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Owner Pose
Hesinca "Welcome to the Rosenqueen Item World Entrance, Netherworld Branch!"

It looks unassuming, generic. The building occupies the footprint of a big box store, but the only 'front of house' bit looks like an airport terminal's check-in desks; rows of counters, each staffed by a demon with a computer terminal, helping customers or entering data or just waiting. Adjacent to the counters is a waiting/lobby area, and off to one side is a row of doors with turnstiles in front of them.

"We're here to make sure your trip into the item world is a pleasant one. Now, just a few things before we get you on your way... I'll just need the item you'd like to use, a little bit of info about your party members..."

The demon that's handling Guzma's trip is a mostly-humanoid one, wearing a set of cats-eye goggles, a silly cat-ear hat, and a top/vest/shorts combo that's showing off far too much midriff.

"... Everyone to sign this waiver stating that we're not responsible if you suffer cutscene death, and of course we'll need to sort out the little matter of your payment."

A clipboard and an outstretched palm are both presented to the group.
Guzma Guzma steps through the front door, towards the counter, and talks to the Fake Catperson Demon. He removes his golden necklace from its place around his neck, and hands it over. "Guzma. Boss of Team Skull. Member of the Concord. Dealer of destruction, big bad Guzma. Yo!"

And then, when payment comes, he signs the waiver and hands over the Coupon, like a penny-pinching mother.

And then he checks to see who came in with him! This should be an enlightening training adventure. "Yo." He says to his Allies, humming and watching his necklace carefully.
Cantio Despite the morbid request from the Rosenqueen representative, Cantio looks rather at ease with everything she's seeing. There's something oddly calming about how matter-of-fact the process sounds upfront, and there's not even a flinch as she follows Guzma towards the cat-ish demon to sign the waiver (with her own pen just in case).

"Cantio. Drive Core Candidate of Cadenza. Member of the Concord." She looks like she's about to say something, stays quiet for just long enough to make it awkward and obvious that she's got nothing, then just gives the demon a quick nod before stepping out of the way of the next person signing their name.

She looks a fair bit torn up about that. "I should really get some kind of cooler introduction..." Cantio sighs lightly, then turns to Guzma and finally remembers to breathe again. "Hello again. Will it really be alright for us to go in there? I mean, if it's a personal item, there... We might see things, you know?"
Yuuki Kuran Having actually requested the events taking place, of course Yuuki is here today!

She is not here in a regal sense, of course. Instead, wearing something more akin to an Alolan trainer (in solidarity!): a black t-shirt with a red stripe, green shorts, and black tights down to red sneakers with white laces.

Just finishing tying off her ankle-length brown hair with a thin black ribbon to get it to hang a few inches higher and in a more orderly way, she hangs back while the ticket is produced. "Oh, you don't need me to pay? That's fine. So, what item are you going to use? The necklace? Is it important?" She asks, brightly.
Guzma "Yeah. How bad could it be?" Guzma responds to Cantio, and then turns to Yuuki. He points to the necklace, and the weird shape of the Skull logo on it. "Team Skull made this for me when we banded together. It's a symbol of power - and of our union. It's the most important object I got, yo. Lots of sentimental value or however you say it."
Captain Flint      Captain Flint and John Silver have come along with Yuuki--and through some incredible social alchemy, they've managed to convince a number of the Walrus vanguard to accompany them to hell. It's a handful of crew, carrying satchels of equipment purchased or pillaged from their world and beyond. Shovels and picks, plastic explosives, pitch, swords, guns ranging from natively sourced muskets to looted modern firearms, and ammo (and powder) aplenty for both, all distributed evenly between the men.

     "Captain Flint, of the Walrus. My Quartermaster, John Silver. My men, a handpicked vanguard--Billy Bones, the boatswain," he says. Billy is a tall musclebound young man, closer to Guzma's age than Flint or Silver. He has a short-cut mess of curly blond hair. He nods. "As well as Joji, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Avery." Joji is a taciturn Japanese man with long hair tied back to keep it from his face. Sirs Lawrence, Everett, and Avery are a slim sharpshooter with a rifle, a stocky sea-beaten bald man, and a younger black-haired fellow almost as strapping as Billy, if a head shorter, respectively.

     Each of them signs--evidently not having any problems with liability waivers. Death must be a responsibility the captain handles. he and Silver are first, followed by the rest. As the last of them signs off, Flint turns to Cantio.

     "Why wouldn't it be alright?" he asks. "If he can't be himself around us, then who? Who else but his closest allies would be welcome within the world of the necklace?"
Hesinca The necklace gets placed in a clear plastic case, which gets closed and locked with the key being handed to Guzma. The clerk slaps a sticker on the case, and drops the case into a slot on the counter.

"Trust me, sir - constant video surveillance of your item, and it won't leave the tamper-proof case until you come to pick it back up," she says, prompted by Guzma watching it carefully.

"Here is a pager, when it vibrates and beeps it'll light up with the door number you and your party should proceed through - oh, there it goes already, don't even have to wait. Looks like we had an entrance available."

-3- says the pager in bright seven-segment leds.

"Now, to answer some questions - while some items might have formed personal connections to their owners that can be reflected in their contents, there generally are not any deep secrets on display. For those you'll need to go to a Rosenqueen Heart Vault or a Rosenqueen Character World, both opening soon in convenient locations throughout the Netherworld."

"Inside the Item World you'll face one or more trials, the nature of which will not be revealed to you until you enter. You are free to explore, fight, and loot to your heart's content until you've had your fill or you die (dying is not recommended). When you are done, you may use one of these..."

A handful of what look like tiny dollhouse doors are placed on the counter. "Mr. Gency's Exits. These let you leave immediately, or you may return via the entrance you came through. If you return injured, our staff medics will gladly treat you once they've processed your payment. Be sure to ask about our 'frequent injury' reward programs where you can earn valuable prizes for getting hurt."

