Beat It, Punk! [Halloween 2019]

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He moved to the rhythm of a tune nobody knew. He hummed along as each step accentuated the notes. His tone was off-key, horrific, and honestly a sore to anyone who had the misfortune of ears. He cared not, for today was a good day. In his book at least. It'd taken him forever to escape his mother's watch, but he'd waited for the perfect moment to attempt his escape...when his mother slept.

He really wasn't supposed to be out, especially right then and there. The wound on his flank and gnawed bite marks on a fore-paw and back paw hadn't healed yet. He felt fine enough, however, and he still was all bandaged up. So he was good in his book!

The town's street was rife with a livelihood he hadn't seen in a while. Pokemon shuffled from to and fro, some adorned with costumes of varying quality. He, however, had the misfortune of losing his elaborate costume the night he received the wounds he bore. That was alright with him though, he had another trick up his sleeve to get some treats! He just had to figure out where he left his bucket the other night...

His search would be interrupted, however, as he spotted a familiar elderly lurantis shopped about. It was that target he was supposed to "trick" the other night! A mean ol'man that sat on his porch and ate candy in front of the trick-or-treaters instead of giving it to them. He stopped in his tracks with a fixed gaze on the grass type. Their grumpy expression and sneers towards the children said all: he was still a jerk.

Therefor, he had to do something! But what? The zorua zipped off into an alleyway and found his way atop some boxes, he reached the rooftops of the street where he could properly stalk the the grass type. His mind tick-ticked away as a frantic search around found...was that a bucket of paint up there? A wide grin blossomed before he bolted ahead of the lurantis, who took their dear sweet lovely time as they made their way down the street.

Just his luck, the owner of said bucket was nowhere around. There was a small collection atop the roof, the owner must have been repainting their house. He had a small selection of colors to pick from. He picked out the red bucket in a heartbeat, he left the other two behind. The large bucket was a tad too heavy for him to lift, so he was left with pushing it close to the edge. Each move was careful and calculated, by the time he got it to the edge, the lurantis came close to the corner. His fore-paws hung over the edge as he waited.

Closer...closer...

...

NOW!

The zorua bolted up right and behind the bucket. With a quick back-kick of his hind-legs the bucket was sent over the edge. With a clang, clatter, and a splash, the pedestrians and lurantis below were covered in an unknown red substance. Cries of fear and outrage rippled from the crowded street. He peered over with a snarky grin to survey the extent of his chaos. Confused and baffled, the lurantis and the nearby casualties of prank-war chattered nervously and cried in disgust. The grass type, however, had the sense to look up. Chance found his gaze locked with the lurantis, who's eyes promptly narrowed.

Uh-oh.

He bolted off without a second thought, there one moment and gone the next. As quickly as his paws would take him, he worked his way over to the building next over and looked for a way back down. He jumped down into an alleyway and moved to head back into the busy streets, his form shimmered and changed in order to disguise himself. A flash of white followed by a crack of the earth below caused him to stop in his tracks, he narrowly avoided being impaled by an illuminated white claw. The illusion dissipated before it could even form.

He yipped in fear, his nose pressed against the glowing arm as his momentum pushed him forward ever so slightly more. A drop of red fell onto his nose before he noticed it also slowly dripped down the arm that stopped him as well. Slowly and cautiously, he looked up to see the glare of a very upset lurantis.

"...Uh-Hello, mister?" he smiled sheepishly as he slowly stepped back.

Kiba talked on and on about how much fun they were going to have, and Robin was half expecting his tail to fall straight off with how hard it was wagging. At least, until he stumbled over his own paws, leaving Robin to wince at his pained yelp. He pushed on past his brief foray with the ground, but Robin was rather concerned anyways. Had the Lurantis gotten a hit on him before she arrived? That seemed like a harsh punishment for a prank, but the old man did look like a piece of work. Then again, it could have come from anything, with the kind of trouble that Kiba seemed prone to getting into...

But in any case, he seemed to have someplace in mind, and so Robin followed after him with her ears perked and a concerned glance over her shoulder. She had to admit, she was curious as to what Kiba had in mind.

This dice is not existing.

His movements were quick, swift, and full of "oh-god why!?", but again, he wanted to take Robin somewhere he thought was super cool. He could hear the lurantis' cry in the distance, but it faded under the chatters and mumbles of the pedestrians and merchant as they bartered and convened. The zorua continued on with an occasional twist and turn, his path having much more purpose than before.

