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 only light in the little square lot was whatever feeble beams filtered through the wooden gaps on the other side of the fence. He didn't have any particular path through this place, as he made a bee-line straight from the entrance once the dratini followed through. A large cart fit for a mudsdale stood at the center of it, though the rotted wood and missing wheel indicated that it hadn't seen any use in years.

"Not lying is pretty regular for Kiba too," the point was hammered once more. He stopped just before the massive cart. He turned around and faced the dratini instead of continuing on. "It's not just a 'two in one' person, there can even be three, potentially more. The fact that you don't know just goes to show how much you like hitting your head against a wall and calling that fun over actually learning a thing or two about the world."

"Is there anything you want to go over before we go any further? Back out and go home? Insult Chance a bit more without an apology even?" he huffed.

This dice is not existing.

"Just like being a jerk is regular for you, huh," Osiris grumbled, his snout scrunching up distastefully. There were few people that Osiris had come across that he couldn't get along with, and this second personality of Kiba's seemed to be one of them. It sucked bad enough that Iris messed up as a friend and only realized it when it was too late, but now he had to deal with this guy who looked like his buddy that wouldn't stop rubbing it in his face. "If I'm gonna say sorry, it's gonna be to him, not you, big guy. So what's going on there?"

Osiris planted himself right next to the zorua, stopping at looking up at the cart for just a moment before staring at his companion. "What happened to Kiba? Is he asleep, or do you guys take turns, or what?" the dratini demanded, his narrowed gaze visible through the eyeholes in his dratini mask. "Because I came out here to hang out with my friend—who I risked my life for and got my butt kicked for, by the way, and he did the same for me, so you bet your butt I ain't going home—not to do... this with you." he finished, gesturing between the two of them for emphasis as if gesturing to their disagreement and inability to get along in general.  

He wasn't sure what kind of answer he wanted. To the best of his knowledge, there wasn't really a reason for this new guy to be here. He and Kiba were just getting up to no good as usual when suddenly he was just... different. Iris just hoped it wasn't a malicious or unhealthy thing for Kiba - he wasn't sure what he could do for him if this new guy was taking him over or something.

This dice is not existing.

His fur puffed out again while his ears somehow seemed to stand even higher. His eyes widened before they narrowed again. His ears fell back again as a low growl sounded from him. "No-You can't tell him, anything about what happened then and what's happening now." His voice was low, but he did not bother with the mock-whisper that Osiris used.

His muscles tensed, clear hostility in his posture from what little of him could be seen. He focused his attention the dratini and the dratini alone. He hadn't even thought about this possibility when he decided to be transparent about himself, but now he needed to fix it. "What's happening, is that the world sucks so I'm here to deal with it for him. 'being a jerk' is my job, because he deserves the best kind of life he can possibly get and it isn't going to happen otherwise! If there's a problem, I fix it-no matter what it is. Like the skiddo. You were failing to take care of it so much, that I had to come and do it for the two of you." He stepped forward as if to say more, but the bucket over his head finally saw it fit to fall.

His line of sight with the dratini was broken. He growled again as he shook his head back and forth. "Ugh-stupid...bucket!" His paws lifted up and pulled the bucket off before flinging it off to the side. The bucket clanged and clattered loudly as it smacked against the cart's wheels. The seeds quickly accompanied the bucket. His gaze turned right back around to the dratini in the silly costume.

"Get out of that stupid costume too," he demanded, "If it's going to be like this then you might as well at least attempt to look serious."

"Just the helmet," Osiris replied, seeing no harm in the request. "It's Halloween, and I can't do the shapeshifty thing that Kiba does. If someone spots me later when we're tricking that lady, I need a disguise." he said, trying hard not to smile at the zorua's misfortune. He drooped his head forward and let it hang, wriggling about a little bit until his diglett head slid off slowly, gently rolling on the ground and coming to a stop next to his tail.

He shook his neck out, relishing the open air. It felt nice to get out of the silly thing for a moment. "So you're like... some kind of guardian angel, then." he paraphrased, focusing on the more important part of the zorua's speech. "I don't know if I buy that. How come you didn't take over back in Everspring? Kiba and me almost died like three times. You had plenty of chances." Osiris bluntly put forward, skepticism and mistrust evident in the way he spoke. The more he spoke with this second identity, the more suspicious he felt. Maybe a ghost type had gotten a hold of Kiba and was possessing him or something...

