[Game thread] Skull Ruins Pokerole

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

Dragon, I think I forgot to give you character XP when you completed your goal of reaching all 8 badges. That feat is worth 10XP.

As Terra lays one hand on Yogi's shoulder, Yogi shifts and blurs. Revealing, not a Medicham, but a completely untouched Zorua! The little fox is wearing the biggest possible grin at having tricked EVERYONE, including her master and a respected Gym Leader, in this way. And for an entire battle, an almost impossible feat for an Illusion user!

Terra immediately realizes that this means Yogi, who was supposed to get the benefit of an important battle after a long time of disuse, has been sorely betrayed by the mischievous fox.

Zorua just starts dancing with pleasure, and is actually surrounded by black light. As the dance continues, it transitions from four legs to two. When the light fades, Zorua has become a Zoroark - and that's no illusion!

Raised under the loving care of a Good owner, Zorua's ultimate prank fulfills the altered evolutionary requirements.

Mason is just rollling on the floor laughing, pointing at Terra's face. He doesn't seem to mind that he was aced.

*Flashback!*
@Dragonstrike 

As soon as Oinari's Illusion drops, Nathan finally understands why the heck 'Yogi' was making such a big deal about not getting hit.  He did find it odd that Terra was using a pokemon that was focusing so much on evasion since that isn't really his fighting style at all, but it all makes sense now.  Oinari evolving is just the icing on the cake, really, since that means that Terra's discovered a way to evolve Zorua into Zoroark without stooping too low!  Wow!

Nathan claps for Terra and the now fully evolved Illusion Fox.  "Well, I guess I've got my work cut out for me, don't I?  Already seeing ground breaking research from Terra, and we're only a few days out from the defeat of Deoxys?  Heart hatching a Legendary pokemon and working tirelessly to rapidly restore what was destroyed by the space invaders?  I better be careful to not be left behind!  Well done, Terra, well done."

*Flashback Continued!*

Terra's face was indeed something to laugh at! In fact, it was probably the most expressive it has been in a long time! Eyes wide as dinner plates, his mouth hanging open like lose hatch, flapping up and down trying and failing to vocalize his shock at this unexpected turnabout, the twitching and scrunching of his cheeks and forehead as it struggle to display the convoluted mix of emotions he's experiencing right now because of her.

On one side of things, he's....not pleased by this turn of event. At all. This was supposed to be Yogi's battle, their Gym Match, and for Oinari to deprive them of that honor was not only extremely selfish of her, but went against everything he'd taught her about good Fighting and fairness. Her grand deception was a smack in the face to both monks that left him dismay, anger, hurt by, and disappointed in the now Master Illusionist, and who knows how Yogi will feel about this after breaking the news to them. He'll certainly have to make up to them later - and Oinari too, for she was not getting away with this without some culpability for her act....

Despite those feelings, though, he's also strangely enough still very much proud and happy about her accomplishment too. After all, it isn't everyday that a Pokemon can ace a Gym Leader, and doing so not only without a scratch, but also doing so while one doing one the most elaborate performances to conceal their true identity? That was genuinely amazing, and deserves some respect and praise from a hardened veteran Survivalist Trainer and Contest Master.

The fact that she Evolved from performing such a masterful prank was exciting and awesome in of itself too, as she not reached her peek Strength but did so more or less by complete accident, revealing a means to Evolve her entire sub-species of Pokemon that did not involve them committing heinous and 'Evil' acts! It was a breakthrough discovery in Pokemon Research, and for a man trying to establish his own lab in Cheshire and himself as a Businessman Researcher like Dr. Mallorn, this was exactly the sort of thing he needed to boost his credibility and attract investors.

Finally, he's just plain surprised and baffled that his tricksy vulpine managed to spectacularly fool them like she did. How on this good green earth did she manage to do that?

Well, he'll never quite know, but for those with a outside perspective on things....

