World Tree MUSH

     It's another bright and beautiful day in the Kansai Region. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and a few Summer blooms add a pleasant touch of fragrance to the air. Not too far outside of Beryl City, following one of the main routes that winds around some low wooded hills, is the perfect spot to keep an eye open for wild Pokemon. 

     Some Pokemon just love days like this. It's not uncommon to see such frolicking in the grass, soaking up the sun, and just having a wonderful time. Some even have playful fights with one another -- it's a fairly peaceful day. Strangely, down the way coming around a hill is a huge dust cloud. Something is really moving fast. It comes into view: Oh, it's a parcel courier truck! And it's speeding. And it lays on the horn in warning. How strange that a postman would be in such a hurry. Somebody's mail must be running late. Even stranger still: the driver looks almost panicked. 

     Through the dusty air, around the next curve, shouts can be heard. And, next, the sounds of Pokemon attacking something! And, just after that, an odd sound of something else not Pokemon at all. Gunfire? But...not.

Luke Gray hasn't been in the mood of trying to catch more pokemon, at least, not the native kind, he was hoping to get to do another visit to Alola and perhaps try his luck at finding something from there!. That does not mean he was going to be lazy, and indeed, he was around that route!. It was him, Dynamo, and a weird small panda that seems to slowly follow behind the pair. 
     "Come on Pangshi, you have to get some more practice!" Luke encourages, pointing to a feisty looking rattata, the small purple and cream rodent chittering menacingly at the big electric cat. "You can do this!, you are a ghost type!". Pangshi slowly walks closer and tries to look threatening!. The battle barely had time to progress beyond the Rattata trying to tackle the panda, and phasing through, before the courier truck rushes through!. It's enough to pause the fight, the rat deciding to hightail, while Luke and company turn to see the clearly panicking driver dissapear down a corner and... noises.
    Dynamo was already tense, growling at the 'shooting' noises and the clear battle, "Yes, something is wrong, we need to check it!" he calls, rushing towards there, and forgetting to recall the small panda 'vampire' who tries to keep up with the other two.

     Before the full scene of what's going on comes into view, somebody comes running around the corner in much the same way the postal driver was: full speed. This, however, isn't some random civilian. That black outfit! That large 'R'! The cap-wearing thug nearly trips up and eats the ground, but recovers just in time, but is heading blindly right at the young trainer. He doesn't seem to see where he's going; he spends a lot of his time in such a hurry glancing over his shoulder. 

     Whatever conflict is going on just out of sight doesn't seem to have lasted all that long. An eerie silence takes over in that direction as the dust settles and dissipates from the gentle breeze. The gangster breathes heavily and doesn't seem to be accompanied by a Pokemon of his own nor does he seem to have any balls on his belt to use, but this might not be the most apparent detail to notice at a glance.

    Luke normally is not a really aggressive kind, but he knows who rockets are, he had his own big encounter with them on an earlier point of his pokemon career, and Dynamo certainly remembers that insignia. The thunder tiger growls loudly as the running tug comes into view and trips, fur sparking as it tries to look intimidating, even before Luke reacted. It's not long before Luke follows suit, and the two move to get in the way, 
     "Hey, Team Rocket grunt!" he calls, trying to sound brave, "What's going on?". The only reason he didn't ask Dynamo to attack was the very obvious fear on the grunt's face, and the fact it seems to be running of something... there were shots, but this guy seems unnarmed. "Why are you running?, what was that battle?" he asks.

     "M-m- Move! Gotta get away. Monferno...people! With-" The Rocket punk's voice cracks as he adds, "-guns." He doesn't slow down in his panic, though, which may very well have him colliding with trainer or 'mon as he tries to force himself through. This would no doubt put him into unrecoverable footing. It wouldn't take much to make the older teenager trip and fall. Voices can be made out from beyond the bend; they are firm, commanding, and clearly meant to order and intimidate. For as ruthless as Team Rocket members tend to be, it might make one wonder what could spook one so. Then again, he could just be new and a coward, as well.

    Luke certainly doesn't have a lot of love for Team rocket, he helped defend a town pokemon center from a group of mugs trying to attack people and steal wounded pokemon from there (and the attached pokemon mart). But certainly never seen one so spooked... wanting to retreat if losing? yes but... not like this. He blinks several times, "Monferno people... with guns?" he mumbles. Dynamo was the one the grunt tripped with, growling as the round... sturdy looking tiger accidentally shocks the grunt from the contact. The noises from the crash area certainly draw the cat's attention more. "So those aren't team rocket grunts?" he asks outloud, now seeming more concerned, following Dynamo as the cat peeked over the bend. Inall this mess, Pangshi slowly follows through, glancing back cautiously at the Rocket grunt, and poking at Luke's legs, as if wondering what to do about him.

