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Salieri's eyes widened as she kept sipping her smoothie. It looked worse than she had thought. The news wasn't mentioning the oil field. Did the fire burn it all up? Was it just gone now? "Yeeeeeah. About that..."

She took a deep breath. Sal hated recapping, but here she was, doing it again. Only this time it was a third hand account for a story better told by someone else. "Mia said that Ben said that he went in with a news crew and they got chased around by a ghost tree and one of the cameramen actually died. And then they beat the ghost tree and went inside the building but it was abandoned as hell and oil was all over the place. They didn't have a lot of time to check, cause the building was also on fire and collapsed and the Curse was chasing them. Oh, also the ghost tree could make a Curse that follows you around like a horror movie monster that only you can see, and if it catches up to you-"

Sal reached out to abruptly pinch Zack's good arm for emphasis. "Kills you. So they escaped to Lumiose City and the cops showed up but Alexa, that reporter, got out before they did and now she's on the move so she can write the story cause she was still Cursed even though the ghost tree is dead, uh, again, and Mia said that Ben said that he wanted to take the Curse to use it as a weapon so I texted him to about it but he hasn't answered yet so I hope he's okay."

She sipped her smoothie again. "At least, that's what I hear."

"Now we have to play the waiting game." Salieri squinted straight ahead, annoyed. "I hate the waiting game."

She fumbled with her Pokégear in her other hand. There was no point in easing into the topic, so she just said it. "I got a call last night from Skarada. He wants to make a trade. Prou for the Sablenite." She left out the fact that Ska had lifted her Pokédex off of her. The pickpocket getting robbed by her old boss would be a field day for Zack's joke fodder.

Zack was the only one around who knew Skarada like Salieri did, quite literally. It was why she approached him first, and not Gurkinn. His opinion on the matter was well informed. And she agreed. But this was Prou they were talking about. This was her family. It was what she craved.

"...I need to bring Prou home, Zack," she said, looking at the ground. "I don't know. He said he'd go after what he wanted no matter what I chose."

She thought about it for a moment. "I want to do the trade." Sal clenched her fists together. "But I wanna double cross him before he double crosses us. I want to make a trap."

"Damn straight you're paying this time," Sal scoffed, not forgetting how he walked out in the steak dinner. She looked to check on Oberon's progress. Now the Cleffa was levitating pieces of the broken pot together with Telekinesis, but the puzzle wouldn't hold together on its own.

"Thanks, but I'll take an I.O.U for another time, I've got some training to do of my own. And I need to come up with a plan."

Salieri gave Zack an offhanded wave goodbye. Oberon lost her concentration and the pieces fell down, shattering into even smaller pieces. Sal expected the Cleffa to cry, but she just became more determined.

Then Sal's stomach rumbled, and her sipping became that loud sucking sound that happened when a straw reached the end of a drink. "...okay okay the training can wait, we're coming."

Salieri was a bit dismayed to find out the food at the canteen was free. If she had known, she would've just asked instead of sneaking around last night. It also rendered Zack's offer to pay moot, but that was a check she'd cash in another time.

Sal took the same meal that Zack did and released her team members so they could also eat the Pokémon food. Banksy took hers off to a quieter corner of the canteen, which was just as well because Salieri still hadn't told her about Prou. It was an inevitable talk.

"If all he wants is the Sablenite, he won't waste a resource trying to grab it. He brought pirates with him yesterday, so chances are he'll do it again." She dipped her bread into the soup to soften it up. "I think I should go in alone. And you can be waiting in the wings where he doesn't know you're there."

Sal reached into her beltbag. "Which of your Pokémon has the longest range?"

Salieri took one look at his party and realized how obvious his answer was. "Oh. Yeah."

She took the Scope Lens out of her bag and held it out to Zack. "I took that off the Sniper who attacked me. Give it to, uh, Deathbeam or Plague or whatever his name is and you should be able to give me cover fire once Prou's Pokéball is in my hands. And then we knock Ska out, and get our answers from him, and take him to the police or whatever. Now we just need to convince Gurkinn this is a good plan so he gives us the Sablenite."

