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Lumiose City - Vernal Avenue

Salieri wasn't halfway down Vernal Avenue like she had planned when she heard Zack's shouting -he caught on quicker than she thought he would- so she picked up her pace and broke into a full on run. The jig was up. It was kind of comforting to know that not all nobles were pushovers. It would be too easy that way.

By jumping on the bench, Zack had cut a corner on his way to Sal, and every second of the chase counted. Salieri would have to do the same. There was an alley coming up on her right that would lead to Vert Plaza, which would put her close to her safety zone.

Unfortunately, there was construction going on at one of the boutiques, and a small scaffolding setup encouraged people to move off to the side. Well, it would be unfortunate to most people. But where they saw an obstacle, Salieri saw an opportunity.

Specifically, there were planks of wood propped up against a truck that lead to a hook dangling from a small crane. If all went well, Sal would run up the makeshift ramp of planks (disregarding the complaints of the construction workers, of course), leap to grab onto the hook, and swing sharply towards the alley on the right.

She still had a few other tricks up her sleeve, specifically Veillantif and her rollerblades, but it was best if she didn't reveal them yet. A surprise burst of speed might be key in the long run. No pun intended.

Completely arbitrarily, she looked over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at Zack right before she ran up the planks. Yes, it was a second of speaking that wasn't at all necessary. But she couldn't help herself. She loved seeing nobles get upset.

This must be a pretty good book.

Lumiose City - Alleyway

Coward? The word rang through Sal like a bell. A bell made of bullshit. She almost wanted to stop and plow into him with a sucker punch for it, but her survival instinct got the better of her and she kept running.

Zack's slight mishap coupled with her swing gave her a little more distance, but now she had to keep it. Vert Plaza was in sight down the alley, and she needed higher ground ASAP if she wanted to get into her final destination between Vert and Jaune Plaza: the Gotengo.

Quickly, she jumped off one alley wall to another, barely grabbed onto a fire escape, and swung herself up onto the roof to continue the her run. Failing here would cost her time, but she had mastered urban parkour. The only way she'd fail here would be an outside variable, like Zack. "Quit falling behind, blue blood!"

Lumiose City - Vert Plaza

Salieri's eyes went wide, impressed by Zack's ingenuity. It would've probably been easier for her to do that in the first place. In hindsight, she felt she should have jammed the ladder release, but that was neither here nor there.

He had gained back some distance, and Sal kept moving. The buildings in Vert Plaza was close together, so hopping from roof to roof wasn't very difficult. If Zack had never done this before, he sure didn't look like it was new to him.

Now they were coming upon a shabbier corner of town. Lumiose City, and Kalos as a whole, prided itself on the beauty of it's country. Keeping up that beauty was expensive however, and not everything that glittered was gold.

This corner of town barely had glitter at all. Buildings that were once shiny were now dilapidated, and were occupied by citizens that earned lower incomes. The ignorant might call it a ghetto. Sal called it a playground.

One building in particular was her target: a tall, square building with "No Trespassing" signs all over. It was impossible to tell from this angle, but the center of the building was hollowed out to hold a once beautiful courtyard. In that courtyard was what Sal, and many other intercity kids, called the Gotengo.

The leap to the square building was the longest yet, but Sal was used to it. She jumped over the street and caught onto an empty windowsill. She hoisted herself up and ran into the building, hoping Zack could still follow. At this point, she'd be disappointed if he couldn't.

The walls surrounding the courtyard, better known as the building itself, were still mostly intact. Zack wouldn't know what lied in the courtyard until he followed Sal's tail all the way.

Lumiose City - The Gotengo

Once Zack got into the courtyard, full of untamed grass, graffiti and creeping vines, he'd lay his eyes on a sight even the most seasoned of traveler would deem "intriguing".

Growing out of the empty fountain in the center was a majestically massive tree that stretched to the top of the building. There was no natural way a tree could grow like this in the middle of a city, even if the courtyard was exposed to the sun. Perhaps it was the work of a pokemon long ago.

