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Wren grunted in agreement with Sub regarding the cold. That was most definitely an ethical problem that really should be addressed but they had something more pressing to focus on at the moment. Following the man's lead into the forest, he would release Laurel from his Ball. "I need some light, Laurel." He would inform the Elder Tree Pokemon as it lifted him into it's arms and shifted his weight onto it's left arm alone. As the sapient tree began it's spider-like walk into the Lost Woods, it held a flickering Will-o-Wisp aloft with it's free hand.

"This darkness is awful... It can't be natural, can it?" Wren asked his Pokemon as they walked, finding the forest almost shifting around them and, before long, finding themselves separated from the others who'd come along. "Trevenant...treeeeeev." Laurel replied slowly, his singular eye roving across the treeline around them as it walked, watching roots shift and undulate like living serpents.

"Can you do anything to stop all this?" Wren asked, looking for signs of movement around them. Laurel shook his head. All the Trevenant could do would be to counter any mischief the locals decided they would cause. "Then let's head for that clearing over there." Wren pointed to a clearing up ahead of them as he said this. Laurel nodded and made to move in that direction.

"Hush little Channeler and don't say a word.."

"Do you hear something?" Wren asked as a soft voice called out through the forest, singing a very old lullaby he hadn't heard since childhood.

"One, two, we're coming for you..."

A second voice joined the first, the sing-song voice mixing with the second into an unusual cacophony of horrifying lullabies Wren couldn't tell apart before long. Despite the horrors sung to him in the coming moments, he found himself dosing off as Laurel carried him. The Trevenant wasn't being affected just yet but it wouldn't be much longer.

”Three, four, better lock your door…”

“I feel like I’ve heard this rhyme before.” Wren told himself as a pair of Jigglypuff bounced into view just beyond the writhing treeline. By now, the first had picked up the second’s verse and they were singing together.

Five, sIx, now you’re lost in the sticks…”

“I feel like we shouldn’t let them get to ten.” Wren announced as his head began to bob, drowsiness attempting to claim him.

Laurel took this to heart as the Jigglypuffs’ singing worked its way into his own mind and he reared his free arm back, fist glowing green as he threw a Wood Hammer at the pair. As the Trevenant’s fist connected with the ground between them, an explosion of branches erupted to block the attack.

”Seven, eight, gonna stay up late…”

The pair of Jigglypuff nodded to each other and let out a pair of Disarming Voices that rattled the Ghost from both sides. That branch shield wasn’t from the Fairy-types and Laurel knew it. He could do exactly the same, if he wanted. Shaking his somewhat sore hand, Laurel decided his ghostly powers were called for and, laying Wren on the ground, the Trevenant used Phantom Force, rushing through the aether to slam into the space between the two Jigglypuff. Being part Normal-type, neither took any real damage from the explosion of Ghost energy but the Wood Hammer that swung around the Trevenant in a wide circle caught one square in the face and the Ent carried it around to strike the other in the back before both were launched up and out of the Winding Woods.

As the Jigglypuff soared off into the distance, the treeline began to slow down. “Treve…” The quiet voice, almost a whisper, called out to Laurel before the trees opened up and allowed their fellow Ghost-type to move on toward the clearing ahead. Laurel nodded solemnly and picked up Wren. His fellow spirits saw the protective nature in him and sensed within Wren the energy of the forest. They saw him as worth protecting so it was worth letting them go.

Veronica wondered about the gym's effect on the environment. Well, surely it wasn't TOO bad - in comparison to burning everything down.
So she shrugged and hopped along the team. Seeing the Honchkrow caused some dismay to Veronica, it reminded her of the events not too long ago and the tiny bit of empathy that ran through her was enough to make her frown. She didn't want her feelings to show through and hoping that the makeup would mask it for those few seconds, she quickly shook her head and focused back on finding Odd. Silly Odd.

Completely distracted, she didn't really hear anyone else for a while until she accidentally crossed against a tree with half of her right shoulder. "H-hey." she turned back to the tree, sizing it up and wondering if it had been her or the tree. To anyone else it might have seem crazy but to her it seemed totally resonable. She quickly turned to the team to tell them about the audacity of this tree when she noticed they were gone. "huh..." her jaw dropped for a second. "Can you believe this?" She asked the tree, only to turn her head back and see the tree, too, was gone. A sweat tear would drop down her head.

