Scene #7185: A Shiny Situation

Owner	Pose
Guzma	On Akala Island, the 'second' island of Alola, near the lush jungles and through the sunny heat, there is a hidden preserve, protected by an old couple for decades. This is a special reserve for 'shiny' Pokemon, pokemon of a different hue than normal, making them quite valuable. Past the trees that hide it, one can find the thick wooden fencing and gates, and see a ranch house in the background. Gray dog-foxes, purple leaved rock-shrubs, and more types of Pokemon wander, playing, frolicking on rocks and log stumps, as the gray-haired couple sit on their fence, leaves and green grass flickering in the wind. And then a giant bull smashes through the gate. The Ride Tauros is forced through it, as two others come slamming behind. It's public enough, as is the destruction of the trees guarding it, to show everyone the path to the hidden preserve. Team Skull grunts, three of them, ride on two of the Tauros - a blue-haired boy and a pink-haired girl sharing one, and a round gray-haired boy on another. The third Tauros is ridden by someone else entirely, who seems to be their 'leader' right now. He skids the Tauros to a stop, his black-and-red hoodie with the hood down getting sun-bleached, as his blonde hair shows clearly. The caretakers stand up, trying to get back, as the boy speaks. "Tch. Corral them." He doesn't seem too happy about it, as the other two Tauros move to start harassing the Pokemon, which shriek and run around. There's a thundering noise further back in the preserve, but the boy ignores it. "This is how Team Skull makes a profit...? The Dealer of Destruction really is frightening..."
Hesinca	A minute after the Tauros riders arrive, a square-shaped piece of the ground starts glowing - and then another creature appears from it. "Way too sunny," complains the ten-foot tall demon centaur, glaring up at the sky with a hand on her forehead. A few moments later, there's a pair of penguin things holding up a giant shade umbrella. "Much better," she says, and only then looks around to take in the situation. "Mindless destruction, reportedly-valuable stealables, little resistance..." "... Yeah, aside from the terrible weather here, this is my kind of party!" She smacks a fist into her other palm.
Selene	After long, grueling weeks of hard work and being laid up in bed, Selene's finally feeling good enough to get back out and do... Anything, really. When she hears the police broadcast through her radio, she books it for the nearby-ish island of Akala, Pokemon in tow and bag slung over her shoulder to see what the damage is. Upon arriving at the island proper, Selene opts to make her presence known via a giant blue bear cat thing lumbering towards the reserve while a girl in a red hat and vaguely tropical t-shirt poses atop it and points dramatically towards the boy in the hoodie. "Hold it right there, buster! You're not going anywhere without explaining yourself and leaving these old folks alone!" Even as relatively small as she is compared to her Snorlax, Selene's voice booms right out of her. "This place is under my protection, see? So if you're gonna make a mess of things, you better know that you and..." She pauses, looking over at Hesinca and growing increasingly confused by her existence. One hand slips into her bag, and out comes her red cell phone-like Pokedex to try and identify just what it is she's looking at through the power of PUBLIC DATABASE SEARCH ENGINES. Apparently, the girl's never seen a centaur before!
Hesinca	Hesinca leans forward when the girl gets out a pokedex. "Is that a weapon?" she asks, a bit of eagerness in her voice. As she leans forward, she bumps into the pole of the shade umbrella, sending it teetering in the prinnies' grasp. "Dood!" complains one. "Dood," agrees the other. "Anyway," says Hesinca. "The old folks are going to be fine, we're just here to clean out the inventory. You said something about protection, so... are you the police, or do you mean protection like they're paying you 'insurance'?" "And if you're the police, can you just tell me what sort of bribe you're expecting? I'd prefer we just sort that out quickly so I can get back to looting."
