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Joltik attempted to create a Spider Web to prevent his being thrown from the arena. A master of the webbing arts, the ends would attach themselves to the webbing that already existed and he'd attempt to brace against the force of the wind.

It did not, however, hold. The webs began to fray and snap and Joltik grabbed onto the edges himself and tried to reinforce it with more webbing but it all broke away.

A second whirl wind ensured his fate and he was thrust out of bounds.

"Nice," Viola admitted as she recalled Joltik and sent out Vivillon with a Fancy Pattern.

"Knock him out."

Vivillon flapped her wings and powder danced into the air. Sleep Powder would flow and fly toward Francis, aiming to put him to sleep.

Vivillon dispersed Francis' gust safely before it could reach her. Then she'd begin to release more powders as Francis tried to close the distance. Poison Powder if he came in directly, and if he tried to be roundabout he'd also have to deal with Stun Spore.

"Light Screen," Viola called. As Francis aimed to use gust, half the damage would be blocked by Light Screen, effectively leveling the damage both Pokemon would take from the typing.

"Aerial Ace," Viola said next. She had no intention of letting Francis get away in the case that she used Gust, or risk letting another move get blown away if Francis tried to counter with Gust.

Instead Viola maneuvered through the air like a pro, in such a way that actually being faster was irrelevant. Vivillon hitting was an inevitability.

After the initial clash between them, she would avoid Francis' tackle to let the Pidgey drop to the arena floor. At this point, it would fall into the range of impossible for the little bird to keep fighting.

Viola could see that Benedict would need a power boost. He went straight for it and this gave her an idea.

"Build an army until he's ready," she told Vivillon. Infestation would begin to spawn. The more Benedict used Growth to even the playing field, the more bugs would arise. She simply waited for him to be ready.

Viola was tempted to end it all here, but she did not want Benedict to fail here. He had shown more skill than most of the two-bits she battled. Trainers who lost with her first or second attacks. Benedict had proven that Francis could, if he was able to, defeat both of her Pokemon separately.

So she did not use the entire ocean of infestation at once, nor did she simply call out light screen.

"Rogue wave," she said and a giant wave of the infestation would appear before Essence and rain down upon her.

Camphrier Town - Pokémon Center Garden

"What?" Zack said as he answered the Xtransceiver. He paused, sighing. "I mean hey. Helena, I'm in Camphrier Town at the moment. You want me to teleport you in here to save you walking Route 5?"

Route 5 – Versant Road

Versant Road’s wide open hills and numerous bed of vibrant flowers were a stark contrast to Lumiose City’s concrete jungle. Salieri had been on Route 5 a long time ago, when Arnaud took her and Moze to the skate park to learn how to rollerblade. What had seemed like daunting rails and halfpipes were now easy for her to ride and trick off of.

But that wasn’t why she was here now. She was here to defeat Rising Star Hamish and his Kadabra with Biz Marquis.

“Keep dodging!” Hamish yelled to his Kadabra. The Psi Pokemon disappeared and reappeared over and over again in a series of flashes, Teleporting around the field to avoid the lashing of Vine Whip. His Teleport was just like Loki’s, but with evolution came more precision. However, the telltale flash of light signaled Kadabra’s reappearances, and during the cooldown time Biz had adapted to its pattern of movement.

Kadabra reappeared behind Biz, who had retracted his vines and pulled out a long, hard quill. He lobbed it at Kadabra like a javelin. The Psi Pokemon had no time to dodge during the cooldown, and was forced to parry the spear with one of its spoon.

That gave Biz just enough time to rush in with a Rollout, grinding Kadabra into the halfpipe for the knockout. Salieri grinned, one hand on her hip as Hamish recalled his pokemon. As the trainers approached each other, Biz began to glow.

“Here,” Hamish sighed as he passed Sal a wad of cash. “You earned it.”
“Damn right I did.” She pocketed the cash and folded her arms. “So, any tips on fighting Kadabras? Or Alakazams?”
“Uh-“
“See, I have to get my revenge on an Abra that’ll probably evolve one day, so I want to get some practice in now.”
“Excuse-“
“Teleportation is hard to deal with. And they’re already fast as it is, you know?”
“You just missed your pokemon’s evolution.”