"Sub?" She asked at a normal tone of voice, though she soon figured out that wouldn't help her much either. Veronica started to walk slowly, aimlessly, just taking in her surroundings. There was a strange heat wave distorting her surroundings but it didn't affect Veronica. She was sure a pokemon was doing this, she had seen it before, but she just couldn't put her finger on what or how. "Is this supposed to scare me?" She asked them, or it, or whatever. Her face crunched up in annoyance.

Moments after seeing that the fog of illusions wouldn't let up, she decided to smile as widely as she could and let the sensation creep in. Ghouls and darkness wasn't something she feared anymore. As much as she had to learn, from pokemon and people alike, she wasn't going to allow anyone to ruin her Halloween. "Chi," she sent out her Infernape. "Fire Blast." she signaled in the general direction with both her arms. And as the Infernape blasted away, she used her Night Shade to slightly direct each of the five extremeties of the attacks in order to hit the trees. Most of them left burnt marks on the trees, until a few started to hit some two Trevenant. However, it wasn't just them. Two Haunters came out, releaving that they were at fault for the faulty visuals.

Veronica sent out her Absol, Mudkip and Eevee. "Incinerate, and Fire Blast." She told the older two. Cherry jumped at one of the Trevenant in order to get his attention before firing it up with Incinerate. Chi would miss his that second Fire Blast, enduring a Shadow Claw stab from the tree before focusing again on his attack. Meanwhile, "I've had you two faced against each other before, how about you work together now?" Veronica kindly asked the Eevee and Mudkip in training.

The two critters looked at one another in agreement. They targetted on one of the Haunters. Vanta jumped off a regular tree to gain impulse to reach the Haunter with a Bite. Afterwards, the Mudkip threw a Water Gun at the enemy.

Veronica figured she would have to deal with the last Haunter, alas, she needed the practice. She used Night Shade to attack it. With another round from Chi and Cherry, the Trevenant were defeated. As Veronica endured a Shadow Ball from the Haunter that left her with some marks on her arm and shoulder, Cherry jumped in from behind with a Dark Pulse. Chi helped the two critters with the other Haunter.

Her pokemon gathered back to her. She tried dusting off but it hurt her muscles to move. She sighed, wondering what the hell she was thinking getting into a fight like that as weak as she was. Even the Mudkip had done more damage. "I'm fine." She mentioned and began to return them to their pokeballs.

Except it wasn't enough. "You know, I'm really tired of all the illusions that I seem to keep coming across in dark forests."

Before she could think much about it, she felt something approach and used her Detect. On the shield, she felt the impact but it took a while for her to comfortably turn around and see what it was. Cosmo came out as the smell of the other Zoroark appeared. Cosmo growled at the Zoroark. Veronica was about to speak up when the Zoroark ran off and Cosmo began to dash after it. "-Wait! We can't go too far." she grumbled, following along. It was a trap, surely. "Cosmo-!" After several feet forward, the Zoroark ran up a tree and Cosmo stood at the bottom, yapping at the enemy. The Zoroark snickered.
"Cosmo..." she groaned, grabbing at him to not follow up the tree after it.
"Let me go!!" Veronica's Zoroark would beg.

Suddenly, puffing sounds would repeat several times and they would be surrounded by smokes of different colors. "Don't breath it in." Veronica tried to warn him but it was too late. Three Amoonguss would dig their way out in anger, it seemed that this was more of their territory. "I.... I need you to focus first." Veronica fell back against the tree, slowly dropping down to the floor in confusion.
Cosmo used Nasty Plot, more capable of moving than Veronica. Then, in order to hit something, he went berserk with Shadow Ball. They healed a bit with Giga Drain, although it wasn't much. Cosmo was hitting them harder than they were healing for and he Amoonguss would eventually give up and run away. However the Zoroark would then come down. Cosmo couldn't keep his balance.

"Chi, you know what to do." She called, though she couldn't find the pokeball to send him out. Her Infernape, however, had been her first partner and knew when Veronica was in trouble, so he came out to check. He intervened the Zoroark's attack with a Mach Punch. The Zoroark tried to use Agility to run away but it wouldn't matter as Chi shot a Focus Blast straight at the Zoroark.

