Mischief Managed [Halloween S4 2019]

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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.

The dratini should have felt relief when he heard that surprised yelp and the sound of cracking, splintering wood, his attacker being blasted back a safe distance away with a solid show of force. But all he felt was a resounding emptiness accompanied by a bitter crest of dejection. He was supposed to have won without hurting Kiba, but he had to go so far as to use Dragon Rage just to keep himself from getting mauled... even when he won, he lost. That thought broke the dam, and tears began to silently run down Osiris' face, pooling under his chin and soaking into the dirt ground beneath him.

That sadness morphed into despair, however, when he saw Kiba start to pick himself up from where he'd fallen. No way, he thought to himself, eyes widening in shock as the zorua shakily pushed himself forward. Immediately, Osiris put everything he had into escaping the weight of the cart on top of him, but he found he simply lacked the strength. Every movement chafed his bruised and torn skin against the harsh, broken wooden texture of the cart. In his desperation, he managed to wedge a bit more of his length out from under it, but there was a crushing weight on his tail that refused to be budged. It wasn't until he heard the flop of Kiba hitting the ground again that he stopped torturing himself, going slack as all the pain returned full-force to his body.

"Y-you're crazy," Osiris breathed, his relief turning into budding horror. The dratini unwillingly interrupted himself with a hiccup and a sniffle, his emotions overwhelming him in the moment. "You're f-freaking insane..." he whispered, staring deep into the zorua's eyes and seeing no trace of falsehood. This was the same guy who threatened the shopkeep as easily as breathing, who pounced on him and tore him to ribbons. Maybe he really would...

His brain failed to supply him with anything else to say, and for lack of strength to do anything else, Osiris merely stared back at the villain in his friend's body. The dratini raised himself up as much as he could with his tail stuck, bruised and bloody and covered in his tattered and torn bedsheet, committing the face of his first real enemy to memory.

Each breath induced pain. He dropped the head onto the ground. The eye closest to the ground squeezed shut while the other only partially closed. It was only seconds, but his silence felt like hours. As the dratini's words sunk in, a warm sense of joy began to spread through him. A smile quirked at the edge of his mouth, but he quickly dropped the resistance to the motion. A wide toothy grin stretched out on his expression.

An exhausted chuckle echoed through the abandoned lot. Each laugh caused pain to the body, but it was necessary. The tension in his muscles left him as he gave up on the idea of standing. A smile still on his face, he spoke with a much softer and quieter tone as opposed to the enraged and taunting wrath just moments before, "It's what he needs."

This dice is not existing.

That was the dumbest thing Osiris had ever heard. How was this helping anyone? How did this guy actually call himself Kiba's helper, or savior, or whatever, and then do crazy stuff like this and keep a straight face? Why were all of his friends crazy? He exhaled softly, beginning to tug on his tail now that the danger seemed to be over. Stupid wooden cart, stupid evil alter-ego, stupid prank that blew up before it even started...

"Just like he needed this?!" the dratini spat as he worked to free himself, shaken but not intimidated. He won, he had to remind himself. He had no reason to be afraid of this impostor in Kiba's skin. He could defend himself. "For someone who wants to help Kiba, you sure ruined his Halloween!" the dratini accused, inflamed by the zorua's continued arrogance.

This dice is not existing.

"Yes," he spoke with a calm confidence, "He may not have known it, but this is precisely what needed to happen." He stretched out his paws, each movement caused a new wave of complaints from the muscles. He ignored them, knowing it would not cause any real damage. He dropped the stretch after a slow readjustment to a more comfortable position.

"He deserves nothing but the best. The best family-friends-the best life," he broke eye contact with the dratini as he rolled onto his back. His voice lacked any hostile or angered attitudes, instead he sounded more as if he were reminiscing about something. "There's always next year to have a little fun on Halloween," he assured the Dratini, "But it's far more important to make room for a little "Self-Care." "

"Anyone who can't provide the best either needs to fix themselves up...or get out."

Osiris had to reevaluate something. What was scary about this zorua wasn't the way he fought, or his hair-trigger temper, or his astounding durability. Those were all factors, but the scariest thing in Osiris' opinion was that he really sounded like he believed all this crap he was spewing. "Yeah? Who died and made you king of his life, huh?" he said back, finally freeing himself with a mighty yank, sending himself scuttling backward as he escaped the weight of the wooden cart.

This left him free to move around, at least, unlike his companion who seemed content to just... lay there. The dratini took a quick survey of their surroundings; aside from busting up a bit of stuff surrounding them, it didn't seem like anyone heard their fight or anything. They were just two beat-up kids in an abandoned work lot, trading words now that they couldn't trade blows.

He paused as he contemplated the dratini's question. The smile faded. "A jolteon," he responded in complete sincerity, "And a Dedenne."

