Mischief Managed [Halloween S4 2019]

Tonight was going to be fun, Chance thought to himself with a snicker. He spent quite a fair amount of time on just collecting data about the kill-joys of the evening, now was the time to act against them! He couldn't do this alone, however, fortunately, he knew exactly who to ask along with him. It took him all day to put together the note for Osiris, even more just to sneak it into the dratini's room without his mother noticing.

...That was probably very illegal to do, but what did he care? He was gonna be the world's best outlaw! The zorua donned his cape and flash emblem, slapped on his false-oversized fangs, and picked up the pumpkin shaped basket. The innards of the carrier was empty, however, so he flipped the object up onto his head-effectively transforming it into a hat.

He sneaked out of the house and into town square, a careful and cautious eye looked to and fro. This was a Top! Secret! Meeting! He had to make sure nobody was following him...Once he was satisified with his three second search, he slipped into the alleyway he told Osiris about. He searched around the boxes and barrels briefly before he located the one he scouted out several days before. A grin stretched across his expression, the "X" he marked on the crate still ready. He reached his fore-paws up onto the edge. With a keen and careful eye, he made a move to jump in...

Of course, he failed. The box flipped over with the wrong move and trapped him inside. A surprised cry escaped him as he dashed forward in a blind panic. He rammed into the side of the box and sent it flying with him across the alleyway. the box struck another barrel. The rumbling sound of wood struck fear into him as he heard something heavy drop on top of his box.

...

uh-oh.

Tonight was going to be difficult, Osiris thought to himself with a frown. Having to concoct his own Halloween costume was super hard for quite a few reasons. One, he didn't have hands. Two, he couldn't ask his mom for help because she was still mad at him for a few things and he didn't want to have to ask her for help because that'd be... awkward. Three, it was pretty late notice because he'd been grounded for a minute and had to get both an idea and a working costume in a few days' time. Four, he didn't have hands, again!

Some pokemon really didn't know how good they had it. Osiris slithered through the streets of Grassveil in the guise of a Diglett. It was a very good Diglett, he thought (at least by his standards.) The bulk of the costume was honestly just a dark brown bedsheet that was long enough to cover all of Osiris length-wise—except sometimes his tail would peek out the end—and the head was made out of a plastic cylinder with a round top, painted the right color with some facial features scribbled on. Minus the eyes, of course, because he had to poke those out just to see.

Which was difficult. He had to constantly adjust his diglett head just to keep it on right so he could see. It was going to be a long night, he figured, turning a corner toward his destination with some spring in his slither. Important work was going to be done tonight by him and Kiba, to make sure Halloween night would be as optimal as possible, with as many pokemon handing out candy as there could be. Spoilsports and stingies would be re-educated.

"Kiba?" he stage-whispered as he strode into an empty alleyway. "I gotchur note..." All that was here was him and some boxes and barrels, but that might not be the case. His friend was a zorua, so he could appear to be anything. It went unsaid that he was probably a king of hide-and-seek, so if he wanted to get the drop on Iris, it wasn't a contest.

As much as Kiba would have loved to give Osiris a good ol' spook, he was far too busy having one himself. The zorua approached one of the openings used as a handle on the side of the box. He shoved his nose into it and attempted to throw the box over him. The box, however, was sturdy and still. Chance's eyes widened as he tried several more times, each one harder than the last. Whatever was on top of his box was heavy enough to keep him locked inside.

The voice of a familiar dratini sounded from down the alleyway. Ah! He was lucky! "Over here!" He whispered at a volume that defeated the point of whispering. His eye peaked through the handle to try and get a look at the dratini to see...an over-sized diglett? Huuuuuh? He'd never seen a diglett before, but this one looked...very different from what they were described to him as.

Was...was that Osiris? Either way, they might be able to help him. "Get this offa me, would ya?" he asked with another push of the box. The wooden piece slid forward, the box that collapsed on top of his clattered with some sort of metal inside of it. It was far too heavy for Chance to deal with on his own...

Yup, that was Kiba's voice, sounding like he was some kind of trouble, as per the usual. It sounded like it came from the base of two boxes. Was the zorua trying to sneak up on someone, or had he been hiding? The dratini slithered up to the talking boxes, peeking through one of the openings and spotting the zorua trying to muscle his way out. "You're under there?" he wondered out loud. "How the heck did that happen?"

It was a mostly rhetorical question, as he immediately slithered up the box holding Kiba hostage to test out the one holding him down. "Heavy," he noted. It was pretty bulky, and as he pushed up against it he could feel the metal clinking of something moving slightly. "Hold on a 'sec, I'm gonna give it a good smack."

With that said, he pulled back slightly and raised himself up threateningly at the box. Hold his friend hostage, would it?! The diglett clenched his teeth hard and reared his tail back, swinging it forward in a wide, powerful arc, a hot n' heavy Dragon Tail aiming to smack the box clean off Kiba's box and... wherever the heck it was destined to go, he guessed.

