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The Street

Watching Prou and Durendal pass each other and cross the street to complete the trade felt like a millennia for both parties. Skarada looked at his watch, and Salieri’s eyes darted around to check for interferences the old fashioned way. Manny hadn’t discovered any of Ska’s people in the vicinity.

Were they hiding? Cloaked somehow? Salieri decided that it was highly unlikely, as Skarada didn’t know Sal had allied with Benedict or his Telepath. Even then, whipping up a way to stay hidden from a Psychic wasn’t run of the mill. Still, Sal considered the possibility, solely because the lack of an apparent backstab was making her suspicious.

’Multiple Auras?’ If Zack didn’t answer quickly, it could mean he was compromised. By five foes? From his position in the middle, Ben might be able to actually see a fight break out in the apartment Zack had commandeered. Time would tell on that one, but this timeframe was brief.

Durendal and Prou reached their destinations at the same time. Skarada’s eyes twinkled at the Sablenite the Pawniard held out to him reluctantly. He reached out slowly, as if he was scared the Stone wasn’t real. When his fingers made contact he snatched it right away, holding it up to his face. Keasbey, still perched on Ska’s shoulder, looked closely at his reflection staring back at him. “Finally…”

Salieri would’ve paid more attention to Skarada’s reactions, but right now she was face to face with her long lost friend. Well, face to helmet. The 241 visor only showed Salieri her own face in the reflective surface. Beyond that, Prou’s body language said nothing. She may as well have been a zombie. “Prou…”

The Gardevoir extended a hand, holding the Pokédex. The device had become still, the screen black. Salieri took it, hastily ripped off the bubblewrap, and placed it back into the cradle strapped to her arm. “Gotcha, Ivan.”

Ivan, uncharacteristically, said nothing. Prou then extended the hand holding her own Pokéball. It may as well have been an actual olive branch. Breathless, Salieri grabbed onto it, feeling an electric surge of hope elevate her heart rate.

Prou wouldn’t let go of ball.

“Prou, c’mon,” said Sal, tugging at the ball and barely budging it from the trancelike grip of 241. The girl looked back at Skarada, still enraptured by his treasure. “What gives, Ska?”

“Hmm?” Ska saw Salieri struggling and put the stone into his pocket, chuckling to himself. “Well, not her, evidently. S’matter? She’s not listening, is she?”

’There’s something wrong. The deal is going sour. Ben, get ready to move.’

“Tell her to let go,” Salieri demanded, though really, she was begging. Because her only contingencies for this trade, a trade that was shoddy since its conception, were Zack and Ben. Salieri expected to be betrayed. But she had also expected Prou to side with her. Her hope was Prou would break out of whatever puppet control Nicolette had put her under, that Ska maintained, long enough to join Salieri’s side. Now, her hope was dashed.

Interference from Ska was something she could handle. Watching Prou fight what was right was crushing.

“Me? Why? She’s supposed to be your Pokémon now.”
Salieri looked hard at the visor, trying to reach the eyes underneath. “Prou, just let go. Let go,” she pleaded.
“Here’s the thing, mate. You keep calling her that.” Ska checked his watch again. “But I told you, she’s a different animal now.”
“Ska, you b*****d!” Sal growled. “This wasn’t part of the deal.”

Durendal’s claws shined, ready to pounce at Skarada and take the pirate hostage with a blade to the neck. Keasbey must’ve seen this, because with a quick wink, he Quashed the Pawniard, causing Dune to stand absolutely still in his battle pose.

“Sure wasn’t. I let 241 walk. What she does now, that’s up to her, ain’t it? So long as that helmet’s locking her brain, what’s up to her is really up to me.” Ska whistled short, trying to catch the Gardevoir’s attention. “Oi, 241. Where do you wanna end up?”

’Zack, take the shot!’ Salieri yelled inside her brain, while screaming in reality. “Don’t you dare, Skarada!”
“If she won’t listen to you, well…that wasn’t part of my guarantee.”
“We had a DEAL!”

Ska whistled again, and shortly after, 241 disappeared in flash of pink light, Teleporting back to Ska’s side. The Quash wore off on Durendal, and suddenly he was moving again, unpaused.

’TAKE THE SHOT!’

The Apartment

The pink eyed woman giggled like a kid who heard a bad word when Zack said ‘Ditto’. A similar giggle with a higher pitch came from the rifle. The copy of her in the living room doing yoga also laughed, and the one drinking tea shook her head in disapproval.

