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Ben nodded slowly. "Well, how do I know I don't like being shot if I haven't been before?" He replied. It wasn't an exactly-perfect comparison. But it also did a good job of sending home how he felt. "You can imagine it, right? You've even been kissed by a guy, and when you described it, it looked like it didn't mean anything to you, right? Even the memory is... A thing that happened."

This was a hard part of what to find to say. The answers really had to come down to her. "You can picture it, and cut and paste memories and realize what you actually enjoy thinking about or looking at, you know? Now if you prefer to explore, that's up to you. But that's your choice to make, not because there's no other way."

Benedict frowned. Oh, right. People really did think they needed to make that kind of request, huh? He needed to remember she was new to this. "Hey, I'm not going to drag anyone out like that. This is your business and yours to tell people when you're ready." It would probably never come up unless Helena mentioned it, or some crazy antics happened.

"People in our community all know this pretty well. So anyone of us who does it is just a d**k. Also, pretty much any straight person that does it."

Route 12 - Fourrage Road

Zack reappeared in a flash of light. The farmhouse of Baa de Mer Ranch lay in blazing ruins at the base of the hill. Half a dozen trainers swarmed in off dirt roads and on the backs of fliers. Zack had to shield his face from whipping branches as one flew close by over the trees, but he didn't think they spotted him. He found Dexio unconscious in the bushes.

'Wake up,' he said, grabbing Dexio by the arm. Just as Dexio's eyes started to flicker open, Zack slapped him across the cheek, and the research aide sat bolt upright.
'Argghhhh-'
'Stop being stupid. We've gotta get out of here.'
'Oh, my, okay,' Dexio said, rubbing his cheek. 'Was I perhaps asleep? I do not remember being drowsy, however I was tired after our run so that might-'

Zack grabbed Dexio by the arm, yanked him towards Serene, then the group vanished in another flash of Teleport.

Anistar City Hotel

Robin left Benedict's hotel room with her hair still damp from the shower. She never normally got up this late, or hung out in hotels when a campsite would do, but then this trip to Kalos had been full of never normallys. She entered the hotel to lobby to check out, and while the guy at the counter ran through her details, she saw Wayne and Gremlin curled up on the seats in the lounge area. An exasperated clerk kept speaking to them in stressed-out Kalosian, but Robin didn't need to be a native speaker to know what sécurité meant.

'Thank you,' she said to the receptionist before heading over to rescue the young teen. 'Sorry, sorry, he's with me.'
'Then please get 'im out of 'ere,' said the clerk, signalling to the sliding double doors. 'I 'av been trying to get 'im out for 'alf an hour!'

The clerk stormed off, straightening his cap, which had gone all wonky about five minutes after he lost his patience, and twenty-five minutes before Robin appeared. Robin placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

'Okay, Wayne, time to go.'

---

Anistar City was truly magical. Robin had travelled the world in her years since graduating from the academy, and still this place was impressive. Built over a lake, the entire city stood above the water, waves crashing below the city streets. Walking its roads gave the impression that one were traversing a city from some forgotten fairy tale, compounded once the evening fell, and the whole city was bathed in falling sparkles of light.

Then there was the sundial. Robin could see it from her hotel window, but its true majesty only became apparent up close. There one could see the solid pink gemstone mass that overlooked the lake. When the sun was out, it glowed with frantic rainbow light, burning from the inside out. It reminded Robin of a heart, with each edge and ridge trapping and refracting light to resemble a complex web of capillaries.

Wayne dragged his feet, hunched over like a movie zombie. Robin felt a tiny bit responsible for his current state, having taken him to that last party of the Caesura. She wouldn't normally go to something like that, but it had turned out to be interesting. More interesting than she thought she could take at certain points.

'Hmmmm...' Gremlin stared at her from his position atop Wayne's back. Robin was going to send him to Zack, but after some discussion, he had officially become Wayne's pokémon instead. 'HMMMM...'
'What?' Robin frowned, suddenly aware of how red her cheeks were. Aipom couldn't read minds, she reminded herself. This one just acted like he could.

'Guys, I'm starving,' Wayne whined, clutching his stomach. 'And hotel food sucks, they make you pay extra to get into the breakfast buffet, and then everything is on these tiny little sticks which really hurt on the way down.'
'We can go onto a route and catch some-'
'No, no, no!' Gremlin hopped from Wayne's back onto Robin's. 'We ain't having any more of that wilderness crap! We want real food! Right, Wayne?'
'I'm starving literally to death.'
'You're not-' Robin plucked Gremlin from her shoulder and tossed him away. The Aipom somersaulted and landed on a railing that overlooked a car park. 'Okay, okay. We'll find somewhere to eat. I'm hungry too.'

