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"Beat me? What are you, twelve?" said Sal. "If we kick each other's asses it'll be twice as hard to drag each other around, idiot." She tapped the side of her head to symbolize there was a brain in there. Truthfully she could've kept beating herself up just to beat him up, but she'd rather take the rational ground while she still had a chance. They looked stupid enough already.

"But that plan, that I can agree on." Sal looked down at their bound hands and sighed. The Chatbot already had clips of Zack's voice. They must've met before. "Who is this guy?" she asked while yanking him towards the reception counter. "...and who do you wanna bang, anyway?" She'd think of an explanation for their situation when the need arose.

A second talking bird for one pirate? Skarada was a greedy powerful thug, not out of his mind. "Doubt it. He's an in your face troll, not the behind-the-mic type...hey, that's something you guys have in common."

Despite being stuck holdings hands with a man who she had learned to feel deep seated frustration with all the time, Salieri wasn't very self conscious about it. Her focus was directed to finding a way out of this mess. Then she suddenly started to feel like people could be watching. "Stop being embarrassed, you're making me embarrassed!" she hissed. "Who cares about these people's opinions...right?"

She'd have to put her guess into Zack's lovelife on hold, since they now had to interact with somebody. Now feeling Zack's self consciousness, Sal hastily put Zack's Pokéballs, Serene, and the balls for Reynard and Oberon onto the counter. When the receptionist took their Pokémon away, Sal would ask, "Do you have any badges now?"

It came to her attention that if Zack was feeling embarrassed then he could take that question as an insult like it had been once before, and then she'd feel insulted, and then they'd start pinching and biting themselves again. For the sake of research into their condition, she tacked on a quick "I mean this could be something else, if you know what I mean."

The Chatbot had emphasized her as the naughtier one, after all. If it wasn't Ska or Ratio, it could be the case that this was a Darkhorse Hunter. If it was, he was more diabolical than Faust.

And if it was Mia, that girl was getting revenged on so hard.

"It doesn't matter how many I have," Sal dodged, not wanting to give the number after what Grant told her earlier. She hadn't lost a badge match yet, but that's because she was taking her time planning and training. She'd have to pick up the pace, and soon. "I'm Mozart Soledad's sister and I took out one of their dudes two days ago. They want me out early."

She felt a twinge of pride at the idea of being in the upper echelon of the threat list, but mostly she felt a kind of sadistic hope at the idea of meeting another Darkhorse Hunter. And destroying him. Sal smiled at the thought.

"Yeah, I think so." The dread returned. "Merde. We need to fix this, like, yesterday."

Salieri took back her Pokéballs and rose an eyebrow at Zack's request. "For real?" She wasn't just going to use Helping Hand for his every whim, not with that attitude. Feeling more put off than before, Sal put her hand on her hip as a reminder that she could still use it.

"If you're gonna ask me like that then you can do it yourself."

"You think you have a higher pain tolerance than me? As if!" Sal lifted up her free hand, escalating their standoff. "What do you think happens to Zack Junior if I punch myself in the v****a?"

The receptionist wanted no part in any of what she was hearing. She decided to take her lunch break early.

A tumbleweed should have blown through the center. It didn't happen.

Salieri was aware of the repercussions that'd come with this attack. She really didn't want to do it. But she really didn't want to be Zack's b***h even more. Her hand shifted into a more ready position.

"Say. Please."