Pokémon Legends: Court of Kings

[Klarp Glornharm]

Benedict had, for once, been ignoring his xtransceivers. That night, tired and angry and feeling like he'd been through a train wreck, he'd made a decision to sleep alone, and then focus on proper training for his pokemon. He'd also briefly considered whether or not becoming a drunk was an option as his mind weighed on the rest of the day.

And then he woke up, early in the morning. Earlier than usual for sure. He wasn't really tired in the usual sense, not physically. But the mental exhaustion wasn't entirely gone. He couldn't let that stop him, though.

He couldn't stay in bed all day. The youth pushed himself up and prepared to get ready for the day...

And then he lay down for just five more minutes...

Much Later

Ben woke up again, this time suddenly and by sitting up quickly. As if he knew he had overslept and his mind was trying to compensate.

It was later in the day than before, at least, and he knew he'd missed his early start. But then, his team had deserved the extra rest, and apparently he'd needed it.

The first thing he did was check those texts. Which, as it turned out, showed that he had missed something from Sal.

Benedict to Sal

Sorry about that, rough day. I overslept this morning. I didn't take the Curse, don't worry.

He, unlike the others, didn't have any particular mission for the day, but he did need to get started on training his pokemon. They had probably recovered from the day before, and now would be the time to see if anything they'd learned would stick.

So off Ben went.
(Unfortunately, because Klarp is terrible at this, his training will come in the way of another post.)  

[Jump Einatz]

Route 12 - Fourrage Road

"Biz! How's it going over there?"

Salieri couldn't check on her Pokémon's current stats without Ivan, but the proof of change was in front of her eyes. From up on a hill she saw her Chesnaught standing in the tall grass, surrounded by a horde of much weaker Mareep. Each one had a Leech Seed planted on them, and Biz had stolen away their Defenses, rendering him an insurmountable wall. However, he had also accidentally given them his speed. The result was her Chesnaught moving sluggishly as super fast electric sheep hounded him from all sides, doing chip damage with Take Downs until they exhausted themselves into submission.

From the same viewpoint, Salieri saw her Vaporeon at the river bank, standing next to a perfect Substitute of herself. Reynard was trying to make the Substitue copy her movements exactly. When Reynard raised a paw, her Substitute scratched her ear instead. Rey growled. [Rebel scum.]

Sal snickered at Rey's taste of her own medicine until Oberon got her attention, tugging at her pants leg. The bottle Sal wanted her to Recycle had been fixed, though Sal could still see the seam where it had broken. "Solid start. You'll get it in no time." She put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly for Durendal.

The enclosed woods her Pawniard had been training in had been blowing in a strong wind for quite some time now, and that wind died down to nothing as soon as she whistled. A red streak crackling with lightning emerged from it, knocking over the remainder of the Mareep bothering Biz in a flash. Dune skidded to a halt and cracked his neck while Sal returned Biz to his ball.

"You guys are really coming along today," said Sal. Her Pokégear buzzed before she could give her next set of training orders. Ben had texted her back, and it seemed like he was fine. As fine as he could be, anyway.

Sal frowned. She could only imagine what he had been through that day, but Salieri had been through plenty of harsh, violent hardships for half her life. From what she experienced at the peak of their bond, so had Zack. The two of them weren't unshaken by these kinds of things, but catastrophes were something they adapted to with frightening ease. Ben's zeal at helping to clean up Kalos was admirable. She just wasn't sure if he was ready to keep facing these trials, like how Mia was chopped down by watching Ratio in the hotel lobby. And she couldn't help thinking that her self imposed challenge against Kalos invited this kind of behavior from other people. Somehow, she felt like this could end up being her fault.

Sal to Benedict

Can you meet me in Shalour City?

Salieri wanted to hear from Benedict himself what had happened, to make sure he was really okay. And if he was up for it, he would be a great help during the trade with Ska later. Salieri still had an hour to call the pirate back.

"Okay guys, now let's get some combat-"

A shadow fell over her from above. Salieri looked up in time to see Banksy return on the horizon, divebombing before her and landing in a cloud of smoke. When the dust settled, smoke still flared from the Torkoal's shell. Banksy eyed the other Pokémon, giving them knowing nods.

"-training. Banksy, are you here for that too?"