*Flashback Within A Flashback - Flashbaceptioin!*

Out under the shade of the tree where a chiseled man was sitting, Oinari was resting in their lap while her other partners entertained themselves, or so it seemed. In reality, she was quietly brooding while appearing otherwise. She's been in a right sulk ever since her battle against Deoxys Prime, as she failed to do anything to the extraterrestrial 'researcher' and getting taken out like a weak little chump, in spite of doing her best to use its own immense and Legendary Strength against it with Foul Play. Up until that point she never lost a battle that badly (or possibly at all), and the last time she had taken on a Legendary she actually managed to both fool it and make it run away in terror thanks to everyone else' help. So to loss so badly when her master and everyone else needed her to succeed the most was demoralizing, to say the least. Of course, she didn't want worry her master about it, so she hide her feelings the best she could and tried to lick her wounds in peace.

When Terra began to discuss his plans for Yogi to solo Mason, the darkest darling at first apathetic about the whole deal.....until a flash of insipiration caught her and she got an idea. A wonderfully mischevious idea. A idea that would avenge herself and her master of that terrible loss and have some good old tricksy fun doing it. Oh yes, this would a magnificent act to pull if she could manage it, ofufufufuf.....!

By now, it is known what her idea was, but the question is how did she do it?

Simple enough, surprisingly: she carefully payed attention to the way Yogi moved and performed his Fighting style when Terra coached them while pretending to be asleep, then discretely switched her Pokeball's place on Terra's belt with theirs, so that when he flicked all the balls button to Recall them all at once he'd end up sending her out instead of them.

It was, frankly, a ballsy as heck scheme she pulled that would go wrong the moment if she was hurt in the Gym Fight, but in the end it would work out much better than she expected!

*Flasbaception End!*

It was while pondering his mixed feelings on this matter and what to do about it that he came to a terrible realization, one that managed to make him shudder in dismay and cup his face with both hands, momentarily distracting him: Oinari had just become exactly like Genie in her trickery and tomfoolery. Now he had two wily prankster he had to constantly reign in, least the cause him and everyone else oodles of trouble and make fools out of them all. Compound that feeling with the trouble she caused Yogi and herself, and he could help but groan at it all....

"Oinari...."

Said devious furry devil was far to pleased with herself to be distracted by her master's dismay, twirling around and reveling in one of her grandest achievements ever! She redeemed herself, tricked everyone, AND Evolved, so right now she couldn't be anything but purely HAPPY! Later she knows she'll be in for it, but for now it was time to celebrate, wooohoooooooooooooooooo!

Nathan's applause and words manages to break the sagely monk out of his own moping , causing him to lay his arms down and blink as he struggled to say something about it.

"But I wasn't....this was not supposed to.....Didn't mean to do this on purpose.....ugh. *Sighs* Thank you, Nathan. Will use this....discovery to gain attention to my lab, and help other Zorua owners like me. *Turns to Mason* Thank you for the battle, Lead - "

It was at this point he notice Mason's schadenfreude over his reaction to this event, which prompts Terra to deadpan at the man before turning away and grumbling.

"It is not that funny....."

Eventually the master architect recovers enough (though they're still smirking about it)  to give the Gym's Badge to him and additional prizes, which together with Dagny's Badge raises his Vitality by 1 and to a total of *7 ! His abs are literally tough as Steel now, if not even tougher, so good luck hurting him or his partner with anything less than the strongest Moves around or with Plot Devices! He'd then say his good-byes to the man and re-affirm his promise to keep them in the loop about his research before leaving the Gym with Nathan, asking them if he's going to stay the night in Botanville with him or head elsewhere. When they choose to do that later, then he'd bid farewell to the day to them too, and go about the rest of his sightseeing and business in the greener tech capitial of Cheshire by himself and Oinari, spending a lot of that time very sternly lecturing her about what she did and discussing her punishment for it before finally getting some rest

In the end he decided that it would be her being barred from participating in the rest of Cheshire's Gym Battles, and letting Yogi decide what the rest of it would be when she'd be there with him explaining what she done. She stole their glorious Gym Battle and made it her own, but the tricksy vulpine was not gaining anymore this way. If she tried....well, he really didn't want to think of an appropriate punishment, as the implied that he was prepared to do this again, which he really didn't want happening.

Since I honestly don't know too much about Yogi's personality beyond being at odds with Gallade and having his own kind of honor, I will ask Iron to handle how they react to the news.

With all that said.....

*Flashback End!*

(Next post containing Day 85 events coming soon!)