An infrequent pilgrimage to unmarked graves finds him on the scarred mountainside of Mt. Pyre when the sky above begins to crack and shudder. An attempt to get to his feet is thwarted by the unstable environment, a shard of rock digging painfully against his shin when it knocks him back down.

Gritting his teeth, Gavin curls a hand around a pokeball and rips it free.

Eelektross sparks as violently as the skies when it emerges in a burst of shadow, COILING instinctively as it LEVITATES above the earth. It lunges toward the nearest threat, a white fox not unlike the one he'd fought with Tempest Quinn, and sinks DARK, LEECHING fangs into its side.

Gavin manages to use a nearby headstone as leverage against the unusual pressure, standing up and releasing several more shadow Pokémon to aid him. When the fox tries to retreat, a Dodrio's PURSUIT drags it back down.

A sharp whistle calls off his brood before they can strike the killing blow.

Instead, he presses a pokeball against white fur stained scarlet with blood. This one's mine.

zoroark -> hisuian zoroark (shop post)
it learns 'bitter malice' (level tutor from PC)

It wasn’t an unfamiliar area to Hideo: he’d visited this place a number times with Andy Blackadder, whether to just walk around, catch Pokemon, or visit the other boy’s camp. He knew enough the terrain could be perilous for anyone without the proper assistance, being a mountain and all. By now, he’d traversed it with his Lycanroc so often that it was practically second-nature - and it was the Pokemon he had with him when the Distortion started.

The first Pokemon to approach them was a quiet one: Hideo didn’t notice it, but silence couldn’t hide it from a Lycanroc’s nose. How appropriate that the first Pokemon to approach them was part ghost.

But all that battling against the ghosts that lived here, meant the Lycanroc was privy to their tactics. When that Pokemon tried to sneak up with a Shadow Sneak, he was already on it, meeting it with an Accelerock. It left the Pokemon vulnerable - and open to getting smacked with a Pokeball.

Perhaps the Pokemon wasn’t much of a fighter, despite its aggression. But pretty much every Pokemon he’d caught in here were aggressive in the moment; afterwards, they were a lot calmer. Maybe they were just scared after popping in out of nowhere?

It was something to think about as Hideo’s Lycanroc escorted him away from the ensuing chaos. Something to get his mind off of what he’d learned from the Lake Trio, of what was coming

If he didn’t help stop whatever was coming, how many more gravestones would there be here?

Would his family be among them?

What was he even supposed to do with a threat he knew so little about?

Forme-changing Zoroark to Hisuian Zoroark
Altering moveset d/t illegal moves: Swift, Sludge Bomb, Bitter Malice, Extrasensory, Shadow Sneak, Calm Mind

The spark of various gradients of luminescence had been a sight to behold within the moments they had initially made themselves to be known. To say that he had always done his best to remain in tune with the happenings of the region would have often proven to be little more than an understatement, though this, in itself, had simply been the first time he had borne such witness to the very same events that he’d only heard of until then. Even from afar, the chaotic cacophonies of what he could only describe as a deafening vortex in the beginning had rung true within his senses.

This was no longer the simple visit he’d intended.
This was a threat, however curious it may have simultaneously been.

Halfway. Halfway had his footsteps trailed him along the paths leading to the collections of graves and the like further along the inclines of the terrain structured before him, though it had taken little more than a moment’s worth of notice of the crackling and violent display from the heavens above for him to hasten his ascent, regardless of whether or not the forces of nature brewing before him (as well as the force of gravity and the tilt of the land) seemed more than content to work against him. With a hand swiftly shifted and rested upon one of the numerous capsules hooked upon his person, he flickered his finger with a soft click against the material; the aforementioned capsule loosening from the small, integrated mechanism that fastened it to his person before tapping the button. The image of a familiar, beloved hound of his formed quickly within his line of sight, seemingly already within his own sprint and stride upon being released.

Within an almost flourish-like movement, the man reached over, gently yet firmly gripping within its mane for stability prior to pulling himself up and onto the beast’s back. ”Hayaku, Kagutsuchi!” he called out amidst the ongoing chaos, leaning forward to further acclimate himself to the canine’s form as he cast an instinctive glare towards the dome above and afar. ”Use Extreme Speed! Get us up there— quickly!”

