Pokémon Legends: Court of Kings

[Marsuru]

When Salieri dashed forward, so did Zack. He didn't have a spare hand to reinforce his grip on the girl, but he didn't need it. He heaved her around just as she attempted to do the same thing to him, and all that ended up happening was that they both sort of staggered a little. The truth of the situation then dawned on him.

'Wait, you wanted me to be the flail?' he snapped. Trevor and Iceburg undropped their jaws.

'Oi, I fink they're tryin to have a go at us.'
'Bloody uncivilised. Let's batter 'em anyway,' Trevor roared, rushing forward.

He yanked a tyre iron from his belt and swung it at the two trainers while they were still on the back foot. If Salieri didn't do anything, he'd crack her hard across the cheek and loosen some teeth before bringing the iron overhead. He would grip it in two hands, then swing it down hard to smack her skull.  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri's maneuver fell short of working by one whole flail person. "Who else would it be?" Sal snapped back.

She ducked low so the steel bar whizzed straight over her head, sparing both of them the pain while trying to bring Zack to her level. She held up the bond as a gesture, then pointed ahead. It was unsaid, but her plan was simple enough: clothesline.

Sal waited as long as she could for Zack to get it and then would attempt the tag move anyway, rushing forward to bowl Trevor over at his knees with their bonded hands. If it worked it'd flip the street urchin over behind them, putting them between both thugs and one step closer to Iceburg.  

[Marsuru]

'Bugger.' Trevor gasped, felt his legs rise, and landed on his front, wind knocked out of him. The tyre iron clattered behind the two trainers, but that didn't mean the danger was over. Iceburg was massive, pushing seven foot and wide as a bus. He didn't need weapons when he had arms like battering rams, and he intended to prove it.

As Zack and Sal straightened up, Iceburg was on them, cupping hand over fist and driving them both into Zack's broken arm. Blissngale had numbed Zack's arm, but that didn't make it invincible. Both trainers would feel their bones stretched to break point, their right arms gone temporarily dead. And Zack would be sent crashing into Salieri, likely knocking her from her feet if she couldn't brace both their weight.

If the trainers went tumbling into a pile, Iceburg would hoist Trevor onto his feet with a single hand, then charge the trainers. Zack had the most punchable face and was already in a sling, but Iceburg wasn't about to underestimate White Flag's sister. He was bigger and stronger, and drove his foot into Salieri's stomach to knock the wind out of her.  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri was tougher than most women. Tougher than most men too, but not tougher than a guy who earned the name Iceburg just by standing there. Her right arm went numb like a noodle and pain would follow soon. Salieri tried to stop them both from falling, but it would've been hard for her on her own and their position was compromising. They fell over.

Now Iceburg was coming at them again, this time targeting her. Normally she'd take advantage of their size difference and be on her nimble way around Iceburg. Instead she had to improvise. Zack understood the last combo move. She hoped he'd understand this one or they'd look even sillier.

Salieri helped yank them both to their feet with her good arm while Iceburg did the same with his partner, assuming Zack wouldn't want to stay on the ground either. When Iceburg's kick swung in she sidestepped it with a half twirl, pressing up against Zack with their arms outstretched as if they were ballroom dancing.

"Balls," she hissed to Zack, and then she'd aim a kick of her own at Iceburg's crotch, hoping it would be in tandem with a kick from the trainer to the same spot.  

[Marsuru]

Red in the face and with his head perilously close to Salieri's armpit, Zack got mad. He rolled off his back and onto his feet in a single motion, standing upright, weighing his options. His sling arm was useless, and his good arm attached to Sal's now-useless arm. The big, dumb lump of muscle tried to kick Salieri's gut but missed, and now is was their turn. Standing back to back, a thought pinged in Zack's brain and out his mouth at the exact same time as Sal.

