In the pouring rain, Quonk and Hisoka stood in front of the rotten remains of a once-humble wooden shed.

"So this is where the shed used to be... in the middle of the forest."

"I daresay that the woods shall be the shed, if the shed shall not be of hearty wood..."

Kastriakh looked at the both of them like they were insane for standing in the rain as the Starly perched on Hisoka's head.

Meanwhile, Hisoka spotted a huge roll of tarpaulin as well as a couple of trees felled by the storm. "You mention using the woods for the shed... I have an idea. Let's build a treehouse using the tarp over there as well as those trees on the ground nearby."

Quonk looked at Hisoka like he was insane, then used the tarpaulin as an enclosure to safely read a carpentry book from the library. "We might simply fell those firm trees in such a manner as to form boards of them. Subsequently, we should form structural planning for our building..." The Bidoof decided to take a nap on the fallen tree.

Meanwhile, Hisoka had the tape measure out and was checking how far apart certain trees were. "We can save wood by using the tarp as the roof. We could attach it to the rest of the building, or we could simply tie it to the trees with my Escape Rope while we build underneath."

Quonk blinked with a skeptical look. "Such may perhaps be considered the effective temporary option–" He finally got rain in his eyes, too. "And perhaps woodwork should not be ventured towards presently in our current state of affairs!" The Starly chirped in agreement as he went to his Bidoof and poked him. "Kastriakh. Upon their prescription, your acting contribution shall be to remove the woods between sufficiently-firm trees."

"What size would you like it to be? I can tell you what trees are in the way if I know."

"Regarding a remarkable size... Perhaps, with sufficiently thick wood, we might succeed at 42 metres of height and a square perimeter of 6.9 metres per side."

"...That's oddly specific, but I'm sure it's possible." He gets to measuring. It could be said he's measuring his wood- "Alright, I figured it out!" He puts red tape on some trees. "Don't cut these trees, or we won't be able to build."

Kastriakh appeared mischievous the moment Hisoka said that, but that was soon shut down by Quonk's stare. Speaking of the verbose madman, he looks excited now, which is probably even worse. "Precaution shall be heeded, our task completed thereby with bladed ends to appendages performing the action of—"

Bidoof used Cut. Now the trees that weren't marked are all being felled by a brown mouse, and they're falling in random directions.

We have a bird freaking the fuck out at how most of the nearby trees are going down while Quonk continues to stand like he bested all his fellow aristocrats in the daily crossword.

Hisoka just gave a look of what the fuck. "We don't need to cut down the whole forest, I think we've got enough at this point!"

Quonk finally opened his eyes to stop looking so proud and then recoiled at how many logs there were on the ground. Also, the rain was hitting the ground harder now that the trees weren't catching it, so he was getting hit with it even harder. "Halt yourself!"

Kastriakh returned to the humans and bird, and then started chewing on a log. Wonderful.

"Still, at least we don't need to worry about the amount of wood- Are you going to just perch on me forever with all these trees around us?" Chirp.

"The downpour is great, and likewise a Starly's inability to fly... Nonetheless! Resumption of constructing activities may hereby resume."

With that, Kastriakh began cutting wood with its teeth and eating the scrap while Quonk unleashed a never ending stream of nonsense disguised as instructions. Even the Starly was getting tired of that until the orator started using the hammer instead once the rain stopped.

Hisoka was trying to cut his rope with a piece of glass he found, but the Starly bit the rope apart instead. "...Well, that was easier. All right, now, we've built quite the frame, but how do we get this thing in the trees or put the roof on it?"

Quonk looked at the trees and then at his arms, and then promptly shook his head.

"Yoku, are you able to lift it somehow?"

The newly nicknamed bird gave Hisoka the expected face of extreme confusion.

"She shall indeed possess such capabilities of aerial transportation. Peradventure she shall be taught to bear weight in a similar manner..."

Her confusion increased until she just kinda faceplanted off of Hisoka's head.

"In that case, how might we lift this thing?"

Quonk contemplated this for a moment. "Under those ideal circumstances which we lack, a force of various Pokémon voluntarily bearing the weight. However, the conditions are lacking, and Pokémon rarely bear Pokémon with such haste as to create our ideal circumstances..." He sighed. "That quadrad comprised of our collective selves shall suffice, although our strengths may lack, and our frailties high in vulnerability thereby, absit omen."

