Pokémon Legends: Court of Kings

[Spinne Biss]

Lumiose City - d**k's Sporting Goods

"You can't buy that."

"Or that."

"That too, put it back."

"Why not?" Helena finally snapped at the cashier. He was a plump man with short black hair and a thick bushy beard.

"Those items are reserved for people that can properly handle them," the man said.

"I can setup a tent." I can have Zack show me how, anyway.

"That's what they all say, miss. Without the proper amount of badges I can't let you touch anything of that quality," he pointed at the store in general.

"What if I said I had a badge?" Helena asked.

"You don't," the cashier said confidently. He pointed at the television hung up behind him. "I saw you lose yesterday, and I haven't seen you in any of the gyms. You're here in Lumiose, so it's a safe bet that you don't have a badge yet. You're free to show me one if you do have one, but I doubt it."

"So what can I buy?" Helena asked.

"Just a second," the man said and he retreated into the back of the store. When he returned it was with a large bin that had the word "return" written across the front in thick black marker.

"You can choose anything from here," the man said.

"You've got to be kidding me," Helena mumbled to herself. She pulled out one of the stickthings for a tent leg and carried with it part of the tarpthings that the leg had stabbed through. The string that connected it to the other parts of the leg was missing. "What can I get with one badge?"

"Anything not marked in red," the man said.

"What does red mean?"

"Experienced trainers only, four badges and no less."

Helena sighed as she dropped the stick back into the box. "I'll be back after I get a badge, I guess," Helena said, a hint of defeat in her voice.

"Just make sure you don't suck this time," the man said as Helena started for the exit.

"Must suck to have no friends," Helena shot back without breaking pace.

"Better then having no badges," the man shot back.

This did cause Helena to stop. She looked at him like he'd said something dumb and asked, "how?"

***

Route 22 - Détourner Way

Helena had stopped on route 22, as it was the only one around Santalune where she hadn't trained yet, shortly after her visit to the store. She only had a quick detour to register for her match at the gym. Otherwise she had made real good use of Loki's ability to teleport.

It was here that she trained. Helena had released all of her Pokemon to train against several wild Pokemon. Loki had the special training of trying to learn Double Team and otherwise it was several conflicts at once with Helena giving orders all around.

Her Pokemon had begun to pick up movements on their own, so they weren't so reliant on Helena telling them to dodge everything if she was slow to the word, and she was seeing attacks at the final few moments and figuring out how to counter them then and there.

With her attention split so many ways, it was a lesser version of facing Serene with her billion clones. It was something Helena could manage and overcome, unlike Zack, which meant she wasn't as stressed out by it.

Helena had picked a high vantage point - a cliff along the southern part of the western half of the route - in order to play conductor to the battle.  

[Jump Einatz]

Little did Salieri know that Viola, with her ever present camera, did take a picture. And would later photoshop it to make it very embarrassing and out of context. But that's a story for another time.

Santalune City - Pokemon Center

Salieri sprawled across the length of a couch in the Pokemon Center's videophone lounge, which was mostly empty while she waited for the restoration of Veil and Biz. During that period she had made the a call to Mia to tell her of her win, and that she would stop by Lumiose soon before heading west to the coast.

The battle kept playing over in her mind. Salieri looked back on mistakes and guesses that had cost her. The biggest overestimation was of Viola's strength. She hadn't expected advanced techniques and well trained pokemon after continuous rounds of defeating chumps.

Viola also had a good type for dealing with Salieri's team. She brushed up on Grant, the next Gym Leader she planned to face, in a coffee table magazine about extreme sports next to her. He used Rock type pokemon, something that Salieri was sure her pokemon could handle. Sure, they would keep training, but the next gym didn't have her feeling as apprehensive, especially after this winner's high.

The nurse came into the lounge and delivered her pokemon. Salieri took them back and left. The next stop before going back home was to get lunch-

Route 22 - Detourner Way

-which she took out to Detourner Way. There were plenty of outdoor spots to eat in Santalune, but Salieri found the city bland compared to the vibrant ins and outs of her homecity. She found herself a nice big tree stump to sit on that overlooked a Rhyhorn racing track just off the road. In the distance, Rhyhorn jockeys did laps and practiced their runs, giving Salieri and her team something nice to watch as they ate.

[And then I was like 'Hi-YAH, can't touch this' and I whipped out one of these,] Biz bragged to the other pokemon as he pulled out a quill sword. [Yeah, no big deal or anything, it's just a sword. A sword I pulled outta me.]