"Once you're all set - head through the number five door. Good luck!"
Zero Kiryu Zero Kiryu is present, having been specifically requested. He appeared along with Yuuki, though his manner of dress is altogether unchanged. Black slacks, a white button-down with a red tie, a waistcoat. He hasn't bothered with an overcoat today, though. He regards Yuuki's choice of outfit a little quizzically, but doesn't comment on it directly.

He reviews what he's asked to sign before actually signing it, because he's in a Hell and doesn't at all trust it. For that matter, he literally takes Yuuki's from her hands to make sure they're actually identical before giving it back to her.

"I wonder if Flamel can interact sympathetically with items in this way," he muses to nobody in particular.

To Guzma, he replies, "'Sentimental value' is correct."
Hesinca "Ah, one more thing - you may find powerful foes inside of your item world, called 'residents'. Defeating a resident may power up your item, so killing them is highly recommended."

"Generally you'll know which foe(s) are residents - they stand out."
Cantio "I guess it wouldn't be bad, per se. I just had you pegged more as the guarded type." Cantio lets out an amused chuckle at Guzma's response to her own and Yuuki's questions, peering at the necklace for a few moments before it's taken by the demon. Turning to Flint, she nods slowly while crossing her arms with a thoughtful hum. "That's true. Better us that goes in to help him than random people he might not even know. Or even peopel he's hired. I'm probably just overthinking things, then."

She laughs, but it's still somewhat awkward sounding.

As the demon explains how their upcoming delve into the necklace will work, Cantio listens and takes copious amounts of notes. There's a moment where it looks like she might frown at the mention of the 'frequent injury' program, but she actually laughs a few moments later. "That solves plenty of those problems, then... Um. But does taking things from this Item World take anything out of the necklace? Like..."

She can't quite figure out how to finish that thought right away. It's still all somewhat bizarre to her, and it takes her a few more seconds to figure it out. "Will the necklace or Guzma lose anything if we do that?" Zero's observation has her raising an eyebrow as well. "Perhaps... His might be more like that Character World they mentioned earlier?"
Guzma Guzma decides to believe the clerk, taking the key, looking at the pager, and nodding. "Alright." He also takes the dollhouse door for himself, before turning to the others. "Everyone ready to go?"

Once they are, he moves to step through the Correct Door.
Hesinca "Oh, no, it's harmless to the item if you take any treasure out of it. Also anything or anyone you encounter in it isn't 'real' - can you imagine the ridiculous implications if that was true?"

The clerk picks up a piece of paper from her desk and rips it into two pieces.

"Oh no, I just murdered thousands," she says with a straight, cheerful face. "See? So don't worry about it, go fight and loot and have a good time (and come back and actually spend money next time.)"
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki looks at the contract slid under her nose by Zero after he checks it over, Yuuki's keen ear is directed to the rather pleasant sound of paper tearing.

"I understand completely. See? Isn't it nice when everyone can smile and understand each other?"

There is another tearing sound of paper: the waiver contract. Once she has it neatly torn into four pieces, she places them on the table, and then places an all-black credit card with a gold stripe that begs to be swiped and assaults the eye with the feeling of currency value.

"I'll come back for my card after." She beams, and walks off to join the party at the DOOR.
Captain Flint      Flint nods at Cantio, his way of acknowledging the awkwardness and giving her a Pass. Be at ease, but be ready, his expression says. Following a series of glances between the crew from Silver, who then signals Flint that they appear to be ready, the captain speaks up. "Quite," he says, in response to Guzma.

     "Did you hear that about the Heart and Character worlds?" asks Silver, as Flint leads the crew to the Correct Door.

     "I did," says Flint. "If the principle is the same--defeating residents to improve--then it's something we may want to pursue ourselves."

     Silver looks surprised. Flint's changed, recently... he wouldn't have previously been willing to entertain the thought of others seeing his demons. "Well," he says, with an arch frown. "I doubt they'll be willing to take a second coupon."

     "I imagine not." Yes, they heard the bit about 'spending money next time.'

     Billy seems to have seen Yuuki's tearing of the contract, but not the offering of the card. "I didn't know that was an option," he mutters.
Yuuki Kuran "It is when you're a captain, Billy." Yuuki replies with a beaming smile. "And I'm your Captain's Captain. Make sense?"
Captain Flint      The boatswain blinks. "Yes, ma'am," says Billy sheepishly.

     Flint and Silver share an amused glance.
Hesinca The saying goes that some things are 'bigger on the inside'. That seems to be the case here - but more likely it's a portal to somewhere else. Specifically, the group is in a mishmash of terrains.

It might look vaguely familiar to Guzma and certain others - the terrains and places are like they're taken straight out of the Archipelago. Right now they're in Po Town - or a vague copy of it, with vagueness emphasized. It's like the 'hollywood version' of Po Town, with the major landmarks present but in reality aren't grouped nearly this close together.

Speaking of close together - the rest of the island that should be surrounding Po Town isn't present. It's just (hollywood version) Po Town, and on all sides are different locales - also looking like somewhat-fake copies, with all the right landmarks but layouts that don't match with reality.

Through the town's main gates, it looks like the path leads into a tangle of city buildings - *probably* Saffron City, but with an even more confusing layout than usual. It looks more like a literal maze of buildings taking a winding path, along with street signs and stoplights that seem randomly placed.

Before anyone can so much as take a few steps from the entrance, though, there's encounters. Wild pokemon, and wild... people.

Mostly common trash ones here - your scatterbugs, your trubbishes, your random route one pokemon that get caught to fill out a dex and never used after that.

There's also a very cool looking pokemon trainer. Some sort of... cool trainer. He has a pokeball! He doesn't throw it, though; he's attempting to smash you with it like a blunt melee object.