It didn't take long to get there. It was a small garden-like area to the side of a very large house. It was void of any plant life-as the chill of winter prevented anything fruitful from growing. He scampered through the fertile ground and towards a wooden picket fence across the garden. There was a small hole a pokemon such as himself and Robin could fit through, but he wanted to show off a little. His muscles were put to work as he neared the fence. With only a second of a full stop, he launched himself up the fence.

Normally it would have been graceful and easy for someone as athletic as himself, but of course, his body decided that this was unacceptable. Just as he reached the top, he couldn't stop another yelp. He scrambled to latch onto the very top. The clumsy display resulted in an embarrassing and rushed flop and struggle over onto the other side followed by a soft "THUMP!" from behind the fence.

He landed precisely in every spot that he shouldn't land on-save for the lethal ones. The bandages that wrapped around his waist even came loose and barely hung on, part of it must have gotten stuck on the pointed top. "OWWWW-owowowowow-" he whined as he rolled off of his bad side. Fortunately, the grassy terrain made his fall a lot less damaging than it could have been...but this only meant that he had just enough energy and will to try to sit himself up before Robin could see him. It was likely that she heard him, but he sure hoped she didn't.

He sat himself up, ignoring the loose bandage and pushing himself on towards the side in some bushes beside a large tree. Just off in the corner of what was literally someone else's backyard, was a small and crude looking shack. It was very small, just enough for two or three small pokemon to squeeze into if they tried-perfectly hidden behind all of the shrubbery. He planted himself in front of it with his chest puffed out, proud of the shoddy woodwork. There was even a sign precariously nailed onto the top with rainbow of colors that declared, "CKRIT HIDOUT!! DOO NO DEESTURB!!" There was even a little red paw mark off to the side of the entrance...a zorua's paw mark.

"Hey, uh, Kiba, are you alright-" His erratic movements and occasional stumble were... concerning. Very concerning. He was clearly hurt, worse than she had at first thought, and she would have been perfectly fine slowing down. But he moved with so much purpose, scampering along despite the hiccups, that Robin couldn't quite catch his eye long enough to ask him to slow down. She poked her head out from the hole in the fence to see her newfound friend sitting up abruptly after yelping in pain, unwrapped bandages strung from the point of the fence.

Oh, that had to hurt. His hasty attempt to cover up his fall was... bold, she would give it that, considering his pained whine and the literal trail of bandages that had come unwrapped when they were caught on the fence. "C'mon, take it easy, we're not being chased anymore." She pushed gently, even as she was led to a little spot behind the hedges. The quirk of her eyebrow was either incredulous or impressed. Even Robin wasn't exactly certain which.

The woodwork was rough, the spelling even moreso. The hiding spot was perfect, though, she'd give it that. She had never gotten to build forts in her backyard, but it seemed fun, now that she thought about it. As rough as it was, something about it was so thoroughly... Kiba, that she couldn't help but crack a smile, the little pawprint on the side marking it, clear as day, as his.

Wait.

Her backyard.

She starting mentally doing calculations no easier than algebra in her mind, coming to the conclusion, with a sinking feeling, that this was probably not Kiba's backyard. Well, all the more reason to get inside. She nudged her way in, and it was, admittedly, a bit comfy - though she suspected that would turn to cramped quite quickly when Kiba tried to find his way in. She squeezed her way into the corner, as best as she could, her eyes wide with wonder.

Alright, alright. Even if it was a bit shoddy... it was charming, in a way that made the faintest possible laugh rise from Robin's chest. And the novelty was certainly there, too, an actual secret hideout. "Wow." She mused, perhaps acting a bit more awestruck than she actually was. Even if she was overselling it a tad, she couldn't say she disliked it in the least.

"It's a real secret hideout! Kiba, that's so cool! How'd you find this place- did you build this?"

There is no way, in any world, that this is your yard, is it.

Caution? That sound like something he chucked into some dark pit the day he was born. The zorua's heart swelled with pride and joy as his new friend appreciated his handiwork. The sound of awe was all he needed to know that he'd been whatever expectation there were out of the water. The vixen squeezed her way inside and he was quick to follow soon after. He very much underestimated the amount of space he needed inside the little hideout, but they was just enough to fit and provide a little wiggle room and close the rickety door...that was hardly attached on any hinges. It was more like a door-shaped plank of wood that he balanced on the spot after it flopped over a few times.

