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Hitmonlee had already made it most the way back to Wayne when N called after him. He stopped walking, turning very slightly as he listened. Wayne listened as well, quiet in curiosity; he wouldn't understand Hitmonlee's answer but he did want to see how the situation played out. N finished and Hitmonlee said:

[Nothing can hold me back.]

---

Heavy techno music pounded through the training hall. The sound system was rigged up to ideal spots around the indoor area that was about the same size as a basketball court, turned all the way up to send deafening vibrations through the floor and air. Jacqueline planted her hand, driving her legs up - to strike a pair of invisible opponents - and overhead before pushing off her arm, landing into splits. The music helped her focus, drown out any distractions; normally the speakers could be calling out a blast of instructions or ticking every second as soldiers underwent standard drills, but that was too orthodox for Jackie.

She twisted off to the side, spinning her legs around as they went up again while she shoved herself off the ground and into the air. Jackie backflipped, flying back several feet, touching sound for a second with one foot then skipping back. She landed, legs wide apart, hand guarding her chin with the elbow to her chest, other hand up loosely as if beckoning an attacker, her tan body shimmering with sweat as she panted lightly.

And the music vanished with a click; Jacqueline stood up tall with a heft of breath, hands on her hips as she looked over to the corridor leading into the training hall. She dressed darkly; tube top, jogging pants, hand and foot wraps that supported her wrists and ankles, leaving open for her fingers, heel and toes. When she was younger, her hair would be tied up in a ponytail but she'd since taken to cutting it shoulder-length; strands were trapped against her forehead. A man lifted his fingers away from the switch, hair thick and messy with a thin shower of stubble over his jaw; his hand hung by his side with little Katelyn holding on, sucking her thumb, Jelly dangling down from her fist.

"Roy," Jackie nodded and sucked in through her nose.
"So much for your day off, eh?" Roy said, leading Katelyn into the training hall by going down the stairs leading from the platform; the hall floor was built several feet below the entrance, so that anyone walking in off the corridor would be above and overlooking; it helped officials who showed up to watch soldiers training maintain a sense of superiority while enforcing the same in the mind of personnel, keep the chain of command in line.

She didn't really make the conscious effort to, but Jackie found herself reaching out to pat Katelyn on the head as Roy brought her into arm's reach. The girl backed away though and Jackie paused, looking surprised; both at herself and the kid's reaction. "You're all sweaty, Aunt Jackie!" Katelyn squealed. Roy started laughing, tipping his head back and Jacqueline glared at him. She sighed and stood up, putting her fingertips to her abdomen and checking them to see they're soaked.

"Ah," she wiped an eyebrow with the ball of her hand, "So I am."
Jackie walked over to the side of the platform where she'd left a black holdall, Roy turned to follow her but staying put, "It's a shame you didn't bring that bomber in. That was the first showing by the FLF in years."
"Fluff?" Jackie retrieved a bottle sports drink, tearing back the nose with her teeth before drinking. Roy pronounced the letters eff-el-eff but many of the special forces took to calling the organisation 'Fluff' when given the chance. She finished, wiping her mouth with her forearm as she dropped the drink back into the bag, "You sure?"
"We found an official FLF ID card on him, if you'd believe that. It was coated with a durable, flame-resistant plastic; I think they wanted us to find it after the bombing. Of course we can't know anything for sure now that you killed our only real lead."

"Roy," Jackie said from beneath her towel as she dried off, mouth showing from a gap, "Not in front of the kid."
He looked down and Katelyn was looking back at him with wide eyes that flickered between the two adults, taking it all in like a deer in the headlights. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "Oh right. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Jackie said walking past and slinging her holdall into his chest; Roy caught it with an oof and Jacqueline held open her hand, not really looking: "C'mon, Katelyn."

A determined look flashed by the child's face and she hurried over, grabbing Jacqueline's fingertips and holding her hand as they ascended to the platform. Jackie paused and looked back over the railing, down onto the fumbling Roy who was trying to get the holdall's zip unjammed and closed up properly. "We're going to my office. Get the kid something to eat and take my stuff off to get cleaned."
Roy's eyes went wide as Jacqueline lead Katelyn down the corridor and he called, "D'yeh, ah, hey! I'm not your goddamn slave!" But all that returned to him were footstep echoes and he sighed, nodding in quiet compliance.

---

As they walked through the city, Zack's wrist started to buzz and he looked down at the display. He was getting a call through from... oh. Right.

"Just gimme a minute, Elizabeth," he said, stopping and leaning up against a wall. Grabbing the Xtransceiver strap, he squeezed it to pull off the device, sliding it open to turn it into a phone. He put it to his ear, holding up a finger.
"I'll just go to the pokémon center," Elizabeth replied as she carried on walking, "Fatass and Xen haven't been fed all day."

Zack waved her off without looking and answered the call. "Hey. I tried calling you earlier," he said, "but I couldn't reach you."

And Zack, whose schooling came as part of his training for the special forces, didn't know what the ******** a dean was either. He was going to ask but then found he didn't even give a s**t.

"I guess if it were any other 14 year old, I'd be impressed," Zack said, "Sounds like her though."

He could hear sizzling coming through. Might've been signal crapping up though. Still, thinking about the time Zack guessed it was probably Kero, his father, cooking.

"You're not wearing my mother's pink apron again, are you?"

Zack's faced dropped a little when he heard about a possible court case. Back when he was with the World Government, these things were covered under WG Damage Insurance.

But a fire? He'd kept his Aura abilities in check and Ferox was still at home with the rest of his pokémon. He know nothing of this fire.

"It has nothing to do with me," he said honestly, "Though I did want to ask you something: Elizabeth wants to know if and when it'll be okay for us to come down with Katelyn - and Wayne if he's not busy training. Apparently I'll have to sew my balls back on if I keep forgetting to ask."

