Everyone Gangster Until Mom Shows Up

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A river. Well, it was more like a stream. It wasn't as impressive as the one he saw back in Everspring, but it was just enough to make him cautious. The little zorua hopped his way through the snow, finding it difficult to walk through the excessive amount of snow. Instead of footsteps, he left holes of snow behind him. Chance was certain to double and even triple check where he went, fearing what could happen if he were to land in the wrong spot of the river.

Despite his unusual caution, he was excited. This place was so cool! There was snow everywhere! Oooh, what if he made a fort out of the snow? That'd be wicked! His mind raced with all kinds of ideas he could carry out here. All of the mischief he could get up so. He wondered briefly if he could take some of the snow home...before realizing how stupid that was. Fortunate that nobody was here to read his mind!

...What did snow even taste like? He paused as he stared at the snow around him. Curious, he gave the snow a lick.

...

Tastes like cold. Noted.


Mirage would bet money that Chance was thinking of something stupid right then. The zoroark trailed along just far enough behind the zorua for him to not notice. She heaved a quiet sigh as she watched him struggle along. Her form was hidden underneath the magic of her illusions, making it appear as if nothing at all were there to begin with. She watched her son lick the snow and couldn't help but feel even more defeated than before she got here.

She could absolutely grab him and drag him back right then and there, but...what would that accomplish? He'd probably just run off again. She figured it'd be better to wait for him to wear himself out. With how difficult it was for him to travel through this terrain, that looked as if it might be soon...at least so she hoped.

Chance Energy: 13
Mirage Energy: 62

The girl continued to count down, drawing out each number as the silence wore on. She felt like such a fool, but she knew that she wasn't crazy... Because there was a hole in the ice behind her to prove it... Because that blast had to come from somewhere, and she knew that it had come from behind her... But now they didn't want to show themselves. Why? If this mysterious Pokemon had meant to protect them, why was it staying hidden... Did it have plans for them? Maybe it wanted Alki and Chance all to themselves... She almost reached five, but before she could actually fulfill her promise, something appeared before her.

Everything happened so fast... A zoroark appeared in front of her, out of thin air, pretty much! She smacked it, more out of instinct than any coherent plan. If she had been a threat, it probably would've been better to just use flamethrower, but she didn't want to hurt anyone if she didn't have to, let alone with such a potentially dangerous move... At the same time, the Zoroark was... lecturing her...? She didn't seem to have any ill will towards her, otherwise she probably would've done something in response.

Instead, she just looked annoyed. Was she that weak...? She took a hesitant step back, but didn't disippate her hidden power entirely. The Zoroark hadn't done anything yet, but she still couldn't help but worry... Why had she been hiding...? No, more importantly... Why was she still glaring at her...? Alki whimpered, her fear more borne out of perceived social judgement than for any immediate danger might be in. She tapped her hands together, visibly nervous, although she didn't take her eyes off of the Zoroark. Not until her newfound companion chimed in...

Mom!?

Wait. This was his mother...? Alki whimpered more as this realization set in, her hidden power dissipating entirely as the tapping intensified. She'd hit Chance's mom... Oh gosh, that was bad, wasn't it... Were they going to dislike her now...? She blinked a couple times, as her gaze lowered to the snow between the two Pokemon. She pushed up her glasses, before managing a meek, terrified apology. "S-S-Sorry..." She managed, any illusions of bravery or bravado quickly crumbling away.

So this was his mom... Had she heard what Alki had been talking about earlier...? She... wasn't going to be in trouble, was she...?

The kid was scared. Her earlier impression of courage and gusto in the puffball instantly faded out. While she was entirely unimpressed, she wasn't angry. She certainly wasn't going to chastise the kid for attacking her either. Her attention shifted over to Chance, who shrunk behind the Jigglypuff with a whole new kind of fear behind his expression.

His mom was here. She'd followed him all the way here. Was...was she going to drag him back? He didn't want to go back, he was about to have so much fun with Alki! Hey-maybe Alki could help him figure out how to bring snow back...but he'd have to get his mom to let him stay first. Desperately, he searched for something to say, but his mom would speak before he had the opportunity to.

"Don't worry about it, it didn't hurt." Well...it kinda stung, but that was about it. Nothing to get upset over. She...wasn't sure what else to say from here. They were in kind of an awkward position. Should she be nice? Should she be threatening the kid? Should she just turn around and walk back to her position of hiding? Should she take Chance and leave???

