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Route 4 - Parterre Way

"Hey, you. Pick up your head."

Salieri stood a few feet in front of Helena, sipping on a blue slushie. The only pokemon at her side was Dune, who had opted not to get his own slushie. The difficulty of gripping onto the cup with his blade hands wasn't worth it.

"You're a pokemon trainer, right?" Sal asked Helena, eyes on Loki. She lowered the slushie down to Durendal so the Pawniard could have a sip. He looked away, deciding that being fed the slushie was embarrassing. Although it did look sooo good...

She shrugged and took it back, sipping once more. Dune missed his chance. "I think I beat all the trainers here already, but I wanna practice my Pawniard's new attack before I get back to Lumiose. Wanna battle?"

Route 4 - Parterre Way

No? Sal furrowed her brow at the word and took a harsh sip of the slushie. Either this girl just got dumped or she experienced a recent loss. Seeing people discouraged like that agitated her. It reminded her of Moze's darker days.

This girl had a brother as well, one that was apparently a pokemon trainer. Salieri wouldn't question his skill level, as she didn't expect too much from the trainers around Route 4. "A brother, huh? Alright, I'll give it a shot."

With one long pull, she finished her slushie and tossed the empty cup over her shoulder into a trash bin. "The name's Salieri Soledad. You can call me Sal."

She crouched down so she was eye level with Loki and tapped at the pokedex resting in her arm band. "Beep boop that's a Skitty." said Ivan in its tinny voice as it crackled to life. Sal sighed at the lie, and Ivan mechanically laughed, "Ha ha beep boop ha ha, nah I'm just playin'. Its an Abra. Little dude sleeps all day, and when it's awake it doesn't fight. You wanna fight that thing, it teleports away. What a p***y-"

"Give it a rest, Ivan," Sal growled at her pokedex before turning it on mute. She poked lightly at the side of Loki's face. "Yeah, my pokedex is, uh...yeah. So is it true? Or are you just not a trainer?"

She realized after speaking that her words might come across as mean. Sal didn't have much of a filter when she spoke, and if she wanted to battle this girl's brother she couldn't just push her away, so she tacked on a quick "I mean, whatever it is, it's cool. You do you."

Route 4 - Parterre Way

Salieri pouted at the suggestion of "Sally". It sounded like a little schoolgirl wrapped up in a bow and dress like a saccharine present. "Salieri or Sal. Those are your options...or Future Champion, that’s got a nice ring to it."

She continued to poke the Abra's face from different angles, wondering if the pokemon was asleep or not. It was hard to tell if Loki’s eyes were closed or just naturally slits. "I got a hold of a broken pokedex in Orre couple years back, and my friend –she’s a real tech wiz- fixed it up for me. But now the A.I. won’t stop glitching, it’s a real piece of sh-“

In a flash Salieri was gone, ten feet up in the air and falling. “-IIIIIIIIT!” she cried as she dropped to the ground, wincing. The delinquent was a very resilient girl, but the fall still stung. Durendal folded his arms and looked away, embarrassed for his trainer.

She got to her feet and stared down the Abra. As much as she wanted to punch him for it, she knew he would just Teleport away before it landed. Even Ivan warned her that much. Instead, she grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes. “Alright, maybe I shouldn’t have poked you, but ******** you, connard.”

Sal rubbed her sore back at looked to Helena. “You’re walking to Lumiose, yeah? Why don’t you just Teleport there?” She had never encountered a teleporter before, so she wasn’t entirely keen on how it worked. But it was probably better to ask Helena about it than Ivan.

More police arrived in small vans and began to cordon off the area. With little more to see, the onlookers dispersed back into the crowd and continued about their day, now with a little story to tell their friends. Zack stood up at his table, chair screeching on the speckled flagstones. Pangoro growled a little as he climbed to his feet, careful not to break the chair with any sudden movements.

The trainer returned to the slow flow of people, dark type following close behind.

Route 4 - Parterre Way

Zack tried to calm down. On top of being eccentric, apparently Kalosians slowed to a crawl when in a group. Being unable to get to his destination at anything faster than a snail's pace until he reached the Route 4 gatehouse, Zack had generated blood pressure that would make a steam cooker blush. The sun behind him and Pangoro casting a thick shadow, Zack glanced around, looking for his sister.

He spotted her standing around, apparently alone save her pokémon. Had she tried battling with just an Abra? No wonder she didn't land a hit. As he made his way over, Zack realised that Helena wasn't alone after all.

"Hey, Helena," he called over as he approached, hands in his pockets. Then he feigned a look of surprise when he looked to Salieri, grin widening, "Oh look, it's One Shot! How've you been? Steal anything good lately?"

Helena stood dumbfounded by the exchange. She had expelled all the energy she didn't have with Salieri already so she let them talk at first.

Zack poked at Salieri, and the abrasive and energetic girl poked back. They looked like a bad couple. Helena managed to recover a bit of stamina by the time Salieri asked about their nobility.

"This is a secret so don't tell anyone," Helena said as she stepped over to Salieri and leaned in to whisper in her ear, "We're not nobles."

Route 3

Route four had been crowded, more-so than he enjoyed with the need of training his pokemon. Oh, it worked well enough, giving him space to try new things, and some wild pokemon to try things against. Essence, his Budew, had been able to show its ability to use absorb, growth, and water sport, but Benedict couldn't quite find a way to see how she would be making any moves against Viola's gym anytime soon. Bug pokemon were there, after all, and trying to tackle them with one viable pokemon that wasn't particularly strong against bug types would only backfire...

Which had brought the newbie trainer to route three. He'd need another pokemon, and those that he'd seen on route four hadn't really felt so promising in this case... Not that he was suddenly expecting his pokemon to win so soon after being caught, there was a very real chance he wouldn't be able to challenge the gym that day at all, but Ben had his heart set on dealing with Viola. Even if it wouldn't be near so impressive as he'd hoped...

A small flying pokemon caught his eye, and the womanizer felt his lips curl into a grin. Not the best thing for a grass-type like Essence, if he remembered his basics right, but the bird would be good against Viola. Budew's pokeball was tossed out, and the pokemon was released. "Absorb" was whispered, and the grass-type followed the command. The landed flying type, which seemed to be pecking at the ground for food, was caught, and turned to find the attacker. Another absorb was called out as it moved in with a tackle, which proved something grand...

Essence would win the fight easily. Unfortunately, what followed was fairly dull, and ended with a weakened pidgey in a pokeball. Francis, Benedict decided, would be its name. "His" name, as the pokedex told the trainer moments later.

Potions were used carefully on the pokemon, and Benedict took a deep breath before releasing him next to Budew. "That's two of you then." He said, staring at them. This wasn't going to be fun, but then, he hadn't really expected all of pokemon training to be fun. The perks would be, though...

"Alright. Let's get started on some real training, then." He said, grin widening. No, there wasn't any chance of challenging the gym that day...

But tomorrow. Oh, they'd have a heck of a time tomorrow.

The two started into each other and Helena felt the drag of energy required to be a participant. She let out a heavy breath and stepped away from the duo.

"You guys should just battle," she interjected in a soft voice.