[Hmmm...] Chen Zhen tapped his foot in thought. [Roast might work...no, no, I've got something else in mind.]

The Pansage jumped up, disappearing amongst the branches. Secpnds later, a vine shot down, snatched the egg out of Bacon's hand, and pulled it up into the tree.

[I'm gonna drop this down around you,] Chen Zhen called down from the leaves as the vine whip lowered behind Bacon, still curled around the egg. [And then I'm going to bring it back up. All you have to do is hit the egg. This'll be a better test of your speed and precision now.]

The vine came back up, and then bobbed back down to Bacon's side. The process kept repeating, with the vine lowering and raising quickly from all different sides. Bacon would have to keep pivoting and hit it quickly if he wanted to break the egg before Chen Zhen brought it back up.

Meanwhile, Liuye Dao watched closely at Roast's progress. Given the speed of travel by Aerial Ace, her glide coming out of it was very fast. But she never seemed to do much more than a glide. Could she not fly? He wondered whether this was where the expression "a sitting duck" came from.

Salieri looked over to the meat, grinning as she pounded her fist into her palm. "Right, onto tenderizing, master!"

The Battle Girl walked over to the stew meat, pulling out a large chunk from one of the pots. It was fresh and unprepared. Just how Salieri liked to start it off. With a grunt, she tossed it in the air, waiting for it to come back down before delivering a swift karate chop to it's side.

"Take that!" she roared in maniac glee, punching and chopping at the meat on the table with her hands. "And that. and that, and that!"

[See, all you have to do is think of something warm,] Salem was telling Fried and Wukong. [Not like hot, but something that makes you feel warm on the inside. And then...]

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, and then a bright ball of sunlight began to form in front of it. The Eevee tilted her head up, and with a bark, released the Sunny Day into the sky above them, spreading the sunlight across the field. [I think of all my new friends, that makes me feel-Wukong, are you listening?]

[Huh?] Wukong waved away at Salem, not watching her and instead looking over at Salieri attempting to cook. [Yeah, that's great. Hey, I gotta go.]
[What? Go where?]

The Monferno pointed over to his new trainer. [Over there. I can't stand by and watch any longer. Look at her, she shouldn't be cooking. If I have to learn how, then so be it.]

Salem looked to where Wukong was pointing. He did have a point. A very good one. [Alright Wu, if you think you can do it then I've got your back.]

Wukong nodded and ran over to Salieri's side, ready to observe and take in all that Robby was ready to teach.

And meanwhile, Chen Zhen had watched the two pokemon have a talk from up in his hiding spot in the tree. They look like they're getting along...that Wukong sure is a jerk, he thought bitterly. How come it was so easy for him to talk to Salem?

~~~~

N narrowed his eyes at Hitmonlee, with Zero still impatiently waiting to battle even though it looked like it wouldn't happen at this point. He always does this.

She recalled when N had battled Salieri in Accumula Town. When Purrloin got hit by Liuye, he canceled the match immediately. And even in the Striaton Gym, he almost ended the battle when Zero took damage. Here he was, doing it again.

"If that's the case, then why do you bother with a trainer?" N asked. His hadn't regained his normally calculating and quiet composure yet. He still held something slightly frantic in his voice, like he was searching for an answer.

"Hold on." Kero moved his wrist from his face, though he was still audible. "It's Zack, do you want to say hi?"

Helena puffed her cheeks. He knew very well she couldn't talk, she was bound to silence. Of course she couldn't say hi, even if she wanted to.

"Helena says hi," Kero said as he brought the wrist thingy back to his face.

[Wait, where are you going?] Zero barked as Wayne and Hitmonlee left. They were about out of earshot now, but Zero kept yelling. [Come back here! This isn't over!]

N hadn't responded to Wayne, or Hitmonlee. Their words were still echoing in his head as he looked down at the ground. "Zero-"

[Shut UP!] she shrieked, surprising the green haired trainer. The Zorua turned to him, focusing her venomous rage upon her trainer. [Stop jumping into the fight! Why do you keeping doing that?!]

N grabbed onto one of his arms, clutching it closer to his body. He didn't want to look her in the eye. "I don't want to have you get hurt for me."
[I'm here on my own! I came along with you because you said we could change the world, and now look at you!] she spat. N took a step backwards. He knew Zero could be temperamental, but she had never voiced these feelings before.

[You're up against the world, you know that. And yet you don't want to fight? What is wrong with you?! You expected to just sway the humans with words? That you wouldn't have to get your hands dirty? How do you expect to win the battle when you won't even fight?!]

N looked away, at the wreckage caused by their battle with Wayne. The trainyard, while it had looked broken down before, now had a decent sized crater in the center and a few more topsided trains.

"...it won't be the same next time."

[Yeah?] Zero jumped up on top of an oil barrel so she could almost be eye level with N. [What will be different next time?] she demanded to know.

"Next time, it won't end so easily." N cleared his throat, standing up straight. The sad, timid N was fading away, transforming back into the confident, expressionless N. "Next time, I'm not going to quit. Next time..."

He looked down at his hand. The same hand he used to launch punches in the tournament before. Those punches did not win him the match. He didn't have the resolve before. N curled this hand into a fist.

"Next time, we'll be so much stronger." He looked up at Zero, who seemed satisfied with the answer. "Are you ready to train, Zero?"

The Zorua began to grin. All of her teeth showed in the smile, curling up and spreading across her face without a bit of normal happiness. Her eyes glowed red, and as she spoke, two voices of different pitches rang out instead of one. None of of this phased N.

[I've been waiting to hear you say that.]

((Well, N and Zero are evil now. Probably shouldn't have kicked that train at them))

((I'm gonna bet you didn't read the battle properly razz ))