The Torkoal spewed fire from her nostrils in response. Knowing Prou was closer than ever must have been the motivator the old girl needed to rise up from her naps. Salieri grinned as Reynard headed up the hill, unimpressed. [That old thing's gonna fight now? I don't think she can.]
"Oh, Rey, you still haven't seen Banksy in action have you?" Salieri's amber eyes practically glowed. "You're in for a treat."  

[Klarp Glornharm]

Coumarine
Benedict walked disappointedly past the pokemon center. It was still a bit of a scene, and not exactly a place for him to visit. On his way to a different route, he got another message from Sal.

Benedict to Sal

I'll meet you there. I should visit a center anyway. Did you hear what happened to Coumarine's Pokemon Center?

With a quick tap of a pokeball, Benedict released Francis. The flying type seemed a lot less tired. Actually, he was pretty sure his pokemon were fine. They didn't really need any extra healing anyway. But a check-up would be good.

The trainer pulled himself onto the pokemon's back, and Francis took off in the direction that the map said Shalour was supposed to be.  

[Jump Einatz]

Route 12 - Fourrage Road

Sal to Benedict

Yeeeah you could even say I was there for it

Sal to Benedict

My bad

Sal to Benedict

I'll explain later

In between texts, Salieri sidestepped away from Reynard getting flung in her direction repeatedly. Without looking up from her phone, she knew Banksy was holding Rey off.

Reynard had gotten increasingly furious at being tossed aside by Banksy's intense Defense. It took her a while to realize that her Seine form actually did less damage to the tortoise's hard shell than her regular attacks, but at that point Banksy had already Poisoned her and had the scuffle in the bag. Rey fell to her side, defeated.

"Cool," said Sal absentmindedly, texting with one hand and returning her Vaporeon with the other. "Anyone else?"

Biz shook his head, laying down on his back and waving a white flag with a labored chest. Despite all his new tricks and his stronger evolutions, the Chesnaught had forgotten Banksy's techniques from the last time they battled days ago. He and Reynard kept getting in each other's way, and Biz kept taking the wrong stats with his new Leech Seed technique until he was too slow to be effective. Sluggishly, he rolled over in premature defeat.

Durendal hadn’t surrendered, still zipping around the battlefield and dodging every firey shot Banksy leveled at him. It had become clear to Salieri that until he evolved, her Pawniard was lacking the immediate power to deal with bigger threats. His unboosted attacks did little to scratch her. If she wasn’t running on a clock today, Sal would have let him keeping trying.

“Time’s up, guys. Let’s head back into town.”

She saw the disappointment on Durendal’s face as he was absorbed back into his Pokéball. His inferiority complex was becoming more pronounced after Biz Marquis’ evolution and Reynard’s capture.

Banksy was breathing heavily, exhausted by having to battle three opponents at once even if two didn’t know how to work as a team. She still had her moves, but she was rusty. Before she joined Salieri it had been years since she had a proper fight. The old girl needed some work.

“You still gotta give me a ride back to town,” Sal reminded her, jumping on the turtle’s shell suddenly. Banksy’s knees buckled from the surprise. “Can’t cross that river without you.”
Banksy puffed a curl of smoke from her nose. [You can swim.]
“You know most of what you say is lost on me, right?”

Shalour City – Pokémon Center

“Salieri Soledad? Mind if I take a minute of your time?”

Waiting at the counter of the Pokémon Center, Salieri turned around and was face to face with a female TV reporter and her cameraman. The reporter was one she didn’t recognize, and her accent was definitely not Kalosian. “That depends on who wants that minute.”

“I’m Gabby and this is Ty,” said the woman, holding out a hand that Salieri shook. “We’re reporter’s for Hoenn’s Buzznav, here to cover the Kalos league. Do you have a minute to do a quick piece on your participation?”

A long time ago, Salieri would have given anything to be viewed in a positive light. It was what prompted most of her petty thievery for things like jewelry or clothes. Over time, she decided she didn’t care what most of the snobbish Kalosian masses thought of her, so long as they didn’t say it to her face. It made her life easier if she thought their opinions meant very little. Still, her reputation had swerved up and down in the past few days. And reputation could be a powerful tool.