“That’s adorable,” she told Zack, still giggling. She reached out to grab his shoulder for support, but missed and slapped her thigh instead. Allowing her laughter to cease, she took in the situation more thoroughly, seeing that Lethal was aimed at her target rather than Sweet Salieri.

The pink eyed woman shrugged and rested the rifle on her shoulder. “Okay," she obliged, her stare lingering on Zack for a little longer afterwards. “Do not miss your shot…hey...we know you from somewhere…yes, definitely…”

She looked off to the side, as if the memory she was searching for was between the ashtray or the plastic beach chair on the balcony. “No, that’s not it. Not it…” She snapped her fingers when she figured it out, pulling out the chair to sit down. “Right. The dumb one told us about you. Falling off a rollercoaster and fighting dinosaurs…but your nice suit isn’t here.”

Helena, if allowed, would pet the Sylevon on the head as she watched it. She took one of the feelers of the colorful little Pokemon and sucked in a deep breath at the oddity of the calming sensation.

She wasn't fine tuned to realize when subtle manipulation was happening, but Helena could feel the sudden change between herself now, and herself moments ago. When Seelie started to move, Helena hesitantly began to follow.

She'd gesture for Loki, who opened an eye to watch the scene, to follow and the top would be off.

It could be a trap, Helena thought, but she didn't expect Jean to be so subtle. If he wanted to show up and torment her, he simply would, and nobody would be able to do a thing about it.

Seelie was different. The creature didn't appear malicious, and Helena felt close enough to safe near Loki. The two could teleport out in case of emergency, and Loki's ball was with Azucena, which meant nobody could take him away from her.

The Apartment

The pink eyed woman teetered back at the recoil from Lethal’s Aura Sphere, catching the chair in the process. When the tipped forward again, she brought the chair with her and slipped into a smooth sitdown. She waved at where Zack had been. “Buh-bye.”

Pachi looked over her shoulder and gave an identical goodbye to Hazard’s bottom half before the whole Ghost went through the ceiling. The copies of her in the living room melted away into pink mist, curling in thick strands back into the witch’s outstretched hand. “Buh-bye. Buh-bye.”

Putting Skarada down was harder with two kids in the way. Salieri, Zack. Not Jack. Jump had called him Jack about a thousand times at HQ. This was why his call sign in Pachi’s mind was the dumb one.

Salieri, Zack. She owed the first one a favor, so why not help them out?

She scooched her chair forward, scraping it across the balcony until she got to the railing. Pachi leveled the sniper rifle down at the confrontation a few blocks away. The end of the barrel bent as the rifle sneezed, then went back to shape.

“Birds of a feather are flocking outside.” She squinted and took aim, patiently waiting for the right time to shoot. “Two birds, one Mega Stone.”

Shalour City

Salieri succumbed to her first instinct when Zack relayed his warning, which was to release Biz Marquis, her first line of defense against The Sniper from a few days back. She got down low to the ground, partially covered from one angle by the bench next to her as she hissed “Sniper,” at Biz. The Chesnaught dropped to a knee and gulped, holding an arm out over his trainer. Her phone was ringing in her pocket nonstop. In fact, both Zack and Ben’s phones would be ringing with the same unknown caller.

“Zachary!” Skarada shouted, first looking surprised before looking pleased when he faced Zack and his Pokémon. 241 felt her power points being tampered with by Serene’s field, recalculating what her viable tactics were now. Scanning the battlefield with her eyes and her mind, she spotted the Aura Sphere, and could make out the vague shape of a person looking down at them from a faraway balcony.

Keasbey flapped off Skarada’s shoulder the same time Durendal lunged, chopping the Sablenite out of Ska’s hand and up into the air. The Murkrow’s talons caught it with a sharp grip, and he circled overhead, dropping the stone into 241’s outstretched hand.

Ska’s hands shifted, one of them dropped a Pokéball of his own to the ground. Sergio emerged, balanced with one knee drawn up to her chest. She was ready to react to Zack’s Clawitzer, feeling that rising tension before a fight broke out, but the Lopunny restrained herself as Ska yelled “WAIT, WAIT!”, dropping a Trap Card out of his sleeve behind his back in the process.

Tracing Biz’s Bulletproof, 241’s free hand snapped to the back of Ska’s head. She caught the Aura Sphere, and with a squeeze, it popped harmlessly like a balloon. Telekinesis wreathed her body in a faded pink light, one of her moves that wasn’t neutered by Serene’s. The Gardevoir was hovering inches off the ground now.