"...Cold?" she ended up asking.

Alki continued to stare at the ground. She hadn't met Mirage before, but all she could think about were memories of her own mother, before Darcy... If she'd have hit her, there would've been hell to pay... Punched, or kicked... She was lucky she'd never screwed up that badly back then. If she messed up, she usually just went to bed hungry, or something like that... She tapped her hands together nervously, as the Zoroark spoke up once more. It didn't hurt...? Well, she couldn't help but wonder just how weak she was if her best move hadn't hurt even a little bit, but in this case, it was relieving. It meant she wouldn't be in too much trouble.

She looked up at the Zoroark from beneath her glasses. She seemed to be contemplating something, looking down at her. She was being silent, and Alki wasn't sure if her lack of words had been something wrong. She opened her mouth, to try and justify herself further, but before she could say anything, the Zoroark asked her a simple question.

Cold?

Alki rubbed her wrist as she contemplated the question. It wasn't very hard to answer, because she certainly was cold.

"Y-Yes..." She said meekly, managing to look up at the Zoroark once more. "D-Did you hear me earlier? A-A-About... w-what I said, um... P-Please don't be mad at me..." Alki said, rubbing her wrist more intensely. Her ears twitched as her glasses slipped, but she was too nervous to even adjust them.

Alright. The kid was cold. Chance looked to be pretty cold too. The wood they used prior was wet...but not only that but it was pretty shoddily put together. It was likely that they were going to have trouble keeping it alive-even with the puffball's flamethrower. The zoroark glanced over to the dowsed pit. She could hear the scrambled squawks of the prinplup off by the riverside, but opted to ignore them. They were insignificant.

The jigglypuff spoke up again. She looked back to the puffball, "I said, don't worry about it." Her tone was more of a command than some attempt at reassurance. She wasn't going to be mad at the kid, but she didn't exactly know how to be that kind and compassionate mother either. Instead, she reached behind Alki and picked her fearful son out of the freezing cold.

Chance was picked up by the scruff. His tail tucked between his legs as he instinctively froze. He couldn't stop a few pathetic whimpers from seeing reality. His mother didn't say a word to him...which honestly scared him a whole lot more than if she'd yelled at him. He expected himself to be brought eye-to-eye with her, but instead, he was chucked into the air. His eyes widened with surprise as he suddenly found himself falling. His form disappeared into the zoroark's hair-where it was certainly a lot warmer than it was outside and in the snow.

Mirage looked back to the puffball, giving her a quick assessment before she made a silent judgement. Without hesitation or even stopping to asking Alki if she was alright with it, her paw reached out to latch onto the Jigglypuff. If the jigglypuff didn't fight-or failed to pop out of her grip- she'd stuff the jigglypuff right on in with Chance.

Not a single word of explanation would be given. She was in charge now...according to her.

Alki bit her lip and nodded at the Zoroark's response. If she didn't want her to worry about it, she wouldn't... She didn't want to frustrate her, or worse, have her change her mind... She'd already gotten to see just how powerful she was in person, and if she decided that it'd be easier for her to erase her, she really wasn't sure if there was much she could do about it... Thus far, she'd been friendly, but how much of that had to do with Chance's presence...

Of course, if it were up to her, she wouldn't have minded testing the waters a bit, but... There was Darcy to worry about too... She'd given her sister a day she'd be back, and even an hour, and if she didn't come back by then...

"O-Ok..." Alki said, as she watched her launch Chance into the air, and catch him in her fur. She had just pushed up her glasses once more, before she too met the same fate as Chance, up, up, falling, falling, down into Mirage's fur as well. What was she to do? It'd be pointless to fight back, and besides, it's not like this was mean... Rough handling aside, she was warm now, and that was more than she'd expected...

Chance was still right beside her... He'd seemed frozen, since his mom had picked him up and tossed him in the air, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off with him. He'd seemed spooked, where he'd been the most carefree person she could remember meeting before hand... He was nearby, wasn't he...?

"H-Hey, Chance... Y-You ok...?" Alki called out softly, scanning her surroundings for the small Zorua. "Y-Y-You seemed scared... Y-You ok...?" She asked again, ears perking up as she waited for a response. She hoped he'd be alright... They were warm now, at the very least...