“Sure. Uh, how do you wanna do this?” Salieri wasn’t sure how to position herself as Ty took a silent step back, so she stood with a hand on her hip, mildly uncomfortable. “Are you, rolling, or-“
“At the end of the Kalos League’s first week, promising newcomer Salieri Soledad has three badges and a few moves that have entertained many viewers to no end,” Gabby said into the camera, in a very professional manner. “Miss Soledad, your first battle ended with what appeared to be an improvised sword duel between Pokémon. How did you come up with that on the fly?” She pointed the mic to Sal.
“Miss Soledad?” Sal rose her eyebrows, now off her guard. “Wow. Well, the other guy had a sword, so my Chespin wanted to use a sword to. So, you know, that’s how that happened-“
“And in your second Gym match against Grant, your improvised Damp against his Sudowoodo was given heavy attention online.”
“The guy has Rock type Pokémon and a waterfall in the same room. Not the best idea…has no one else done that to him yet? Really?”
“Now, after two successful Gym matches, your first battle against Korrina yesterday was relatively…lesser. Any comment on who your emotional support was-“
“Nope,” Sal interjected, blushing hard. “Just a friend. Our hands got, uh glued together. Crazy glue is, uh…kids, don’t play with crazy glue.”
“Can we expect to see more of this unknown friend at your matches?” asked Gabby, not missing a beat.
“What? Lady, I don’t know. I’m not Psychic. No, probably not.” Salieri was feeling sheepish now. It was hard for her to keep eye contact.
“Moving on, then. Only a few hours ago your action packed rematch with Korrina went your way. People have already been praising your control of the battlefield, and how you only ended up needing one good shot to take out her Hawlucha. Do you have any final commentary on your technique?”

Salieri lit up at the keywords in Gabby’s sentence, hardly listening to what came after. She saw an opportunity to edit an annoying part of her recent history, recorded on the news so the world could see. Ohmygodohmygod yesyesyes

“Well, Gabby,” said Salieri with a cheesy smile. She took the mic in her hand and looked directly at Ty’s camera, something Gabby allowed because boisterous trainers improved the ratings. “That’s why they call me One Shot.”  

[Klarp Glornharm]

Shalour City - Pokémon Center

It was a bit of a surprise to see Sal being interviewed when he arrived, but Ben moved past her, slipping behind the camera and moving to give his pokemon to the nurse behind the counter for a quick check-up. Most of them would likely be fine, he didn't actually remember any taking any heavy hits the day before.

Others had taken them instead. The thought still weighed on him, and he'd actually had a nightmare the night before. Not of him dying, but of him failing there. The Stalker had taken everyone else and buried them in the nightmare. He'd had to watch them get torn apart by the tree ghost thing.

He politely waited out of view for Sal to finish up with her interview. It was hers, after all, and he'd seen a bit of the match on the flight there. Mostly just highlights. She'd done well, but hearing it had taken two tries made him wonder if he could manage it in one. Don't get cocky. She has more experience, and after that battle with Grant you're not going to have it taken easy on you by the next leader.

Of course, there was that one moment where he really wanted to break in with a line, but that was the sort of thing that could make a joke out of people's reputations.

Or make everyone think they were rivals. That might actually come in handy...

But by the time the choice was realized, the moment was gone, and Ben would gesture to Sal in case she could see him to let her know he was definitely there and not a hallucination or something.  

[Marsuru]

Tower of Mastery

'Well played,' Zack said, beeping off his buzznav feed. 'Well played.'

'Redgrave. Master Gurkinn will see you now.' It was Milo. Zack could recognise that grumpy, slightly bitter voice anywhere by now. The old guard wasn't best pleased with Zack's treatment of the meditation courtyard and had threatened to throw the trainer over the wall. The only thing stopping him was the fact that Gurkinn had taken Zack on as a guest, and it was ultimately Gurkinn's say on when Zack must leave and via which architecture.

Zack held up his finger to say he'd be a minute, and could feel Milo's irritation flowing off him in waves. Team Zack had begun another round of training after breakfast, and it was going well. Malis now had complete control over his Flame Jet. He used it to give himself extra control over his jumps in addition to sharp changes of direction on the field, his flaming tail streaming behind him. It made him a dazzling sight to behold as he shot and arced around the courtyard, avoiding both Serene and Lethal's attacks before striking them both with harmless jabs of his claw.