Guzma	Selene's clearly a local-ish, but the blonde hair boy tchs at her as well. Tupp, the blue-haired Skull Grunt, speaks, a little bit intimidated. "Yo, Gladion! It's that girl with the wicked strong Pokemon that the others were talking about!" "Is she? Hmph." Gladion, the blonde haired boy, responds, as he grabs a yellow-and-black sphere on his side, clicks the button on it, and throws it. "Lycanroc, show them your crimson glare." The sphere discharges a large red-and-white bipedal wolf, with glowing red eyes, which makes the Team Skull trio nod affirmatively. "Lycanroc. Stone Edge the gates." Selene's going to have trouble protecting the Pokemon, when Lycanroc slams a fist into the ground, causing massive stones to burst out, tearing the fencing apart. The Pokemon start running loose, as the two on Tauros move to gather them. "If you want to stop us, do it already." There's still that hint of discomfort in his voice, but...Gladion's intense, alright. He nods to Hesinca, trusting her because she is, in fact, some random demon centaur, so she's trustworthy! Enough.
Hesinca	Hesinca is generally trustworthy! She's the sort of demon who won't stab you in the back. Of course, part of that is because she'll be too busy stabbing you in the front, but you'll see it coming is the point we're trying to make here. "Alright, roundup!" She runs along with the two minions on tauroses, working with them to start getting them coralled together. Of course, her method involves physically grabbing every one of them she can and throwing them all into one big pile, which might be a bit unorthodox vis a vis pokemon catching.
Selene	"This? Nah, it's a Pokedex! So you really aren't from around here." Selene keeps peering curiously and bright-eyed at Hesinca, taking a moment to read over what's on the Pokedex before slipping it back into her bag. Somehow, it's the talking knife penguins that seem normal enough for her to dismiss in all of this. When Gladion turns her way, Selene's grin is as beaming as ever. Indeed, it seems like her expression hasn't shifted once despite her tone being all over theplace. "I'm not even close to the police, and I'm not an insurance agent because that requires lots of studying, and studying sucks!" As the Lycanroc smashes the ground and the fence in turn, the Snorlax leaps forward with surprising agility for something its size. "Whoa... Stopping you is just what I'm gonna do, so let's get this match started! Slunch versus Lycanroc, falls count anywhere!" Selene slides off the Snorlax's back as it charges at the Lycanroc, the trainer turning her hat sideways so it looks less like a flower and more like the plume of a rooster. "Give 'em hell, Slunch! Build that momentum with Rollout!" She shouts to her trusty bear thing, the creature curling into a fleshy wrecking ball as it starts careening towards the Lycanroc and potentially inflicting more property damage along the way. Is she really trying to help this place at all?!
Guzma	Hesinca starts physically grabbing and corralling the shiny Pokemon with the help of the Tauros riders, while Selene moves to fight Gladion. While Hesinca is able to mostly gather the Pokemon, the trembling sound from earlier shows itself. It's a giant stuffed bear, with a yellow face. It's kinda cute, honestly. The bear-pokemon approaches Hesinca, looks at the pile, and is probably about to be grabbed to be added to the pile, when...it claws out. The other Pokemon who tried to struggle with Hesinca didn't have the raw strength. This bear, though? It's strong. Strong enough to possibly push Hesinca back, as it suddenly moves to scoop up as many Pokemon (which isn't nearly all of them) in its arms as possible and start running off deeper into the preserve with surprising speed. The Snorlax wrecking ball comes straight at Lycanroc. Gladion smirks, after a brief suppressed reaction of surprise. Oh no. "Show them your might. Jump on Snorlax!" Lycanroc leaps forward, landing on top of the Snorlax-Sphere. He almost loses his footing several times, getting slightly fatigued, but Gladion has a plan. "Now, direct it into the rest of the fencing." Yes, Snorlax is already causing property damage on its own, but Gladion has Orders. Using the wolf's sheer strength, he moves to kick and ride the Snorlax as a katamari straight into the last of the fencing and break it down. Meanwhile, a distress call goes further out. The Aether Foundation is on its way, whoever that is, but is delayed. But more assistance is needed, before the property is completely demolished.
