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 voice changed. The uncertainty and panic came back. He struggled to see the owner of the voice behind him. The feeling of something wrapping around his leg practically made him jump out of his skin for a second time. Thankfully he managed to repress the instinct to kick whatever was behind him and try to escape whatever it was that latched onto him. His discomfort and shock was apparent with the shuffling of his hooves.

He could hardly even respond. It felt like his voice left him entirely at this point. Whatever it was behind him, he had no choice but to follow their instructions. The skiddo didn't quite think this was a good idea, but he had no choice but to go with it. He barely managed a small "Mmhmm..." as he waited for some sort of sign.

----

Bright blue eyes opened up. He was here now. He lifted his head up and had a look around. He was...in some place dark. He could still see just fine, but still, dark. He was under a table in some corner like some frightened animal. His body felt as if it had some wave of terror flowing through it, but it felt as if it were...just his body.

It was honestly a very strange sensation. He felt fine, but the body was...less than fine. He lifted the head...his head. It didn't feel like his head, but he certainly controlled it. His ears twitched about, there were noises in the back room. Right...there was a problem. He picked himself up, though the shaking legs and pain in his chest made it a little difficult. One slow and heavy step at a time, he started to walk towards the problem children.

Thankfully, Iris' attempts to help weren't repaid with a swift hoof to the face. It was a load off his nonexistent shoulders when the shopkeep gave verbal assent to getting this show on the road, and with that, he wasted no time. The sooner the skiddo was free, the sooner he and Kiba could be on the road. "Ooookay... nice and easy, big guy. One, two, three!" Osiris chanted before tugging backward in a mighty pull.

Dratini weren't exactly the biggest or strongest of pokemon, but he was a healthy young kid with a lot of enthusiasm. And maybe just the added bonus of someone helping him would inspire the crybaby skiddo into putting some more muscle into getting loose. Either way, Osiris threw himself back and yanked with everything he had on Aries' leg, not entirely sure if he was helping or not, but he was going to keep at it for the full five seconds and pray the situation resolved itself.

This dice is not existing.

The zorua happened across a scene of a dratini pulling along a skiddo who seemed to be very much attached to a door. They pulled back for a solid five seconds, though the grass type cried out in pain as they did so. He tilted his head at the sight. The duo stopped after the five seconds, the skiddo was already out of breath. He strolled along closer to the two until he ended up behind the skiddo and the dratini. The skiddo sobbed quietly, already having given up hope on the matter.

He watched quietly for a moment before he spoke up with a pleasant and clear voice, the illusion that once surrounded the zorua no longer present, "What are you doing?"

---

The second voice that spoke up just about spooked him again. His instincts drove him to run forward, but was immediately stopped by the fact that his horns were already dug into the wood. This voice sounded different from any he heard before. Was another one of the robbers putting up a charade again? Was this some sort of game to them? He was at their mercy. The skiddo squeezed his eyes shut and kept silent, simply waiting for them to get their sick amusement over with so he could just be left alone.

This dice is not existing.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Osiris stage-whispered back heatedly, even though there was no chance the skiddo wouldn't hear them. The dratini was also spooked by the sudden arrival of his partner-in-mischief, leaping up and nearly abandoning his hold on Aries' leg. He whirled around, exasperated and confused. "You were supposed to wait in the other room... I guess it doesn't really matter." the dratini went on, frowning in thought. They'd been a little freaked out, but maybe Kiba just composed himself and realized two heads were better than one? It wasn't like the skiddo could see them or anything, what with his head being stuck on a door.

"Well, if you're in here with me, how about you give us a hand and get his other leg? Pull on the count of three for five seconds, okay?" Osiris instructed, not at all noticing a change in his friend. He tightened his grip once more. "We'll get you loose yet, big guy. Just stick with it and we'll all have gone our separate ways in a few minutes!"

With that, the dratini readied himself to start another count and lead the second effort, giving Kiba a meaningful glance as he did so, hopefully prodding him into action.

Ooh right they were supposed to be doing that.

Oops.

