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When Salieri dashed forward, so did Zack. He didn't have a spare hand to reinforce his grip on the girl, but he didn't need it. He heaved her around just as she attempted to do the same thing to him, and all that ended up happening was that they both sort of staggered a little. The truth of the situation then dawned on him.

'Wait, you wanted me to be the flail?' he snapped. Trevor and Iceburg undropped their jaws.

'Oi, I fink they're tryin to have a go at us.'
'Bloody uncivilised. Let's batter 'em anyway,' Trevor roared, rushing forward.

He yanked a tyre iron from his belt and swung it at the two trainers while they were still on the back foot. If Salieri didn't do anything, he'd crack her hard across the cheek and loosen some teeth before bringing the iron overhead. He would grip it in two hands, then swing it down hard to smack her skull.

'Bugger.' Trevor gasped, felt his legs rise, and landed on his front, wind knocked out of him. The tyre iron clattered behind the two trainers, but that didn't mean the danger was over. Iceburg was massive, pushing seven foot and wide as a bus. He didn't need weapons when he had arms like battering rams, and he intended to prove it.

As Zack and Sal straightened up, Iceburg was on them, cupping hand over fist and driving them both into Zack's broken arm. Blissngale had numbed Zack's arm, but that didn't make it invincible. Both trainers would feel their bones stretched to break point, their right arms gone temporarily dead. And Zack would be sent crashing into Salieri, likely knocking her from her feet if she couldn't brace both their weight.

If the trainers went tumbling into a pile, Iceburg would hoist Trevor onto his feet with a single hand, then charge the trainers. Zack had the most punchable face and was already in a sling, but Iceburg wasn't about to underestimate White Flag's sister. He was bigger and stronger, and drove his foot into Salieri's stomach to knock the wind out of her.

Red in the face and with his head perilously close to Salieri's armpit, Zack got mad. He rolled off his back and onto his feet in a single motion, standing upright, weighing his options. His sling arm was useless, and his good arm attached to Sal's now-useless arm. The big, dumb lump of muscle tried to kick Salieri's gut but missed, and now is was their turn. Standing back to back, a thought pinged in Zack's brain and out his mouth at the exact same time as Sal.

'Balls,' he said, kicking in sync with Salieri. Their feet rose as a mirror image, each sinking into one of Iceburg's mighty testicles. His grapes popping, Ice's eyes bulged. He gasped like someone climbing into a freezing bath then staggered backwards. Zack grinned as his anger gave way to adrenaline. It was short lived. Trevor had gotten in behind the two trainers, and swung his tyre iron into the side of Zack's ribs.

'Stop bloody holding hands!' he shrieked, welting them again and again, bashing through meat and into bone, raising purple-red bruises on both trainers. 'Start. Taking. Us. Seriously!'

Trevor spent half a second off guard when Sal caught his weapon. She had to reach over awkwardly to make the save, her other hand still in Zack's, and she'd be drawn into a more awkward position yet when Zack followed up. He could easily twist his torso, even with the muscle beaten to a pulp, and drive his elbow into Trevor's nose. In his experience, a blow like that would stop a fight in its tracks, so why did he want to try a kick so bad instead?

In less than half a second, Zack made up his mind and popped Trevor's face open with a wet thud, dragging Sal sideways by her dead arm. The tyre iron clattered again, this time for good, as both the thugs were left reeling on the floor, clutching various parts of their anatomy and groaning. Zack breathed hard as the pain in his side set in.

'You okay?' he asked, knowing Salieri was in just as much pain as him.

Zack had to suppress his urge to gush over Oberon's cuteness. The sooner he had Salieri out of his head, the better. Instead he distracted himself while the pokémon healed his injuries. Last thing they needed were cracked ribs when those two assholes came back. A broken nose only kept you down for so long. He raised his eyebrows at Salieri's question. Was she actually trying to relate to him? It felt weird. Like when a parent asks about your hobbies.

'Uh, alright,' he said, thinking back. He'd been injured a ton of times over the years. During his academy days, he'd been in and out of the infirmary so often it may as well have been a second dorm room. The wider world hadn't been much kinder, branding him with souvenirs ranging from training mishaps to near death in ancient ruins, miles from civilisation. Except for his recent trip into Ferox's jaws, one injury stood out as the one time he genuinely thought he was going to die. 'A few years ago now. I'd gotten lost in the Sinnoh mountains when an avalanche hit my group and we were separated. Next thing I know I'm clawing my way through twenty feet of snow with a broken leg, pretending hypothermia hadn't set in. Pretty s**t.'

His right thigh twitched when he thought about it. Though it was subtle, Zack wondered if Salieri would feel it too. Being civil with Salieri was alien territory, so it took Zack a second to follow his answer up with a question of his own. 'What about you? Besides punching yourself in the v****a.'

'You uh,' Zack fought to keep the surprise out of his voice, 'you had your arm sewn back on?'

'Good to know,' Zack replied, feeling a little strained. He guessed Ska wasn't kidding when he said Zack might end up with no arms at all, but at least he could always get them back. That said, he didn't want to think about Matheson. Like, at all. He sighed internally. 'We can talk more at the tower. The head guy there knows all about Aura, so maybe he could find a way to unlink us. Where's the door?'

'He'll only go as far as we let him,' Zack said with finality. He felt sensation return to his injured arm, and it hurt like hell. Oberon's Heal Pulse had disrupted the numbing effect of Blissngale's. The damage from Iceburg's hit had been undone, but now Zack had to deal with pain on top of disability. It didn't show on his face.

So Ska was another murderous psychopath. Between him, Ratio, the Court and their darkhorse hunters, Kalos was turning out to be a festering shithole. Still, lunatics could be beaten like anyone else, and it was with that knowledge that Zack decided not to worry too much about them.

'Which way's the treehouse?'