Durendal froze in his battle ready stance beside Zack and Lethal, still at Ska’s declaration. “If you shoot me down,” Ska warned with a confident grin, “No one in this city is making it out alive.”

Salieri ran cold at that omen. It was all too familiar. And her time on Ska’s ship flashed through her mind, the sky above the Tower of Mastery warped and crackled so loudly they could hear it from Shalour.

“Salieri! You know the drill!” Skarada called over his shoulder at her one time crewmate and apprentice. The wind picked up from the massive shifts in space, blowing Ska’s open coat in the wind. “This is my ultimatum!”

A swirling purple vortex opened above the island, twisting larger and larger until it was nearly as wide as the compound itself. From the portal came a metal object, growing bigger as it came down. It was the hull of an airship. Skarada’s ship. The Fishbone was visible for a few seconds, before thick streaks of grey clouds whirled out of its sides, camouflaging the ship and canopying the Tower of Mastery with a heavy overcast. The vortex shrank and disappeared, leaving behind the patch of darkness the stuck out in the otherwise clear blue horizon.

Police sirens sounded off in the distance, the sound echoing down towards the coast as the cruisers traveled. People on the street stopped and looked up, in awe, in apprehension, of what this all meant.

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

At the SCPD, phones were ringing off the hook to report the sighting over the ocean. The police were about fed up with the repetition of the one thing they already knew, until one call it broke the pattern. It was a woman, claiming to be the cause of the otherworldly black clouds, and claiming she was taking the town hostage.

The officer that answered the call requested an immediate trace as he did his best to keep the woman on the line. She made herself very clear. While they were docked in this now fly zone, if anyone crossed the sea and landed on the island, or set foot on The Fishbone, their ship would fire onto Shalour City without hesitation.

The trace confirmed the call was coming from above the Tower. Vocal recognition identified the woman as a registered war criminal, known as Erin. Last name unknown, affiliated with the Fishbone Pirates and fellow war criminal Skarada.

The officer on the phone asked what Erin was threatening to attack them with. She told them the Kalosian Army’s Misama Cannon. Erin was quick to point out the irony of a Kalosian city being held hostage by a Kalosian weapon. Before the officer could negotiate, she hung up.

Only one officer knew what the Miasma Cannon was, and it made her face go white. An experimental crowd control tool based on Spore that was designed to make a small insurgency complacent, it had only seen testing in Orre during the Kalosian occupation of the country. The military hadn’t expected the payload to spread so wide, or for the sideffects to include the corrosion of internal organs. But both were the case.

And shortly, the whole precinct became aware, and just as white in the face.

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

Above the Tower, a bubble at the bottom of the cloud cover burst open, and something was diving down. Then it happened again, and again, until there were about twenty five or so people falling from the sky.

The pirate strike team spread out their limbs and pulled the ripcords of their Wingsuits, deploying the gliding membranes underneath their arms. They swirled around gracefully, alternating between divebombing and swooping like Pidgeots towards the compound. The raiding half of the strike team flew circles down towards the Tower, aiming for the vault of Mega Stones that laid inside.

The other half of the strike team glided between the streets, vigilant for the acolytes that would rise up against their thievery. Who they were most vigilant for was Gurkinn. Skarada warned them not to underestimate the Aura monk. Their forward scout said that as of last night, the only three big threats residing at the Tower were Gurkinn, Salieri and Zack. And Ska said he would make sure Salieri and Zack weren’t around.

Hooting and hollering like mad, the sky pirates took great pleasure in their descent to the island. It was a mission unlike any other they had. The heist of a lifetime.

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

“That’s the deal,” Ska tacked on, finishing explaining the ultimatum to Salieri and Zack the same way Erin was explaining it to the police. “If I’m not on my boat when it leaves, my wife’s gonna turn this city into a ghost town.”

“b*****d!” Salieri yelled back, fighting the urge to stand up because of Zack’s sniper warning, her Pokégear still ringing. It was just like in Orre, with the Interpol outpost. Déjà vu. Only this time she and Ska weren’t on the ship. She couldn’t stop the cannon from here. “This is what you really want?! Again?! This is low, Ska! It’s wrong!”

It looked like, for a second, Skarada genuinely knew that Salieri was right, and that he thought this wasn’t such a good idea. It was only a second, and then he was back to grinning.