Built along the base of a tree was a large shack. It was comprised of wooden planks, pieces of steel, and anything else that would round out the structure. A spiral staircase extended up and out of the shack, wrapping all the way up the tree and passing a few smaller shacks that were built on the tree's mighty branches, until it got to a crow's nest at the top. The added on structures looked faulty and eclectic, but were structurally sound.

A spray painted sign rested atop the main shack read "GOTENGO: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Even though Gotengo was a patchwork of different parts, somehow they all came together to form something more than the sum of the pieces.

And if Zack hadn't noticed immediately, he'd notice now that the courtyard was filled with almost two dozen preteens and kids, all dressed in clothes the Kalos elite would deem "incorrigible". A few more poked out of windows in the tree's handful of shacks. Some stray, basic level pokemon were amongst them.

And all of them stared daggers at Zack.

A bespectacled girl with unkempt curly hair, maybe seventeen years old, stood atop the crow's nest next to a Noibat. "Battle positions!"

All the kids readied their weapons (read: pebbles), prepared to launch at the intruder. A Geodude slammed his palms onto the ground, and a few stones levitated in the air behind Zack: Stealth Rock.

"COOL IT!"

Sal's voice echoed through the courtyard, and the kids complied as they watched her exit the base shack of Gotengo. The Stealth Rock sank back into the floor. She kept walking until she was about fifteen feet from Zack.

She planted a hand on her hip and smirked. "You're more persistent than your friend I saw this morning...I see you ditched the lame a** jacket. Good call."

Proudly, she waved the notebook in the air. "What would you do to get this back?"

Santalune City

Normally he had better hand-eye-foot-Balance coordination, or whatever, but it seemed he was off his A game after loosing his balance and colliding with Helena. attempting to salvage the fall he attempted to spin on the toe of one of his left skates, but again it seemed fate was against him as he over shot his swing an fell straight on his arse.

This woman was the exact opposite of the hideous overly obese woman back at the center, which he thanked the messiah Mew for. For one, she was beautiful which made a warm flush of red ever so slightly rise in the silver haired youths cheeks. second, it was obvious that is was Takamaru's fault and yet she was the one apologizing.

"N-no, I'm sorry. that was completely my fault, im really really sorry, i should w-watch where I'm going..." he stammered, taking her hand to help pull himself up, clicking the inner sides of his shoes together, retracting the roller blades as he did so.

"I didn't hurt you...did I?" he asked, wearing a concerned frown, looking her torso over, keeping his line of sight to a respectful degree, avoiding looking at her chest area all together.

Santalune City

"Takamaru, Takamaru Takashi. Oh, b-but you can call me Tk since my names so long." he replied with an embarrassed smile, scratching the back of his head.

"Are you heading to route 4 as well? er, um, so am I." he replied, perking up a bit, although still giving off a slightly timid feel. His sisters persistent badgering about him 'traveling alone' echoing in the back of his head. Not that he had any inclination to travel with this woman whose name he didn't even know, nothing against her, he just had his own agenda to deal with.

But a little company never hurt.

"Wanna go together, I'm just planning on training a few of my Pokemon before challenging the gym, but i figured...i mean, if you wanted to, miss...uhm..?" he trailed off, giving her the opening, should she take it, to offer her own name.

Santalune City

Takamaru couldn't help the small chuckle when Helena refereed to him using his first name twice. His amusement didn't last long, as she went on to mention she was a trainer as well, meaning she was a potential rival.

But she wasn't in any hurry to battle him, so that was good at least.

Nodding at her initial question about registering for a gym match. "Yea, I went ahead and did it when I got lost- er, lost my baring in this town. I have a good while before my match as well, about three hours or so, I think." he explained before moving on to her next inquiry.

"N-no, i wont challenge you, promise." he replied, holding both his palms up towards her. Not that he didn't have faith in his battling prowess, he just preferred, not always, but preferred battling trainers her knew he had at least a 75% chance at beating. He couldn't get a feel for this Helena's skill, or lack there of, so he wasn't about to jump into a random trainer battle and risk loosing a percentage of his precious winnings.

So her suggestion to wait until later for a potential battle sat just fine with him.

"So... is this your first league challenge?" Tk asked nonchalantly as they turned to continue on towards route 4. His tone came across as polite and casual as he attempted to learn a bit about his current short term, single route, traveling partner.