Then came Robin's questions, ones that he was happy to answer, "Sure did! It took me weeks to get everything right!" as if anything about this place were right. "The roof used to sorta fall in or flop over all the time and-and the walls almost never stayed up." He went on to elaborate how structurally unstable his attempts in the past were, which begged the question of just how stable this current little shack was.

"It wasn't that hard to find really-I just looked for places with reaaaaally big gardens in their backyard. This ol' lady lives here-she's a big ol' aggron-but I asked her if I could hang out for a while and she said "Sure!" and even offered to give me some cookies. Nothing like ol'Petrie back there!" The aggron had no idea that he was still in her backyard after all that time, but Chance didn't see the issue with that. He never did define how long "a while" was to her. It wasn't malicious trickery that brought him to this but more so a lack of understanding as to how this was wrong.

"Oh-oh! I even have this secret club, you know? It's called the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness. Osiris is innit! I haven't shown him this place yet-but I thought it'd be cool to have little places like this all over town so we can get away from situations like that...great isn't it?" He beamed to the vulpix with another look that seemed as if "no" was not an accepted answer.

Her polite suggestion wasn't heeded, for it seemed that 'slow down' wasn't a weapon in the mighty Kibakoru's arsenal. That part, at least, wasn't surprising, but it had been worth a shot. She'd have to turn to more subtle methods to keep this little Zorua from hurting himself. Robin watched in quiet amusement as it took him a few attempts to close - no, more prop up - the door, rambling all the while after how much work he had put into this little hideout. She couldn't help but feel as if there had been a little misunderstanding between him and the Aggron, but she at least sounded understanding enough. Robin supposed what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

"A secret club? Really?" Her ears perked with excitement. The Secret Soci- no, the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness. She could almost imagine Kiba pouring over that name for hours, his face lighting up when he finally pinned down the perfect one. The mental image drew a smile from her. She was half tempted to echo the name, but she wasn't entirely sure if she could get through it without tripping over her words or laughing. "Wow. That sounds fun."

And, shockingly, that wasn't exactly flattery, either. She could only imagine the messes that a group led by Kiba must get into...

"... hey, I have an idea, what if we hid one of these shacks in a tree? We could make a treehouse." She suggested, the slight wag of her tail betraying a hint of genuine enthusiasm. "Or maybe we could find a way to put on one the water, even, but we'd have to figure out how to hide it-" The 'you' had turned into 'we' without her consent, cutting herself off.

"I know I'm not part of your club, but I'd be happy to help you build some more bases for it."

The vulpix cut herself off, but it was far too late. Such a small slip up sealed her fate in a matter of seconds. The moment she corrected it was the moment his devious grin grew two times as large. His cheeks ached with just how much he'd been smiling that day, but it was worth it to him. His eyes narrowed with a mischievous glint before a paw reached forward and attempted to give Robin a poke.

"Too late!" he declared loudly, "You're in." He couldn't help but chuckle at his own perceived deviousness. The rascal hardly restrained himself in such a small space. His tail wagged about freely, but it took every ounce of willpower to keep himself from moving around in such a small space. The wound on his side would have thanked him if it could speak, since he shouldn't have been moving at all really.

His back straightened up suddenly. He lifted a paw to his chest and spoke with a much more serious yet grandiose passion, "As the LEADER and FOUNDER of the Super Secret Society of Secretivity, I hens-froth declare Robin an honorary member for her awesomeness in the...the..." he trailed off for a second with squinted eyes at nothing in particular. He struggled with his own thoughts, "fog....of..." he mumbled a few words here and there about combat and courage before he inevitably shook his head, "Whatever-not important. You're in! That's what's important." The smile returned he returned to a more casual demeanor.

Now that that was fixed, at least according to him, he felt it safe to continue, "Those sound like really cool ideas though! We could like-have a base floating around in Small Pond! Oh-Oh and the tree one-I know the PERFECT place-I'd just need some time to figure out how to build in those kinds of places. I can't swim and I dunno how to make a house stay in a tree all that much-but I could make it work!" He spoke with the utmost confidence, unaware of just how terrible the results of such attempts would yield-especially in regards to his own safety.