Durendal ate without giving Biz attention. Being made of blades, he didn't find the feat impressive. That, and he was hiding his jealousy towards Biz's participation in the gym battle. Veil blinked at the quill sword, and with a swift Octazooka blasted it out of the Chespin's hands. "Veillantif!" Salieri curtly interjected. "I told you a thousand times, no Octazookas at mealtime!"

Veil nodded, not taking her trainer's tone seriously, before turning back to Biz Marquis. [Are you bad at holding things or are they flimsy? Lemme shoot another one, I wanna shoot another.]

Sal looked to Banksy, who had taken her food off to the side to eat alone. "Hey, come eat with the rest of us."

Banksy poked her head out with turtle speed, looking on at Biz try to defend the honor of his quills to the Horsea. Durendal wasn't very good small talk company either. The Torkoal declined, and a vein bulged on Sal's forehead. "Hmph. Idiot turtle..."

Out the corner of her eyes, she saw a familiar figure on a cliff across the road. It was Helena overlooking her pokemon training in the grass below. It looked like her Abra was working on a new move.

"HEYYY!" Salieri yelled across the road at Helena. She wondered if she was close or loud enough to be heard. Odds were it was the latter.  

[Spinne Biss]

Route 22 - Détourner Way

The battles were about finished when Salieri called to Helena. It was a lot more difficult than it looked, but twice as impressive. She moved between each battle and more often then not her Pokemon took injuries because of her, or a battle dragged out far too long.

Despite that, it was a good training session for the lot of them. When Salieri called out to her Helena turned and gave her a wave before gesturing with one finger, indicating to wait.

At least in Unova - in Kalos it meant silence, or shut up.

Helena conducted the rest of her battles with the added element of Loki. He dived into them and added an element that quickly overwhelmed the wild Pokemon. When it was over Helena called over her Pokemon, recalled them, and then carefully descended the hill to go meet Salieri.  

[Jump Einatz]

Sal furrowed her brow at Henrietta's finger gesture. Did Helena know what that meant? Maybe she was just as disrespectful as her brother. You can train and talk at the same time...whatever, if she wants to chat she can come here. The bandanna girl huffed and kept eating.

The Rhyhorn racers kept practicing, but now Salieri was watching Helena train, her pokemon soon following suit. Helena's party looked like they were working on fundamentals, leading Sal to believe most of them were freshly caught. Still, they looked like they were capable in a battle under her guidance. Sal specifically had her eyes on Loki, who embarrassed her the day before. Not bad, but I'll still kick your a** someday you sleepy connard.

By the time Helena came over to Salieri, she was packing up her lunch site with only Durendal at her side. Dune speared through the garbage with pointy jabs and dropped it in a bag Sal held open for him. "So you have more than one pokemon after all. You've been a busy Combee, huh?"

She shifted her eyes to Helena as Dune kept working. Now she couldn't remember why she called her over in the first place. "What's up? It looks like your Abra knows how to fight now."  

[Spinne Biss]

"Only because of you," Helena said as she looked over Loki's ball in her hand. She clipped it to her belt as she turned to face Salieri. "He can use teleport effectively, but unless gym leaders are dumb enough to get teleported out of bounds that's useless."

Helena offered Salieri a friendly smile. "So thanks, I might just stand a shot in this league with him because of you."  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri stiffened up. Thanks was not something she expected to get. Everytime she received it she felt a little undeserving because most of her actions were self serving. The reason she let Loki learn Charge Beam was to remind him of his weakness without her, and so she could have a better battle when the time came for them to fight.

There was that, and Helena had seemed upset yesterday. A new trainer's discouragement couldn't be hidden on their face. As someone who's life was shaped by many unfortunate events, Salieri understood what it meant to be down on your luck. If it was Sal in Helena's position, then Moze would've helped her out. The old Moze, anyway. It was just something she felt she had to do.

"Don't thank me just yet," Salieri replied, cheeks slightly red. Being praised by a crowd was something she was used to as Gotengo's current leader, and it didn't mean much to her. But being thanked one on one made her a little flustered. "You still owe me a fight for that favor."

Dune hid a tiny smile at his trainer's slight embarrassment. What his trainer really meant to say was 'You're welcome', but she preferred to keep her real feelings under check. It wasn't easy to maintain a tough persona with your heart on your sleeve. The bandanna girl kept going. "They aren't dumb enough to get tricked out of bounds. I wanted to toss Viola's Vivillon over the edge but there was no way she would let me."

She smiled smugly. "I just got my badge, by the way."  