((--- DUNGEON MODE TUTORIAL ---))

((You may use csys to take actions that are not strictly combat - like if you're delving for treasure or scouting instead of focusing on fighting back, just pose those actions and csys attack like normal. The boss health represents the overall dungeon 'completion/progression', not strictly the health of any given enemy or group thereof.))

((Or of course you could just fight, that works too.))
Zero Kiryu Zero is among the individuals who is targeted by the COOL TRAINER and his INAPPROPRIATELY WEAPONIZED POKEBALL. He gets slapped across the head, which he takes more-or-less in stride, shivering slightly in place more like a tree that had its leaves disturbed than a person who just got bludgeoned with a blunt object.

With a sweep of his hand he seeds several instances of his plants into the surroundings, which go about the usual business of growing into giant lethal lacerating metal foliage and aggressively attacking the COOL TRAINER and anything else unfriendly that is unwise enough to get within their reach.

"I feel as if... this is only moderately off-base. But cities aren't laid out like this," he comments.

He asks Guzma, "Does this correspond to someplace you recognize?"
Captain Flint      The Walrus crew haven't had the pleasure of visiting Po Town, and so the mock-up's differences with the real thing are lost on them. However, the captain, the quartermaster and the bo'sun have been to enough modern worlds to know that the arrangement of signs and buildings doesn't seem to follow any immediately apparant logical design decision.

     "It looks... jumbled," says Silver. "Out of order." His brow furrows.

     Flint nods. "So it does. Arms at the ready." Silver and Flint both sport handguns, each of a different make as befits their preferences, keeping to light firearms to more easily switch to their swords. Billy carries an AK-47, Joji keeps a hand on his sword in preparation for a quick-draw. Mr. Lawrence foregoes more modern firearms in favor of some manner of 18th century rifle, and the other two members of the vanguard carry shotguns, evidently both boarders when on the high seas.

     The pirates stick close, allowing Joji, Flint and Silver to engage those pokemon that attack up close. This defensively minded squadding allows them to advance past the entrance with just a few scrapes, cuts and bruises. Zero, on the other hand, gets clocked in the head.

     "That trainer might be a resident," says Flint, as the approaching trainer charges Zero. "Mr. Avery, Mr. Everett, assist Mr. Kiryu. The rest of you, with me. Fan out and search for others."

     The two shotgun-toting pirates open fire on the charging trainer once Zero ensnares them in those lacerating vines, the weapons kicking in their grasps and barking one after the other.

     As the rest of the crew advances, they fan out from a central point, staying within sight of each other to keep from getting mobbed. Flint forms the head of this search party, his mind turning over the seemingly labyrinthine landscape. Are there any resident-looking types near the landmarks?
Cantio Upon heading in through the Correct Door, Cantio procrastinates a bit in actually exploring in favor of taking in the sights of Guzma's not-quite-home Item World. "Your home looks so... Compact. How close is this to the real thing?"

Her question is partially answered when, in the course of beginning the delve into the necklace's Item World, the group is accosted by wild Pokemon and wild People alike. She's seen Pokemon fighting before, but she's never heard of the trainers themselves getting involved.

She definitely hasn't heard of them fighting with the Pokemon, either, but that's exactly what happens when one of those people swings a Pokemon right at her. Recalling the representative's explanation from earlier, however, Cantio doesn't hesitate to draw her sword from the ether and slash into both of them at once.

"M... Maybe not that close. I guess we should start looking around for things to grab, right." Flint gets a nod as Cantio starts reaching forward with her free hand, shoving it into a shimmering pixelated space. She starts pulling out various cubes, tossing them into the air as they start to float, then scatter. The little floating cubes, all adorned with an extremely crude and moderately unnerving rendition of Cantio's face, follow the crew around, providing them with a bit of healing support to make their delve a little easier!

Only then does she start looking for the closest thing that looks like a bank or supermarket.
Guzma As they head through into the necklace, Guzma glances around. He nods and whistles appreciatively at Po Town, looking at the great big walls and moving to head through the gates. "This is Po Town, but wrong. Exterior is completely wrong. My home, but..." He looks up to the buildings. "These are more Kanto buildings than Alola buildings. I've seen that city, Saffron, on TV. It's huge. Wonder why that is, yo."

And then, a pokeball bludgeons him in the face. Not too hard, but it hurts. He grabs his Pokeball, and throws it out. "Golisopod, let's go."

The big blue bug with the armored carapace appears, and if the pokeball comes bludgeoning again, it bounces off, as two claws come up...

And come back down in an X-Scissor type attack, moving to try and beat up the trainer and cripple his movement! He's not real, right? It's not real gory violence, right? Oh god.
Yuuki Kuran Yuuki is transported into a magical land of aventure in the world of Po-kay-mon! Her sprite is superdeformed into a pixellated subhuman chariacture and 32 bit music st--

No, no. Wrong Generation.

Sucked into Another Po Town through Guzma's necklace, the character of the place is...

Yuuki drops her fist into her palm. "I get it! It's like Flamel's mind devices, but instead of using natural psychic energy to examine the inner self, it uses externally focused imagination to create a place of growth! Wow!" She exclaims, bright eyed in her eureka moment. Zero is brained by a 'trainer' swinging a ball like a naked man in Rust approaches with a mid-sized rock, while Zero is set upon by three themed crocodiles: a blue one that spits water, a red one with flaming eyebrows that spits fire, and a green one with a leaf growing out of its head like a pompadour that spits seeds.

"Agh! Shoo, shoo!" Yuuki cries, kicking at the crocodiles first to get them off her legs, then chasing after them - either to brain them with her fist or field goal kick them into the horizon. "You should know your place, small animals! Zero, use your vine whip attack to really show them how it's done!"

Okay she's way too into it.
Hesinca The vines lash out, enveloping the trainer that is cool - and between that and Guzma's Golisopod coming in with an X-Scissor, the trainer possessing the cool trait takes massive damage - and then just sort of evaporates into dust that disperses into the air, leaving no trace but the vines that had been holding him in place.