The zorua's fur continued to stand tall as his glare was steadied on the dratini. The dratini's question only agitated him more. Once again, he stepped forward, bound and determined to get into the dratini's personal space to tell him up close. "I didn't choose to not be there, so don't you dare hold that against me." Each step of the zorua was heavy and purposeful. His claws extended at his paw tips, but they neither glowed nor grew beyond their natural length. They dug into the ground as he continued his stand against this "friend" of Chance's.

"I'm not some 'guardian angel' or whatever that is either, I'm just me. There's nothing more to it." His growl continued on in what should have been silence. "But that's not what's important here. What's important here is that you're Chance's friend and you've immediately shown me that you're not a very good one. So how exactly do you plan to fix that?"

Iris was beginning to get tired of this guy getting in his face. Did he think he was threatening? Osiris had faced off against pokemon way bigger and way stronger than him - the only qualm he had about escalating this situation was the fact that he was... kind of Kiba, in a big way. He settled for merely rising up again, standing his ground as he stared back into the zorua's face.

"I dunno, I think it's pretty important," Osiris commented, his voice and words mild in contrast to his body language. "You're apparently the guy who's supposed to make Kiba's life better, but all I've seen is you do is show up and threaten people. Call me what you want, but I saved his life that day, and he saved mine."

It wasn't typical for him to be so defiant, but he was tired of this guy poking at him without pause. 'You're a bad friend, you're a bad friend,' over and over again. It might have worked on the skiddo (and whoever else he'd tried this on, considering how good he was at it) but this playground bully routine wasn't going to work on him. "I don't owe you anything. No answers, no promises, nothing," the dratini said, his tone matching the zorua's for the first time tonight. "As far as I can tell, you're just a chicken bully. You've got more to prove than I do."

The two were face to face as they spoke. The dratini made his stand against him, while valiant, whether or not it was a good idea was debatable. It was apparent that this dratini wasn't going to take anything from him, going as far as to say they've done better at his job than him when he didn't even have a choice in that particular manner! He needed to respond. The zorua stared at the dratini in silence. As much as he commended their fight earlier, this much of it was the kind of attitude that would get Chance killed in a situation like the raichu bandits.

The darkness of the lot provided him with cover, easy for him to hide or move around in. Easier for him than it was the dratini. They were alone. The streets were off back where they came from and even then, the population was thin in this area-especially at this time of night. It was just the two of them stuck in a moment where neither of them were going to back down. The zorua's form shimmered and shifted, what little appearance could be seen changing.

The zorua's form faded away as it was replaced with a much larger shadow. Golden and red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness as they glared down upon the dratini. The lips pulled back to reveal the row of pearly white pointed canines just beneath a red snout. An illusion towered over the dratini now, a mightyena now in the place of where the zorua once stood.

"Pain is the only thing anyone truly understands." the words echoed in his memories.

There were no words, warning, nor hesitance. The zorua's growls switched to a nasty guttural snarl just as he launched himself into the dratini. Immediately, his teeth moved make an attempt to latch onto the dratini with a specific area in mind-just below the dratini's head, the neck. His claws grew twice their length and took on an eerie shine as he tried to pin down the serpent with all the strength and weight he had, an effort to ensure that the worm wouldn't coil around him and fight back.

If anything connected, he would latch on as hard as he could and refuse to let go. His wide eyes were locked onto the dratini and nothing else. He'd prove something to this abhorrent wyrm tonight.

What a jerk, Osiris thought, trying not to flinch back at the sight of Kiba transforming into a freaking mightyena. His eyes widened in nostalgic fear, an old terror rising up that had been beaten into him by the exact pokemon he was suddenly staring up at. This would have been the time for him to turn tail and run, or to create space, or do something. But just as he did the first time he was face-to-face with a growling, snarling mightyena, Iris briefly locked up, and his window of opportunity was lost.

His much scarier adversary burst into a cacophony of frenzied growls and movement, and only then did Osiris' body feel like obeying his commands. The smaller dratini tried to lunge into an Extremespeed out of panicked instinct, but he was too slow to react - fortunately, though, the move was prodigiously fast, and he was at least able to avoid the fangs snapping at his throat. That was about all that happened that went in his favor, though. His bumbling reaction resulted in a pair of heavy paws to slam down on his serpentine body, halting his movement before it could really begin, and sharp claws sunk into his sides to ensure he couldn't go anywhere.