     The Rocket Grunt not only hits the ground chest first, but the ensuing shock is enough to completely stop him in his tracks for the time being. He simply stays still on the ground where he falls, breathing heavily, and doesn't yet attempt to try to rise once more. 

     Around the bend, just behind the small hill, along the road is a rather stressful scene to the outside observer. What appears to be a Silph Company delivery van sits sideways blocking the road. The back doors are open revealing the boxes full of home appliances within that likely are to be delivered to the proper shops for selling if not a direct-to-home delivery for a remote purchase. Indeed, there appears to be a monkey-like person going through the boxes while two other people stand nearby. One is another monkey -- this one wears a metal backpack of sorts and holds something in hand that might be a rifle, only the end of the barrel has a burning flame -- and the other is a reptilian person with a pistol. 

     The reptile yanks open the door to the van, at this point, and gestures with the handgun for the driver to get out. The van's tires appear to be partially melted, which might explain the position from it spinning out, and the driver mumbles something. He sounds and looks a little hurt from the accident. Meanwhile, to the side and closest the point of lookout, is the monkey with the backpack thing. He's pointing his gun-thing at somebody kneeling on the ground. She also wears black and has an R on her chest. Nearby, a few Pokemon lie fainted on the ground. One plant Pokemon even looks a little burned. What happened here? "For the last time," says the female Rocket Grunt. "I don't work for Silph Co."

    In all honestly, Luke was not expecting the grunt to be saying the truth about the monkey people, and glances at the exhausted grunt near him, "What in Arceus' name happened here." he says softly at Dynamo, the big thundercat glancing around at the fainted and wounded pokemon, snarling loudly for a moment. There is a moment of surprise when he sees the other rocket grunt being interrogated. Of course a team rocket person is not working for Sylph!... clearly these weird people are from another world!. The small ghost panda seems visibly shaken by the situation, walking backwards and bumping against it's trainer, causing both to flop on their backs, that ends with Luke a bit more visible, and the electric tiger walking up to keep up with him.

     "I don't see any in here," calls out the monkey digging through the boxes messily to the other two. The lizard reaches in to hurry the driver along out of the van by grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling. The older man doesn't look too badly hurt; he's probably more dazed than anything, but might have taken a good knock to the head when losing control of the vehicle. 

     The primate with the back-mounted tank thing gestures with an emphasized point of his gun-whatsit at the poor Rocket caught up in the middle of...whatever this is. "You were both in the same vehicle. The company label clearly says Silph Company. Now tell us where the pocket capsules are hidden!" 

     Amazingly, the Grunt is able to keep her cool much better than her partner-in-crime, but only just. "We don't- We don't have any Pokeballs in this shipment," clarifies the older man getting roughed up. 

     In annoyance, the monkey searching the van tosses a box out onto the ground. "What are we supposed to do with a...'hydrating toaster'? What does that even do?" He shakes his head and turns away with a sigh. And then his gaze shoots up to spy somebody spying back? "Hey. Who's up there? Come down here where we can see you!"

Luke Gray does not quite have the time to fully process what is going on, what with the armed monkey people shouting at him. He slowly gets up, picks up Pangshi in his arms, and slowly walks into view, "It's me." he calls. The kid looks like a trainer, he has pokeballs attached to his belt!. He is also joined by Dynamo, who looks... not happy. "I'm Luke Gray, I am a pokemon trainer, heard the conmotion and wanted to see what happened." he says, trying to act calm. Dynamo looks like it is about to try to bite someone if they look at him or Luke funny.

     "What are you doing, kid? Get out of here!" shouts the Rocket Grunt before the monkey with the odd-getup and large gun-thing can shut her up with a kick of dirt in her direction. 

     "We're probably too close to the city outskirts," notes the very same monkey passing a glance back to this Luke person. "Get him over here with these two." The lizard escorts the driver over and forces the man down onto the ground beside the gangster. The Rocket girl shakes her head, partially due to having dirt in her eyes and partially in warning for the kid to make a run for it. 

     The unofficial Box Inspector takes a step closer at first, then backs up while pointing. He's currently unarmed. "He's got more of those creatures. Do you want me to keep looking or should we go?" 

