no idea

as zev took the other end, roach pulled up outside of ritual, shut off the loud engine of his pickup and made his way down the long, convoluted tunnel that led to the underground routes.

a little further into the tunnel where zev had entered, it might be clear enough how this had happened. there was a large hole in the wall—dug out by someone or something. perhaps it was still in the tunnel, or maybe it had explored and then left.

either way, it meant whoever had been supposed to be patrolling had skipped their duty, and roach would most certainly blame it on rocket negligence.

coming zev’s way were an array of rare escapees, all distortion variants, and many of them shiny. the eyes of a zoroark flashed as it attempted to creep past, its hiding place suddenly lit up by a strong flashlight from far ahead. it spotlighted zev’s position.

”who’s that?” roach called down the tunnnel.

hopefully, it was zev, and hopefully, he’d be grabbing some of what was trying to make it past him.

Zev Harcourt
mission: country bear jamboree

☉

”howdy!”

he turned to one of the smugglers, then, to echo the question. ”where are the bears, larry?”

”oh, they’re here, roach.”

”that don’t help me none.”

with an annoyed sigh, he called back to zev, ”somewhere between here and there!”

roach threw a tranquilizer gun into the passenger seat of a beat up-sedan. its headlights blinked on, likely blinding on zev’s end of the long tunnel. the engine sputtered, growled to life, and he was on his way.

the light would be enough to silhouette the shape the of an ursaluna, out of range between them, near the center of the tunnel. upon a closer look, it would seem busy with something, crouched over and unbothered by the spotlight.

meanwhile, several hisuian pokemon were trapped in the sticky web, while the zoroark might use the distraction to slip out of sight.

Zev Harcourt

☉

the closer he drove, the easier it was to see, and something quickly became apparent.

”oh! sheit. damnit.”

it was not a pokémon. that corpse was human. roach hit the breaks, stepped out. ”yeah, that’s one of my guys.”

this was really not the kind of situation he liked to find himself in. he only hoped they'd be able to stop the bear before it did more damage. a battle in the tunnel could be dangerous for everything above it.

the tranquilizer would hardly be enough, but he grabbed it anyways. pokemon knew what to expect from other pokemon, and this was an easy first shot that would slow it down first, hopefully minimizing destruction.

he took aim, only to freeze at a nearby growl.

”zev, there’s another one behind me.”

Zev Harcourt

☉

he was sweating. within reach of an angry bear was about one the worst situations a person could find themselves in. ”oh, don’t worry, i ain’t movin’,” he assured, voice careful.

the LEAF BLADE zipped past and roach took the opportunity, with a touch of drama, ”cmere, you too-tall sonuva bitch!” the tranq fired, and sure enough, it only pissed the bear off.

”shit.”

so roach booked it, darting towards the car, and scrambling over the hood, just in time for the ursaluna to ram into scrap metal. a pokéball was deployed, and not a moment later, roach’s MUK was seeping under the crushed vehicle and out to the other side. it expanded into a SLUDGE WAVE that pulled the bear away.

”watch your feet, zev!”

meanwhile, the bear that had been behind roach now had its eye on zev’s decidueye. it roared, charging with HIGH HORSEPOWER.

Zev Harcourt

☉

a pokéball disappeared the body of the fallen ursaluna, a quick cleanup. pokeballs weren’t normally used by roach’s gang of smugglers. they liked to cut costs where they could.

the second ursaluna became the victim of muk’s SLUDGE WAVE, racked by the combined force of ariados’ GIGA DRAIN. it soon fell as well, and like the first, disappeared into a red beam of light and into the hands of one of roach’s many associates.

“goddamn distortions are a blessin’ ‘n a curse, i swear,” roach grunted as he got up off the ground and began rounding the totaled vehicle. this was why they used beaters.

”thanks for that. knew i could count on ya.”

Zev Harcourt

☉