"At least, we think the Jolteon's dead," he added on quickly after, "He wasn't in any position to survive on his own after everything was said and done. I wouldn't mind if he was, honestly-but the Dedenne definitely died. His friends wouldn't have been so upset if it didn't-and I probably wouldn't be around...who knows?" He shrugged with flippancy. He could hear the dratini's messy escape, each ear twitched as the one closest to Osiris kept pointed in the dratini's direction attentively. He faced the stars, but he still paid careful attention to the dratini-in the event that the wyrm decided he wasn't done with him. He'd detect it.

"... He told me about that once," Osiris mumbled, a little quieter than before. Still audible though, as it was just the two of them there save for the ambient noise of Grassveil. "He said he got attacked by a jolteon and his dad came and saved him." Not in those words, but he'd at least heard Kiba's abridged version of the story. The dratini frowned as he thought this matter over. He said his dad had handled the jolteon, but had Kiba's alter-ego actually, seriously killed a Dedenne? He found that he really didn't want to know.

It was a little hard to believe that scenario apparently... created this guy? Or maybe he was always there, and that was just when he decided to control everything in Kiba's life. Chilling thoughts. "Well, you're gonna have plenty more chances to get rid of me."' he decided to announce. He wasn't interested in trading philosophies or arguing with him. "'Cuz I'm not gonna stop being Kiba's friend just because you don't like me, or think I'm not good enough for him, or whatever your deal is. Whatever that means to you, I'm telling you now."

Because that was the right thing to do, right? Osiris still wanted to be Kiba's friend, even if there was a chance (hue) that he could get taken over by an evil guy and try to attack him again. He would just have to find a way to deal with him, aside from kicking his butt.

Another silence fell over the zorua after the dratini spoke. His breath was slow and steady, now that he had some time to rest. The body was weak, not used to combat. It was a problem. This dratini was still a problem. There were so many problems he still had to fix. It was apparent to him from the heavy eyes that the body wanted to sleep, but now wasn't the time.

He couldn't help but smile again. His head shifted to the dratini to look at them, the little wyrm seemed to defiant...but it was difficult to take him seriously when he was upside down to him. "Good," he approved, "That's what a friend should do. You still have flaws though, flaws that need to be fixed. Work on them and you won't have any problems from me...otherwise, like you said, I'll have plenty of chances. Each and every one of them are going to be easier than this one too."

His form began to shimmer and shift weakly, but he was determined to make it work. Just a little change, not the entire body. His eyes were the only change he wanted to make. The glowing yellow and red eyes of the mightyena now took the place of the zorua's eyes. They narrowed as a confident smirk grew, "Because you're not ever going to know where or even who I am."

The illusion melted away, the eyes of the zorua now back to normal. He closed the weary eyes briefly and looked back to the sky. "He didn't tell you the full story, by the way," he informed the dratini. He continued along as if everything were normal. "He doesn't remember it. He only knows bits and pieces, but everything else just isn't there. He wouldn't be so fond of the memory if he knew the full story."

The dratini watched warily as Kiba's eyes were replaced with the eerie yellow of a mightyena's—how could he not recognize them, at this point?—and fought not to shiver or show weakness. "We'll see," Osiris agreed, and that was that. There wasn't any way he was going to talk this crazy nutter out of attacking him for his perceived flaws as a friend. All he had to do was get stronger, faster, smarter, and more skilled. He had to put himself in a position that not even Kiba's shapeshifting could phase him and be good enough so that he could end every conflict before anyone ended up like he and Kiba were now; battered, bruised, and bloody.

"I didn't get the impression that was all there was to the story when he told me," the dratini confessed, moving as if to lean against the remnants of the wooden cart before thinking better of it, slithering over to the cooler pavement and settling down. "Even with his, ah... own special spin on it, it sounded pretty rough. I take it you were there, or were you stuck inside again?" Osiris asked curiously. As insufferable as this guy was, if he helped Kiba in that situation, then maybe he was at least useful. His bit with the skiddo was still overkill in Osiris' opinion, but he wanted to know if there was more to this figure.

The smile dropped. As satisfied as he was, he couldn't keep it around with that thought. His ears shifted to a lower position before quickly being propped back up to where they were. "Yes," He confirmed to the dratini, "I was there for him." He could remember every bit of the scene that Chance couldn't. The cries of the jigglypuff, the screams of the jolteon, and every bit of terror that Chance experienced before he came along.

"It was more than pretty rough," he corrected the dratini. The smile suddenly returned as a mocking laugh ripped into the air, "You would have cried and begged for your mommy if you were there...maybe I would have been in your head instead even!"

"You'd be here-and-and Chance would be over there...he'd probably say the same thing you said...but I'd probably overpower him. Then I'd just make sure he didn't ever bother you again." The zorua lifted his head just enough to point with a paw, though it was more of a lay gesture than anything. He flopped back onto the ground when he was done, "He would have died."

