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Salieri's first reaction when seeing a nightmarish ghoul over her shoulder was to scream and try to punch it in the face. Of course, her fist would phase harmlessly right through the Ghost, but what was more alarming was that Zack was now holding onto her other hand. She tried, very hard, to let go. It didn't work.

"Zack." Sal leveled a glare in his direction. "Let go. Of my hand."

The Chatot distracted her from the matter at hand. Now on closer inspection it seemed like a robot, something Mia's tinkering got Sal familiar with. It could be why it had the ability to replicate human speech. Sal wouldn't know for sure without her Pokedex.

"I'll expand your face with my boot you a** clown, what the HELL is going on?!"

"SALLY?" Sal shrieked at the name. It had already been a long day and it wasn't even dinnertime yet. The urge to grab the bird by the neck and put it through the wall was fierce, oh so fierce, but Sal held herself back by a thread long enough to ask questions. Many questions.

"Who are you? Is this thing a robot? What's with this hand gimmick, you have the lamest gimmick of anyone I know. What do you mean I'M very naughty?" That last question raised more questions, and made Sal think that whoever this was could be one of her many enemies. She stepped in front of Zack, awkwardly since their hands were stuck together. "Did Ska send you? Jullien? Nicolette? That security guard from Parfum Palace? Math's friend? Faust? Ratio? No, why would Ratio use a parrot...is Ratio using a parrot? Mia, is that you? This is the stupidest prank, Mia, I'm gonna dropkick your parrot in five, four, three..."

Salieri looked at Zack like he was dumb. "Yeah. Duh. We just need the GPS thing or whatever the main computer thing is." She flexed the fingers of her free hand, which cracked them. "The wings aren't important."

As if to prove her point, Sal made for a mad grab at the Chatot, trying to latch onto one of its wings and pull it off by pressing the body against the wall with her foot as leverage. Making that motion would drag Zack along for the ride.

While she did that, she dropped a random Pokéball to the ground in order to deal with the Cofagrigus. Biz Marquis materialized. One look at the madly grinning Ghost and he'd scream just like his trainer had while also trying to punch it in the face.

Salieri's sharply annoyed exhale may as well have been a burst of steam. The rebel teen was used to using her fists to deal with weaker Pokémon all the time. She believed if she didn't have to lug Zack around she could take care of Chatbot no problem. Except she probably couldn't because it was far quicker than her and could fly, which only served to make her madder.

"Quit backseat training!" Sal snapped back while taking a Pokéball off of her belt. Before she could release it, she suddenly became slower from the Scary Face she could not avoid. "Ohhhhh greeeeeaaaat," she drawled at half speed.

Before Biz could so much as utter a protest, he was engulfed in the living coffin. Seconds later he was tossed out, wrapped head to toe in spiritual bandages. He felt much itchier and not so Bulletproof. In slow motion, he shrugged his shoulders. [I feeeeeel dryyyyyyy,] he stated, surprised at the slowness of his own voice.

Salieri released Durendal, and the Pawniard took a second to make sense of the situation. He could not. Not at all. "Stooooop thaaaaaat biiiiiiiird aaaaaand hellllllp Biiiiiiiiz wiiiiiiiith theeeee-"

Dune wasn't going to wait for Salieri to give a slow motion order. He got the jist. The Pawniard fired a Thunder Wave down the hallway at the wily Chatbot on his way over to the Chesnaught. He raised up a knife hand to cut the bandages open, when suddenly Salieri remembered something she learned about Cofagrigus a long time ago. "Noooooooo-"

The moment Durendal's hand touched Biz, more wraps sprung from the original wraps and wrapped themselves around the Pawniard in an identical manner. He looked down at the bandages and tried tugging at them, but they weren't going anywhere. Like Biz before him, the Mummified Dune also just shrugged.

Meanwhile, Salieri slapped one of Zack's Pokéballs off of his belt and onto the ground to release a member of his party at random. She was speaking too slowly to want to ask for permission, and she was going to make damn sure she didn't carry both of their weight.

Biz Marquis shuddered as Cofagrigus crawled backwards on all fours. He wasn't going to sleep easy tonight.

"Meeeeeee?" Salieri returned Biz to his Pokéball. The process took forever. Before she could do the same for Durendal, the Mummified Pawniward just opted to do it himself, and hopped into his Pokéball on his own. He wasn't catching up to Chatbot, not like this. He had seen a zombie movie once at Gotengo, and rule one of being infected was quarantine.

Sal slowly pointed a finger at Zack. Slowly. "Aaaaaatttt leeeeeaaaassst Ididsomethingabout-AGH!"

With the encounter being over, her normal speed returned to her. Salieri had been trying to speak so fast that when she finally could she accidentally bit down on her tongue. "Ouch."

Salieri had a fit of schadenfreude when Zack did, laughing about...nothing? Certainly not biting on her own tongue. That was weird. Weirder still was Zack's tongue going through the same pain as hers. Did he bite his tongue too? She'd laugh at him, but this needed testing.

So Salieri pinched herself in the arm, hard, to see if Zack reacted. "Ow."

"You didn't feel that?"

Sal looked at his right arm, still in the sling. It could've been numb and it was possible her pinch corresponded with the same part of his body. If they were indeed sharing sensations, he wouldn't feel anything that happened to her right arm. Time for more testing.

Salieri pinched her nose. "Ow."

"Ow!"

Sal's nose wrinkled in annoyance as she raised a hand to slap Zack in the face, already forgetting this would result in her getting slapped in the face.

That's when she saw the shallow bite mark on her sleeveless shoulder and stopped herself. "Merde!" It wasn't just the sensation of pain they shared. It took on physical form. What started as an amusing side effect to a terrible and specific torture actually had dangerous implications.

A wave of dread came over her. Not only could she not leave Zack's side, she couldn't hit him without consequence either. It was like something out of a myth. Or a comic book. "This is my nightmare..."