He didn't care much. He much preferred being here where the actual problem was. The zorua looked to the dratini, then the skiddo, then back to the dratini. They were just going to pull the guy free? Wasn't that a little dangerous? "No," he spoke with a sudden air of authority, "That's just going to end up breaking his horn or he might just fall on us." Why should he endanger the body for the sake of some skiddo? Granted, Chance's mess was what got them in the situation in the first place, but still. He'd rather not risk being sat on, or worse.

"It'd be far safer to carve or pry it out." He held his head high as he spoke. He made no move to get close to the skiddo. His tone seemed far calmer than it was before. His expression was strangely relaxed and confident as well. While Chance normally had an air of pseudo-confidence to him, this was more genuine.

It was pretty weird to hear the words "far safer," be pitched as Kiba's chief reason for doing something, but... desperate times call for desperate measures?

"I... huh," Osiris hadn't considered either of those aspects of his plan, actually. Which wasn't too surprising, in hindsight. With Kiba, his input usually went one of two ways: really dangerous, or pleasantly surprising. This just seemed like more of the latter, and a good time for it, as well.

His changes in demeanor were minuscule enough that Osiris either failed to pick up on them or he just figured it was a part of Kiba composing himself in the other room. "That makes sense. I don't have anything sharp, though. Maaaaybe we can get a knife from the kitchen?" he asked, pitching his voice slightly as if asking the skiddo who owned the place for permission. It was kind of a redundant thing to do, but if they weren't playing things close to the chest anymore, they might as well mind their manners. "O-or a fork, or something." he hastily added, not wanting to freak the shopkeep out any more than he currently was.

If he were in the skiddo's position, the last thing he'd want to hear was that his burglars were fetching knives to use on him.

Of course, the very idea of it made Aries nervous, though at this point he was already so emotional that he began to grow tired. If this was all just some convoluted way to coax a knife location out of him to use on him then fine. He just wanted all of this to be over with. His sniffling, surprisingly enough, began to calm down. He was running out of energy. His legs felt tired, especially after having to be up and about all day to work. Even with Yera's help, running this place was exhausting.

He wanted to drop onto the floor, but his horns being so stuck into the door prevented him. The skiddo's crying and sobs finally slowed down as he began to accept his fate. He was going to die here. He was going to be carved up by sick little criminals and his pelt was going to be left for Yera to walk home to...or would they leave the other part?

"K-Knife's hung up over to the left of the sink," his voice croaked, "J-Just please make it quick a-and don't let Yera see anything..." he probably ensured that they were going to leave some of him, but it was worth a shot.

----

Woah, woah, woah. A knife? On second thought, that wasn't safer. He hardly trusted either of these two idiots with a knife of all things. One didn't have hands and the other shook so much that any vines he had would have probably made him drop it. If anyone was going to handle a knife in this room, it was going to be him. Paws or not, he trusted his own abilities far more than the other two. The only issue was that the skiddo was probably going to be moving and shaking while they were up there. Adding a knife or a fork to the equation was even more dangerous.

"Nnnnno," he spoke up again, "What we should try, is wiggling his horns around instead of blindly doing anything. He probably got some of it embedded in a little like...you know-like a screw? Even if it's not that, it might force the wood to move a bit more and give him more room to wiggle out." How many brain cells did these three fools have? He could probably count them all on one paw if he added them all together...

"Oooh, you wanna shake 'em?" Osiris said, slightly thrown by the change of plan again. First, he wanted to carve the skiddo's horns out, and now he wanted to wriggle him around until he came out? Osiris didn't know how different this was to just yanking the shopkeep free, but Kiba suddenly sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Which was a worrying sign in his experience, but since what the zorua was describing was quite tame, there wasn't much cause for concern. Osiris drew himself up and looked the skiddo up and down, figuring it wouldn't hurt to try before they resorted to other means. "You think you can handle that, uh, mister? Or maybe I should get one of his front legs and you get the other and we rock him back and forth until he pops free?" he pitched, alternating his focus from the skiddo in distress to his friend.

"Yes and no," the zorua spoke before he stood back up and walked along the side of the skiddo. He made sure to keep his distance from kicking range, just in case the skiddo had a sudden surge of courage and attitude. He looked up at the horns from his spot and thought about what the dratini said. He immediately wanted to call the dratini out on their stupid idea, but figured that wouldn't exactly bode well for the relationship. Instead, he'd just pretend he didn't hear. They just needed the skiddo to stop being such a big baby and work his way at it instead of blindly pulling and panicking.