'Balls,' he said, kicking in sync with Salieri. Their feet rose as a mirror image, each sinking into one of Iceburg's mighty testicles. His grapes popping, Ice's eyes bulged. He gasped like someone climbing into a freezing bath then staggered backwards. Zack grinned as his anger gave way to adrenaline. It was short lived. Trevor had gotten in behind the two trainers, and swung his tyre iron into the side of Zack's ribs.

'Stop bloody holding hands!' he shrieked, welting them again and again, bashing through meat and into bone, raising purple-red bruises on both trainers. 'Start. Taking. Us. Seriously!'  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri was once taught that iceburgs were bigger below the surface. She was sure that was no longer the case after the beautiful ball kick combination they delivered unto this Iceburg. She took a second to give Zack a look as they spoke the same thing at the same time. Coincidence? Maybe. Was he thinking that too? She couldn't trust coincidence anymore, not today.

She wheezed sharply as her ribs took on Zack's pain. This was without a doubt her worst showing against these clowns. Before Trevor could strike a third time, Sal caught the tyre iron with her good hand inches away from Zack's torso. "Never!"

Sal couldn't attack Trevor and disarm him at the same time if she was attached to Zack like this, but she did provide him an opening to strike back with another kick. All she needed was for Zack to see it in time.  

[Marsuru]

Trevor spent half a second off guard when Sal caught his weapon. She had to reach over awkwardly to make the save, her other hand still in Zack's, and she'd be drawn into a more awkward position yet when Zack followed up. He could easily twist his torso, even with the muscle beaten to a pulp, and drive his elbow into Trevor's nose. In his experience, a blow like that would stop a fight in its tracks, so why did he want to try a kick so bad instead?

In less than half a second, Zack made up his mind and popped Trevor's face open with a wet thud, dragging Sal sideways by her dead arm. The tyre iron clattered again, this time for good, as both the thugs were left reeling on the floor, clutching various parts of their anatomy and groaning. Zack breathed hard as the pain in his side set in.

'You okay?' he asked, knowing Salieri was in just as much pain as him.  

[Jump Einatz]

"You okay?" Salieri asked at the same time Zack did, taken aback as the words left her mouth. Trevor and Iceburg didn't look like they were getting up anytime soon, so Sal just nodded. "Nothing Oberon can't fix."

She saw Iceburg's outstretched hand and crushed the Holocaster under her heel. Little did she know she was far too late to stop that picture from uploading. Even Salieri couldn't take on the Cloud.

"Over here," Sal said, trying to lead Zack by her limp arm out of this alley and into another one not too far away. When they got there she'd release Oberon and ask the Cleffa to "Heal Pulse" them, starting with Zack's ribs.

"Nice elbow," she told the other trainer, wincing as she tried rotating her shoulder. Even if healing one of them would heal the other thanks to the bond, the process would still take some time. Oberon's pink energy cascaded from her hand nubs onto Zack slowly with inexperience. So while they waited, Sal made small talk.

"What's the worst injury you've ever had?"  

[Marsuru]

Zack had to suppress his urge to gush over Oberon's cuteness. The sooner he had Salieri out of his head, the better. Instead he distracted himself while the pokémon healed his injuries. Last thing they needed were cracked ribs when those two assholes came back. A broken nose only kept you down for so long. He raised his eyebrows at Salieri's question. Was she actually trying to relate to him? It felt weird. Like when a parent asks about your hobbies.

'Uh, alright,' he said, thinking back. He'd been injured a ton of times over the years. During his academy days, he'd been in and out of the infirmary so often it may as well have been a second dorm room. The wider world hadn't been much kinder, branding him with souvenirs ranging from training mishaps to near death in ancient ruins, miles from civilisation. Except for his recent trip into Ferox's jaws, one injury stood out as the one time he genuinely thought he was going to die. 'A few years ago now. I'd gotten lost in the Sinnoh mountains when an avalanche hit my group and we were separated. Next thing I know I'm clawing my way through twenty feet of snow with a broken leg, pretending hypothermia hadn't set in. Pretty s**t.'