Ideally, Zack would have several weeks to hone his team under the pressure of real attacks but it wasn't to be. Somewhere between starting and finishing his soup he realised he had a few days at best, and he couldn't waste time letting them get injured. So for now, if one of them landed a touch on another, it counted as a victory.

Serene moved on from Shadow Ball, and had begun practising Thunderbolt under Hazard's tutelage. It was a species-wide trait that Gengar loved their sense of humor, but Zack had the distinct impression that Hazard had a head level enough to teach. She might have cackled and danced through the air as Serene tried to nail her with sparking bursts of electricity, but she spoke encouragement during their breaks and Serene seemed grateful. It wasn't long before Serene had Thunderbolt down, and Zack was sure because Lethal seemed increasingly bothered by every new electric flash of light. During one of the pair's breaks, Zack asked Serene to teach Hazard how to use Psychic and she seemed eager enough to oblige.

For Lethal's part, Zack made sure to train the Clawitzer personally. They both had a big job to do during the meet with Ska, and Lethal needed as wide a repertoire of moves as possible. Bringing out his black notebook, Zack found his notes on Ice Beam and Dragon Pulse, and began describing the attacks to Lethal, who frothed with uncertainty. Dragon Pulse required tapping into a new source of power for Lethal. He was used to manipulating water, which was tangible, and struggled with energy-based techniques. Ice Beam came off easier; Zack began by making Lethal conscious of the temperature of his water attacks, and a short time later it just clicked. As a bonus, Lethal became versed in Scald.

If only he had a way to boost Lethal's special attack power. It wasn't uncommon for confident trainers to add a personal flair to their pokémon's moveset. They might figure out how to make Hydro Pump pump extra hard and call it Hydro Blast or something. Malis's Flame Jet was just an extension of his Fire Punch where all he really did was Fire Punch the air hard enough to propel himself. Nothing too crazy. Coming up with something completely new was a different story, and relied on the pokémon as much as the trainer's abilities. Even if Zack could figure out the technique, it would be useless if Lethal wasn't capable of performing it.

That was a concern for another time. Right now he had Milo breathing down his neck and a wise old master to meet. His pokémon were locked in combat, sectioned off into two teams again, though this time it was Malis and Serene versus Hazard and Lethal. They stopped on his command and fell into a huddle at Zack's feet, Malis and Hazard shoving each other as if Zack didn't notice. The trainer recalled them one by one, and took his time fixing the balls to his belt. Everything was harder with one hand.

'Alright, Milo,' Zack said, shrugging his backpack over his shoulder. 'Take me to your leader.'
'...' Milo said.

---

'Ah, Zack. I heard you wanted a word with me.' Gurkinn seemed amicable as ever, enough to make Zack feel suspicious. He offered the trainer a cup of tea, which appeared to be boiling water with some kind of vegetation floating in it. Very healthy, he was sure. They met in a room near the top of the tower, that Zack guessed was Gurkinn's study. The walls were lined with books and artifacts from centuries past, stacked on shelves that reached to the ceiling while sunlight streamed through the windows, giving the place a glowing warmth.

'Won't take long,' Zack said, crosslegged on the floor opposite the old aura user. 'First thing's first, I'll fix the courtyard.'
'I know you will,' Gurkinn smiled, 'but that's not why you're here.'
'Yeah, yeah. What's your answer?'

Gurkinn itched his chin, as if deliberating, but his answer lacked uncertainty. 'Of course you can have the sablenite back. My only concern is what you plan to do with it.'
'You're reading my mind. You know why I need it.'
'And I find your dedication to a single pokémon commendable. Especially one you have never met,' Gurkinn sipped his tea, analysing Zack over the lip of his cup. 'This is the Salieri in you.'
'Please,' Zack shook his head. 'This is all me.'

'If that is what you believe.' Gurkinn set his tea aside and laced his fingers in his lap. 'You know by now that you and Salieri are not the only guests in the tower.'
'Just when I thought we were special.'
'I'm afraid not. Though in all fairness, your rooms are much nicer. This other guest,' Gurkinn completed the almighty task of raising his eyebrows, 'I have a feeling you might like to meet him.'

