Osborne's attempts to seduce the monster were nowhere close to successful, and Ambrose would loudly attempt to improve the zoroarks performance with loud directions. "I would not believe a thing your hips are telling me right now! Come on I wanna see that bear chubbin'!" Osborne eventually had enough, dismissing his illusion and looking back at Ambrose with a less than friendly leer. Ambrose was oblivious to why Osborne would be angry with him, "What? What's with the attitude?"

Before Osborne could return to his trainer and smack him upside the head, a body would rise up before the zoroark. Before he could react, the now-living body would bite into Osborne and drag him into the water. Ambrose cracked a little as something dragged his partner in crime into the swamp. "NO! MY BABY BOY!!!" Sure they did not always get along, but he raised Osborne from an egg! He was not about to let some unexpected sideshow drown him!

Ambrose jumped into the water without hesitation, swimming wildly toward Osborne as he was pulled deeper into the murky water by the undead. Osborne was positioned to face Ambrose as he was pulled down, and as he spotted his master the panicked pokemon would reach out a claw to be saved. Ambrose extended his own hand, nearly grasping his beloved pokemon. Just inches away from success, Ambrose would be roughly pulled to the side. Gripping him with unnatural strength, another undead horror would begin dragging Ambrose downward. No matter how much he struggled, Ambrose could not break free from his assailant's grasp--leaving him helpless as he was dragged into the swamp's depths.

He was not drowned though, instead emerging with his captor in some sort of underground cavern. It was quite the sight, covered in beautiful crystals the likes of which Ambrose had never seen before! He did not get to admire the view though, as a bizarre jellyfish would wrap itself around Ambrose's limbs and fill him with a tiring nausea.

Ambrose heaved as he tried to balance himself with deep breaths. This feeling that had been forced upon him--it was worse than any hangover he had ever experienced. At least he was not suffering alone, as multiple volunteers had also been captured. And look, there was Osborne right next to him--also captured.

Ambrose struggled to speak to his zoroark companion, "You okay pal?" Osborne strained himself before looking to Ambrose and nodding. Ambrose smiled before predictably ruining the moment, "This would not have happened if you were a better dancer." Osborne huff, and Ambrose would weakly laugh off the zoroark's irritation. "We can get out of this though, we just gotta wait for the right moment." The so called 'bodies' seemed to be actually blue humanoids in dreadful cosplay armor. They seemed to be busy talking amongst themselves, but Ambrose was sure that an escape attempt would be swiftly dealt with by their superior numbers. If only they had a distraction.

Suddenly noise erupted behind them, and after craning his head Ambrose would witness the bear emerging along with several fellow volunteers. Ambrose grinned, "Well this is as good as it gets. Hit it Osborne!" The zoroark screeched, tensing his body as he let out a pitch-black shockwave of pure darkness (Night Daze). Hopefully this would be enough to free both himself and Ambrose so that they could partake in the brawl.

sXmcuvk7

tl;dr
--Zoroark's terrible dance failed to seduce the bear. He would be abruptly pulled into the swamp by an 'undead' creature.
--Ambrose dived into the water to save Zoroark, only to be captured by another undead creature.
--Both Ambrose and Zoroark are restrained by the Nihilego. As the bear and its allies appear, Zoroark attempts to free itself and Ambrose with Night Daze.

Pumpkin poked at a body right next to her, while Grigori stared at the bear. It sure did look fearsome, but… something put him off. Even as everyone launched their attacks at the creature, it did not seem too invested. Like something else was on its mind.

Fear? Panic? It wasn’t quite those, but it felt wrong to call the bear influenced by any outside factors.

Except for said outside factors. Grigori could only watch in sheer confusion as all the presumed ‘bodies’ rose to life. A couple went right for Pumpkin, and a few well hidden went straight for him. “What the–”

The second one came at him with outstretched arms, did Grigori know to punch first and ask questions later. So, his fist flew into the first attacker with a meaty crunch. The second one ate a similar meal, and both were incapacitated long enough for him to walk back over to the dock.

A third one scrambled onto the wooden planks. The grunt cut this attempt short as he raised his foot high and stamped hard on their head. It bounced off the wood and sent them backwards, back over into the water. By the time this all went down, Pumpkin managed to fight off her own attackers. Cold comfort as more clawed their way through the water towards them.

It wasn’t the bear that got his attention and changed his course of action. Rather, through all the commotion and madness, a sight fell before him. Howard, up to his waist in mud and dirt, who chased after the bear. Shred too followed the bear, but his phone was held out high and pointed straight at the Ursaluna.

Oh, how Shred would never change. A concern, but now wasn’t the time nor place. Instead, he hopped into the water eagerly. Best to regroup with those two, who went further into the center of the swamp. Grigori did the same, able to fend off any spare stragglers that tore and bit at him with unmatched ferocity.

Underwater? Sneaky. The perfect place to hide and plan out something like this, yet it hadn’t been proven that this was a perfectly coordinated assault. Tera crystals lit the way underneath the water, until he emerged from the waters into the cave. Shred and Howard were there, thank Arceus. So was the Ursaluna, tired and asleep on the floor.

“Pumpkin, help the hostages! Mr. Shred, Mr. Howard, do you two have ANY idea on what’s going on?!”

---

Tl;dr

 - Grigori can't put the thought to words, but doesn't think the bear is inherently hostile towards them as a whole

 - GAMERS RISE UP, but Grigori isn't a redditor so he beats them up. Pumpkin does the same.

 - Sees Shred and Howard and the Bear, so he follows them into the cave.