His right thigh twitched when he thought about it. Though it was subtle, Zack wondered if Salieri would feel it too. Being civil with Salieri was alien territory, so it took Zack a second to follow his answer up with a question of his own. 'What about you? Besides punching yourself in the v****a.'  

[Jump Einatz]

Sal leaned back against the brick wall of a building, listening to Zack's tale. She could almost feel that past pain in her thigh as well. Broken bones were one thing, but the cold of the mountains and the delirium of a fever really put the rest to shame. "Rough time, huh."

Zack then shot the question back to her, which she should have expected but didn't. "That was a unique pain, but uh..." Usually she'd brag about this and try to play it up as awesome since it was Zack she was speaking to, but it wasn't the kind of injury to brag about. It was the stupid kind.

With her teeth, Salieri peeled back what little there was of the sleeve covering her good arm. Around where the shoulder met the arm was a scar that circled all the way around. "You made a joke this afternoon about Ska having a cannon on his ship. Well, he does. It fires a poison gas bomb."

She slunk further against the wall. "When I was uh, part of his crew, he wanted to raid an Interpol outpost. I didn't complain until I found out that he and his girlfriend wanted to finish them off with the bomb after. Then I complained." Sal sighed. "I ******** up their cannon, Ska got mad, so he cut off my arm and tossed me off his ship."

Oberon took a second to peer at the scar. "Obviously it's fine now. Still wasn't a pretty fix." She pointed up to her eye. "That fight was how Ska lost one of these. I didn't want to but, yanno, there's a reason for this kind of stuff." Sal looked away. "There. Now you know."  

[Marsuru]

'You uh,' Zack fought to keep the surprise out of his voice, 'you had your arm sewn back on?'  

[Jump Einatz]

"Yeah, more or less." Salieri shuddered at the memory and pushed it aside. It wasn't the same as believing she was going to die, but she thought she'd have a phantom pain for the rest of her life. That she'd be less of a person. "Matheson's Vespiquen can do that, by the way, if you ever lose something. Put the toes back on a guy at Route 10 apparently."

She cleared her throat. Some small talk this was. "You still gotta keep it on ice first."  

[Marsuru]

'Good to know,' Zack replied, feeling a little strained. He guessed Ska wasn't kidding when he said Zack might end up with no arms at all, but at least he could always get them back. That said, he didn't want to think about Matheson. Like, at all. He sighed internally. 'We can talk more at the tower. The head guy there knows all about Aura, so maybe he could find a way to unlink us. Where's the door?'  

[Jump Einatz]

"Door?" Salieri hadn't been leading them to a door, or to the Pokémon Center. They had almost made a loop back around to Gotengo. At least now she wouldn't have to take the Teleporter. "It's around here somewhere. Lemme see if Math is around."

Oberon worked on healing where Iceberg smashed their arms next while Salieri checked her phone. Math hadn't texted her back yet, but Mia had sent her one telling her to come back to Gotengo. "Mia wants us back. Maybe she's done with the tracker."

Sal lifted up the bond, staring at their hands. At this point it was such a constant reminder that it was circling around from weird to normal. That was not good, at all. "When we're through with this we have to go after Ska, Zack. I don't know how far he's willing to go to get what he wants this time."  

[Marsuru]

'He'll only go as far as we let him,' Zack said with finality. He felt sensation return to his injured arm, and it hurt like hell. Oberon's Heal Pulse had disrupted the numbing effect of Blissngale's. The damage from Iceburg's hit had been undone, but now Zack had to deal with pain on top of disability. It didn't show on his face.

So Ska was another murderous psychopath. Between him, Ratio, the Court and their darkhorse hunters, Kalos was turning out to be a festering shithole. Still, lunatics could be beaten like anyone else, and it was with that knowledge that Zack decided not to worry too much about them.

'Which way's the treehouse?'