---

The vault wasn't the only room at the tower's foundations. Dark and miserable, walls slick with sea mist, was the tower's prison. Gurkinn led Zack into its depths, opened a creaking door and dismissed the two guards on duty. When they stepped aside, Zack saw what they had chained to the wall, semiconscious, eyes glassy and unfocused

'The hell is this?' he said, not taking his eyes from the man in shackles. He had an unfriendly, angular face and narrow nose that had once broken and healed. He dressed inconspicuously, like any other trainer that might visit the tower. There was some reason he'd been singled out for this treatment. Maybe Gurkinn wanted Zack to see what happened if you pushed Milo too far.

'This,' Gurkinn said, a wry smile parting his wizened features, 'is a pirate. We found him attempting to gain access to the vault.'
'Well s**t,' said Zack.

Zack stopped short of jumping when the pirate thrashed in his chains. Comatose one second, wild animal the next, then back. His head rolled around his shoulders, then hung, a long line of drool dangling from his lip.

'We keep him sedated,' Gurkinn gestured to the prisoner. 'I already explained that Lord Nostrad would love to access the vault himself. A call to the police is all the excuse he needs to flood this place with investigators. It's too much of a risk.'
'So's keeping a pirate prisoner. He one of Ska's?'
'I believe so. Perhaps you could organise an exchange? His man for Salieri's Gardevoir?' Zack almost laughed. Gurkinn cleared his throat. 'Never mind then. Still, he wanted the sablenite. As dangerous as it is, it would be to the benefit of everyone in the tower if you were to give Ska what he wants. I do not wish this place to become a battleground for the sake of a single stone.'  

[Jump Einatz]

Shalour City - Pokémon Center

"Yep, that's great," Gabby muttered to Ty, watching the interview in the camera over his shoulder. She came around to Salieri to shake her hand. "Thanks a lot, you'll be able to see that in just an hour."
"No problem," said Sal, feeling surreal about being on TV by her own volition. "Thanks for featuring me."
"Well, we need to cut that down and we're putting you into a montage, but that montage is a feature so technically, you will be featured."
"Ah." Sal let go of Gabby's hand. "When you put it like that, it sounds like I'm not?"
"You keep up the good work and who knows?" Gabby gave her a wink. "You could get a whole segment."

They waved goodbye and made for the door. Gabby caught a glimpse of Benedict, and noticed he looked familiar. They'd probably end up speaking soon.

The news duo left the Pokémon Center and Salieri approached Benedict. "Hey, did you see that? Kind of bizarre." Sal wiped a hand through her hair, ready to let go of that lingering feeling for a new conversation. He gave Benedict a once over. The trainer didn't seem as put together as he usually was. Poor sleep, probably.

"Mia told me about what happened yesterday." It would be easier to give him condolences if she had been through the same experience. Sal had been attacked and chased by her fair share of monsters in her life, and one thing she had learned was that they came in all forms. The experience was never the same.

"That sucks, man," she said, resting a hand on his shoulder. Moving past these things took more than kind words, and even then they'd always be a part of you. At least, that's how it was for Sal. "Are you okay?"  

[Klarp Glornharm]

Shalour City - Pokémon Center

Benedict watched as the camera's left. When Gabby glimpsed him, she got a grin and a wink that came more from habit than from a wish to catch her attention.

"Only a little. The league's always been big, and we're still early on enough that you could still fall out. A lot of trainers do after a strong start. But you're a potential crowd favorite so..." He shook his head.

"At least they bothered to do the interview."

She was patting his shoulder. Mia had told her what had happened? It made sense. "I'm not okay." He replied, and took a deep breath. His arms crossed. He was mad. Furious. Not at her, at the people who had trained the Stalker.

"I'm sure there's a few things we should talk about." He gestured to the center, as if to say it was too crowded to talk about them. "Maybe during training. My pokemon need some more to see what all from yesterday stuck with them." He should tackle a gym later as well. By the sounds of it, Sal was now ahead of him.

"What did I miss yesterday?"  

[Jump Einatz]

"Your vote of confidence is overwhelming," said Sal, channeling her inner Mia for that sarcastic vibe. Regardless of anything else, Benedict was a fellow competitor. She didn't expect him to root for her in the League.

Salieri also wanted to continue her training from this morning. Now that Durendal had control over his new mode, it was time to teach him a new move. She gave the door next to her a side nod. "Let's take this outside."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Behind the Center was a small backyard, a grassy plot of land leading to a hill that drooped down to the next oceanside layer of Shalour City. With just the two trainers outside, there was plenty of room for them to train.