 - Once inside, Pumpkin is ordered to help the captured people and Greg asks the squad for deets on the sitch.

 Iy2Z|29x

Okay, so, in retrospective? Bad move. Terrible decision. The aliens were scary, and the blue people even more so. Howard wished he had packed some pepper spray, or a gun, or maybe a bus ticket out of here. From how this was going, Howard didn't see how their force could outpace so many Ultra Beasts and aliens, especially when so many of their own people were tied up.

Frankly, if he was Lulu Flint and the first chance at escape was himself, he would've simply asked for the Nihilego to hurry up and kill him. It would've been faster than dying of embarrassment as Howard lost a fight with a frying pan.

Upon seeing Lulu tied up, his eye narrowed slightly, and he inclined his head slightly. 'Seriously?' was the expression on his face, as if he could've done any better when faced with aliens corrupted by chains. Those magenta chains looked silly on the Ultra Beasts, but was that particularly important? Not really. Aliens and Ultra Beasts alike looked silly. A bundle of cords? A bunch of Mega Blocks? The Megalopolians had run out of ideas a while ago.

"Guh!" Howard turned, frying pan in hand, about to leave Shred and Grigori Sokolov dead on the floor through the wrath of his mighty cooking utensil. He lowered the weapon in relief.

"You see, I'm glad you asked..." Howard gestured towards the scene unfolding before them. "Aliens. It's like Ultra Space! Shred. Listen to me."

Howard brought the man close as their foreheads touched. An oddly romantic gesture while their mutual acquaintances were being murdered, but that wasn't the intention of this action. Their eyes locked together. Howard could see Shred's eyes, bloodshot and likely on enough illegal substances to kill a Mudsdale. He pointed towards the captive members, including Lulu, Eris, and his new assistant, Aaron.

"We gotta do the thing, Shred. Like how we practiced."

Immediately, Howard broke off their group huddle and snapped his fingers. "Crumble, hit those Ultra Beasts with a Rapid Spin! Show them what we can do!" Immediately, the Claydol began to spin, picking up speed as it whirled forward. However, that wasn't all, for you see...

"We call this one...!" Howard shouted triumphantly.

---

Notes:
Claydol using RAPID SPIN
Meeting up with Grigori/Shred
Oh, hey Lulu
Prepping for a COMBO ATTACK
This is gonna be so fucking rad

As Howard stares into your eyes, you blink. What the fuck is Howard talking about? Just like you practiced? You didn't practice shit! Every time the two of you meet, you're either taking a smoke break, trying to make a quick buck, or being thrust into grave danger. You absolutely would've remembered doing something like a training session! You’re the one with the drug problem - Hell, you did a line of coke before you met up with Grigori just to get into the right mindset - So why is Howard the one who’s hallucinating here?!

Is he gaslighting you? Are you just misunderstanding him? Did it go so badly that you just permanently blocked it from your memory? You keep trying to come up with an explanation for this misconception, but nothing makes any sense.

There’s only one thing to do in this situation.

”Look, Howard…” You begin, moving your phone away from your faces so the following admission isn’t recorded. ”I’m thinking about it, and is now really the time for that? We both worked so hard on it, do we really want to use it here? I know the situation is tense, but be reasonable! The time is not yet right.”

Yeah, you’re going to lie. That’ll definitely get you out of it. Sure, it won’t actually solve the problem, but it’ll be fine! You glance over to the captives. Kazimir Wynter? He looks strong, he can take it. DESIREE BLOOMS? If she can scream that loud, clearly she’s still got plenty of life in her. Eris Halla? You got fucked up way worse than this when you were a kid, and you turned out just fine. Ambrose Hendrix? Honestly, you don’t know what he’s done, but he probably deserves this! Lulu Flint… Lulu Flint… Lulu Flint… Uh oh.

Alright, change of plans.

”Nevermind! The time isn’t right, because it’s more than right - It’s PERFECT!” You call out, dramatically pulling off your sunglasses from your face before tossing your phone over to Grigori Sokolov. ”Record this for me, Grigori. It’s gonna go hard as fuck.”

You point forward, and right on cue, Chester begins to run forward… Wait, you haven’t said anything yet. Does Chester know what the thing is? And actually, why did you even point in the first place? And how did you know pointing was the cue? A realization settles upon you: You don’t know what the thing is, but your soul does. Yes, it all makes sense now. This next attack isn’t just an average technique, but a blessing from your millennia of ancestors, a work of art and warfare engraved into your very DNA!

"HUP!" The Gholdengo hurries along, managing to catch up to the revolving Claydol, before hopping atop it as it spun around and around. "Ladies and gentlemen, ghouls and goblins, children of all ages! Let me ask you all a question: Are you feeling lucky?"

A glorious glow enveloped the ghost, a shining beacon of wealth inequality among the mire of the underwater cave. Throwing his arms up high, the Gholdengo did what he was born to do, and Made It Rain. But, this was no ordinary attack. No, every single coin that burst forth from his body was augmented by the ceaseless rotation of Claydol underneath, making them fire forth three times as fast, hit three times as hard, spin three times as swiftly, and ricochet three times as unpredictably!

As Howard announces your attack, you take your position next to him, back to back, and toss your sunglasses high into the air as you point a finger to the sky.

"SIGNATURE KILL: MURDER ROULETTE!"

---

TL;DR - Howard and Shred perform the coolest fucking combination attack on this entire website and basically, you are fucking stupid.
howard slayte Grigori Sokolov Kazimir Wynter DESIREE BLOOMS Eris Halla Ambrose Hendrix Lulu Flint