     "Keep looking," hisses the lizard. "He's lying. I can tell. No funny business, Luke Gray."

Luke Gray has his eyes glued on the odd animal people, while Dynamo snarls again, "Dynamo, stop." he tries, the big tiger hesitantingly stopping and moving to be between the armed goons and the kid, "I'm not lying, I heard the noise and wanted to check, this is bad, even if you are stealing from Team Rocket."

     "No," says the stubborn teenaged girl. "He's calling Gramps here a liar on the shipment." The monkey digging through and moving heavy boxes around sounds rather exasperated. How long would it take for the postal courier to report things to the police and have them send somebody out? "But he's telling the truth." 

     "And how would you know unless you worked for the company you keep denying?" snaps the monkey keeping a watch over his hostages. 

     The lizard, taller and stronger looking than the two monkeys that must be his partners, stalks over to 'help' accompany Luke over to where the girl and man are kneeling. "Keep looking. We pull out in three minutes," he hisses. "We'll decide what to do with the witnesses, then." 

     Both the Grunt and the Driver look worn down despite the event so far only taking a few minutes. "I am not going down like this," mutters the girl under her breath as if she's planning on doing something about it. "We hijacked the van first looking for the same thing you guys are. Seems we're both out of luck today." 

     The monkey on guard reveals the nature of his gun by lifting it just high enough to expel a burst of flame from it. No wonder that panicked guy thought he was a Monferno-person in his haste to escape. "Keep your pets under control or else my finger just might slip."

Luke Gray frowns a bit as he notices the flamethrower, growing a little pale as he hears the talk of 'dealing with the witnesses', and reaching for his pokeballs, "They are not pets, they are my pokemon." he says softly. The monkey person might find a bit odd the big fluffy tiger thing does not seem scared of the flamethrower as much as making sure to be between it, and the boy. By the way the girl mumbles, it's clear she feels these people might do something drastic to them. He moves closer, and mumbles back to the girl about keeping calm, trying to figure what the other guys are doing. Dynamo finally stands almost touching Luke, facing the guard, small electric arcs visible on it's fur.

     Crawling up into the van, the monkey in there begins getting a lot more rough. Boxes tumble and fall, the sound of things breaking can be heard, and every now and then some other boxed appliance gets thrown, kicked, or falls from the open doors onto the ground. Clearly, the raiders are feeling more and more antsy as the seconds tick. "This was supposed to be a simple smash and grab," complains the primate from within the vehicle. "Just the driver; not a passenger and a guy in the back, too." That would likely explain why the guy in the back was able to escape in the following chaos and fighting. 

     The Flamethrower Guard, from the looks of things, sprayed the van's tires with fire and made it lose control, but the van had already been hijacked by Team Rocket, leading to this complication. The monkey glares at Luke and lowers his visor-hidden eyes to snarl right back at the Tigerball thing. "Don't test me, furball." He probably feels overconfident in taking out the Grunts' Pokemon, but they probably weren't very experienced. It doesn't take using just experienced Pokemon to cause trouble, after all. The monkey tips the muzzle of the flamethrower lower to aim at Dynamo if just to make a point. 

     The driver of the van has nothing much more to say. He keeps a hand held to his head and seems to be a little dizzy. While not a very old man, he's certainly no match for these kinds of thugs. The best thing he can do is just try to do what he's told and hope for the best. The Rocket Grunt becomes tense as she watches this, but her eyes dart over to keep tabs on the position of the lizard nearby, too. He may only have a small firearm, but he looks strong and may not even need a weapon to cause real harm. She clenches her jaw in a grim expression as she mentally tries to prepare herself to act if an opening presents itself. 

     The wail of a siren can now be heard from the direction of the city.

    Dynamo is not amused, and seeing the monkey person lower that flamethrower at him, and by extension, Luke, causes the experienced pokemon to roar and let lose a large blast of electricity at the armed primate, the electricity in it's fur building further. If the Rocket grunt was waiting for an opening to do something, likely this was it!. Luke meanwhile seems a bit panicked at that, "Dynamo!" he calls, "be careful!" The monkey likely feels like someone just used a tazer on him, if not worse, high level pokemon!. The small panda ghost tries to hide behind Luke, and looks away in the direction of the police sirens.