"Hey, Skiddo," he spoke to the grass type from the side closer to the door. One tearful eye looked over to him, he could practically see the fear in his eyes. Being nice and assuring obviously wasn't working. "You want to get out alive right?"

--

Aries sniffled again. He didn't know what to say or do. He didn't know what they wanted out of him. If they weren't going to get a knife, then what were they going to do to him? The zorua off in the corner of his sight asked him a question, to which he responded, "Y-Yes..."

"Alright, we'll let you live...you just have to do what we say."

Wasn't that already what he was doing? Aries' eyes squeezed shut as he tried to silence his sobs. At the very least this one seems like they've dropped the act...

"Okay. I want you to rock your horns a little as you pull and just keep doing it. No matter what, don't stop. Put your front hooves against the door while you do it and push."

The skiddo took in a deep shaky breath and began to do as he was told. He couldn't quite get both hooves up there, but he managed to get one up to push. It began to hurt again, as if the door were trying to rip off his horns. With as much strength as he could muster, he pulled with his head and pushed with his hooves. He could hear the sound of the door creak. He didn't stop. He did as he was told. The continuous creak grew louder and louder, until finally the wood snapped.

Aries's head snapped backwards as his hooves moved to catch himself. Two gouges were made in the door and some wood was still collected on the tip of the skiddo's horns, but he was free. He almost expected to feel a new rush of energy with this victory, but instead his legs gave out from under him. The skiddo fell onto the floor with a light "THUD!", utterly exhausted both mentally and physically.

Osiris stood by nervously as Kiba worked his magic, chewing his lip nervously as the zorua more or less took the reigns of the situation. It wasn't an unusual thing for him to do in their limited experiences as friends so far; he was a pretty headstrong guy, and Iris had no problem letting him take point in these situations. If his ideas failed, they'd just do something more sensible. It was just a little weird to see him try simple first - he would have expected Kiba to resolve this situation with copious use of sharp objects, explosives, and social manipulation.

Instead, he made do with maybe just a little bit of the latter. Osiris backed up, startled when the skiddo popped himself free of the door with Kiba's coaching, only to flop right down to the ground. "Nice," he commented absently, nodding his diglett head a little bit as the conundrum was finally fixed. They were done! No reason to stick around. "That's, uh... that's everything, I'm pretty sure. Let's blow this popsicle stand?" he asked, phrasing the statement as a question just in case Kiba had something else he wanted to accomplish. Hard to imagine what that would be, though.

The little dratini-in-disguise slithered a bit towards the open door, ready to get a move on to target someone who actually deserved some pranking tonight.

The dratini wanted to leave, understandably so. Osiris probably wanted out of this mess half as much as Chance did. The dragon type was already heading towards the door. His gaze wandered back towards the grass type, however. There were still some concerns Chance had that needed to be fixed. He had an idea as to how, but the dratini definitely isn't the sort to like it.

"Go ahead," he spoke out to the dratini, "We'll catch up." The zorua kept an eye on the dratini until he looked as if he had left. Now that he was out of the scene, the zorua saw it fit to proceed. Each step was slow and cautious, even going so far as to focus on the movements of the skiddo. A strange glint shined from the zorua's eye as the Detect was set.

The skiddo quivered in fear in the spot, their eyes refused to crack open even a bit to witness anything around them. He could use this. The zorua's claws extended before doubling in length. A brilliant white glow illuminated the darkness around them. He lunged forward and pressed the paw against the skiddo's throat. The goat cried out, but a quick press silenced the yelp. The goat could have easily wriggled free if he fought for it, but fear paralyzed him.

He kept his voice low with a growl to it, intimidating, far deeper than Chance could manage, "Listen to me closely, goat. Nothing happened tonight. You went about your business as usual and bumped your head into the door after being spooked by a falling pot from your own clumsiness. You've never seen nor heard either one of us. Got it?" He was right in the goat's ear. He could feel every shiver and shake the goat made. It was very clear to him that the grass type was absolutely terrified.

"Y-Yes..." The skiddo squeaked so low that he could hardly hear it.