Up ahead... there's of course more wild pokemon, this time of the city-dwelling varities, your rat* (-tata, -icate, - infested building landlords) and other rodentia of various genii, and plenty more emerging. Everyone gets something with teeth and claws to deal with, and they probably haven't had their shots.

Interestingly, none of them have said their names. Pokemon are usually chatterboxes, aren't they? These are eerily mute.

Cantio ducks into what looks like a store, and manages to find a literal treasure chest hidden behind a counter. It's got some recovery items and some pokemon treats - not top-tier treasure, maybe, but it all looks real and feels real and, if tested, acts real.

Flint's crew, spreading out along the path to go looking, find their target a few city blocks into the Saffron maze... it's a young adult that looks entirely unassuming, leaning against the wall of a building. Red vest, black t-shirt, blue jeans, and a logo hat... and idly tossing a pokeball up and down in his hand while staring off at nothing in particular.

This is probably a Resident. There's two things supporting the theory - one of which being that he's displaying more personality just in his stance than the rest of the horde of random encounters.

The other thing, and probably the more definitive piece of evidence: he's wearing Guzma's necklace.
Zero Kiryu "Ah... it's probably a stitched together amalgamation of your experiences rather than the single thing. Since you used something with a lot of history, the environment is more versatile," Zero guesses at Guzma.

In reaction to Yuuki's protests of the various Wild Street Critters harassing herself and everyone else, he moves to take her flank and spreads his vines out more deliberately from his own body. Two bands of them come together to form a coherent row of teeth that begin to wind in o nthemselves and oscillate violently, becoming a bizarre natural chainsaw-drill that sweeps across the surroundings.

The man himself pulls a Ratata off of his calf -- complete with a hunk of muscle and cloth, the former of which begins to fill back in -- and tosses it into the only-barely-metaphorical grinder, because it's more like a chainsaw than a grinder.

"I suppose," he continues to think aloud, "that the fact that it is externalized contributes to its inconsistency and pieced-together nature. Let us know if you see anything terribly out of place."
Captain Flint      Flint's party manages to reach a point of interest while avoiding the worst of the rats which litter the way there. Perhaps they're used to vermin--they do, after all, come from an 18th century island trading hub, home to quite possibly the dirtiest city in the New World. Eventually, there's no longer a need to punt the various permutations of Rat away. They've found what the captain sought.

     Flint furrows his brow. "Mr. Averies, Mr. Everett, regroup," says Flint into a handheld radio. "We've found one." The last trainer wasn't a Resident--but this one has to be. There's more than just mindless agression at work in his eyes, and besides that, he's wearing a necklace identical to Guzma's. They can't let him get away.

     "Joji and I shall keep him occupied. Mr. Silver, when the other two arrive, have the men enter that building and take up positions. When I give the signal, you're to employ the pitch bottles."

     "Right," says Silver.

     He might be intelligent enough to talk--but the demon at the desk was clear. These Residents must be 'defeated.' And so it is that Flint draws his cutlass, and Joji hovers his hand over the hilt of his katana, the two men striding up to the trainer with unmistakable intent in their eyes. Flint is the first to attack, opening fire with the pistol in his right hand without so much as a word.

     Meanwhile, the two absent members regroup, and are led into the building the trainer was leaning against, ascending the stairs to take up positions at the windows. If that pokeball is more than just for show--if it contains what Flint thinks it does--he'll order the waiting crew to firebomb the emerging Pokemon with bottles of flaming pitch, while he and Joji attempt to put the trainer himself to the sword.
Guzma "Will do." Guzma replies to Zero, as he jumps on Golisopod's back and starts moving through the pile of rats, knocking them aside. He moves to join up with Flint...

And after a few moments, his eyes widen at the trainer. "I've seen this guy on the news, I think...big hotshot. Champion of Kanto. Did more than I have...heh, gonna show him. Let's kick his ass. You're not fit to wear that necklace, yo!" Yeah, it's not a person, but it hypes Guzma up anyways...

As a swarm of pin missiles fire at him from all sides, moving to try and pin his arms and legs and batter through his armor! Guzma cheers and woops and hollers, trying to give Golisopod the hype it needs to be amazing. He's ignoring the firebombings, kinda.
Cantio Somehow, a treasure chest does't surprise her in the slightest. It's probably got something to do with the weird treasure boxes floating overhead in her world, but whatever the case is, she just checks over the contents of the chest before shoving the entire thing into her digital inventory space, treats and all.

She might need the box later.

With little else in the store catching her interest, she gets right back to searching for something else that might be worth grabbing and bringing back with her. With so many rats loitering arund, however, she does need to take some time to ready her blade and start shooting lasers all over the place.

Yes, she's holding it like a rifle instead of a sword. Yes, it's making laser noises. No, she's not going to trade in her skirts for actual pants even with all these things nipping at her heels. It doesn't take long for her to start getting annoyed with having to take potshots at everything that moves, however, and Cantio starts sprinting from high perch to high perch, using benches and lamp posts to keep her ankles out of range of those damnable pests.

"All I've found was an item box so far. Some recovery items and food. If anyone needs them, let me know." She relays to her companions, eventually looking towards the Saffron City-ish area and whatever may lay beyond. Before she can head into the maze of buildings, however, she gets beaned right in the back of the head with a crude rendition of a Pokeball.

"Do people back home ever do this? Aren't these balls tools and not projectiles?" She asks Guzma with some skepticism already, probably hoping that this isn't the case. Instead of just rushing the offender with her sword rifle, however, she tries something a little different: She grabs one of the Rattata running underfoot with both hands, then chucks it right at the weird-looking belt girl chucking balls at her.
Yuuki Kuran Zero's ability to add the Botanica and Industrial Expansion minepacks to the world is a constant joy, as is the pleasure of dropping fake imaginary garbage crocodiles into a grinder (chainsaw, but it's a grinder in her heart) to extract the delicious item experience out of it!