     The next five seconds become a very complex set of actions and reactions. The first domino in the series of events involves the Flamethrower Guard. The monkey's body jolts, tensing up at the introduction of electricity; where his outfit helps against fire and heat, it does little to help against what is used on him. From his legs to his arms to his face, muscular tics, the micro-contractions of muscular activity from being shocked, cause him to lose temporary control of his body. However, this also causes him to squeeze the fuel trigger to his gun. Monkey Guard used Flamethrower. However, there is no direct aim or control, so the burst might initial be aimed at Dynamo, but is swept off to the side away from Luke and the two other hostages. 

     The ignition is bright and hot; you don't need to be hit by it to understand how hot such fire can be. The illumination and sound alerts the lizard nearby who immediately steps forward to raise his gun and call out a deadly warning. The Team Rocket girl sees the pistol being raised and aimed; she reacts by pulling off her cap and using it to flick a hidden Pokeball at the feet of the reptile. The flash of light of release does little to prepare for the sudden growth and appearance of a thirty foot long rock snake. A boulder-like section of the Onix, in appearance, strikes the hand of the lizard and causes the gun to be disarmed. It somersaults through the air and lands on the ground near the open doors to the van. "Boulderdash, use Bind on the big one!" she yells, backpedaling away a few steps. 

     From afar, the gout of fire and flame shooting up into the sky and the scattering animals and Pokemon from the display spurs rescue and police servicemen and women and dogs into a much quicker race.

    Dynamo growls at the monkey guard, almost taunting him about the 'fuzzball' comment, and taking the chance to bump the distracted, unbalanced monkey down. As the fire emerges, Luke calls at Dynamo, "Light screen!", the angry floofball returning to Luke's side and growling, electricity building again and forming a large, translucent yellowish barrier. It kind of looks like a forcefield of sorts!. The chaos caused by the Onix is not ignored either. "Dynamo, help Boulderdash!" he calls, nodding to the Rocket Grunt, "Thunderbolt!". The trainer adds, one might call such actions cheating, multiple commands in a row! but... gun!. Friendly fire is a non issue, the electric power not even tickling the large boulder snake, the charge landing on the other goon.

     The driver of the van curls up to the side near Luke as the Light screen protects from the stray flames. The spray of fire continues for a moment longer, even after the one so armed with the flamethrower is knocked over, but the biggest problem comes from the fall. A hose is impacted and knocked loose and sparked at the same time. This causes the gun to stop expelling fuel, the flamethrowing stops, but now the tank on his back shoots fire from the busted valve on the tank in a completely uncontrolled way. The Onix gets into a battle of strength with the lizard trying to keep the large reptile held, but the lizard is very strong and the hold doesn't seem as if it's going to hold very long. 

     The sudden application of electricity to him weakens his struggles but doesn't affect the Rock-type Pokemon at all. Thankfully, the sudden combined action not only helps to contain the raider, but removes the further threat of a gun being used. The Rocket Grunt sees where the odd-looking pistol has gotten thrown, though, and she begins to quickly circle around the battle in order to pick it up. However, just as she's about to do so, the Monkey from within the van hops out, scoops it up, and points it at her. She freezes. The monkey sees the mess of things...and he turns to run. The sirens are just seconds away; the sound of tires on grit can be heard.

    Luke certainly sees the monkey person taking away, but his focus is on making sure neither him or anyone else get incinerated by the stray blasts from the backpack. If the Lizard is indeed contained, he begins to help the driver move away from the flames, and asks Dynamo to get closer, just to react if either of the guys try to do something weird. He offers his thanks to the Rocket grunt, and relaxes as he hears the police arrive.

     The squeal of tires rounds the corner and a motorcycle with a sidecar skids to a stop. Not far behind is a police van and a firefighter truck. Quickly surveying the scene, the policewoman driving pulls out a megaphone to announce, "This is the Beryl City Police. Cease all hostilities and cooperate." In all of this, the poor Rocket girl winds up right there where the police show. She visibly wilts. But she knows she did the right thing. Sinking to her knees, she places her hands on her head as more officers step forward with their Pokemon to help contain the issue. 

     "Boulderdash, let him go. The police are here now." And, to the officer that begins to take her away. "Don't take away Boulderdash. He's mine. I never used him in anything illegal. I made him a promise I wouldn't." The Onix unwinds and the lizard finds himself against numbers he cannot win. Scowling, he holds his hands up, even weakened by the electroshock therapy. 

     The Growlithe riding in the sidecar sniffs the air, hops out, and begins giving chase in the direction the other monkey fled while Firefighters and their Pokemon show up to help contain the flames and deal with the Infernape in a panic on the ground trying to get the blaze off of himself. 

     The lead officer seems to command the scene. "I'll need statements, and if you need medical care, we'll arrange transport."