Salieri released her team. Oberon was asked to keep practicing her Recycle, now on a mug Sal had nabbed from somewhere and shattered. Biz and Rey were partnered together to keep working on their new moves. Salieri hoped that by training together, they could figure out how to battle together as well.

Durendal waited patiently for his commands, and Salieri knelt down to his level to whisper them. She punched her fist into an open palm as a gesture, doing it again while she explained until the Pawniard started nodding. He stepped off to his own side of the backyard to get to work.

Banksy didn't receive any training orders. Moze had done a thorough job of giving the tortoise techniques, so Salieri wasn't sure where to start with her. Instead, the Torkoal waited, overseeing the training silently until they were ready to skirmish with her again.

"So, where to start..." Sal wondered, stepping back on the edge of the backyard alongside Benedict. She tapped her chin. "Well, another Darkhorse Hunter ambushed me yesterday. He forced Zack and I to hold hands...it was like a mind merging thing, it's way worse then it sounds. But we found him and kicked his a**, so, he's behind bars now. I couldn't get anything out of the guy before that happened, he didn't know nothing."

Salieri would continue on to tell Ben about the issue with Skarada, but first she needed to ask about the Stalker. She knew he didn't want to talk about it, but fighting these monsters had become her life's work. She just had to know. "Did you get anything about the Darkhorse Hunters out of the Stalker? Before he went up in flames?"  

[Klarp Glornharm]

Benedict laughed a little bit. "Hey, I never said you wouldn't." The two would then take the conversation outside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ben's pokemon would be released as well, though with an odd number of them it was hard to know what he wanted to do with each to train them. Manny instinctively offered a link to him, and he accepted after a moment. Then, he instructed the rest to be linked briefly.

Jerath and Caboose were paired off. Caboose was to strike Jerath with electricity until he started learning to use electric abilities. A rhyhorn with thunderbolt and thunder could come in pretty handy against fliers. Especially when it rained.

Essence had a lot of practice fighting opponents with an advantage over her, and Ben decided to continue that trend for now. Francis would be paired off with her to see if the two could learn to adapt to one another. They'd learned enough abilities for now, after all. Adapting those abilities into a fight could make things a lot better.

Manny, meanwhile, would help Benedict observe them, with the intent of training his telepathic link. A lot had been gained the previous day, but it was hard to know if it was a result of just beefing himself up, or if he really could manage it.

"We learned something." He said at last. "Someone programmed the Stalker. I wouldn't be surprised if every single one of them was programmed similarly. So psychic probes are pretty much out until he gets better at it." He'd need more combat experience as well. He and Rhyhorn would be fighting after Caboose had helped him learn thunderbolt at the very least.

"Making them talk could end in brain damage if we're not careful too. If we want to learn a lot quickly, Manny's our best bet. But it'll take him time to be good enough." Or a partner to speed his reaction time and thinking speed. But it wasn't like any of them had a pokemon like that that he knew of.

"That reminds me. You want in on a telepathic link?"  

[Jump Einatz]

The shards of the ceramic mug were coming together, but not in the right shape. Each time Oberon tried she got closer, but couldn't get it just right. So she kept tipping the mug over and breaking it again for new results.

"A link?" Salieri took a quick look at Manny and then turned away quickly, avoiding eye contact. "I'll pass." After yesterday Salieri didn't want her mind to be a part of anyone else's, or vice versa. Not that she would have said yes anyway. The idea of someone else reading her thoughts in general was unnerving, something Gurkinn probably knew about her because he read her mind.

[Hold still,] growled Biz, who kept getting his Stat Seeds slapped away by Reynard's second body, a watery Substitute made in her likeness. When one finally landed, it didn't effect the Sub at all. Good to know. While she laughed at him, Biz sucker Seeded her, getting one on her nose. [Ha! Gotcha, sucka!]

"He was programmed?" Salieri trailed off, putting pieces together in her head. The Darkhorse Hunters were led by someone who could bury a person's memories with a Malamar. She didn't need more guesses to know who. Bitterly, she said, "Nicolette Nostrad. I'd bet on it, it was her."