With a single good smack, the box was pushed over the edge of Chance's crate. The box toppled over with ease, though not without casualties. The box crashed against the ground and smashed open, various metal tools spread around the floor of the box. Now the only thing on top of the box was Osiris, though the zorua did not intend to wait for the dragon to hop off. Once again, his nose was placed into the handle before he'd make his second attempt at flipping the box back over, dratini or not.

He was far too excited to get this night started. He couldn't wait to both show Osiris his costume and tell him all about their task for the night. It was just an adventure waiting to happen, and their parents couldn't even get angry about them leaving the town-because they don't have to!

Well, pour one out for that box of tools, he supposed. Maybe they were supposed to be thrown out or something, hopefully, because if that was like something important then Osiris might feel bad a little later. Not now, though, because there's some important street justice to deal out to some stupid stingy candy hoarding adults. Then maybe he could swing by and leave an anonymous note saying that it was his bad for smashin' your stuff-

Aaand there's Kiba making his bid for freedom. "Uff," he uttered, landing a little rough as Kiba upended his box, dumping the dratini none too gently back on the ground. He couldn't be too upset about it - one, because only wimps cried about that kinda thing, and two, because they had stuff to do! He took a second to rearrange his diglett head with his tail, making it so he could see out of the two cut out eyes again.

"YES!" Chance cried upon achieving glorious freedom. The zorua knocked the box out of the way with careless glee. Karmic retribution for Osiris would rain down upon him in the form of slipping on some of the screws scattered around by the other box. The zorua yelped as attempted to catch himself, only to step onto his cloak and fall over completely. He was quick to pop himself right back onto his feet as if nothing at all just happened.

"OSIRIS!" He declared with glee, "Are. You. READY?" he tried to hype up the dratini along with himself. He dropped into a playful stance with his tail wagging high above him. He continued, "This is a TOP SECRET mission for the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness. Are you CERTAIN that you can handle the daring dos of tonight's dangers, peril, and risk?" he didn't know what two of those words meant, but they sounded cool and he heard Emmelyn use them before whenever she described the little "hobbies" of his.

It was kind of mildly horrifying to watch Kiba immediately slip, fall, and bounce back up off the ground as if he was genetically incapable of recognizing that he just tripped like a giant dork. Osiris grinned in excitement as his friend began to give him the low down, delivering what was probably the same speech that all agents of the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness would get on field missions. This moment would be the start of something great - the first outing of the bestest club, and a huge first strike against the grownups on Halloween.

Osiris nodded enthusiastically enough that his plastic diglett head was in danger of falling off. "I'm ready!" he stage-whispered loudly, taking a moment to readjust his costume head. "Nothin's gonna scare me tonight. What's the job?" he asked seriously, ducking down as if to avoid the sight of any onlookers. In reality, anybody within earshot could probably hear his whisper and spot the ugly bedsheet diglett from a mile away, but it was the thought that counted, right?

"There's this ol'grandma down on Watmel Lane," Chance's voice suddenly fell down to a whisper. He zipped over to Osiris' side and wrapped a paw around the dratini's awkward diglett costume. He pulled the dratini closer to him as he spoke, the bucket on his head tilted as the two costumes bumped into one another.

"A Lurantis, she's got toooons of candy..." he informed the dratini of this super duper top secret mission, "but...she don't wanna share. She's just gonna sit on her porch with the gummis and eat them piece by piece in front of all the kids walkin by!" He sounded almost horrified, as if he just learned of it. What a heinous crime to commit in the eyes of a child.

"Whenever someone gets near...she jumps out at them and threatens to decaffeinate them!" Did...did he mean "decapitate" or...? "Now I don't think she'd actually do it...but it's so mean! I saw some lil caterpie run home cryin cuz of her!"

"I dunno what we're gonna do just yet, but that's why were gonna scope the place out, y'know, do some real renaissance stuff...like real spies!" He jumped away from the dratini, back to being in front of them in that same playful stance. The bucket on his head fell forward, obscuring his sight, but he was quick to correct it with a paw. "What do you think?" he waited for his praise.

"That," Osiris declared, "is outrageous. Who eats candy in front of trick-or-treaters and doesn't share??" he wondered out loud, intrinsically offended by the mere concept. That took being stingy to a whole new level! It was one thing to keep your house dark and shut the door and not open up when kids came knocking... it was another to sit out front and do that creepy stuff.

It went without saying that he was in. "I think it's practically our job to take this grandma down," he intoned seriously. "This is the best first grownup to go after tonight. Being sneaky's a good idea because this one's important." It would set an example for the rest of the candy-hoarders, and if they could get the word out about what they did to this old lady, then word of mouth would deliver to them the consequences of their selfishness.