“Right or wrong, I get what’s mine, mates.”

This standoff wouldn’t last. Skarada was confident in his strength, but he couldn’t fight off both Sal and Zack on his own. He wasn’t Ratio. But he could split them up.

“Take that back to the ship,” Ska told 241, and in the same breath, loud enough so the open phone in his pocket would receive his voice, said, “Erin, let’s go with extraction five!”

Two things happened simultaneously.

241 took one last look at everyone surrounding her, from the man she was compelled to obey and the girl so desperate to shatter that reality, before her hovering became full blown flight, carrying her up and away as she made to zoom for the ship.

At the same time, Skarada shifted his foot back, activating his Hurl Trap. His body snapped with sudden acceleration and thrust to the side, far enough that he was now across the street where Salieri was. The two of them exchanged bitter glances in a splitsecond, before his feet touched the earth and he hit the ground running towards the hill that led to the beach.

Sergio was behind him, keeping an eye on Zack, his Pokémon, and Durendal, acting as the buffer between them and her trainer. If she was out here, Ska expected opposition, and Keasbey was right beside his captain, keeping his own eyes on Salieri.

That turned out to be unnecessary, because as soon as 241 took off, Salieri let out a cry of something between anguish and rage at the sky, ignoring Ska entirely. Her phone stopped ringing. Now it was simply talking. “Beep boop Salieri. SALIERI.”

Despite everything else that was happening, and that was a lot, Salieri took the second to whip out her Pokégear and, in disbelief, answer the call. “Ivan?” If either Zack or Ben pickedu up the call at anytime, they’d be on the same line.
“I’ve been jumping around. There is no time to explain. I stalled the cannon’s CPU. You have eleven minutes. Go.”

Salieri stood there, a blank look on her face as the gears whirred in her head. “Ten minutes and fifty eight seconds. Go.”

Instinct clicked. Her tunnel vision directed her sightline at Prou escaping in the distance as she felt herself running, sprinting. Without thinking about it she swapped out Biz Marquis for Banksy and yelled out, “I’m getting Prou!”, Telepathy be damned, Shalour City be damned.

Banksy took one look at the familiar shape of her old friend disappearing again, another look at Salieri’s mad dash, and knew what she had to do. Her limbs retracted into her shell, her grey smoke spewed from her shell, and her White Jet was active. She flew forward.

Salieri jumped up, landing on Banksy’s passing back, and the two of them were off, chasing Prou into the sky towards the black clouds. Durendal gave Zack a quick nod, hummed with a Magnet Rise, and flew to catch up with Salieri while Skarada, Sergio and Keasbey dashed for their escape.

The pink eyed woman hadn't fired. Zack slid behind a parked car and flushed with disappointment when Prou caught the Aura Sphere. If she had taken any damage he couldn't tell, though the Fight type sphere should have at least mangled her metal armour. Ska boasted his ultimatum, and Zack waited for the shot, expecting the pirate to get cut short. Maybe the Ditto had blown itself up after all.

Lethal was at the trainer's side, and let the Ice Beam die in its cannon. While Ska yammered on, Zack asked for a Swords Dance. He tried not to watch as the Clawitzer performed a low key version of the war dance, hidden behind the car's front end. It was embarrassing for him and Lethal both. And if Dune was still with them, it would test the limits of his Inner Focus.

'That’s the deal,' Ska's voice carried throughout the crossroads with ease. 'If I’m not on my boat when it leaves, my wife’s gonna turn this city into a ghost town.'

You're in the city, you stupid ********> Zack thought, hoping Salieri would realise that Ska was bluff- nope she had unleashed a tirade. Bought time at least. If they stopped Ska from leaving, it rendered the cannon moot, but Zack didn't sit too well with gambling thousands of lives on the logical choices of sky pirates. That's when everything changed. Prou left with the mega stone and Ska made a run for it. Zack caught Serene's eye across the street and made his decision.

'Dune, I got an idea,' he said, quickly explaining his plan.

The Kirlia Teleported, taking her Imprison dome with her into the sky after Prou. In truth, it was only a dome at ground level; once airborne, Serene had a literal sphere of influence that neutered a good amount of the Gardevoir's attacks. But not all of them, Zack thought with an uneasy chill. Before Serene had chance to fall, Lethal soared beneath her, riding on a line of Aqua Jet, catching the psychic on the back of his giant claw.