It was unnerving how this zorua spoke about matters of life and death so nonchalantly. Coming from anyone else, it would have seemed like they were just trying to appear tough or cool, but given the savagery with which this guy fought, Osiris knew he wasn't kidding. In a twisted way, it made Osiris feel a little proud of himself - he was able to fend this guy off, even if he was out for blood. He kept focusing on the fact that he won, and tried very hard not to think about what would have happened if he lost... even if the zorua spelled it out.

"You don't give him enough credit," Osiris said back, thinking of the time Kiba leaped into a stream of water to fight a basculin that had him dead to rights. The zorua was much tougher than this guy gave him credit for - the way he spoke, it was like Kiba was a baby he had to take care of all the time. "He'd knock you flat on your butt, just like me. We're tough like that." he boasted with a little grin, heartened at the mental image of Kiba fighting back against his twisted counterpart.

Watching the zorua gesture and lay on the ground like that, looking like any other kid if you ignored the crazy stuff that came out of his mouth, his curiosity got the better of him. "What's your name, anyway? Do you got one?" he asked, his tone even but tinged with interest.

"I give him exactly the right amount of credit," The zorua calmly objected, "I live in his head, I know just how much he really deserves." While he agreed that Chance deserved some, he was confident that the zorua wouldn't have made it out of this situation alive. Chance would have refused to attack Osiris all together for a while. He'd cry and call out to the friend that wasn't there before deciding to fight back. By then, however, it would have been too late for a fight. He would have been injured. He would have died.

In regards to the name, he hesitated. It almost seemed as if he wouldn't respond at all for a second, but he spoke up, "I considered myself the true 'Kiba' for a while. I was the real 'Kiba' and he was just 'Chance'...but that's just not true. Sooo-I don't have one."

"It's not like I need one anyways," he hurriedly added on, "So just call me whatever the hell you want I guess. It's not like it matters."

"Huh," Osiris remarked, tilting his head at the zorua laying on the ground. It was kind of sad when he put it that way... if you ignored he'd done in the past half hour or so. "I'm not gonna lie, I've been calling you Evil Kiba in my head this whole time." Osiris admitted, chuckling sheepishly for a moment. He bit his lip as he thought, mentally fishing for something better to call him. This guy deserved some kind of name - he would be a poor nemesis if he was just "Evil Kiba" or "Kiba's alter-ego" or anything like that.

Unfortunately, nothing really came to mind. "Well, I'll think of something," Osiris settled, happy to put the matter off as he raised himself up and shook himself out, loose dirt and grime falling off of him as he did so. "I'd ask you to like, give Chance the steering wheel back or however that works, but... this is kind of impossible to explain." he said, gesturing between himself and the zorua as if to point out both of their conditions. "What're you doing now?" Osiris asked, curious about the second personality's next move. Was he going home, or did he feel like trying to salvage the Secret Society of Secretiveness' top-secret mission?  

He didn't think he'd be down for doing that with anyone else but Kiba... or Chance, or whatever he was supposed to call him. He was sticking with Kiba, because screw this guy.

"Evil Kiba?" Yeah, that definitely wasn't going to be one he used. Not only was it not a real name, but...well, everything wrong with it was pretty self-explanatory. It was curious that the dratini was going to think up a real name for him instead of just going with that though-or something insulting like "Butthead."

"I don't choose when he comes back, just like I can't force my way out all the time," The zorua explained, "I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I don't have any choice in the matter." Truth be told, he was kind of hoping that Chance would just come back before they got to the house. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to pull him back, but he was going to attempt it if they got there. The original plan certainly changed quite a bit from what he wanted.

The last question caused his brow to furrow. What was he doing? Wasn't it obvious? "As for what i'm doing...I'mmmm laying here," he answered, "Looking at the stars annnnd talking to you." He paused for a quick heartbeat before he added on, "I'm not going to fight you anymore. Not tonight. The body's had enough. So you don't have to worry about that."

The dratini frowned reflexively. He wasn't scared of this guy - how do you lose a fight and then say stuff like that? Some people had no class. "I meant what are you doing next," he clarified. "I dunno if we can do the top-secret mission anymore - if Kiba came back, I don't know how I'd explain all this to him. You know, me all cut up and you all sore, plus any gaps in his memory from him being away and all that..." Osiris went on, explaining the conundrum he saw to Evil Kiba. If there was no guarantee that Kiba was coming back, he didn't see any point in spending more time with the zorua tonight.

Maybe it was the responsible thing to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get into any more trouble, but that line of thinking would necessitate Osiris to be with Kiba all the time. With Evil Kiba in the equation, that just sounded like a constant headache. Plus he had other stuff going on, like helping Zircon - he had to get on that sometime soon. "I can walk you home if you want. With Kiba bein' beat up and whatnot. I mean, I don't know where he lives, but... yeah. I'm assuming you do." he lamely offered. It was his guilt speaking a little bit, as he was disappointed in himself for not ending the fight without hurting Kiba, but it'd also be a weight off his metaphorical shoulders to get Evil Kiba home where he can't get into any more trouble. Around Kiba's parents, he'd have to act normal, right?