'Oh, I bet you are,' Gremlin said, clambering onto Wayne's back as the trainer punched the sky. 'Real thirsty too from what I hear.
Robin went red. 'No idea what you're-'
'I'm just saying that's the last time we stay in the room next door to you.'

---

Wayne seemed to perk up now that he was stuffing his face. The cafe owner had originally tried to give Gremlin a bowl of pokémon chow, but the Aipom sent him packing until he came back with the same as Wayne. Robin ate grilled Goldeen with fresh salad. She had gotten in the habit of roughing it outdoors and catching her own food, but it was still nice when people made it for you. She wasn't a savage, just disciplined. Her mentor said it'd make her a better trainer, and she couldn't argue with the results.

'That is siiiick,' Wayne said, staring at his holo caster display. He shoved the match in front of Gremlin, who took the opportunity to slurp Wayne's milkshake, and swiped back to make the battle replay. 'Dude finishes in like five seconds. I wanna do that. Robin, can you do that?'
'Let me see,' Robin leaned over as Wayne swiped back again. Her eyebrows raised as she watched Benedict's match against Olympia play out. Low levels, but no shortage of skill. She was weirdly proud. 'Could do. You'll have to keep watching.'

Robin had spent the past week remaining relatively low-key and scoping out the competition. She intended to turn Kalos on its head with a mid-late game rush through for badges and make a name for herself. But plans had changed. Benedict had become her way to get to Balibar early. She finished her food and stood up.

'Right guys, I'll catch up with you later. I've got to get ready for a date.'

Gotengo

The caesura, while a nice change of pace for the trainers, left spectators with no matches to watch outside of reruns. If they were lucky, they’d get to see some publicized training regiments of a few sponsored trainers. The Gotengo kids were even luckier, because they got to see Salieri’s Pokémon training firsthand. And when Salieri’s team trained, that usually meant they were scrapping.

The kids had gathered on the porch to watch from afar as her team went at it. Biz Marquiz was lobbing Seed Bombs at Oberon, whose job was to dodge them. These bombs grew with tiny spines, prickly enough that the bombs would stick to whatever they contacted with. They didn’t explode on contact, either. Salieri had Biz working manipulating his Seed Bombs into different types of explosives. The Chesnaught was hard at work delaying the explosions and detonating the sticky bombs remotely. It was a lot to concentrate on.

Oberon was centering a field of gravity on herself. When she evolved, she’d allegedly be able to skip so lightly that she’d be able to walk on water. Salieri wanted to hone this trait early on, so her Clefairy was carthwheeling and flipping through the air, drifting as though she were floating in zero gravity. The levitation wasn’t an issue. Controlling direction and speed was another story. Still, she had yet to be hit by a bomb, if only because Biz kept detonating the wrong ones.

Reynard was also in that fray, but not allowed to attack, much to her chagrin. Last week she had learned to make a watery Substitute, and could already make the clone act like her. Now Salieri was training Rey to reabsorb it. The Vaporeon continuously shifted into water, either trying to snap to where her Substitute was and merge with it, or trying to pull the Substitute to her for the same effect. Getting into contact between the random detonations of Seed Bomb was tricky enough. Actually pulling the watery mimic back into herself was trickier. Frustrated, Reynard took a second to fire a Water Gun warning shot at Biz Marquis. [Get a pattern, you idiot!]
[The pattern is random, it’s supposed to be random!] he yelled back, clicking at a seed shaped button he had grown on his finger to blow up more bombs.
[That’s not what pattern means!]

Banksy was spared from all the training. Salieri knew that Banksy was battle ready, just rusty. And she didn’t want to fight anyway. All the flying around was enough for her. The Torkoal was inside her shell with the children, providing a makeshift bench for Youngsters Carter and Anais.

Salieri had Ivan and Durendal off to the side. Ivan and Salieri had been brainstorming together over the caesura, since they were new to the team and had a foundation of Pokédex knowledge to work with. When Salieri had found out that Ivan could, for a lack of a better term, “pixelize” themselves in the real world, she immediately thought of ways to make them more convenient. She rubbed her chin as one of Ivan’s flippers disassembled into pixels, then reformed into the shape of a blue, three dimensional glove. It waved at her. “Disturbing, but realistic. Can you hollow out the hand? How many pieces can you split into at once?”

Without a device to give them a voice, Ivan was completely mute. They spun around frantically, waving their remaining flipper and their floating glove hand wildly. Sal grinned. One of the reasons she liked training Ivan was because they couldn’t talk while she was doing it. A few minutes of the AI not snarking at her was something she could look forward to.