They kept on Prou's tail, and would soon enough be followed by Banksy and Sal. If Dune had gone along with Zack's plan, he would be perched in the open mouth of Lethal's cannon, ready to act as the projectile in the Clawitzer's Smack Down. Once they were in range, Lethal would take aim at Prou then fire Dune like a shot, giving any attack he made the added bonus of disabling Prou's Telekinesis and send her plummeting to the sea below.

Back at ground level, Zack had received the news of Ska's cannon dysfunction. With the scourge of pirates swarming the tower, the air ship itself was relatively defenseless. Now was the best time to beat Ska down and wreck his ship. They could end this.

Or maybe they couldn't.

He watched the pirates attack the tower from a distance, thought about the peaceful if judgmental people who lived there. His sister was there. Zack set his jaw and watched Ska escape with his pokémon, then went the other way.

---

Zack had lost count of how long he had left before the cannon came back online. He had stopped watching his pokémon above the city, and only hoped that they fared well. It didn't matter to him as much as getting to the tower, seeing that Helena was safe. And in no small part he wanted to prove that she didn't need to worry about him. What better way to do that than smashing some pirate faces?

So Zack rode on a plank of wood he'd found by the pier with a Charmeleon that shot fire from its arms perched on his back. When they crossed the water, Zack leaped from the wood plank, and ran up the external wall, propelled by Malis's Flame Jet. They crested the wall, unhooked from each other, and landed atop battlements while the pirates tore the town to pieces.

---

Hazard paused when she got Manny's message, then finished stacking the chairs she'd found in somebody's apartment and flew out of the building. She wasn't completely keyed in to how this psychic link malarkey operated, but she thought back hard in the affirmative.

[YEAH OKAY SURE] Hazard sent back to Manny. It would still come across as ghostly nonsense to Benedict but he ought to get the gist.

She flew between buildings at high speed until she spotted a flying Pikachu, so she waved and shouted over to her comrade. [Hey! HEY! I'M OVER HERE! WHERE ARE WE GOING?]

The Tower of Mastery

The townsfolk were grouped in a wide circle in front of the tower doors. Bodies of unconscious pokémon littered the streets, these domesticated pets outclassed by Ska's band of pirates. Not surprising, Zack thought, leaping from the tower wall onto a ridged roof that he climbed along to get a better look. Some of the pirates were still swarming, but they hadn't spotted him yet. The ones he was interested in were roughly shoving people into the circle, treating them like animals.

He scanned the mass of scared faces. Helena wasn't among them, but they might know where she had gone. His good hand tightened into a fist and he looked Malis's way, giving the fire type a nod. While Malis performed a Swords Dance, Zack counted up his opposition. Could he beat half a dozen deadly pirates with a broken arm, a Charmeleon and an untrained Snorlax?

Didn't matter. Zack stood up and told Malis to follow him. He had to.

He leaped from the rooftop and landed on bent knee before rising slow, stretching his neck with his hand, and getting into character. They must've seen him by now. Zack cracked a grin. This better goddamn work.

'Hey assholes,' he shouted for attention, standing half an arena away, 'which of you pissants thinks he's in charge?'

Having eyes on you was something that she had grown accustomed to. There was judgment, jealousy, excitement, and everything inbetween with the looks that came from Pokemon matches. The ones at the tower felt different. Helena felt noted, as if they were marking her arrival but were otherwise, for the most part, unconcerned with her presence. There was a purpose, almost, that the people seemed to take in it that was lost on her.

Beyond the stone door, Helena felt the heat push against her. It felt almost like a challenge, and even though she tried, Helena made sure to keep aware of how close was too close. She stopped while Gurkinn was mid sentence, and took a few steps back finding the spot bearable enough.

"A little bit," Helena said in response, going over in her head if it would be rude to sit as far back as she was. "Probably not as much as you'd like." Gurkinn was the master of the tower, and he'd earned the respect that he had. The teen had made note of this, but there wasn't much she could say about a man like that. Everyone who held any authority, all her life, had placed themselves in a spot above her. Being an adult and having authority over another somehow made you better, but Helena had grown up with Zack and the idea that she should respect that absolutely felt wrong.

"A great deal is the matter, though." She looked around the place, her eyes squinting as if they could avoid the brightness and the heat of the flame. "I, er, sense that you'd like to speak with me about that?"

Tower of Mastery

"Wh-" Helena was taken aback. In just the span of a week her life had changed. She had expected change, but not like this. The world was on its head. All she could think was to say "what do you want?"