we get to a town or something if you don't got a bag on you." he offered genially.

(TRAWL ORB FOUR: QUOTH THE RAVEN, "NEVERMORE.")

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

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Shawn frowned. He did have a bag on him, and he spawned a small one on Beryl so that it wasn't questioned why a bounty-hunting, treasure raiding pokemon would be caught dead on a mountain without a bag to carry shit in. The problem was, Shawn's bag was inside the illusion, and the illusion bag was... kind of small. Not that Shawn had exactly taken a lot of stuff, but... would Goro become alerted when the bag was stuffed, yet didn't seem any bigger? So far, Shawn had gotten away with everything clean. Maybe he could test his boundaries a bit...

Fortunately for Shawn, Goro was much too excited to play with his new toys to notice him pushing any boundaries. As soon as Beryl gave the go-ahead as the pokemon who had experience with these items, Goro raised the trawl orb in his hand and slammed it down hard. It burst open with a bang, and suddenly there was a black hole in front of the croagunk. Trinkets and gadgets came flying in from all directions, landing in a haphazard pile at the poison-type's feet while he scrambled backward like a startled cat.

"Fuckin' hell, that's gonna take some getting used to." he exclaimed, shooting up to his feet as soon as trawl orb summoned a mass of goodies. There was nothing immediately eye-catching in the pile, looking to be more of the same items. Seeds, berries, TM discs, so on and so forth... he was hoping for something shiny, honestly.  Like solid gold, or a pile of jewelry that someone would buy for thousands of Poke.

This kind of all-encompassing stuff didn't exactly scream treasure to Goro, but according to Beryl, it was money, and money was money. "Do all these orbs do this kinda thing?" he asked out loud, audibly and visibly off-kilter. "Summoning items and vanishin' whole groups of pokemon, that sorta stuff?"

If that was the case, he'd been seriously missing out.

(TRAWL ORB FIVE: NITROGEN BEE-HIVE)

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

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"

It was true. Shawn wracked his brain for minutes on end, but even with his guild experience he could not come up with a single time he had encountered or used this item in any way, shape, or form. What was it? What purpose could it possibly serve? It didn't look like any band item he had ever seen in his life. It was either entirely new, or entirely pointless- either way, it was the thing Shawn was probably the least upset about loosing to Goro. He was slightly jealous though. How exactly how Goro recieved such an amazing haul?!? Granted, Shawn had left most of the better items from the original pile to the outlaw in the hopes that it would appease him...

...but to even get so many good items from activating the orb!! And they had almost certainly raided the thieves' stash for all it was worth. Goro must have been the luckiest pokemon on the planet. There wasn't much to do with this now, but... Shawn made sure to make a note of it for the future.