Actually mostly it extracts blood, but as a Normal Girl she has no special reaction to the 'fainting' and 'release' of the little monsters.

A town of rats, on the other hand... "Why? Why rats?" A raticate looms. "Why BIGGEST RAT, Guzma? Next you're going to tell me there's a bigger-est rat! At least a sentient garbage pile has charm and character."

Yuuki may *or may not* be referring to an Alolan native with that thought.

"There's no problem if we rampage a little here, right? Because it's all fake! This is all a growth arc for Guzma, though, so--" She punctuates her statement with the metallic telescoping clack of her metal stave's activation in her hands. "--I'll leave the fun stuff for Boys Quest. Now die, rats!"

With big sweeping strikes of her staff, Yuuki proceeds to Do Just That, and go bowling for rats.
Hesinca The rat grinder (made out of plants, which is trendy in the city) works as intended, if not as gorily as anticipated. More pg-13 friendly clouds of spiritual dust released into the air instead of mangled gory rat corpses. It's kinda pretty in a way. Yuuki goes bowling, and manages a street-clearing strike, with appropriate fountains of dust in celebration.

The trainer in the red vest - we'll just call him Red, for short - doesn't react until he's attacked, at which point he's covered in flaming pitch, and then shot several times. He winces, but the PG-13-esque rules governing entities here work in favor of the party's foes as well - he clearly takes 'damage', but there's no screaming or dramatic loss of skin integrity or blood or anything else usually associated with pirate assault tactics. Just damage and inconvenience.

"Charizard," says Red, holding up the pokeball, even as he gets pin-missiled repeatedly.

"(I choose you.)" This part comes out muffled because he's just gotten hit in the face with an oversized rat.

The pokeball is thrown, and opens with a burst of light (properly portrayed, unlike other things here) and releases its contents into the middle of the road, placed between Red and the party.

What has come out of the pokeball is not Charizard, though.

"YEAH IT'S YA BOY, GUUUUUZMA!" yells Fire-Headed Guzma, pumping both arms and roaring at the sky.

"And I think we should burn these islands to the <CENSORED> ground, since they ain't doing me any good but as tinder! Everyone'll know my name! IT'S YA BOOOOOY!"

And then he breathes a wide column of fire, the blaze spreading out to cover the whole street! This is one spicy Guzma, to be sure.

While the group's dealing with that, Red's turned and calmly stalked off further down the path...

... where up ahead the city streets abruptly transition into floating log paths, connecting floating raft 'islands' of buildings. Maybe Guzma saw this in a travel brochure once - Pacifidlog town, was it?
Guzma As Red winces and moves to summon the charizard, Guzma prepares Golisopod. Charizard is a heavy hitter, so-

Golisopod and Guzma both go dumbfounded at what they see, and that makes it very, very difficult to jump out of the way. Golisopod manages to resist it with armor plates, however, while the fire catches on Guzma's jacket, forcing him to rip it off, throw it to the ground, and just be left in his shirt.

"Yo, sick line. You're me, right?" Guzma never curses, but it's close enough. He considers having Golisopod tear it to shreds, but then...

Guzma instead suddenly dashes forward, weaving out of the fire narrowly, and moves to punch Another Guzma straight in the jaw. He's not superhuman whatsoever, but he's got a nice hook. "Get Red! I got me!"
Cantio Cantio hears something odd in the distance, and that's as much of a sign as any for her to go check out whatever it is. The closer she gets, the easier it is to tell that it's Guzma's voice, but...

Didn't she see him on the way here already? How did he get so far so quickly? All two of her questions are answered with yet more questions as she sees the Fire-Headed Guzma, the sight of the thing leaving the purple-headed girl compeltely dumbstruck at the all of it.

Realy, she can't even come up with words for any of it. She leaps towards the Fire-Guzma to avoid the worst of the flames, twisting and flipping in midair to make herself a smaller target for when the flames do wash right over her. Tucking and rolling on her landing, Cantio assumes that she's avoided it completely, not realizing that the ends of her jacket and some of her hair is on fire as she brandishes her weapon once again.

"he's almost you. The... Er. The body's all wrong, for starters. How did your necklace even make this... This?"  She gestures at Fire-Guzma, shaking her head and yelping as she only then realizes that she's on fire. Cantio scrambles to put it out through smacking herself and flailing wildly, eventually getting one of her drones to put it out with a quick burst of air.

"Are you sure? Ah... Be careful!" Leaving Fire-Guzma to Guzma, she starts sprinting after Red, leaping across logs to try and close the distance between herself and Red. "H-hey! Hold up!" She fires off a few lasers in front of Red to try and slow him down, pauses briefly, then just fires right at the mysterious COOL GUY.
Yuuki Kuran "I don't really think he's 'you'-you, Guzma. He's the you of the item world. Maybe he's the fantastical representation of the image your Skulls envision you as?"

Yuuki steps through the curtain of roaring fire not especially worse for wear, though she has a few Anime Scuff Marks now because Clothing Damage is how you show narrative tension. "But I won't have anyone putting Guzma inside their own personal capture sphere! He's mine now!" Yuuki calls, now running PAST Another Guzma to sprint after Red, staff crackling with electricity as it grows a scythe-head and a slightly curvier look to match. "The only person who gets to capture a Guzma is *me*!"

She hocks the Artemis Scythe overhand at Red's back like a particularly cartoonish throwing axe. The actual effect, however, is dramatic and forboding, a black-and-red sworl of destruction chasing after the mystery trainer.
Captain Flint      Flint had imagined Red would have a pokemon. What he didn't imagine was that it'd be a copy of Guzma. He, and Joji, are taken by surprise, unable to capitalize on the advantage the captain's ambush tactic had set up earlier. The two of them had attempted the classic tactic of cornering their target from two different attack angles--which leaves Joji in the line of Spicy Guzma's flame breath.