To be fair, Salieri herself wasn't convinced this was a good plan. They had no idea what Ska was thinking, and he was already difficult to predict. It relied almost completely on guesswork. But desperate times called for desperate measures. And when it came to her family, she was desperate indeed.

Route 12 - Fourrage Road

Salieri parted ways with Zack after breakfast, each of them with a new mission for the day. Zack would go to Gurkinn to get the Sablenite back, while Salieri would scope out a location for the trade. She still had two hours before noon, when she had to call Skarada back.

Shalour City was stratified, going lower towards the ocean. If they made the trade outside on the streets, neither of them could pull sudden moves without the public getting involved. The threat of police might keep Ska docile. If Zack was positioned on a building at a higher strata, he'd have the proper downward angle to make a shot. Sal had her eye on a few, so Zack had a couple of options.

In the meantime, she took her party out to Route 12 for training. After facing off against Bonding's Cofagrigus and Korrina's Hawlucha, Sal realized her team was susceptible to status moves. She needed ways for them to combat that archetype of fighter, at least some way to cover that base.

She released her team on a grassy plain at the side of the road, right around where she found that drowning woman the day before. Dune, Biz and Reynard started stretching, so Oberon copied them. It was adorable trying to watch her to toe touches.

Sal saw Banksy mosey to a more secluded part of the pasture. She sucked in her lips and looked over her shoulder at her team. "I gotta talk to Banksy, I'll be right back." She made to fast walk after Banksy. It was not hard to catch up to the tortoise.

"Hey, wait up." Banksy stopped walking as Sal got in front of her. The trainer rubbed the back of her head. She wasn't sure how to say this. "So, you know, you have a right to know that Zack and I...we're making a trade today. With Ska. He wants that Mega Stone Zack found two days ago and, uh..."

Salieri crouched down so their eyes were level. Banksy patiently waited for Sal to spit it out. "It's Prou, Banksy. Ska has Prou."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team Salieri watched their trainer emerge from the fluffy cloud of White Smoke that erupted when Banksy made a sudden takeoff, becoming a smoky streak in the sky. Sal looked up at the flying turtle while she walked, coughing up a lung. "So she took that...pretty well, I'd say. She just needs to blow of some steam."

Sal finished clearing her throat. "Okay, we need to develop some new techniques. Things that can cover where we're weak. I've got plans for each of you, so listen up."

The team split up into separate spots to work on these new moves. As much as Biz Marquis would have rather worked on his sweet bomb punches, Salieri assured him this new technique would be just as valuable: a form of Leech Seed that siphoned stats instead of health. She noticed he had good control of when to detonate his Seed Bombs, and that control could extend to how his Leech Seeds functioned.

To that end, Biz was in the tall grass, getting attacked by the weaker wild Pokémon on Route 12. He popped Leech Seeds onto them and then stalled, trying to concentrate their output on attributes rather than health. It would take a lot of focus. That wasn't his strong suit.

Reynard was off on her own near the north shore, attempting to learn Substitute. Creating another body out of water to take a hit for her would allow her to be more aggressive in combat. That appeal was all she needed to hear to decide learning the move was worth it. She tried seeping water off of her herself to make a second Vaporeon, but it wasn't stabilizing correctly. This would also take some time.

Durendal was off by himself in the thick of the woods, practicing his new Mode in secrecy yet again. Salieri knew it was ready for combat, but she wanted it to be perfect. From where she stood on the plains with Oberon, they could see the trees sway in heavy wind.

"Let's try again," Sal said to Oberon, tearing a plastic bottle in half and putting it on the ground. Oberon rubbed her hands together and got to work trying to Recycle the bottle. Sal assumed it would be easier if she worked with just two pieces rather than several.

And then, because not everything has to be so clever all the time, the post ended.