As things started to return to normal, to anyone outside of the ordeal, it only seemed like Veronica and Cosmo were high, laying by the tree and waiting for it to pass. It was her Infernape who went to look for the Snagems to snap her out of it.

"I- wait. What."

Aden had a few choice thoughts about the revelation Sub gave concerning the gym in this city, and if the circumstances had allowed, he'd be bringing them all up without hesitation. But the distress signal and finding Odd was more important; he'd have time later to discuss the ethics and all. He couldn't help wondering if Blizz was aware of this, though...

Dropping the topic in his head for now, he'd follow the others into the forest in an effort to stay close. His hope was that, with any luck, they'd be able to avoid getting lost and having even more people turn missing. His realization only seconds later would be that the forest thought that sort of hope was funny as it shifted and sprawled, ensuring that if any of them were still together, it was in small groups. In Aden's case, he wouldn't quite have that luxury as he found himself alone apart from laughter.

"Well, I suppose it could be-" Aden would start to remark, only to shake his head and stop himself. "Wait no no no, stop Aden, you know what happened all the other times you've said that."

Even with stopping himself, the forest would seemingly twist and contort itself, making itself into a hallway of trees with an especially huge Trevenant showing itself and looming down on him. "Please tell me that thing isn't real." He'd soon be diving to the side to narrowly dodge an arm that came crashing down, attempting to squash him with Wood Hammer. "Crap, it's real!" He'd quickly get to his feet and send his Umbreon out, already trying to think of some way through this.

"Umbreon, Confuse Ray! See if we can't disorient it a bit." Shielding his eyes to avoid taking the flash himself, Umbreon's rings would glow as she went to work, letting off the flash and trying to catch the Trevenant with it. As big as it was, however, it seemed like it'd be more surprising if it didn't land its mark. A loud, booming cry can be heard as it was blinded and disoriented, wavering about before slamming its arms down suddenly- too sudden for either of them to attempt to warn or dodge respectively. There was enough time for them to brace theirselves, hoping that maybe it wouldn't be as bad as they'd hoped when the arms came down. The ground would shake a little from the impact as a loud, crashing thud was heard...

...and went through them? Despite the apparent strength of the attack and impact it seemed to have, the two of them would slowly open their eyes to notice they were going through the arms in question. They'd look at theirselves in a bit of confusion, then at the giant Trevenant before them, then at theirselves again as doubt had been cast over their opponent. "...do you think?"

A quick nod and yip came in response. Nothing more than a "yeah," but she had the same thoughts.

"In that case... Quick Attack!" He'd follow as quickly as he could as she raced forward, reaching the Trevenant and striking before it could return to its senses. Rapidly distorting and shrinking from the impact, its form would become clear just in time for Aden to follow up with a punch of his own, knocking the Zoroark down. The forest would quickly twist and contort again as it proceeded to stop being a hallway, with several normal-sized Trevenant fleeing and realizing the gig might be up when they saw the ominous glow of Umbreon's rings. A clearing would open up and show itself soon afterward, both of them cautiously passing through it. They didn't dare lower their guard yet, just in case anyone or anything else tried to trap them.

Once the Snagems made it to the forest clearing they would find Sub already there, among four unconscious persons sprawled out on the ground, their white robes heavily soiled, signs of an intense struggle had taken place here and clearly they lost. "It wasn't me! I swear!" Sub insisted as the Snagems arrived just in time to see him poking one, with an actual stick. There was a joke to be made here. "Any who." He said, tossing the stick over his shoulder as he approached the group. "I found Odd's SNAG, it was over there by the weird trees." He then gestured towards a twisted circular mass of what looked like deceased Trevenant. Creepy.

"Clearly he isn't here. Wherever he is we can't trace him without his SNAG. So, I figured we could-" The man started, his plan to find Odd cut off before it even began by a child-like giggle. "Uh...that's not something you want to hear in a creepy forest..." He said, looking around to see where the sound came from.