Hesinca	The sudden appearance of a bear strong enough to contest herself throws Hesinca off guard, and she stands there dumbfounded for a second as it runs off. "Hey... hey!" Hesinca stomps a hoof in irritation, causing the ground to quake momentarily. "No stealing the stuff I'm stealing! I called dibs!" The armored demon centaur glares off in the direction the bear thing ran off in... and then she turns around and goes the other way. This seems somewhat counterintuitive until she wheels around in a large circle... ... and starts charging. All she really needed was a little more space to start building up speed. She's not all that quick out of the starting gate, but then again, neither is a steam locomotive. It's not about acceleration, acceleration is incidental... it's all about momentum. At top speed, Hesinca doesn't need to dodge any obstacles in her way. She simply barrels through them. "GET BACK HERE!" she yells, trying to catch up to the bear. "Give me that loot back! And get in the loot pile yourself!" Meanwhile, the two shade-holding prinnies try to attempt to continue the pokemon roundup, but they're not at all good at it, and end up in the pile themselves somehow.
Lory Thumper	Ever since their first few radio conversations, Lory Thumper has been keeping her ears open for news from this world full of seemingly magical animals. So, when the distress call went out she boarded the nearest aircraft she could and got a ride here. She arrives just in time to see the Snorlax go crashing through the fencing. Not knowing if it is part of the attack or a victim (she doesn't know which pokemon are shiny after all), she charges straight for it. She runs to catch up with it and leaps to land beside the Lycanroc. "Alright, pull over!" she shouts at it as she tries to run the opposite direction and hopefully bring the creatures to a stop. "You too!" she adds, looking down at the rolly polly pokemon.
Selene	Selene doesn't shout out orders to the Snorlax immediately. Instead, she's watching the Lycanroc as it gets atop her mighty beast, holds her breath as it struggles, then strokes her chin lightly once the Lycanroc gets his footing back. "... Ooh. A high flyer. And another powerhouse!" Her eyes light up between the Lycanroc's moves and Hesinca chasing after the ugly-cute bear thing, and she pumps a fist while grinning wildly once more, not seeming to care one bit about the steadily increasing property damage. "This kid's got potential, Slunch! Let's see how he does with a real shoot and give him his last ride!" Somehow, that actually gets the Snorlax to adjust its movements. After crashing through quite a bit more fencing, it suddenly slams its feet into the ground to stop itself and grabs for the Lycanroc's hind legs. In that same motion, it tries to slam the Lycanroc back-first into the ground not unlike someone going for a powerbomb-like wrestling maneuver. Whether that actually gets the Lycanroc off or not, though, Selene's attention is already diverted to a talking rabbit yellling at the giant bear cat. "Is that part of the show, too? Let's see..." She strokes her chin again, fiddling with the frontmost segment of her hat before snapping her fingers and pointing at Lory. "Hey, copper! Are you the referee, or are you turning this into a-" She cups her hands in front of her face, somehow getting even louder than before. "ROOYAL RUUUMBLLLLLEEEE?!" The Snorlax, meanwhile, just sort of side-eyes Lory, as if waiting for her or Selene to push this strange narrative along.
Guzma	The bear, or Bewear, keeps moving, trying to push through trees. Hesinca just sort of, barrels down the trees and unearths them, displacing large birds and bugs. The Bewear suddenly makes a sharp turn as it feels Hesinca coming for it, and does a sick revert on the ground, spinning back to hopefully keep Hesinca flying forward as it tries to get back to Selene and the caretakers. It's clearly worried about the charging demon centaur, though. The police officer comes in and shouts at Gladion. Gladion tchs once again, and grabs one of the Pokeballs on his waist. This one is white. "You don't know who you're dealing with. Go away." Lycanroc, meanwhile, is powerbombed into the ground, which sends it rolling backwards into a tree, though it quickly leaps to its feet. It's sturdy, too, as Gladion shouts out. "Crush Claw." Lycanroc moves to smash a claw at Slunch, with rock-breaking force. It's aiming for the belly of the bearcat, trying to force it backwards.
Lory Thumper	The Snorlax suddenly stops, and Lory is sent flying backward. She somersaults through the air and lands on her feet, then looks toward Gladion. She is about to answer when she realizes what Selene said. The young trainer gets this sort of '...are you serious right now?' look from the bunny cop. "I...guess i'm the referee, because this whole thing seems foul." she says to Selene before looking at Gladion again. "And as for you, I don't really care who I'm dealing with. You've broken into a nature preserve and are trying to poach the creatures contained herein! As both an officer of the law and a Paladin, I order you to cease and desist immediately and surrender peacefully! Otherwise, I'll have to use comparable force!" She pulls one of her pistols and takes aim, while with her other hand she pulls a small black disc with white edges. "So...what's it gonna be, tough guy?" she asks as she keeps her weapons trained on him.