Hisoka just decided to smile and nod despite not understanding a word. "...Right."

And then Quonk went to the thing again and tried to lift it with only his arms. ...What did you expect his efforts to result in, success? Nah, he just ended up making his arms tired for a moment and embarrassing himself in front of a brown mouse, bird, and human perch. "...Perhaps my power alone is insufficient, yes? Or perhaps pulling shall be more trivial than pushing..." Where did he get that chair and why is he standing on it to fail to lift a treehouse?

"Just a moment, I've got an idea. Yoku, I'll tie the rope to the treehouse... and you can pull it over to a nearby tree. I was never stellar in physics class, but I believe it may work. What's your opinion, Quonk?"

Considering Yoku was trying and failing to even make the treehouse budge despite pulling the rope like the forest was going to die otherwise, this was cause for even Quonk to look at him deadpan. "With twenty more ropes and twenty more birds with twenty times her force per bird, perhaps it shall. It is lack of mighty birds and rope that drives our struggle, clearly."

"In that case how many Machokes do we need?"

"Approximately eight."

Once Yoku got too tired to continue, she perched on Quonk's head for once to Hisoka's relief.

"Then where in the world would we get that many?"

"It is assuredly so that I lack knowledge of such things."

Kastriakh proceeded to sit on Hisoka's head to restore the balance, to his confusion. "There's a Bidoof on my head... It's not 2000 yet, what's this about?"

"Great calamity befalls us in the following century. Alternative interpretations are verily vanishing with increasingly rapid pace."

"...I just thought of something. I know someone who might have enough Machoke. You up for a heist?"

Quonk proceeded to stand on that one chair. "Rejection of those other possibilities shall be immediately instituted! We shall valiantly procure—" An annoyed Kastriakh slapped him. "...I am."

With that, they went to a random barn where the Machoke would be.

"Here it is... They have no security. This may be easier than I thought."

Quonk proceeded to stare at the barn, then point at it as if ordering something to do something and did Yoku just fly in?

"...Well, there goes anything resembling a plan. Time to make a battering ram..."

The Bidoof threw itself at the door and blew it up, revealing a herd of very confused Machoke.

"Lavender-hued comrades of ourselves! I hereby issue this following request to you and your abilities. It is of our wishes that this pair comprised of ourselves constructs and erects an operant centrality in pursuit of the cleansing of our tarnished institutions. We, however, are in great lack of forces to establish the erection thereof, and your strengths shall be sufficient . . ." He just went on and on until Yoku landed on the head of one of the Machoke.

"To put it simply, we need eight of you for some construction work."

Quonk sighed. "That is the common parlanced, context-lacking rendition of our inquiry of poverty — comforting to a frank soul, assuredly. What shall your expression of authentic manner be, good sirs?" Chirp. "I address the Machoke, but my gratitude is issued to you as well."

Hisoka went deadpan. "We simply need them for construction work, why overcomplicate the matter?"

"Perhaps, with our diplomatic manner of communication, their amicability shall be more readily drawn forth; or perhaps our contextual delivery would permit their altruistic and self-preserving tendencies to assist us further than our pleas imply..."

Kastriakh and Hisoka looked at each other with the same face as Yoku bent down to be in the Machoke's line of sight...

"...My friend, these are Machoke."

"Machoke or Magikarp or Metagross, differences in social class are trivial. What strangeness abounds in your lack of diplomatic decorum!"

...and the Starly pecked one of them to snap them out of the staring.

"Yoku, that wasn't what I meant either!"

So basically, the Machoke she pecked started flailing immediately, slapping another by accident and causing it to return the slap in an attempt to return them to their senses. ...Based on instinct, the pecked one of course then started to attack the originally slapped, and the fighting spread enough to become the entire barn's worth of Machoke as Yoku stood on a barrel questioning her life choices. Then the bird had to fly back to the humans after one of the Machoke hit a wall. Then another. And eventually, the barn came down and the Machoke were just standing there covered in wood trying to process the abrupt chaos of their own doing.

Quonk had visibly died inside by now. "...My compatriots. This avian instance lacked sufficient might to aggrieve permanently. Your terror lacks sufficient proportioning in regards to your abilities." Yoku let out a sheepish chirp.