Salieri spun around as Hamish took the chance to walk away. Gone was her little Chespin, replaced with a bigger, more rotund armored pokemon. Now a Quilladin, Biz Marquis looked himself over and flexed a muscle. [I could get used to this. Hey Salieri! This is badass, right?]

At first, Salieri’s eyes went wide as she tried to keep a straight face. “Wow Biz, that’s really…mmfk…awesome.” A tiny laugh seeped from her lips. “It’s really cool that…kekeke….you evolved….”

The floodgates couldn’t contain it. Salieri burst out into laughter of disbelief, clutching her stomach. “You look like a cosplaying chicken nugget!” she cried. Biz’s face fell flat as his trainer tried to stop laughing. “I’m-I’m sorr-ahahahaha, I can’t believe this! Hey, try to lift your arms above your head?”

Pouting, Biz lifted his arms up. They almost made a ninety degree angle, but he found it impossible to go further. This brought out another series of laughs from Salieri, who kept shaking her head and covering her mouth in a failed attempt to stop. Biz hung his head low.

[Cosplaying chicken nugget?]

Camphrier Town – Pokemon Center Cafeteria

As the afternoon dwindled on, Salieri made her way to the walled village of Camphrier. Training on Route 5 had been minimal, and she only chose battles that were on the beaten path. The plan was to take a quick break and get her bearings in the unfamiliar town before going out to the mildly tougher Routes 6 and 7 for more training.

She and her party occupied a small table in the mess hall with a view of the Pokemon Center’s garden. Each one of them had water to drink for rehydration. Like usual, Banksy sat away from everyone else, drinking by herself. As they rested, Salieri leaned back in her seat and fiddled with the map on her Pokegear.

The Battle Chateau was on Route 7. It was a House Nostrad facility that served as a school for nobility that wanted to become pokemon trainers. The best ones graduated and became sponsored by companies around the world. The worst ones were probably still around even though the Pokemon League started yesterday.

Salieri didn’t care about dealing with the small fry nobility, or newly christened sponsored trainers. While she enjoyed humiliating them to take them down a peg, they weren’t her targets. There was a list of nobles that she planned on confronting to mend the transgressions of the past. In fact, a tangible list was folded up in her belt bag at all times.

The two nobles at the top of it were Remi Nostrad and Kyren Balibar, the ones that cursed her father and stole his pokemon. They would be the hardest ones to get to since they were in the upper echelon of nobility. Even if she got to them, she’d have to force them to rectify what they had done, and she wasn’t sure how to go about that yet.

Below Remi and Kyren were four sponsored trainers that had systematically destroyed her brother when he set off to do what she was trying to do now. One by one they came after him with plots to break his spirit so he would quit the league. Even after the plots were executed, Moze would not quit until the last of the four used a Malamar to tamper with his mind and remove his motivation.

With his memories muddled, Salieri couldn’t get the four names out of him. But she still got something to work with, and a jumping off point was better than nothing.

The first Sponse was a sniper that ambushed Moze and managed to steal one of his most valued pokemon.

The second Sponse was a duelist that bet all of her badges for his. When he lost, he was forced to give his hard earned badges away.

The third Sponse, in Salieri’s opinion, was the most vile one. He was Moze’s friend, and when her brother tried to chase down the first two Sponse’s to get back what was taken from him, this one stalled Moze out until he lost their trail.

The last one was the freshest in Moze’s mind before his memories were tampered with. He vividly remembered her Malamar and her name: Nicolette Nostrad.

Salieri placed a marking pin on the Pokegear’s map at the Battle Chateau. Today she would go there and find out all she could about Nicolette Nostrad. If the trainers at the Chateau knew where she was, that was ideal. If not, that meant Salieri narrowed down one place where she didn’t have to look anymore.

Her eyes wandered up to her pokemon, who were relaxing while they still had the chance to. Aside form Durendal and Banksy, none of them knew what Salieri’s revenge plans were. Soon she’d have to tell them if she wanted them to follow her into battle. The anticipation of the hunt was getting her excited.

Thoughts of revenge momentarily slipped her mind when she saw Zack in the garden outside, talking on the phone after recalling a misbehaving Fletchinder. Although she gave Helena a roundabout half apology for yesterday, she wouldn’t give one to him. Not until he took back what he said. And now a very different, much pettier thought of revenge came into play.

Once he was off the phone, Salieri would slide the window open and say, “Nice bird, tourist. Is this your first day being a trainer?”