Hesinca	Hesinca goes sailing riiiight by. "Hey!" The problem here is that while Hesinca has the momentum of a wrecking ball, she also has about the same steerability of such, and can't stop on a dime without breaking her legs. She wheels around in another big semi-circle, causing another wrath of destruction in her wake as she tries to get reoriented. "GET BACK HERE!" she yells at the bear, giving it the force of an ORDER.
Selene	Selene winces as her Snorlax takes that vicious claw to the gut head on, the creature's massive belly churning as it takes a step back from the force of that hit with a grimace on its face. The Snorlax's trainer, though, still seems more amused than worried with that ever-present grin creeping right back onto her face. "What a powerful hit at the start of the second round! But you know... You... Uh." She gestures vaguely at Gladion, snapping her fingers a few times while staring right at him. "... Guy! Slunch is built to take hits and dish 'em back out twice as hard! Can you really say the same thing about your Lycanroc?!" It is entirely possible she has no other volume setting. Not while she's gotten so excited over this fight, anyway, as she flexes one of her noodly arms and slaps her palms over a bicep. "Alright, Slunch. Now you've got it right where you want it! Go for the three count!" She leans sideways to stage-whisper (rather loudly) in Lory's direction. "That's code for Body Slam." As if on cue, the Snorlax bellows out once with its arms raised overhead before it crashes down at the Lycanroc, aiming to crush it between the ground and the Snorlax's massive weight!
Guzma	Gladion grimaces at the cop-bunny. He doesn't press the Pokeball, though, because as Snorlax goes for a Body Slam, he gestures a finger. "Target change." Lycanroc suddenly leaps backwards, taking only the shockwave of the Body Slam instead of getting fully crushed, which staggers it, before it flips on its feet and moves to rush...Snorlax?. It's fast. Gladion's hand goes for the side of his face. "Let loose your Outrage!" The wolf-Pokemon howls, and then suddenly lashes a claw at Snorlax, before moving to let loose and throw it in Lory's direction, using the fat bearcat as both a massive shield and a wrecking ball, with intense pressure coming off of Lycanroc. It's like the beast is going crazy, a werewolf on the full moon, trying to throw her bodily backwards through the Snorlax. This is definitely taking Effort, though. Hesinca, meanwhile, stops a bear. Verbally. Bewear suddenly comes to a halt, and still carrying all the Pokemon, slowly approaches Hesinca. It's trying to struggle, but it's just a random Pokemon - it can't do anything about it. But the helicopter landing nearby can, as reinforcements show up. The Aether Foundation is here, dressed in white, wearing too many pouches, and hats. A large dog-like pokemon, shaped like a mastiff but much larger, a Stoutland, sniffs a path forward. They haven't noticed Hesinca yet, but, they're definitely a risk.
Hesinca	"DROP IT," commands Hesinca to the bear. 'It' being the armload of pokemon, which is technically more than one 'it', but she finds that ORDERS tend to land better the punchier she is. And then she glances over at the arriving forces. "Oh, the police. Okay." She gives it a moment of thought, and decides she's not in a bribing mood. So... If she can get close enough to the Bewear, she reaches out to grab it... ... and then just simply lift up the bear and THROW it at the largest clump of reinforcements!
Selene	"Whoa, whoa, is this turning into a handicap match? I don't know... Squash matches are pretty-" Selene stops in mid-sentence at the Lycanroc's burst of speed and might, blinking once before looking towards Lory as the Snorlax gets hurled entirely towards the rabbit cop. Even the Snorlax is caught off guard by the Lycanroc's strength, unable to stop it from from hurtling right at her! "... Ahah, so this is teh the kinda power your boy was hiding! Yeah... Let's make this a match to remember!" Selene's excited as ever, of course, even though the Snorlax doesn't appear to share her enthusiasm. It takes several moments just to get back onto its feet, grunting heavily at the strain of having to move so much in such a short amount of time against its speedier opponent. "Alright... Change of plans, Slunch. It's still a luchador, so it'll have to take a big risk to get in close! And if it doesn't, don't be afraid to fight dirty!" Another signal comes in as the Snorlax digs its heels in, inching towards the Lycanroc on all fours. Instead of lunging forward, however, it just keeps shuffling along at a leisurely pace to regain its footing and stamina. Suddenly, however, it digs its claws into the ground to fling a massive fistful of splintered fence and dirt right at the Lycanroc to try and catch it off guard!