Hisoka is looking at Quonk with a face of what the fuck right now "...How? How was that even possible? Dear Sinnoh, the people who own these Machoke are going to be absolutely livid..."

"It is customary among these sorts, such that retaliation shall precede a collective's assault of itself thereby. An avian's assault shall precede such terror that disorder surely follows."

Almost every Machoke facepalmed at themselves.

Meanwhile Hisoka was actually facepalming at Quonk. "Are we going to get this over with or not?"

He had a blank expression as he went silent for a few seconds, then had a surprised face. "Ah, verily so, those remorseful issuances delivered upon my lapse of memory!"

"...Did you actually forget...?"

He turned to the Machoke again to end the conga. "Comrades, your lack of enclosure shall aid our lack of the same. Come forth through this path we shall direct!"

Quonk then began leading the Machoke to the treehouse... with a conga line.

"...I might as well join in at this point." With that, Hisoka and Yoku joined in as Kastriakh simply walked.

However many hours of conga later, they'd returned, and thankfully nothing had destroyed the treehouse while they were gone.

"That... took about as long as I probably should have expected."

Quonk had to dive to the side as the Machoke continued the conga line even once he'd tried to stop it, and then the Machoke went to the treehouse and casually lifted it while dancing in place.

"...At least it worked."

Quonk proceeded to lie on the ground as he sighed in relief. "At last..." And then he blinked upon noticing the Machoke were still dancing under the treehouse. "But what of this octet? It appears quite obstinate in its perseverance of presence."

"Did you really not think that far ahead?"

"Dance is quite an immersive pastime, such that one lacks cognition regarding other matters in the process..."

Wait, one of the Machoke just started breakdancing.

"...What in the Floaroma fried..." Now all of the Machoke are breakdancing and the Bidoof is joining in. "Well, no use trying to conga them back to the shed and run now."

Quonk stared at the absolute chaos, then looked at Yoku, then gained a slightly crazed smile. "Your premonition may be lacking in accuracy. I shall request the avian instance's intervention."

Who was the bird to refuse? She just went and swooped over them all to make them freeze in place.

And then Quonk demonstrated just how powerful his lungs were while dramatically gesturing. "Comrades! It is hereby issued by this proclamation of myself that our present proceedings be halted in preference of resumption of the homeward CONGAAAAAA!" Then he led the line as relevant music started playing from absolutely nowhere, and nobody was going to question it for their own sakes as the dance-walk began.

After enough running once he deposited the Machoke, Quonk half-ran half-conga'd back to the treehouse and Hisoka too. Quite rare to see a Quonk exhausted. "It is of ideal circumstances that we shall never again require their aid from a distance with such enormity..." The fact that it was night might have also explained why he was exhausted, assuming he wasn't nocturnal. "Whence in chronology nocturne shall our respite take place? If furnishings are to be constructed, all effort expended hereon shall direct itself towards immediate necessities..." The Bidoof was snoring.

"...Given we're tired, now seems to be a good time."

After some proliferation on how to get 42 meters into the sky, they decided to use Yoku to fly up instead of building a rope ladder, to her agony.

Quonk then looked around the treehouse stumped. "...Naught but lower surface of boards. Comfortable respite furnishings are lacking, although I am accustomed to such circumstances."

"Exactly my thoughts." He didn't actually understand Quonk there.

He looked at the Bidoof who had the face of knowing what was about to happen and being done with it already. "Kastriakh, if you might possess capacity of procuring ourselves constructive materials—" The Bidoof slapped him. "...Perhaps flooring shall be sufficiently soft."

"Quonk, I'm with the Bidoof on this one. Where do you expect to get construction materials this high up?" He leaned out of a window. "Best we've got is probably a leaf, unless a Bidoof happens to be able to jump"

He looked at the funny brown mouse curiously, then got a death glare in response, causing him to back down immediately. "Little is of concern in present chronology. Our nocturne slumber shall not be impeded by wooden boards as our surface of support." Cue him simply picking a random place on the floor and lying down to sleep rather than confronting the Bidoof.

With that, Hisoka lay down to sleep as well, Yoku sleeping on top of him, and their night concluded...

Wait, they'd never taken care of the Machoke's barn properly, had they? ...It could wait until the morning, he supposed.