As she waited for a response, her thoughts began to drift as she thought about what the Zoroark had been doing here in the first place... Had she had business here too? Had Chance run away? But he'd seemed quite happy, so even if he had run away, it hadn't seemed to be terribly distressing to him... How had his mom managed to find him all the way out in a mystery dungeon anyways...? Alki held her bag in her hands, as she mulled over the question, before finally deciding to ask Chance. "A-Are you in trouble...?" She stammered out, before raising her voice slightly, so Mirage could hear her easier. "Is Chance in trouble...?"

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Frozen Stream :

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Frozen Stream :

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Frozen Stream :

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Frozen Stream :

Mada carried out 1 launched of one Frozen Stream :

Yep. He was scared. Not quite for his life, but of his mother's blatant lack of response towards him. The jigglypuff spoke to him. He swallowed what he could of his fear before he gave a slow and steady nod. He was far too terrified to actually speak up-or really pay attention to whether the jigglypuff watched him or not. His attention was focused on the direction of his mother's head. He waited for words to address him, but none came.

Instead, Mirage opted to respond to Alki, "Yes," she spoke without hesitation, "He's grounded and wasn't supposed to go anywhere today." She refused to speak directly to her son, but her tone made it perfectly clear that Chance was expected to do...something about this.

All he could really manage was a quiet, "Sorry..."

His mother wasn't satisfied, but she wasn't going to pursue it here and now. The chill was getting to her-especially with two sopping wet children on her back tangled up in her hair. She moved them off to a different location, all the while her eyes scanned along the ground and picked up dry sticks and small branches. She could just take them home, but it was far too cold for that right now. They needed to warm up at least a little-get the kids dried off too.

...It felt like Mirage should say more, carry a conversation with the jigglypuff, but she wasn't sure what. All that came of her was a tense and eerie silence that Chance assumed to be anger and hostility. He had to wonder...why was this outing so bad? It's not like he'd called her a bad name...like last time...man he regretted that.

Alki wilted as she watched Chance nod, clearly frightened of something. He'd been happy with her, and not worried at all, so for some reason, he was frightened of his mother. She said he was grounded, for some reason or another. For leaving the house? Alki bit her lip, unsure of what she ought to do. He seemed upset, and it was Mirage's fault, for some reason, she'd punished him. He was so nice! He'd been so nice for her... "W-Well, that's not fair... Y-You should unground him. Alki said, raising her voice slightly so Mirage could hear him. The Zoroark hadn't been mean, but it struck a nerve, watching someone like Chance be afraid of his parent... If she could help him...

"Why's he grounded? He d-doesn't d-deserve to be grounded..." She said, shooting the Zorua a small smile in an attempt to comfort him. She wasn't sure how effective it'd be, given how nervous she was. "H-He was really nice to me..." of course, she had no idea why he'd been grounded in the first place, but the situation just reminded her too much of her own childhood, afraid of both her parents... She wished someone had been there to try and stand up for her...

Snap.

...Did you hear that?

That was the sound of Mirage's patience. Well...rather, it was the sound of a branch snapping in her fingers. Her ears flattened as whatever uncertain expression she had fell. Wide eyes now stared at the broken remains of the twig.

The moment Chance realized what Alki was doing, he frantically began to shake his head and draw his paw over his neck. No! No! Cut it out! The moment he heard the snap his own ears pinned back. His jaw clenched shut. Oh no...Alki'd done it.

Mirage contemplated her words, her gaze focused on the twig for a brief second longer before she ultimately abandoned it to search for a less damaged once. Her silence hung in the air. Her first instinct was to scream and punt the balloon for their idiocy and audacity, the raised fur along her body signaled her hostility. She couldn't do that though. Alki was a child. Alki didn't know. She should not murder a child for their ignorance; Mirage do not murder a child for their ignorance!

"Chance," she finally addressed her son, voice strung tight, "Why don't you tell your friend here?"

He was on the spotlight. He had to speak. He had to speak before mom got even scarier. As soon as he was told, words flowed from his mouth as quickly as he could manage, "I led my sister out to a really dangerous place, nearly got both of us killed, swallowed some rescue team explorer's badge, tried to join this super secret thieves' guild without telling anyone, went all the way out to discharge prairie on my own and intended to bring my sister again and nearly got killed again, then I went to Everspring Vale all on my own and got one of my friends hurt then called my mom a "bitch", then I kept sneaking out of the house even though i was grounded, snuck out on Halloween and stole a bunch of seeds from some shop to go pull a prank on old man Petrie, didn't come home that night, came back really messed up, snuck out again and dumped a bunch of paint on old man Petrie, and kept sneaking out even though the jolteon that attacked me in Prairie's possibly trying to hunt me down and came all the way out here even though I wasn't supposed to." The words left him sooner than he could even realize what he said. It was practically instinctual. He was out of breath by the time he finished. It took a moment, but his heart sunk as soon as he realized something important...