     Flint has a choice--chase his objective, or save his crew member. To the surprise of Silver, Billy, and especially Joji himself, the captain chooses the latter, abandoning the chase for a moment to tackle the katana-wielding pirate to the ground.

     The captain is set ablaze for his bravery, the back of his longcoat catching fire and burning painfully. No stranger to fire, he rolls off of Joji and attempts to smother the flames. They're out, after a series of rolls back-and-forth, but this ins't a foe either of them should be fighting up close. Forcing himself to fight through the pain, Flint rises and barks an order, nodding at Guzma. "OUT OF THE BUILDING! AFTER RED!"

     All of the pirates, save one, exit, joining Flint in a mad dash to catch up to Red. The remaining pirate is Mr. Lawrence, who's got the fleeing trainer in the sights of his rifle. Well accustomed to picking off enemy captains from the Walrus' crows' nest, he pulls the trigger, then lowers the weapon and joins his fellows in chasing after Red.
Zero Kiryu It would be reasonable to expect as healthy an attack as that one to seriously scorch Zero Kiryu down to the bone, but the effect isn't quite that. The flames engulf him and lick at his skin, but it's rather like pouring flame over stone-- it scorches and blackens and sometimes cracks, but it's not prone to breaking down hideously unless conditions are very particular.

Conditions are not particular here. Sooty and rather miserable-looking though he is, Zero comes out of the attack aggravated and aggrieved-looking.

"Like the rest of this place, this Guzma is probably pieced together from disparate parts and imaginations. I'm sure some of it is 'wish fulfillment', but I don't think it's anything worth worrying about," he chimes in, towards Yuuki and Guzma.

"Just get rid of it. I imagine you'll gain something for it. And if you're worried at all about such phantoms in your head, we have a person for that."

Immediately afterwards a storm of vines explode around Guzma. They latch onto him, layering themselves into the shape of an armor that covers him feet to neck, remaining there just long enough to guide him into a second swing, this time boosted by whatever strange powers fuel Zero Kiryu.

As soon as that occurs, the vine-armor-puppet-strings burst off of Guzma, leaving him to continue as he wishes.
Hesinca Fire-Haired Guzma breathes fire - and when he pauses to take a breath, he ends up facing down Actual Guzma, and more specifically Actual Guzma's fist coming at him, with Zero's vines holding him in place.

"Weak," are his last words, before the punch dusts him. Maybe he had trashy defense IV's.

Red turns his head as people start catching up and shooting at him. A look of consternation crosses his face, and he reaches for his belt, even as lasers and blasts of destructive energy slam into him from the back, and he takes a shot in the leg from a rifle. He's starting to not look to hot, in a PG-13 appropriate way. "Espeon. Snorlax. I choose you."

He grabs two pokeballs from his belt and flings them behind himself. (Wait, two pokemon at once? He can't do that, that's illegal!)

One of the pokeballs opens up to reveal... a normal looking Guzma. Except while he's normal looking, he's also been stretched out in all three dimensions to be as tall and wide as a building.

"Island challenge? Pokemon League challenge? That all sounds... like a lot of work for ya boy."

Giant Guzma sits down, taking up the entire log bridge. And on his shoulder is Brainy Guzma, who's swapped the shades for thick nerd glasses.

"Yeah, that's all a trap for suckers! Ya boy ain't a sucker, so screw that! We'll make our name known our own way, and you all can go get dunked!"

This turns out to be literal, as Brainy Guzma uses his psychic powers to start knocking people off of the bridge and into the water below - where various nasty aquatic encounters are waiting to hassle them.

Behind the pair of Guzmas (Guzmii?), Red starts picking up the pace in his retreat. Up ahead is some sort of... farm? Berry plantation? It looks vaguely french. As he nears the threshold to the next area, though, he pauses, turns, and throws out one more, just to be certain that he's actually going to be free of the party.

"Pikachu. I choose you."

And there's...

Happy, smiling bright-cheeked Guzma.

"Ha ha ha. Hey all, it's ya boy, Guzma!"

Happy Guzma claps Giant Guzma and Brainy Guzma on the shoulders, standing beside them. "Isn't it grand having friends? Allies, minions, pokemon, goons... heck, I'm practically tripping right over helpful people, and I barely have to lift a finger!"

"It's true," says Giant Guzma, who looks like he wants to take a nap. "I can just sit back and not have to do all the work."

"And take all the credit," says Brainy Guzma, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Ha ha, yeah!" says Happy Guzma. "It's true, basically I don't have to do anything - all my friends, all of you will do all the work for me, and even give me that crappy souveneir stand necklace because you're so thankful for the opportunity! It's amazing!"

"And even when I'm questioned on it, all I have to do is give a little minimum amount of effort to show that I'm working... literally dip my toe in... like..."

The Happy Guzma literally leans off of the dock, and dips his toe into the water. "So."

The entire lagoon lights up with massive amounts of lethal electricity, coursing through the water.

"IT'S YA BOY!"
"IT'S YA BOY!"
"It's - ugh, can't I just nap?"
Guzma As Fire-Haired Guzma goes down, more Guzmas appear from Red. They say awful, horrendous things. Guzma even seems to believe them, for a second. He knows this isn't his mind.

That doesn't mean he hasn't thought it before.

The last straw is the thing about the souvenir stand necklace, and Guzma almost screams. But as dark memories start to surface, new ones move to fight them.

Yuuki, saying 'he's mine'. Guzma's part of her family now, right?

Cantio, asking him if he's alright every step of the way.

Flint, telling him he'll have his back ever since that night.

Zero, boosting his attack, giving him the strength he needed.

And his Pokemon, always there for him.