At this point, he was no stranger to this situation - Osiris was pinned. But he was not helpless. Mightyena or no, he didn't ever want to go down without a struggle, and if his friend's evil alter-ego wanted a fight, then he was going to get one. The dratini began to furiously writhe, buck, and struggle under the force weighing down on him; less than he expected from a pokemon as big as a mightyena, but not insignificant nonetheless. The thought of channeling a thunder-wave briefly entered his mind, but was just as quickly dismissed - he wasn't just fighting Evil Kiba, he was fighting Kiba, too. And that meant he couldn't do anything that would cause them to go home to get fixed.

The teeth missed their mark, but claws sunk in. While Osiris was kind enough not to attack his friend, the zorua did not share the same courtesy. The illusion of the Mightyena moved quickly as it seemingly tried to hit the originally intended target. Wide ravenous eyes followed the dratini's every movement as even saliva was flung out of the mightyena's jaws with every sudden move.

The hostile snarls and snaps of the zorua overtook the silence. With every wriggle and push of the lengthy body, he tried to sink his claws in more and more. The body pushed and shoved, but he refused to release the dratini. One paw at a time, he pulled. As deep and long as he could manage, which was difficult to manage with the wyrm's movements and superior strength. The only reason he stayed on top of him was because of the hold he had with his claws. As soon as a paw was freed from the dratini, he sunk them right back in.

The zorua abandoned the aim for the neck and instead moved to snap down on the body. Again, his teeth missed their mark. With a sudden forceful push that caught him off guard, he was tossed from the dratini. He landed on his side while the illusion above him dissipated into emptiness. His disgraceful fall was short-lived as he pushed the body back onto his feet and planted himself between the dragon and the entrance into the empty lot.

The faint light of the candles that managed to intrude the lot caught his outline just enough to show his bristled fur. He kept his head low while light glow of icy blue caused his eyes to stand out in the dark While he hadn't managed to land a bite onto Osiris, his snout was covered in red. His form shifted and wavered in the light as if he were merely a mirage. His sides remained still and calm, his breath seemingly steady.

Truthfully, he struggled for air. It took all he could to keep his pants quiet as the illusion did its job of making him seem more unaffected by the tussle. The dratini was much stronger than he anticipated, but that just meant he was to try harder. He kept quiet until he was confident he could speak without sounding short of breath, "Call me a bully all you like," he spoke, "But I am not a chicken and you will listen to what I tell you." It was harder than he thought, but he could still manage this. The deep growl returned to his throat as he made his demands, "Because I can do a hell of a lot more than just threaten people."

It took everything Osiris had to keep Kiba's snapping jaws away from his neck, and for his troubles, he got the absolute hell raked out of him by the dark-type's claws. The struggle was different this time around - instead of an all-encompassing piercing force weighing down on him from all sides courtesy of a pokemon's jaws, it was a frenzied and messy dance, trying desperately to free himself of his friend's claws. It felt like every time he got one paw dislodged, two more replaced it, ripping and slashing right through his scales and tearing into his flesh. By the time Osiris managed to buck Kiba off of him, the dratini was a complete mess, little red rivers running down him, crisscrossing at every opportunity. The brown bedsheet that completed his costume alongside the diglett helmet was completely ruined, in tears and tatters at this point.

If possible, he felt worse than he looked. His body stung and burned with every slight movement, reminding him even more viciously of that time against the mightyena in Everspring Vale. Except now it was his friend who was making him suffer, and wasn't that just a kick in the tail? Against his will and despite his best efforts, the dratini saw his vision start to cloud up and get foggy - and it wasn't because he was about to pass out. His eyes felt wet; Osiris was starting to cry. It was the kind of cry you got when you desperately resisted it, tears welling up in the eyes as you tried and failed to appear menacing.

"You're nothing but a chicken," Osiris spat heatedly, glaring at the now-zorua for all he was worth. "Sucker-punching scaredy-cat!" he squawked, his voice much more watery than he would have liked, though still venomous. It was a mindless, absent taunt, something to occupy the silence while his brain tried to kick into gear. Osiris thought of the lesson he learned in his battling class at the academy, the four S's of a fight; Strength, Speed, Supplies, and Situation.

It was obvious by his cut-ridden body that Kiba held the edge in strength so far, but in the event he wasn't pinned, Osiris was faster. Supplies were irrelevant, and the situation was just... garbage. He was fighting Evil Kiba, except not really. If he wanted to win, he had to find a way that didn't hurt his friend - but the only way to win a fight was to hurt the other guy until he gave up! "Uuggh!" Osiris grunted, helpless anger and frustration reaching a boiling point. Forget it, he thought strongly, coiling up and crouching low to the ground, his posture tense and taut.