Lory Thumper	Lory lets out one of those uneasy laughs and smiles at Selena at the stage-whisper. "Good choice." she says in a humoring tone. Gladion calls for a target change, and Lory prepares for the werewolf pokemon to come for her. ...but, instead it goes for Snorlax again. Lory is about to go for Gladion, but her ears twitch and she turns just in time to let out a surprised "Holy-!" before she diverolls to the side. The passing Snorlax manages to catch her foot just before she can clear it, and sends her into a sideways spinning tumble into the grass. When she gets back to her feet blades of grass poke out from the fur of her face and ears. "I guess I can add assaulting an officer to the list of charges!" she says as she flicks her wrist to send one of those white-edged discs at Gladion, then again for the Lycanroc. Both explode when they hit or land near their targets, and unleash a flashbang effect to try and disorient them. Not being familiar with the rules of conduct during a pokemon battle, Lory then charges for Gladion. "Alright, if that creature is yours you need to call it back!" she says as she runs, then when she gets closer she goes into a Hi Jump Kick aimed at Gladion. What? No, she isn't a Lopunny!
Guzma	The Bewear drops the Pokemon begrudgingly, and then is promptly tossed at the Aether Foundation. They dive out of the way, while Stoutland goes flying backwards, KO'd immediately. The other member of the Aether Foundation sends out a large toucan with a strange beak... "Beak Blast!" The beak starts to heat up. And heat up. Steam comes off of it, and then... The bird flies forward, moving to impact Hesinca with a blazing peck. It might stagger her back, as the Aether Foundation member brushes himself. "Let go those Pokemon!" The other one taps a receiver, possibly calling for more backup. Lory throws flashbangs. Lycanroc slices through the one thrown at it, diverting out of the way, but Gladion is hit head-on, staggering backwards, blinded. This is followed up by a kick to the chest, and if Lory is expecting more resistance... He's a child. He has no resistance. Lycanroc howls louder, and moves to Gladion's side. The dirt and fence slams it off-course, causing it to barrel back into Gladion, but it freaks out, and moves to pick up the boy and throw him over his shoulder while he's stunned. Meanwhile, Hesinca and Gladion both get messages from Guzma. <"Get out of there, now. Pull out!"> It's...urgent. Like 'drop everything' urgent.
Lory Thumper	Lory's kick lands, and...the kid goes down? She actually winces sympathetically and silently wonders if she has been in the Multiverse too long. "Hey, are you al-" she starts to ask, but Lycanroc is there! She hops back into a defensive stance and prepares to fight it. But, it seems there will be no fight. It picks up Gladion and runs off, and Lory starts to give chase. "Hey! You can't just cause all this damage and then expect to get away!" she calls after them. She is quick on her feet, but she isn't really any faster than a typical sprinting human. She does at least try to slow them down though by pulling another pair of discs from her belt and throwing them. These are edged with yellow, and when they reach their destination they explode to release a heavy foam meant to immobilize perpetrators for capture.