"I'd need like-a looooot more wood though. It was a pain to get these here. Oh-and nails! I'd probably need better nails than these ones though, it's really hard to find that kind of stuff in the garbage..." he pondered aloud as he took Robin's suggestion into serious consideration. The zorua's eyes squinted once more as he became lost in thought.

ooc: The S4 is an actual organization, if you want to join you'll still need to make a sign-up post lmao

The trap snapped shut, and Robin's fate was sealed. Too late! You're in. She wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad one, but she had a sudden suspicion that her life was about to get a lot more interesting. With how happy Kiba looked, though... it was hard to think that this was too much of a bad idea, his tail wagging at a mile an hour, his snicker genuine and bright. She decided to play along, kneeling and dipping her head to the Zorua, as if she was being knighted.

"I, Robin Pyralis, hereby accept your invitation into the Super Secret Society of Secretiveness. Our pact is sealed. It will be my honor to guard you from bullies and adults until my final breath." She sat up and bowed, a paw placed solemnly over her heart. It would have been solemn, at least, if she wasn't trying very, very hard not to snicker. Her valiant attempt was met with failure.

... this would be fun.

Wait, no, scratch the pond idea, if Kiba couldn't swim, that was a recipe for utter disaster. But maybe the tree could work? Treehouses were pretty safe if you picked the right tree, right? And maybe learned how to build them...? She would have to learn quite a bit very quickly to keep her new friend from getting hurt, it seemed. Yes, this would turn out to be an adventure.

"What's our next objective, Kibakoru? On your orders!"

It was safe to say he was over the moon when Robin decided to play along despite his own failure to upkeep the little play going. His mouth was agape with both sheer joy and shock, but it quickly fell along with his ears at the final part of her little vow. The surprise remained, but a new twist of horror now claimed his emotions.

"What??? No, don't die for me-I'm not worth that!" he was quick to speak as soon as Robin requested his next orders, "Your orders are not to die!" was his frantic attempt to set that record straight. Whether this was a game of pretend or not, he wanted to play it on the safe side. If it turned out the vulpix wasn't serious, well, then he was about to look like quite the fool.

"You got that right? You're too cool for that sort of thing! You're like...a hero or something-cuz you saved me? Heroes don't die. So don't do that."

This dice is not existing.

Robin's ears flattened, a slight tilt of her head betraying her surprise. "Oh! I'm sorry, Kiba. I'm..." It was what, just a joke? Didn't that make the rest of her vow seemed like a joke, too? It was, granted, but... that didn't feel like the right thing to say. She did want to be part of his club, he did want to be friends, if he would have her. She didn't want to cast doubt on that part. "Okay. I won't die, I promise." She settled on, though her expression fell to a bit of a somber smile as Kiba continued.

"I... think you're giving me a little bit too much credit, though. I'm not a hero. That's, ah... a lot to live up to." No, don't call her a hero, she yearned to say. It reminded her far too much of the things she tucked away, the things that Kiba would certainly not decide she was a hero if he ever happened to see. "I'm... really not."

The moment Robin made the promise was the moment he perked right back up. The joyful expression fell into a look of offense. It was clear to him that her modesty was not letting her take his compliments. Bah! He'd have to fight it then.

"Naaaaaaah," he dragged out his objection unnecessarily long for his own entertainment, "You're a hero." Once again, no wasn't an answer to him. "Heroes don't gotta be big and buff-those are legends-oh-oh! Like my dad! He's suuuuper strong, so he's legendary!"

His frown flipped right back upside down with a chuckle, "I mean, I absolutely could have gotten outta there myself-but you didn't need to step in and you did. Sooooooo you're hero material now. OOOH, you're gonna need a hero name. Do you wanna go with the secret identity or do you want everyone to know? Dude, I could tell so many people and you could like-become famous!" he prattled on without a clue as to why or how this could possibly go wrong. The zorua was practically lost in his own little fantasy world.

"Why wouldn't you be one after all?" he smiled.

So he wouldn't be dissuaded? That was... unsurprising. As warm as his words were, a persistent trickle of guilt made it's home in Robin's chest. "Your dad, huh?" She mused, quietly hoping that Kiba would take the bait and move onto another topic instead. Anything, really, before he lingered on insisting that she was a hero, of all things. It was flattering, but laughably untrue. She had joined Windrose for utterly selfish reasons, she had manipulated most everyone she had ever met, himself included.