"What was that?" he growled.

"Y-Yes!" Aries bleated loudly, only for the pressure of the clawed paw to return.

"Quiet down!" the zorua ordered. The skiddo whined, but he continued, "Remember that, or we'll be back." The grass type nodded as fervently as he could without risking a cut from the extended claws.

Satisfied, the claws retracted. The light disappeared and the duo were plunged back into total darkness. He removed his paw from the skiddo and turned around towards the door Osiris left through. He muscled his way through the door off onto the other side. Almost as if a flip was switched, his voice was perkier and far more friendlier than how he had it when he spoke to the skiddo, "Alright, let's go."

... "We'll" catch up? Did Kiba... want to bring the skiddo with them? Was he doing a thing? Osiris wasn't sure, but his friend gave him an out of this awkward and stressful situation, and obviously wanted him in the other room for a second, so there was no harm in complying. Worst come to worst, he could just take his friend and make a run for it. It was Halloween, for crying out loud. With a little bit of shapeshifting on Kiba's part, they could escape into the hustle and bustle of costumed children.

So Osiris nodded - slowly - and reluctantly slithered through the open door. Which was where he stayed, not willing to leave his friend truly alone with the much larger pokemon, not after their little misadventure in Everspring Vale anyway. And while he sat there, tense and ready to burst into the room to back up his pal, he started to wonder if he should be considering doing the opposite. Because Kiba was in there threatening this poor guy.

"Um. Yeah. Okay," the dratini responded once he strolled back through the door, thrown by the sudden shift in personality. "You still got the seeds, right?" he quietly asked, slithering through the house and opening the front door once he made his way there, sure that his friend would follow. It was a very monotonous, automatic question; something to occupy himself with while he wrestled with what just happened in the other room.

What happened to not scaring this skiddo any more than they already had? Kiba agreed with him on that earlier. Osiris chewed on his lip a little, visibly a little torn as he contemplated bringing it up to the zorua.

Seeds? Oh, right. The reason Chance and Osiris came here in the first place. He broke away from the dratini briefly and quickly as he darted back for the dark small corner where he'd woken up. Yep, a small little sack drooped off by the wall. He picked up the bag and bolted back for the dratini, reappearing within seconds.

"God it," he spoke through the sack. He'd definitely noticed the strange tone of the dragon type, but chalked it up to be a reaction to this whole night so far. Without a beat of hesitation, he slipped through the door the dratini held open with a quick, "Sanks" of gratitude. Chance wasn't one for manners, but just because he wasn't didn't mean this zorua had to be a jerk about it.

"Yu reddie?" he asked with a glance back, a smile stretched on his expression. The problem was taken care of, but he figured he might as well help Chance get to the place first. The zorua was certain that he'd want to do the prank himself, even after what had happened. Everything was fine, after all, because he handled it.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Osiris agreed readily, bouncing out of the door eagerly. That little expenditure went off the rails, and he'd be happy if he could just forget how it went down towards the end. The stuff up 'til the skiddo got back in the house was pretty cool, though.

Now they were moving onto the next, uh... victim. It was kind of a worrying notion, knowing they were heading to a place just to mess with somebody after he heard Kiba do what he did. His words hadn't even been that sinister, really, but it was just jarring for him to do such a one-eighty after they agreed to be nicer to the skiddo who really didn't deserve what they wound up doing to him. The more Iris thought about it, the more he wanted to address it. "Are you okay, Kiba?" he went with, giving the zorua a measured glance (as much as he could with his diglett head on) from the side as they made their way out into the street and away from the shop.

They were off to the next adventure. The zorua trotted along with a much tamer route than the rambunctious wild child race along the rooftops Chance attempted earlier. He stuck low to the ground and lead the way for the dratini just behind him. He expected the walk to be quiet, that the dratini would want to mull over what happened a little. He was wrong.

The dratini spoke to him, addressing him as Kiba rather than Chance. He kind of considered himself to be "Kiba" out of the two, but he knew that this dragon was completely blind to the switch. If Chance wanted to be called Kiba around this other kid, then he wasn't going to ruin it. "He's fine," "Kiba" answered.

"Yu don't haf to wurry about him, because I took care of it," was his attempt to reassure the dratini.