"You're wrong." Guzma says, defiantly, even as that electricity surges into him, electrocuting him enough to do insane amounts of damage. Guzma pushes through, even as his outfit is singed and his body is aching, as Golisopod suddenly moves to lift him out of the water, moving to take the super-effective blow instead. Guzma just continues to stride, but nods towards his buddy.

"I work harder than you'd ever imagine! I can only work hard because my pals are here to support me. I can only do what I can because of them. And about that necklace..."

Golisopod suddenly throws Guzma at Happy Guzma, who stretches out for a punch to knock him into the electric water. "It's better than you'll ever be!"

As Guzma presumably tumbles and lands, he starts pressing pokeballs. Every one of his six pokemon are summoned. Scizor, Vikavolt, Heracross, Pinsir, Ariados. They all suddenly move to attack Giant Guzma and the Brainy Guzma on the shoulder.

"Alright, Concord, let's woop some BUTT!"
Cantio Thanks to the Fire-Guzma from earlier, Giant-Guzma is... Well, Giant-Guzma is still a shock to Cantio's psyche just by virtue of him being so huge. Brainy Guzman is closer to, but also not quite a literal hit to her psyche as his psychic powers blast her right off the bridge compele with multiple inadvertent somersaults and startled yelps before landing in the water below. There's a great deal of splashing from beneath the waves as she struggles to fend off the creatures attacking her there as well, lasers going off left and right and even coming out of the water every now and then.

By the time she finishes the underwater QTE sequence, Cantio's looking a bit more ragged and weary. Happy-Guzma gets a long, dull stare as Cantio wades towards a log, draping her arm over it to start pulling herself up while he speaks.

"This... This Item World really has a distorted view of things, doesn't it?" She exhales sharply as she gets herself up halfway there, just in time to get blasted with electricity and go right back down a screaming, sizzling mess. She doesn't stay down for long, however, as a pillar of light bursts upwards from the water, and Cantio reappears hovering in midair, complete with plastic-white wardrobe shift and eye-searingly pinker hair.

"There's nothing wrong with asking for help every now and then... Right? If Guzma didn't have that... That spark to get him started, none of us would even be here right now. And even if he's not the strongest physically, his heart... His drive to improve in spite of his limits... That's what it means to be human!"

Cantio brandishes her blade, swirling it around herself rapidly as it appears to grow bigger and more complex with each movement. "He works harder than almost anyone I know! Especially m...!" That last bit is drowned out as the sword is leveled in front of Cantio, whirring loudly as it looks more like a cannon or lance than a sword by the time it's finished swinging around. With a loud charging noise, it fires off a laser that splits into a multitude of smaller lasers that converge into another giant laser that's already creating miniature explosions around itself as it speeds towards the trio of Not-Guzmas.
Yuuki Kuran "Mmm. No. No I don't like this at all. I'll have to have Hesinca to explain this better next time." Yuuki decides, having been knocked off the bridge and sent upside down into the waterfall. She remains in her considering pose with two large pihrana-toothed fish attached to her legs adding holes to her leggings. She has absolute commitment to this bit.

"No no, that's not--" She begins, as Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, frying the whole waterfall. Yuuki's body washes away in the crashing push of water, never to be seen aga-

From behind the Guzmas on the path, Yuuki raises a hand. Dripping wet, she addresses the entire Guzma Stack as a teacher addresses students. "Guzma isn't just mine to capture. I own his likeness! All this... This isn't fair use at all. This is an attack! This is slander and disrespect. You're not revealing something about his character: Because this isn't true."

Yuuki gets out her phone, oblivious to the outside world for a moment. "Note... To... Self... Tell Hesinca... To Update Disclaimer... At Item World."

She slides her phone into her pocket as her scythe spins from the surrounds back to her hand with a 'whoosh' and a soft thunk as metal touches palm. "This isn't even a figment of our imagination. This is a parody. A jester can insult royalty only if they properly introduce themselves as a jester. Otherwise they're just a fool. And I hate fools."

She only spins once but the red-black cut she makes through the air with Artemis howls and shrieks like a cacophony of bats and frantic wingbeats.
Captain Flint      Flint and his men catch up to Red--nearly. The captain is winded, his determined advance causing beads of sweat to run down his face as he wills through the pain of the burn. He's the first to make it onto the bridge, followed closely by Joji, and next up Silver, who seems to have developed his own way of keeping up with others despite his unwieldy wooden prosthesis. As the remaining pirates arrive on the bridge, they're knocked off-balance by Giant Guzma sitting down.

     Off-balance, yes, but not into the drink--many of them are used to keeping their balance, Flint especially. But on the high seas, there are usually no psychics present on the other ship to manually throw your men overboard. Flint is tossed over, Silver with him, the both of them quickly put at the mercy of aggressive undersea life. In an ironic twist, it's the once-presumed-lost-at-sea Billy Bones who comes to their aid.

     With a beefy bicep for each pirate, the bo'sun reaches out, attempting to pull them free. Flint groans out in pain as something below bites him, and Joji has to come to the rescue with his sword, skillfully flicking it beneath the water to pry and slice off the aggressor. What happens next isn't good for any of them--two men in the water, one pulling them out, and one with a metal sword dipped beneath the waves to ward off predators, all receive a massive electrical shock.

     Billy nearly drops them, Joji is bowled onto his back, and each of the submerged pirates have the wind forced from their lungs. It's only for Billy's stubbornness and brawn that they're finally both pulled free, all four men now in various states of exhaustion, gasping for air, and shock.

     "TELL 'EM, LAD!" cries one of the vanguard fortunate enough to have avoided the worst of the tri-Guzma attack. He gets a hearty pat on the back from Flint's sharpshooter, as he and the two shotgun-toting pirates hurry past to help the four downed men back up. Shakily, unsteadily, everyone gets back to their feet--and a duffel bag bulging with hard-angled shapes is placed on the ground.