Then he burst into motion, throwing his first blow of the fight. The dratini rocketed off the ground like a missile, powered by his favorite move Extremespeed, his skull acting as the torpedo's head aimed directly at Evil Kiba's big dumb snooty face. He didn't want to hurt Kiba, but he had to do something. Bruises were preferable to paralyzation or actual injuries, so maybe a few hard blows would encourage this new guy to back the heck off.

Every word of defiance the wyrm spoke added another batch of fuel to the fire. Wide eyes glowered at the dratini. He took in a breath for a verbal retaliation, but he was not granted that opportunity. The moment the dratini coiled up, he knew what was up. He knew he should jump out of the way, but his only real reaction was to back up a step. His tail lowered as his ears fell a short distance down. He didn't have the time to do much else before the wyrm rocketed straight into his chest.

He was sent along the way toward the wooden fence, but a quick and careful twist of his body helped him catch himself before his back could slam into the fence. He stopped where he was, his eyes finally left the dratini as they began to frantically flit about the area. The grass patches, the cart behind the dratini, the rotted wheel off to the side, and another darker set of wheel off to the side that looked a lot shinier than the wooden ones. He could see a box or two just behind the cart as well as a pile of large bricks just to the side of them. He looked back to the dratini and began a slow walk forward.

His shape changed again. Even larger than before, the fox was replaced with a different creature. The bipedal form of it stalked closer to Osiris, each movement slow and steady. Red eyes illuminated the face of the creature as blue iris with slit pupils as thin as a hair line glared watched Osiris. A familiar face was presented before Osiris-the battle-torn body of Chance's mother. With the same intensity and ferocity the mother held when she attacked the bouffalant, the zoroark lunged forward to grab the dratini.

Kiba kept his head low as he slunk forward. He continued to look back and forth between three things in particular, the stone bricks, the iron wheels, and the wooden cart. He couldn't decide, so he'd just let the dratini do so for him. The zoroark would miss, but he was confident the dratini wouldn't just let them be grabbed. As he proceeded closer, he could feel his muscles begin to itch. He focused his attention on that itch as he prepared for the dratini to flee. Even if Osiris tried to run a way different from what he expected, the zorua was certain to be in hot pursuit.

Yes! Osiris felt a surge of satisfaction as his headbutt connected, driving Kiba back until the zorua spun deftly, separating them and leaving Osiris to land on the ground. He grunted a bit at that contact, the rough landing grating against his cuts painfully, but that was progress made, in his opinion. A handful more of those and they'd see how eager this guy was to tangle with him!

One evidently didn't cut it. Evil Kiba morphed into the zoroark that saved him and his friend back in Everspring, and now her wrath and anger were aimed at Osiris. The dratini swallowed a nervous lump in his throat, knowing in his mind that it obviously wasn't her, but his body was afraid nonetheless. When she lurched forward after him, he didn't think twice about running away - it was the smart move to make no matter what, considering Evil Kiba's tactic of holding him down and wailing into him. He didn't even consider where he was going when he lunged to the side, heading closer towards the wooden cart.

He tried to create distance without the aid of Extremespeed and that seemed to be a mistake, because Kiba's mom was fast. Despite his rush of movement, she was in his face before he knew it, claws sinking into his side as gravity naturally drove him down towards the ground as they fell together. He crash-landed in the grass relatively close to the wooden cart - with just a teensy bit of wrestling on Evil Kiba's part, they'd be within distance for the zorua to topple it over on him, though of course Osiris wasn't even considering that.

Iris was more occupied with thinking very angry thoughts. Thoughts like how absolutely stupid the past half hour of his life was, and how rotten and mean and unjust this new Kiba was, and how he went out of his way to hang out with and help his friend tonight, and all he was rewarded with was pain and suffering. The dratini didn't put up nearly as much of a struggle as the first time he got pinned, instead rearing his head back until the back of his skull brushed against the grass, beginning to focus wrathful draconic power in his throat.

His slower pace kicked up to a full on run in a heartbeat as the dratini slithered away. The zoroark illusion followed him as he pounced onto the dratini and locked his claws in once more. His little jump for it sent the two of them tumbling onto the ground. Instead of drawing his claws across the dratini's scales once again, he focused on keeping them in place. He pulled the whole of the dratini's body long. The struggle was difficult as Osiris's movements and twirls did little to take his own safety into account.

in order to help keep the hold, he bit down onto the dratini and began to drag them under the cart. It wasn't as heavy or lethal as the other two options, but it would do. He was the one to give the dratini a toss this time around, grabbing the serpent by the tail and giving them a slam into the cart's remaining wheel. The aged rotted wood snapped and shattered before the cart began to fall. He tossed the dratini under the path of the collapsing cart, while he stood at the safety of the sidelines. Dust and dirt flew into the air followed by the crack and rattle of heavy duty tools on the inside of the cart.