“We’ll keep working on that while we shop.” Salieri turned her attention to Durendal. Her Pawniard’s armor was still cracked in a few places, healing in the aftermath of the Gym Battle. He was seated on a wooden bench next to Mia, looking rather embarrassed.
“You’re not gonna make him throw hands, are you?” Mia asked, spliff in mouth. She offered it to Durendal, who declined.
“No, he needs to stay out of battles for a day. I’ve got something specific for him to work on.”
“How do you train without exercise?” Mia asked.
“Not every move requires you to be active to learn. Some moves you can learn while you’re at rest,” she explained to the non-trainer, relishing the chance to be more knowledgeable on the subject than her nerd friend. “Ramos opened up a hole in our strategy. Showed me that Dune is weak to stall. Maybe my whole team is. Dune, I’m going to teach you how to Taunt.”

Dune tilted his head. “It’s easy. I do it all the time. But you have to be emphatic, can’t have you half cocked when you Taunt. You need to zero in on a flaw or insecurity your opponent has, then mock it mercilessly. Like, really make them feel bad.”
“I’m wary of the role model you’ve become.”
“If you’re gonna backseat train then get over here.” Mia stood up next to Sal. “Ok, Mia and I are going to taunt each other, so you can really see what I’m talking about.” Durendal nodded, preparing his mental notebook. “Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you,” Sal assured Mia quietly.
“Uh-huh.”

Sal turned to Mia and cleared her throat. “Yo, your hair is soooo curly, you get conditioner by the gallon.” Sal flicked a thumb over her nose, proud. Mia squinted at her, not blinking while she hit her spliff. “Girl, your hair is so curly, Fletchlings land on your head cause they think its their nest. Girl-“
“You’re a flat, short, skank,” Mia said bluntly.
Sal stopped. She looked down at her chest, then up at her friend with quivering eyes. “Dude…”
“Sorry, I’m sorry.” Mia wrapped Sal in a hug, which Sal silently accepted. Mia gave Dune a wink. “I have defeated you for all time.”
Sal pushed Mia off her and heaved a sigh. “You get the point, Dune. Try Taunting Ivan.”

The Pawniard stood on the bench and looked to Ivan, who had Converted their head to also be a glove shape. “Ivan! Listen up!”

The Porygon-Z spun on an axis to face Durendal, who stood at attention with his arms at his side. For a minute. Without saying anything. “Just give it a try, Dune.”

Another minute passed. “Literally, anything.”

Dune opened his mouth to speak. Sal and Mia leaned in, anticipation growing. He closed his mouth and shook his head. “C’mon, man.” Sal shook her head.
“Do you want me to Taunt Sal again, cause I’ll do it-“
“NO no no he gets the point.” Sal cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered at the kids. “Carter! Anais! You’re in charge til we get back! Everyone help Durendal learn how to Taunt, ok? I’ll buy you candy.”
Dune gulped. Cartner and Anais gave a thumbs up and a salute respectively. “We shall be firm but fair rulers!”
“Mia, time?”
Mia checked her watch. “2.”
“Ivan, follow us. Shopping montage time.”

When Jerath looked back he would see that Metric had just finished snapping the neck of his last victim. Each Pokemon that the Rhyhorn had taken out now lay in a path of broken bodies. This is what Metric had been taught to do while hunting for food in the wild. [Okay!] He said enthusiastically before charging at the next wild Pokemon.


Pain Split was one way that they could keep their psionic energies in sync. As Meditite would grasp the foundations of it via Loki's recover, another idea would start within him. [I cannot read minds, but do you know telekinesis?]

[Don't stress, child,] Feather said, the pride in her voice. [Just let yourself feel what you already naturally know is there.] She danced, fae winds coming to life like a solar storm in the atmosphere, painting the air around them with her movements. If Caboose calmed down and let himself become consciously aware of everything he'd begin to feel it too. Not just the latent electromagnetic energies of the planet but the stuff that humans utilized in the air. Radio Frequency was the source of human communication, and utilizing it in various ways was how things such as radio, or wi-fi existed. Any place where a holocaster could be utilized, Caboose would be able to feel these energies. [Once you can feel them, try touching them.] To get the point across, Feather would place her hand to the air, causing a pulse of pink fae energy that would radiate outwards until it became too thin to see.

[You can't even bench press a vegetable!] Pan said as he used the side of his fist to bat away the poison point at Essence's fists side. He'd take a step back to dodge the next one. [Your parents are so ugly when the doctor saw you he said it was illegal for them to breed!]

The trees along the route were sparse, causing Ecarlate to be careful that he did not trap himself on an impossible point as he moved from one of Francis' targets to the next. The rate at which he would plot out his jumps from location A to location B would slowly become faster. At first it would take him three jumps to get there, but it was starting to consistently become two as their training went on.

