Tyler McKinley

[Parugi]

Username: Parugi
Name: Seth Gacheru
--Alias: Tyler McKinley (Hojohsin pseudonym)
Faction: Missing Zero
Hometown: Laverre City, Kalos
Age: 22 (b. October 30th, 1994)

Species: Special Instance
Ability: Treachery

Moves: Unknown

Appearance: Human Form; Interim Transformation. As a human, McKinley stands at around 5'7" tall. His hair and eyes match, all being golden in color; after an incident on a boat, his left eye was ripped out, necessitating an eye patch to cover it. Since his revelation as an Instance, it is presumed that this damage has been healed. He tends to wear his variation on the Hojohsin uniform, consisting of brown pants, black shoes, a golden yellow shirt, and a black jacket with gold decor. McKinley's signature piece of clothing is a black bandanna that he wears around his head, which bears the symbol of a skull just above his brow. He is almost constantly wearing a wide grin on his face.

Instance Form. When taking his true form as an Instance, McKinley drops all pretense of being human. In this form, standing close to 12' tall, he resembles a demented clown-slash-jester, with a body composed of alternating colors all across the spectrum. His legs are shaped irregularly and are hidden by tall boots and puffy pants, as well as the lower part of his body's "cloak." Midway up he wears a black tutu skirt with a skull symbol on its front. His thin waist expands into broad shoulders covered by shell-like plates. On his chest is a wide, grinning mouth, which forms a face when combined with the large, golden eyes on either shoulder. Each arm extends down near his feet, elongating as if covered in cloth; each terminates into large, toothy mouths surrounding by bells. McKinley wears a black collar around his neck, matching his skirt, and just above this is his mask-like face, which is white in coloration and appears to be composed similarly to porcelain. Finally his head extends into a yellow and purple jester cat with two horns that hang down in front of him, from which a pair of golden eyeballs hang.

Personality: McKinley is, in a word, deranged. While the hints to his true nature were evident from early on, this did not become truly clear until his role in releasing Missing Zero was revealed. Tyler McKinley is a creature with no regard for human life, no empathy, no compassion--all he exists for is the sick pleasure he gets from twisting others around his thumbs and watching them squirm. His constant, unending grin, more recently evolving into fits of cackling laughter, demonstrate fully the degree to which McKinley simply does not care about those around him--nor, in truth, those anywhere in the world. If he can feed them all to Missing Zero, then he will do so, and do it gladly.

What McKinley was like prior to his repurposement by Missing Zero is not really known. Even before then, he was viewed as a strange, enigmatic figure by his allies. Regardless, he demonstrated enough potential use to Ford that he was chosen as the Fourth Child within Ford's ritual, a role that he seemed to be all too happy to fulfill. He has always had a strange fascination with masks, filling his room with a large number of homemade visages, and did not seem to care all that much for his family's efforts to locate him after he vanished from their lives.

Background: Little is known about McKinley's past. He was originally from Laverre City in Kalos, where he lived with his father Adan and mother Efa. At the age of 15, he agreed to join Ford's group of apprentices, taking on the mantle of Fourth Child. As one of the Children, he was primarily tasked with more secretive missions, leaving him largely out of the public eye--in fact it was not until recently that anyone realized that he existed, let alone worked for Ford. Following the recruitment of Thomas Warren, McKinley was sometimes paired with the Fifth Child on operations, who seemed to value their friendship enough to keep a picture of the pair in his quarters in Vertrag.

After Team Rocket's attack on Four Island, McKinley and Warren were sent on a recon mission to Missing Zero's holding place in a side dimension. There, they encountered Missing Zero and the corrupted Mask of Ice. In the course of their meeting, McKinley and Warren were both devoured by Missing Zero and converted--both awakening to their true purposes. Though transformed, McKinley was sent back in disguise, reporting that he had been injured and Warren killed. After taking several months to "recover," McKinley went back to work, ostensibly helping Ford to recruit the remaining Children but, in truth, setting the stage for Missing Zero's release. Most notably, he followed Ilios when the Darkrai managed to collect the seven comatose Sins trainers, whose callings had been unwittingly awakened by the attacks from the Ancient Darkrai.

McKinley traveled to numerous regions and cities, becoming involved in a number of events and bringing himself into various conflicts with individuals both independent and from Teams Rocket, Liberty, Plasma, and others. He bailed Madison Hayes out of Castelia City after she was defeated. Through various methods of force and manipulation, he served to directly recruit Sonja Baron, Ray Hakuda, Skye Hall, Levi Alaric, and Ellen Burks into Ford's ritual. At one point, he encountered Jackson Sang; after a brief exchange, in which McKinley all but revealed the truth of the entire situation to him, the Fourth Child used his Xatu to lock the memory with Sang's head, challenging him to try and get the memory back before the Promised Day. When Quincy Adams was defeated after destroying Team Magma, McKinley arrived with Levi Alaric, using him as a shield in order to get Adams out of the base scot-free. He also saved James Pierce after the First Child was ousted from Hoenn leadership and arrested, bringing him safely back to Vertrag. In one instance where, going to retrieve Ray Hakuda, McKinley was attacked mid-teleport; this resulted in the loss of his left eye.

On July 31st, 2017, McKinley was brought to the Egg on Two Island, where Ford began his ritual. His chamber in the Egg did not display his memories, only a crude image of a laughing skull. His projection and his team were battled by Xander Cruise, Gavin Braner, and Dahlia Seaton, who eventually managed to achieve victory after killing McKinley's false Pokémon. In the final chamber, after the assembled intruders conversed with Ford, bringing him to the realization that there was a traitor and saboteur among his numbers, McKinley revealed his hand, shedding his human skin and transforming into his true Special Instance form. McKinley called upon the brainwashed Ilios, using him to possess Ford and force his team into battle alongside the clown against the intruders, in order to buy time for Ford's sabotaged card to charge. Once this was complete, the possessed Ford activated the card, releasing Missing Zero and deactivating powers across the world. McKinley's last action that fateful day was to throw Pierce directly into Missing Zero after the First Child attempted to stop him from doing the same to Ford, with his machinations also resulting in the death of Adams. Unfortunately for McKinley, he was unsuccessful in killing Ford and Hayes, and he was not able to stop Bounty from activating Ford's counter-card before escaping.

Equipment:

• Poké Gear

Pokémon: Wobbufett, Xatu, Hypno, Girafarig, Claydol, Sigilyph

-Wobbufett--Shadow Tag: Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, Destiny Bond, Encore, Charm.

-Xatu--Magic Bounce: Teleport, Lucky Chant, Miracle Eye, Confuse Ray, Psycho Shift, Future Sight.

-Hypno--Inner Focus: Hypnosis, Nightmare, Disable, Future Sight, Nasty Plot, Psych Up.

-Girafarig--Inner Focus: Odor Sleuth, Agility, Nasty Plot, Psychic, Crunch, Guard Swap.

-Claydol--Levitate: Teleport, Cosmic Power, Power Trick, Heal Block, Psychic, Earth Power.

-Sigilyph--Wonder Skin: Miracle Eye, Hypnosis, Mirror Move, Gravity, Cosmic Power, Psychic.