Part 9: Four Buffoons in a Room
PLOT: Four S4 Stalkers, one Poké equivalent of Wii Party. Made those bets on who gets obliterated?



You can never really count on a peaceful day in the abode of former Stalkers. With no demonic spirits holding you back, you can get really wild and honestly just be a huge pain in the cheesestrings sometimes. Today was almost guaranteed to be one of these wild pain-in-the-cheesestrings days due to Delta having dug up a thing she was previously certain was lost. Much to the shock of three of her companions.

"That's a limited edition Let's Go Switch... Delta, how'd you get your paws on this?" A curious Marisha had questioned while the tri-pawed Flareon simply sighed in response.

"Oh, I can't recall. But I'm very happy that it's rare, as somebody's picked a thing up that would go swell with this," Delta replied as her gaze fell to the Vivillon in the room. Orin caught on very fast and fluttered away before returning with a small rectangular box in his tiny jaws.

A copy of 'PokéParty S', a recent Utopian game that had swept across the heavenly realm like divine fire. Nobody had to lift a paw or claw to get their hands on a copy if they wanted one, as this is literally Utopia we're talking about. Putting that aside though, it barely took any time for Delta to quietly unbox the game chip and inserted it inside the Switch before the game booted itself up. The sheer sounds of the console alone were enough to draw out Dee'mang like a moth to a flame, so the trio were content with him tagging along just as the game's opening cutscene played.

'Pichu and his friends are all very close, but it doesn't mean they don't fight. Whether it be about what Berries to eat or which games to play, they were never always the best of friends. Until Pichu got an idea, of course. He chatted with the Mythical Jirachi and asked for everybody to get along, so Jirachi very happily granted his wish by throwing a big party for everybody. Now to hope it works...'

"I know this is aimed at children, but they couldn't have made it a Pikachu?"

"Oh, just wait Marisha. It's gonna be the plot twist of the game where Pichu evolves." Orin had jokingly called back, only for a sharp whistle to ring across the air as Delta began choosing aspects of the game. Such as the chosen map (very fittingly Salvage Valley), types of available minigames and support for quadrupedal Pokémon like herself.

"Should we leave 'Bewear's Den' in?" Delta had asked, leading into a chorus of 'No' to echo across the room. And for good reason, that's your equivalent of SMP's Don't Wake Wiggler. Never played, but do NOT recommend if jumpscare type things aren't your style. So Delta continued to cycle through games that would appear and always following the majority choice. But then came the worst and most hectic part yet: character selection.

While Delta had settled on Eevee with no problems and Dee'mang felt attached to Rowlet, Orin and Marisha were getting very defensive about wanting to be Scorbunny despite all the other starters being available. It took about five minutes to convince the agitated Flaaffy to decide on playing as Tepig instead while Orin got who he was originally aiming for. Unfortunately, the sailing didn't quite get smoother from there.

Mostly because of the first minigame that had popped up: Snap Rally Recall. A basic memory minigame where you had to select the correct photograph of a Pokémon based on a description you got of it. The subject this time was a Marshtomp, and the photograph was requestibg Mud Shot being charged but not used. This wording had caused a bit of an outburst to break loose.

"Hey, how did Delta get it? Mine was using Mud Shot, it was right!" A confused and frustrated whine had come from the Pikipek, but Delta didn't talk. Having just one eye probably made that very difficult.

Yet more and more minigames kept going on with various winners. Eggdentification was scooped up by Orin, Marisha quite surprisingly grabbed a last second victory in Berry Bouncers and also united with Dee'mang to win Pose Breakers. But eventually the map drew to a close, leading the group of four to face a randomly selected boss battle: the original final boss for Silvercoal Metro, Darkrai.

The group carefully read over the rules for Darkrai's boss minigame, Midnight Fright.

"Sneak up on Darkrai and try to hit him with your Lunar Wing. If Darkrai catches you moving, you're out for a round," Marisha read out before pointing to a larger text box. "This minigame contains flashing lights and somewhat unsettling imagery and music."

"They warned us, at least..." Delta sighed quietly.

Soon enough, the minigame began. All four characters were on a straight walkway that lead up to the enigmatic Pokémon, Lunar Wings in paws, jaws and beaks. It was simply a matter of moving while Darkrai's back was turned, and halting immediately when they turned back. And a lot of mistakes were made, both in early and late stages of the minigame. Most, if all, by Delta. But the Flareon just laughed to herself when she made an error as she certainly wasn't perfect and young. Eventually, the minigame showed a warning text on the screen for the flashing lights and unsettling music.

And boy was it a warning. The minigame's atmosphere literally flashed to darkness after Dee'mang's Rowlet avatar tossed his Lunar Wing at Darkrai, the engimatic Pokémon charging four Dark Void balls as the music became very deranged. And then the Void balls slammed into each playable character, engulfing them in darkness as the results screen appeared.

"And we thought Abyss was deAD." Orin had grumbled with a mild quiver to his tone.

After that, it was back to the cheery atmosphere as before when the final results appeared. It was 10 Wish Pieces (the game equivalent to Mini Stars) between second and first place, which was an incredibly lucky Dee'mang who's last minute victory had barely lifted him above Delta's number of Wish Pieces. It was hard to say the Pikipek wasn't ecstatic at the news.

So after he had his moment, the Pikipek was very happy to suggest a simple minigame tournament be played instead. Just also removing Midnight Fright along with Bewear's Den, which the group were all very happy to do.

Oh! The bet thing! Yeah, Marisha sucked the biggest cheesestring you've ever seen. If you thought it'd be her, er, go treat yourself well.

FINISH
OOC: N/A