Alone in his corner, Durendal used his isolation to bring himself to a zen-like state. Salieri had made it clear to him that while he was very good at what he did, he needed a new kind of skill to supplement that against more experienced foes. He needed range. Pressure wasn't an ability suited to a sweeper type fighter like himself, but honing it had given him a slew of new techniques. Now, Sal was asking him to focus his Pressure on the particles in the air, dragging them together with the magnetism made from his Magnet Rise.

The idea was to Pressurize a projectile together, charge it magnetically, and fire it along his arms. He was going to create a railgun.

"Faust -the Sniper- gave me tangible info when I interrogated him enough. I don't think he was programmed. Or if he was, maybe I broke it." Salieri folded her arms. "I wonder just how deep that brainwashing goes..." Her brother seemed like a different person when he had come home after his defeat. Salieri wanted to chalk it up to this new revelation, but she knew better than that. She knew he had simply been broken. "So if we run into more of these guys, we'll have to figure out which ones have things to hide they don't even know about. Fantastic."

She looked out at all of their Pokémon training up. They had come so far. Essence's progress hadn't gone unnoticed by Salieri. The last time they had been together, she had still been a Budew. They had come so far, but they still had a ways to go.

"I say 'if', but it's really 'when'. The Darkhorse Hunters are crawling out of the woodwork, and they don't like that we're onto them." One side of her mouth curled down as she looked at Benedict. "Things are only gonna get harder from here on. You know that, right?"  

[Klarp Glornharm]

Jerath was electrified, though that wouldn't harm him. Admittedly, Ring Target might help deal with his lack of gain from the electric attacks. Still, thunderbolt after thunderbolt crashed down on him. It wasn't very good training for Caboose, but Jerath studied the attack, analyzed it...

And still couldn't figure it out.

"That's fine. And yeah, he was programmed. Whatever it was, it threatened Manny. So it's something that would be a risk to push with." He took a deep breath.

Essence and Francis went back and forth. She dodged, he swooped. He gusted, she moved. Stun spore went out, and he pulled away before it could reach. Spore Leaf met gust, and what was left of the leaves had no spore left. A Heat Wave from the sky kicked up dust, and when that settled Essence had felt a glancing blow at best, and had a sunny day above her rose-hands. Her arm raised for a solar beam.

"Maybe whatever you did was tramatic enough to override it briefly. Like his brain didn't realize he was betraying them." Benedict replied. It sounded dumb, and yet if you didn't realize you were betraying them would that mean that the brain washing wouldn't trigger?

Maybe that would work?

Manny monitored the training, but more tried to learn from it himself. It wasn't the same, but it was some level of experience. Similar to the way that he and Essence had learned a move from Bridgette's pokemon. Psych Up. Which meant there was still something to learn from it.

"I do. They're going to know I had something to do with the oil rig. Unless that comes out quickly enough, it could become dangerous for me very quickly. And if it does come out, it might create turmoil for the Nostrads at the very least."

If Nicolette Nostrad was taking part in training these hunters, though, would there be any safety from them if he'd helped strike a blow? Probably not.

"We need a real strategy to use against them. Something to publically out them so the nobles have no choice but to disavow them." He had something in mind, but Caboose was far from ready for that. He still needed to be able to intercept signals better before he could tap into them.

"What happened with the lead you were going after? Skar or something like that."  

[Jump Einatz]

If Faust had been programmed, then what he said could've been lies. Knowing that just one of them had been warped by their own boss was enough for Salieri to begin to suspect all of the Darkhorse Hunters had been brainwashed. Until they knew more, it was safe to assume that, on some level, Nicolette had tainted all their brains. Which made trusting what she'd heard even harder.

If what Faust said wasn't lies, then a sponse named Alanza Taine was a unique breed of Darkhorse Hunter, skirting between the shadows and the spotlight. All Salieri had found out about her so far was that she had been competing in the Kalos League at 8 badges for 3 years now, and that she was out of the country until the second week of the League.

Current affairs were what dragged Sal away from her pursuit of the Darkhorse Hunters. She checked the time on her Pokégear. Thirty minutes until the deadline. "I have a lead on a potential Hunter, but the Ska thing is on a clock. Here's the abridged version."