He didn't tell his mom about some of those.

"Oh." Alki said softly, turning this information over in her mind. Some of those things were undoubtedly pretty bad, but at the same time, how could she hold it against him when she'd done things just as bad? He was also much younger than her... And some of those weren't even that bad! She was also part of a thief guild, and she couldn't help but wonder absently if he had possibly been trying to join the phantom thieves. She wouldn't have entirely minded if he had, but that wasn't the point...

"I mean, just... Well, i-if you mess up, you're supposed to l-learn from it, r-right...?" Alki said softly, unsure what either of the two expected from her. "And s-some of those aren't so bad, l-like... I'm part of a secret thieves guild, for example..." She said softly, considering her options. Mirage would probably be very upset with her for talking, but she didn't want Chance to stay afraid, or think she was mad at him...

"Hey Chance, She whispered, intending for his mother to be unable to hear. Of course, considering their current location, that might be a bit difficult... "Just S-say Sorry. I think that's supposed to make things better..." At least, it typically calmed Darcy down when she was worrying over her...

"Alki," Mirage's voice spoke up before Chance could start his attempt at following Alki's advice, still tight and restrained, "I am Chance's mother." It was an obvious statement, but apparently she needed to reiterate that. "How I discipline my children is, quite frankly, none of your business and not your place to criticize-especially when you yourself are a child."

She'd collected a decent bundle of sticks now. She strayed from the sore of the river, closer to the woods, but not quite next to them. She shoveled her paws into the snow and began to clear out an area around them-where she poured the sticks into the center. There were some rocks nearby, not exactly the sizes she would prefer, but enough of them to properly surround the collection.

She reached back into her hair. She was shivering herself now. It was cold. She could remember being around some place like this back when she was a zorua...and when Sova was an eevee. She and him traveled up the mountain together and he evolved. She cringed at the memories. She'd said and done a lot of stupid things then. Stuff she wished she didn't say, but had no idea just how much it'd impacted her life.

She felt around in her hair for the puffball. She felt Chance first, who yipped in surprise. Then, she picked out Alki. The puff ball was then taken out of her hair and pointed at the fire pit. "Blow." she ordered.

Alki bit her lip, regretting having spoken at all. Mirage was right, of course. She had only just met Chance, and Mirage was his mother, which of course, meant she had the right to educate Chance however she saw fit. At the same time, Chance was a nice person. A bit reckless, maybe even careless, and quite loud, but nice. And now, he was frightened, at least she thought so. She wasn't exactly sure what he'd meant to convey by waving his paw around wildly, the way he'd done earlier. Still, his expression itself was easy to read, even if his body language wasn't. Even to her, it was easy to tell she was frightened...

She heard a yip to her side, and she jumped at the sound, before she felt a paw grab her, first by her ear, and then by the somewhat more comfortable position of her side. Then she was instructed to blow. The sudden reintroduction to the brisk, freezing winter air outside was... Unpleasant. She sneezed. Then again, before she finally registered what she was supposed to do. Blow fire... Well, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? A fire...

Although truthfully, she wasn't exactly sure she cared for the way she'd been told to do this...

She blinked, before teleporting away, a short distance, just to the other side of the collection of sticks and rocks. Rocks didn't catch fire. Why had she put rocks there? That was dumb.

She pushed her glasses up, before bouncing lightly from foot to foot. The snow was colder now than it had been before...

"P-Please don't do that, p-pick me up like that... I know you're b-bigger than me, B-but it's still unpleasant... She said, staring at the firewood rather than Mirage. "A-and it is my business, c-cause Chance w-was nice to me, S-So i don't want him to be scared..." The girl said, still too frightened to look the older Pokemon in the eye. She was getting cold, but so long as she didn't light the fire, she at least had to listen... Or at the very least, not hurt her... She was a bit scary...

"A-and what does my a-age have to do with anything?"