Selene	The flashbangs, despite not landing anywhere near Selene, still have her jumping in surprise at the sudden flash of light and noise. It's the effect on Gladion (folowed by that jump kick to the chest) that actually have her usual grin fading for once. "Whoa, hey! Aren't you supposed to be a cop?!" Noticing the trainer's sudden shift in tone as well as Lycanroc hurrying over to Gladion, the Snorlax lurches along towards Selene as she starts jogging over to intercept Lory. When it's clear that she can't actually catch up, though, the Snorlax starts rolling instead to intercept those foaming discs underfoot. It stops once again, though, as it acts as a physical barrier between Lory and Gladion. "You... Never... Attack...!" Selene wheezes in-between words, holding a hand up to signal a pause while catching her breath from thatb rief jog. "... The trainer in a Pokemon battle unless you're building cheap heat!" There's another pause to catch her breath, and then Selene lets out an intrigued noise. "... Aah, so THAT's your angle, is it? Okay... Risky, but I get it." She nods slowly whilst jumping to conclusions instead of pursuing Gladion and Lycanroc further, although the Snorlax just gives Lory that side eye again. "You just gotta be careful not to take it too far or be too inconsistent, though, 'cause that'll just confuse the audience super hard! Got it?" She stares at Lory wide-eyed and expectantly as she finishes her lecture with that, apparently having completely forgotten why she's come out here in the first place. Also, ignoring all the property damage she's indirectly had a hand in causing.
Hesinca	Hesinca gets staggered back a bit, bringing up her arms to try to ward off the flaming beak attacks. It's more the ferocity and the surprise that drives her back; literally being moved back by force is a bit harder unless the bird is a lot stronger than it looks given that she weighs as much as a car (and doesn't have nice low-friction wheels to be pushed around like a car does, but we're extending the metaphor a bit too much here). "Fine, fine, we're going!" Hesinca grabs for whatever stealable pokemon is still within reach and makes her way towards the front gate of the reserve - which is where the entrance to her pocket netherworld (the glowing 'square' of ground) is.
Guzma	Hesinca manages to gather several of the shiny Pokemon, but a lot get away in the chaos of 'everything'. The Tauros dash forward, with Lycanroc tossing Gladion onto one and then rushing after it, but the foam grenades go out to slow them down. The Tauros start skidding, but are shifted by the Lycanroc and the other Team Skull grunts to make it through the portal and disappear with Hesinca. After all the dust settles, the old couple have nowhere to secure the rest of the Pokemon. People will know about their preserve now. That's where the Aether Foundation steps in. They introduce themselves by name, telling the pair that they have an island offshore where they protect Pokemon from bullies and thugs such as Team Skull, saving injured pokemon. With no other recourse, the couple who run the preserve is grateful for the Aether Foundation, who offer to give Selene and Lory a ride if they need it. Mission...accomplished? But for who?
Lory Thumper	Lory was already feeling bad about the kick after the kid turned out to -not- be one of those super-powered tweens that seem to be everywhere, so when Selene gives her a little lecture Lory just nods politely. "Ehehe...yeah, got it." she says once it is over, then blinks. "...wait, what audience? I mean, I do record just about everything but...the only people watching it are me or crime scene investigators." "So...you kids control those animals but don't really have much in the way of powers yourselves? Why do they fight for you?" Lory asks Selene. Hesinca is gone too quickly for Lory to do much about the pokemon she ran off with, but she makes a note of the centaur's appearance for apprehending later. "...was that a real centaur? I've seen humans, and I have obviously seen anthropomorphic animals, but...somewhere inbetween?"
Selene	Looking satisfied with Lory's response, Selene exhales hard as she falls sideways, the Snorlax already moving its hand into position to catch her. "That's better. Now! Let's get something to eat to celebrate saving the day!" Conveniently ignoring all the property damage, Selene does at least notice the Aether Foundation coming in to take over where the preserve left off. "Oh, hey! It's those guys with the thing! Now that sure wraps this up nicely with!" She claps her hands together and wipes them against each other for emphasis, peering around the helicopter a few times before breathing a relieved sigh. She doesn't explain why, of course, instead turning to Lory to address her question. "There was a weird horse lady here, too, wasn't there? Huh... Oh. See, there's these people that really like Pokemon!" Although her usual grin is there, there's a certain deadness in her expression as she repeats. "/Really/ like them." After a few uncomfortable moments, she continues with her usual chipper tone. "Because we live with them like they live with us! They're an important part of our society to keep things working just like we are to protect them and keep them happier than they would without us!" She explains while sounding excessively confident, even going as far as pushing up nonexistent glasses back up to her face. "And that's how problems get solved without anyone getting hurt! They get stronger, we learn from them, and the cycle continues!"