Tyrant would gladly jump into off-screen combat with Francis, the two of them slamming into each other and becoming a mess of draconian combat.

Marge Simpson - I mean Helena Redgrave - would stare flatly at Benedict. "No-ow." her lockets chain sparked across her neck. "No. Ow. I. Ow. Am. Ow. Not. Ow." Stubbornly, she refused to remove the piece of jewellry.

Metric frowned as he looked up at Jerath. Helena had always put them in situations where killing wild Pokemon was a necessity. Or he'd been taught that it was. [If we're not hunting... we don't kill?]

[I have an idea that I've wanted to try. For now let's keep focusing on this, but next time we meet we should try telekinesis on those humans and make them fight each other.] Loki paused to hide his smile. [For training.]

[Nope,] Feather said, now in a song of her own. Not one that existed on an auditory level, but it was in the colors. It was in the way they moved. The inherit energies of the earth itself. Not exactly aura, but for a fairy type Pokemon it was close enough. Feather, after all, was learning to paint with the colors of the wind. All of them.

You're bad at this. The insult stunned Pan. Almost enough that he couldn't dodge the poison point. He'd take a step back and trip, hitting the ground and then quickly pushing himself to his feet. Taking a moment, he'd look over at the tumbling Dragons, their conflict a terrifying brutal display. But something was graceful about it as well. He had always known Tyrant to require skill, strategy, and numbers to take on. Fighting him head on was something that even Pan's father couldn't do. It was why he was trying to master this technique. His father was a one armed Pangoro, but with both arms the True Parting Shot would be invincible. Or so he'd always been taught. Watching someone take Tyrant head-on felt unreal. [You're just an obstacle,] Pan said as he turned to Essence once more, his eyes intense leading to a fierce expression. [Bring it on.]

[Faster!] Ecarlate called after Francis. The time was basically two jumps now. His route plotting could be sped up significantly and the Scizor planned to push himself only harder now.

He was alive! Tyrant roared, not with rage but adrenaline! He'd faced power opponent before, hunted them, but nothing like this. The puny humans electric type feared him, the giant stone-bird feared him. None of them faced him directly but this? This was a direct assault, this was exhilarating! This was combat! [You die well!,] Tyrant said in the midst of miscellaneous faux-death match, [I promise to take the memory of your glory into the next generation! My children will know it was a worthy man's heart I feasted upon this day!]

"I dunno, but we only got a few more hours before I need to get ready for a party. What are you doing later today?" Helena asked Ben, the word Ow. will following after every word she spoke. Even if it wasn't verbally spoken it was obvious on her face, in every wince and every moment of clear discomfort between winces.

Metric listened to Jerath but it didn't make any sense to him. [I don't understand why we'd leave them alive? What if they come after us? Or their kids come after us?] He shot a glance at Pan.

[Work on it,] Loki said as he continued to synchronize psionic energies with Manny, working on the Pain Split technique.

With a dark blue woosh of Fairy Wind, Feather would lift Caboose up higher into the sky.

Anxiety ate through Pan as he stumbled backwards from the Worry Seed. Resolving himself through it, he'd continue to think and dodge, though the added obstable making that harder.

"Wanna keep jogging?" Helena asked and, if Benedict accepted, they could timeskip to a few hours later.

Three and a half hours past on that route with the two sponsored trainers training. Not all of it was hard work, some people passing by asked for pictures. Sometimes there was a battle. All in all, it was a relatively nice day of mostly co-operative training.

By the end of it Jerath and Metric had gone on a nature walk, discussing the lives of wild Pokemon and learning how to non-lethally take out wild Pokemon for the sake of combat. By the end of it Metric was feeling torn about battling wild Pokemon in general so the two simply rested.

Loki had learned from Manny as well. Psych Up being taught through their shared psionic bond while Manny got down the fundamentals of pain split.

[This time you have to get up there yourself,] Feather would tell Caboose. It was time for their last ride before everyone packed it up to go. More like, they had been told to come back to be recalled and Feather was pushing Caboose to give it a final shot.

Pan's insults were slowly getting better, but he was still having trouble with it. By the end of their training, Essence would see improved footwork while Pan had managed to end up exhausted.

The battle had been glorious! Bloody, brutal, and majestic as all true battles should be. Tyrant looked up, too weak to fight back now. It was time for Ricard to land the final blow and, head held high, Tyrant was ready to be fainted.

Helena had just finished texting Henrietta that she would be there soon. Azucena had apparently gone on ahead to help setup since K-Rok would be DJing for the party. They had done plenty of jogging, and then walking, and finally some yoga. "If I don't see you at the party I'll see you at the dinner tomorrow?"