...She tried being nice. This all was an attempt at being nice. What did she get in response? Questions, criticism, and an annoying pink balloon who seemed to think she knew better than her. He couldn't help but find that latter part particularly amusing. Not because the jigglypuff had the audacity to think so, but for all Mirage knew, she did.

"He's scared because he knows he's in trouble," Mirage huffed, "I'm done sitting here and entertaining this. Now, are you going to start the fire or are you going to let us all freeze?"

Chance's ears lowered. Alki shouldn't have been standing up to his mom like this. His mom was right, he genuinely was in trouble. The only reason he was scared was...well, because his mom was quite frankly terrifying when she was angry. It wasn't that she ever physically struck him, no-no, she was a good mother in that sense. He just hated seeing her upset.

His ears flattened as his heart sank. It always seemed like the only way to make her not upset was to stay at home and die of boredom though...

"But if he's scared, then I don't think that's very good either..." Alki said softly, pushing up her glasses before she sat down, managing to finally look the Zoroark in the eyes for only a few seconds, before she grew nervous once more, and looked back down at the wood. She was right in regards to the cold though... It was getting chillier. Alki nodded, and mumbled a small apology, before she blew a small flame onto the fire, giving the trio a source of warmth. Alki cocked her head as she sat in the snow, feeling quite guilty for even trying to speak.

"I-I j-just don't t-think y-you should hold a c-couple h-honest mistakes against him, i-is all..." Alki said, fidgeting in place as she held out her arms to absorb some of the warmth. The snow felt rough on her body as she fiddled with her ribbon, ensuring it was as tight as it always was. She looked up at the Zoroark, cocking her head slightly as she deliberated what to say. She nodded softly to herself, before managing a small, frightened smile.

"J-Just p-please d-don't yell at him... C-Can he come out...?" The girl asked nervously, ears twitching and hands tapping as she spoke.

Mistakes. Mistakes? Is that what this jigglypuff wanted to call them? They were absolutely not mistakes. Chance was told again and again not to do any of what he'd done and still he went off and did it anyways. The only thing he'd learned was not to bring his sister-and even then, it was just as often. It was so tempting to just chuck the balloon out of here now that she'd done her job, but again, Mirage reminded herself: this was a child.

Do not punt the child.

"I said that I was done entertaining this," she reminded the jigglypuff, there was a low growl to her voice. Despite that, as she spoke, she reached back into her hair and latched onto the small pup and yanked him out of her hair. He was still rather wet, the cold air chilled him, but he was plopped down off to the side next to the flames.

Chance's ears were still flat and he scrunched into a small form, his eyes fixated on his mother. The zoroark didn't seem particularly interested in him or the jigglypuff any more, as she instead settled herself by the fire in silence. The zorua's gaze drifted over to the jigglypuff, less fear and more shock in them. From the way he saw it...Alki just won an argument with his mom...and it was about him.

"Dude, that was so cool." he mouthed, his voice barely even a breath.

Alki averted her gaze as the Zoroark seemed to grow more irritated. The girl felt quite small in front of her, and height was the smallest cause of that. She was a thief, and Mirage had earned her bounty somehow. And she'd seen her move earlier, not to mention the invisibility she was capable of... Even still, she couldn't stop herself from adding in her own snarky, little commentary. As she watched her pull Chance out of her hair, she spoke softly.

"Yeah, but I wasn't..." She said softly, as the Zorua was plopped down on the snow beside her. Alki scooted over along the snow, closer to Chance, before she noticed him  staring at her, eyes wide and ears flat. Her own ears flattened as she took in the gaze. What had she done wrong now? She knew that the Zoroark probably wasn't her biggest fan now, but she figured that Chance wouldn't be at least too upset with her...

But, as she watched his voice move, she could pick out his words, faint and almost imperceptible besides the crackle of the fire. What was cool about her? She felt cold, and not cool at all, but nonetheless, it was nice to see him appreciate what she'd said a bit. She pushed her glasses once more, beginning to blush slightly as she gave him a small nod.

"It's nothing..." She mouthed back, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her sketchpad once more. She payed the Zoroark little attention now, seeing as she was the reason that Chance seemed quite down. She wasn't exactly sure how she was going to do it, but she felt almost obligated to try to cheer him up...

"Alrighty! I'ma try to draw you now Chance, if that's ok...? If you wanna..." Alki asked, smiling softly as she tilted her head at him.