[Spinne Biss]

"Oh? Congratulations!" Helena knew how difficult getting a badge could be, even if some people made it look easy. "I'll get my first badge today. Then hopefully I wont be too far behind the competition."

Helena stood for a moment looking uneasy, town between thoughts of asking Salieri and not before she said, "so, can I see it?"  

[Jump Einatz]

"Uh, thanks." Salieri put down the garbage bag. The area was now cleared of trash. She reached into her badge case and handed the Bug Badge to Helena. It wasn't an entirely trusting act. Not expecting to be robbed meant you could be robbed at any moment. Sal knew that better than most, and even though Helena didn't give off that vibe, she was still on her toes.

"...so, your brother is kind of an enfoiré, huh? How do you put up with that?" As far as Sal could tell, Helena herself was not an 'enfoiré'. Loki may have been mischievous, but his trainer appeared to be nice at least.  

[Spinne Biss]

Helena didn't know what enfuwee meant but she assumed it was something negative. "Well, judging by the way he treats most people." She stopped to stare at the badge for a second, her lips pressed tight. Must be more impressive when you earn one.

She held the badge out to Salieri. "Let's just say that you don't have enough badges to tame him." She paused for dramatic effect before adding, "he's not that bad, though. He can be abrasive, but he's rarely just a d**k."  

[Jump Einatz]

Sal took her badge back and put it away. "Well he was 'just a d**k' when he insulted my base and everybody in it." She scratched her head, realizing she just called Gotengo her 'base' out loud. It sounded juvenile. Too late to retract it, though. "I mean, I did steal his notebook, so...I thought he was a noble..." This admittance was serving as a very indirect, half-assed apology. Salieri hated to apologize.

Her eyes met Helena's. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. But I'll have to get him back someday for what he said," she tacked on, as if her petty revenge was just another item on a list of chores. "Anyway, it must be nice to travel around with your brother. When he isn't being a d**k." The accent the Redgraves used indicated they weren't Kalosian. "Mine won't-"

She paused, taking back whatever she was about to blurt out about her own brother, and changed the subject. "Are you both challenging the league?"  

[Spinne Biss]

Helena gave Salieri a long hard stare as she talked. When she posed the question her expression softened. "I am," she said. Helena tightened her lips together for a second in thought.

"You know, Salieri, if you treat your enemies poorly then you're no better than you think they are - and if they turn out to be not so bad after all you're the only one being a jerk." It wasn't that Salieri's vendettas were her problem, but she didn't want Zack getting robbed again because Salieri didn't like him - that would be an actual problem.  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri couldn't help but give Helena a bitter smile in response. Treat others the way you wanted to be treated. The maxim was repeated to her many times before, by her schoolteachers, Arnaud, and even Moze at times. But she didn't like most of her teachers, kindness had gotten Arnaud to where he was now -sickly and losing his memory-, and the last time she saw Moze was very sour. Just thinking about it made her scar tingle. The golden rule was a nice thought, but experience told her it wasn't real.

"That's a cute idea." She folded her arms and swiveled to face the other trainer entirely, not smiling anymore. "Do you even know who my enemies are?"  

[Spinne Biss]

"No," Helena said flatly. "But, you stole from my brother because he looked like someone that you might have hated." Salieri gave off an impression of being a strong girl - mind and body. However, looking at her now, Helena wondered how much of that was a front.

"So the question that really needs to be asked is, do you?"  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri looked down at the ground, shaking her head and rocking on her feet trying not to get angry. She hated how Helena was right. When it came to the nobility, Salieri was quick to jump to conclusions. Her underestimation of Viola's ability almost cost her the gym battle, but that wasn't something she'd admit to Helena or anyone else. It was a weakness she needed to work on. Next time, she wouldn't be so hasty.

"Yes," Sal said, just as flatly as Helena. "Yes I do. I just made a mistake, is all. That ugly jacket..." She flipped back her hair and looked away. "Bon dieu. Ugh, you sound like my dad... I won't try to rob your brother anymore, if that's what you want."

A moment later and she made eye contact with Helena again. "Tell me, out of all the Pokemon Leagues you could've challenged around the world, why pick Kalos? What did you come here for?"  

[Spinne Biss]

So long as Salieri wasn't going to rob either of them, Helena could settle. She let out a sigh of relief.

"You guys have the best accents." Kalosian accents were pretty little things. The way the people sounded, especially while speaking the language, wasn't very intimidating. She could only tell from what they said to determine whether or not Kalosians were upset or angry or any sort of aggressive emotion.

"I'm here to get rich and blow it all on school tuition."