Salieri took a deep breath. "Skarada creeped on Zack yesterday trying to get that rock he found on Route 10, it's called the Sablenite by the way and it's a Mega Stone. On, and that's, you know, a thing that some Pokémon and trainers can do to get an ultimate form in the middle of battle. Okay cool, but bench that for a sec, cause they got in a fight and I intervened but Ska got away. And I found out that Ska has Prou, who's a Gardevoir I know, we're..."

Her recap stalled as Salieri lingered, trying to put it in a way that wouldn't crack her emotional threshold. Thinking about her emotional threshold was already a crack in her emotional threshold. "We're like family. I need Prou. And Ska knows it, because last night he called me with an offer: the Sablenite for Prou and Ivan...oh, Ivan's my Pokédex and Ska stole it from me." A sweatdrop appeared on Sal's forehead, embarrassed that she got lifted on, but she continued. "I have to call Ska back in the next thirty minutes to give him an answer."

Oberon chirped next to them in delight, having finally fixed the mug back to its finished state. Reveling in her triumph, she destroyed the mug just to Recycle it once more.

Meanwhile, the Stat Seed had finally worked like it was supposed to. Biz Marquis thought of Speed, and Reynard's was leeched into his own. In slow motion, Reynard burst into Seine mode midair, thrashing at Biz to cut it out. The Chesnaught ran circles around her, twice as fast as usual with his arms out behind him as he made dumb helicopter noises saying, [Look at me, I'm Dune!]

Durendal heard that. His Inner Focus let him multitask, allowing himself to feel teased while feeling a hyper dense sphere of solid particles form and hover in between his hands. Yes, when he used Fleché his body hummed and made a weird helicopter noise. But it's not as if he meant for it to happen. I thought it was cool...

"I don't trust Ska for a second. And if I say no, he'll still go after the Sablenite, I know it. So I'm turning this trade into a trap to punk him before he punks me. Zack's helping out. It turns out he's not as high on the tiers of jackass as I thought." Sal thought about it, and decided to edit that credit. "He's not so bad."

"Anyway, while Ska and I are talking, Zack's going to snipe Ska from a distance and make the opening for an ambush." She rose an eyebrow and a glimmer of mad glee shone in her amber eyes. "Do you want in?"  

[Klarp Glornharm]

"You realize that that's not a plan, right?" It was after a long pause from where Sal had finished. She'd probably been expecting an answer right away, rather than him looking too closely into the plan.

"You show up, Zack snipes him from a distance. How are you going to scout things out? Where will Zack hide? How will you know when the timing is?" He glanced at Manny.

I get it. You'd be perfect for that job, but I have to bring it up to her.

Electricity suddenly seemed to fire from the Rhyhorn. In fact, it did fire, but it was almost as if the electricity that was hitting his horn was being redirected back towards the Raichu. Suddenly, they were creating a loop of thunderbolt being fired back between each-other, entirely accidentally. To an outsider, it would look like two separate streams of electricity connecting them both, surrounding each one, and firing back.

Essence fired solar beam, but Francis was no longer there. Quick attack carried him away. He arched down towards her, much faster, but requiring a second quick attack to reach her.

"I'm in regardless, but we can't go in half-cocked. Manny was able to detect other minds and aura with his telepathy. Which means he might be able to make this work."

The pulse of pride that Manny shot back was just a little worrying. A newly caught pokemon being that confident might not be a good thing given how little real battle experience he had.  

[Jump Einatz]

"Okay, okay," Sal stammered as Ben listed reasons, holding out her hands. She knew from the start the idea on its own was shoddy, but Zack hadn't bothered to poke through its many glaring holes. "I know it's not my best plan, but it's not...I mean, you know. These things take some time to fully bake."

Time was something they didn't have a lot of. Salieri looked Manny up and down like she was trying to decide if he was an appliance worth investing in. Even if she didn't like Telepathy, she couldn't deny its usefulness. "Yeah, he could. I think Ska is gonna bring backup even if he says he'll come alone, so we need to suss out who's around."

She tapped the side of her head. "I'll do the link this one time so the three of us can coordinate, if you think Manny's Telepathy has the range for that. I'm going to tell him I'm coming alone, and you guys can get into positions before the trade after we set a location."

The more bases they covered before the meeting, the more prepared they could be for whatever Ska was scheming. "If I don't come with all my Pokémon, he'll know I put one somewhere. My team can't help with the stealth part...and we should probably get some sunglasses..."