The dratini nodded once more, his features underneath the diglett head growing serious. "Let's go," he said, all business.

"Yeah!" Chance piped up, eager to get going on this adventure. He popped back up onto his feet, the bucket fell over his eyes once more. He flicked his head back again to re-adjust the bucket. He gave his own determined nod, "Follow me!" he practically wiggled with excitement. Without missing a beat, he turned tail and took off down the alley and into the streets. His sudden appearance seemed to spook some unfortunate rattata as he bolted just in front of their path.

Of course, he couldn't just run off without trying to get in a few style points. Almost as if some sort of path-finding mode was activated within him, the world became some sort of obstacle course. A few boxes seemed to line up nearly perfectly for him to jump up on before he landed onto the tarp of a shopkeep's closed down stand. The zorua leaped from the tarp onto nearby side of a building as he ran along the edges as quickly as his little paws could take him.

Hell yeah, he was cool.

Dutifully, Osiris took off after Kiba. It wasn't the first time he trailed behind the zorua as they went literally looking for trouble, and he got the feeling that it was also far from the last. What was different about this time, though, is that he was behind the mission one hundred percent! They were going to take this grandma down hard, and all the grownups in Grassveil would know: give treats to the trick or treaters, or fear the wrath of the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness!!

He kept up after the zorua with minimal issues; true, he may have lacked feet and hands, but he had been crawling all over this town since he had been born. There wasn't anything stealthy about bouncing off tarps and slithering alongside buildings, though, so maybe trailing after Kiba wasn't the brightest idea if they wanted to keep a low profile. "What are we thinking as far as tricking her goes?" he asked as they moved along, eager to render street justice. "Egging the house is always a classic, and so is tee-pee-ing." he supplied.

Odds were they would figure out something more personal once they spied on her a bit, but it was a nice thing to think about.

"Naaaah that's too easy," he chimed as he ran along. His eyes were focused ahead of him, determined on the task at hand. He could hardly hold back the grin on his face even if he wanted to. The zorua knew for a fact that he was up to no good...and he enjoyed it. He thought for a moment...before something dawned on him "There's this shop over on Sitrusdew Point that's run by this skiddo. He had this neat-o special of his the other day that he should still have some stock of."

He could hardly contain his excitement, this plan was so good in his eyes! "He used these weird seeds that he thought were Reviver Seeds in some of the food, but instead of tasting really good, it made pokemon laugh until they fainted." The memory was still fresh in his mind, he could recall nearly laughing himself to into the same situation without the help of the seeds. "He had to take it out of the shop, but if we could snatch a few of them before he tosses them, we could give it to her as a sort of...appreciation gift....a show of 'good will' during this spook-night!" He grinned maliciously, "Then, once she's down, we swipe the bowl and get outta there!"

Iris was totally speechless. His general idea of mischief was usually just to cast off whatever normal idea adults had for him—school, staying in town, only going to certain dungeons, etc.—but this was a whole new brand of bad behavior. And Osiris kind of absolutely loved it. An eager, excited grin was growing on his snout before he knew it - as soon as Kiba said the words, he was dedicated to the plan. There was a kind of justice in his idea; the righteous prospering, and the wicked suffering.

"That... you're an evil genius, Kiba," Osiris said honestly, not sure if he should be in awe of or develop a healthy fear and respect for his friend. Both? Both were good. "Getting our hands on those seeds might be tricky, but if we can then she'll never know what hit her! Or who hit her. I'm in costume, and you can change how you look... this is gonna be awesome."

How the heck did something like this come from the same zorua that wanted to surf boulders into the sky and see how far he could fly?

Just as he expected, his plan was flawless and loved by all one dratini. His ego was thoroughly inflated as he gave a tilt of his head and a lop sided smirk. "Exactly!" he chimed confidently with a "cool" tone-at least he thought it was cool. "I gotta be an evil genius, otherwise what good am I gonna be when I grow up?" he snickered.

"The shop's on the way, so we won't have to make any major detours to get there too. It's practically destiny!" He gave a joyful hop as he ran along. He couldn't wait. He wanted to be there now. Right this moment. He wanted it to happen so badly, just to be able to say he did it. The zorua couldn't hold back his excited dopey giggling, so much so that he didn't notice the oncoming end of the building he ran along.

Only last minute did he notice, only managing a quick "Uh-oh-" before he could even attempt to stop. The dumb little fox practically ran straight off the building, receiving punishment for being so caught up in his fantasies. Fortunately, another shopkeep's tarp saved him from a rough fall, though the tell-tale rip of the fabric let him know that he wasn't done falling just yet.

The zorua fell through the tarp and into some more boxes just below. He could hear the angered cries of a nearby pokemon, which prompted him to high-tail it outta there yet again with a panicked "SORRY!" The shopkeep didn't seem interested in following him, but they were certainly upset about their stock. Mayyyybe he should slow down a bit...