Kiba's cold gaze watched the cart as the dust slowly began to dissipate. His ears were perked, alert, and ready for a sudden counter attack in case his plan failed. As it became clearer to see, the shadow of the dratini was shown to be pinned under the weight of the heavy duty cart. A smile stretched from ear to ear as the rush of the excitement only seemed to grow. The illusion was set up again, but it had less to hide this time around. There truly was blood around his muzzle. His naturally red paws held a darker scarlet tint to them while the claws continued to give off their eerie light-just enough to see the smile.

"Care to say that again?" he growled as he stalked closer to the dratini, "I didn't quite hear you last time." The zorua's attention was focused on the dratini's eyes again, though it was different this time around. Instead of looking into the dratini, the zorua was more focused on the eyes themselves. His claws grew in length before he lunged towards the dratini with full intent to relieve the dratini of their vision.

Osiris tried to tell himself that this was part of the plan, as Evil Kiba dug into him, drug him around, spun him and slammed him into the side of something very solid and lumpy. The dratini heard an ominous snap and crackling, but he was too occupied with the searing, aching pain all over him, and the white-hot rage burning a hole in his throat. Keeping hold of the move while he was tossed around like a ragdoll proved difficult, but at this point in his life, Iris was no stranger to pain.

He just closed his eyes, grit his teeth, and took it in silence, an agonized grunt and sniffle escaping him every so often. The Dragon Rage boiled in his maw, but he waited for his chance. He could feel the pressing weight of whatever he'd been slammed into had collapsed onto him, pinning him to the ground so Evil Kiba didn't even have to bother. It didn't matter, he told himself furiously. He had full confidence in his shot paying off shortly, because if he didn't and it failed, he might just burst into tears.  

As the dust settled, he opened his teary eyes to witness his adversary looking down on him, staring him right in the face. His words registered somewhere in the back of Osiris' mind; all that mattered to him was that Evil Kiba was getting closer. It was now or never. "RRAAHH!!" he shouted in response, letting the Dragon Rage fly at last. It burst forward out of his jaws in the form of a bright, viridian shockwave of dragon-type power, let loose at point-blank distance.

The only thought in his mind was that he hoped it hit home; the alternative meant that he was in a serious bind.

Just as he could see his own claws in the corner of his vision, a different brilliantly colored light flew into his face. A yelp of shock was quickly cut off as the blast of the shockwave struck him head on. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the attack as much as he could. The force of the rage was enough to send him flying just as the ExtremeSpeed did, however this was stronger. The zorua crashed into the fence behind him, unable to catch himself on his feet as he'd done before. The fence splintered and rattled with the force of the zorua's body crashing into it, visible splits in the wood were created that permitted an ever-so minuscule amount of more light to shine through.

The zorua's body succumbed to gravity and fell with a disgraceful flop as if he were a doll that was tossed aside. His limp body rested on the ground as the smell of singed fur overwhelmed the immediate area. After a moment of nothingness, piercing blue eyes snapped open in the midst of the darkness. Slowly, the body began to move again. Each limp shook as he forced the body back onto its feet. The world spun all around him, sometimes even seeming to flip over upside down.

He could still see the blue wyrm though. His form shifted and changed, but each and every little change he tried to make just quivered and melted away. He forced himself forward one paw at a time, with his stare still on Osiris...two Osiris'...three? He couldn't hide the shortness of breath any longer as his heavy pants replaced what little growls he managed to make. That sinister light returned to his claws, but it seemed to shatter and fade just as his illusions did. The dratini was definitely a lot stronger than he'd anticipated.

His legs gave out from under him as he collapsed back into the dirt. He was nowhere near as hurt as he'd been before, but the body simply wasn't having it. He couldn't push it any more, or else it'd risk irreparable harm. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't beat Osiris, especially not now. He'd have to think of something a bit more clever, something he'd have to do later. He watched the dratini from where he lay, his eyes glazing over as he started to stare right through the dratini. This only lasted for a few seconds before the focus snapped right back into Osiris's eyes.

"If...If you tell him-or anyone about me," he struggled to speak over his need for air, "I'll drive this body right over the edge of a cliff."