     "Nothing whatsoever, Cantio," rumbles Flint with patient determination, as he, Silver, and Joji reach into it, each of them procuring from its confines a weapon of their choosing. For Flint, a military grade assault rifle, for Silver, a compact submachine gun, for Joji, a musket resembling Mr. Lawrence's choice. Standing up shakily, Flint managers a sneer at the false Guzmas, turning his head to look at the Real Guzma and nodding confidently. He *does* have Guzma's back. As Cantio fires her blinding laser, Flint prepares his final attack. "Muskets," he growls. Avery, Joji and Everett run to the front, kneeling and forming the front of a firing line. Behind them, standing, Flint, Silver, Billy and Lawrence. "Ready." Every weapon is shouldered in one fluid motion. "Aim." Each man picks his target, and there's a moment of silent tension.

     The captain grins, as Yuuki levies her judgement. Evidently, he quite agrees--this is a parody, not at all a truthful representation of the man he knows. "Fire," snarls Flint, pulling the trigger. A hail of fire spanning several generations of ballistic technology erupts from the men on the bridge, near-deafening in its roar. Bullets of several calibers mingle with musket balls in a storm of lead teeth racing across the short span to take their pound of flesh as surely as Cantio's laser and the named scythe Artemis have sought theirs.
Zero Kiryu Zero Kiryu is knocked off the bridge, nibbled on by a variety of suitably-themed aquatic life forms that no doubt include 'just a goddamn dragon', and electrocuted in short order. The actual experience of being handled in this way is... not what he expected. He knew that he was more powerful than before, but how much more so had escaped him. The damage adds up, bit by bit, but any one part of it is surprisingly manageable.

It's enough to bloody the waters where he fell, though not drastically so. The rules of this place only allow enough blood to be ominous from the surface, after all, and little more. Factually, he probably lost a fair bit of it. Enough to aggravate Yuuki, at least.

The electricity is the part that really hurts, though. He feels his heart stop for a moment, then falteringly restart an instant later. Of course, he does need to breathe, but he's not going to be down here long enough for that to become the real problem.

A moment passes, he blinks, and he's gone.

Up above again, among the brambles that had spread wherever he had gone, he reappears. Soaking, freshly chewed on, less "fried" but rather twitchy. Zero inhales gratefully and draws in all of "himself" that he's spread across the item world.

All of the plant life that he seeded tonight collapses onto him and then begins to unfurl centered on his location. It's too much-- a truly unreasonable amount of growth. Vines no greater than individual sprigs of kudzu erupt to the size of redwoods and push into the ground of the item world, grow into the sky, crash into the lake.

This is more than a manor house.

The vines do not so much as attack anything in particular as begin to aggressively tear up the world itself, and if it so happens that they catch specific denizens of it in the process, so much the better.

But to the people assembled in support of Guzma, they bring no harm. They part in curtains and waves, providing moments of support or protection before carrying on their destructive way.
Hesinca "The heck we're wrong-" says Happy Guzma, right before Real Guzma gets fastballed directly at him, knocking him into the water, where he gets shocked to death.

"This - this isn't right, I'm smarter than this, I'm smarter than all of you-" says Brainy Guzma, right before he gets hit with lasers, and then the Artemis blast.

"What... a pain..." gasps out Giant Guzma, before he's set upon by a storm of lead fired by Flint's men.

The trio take a beating - and then evaporate, turning into dust that floats off into the sky, as had all the rest - a sky that's rapidly filling up with other dust, from Yuuki's widespread destruction.

And, unhindered by the trio, Guzma's pokemon team has a clear shot, a clear path. Red's already turned a corner into the berry plantation maze, but they can catch up-

The killing blow isn't seen by the rest of the group.

The killing effects, however, are. There's another burst of dust - not a brief burst like the other entities being destroyed, this is a solid stream of dust, bursting into the sky like a fountain firework, that goes on for several seconds. And not just plain dust, but golden dust that glints metallically in the light.

And instead of diluting into the sky, the cloud starts floating back down - landing throughout everywhere in the item world that the group can see, and being not so much 'absorbed' by the ground as... settling into place as the golden dust disappears. Like it was always meant to be there.

The light show fades. But there's a tangible sense, somehow, that something has changed.
Captain Flint      When all is said and done, the golden dust settling into place, the Walrus crew has a moment to catch their respective breaths. It's Billy who speaks up, when someone finally does.

     "Captain?"

     Flint doesn't answer verbally, but turns his head to face the bo'sun, seafoam eyes giving him the go-ahead following a brief incline of his head.

     "Why didn't you tear up those contracts like Yuuki did?"

     Flint's answer is without hesitation, his eyes locked on the younger pirate's. "'Those contracts' were liability wavers. If, under my command, a man dies, his death may or may not be my fault--but it is *always* my responsibility to make it right. No one else's."

     Between that, and the earlier tackle to save Joji from the flames, Billy looks as if he doesn't believe it's really Flint who said that. While the boatswain is lost in thought, the captain gives a suggestion, broadly, to everyone.

     "Let's get the fuck out of here."
Cantio With the trio of Not-Guzmas eliminated, Cantio breathes a heavy sigh of relief as she floats down to the ground, the massive burst of dust in the distance acting as much of a signal as any that she can power down finally. There's anothe rflash of light, and she's back to her usual cloth-y wardrobe! Just in time, too, as she holds her hand out to catch some of that golden dust floating down on her hands.

"Is this...? Uh. Actually, I have no idea what this is. Is it safe to breathe in?" She starts looking worried almost immediately, already rummaging around in her digital inventory to look for some kind of device that might help with this exact kind of situation. It doesn't burn her skin or make her wantt o claw her eyes out, though, so she isn't in quite as much of a hurry to find something as she would be otherwise.

Even the sizzling and the multitude of scratches and burns aren't enough to stop her from fretting. "I second getting out of here... A-although if the coast is clear, it might not hurt to grab a few more things? If we see anything on the way out."