"Hi!" A tiny purple faced creature greeted Sub as it appeared in front of his face causing the 'Dark One' to shout out in surprise, stumbling backwards away from the floating green eyed creature. "You friends of theirs or that other guy?" The strange monster asked, pointing a golden ring at the unconscious persons on the ground, the 'other guy' clearly meaning Odd.

"Uh...the other guy?" Sub answered, afraid to see what would happen if they were friends of the unfortunate white-robed individuals. "His name is Odd, have you see him?" He asked the creature. "Oh and...you are...?"

"Hoopa! That's what the humans call me! Or do they still call me that? I'm not sure. I had a nice long nap this time! You guys dress funnier than I remembered, and I see you're not wearing wigs anymore too! Nice to see you all with your heads on this time!" The creature called Hoopa said with a laugh. "As for the guy, Odd, which is a dumb name by the way, I've seen him. He was here, he gave these guys a sound thrashing! Did my work for me!" Hoopa giggled.

"Oh, well that's good to know. Can you take us to him? He's our friend." Sub asked of Hoopa.

"Nope!" Hoopa responded with a shout and a giggle, looking over at Darts and giving him a wave. "I didn't know the big silver worm had a baby! Tell your daddy I said hey!" The strange Pokemon shouted at Darts, evidently assuming Darts was perhaps the child of Giratina. "But no, I can't, or rather I won't take you to your friend, not yet! See, these guys, the guys that your friend with the weird name fought, tried to steal some of my treasure. Long story short I went to send them to the bottom of the ocean, something went wrong, a bunch of my treasure instead got sent off through my other ring before it too was ringed off somewhere else. I chased the weirdos in white here and watched mister weird name fight them. After he took them out I heard him talk about calling for help, you guys I assume. After he messed around with his weird box I got the idea to hold onto mister weird name myself and wait for his friends to show up and help me get my treasure and ring back." Hoopa said with a mischievous grin.

"...let me see if I got this right. You are holding Odd hostage now and before you let him go we have to find your treasure and the ring that matches that want you're holding. Did I piece that together right?" He asked Hoopa.

"Yep! You catch on quick!" Hoopa giggled before flipping its ring over and down its body, disappearing into it. "Man, you all look really weird." Hoopa said as it now appeared next to Aden, poking him in the side with its ring. "I've seen some ugly Pokemon and humans in my day before but come on..." With that he disappeared into his ring again, only to appear again shortly after next to Abby. "This one isn't so bad. Smells funny though, like daddy issues." It giggled before once before disappearing and reappearing. "Heeey! You're pretty! Why are you hanging out with a bunch of uglies like these?" It asked Veronica is now floated in front of her for awhile before moving onto Leslie. "Freaky mouth. Lot of hybrids around here. I thought that old king got rid of them all." It giggled, finding amusement in mocking them. "So, what do you say? Find my stuff for me?"

"I guess so. I have a feeling this isn't an offer we can refuse without repercussions." Sub responded, to which Hoopa laughed and gave a little nod.

"He does catch on quick! Any who. I only got one ring so my warping powers aren't as great as they are with both, because of that I can't send you directly to my other ring. But! I can send you after my scattered treasure and maybe along the way you'll find a clue as to where my ring is! There are five pieces of my treasure scattered around the world, so why don't you uglies pair up and I'll send ya as close to their location as possible! I'll give one of you in a pair one of my small rings, for fingers, basically a small fraction of my power. With that you can warp right back to me, but only to me, works only one way once. Only got five of those so the numbers work out great! Find my treasure, look for nearby clues to my ring, then use the rings I give you to pop over back here! Got it? Good! Now pair up and take one!" Hoopa said with a laugh.

With a florish of its large hula hop like ring it conjured up five small rings to be worn on your fingers, the five rings floating in the air in a straight line in front of it. Hoopa waited for the Snagems to pair up and one of the pair to take and put on a ring. The moment they did it would hold out its large ring which seemed to grow in size as needed and opened up a portal for them to step through and send them somewhere else in the world. Sub did little more than stand back and watch how this would go down.

Tristen would get dragged away, his face grimacing. "You wouldn't have...a towel or something, would you?" The Manetric hybrid innocently asked. "And what about candy bars? Out here!? Really?" That wasn't a 'really' of joy, more of the 'you can't be serious' kind, as Darts would hear.