Why wouldn't she be one? There were too many reasons to count.

"Er, I think I'm more of the secret identity type." She added, trying quite desperately to swerve the conversation away from that particular topic. Granted, this one was still related, but it at least sparked a little less guilt. "I've never had to come up with a secret name, though, I'm gonna need help with that. If you're the Black Fang, I can be... the... Ivory, something? It even matches our colors, too."

That was a cool word, right? Or at least, he'd think it was? Robin was quietly fond of it, at least.

As predicted, he was hooked. "Yeah! My dad's an explorer and a super good one too! He fights big giant things and beat up this guy named Moo-Five or something like that." he babbled on with an excited wiggle, barely able to contain himself in such a small space. The zorua made a small mental note to make his next hide out bigger, but odds were that the idea would be lost among the sea of little sticky-notes he always threw around in his head.

"Ivvooorryyy..." he said the word aloud, squinting as he repeated the words a few more times with a bit more thought. He squinted at the vulpix. His critical eye looked her up and down as he contemplated whatever thought went on inside his tiny little head. "Ivory...tails? Ivory Tail? Ivorrryyy Paw? Ivory Eye? Eyes? Nooo-not that one...Ivory Claw? Heart? Nose? Nah, not nose...Oh-I know, Ivory Butt!" he laughed at his incredibly mature joke, finding it to be the peak of his comedic achievements. While the latest one was a joke, he recollected himself and spoke, "Could also do just Ivory? What do you want?" he asked. The zorua's smile hardly ever faded, having the time of his life just talking about all of this.

Ivory, Ivory... Ivory what? This was harder than she'd thought. She just about asked how long it had taken him to come up with Kibakoru, before remembering that she wasn't entirely sure whether that was his real name or not. She was... pretty sure that it wasn't. But Kiba was having the time of his life, and his grin seemed to imply that there were no wrong answers. Even though there most certainly were. Ivory Butt was chief among them. "Something powerful sounding, right? Ivory Talon, or Ivory Blade, or-" Oh, no. Was she actually getting into this? Surely not. There was no way.

"Shield? Ugh, this is tricky... were any of those anything? I kind of liked Ivory Blade..."

... oh, no. She was getting into this. If she had been forced into being a superhero, she may as well get stuck with a name she liked, right?

Absolute ecstatic that Robin got into this just as much as he was, he couldn't help but stand up again in excitement. His quick movements were careless, he knocked into the wall only slightly, but it was just enough to...cause the entire house to shake like a loose cardboard box. The door in front fell back over again, but he either ignored it or didn't even notice. The house settled with the fortune of not falling apart, but it was certainly a testament to exactly how stable Chance's work of construction was.

"IT can be whatever you want! You don't gotta decide right now though-there's plenty of time for that. We still gotta come up with like-your cool kick-butt back story, some arch-enemy, oh-oh and a sidekick! Can't be a hero without a sidekick!" Despite how eager he was to talk about a sidekick, he certainly had every intention of not being the sidekick. After all, he was Kibakoru, the Black Fang. Kibakoru couldn't be something as simple as a sidekick!

The faint snicker that escaped Robin wasn't born of derision, but an uncommon, genuine point of joy that made it's home in her chest. The Ivory... what? She had to come up with something good. She was jolted out of her thoughts as the house around them trembled, flinching as a rather rusty-looking nail fell from the ceiling and nearly onto her paw. She was feeling less safe in here by the moment, but at least the inevitable-collapse wouldn't be too bad. With how sparse the wooden planks were, there wasn't too much that could fall on them...

"The Ivory Shield. Let's go with that one. I'm supposed to be your defender, after all, right?" She teased gently, seeming to perk back up as she finally settled on a nickname. One that hopefully matched Kibakoru, the Black Fang in intensity. "My backstory, huh? I think..." She trailed off, idly scratching the dirt.

"I bet The Ivory Shield got, like, experimented on, by some really bad pokemon." She mused, a gleam in her eye that betrayed a story to be told, a genuine hint of curiosity. "And that's how she got her powers! Her archenemy can be this evil scientist trying to recapture her, and her sidekick-"

The flicker of shame was chased away, if only for the moment, in light of Kiba's brilliant grin and wide eyes.

"- maybe I could be yours?"