Breaking the roars of nature afar, the fire type gave a bold howl in affirmation and acknowledgment, his body surging briefly within some form of energies prior to pushing along the grounds, bursting along in an unhesitating Extreme Speed that propelled both beast and trainer along the ridges.

Only mere moments following their arrival upon the base of the cemetery proper had the League affiliate swung himself from his companion’s back, sending forth numerous capsules to release his other, beloved party members (streaks of blues and golds quickly dispersing amidst the gravestones in defense) as he, himself, sought out the first grave keeper that caught his gaze, calling out to them while jogging over to assess the situation.

Unbeknownst to him, however, a certain ginger-pelted canine found himself swelling within the energies concentrated within the area throughout his time of defense. Only when a sudden surge of such energies seemed to flare and blind the eye in concentration around his form did his trainer catch wind of what had been happening, and as another, briefly distorted howl met the air, a bicolored glare of emerald and amber found itself narrowing as the trainer, himself, immediately excused himself for the sake of sprinting over. His voice rose over the tones of thunder and booming, though it, as well as the beat of his footsteps, came to an abrupt stop as the flaring subsided within a burst, revealing the…oddly altered beast within its center.

His brows rose before subsequently furrowing, and he called out with a lightly concerned and confused, ”Kagutsuchi…?” before finding his woes and qualms settled—albeit slightly—as the canine held little hesitance in turning in response to his name. He received a bark in a secondary response, and after a quick survey of the area to ensure his safety, Asahiko sprinted over to examine his newly changed companion.

He appeared to be fine.
…That was all that truly mattered.

---

BASICALLY, THE TL;DR:

--arcanine changed into hisuian arcanine (through use of x1 form change, bought here)
--looking back on this i wrote way more than i intended to LMFAO

Well, wasn’t this just an odd surprise?

Where many found discomfort within a place such as the given, places of resting had always wormed their ways into his heart within the past. They were sacred places, he’d come to realize from an earlier age. Sacred. A sanctuary.

A sanctuary to those long departed.
A sanctuary to himself, in days long passed, when he’d had little and none to seek refuge within.

While it was admittedly somewhat unexpected from him, he’d often taken time out of his own free periods to visit and aid with grave maintenance by sole virtue of wanting to keep one of his few safe havens within the region clean and well kept. He’d discussed with some of the keepers present before minding his own time around the gravestones and other memorials, only pausing as the atmosphere around him roared and flooded with life and disturbance around him.

He noted the sudden appearances of foreign (and otherwise unfamiliar) creatures that seemed to form before him, barely managing to evade one in particular as it lunged. Taking dule note of the varied stones and the like surrounding him, he quickly plucked one of the capsules from his hip and tossed it out, maintaining a gaze with what he could only assume to be a vaguely more malevolent Zoroark as it reared back towards him following its attempted attack. The familiar smile that he so often wore upon his lips diminished into a more focused, downward curl, and as it seemed to be about to lunge once more, he tossed the Pokeball out towards it, promptly stunning it for a moment and releasing a certain Gripper Pokemon.

A quick couple of commands had been all that was needed before the ghost lashed forth towards it quarry, delivering a swift Thunder Punch its way; a cry emanating from the beast before it retaliated accordingly. A strike landed upon the Dusknoir, only to be returned promptly by a following Payback that seemed to seal the deal in ultimately wavering its strength long enough for the trainer to hook around, tossing a free Pokeball at its back.

Eying it for several moments as it rumbled and shifted, he hooked a hand around to his other, dormant Pokemon before tapping their respective buttons and releasing them. He watched them disperse as he gave them the request to patrol in light of the new creatures that seemed to form within more copious numbers, all before reaching over for the selfsame Pokeball he’d thrown to capture the beast.

”Odd~...” he murmured to himself, turning his head to gaze upon the nearby areas before turning towards the remaining ghost again. He nodded his head to the side. ”I’m sure there’s more where that came from. …Let’s check things out a bit more~.”

---

BASICALLY, THE TL;DR:

--used x1 pokeball to capture a hisuian zorua (form change to do so purchased here)