Tristen followed Darts to the end, only to be greeted by the likes of a rather weird Pokemon he wasn't familiar with. Hoopa? Wasn't anything that he recalls seeing in a Pokedex right off hand. Then a realization why Sub and everyone else was out here. They were on a rescue mission? Sort of? And...this Hoopa has him? Though Sub wasn't anxious to fight this thing to try to get Odd back...what did he know? Worse, this thing is coming off as bigoted as a good number of humans he had met in Kalos. Either way, Tristen is roped in now...and it looks like he's stuck with Darts for good until the end of this.

"I'll uh... have to write him a post card. We're not exactly on the best terms..." Darts responded flatly to the Hoopa, thinking back to the Shadow Mewtwo fight where he had borrowed Giratina's power to help combat that thing.

He looks over at Tristen, smiling despite his darker thoughts. "Well you have to know the king size candy bars always go first on the Halloween routes." He admonishes, reaching out and plucking a ring without letting the Manectric hybrid get a say in their destination. "It's the ruuuuulessssss-" His voice gets cut off as he and presumably the ward(? maybe Tristen was the one warding him) get sucked into an otherworldly vortex off to Arceus knows where.

"Sub, I know it's been a while since you've gotten to dance and it is fairly... uh, effective, let's go with that word, but I feel like the stick wasn't anything you needed to enhance it..." Aden remarked at what he saw once reaching the clearing, eyeing the apparently dead Trevenant and noting all the moss covering it. The way it was all twisted was a bit unsettling, though, but paled in comparison to the giggle he heard. "Aaaand I've heard enough campfire stories to know where that's headed and we might want to contemplate our options about, oh, an hour or so ago, so if you'll excuse me, I think I'll be-"

"...doing that..." He'd stop his train of thought when the creature went in front of Sub. "Uh, wigs? I'm sorry, where do you come from? I'm not sure I want to know the when- really?" He paused when he was poked, then shrugged and rolled his eyes. "I don't know, I think I've heard more creative insults from more dangerous sources. I think I know why Celebi doesn't say much about some topics now..."

Looking to the rings and then to the others, he'd shrug again and take one of the rings to put on. He wasn't really sure of who to pair up with, feeling he could probably work fine with any of them. When he saw Leslie take to one of the portals with an almost devil-may-care attitude to her, he figured it'd be wise to have someone join sooner rather than later...

...only for that portal to decide to vacuum him in too, as if making the choice for him. "Whyyyyyyyyy-"

Darts and Tristan would pass through the giant ring and through the portal it contained. There would be no fanfare involving the sudden travel through space and time, instead one minute they were standing in a haunted forest and the next they found themselves standing in the middle of a suburban street, the entire process felt as simple as walking through a door only this door was nowhere to be seen should they look back. The only truly bizarre thing they might notice is that they were wearing that seemed to be costumes, Halloween costumes (y'all decide). Where they came from and who designed costumes to fight hybrids such as themselves, especially one with a body shape like Darts, was a mystery but not one that needed answering at the moment.

Before them the road stretched onward and the streets were swarming with children, parents, and mischievous children enjoying Halloween night. Where they were in the world was anyone's guess but if they had to wage a guess based off the tightly packed suburbia and cook cutter houses it was probably somewhere in Unova. Regardless they were here to find some sort of treasure that belonged to Hoopa, where it could be in such a place was even more puzzling however it was probably a safe bet that finding it involved good ole 'trick-or-treating' what with the jack-o-lantern buckets clutched in their hands. What where did those come from?




Aden and Leslie would pass through their ring portal as well but instead found themselves standing in the exact same place except the ring portal, and everyone else for that matter, was gone. The forest was quiet, perhaps even quiet than before and a hundred times more spooky as a cold wind blew through the seemingly undead trees.

"One, two..." A creepy child-like voice called out from the trees. "He's coming for you." It continued, another cold breeze blowing through the trees. Behind them a vile pair of glowing red eyes stared at them menacingly from the darkness of the forest. The eyes would remain steadfast in their glare for what seemed like several minutes but was actually seconds. Then, without warning, a pair of disembodied hands each the size of a person with long straight blade-like fingers would scuttle across the ground heading straight for them both at a deadly pace, the eyes remaining behind.