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((Edited just a tad))

Route 9 – Mountain Range

What could have been attributed to a natural disaster was decided to be the fault of Team Flare by the police. The Spike Passage was no more, as the trampling had laid most of it flat. The police had caution tape all over the area, and were treating it as a crime scene.

High up the cliffisde near the top of the mountain range. Where the cops below couldn’t see them, were Jump and the rest of his party. The Flare Admin was slumped against a boulder, nursing wounds with an ice pack. Of all his scrapes and bruises, he could contribute at least half to Zack. He wondered if the Unovan trainer had gotten away worse for wear.

Kiedis lay on his back, loudly snoozing while Hexum stood next to him looking out to the ocean. Behind Hexum was a tarp, and underneath it was a vaguely human shape. Jump had recovered Aliana’s body after Ratio and Helena left Diancie’s Domain. They were waiting on an extraction.

“Jump…” Hexum glanced at his trainer and adjusted his glasses. “Did I hurt anybody?”
“You beamed a t-rex into a wall. And then maybe you blasted some other dinosaurs.” Jump shrugged, weary. “It looked more like they were giving you props than giving you s**t…I think you’re their new king or something.”
Hexum just nodded. The end of the day’s sun reflected warmly off the Lucarionite on his arm bracer. “I’ll control it better next time.”
“It’s no big deal. We’ll work on it, Hexum.”
“…am I interrupting a pity party, mates?”

The arrival of a new voice brought Jump and Hexum to attention. Kiedis woke up and eyed where the strong Orrean accent was coming from. Higher up on the mountain range stood a man in his early thirties with a smug grin. The man wore a blue beanie, beige cargo pants over black boots, and an open, blood red longcoat that flapped in the wind. His lack of a shirt underneath the coat made it clear that unlike Jump’s lanky and lean physique, he was far more muscular. A long lock of dark blue hair covered his right eye. Clinging onto his shoulder was a Sableye, bearing a toothy smile at those below.

Jump scowled at the newcomer. “Skarada. Welcome to what's left of the cave party.”
“Yeah, heard it was busted by the po, two kids and some kinda monster. Not that anyone else was going anyway.” Ska squinted an eye at Jump's injuries. "So which one gave you those wounds to lick? The po, the two kids, or the monster?"
"It wasn't a kid, dude. He was at least 18."

Hands in his pants pockets, Ska slid a few feet down the cliff and bent over Aliana’s corpse. He peeked under the tarp and let out a low whistle. “Still wanna crack onto this one, mate? I know you had the eyes for her.”
“Hey man, she just died. Show some respect.” Jump sighed and glanced down, shaking his head. “She was gonna show me her n****e, too…”
“You really know how to shoot for the stars.” Ska snapped his fingers. “Hawkins.”

Hawkins, his Sableye, lifted ahand and lazily pointed a finger at the body. A pink glow emanated from its form, and the entire thing was lifted up by Telekinesis. The tarp wrapped around Aliana to keep her covered entirely, floating towards Skarada. “I’ll be takin’ care of this, then. Give her a proper burial. I trust you blokes can take care of yourselves if you don't have to haul a cadaver around.”

Jump was generally accepting of most people, but Skarada struck him as underhanded. Something about the man from Orre was just off, like he always had an ulterior motive. And his sense of style was far too raunchy. It was hard to believe Team Flare made Ska one of their Administrators, the same rank as Jump. Put on a goddamn shirt. “How do I know you’re not just saying that? About the burial.”
“You don’t. Try to trust me. We're on the same team, after all. Admins united.”
“It’s real hard. Like, you're a pirate. Can't trust pirates.”
Ska chuckled and turned away. “Your loss. Or as the Kalosians would put it, ‘C’est la vie’.”
Jump folded his arms. “I don’t know what that means.”
Hexum facepalmed while Skarada chuckled again. “I didn’t think you would. Be seein’ you mates later.”

With a backhanded wave, Ska hiked up the mountain with Aliana’s floating body in tow, until he was out of sight. “Is he gone?” asked Jump.

The Aura nodes on the back of Hexum’s head lowered. The Lucario nodded. “Man,” Jump grunted, “I really don’t like that dude's vibe."

Route 8 - Beachside

Grant felt worse than he looked, and he blamed walking for that. His skin was littered with many tiny of cuts, none of them bleeding much anymore. They were thin lines all across his body colored white or red. His clothes were similarly tattered, though his Poketch coat, which fell down near his ankles, managed to stand a better chance against the sandstorm he'd endured earlier.

It was still tattered in places, and tinted with dirt, but Grant thought it only made the jacket look badass somehow with its ruby colors.

"Hey!" he called when he caught side of Salieri, waving a hand dramatically overhead to signify that he was the one calling out. "Can I get a bit of help, please?"

Route 8 - Beachside

"Hrm?" Salieri perked her head up at Grant's request. The first thing she noticed, aside from his plethora of cuts, was his Poketch sponsorship jacket. The trainer was sponsored. A noble? He was in the Pokémon Center, with that guard from the Parfum Palace.

Her hand moved to her backpocket, where her switchblade resided. Unsure if it was a coincidence or not, Salieri had to make a quick judgement call. If this sponsored trainer was The Sniper, there was no sense in showing his face at such close range. With all those wounds and the direction he was coming from, Sal assumed Grant was present during the Ambrette Town stampede. The Sniper had been on high ground, away from the fighting. Unless he had jumped into the fray later, he wouldn't be injured like this. Given his namesake, Sal found it unlikely.

So he's not The Sniper...but that doesn't mean they aren't working together. This could be a ploy to get me to lower my guard. Sal wasn't sold on the idea of trusting random nobles yet, even if Matheson had only shown her kindness.

As Benedict drew closer to Grant, Sal recognized the familiar face as the trainer who flirted with her days prior. With another witness present, one that she even knew by name, Salieri felt emboldened to figure out who Grant was. If he's a threat I can deal with him now.

Salieri got up from her rock and made her way slowly over to Grant, hand still close to her switchblade behind her back. Biz Marquis took note of his trainer's caution and walked alongside her, trying but failing to hide his curiosity. "I saw you before, in Ambrette Town. You were fighting in the Pokémon Center, right?"

Once Benedict got close enough, Sal would give him a nod as well, with a playful, "Hey, Cyrano, you really know how to milk a camera, huh?" She had caught a piece of his interview on the news her second time in Cyllage's Center.

The Round Table

The hologram of Madeline lifted up an antique folding fan and fluttered it over her face to hide her tiny smile at the sight of Malva and Jullien losing their cool. In order to demonstrate her value as the head of a court house, she'd take the role of the rationale one. "If Team Flare are to become criminals than so be it. As long as they can continue to operate where we cannot then it changes nothing. We'll just have to give them more assistance to keep them afloat."

The fan snapped shut. "What concerns me more is that we've lost a scientist, and until the others can duplicate her capture designs then we're unable to capture any more Legendary Pokémon." Madeline closed her eyes, picturing what kind of power those Pokémon of lore possessed. "We must obtain the Pokémon of Life and the Pokémon of Destruction before anyone else, or we will fail."

Route 8 - Beachside

"Another what, favor?" Sal smirked. The girl loved leverage. "Heh, that'd be twice now that you owe me. What are you looking for?" She flicked a thumb over her nose. "And it's Salieri. Not Fire Lady."

The Round Table

Jean placed a hand upon Nostrad's shoulder. The hologram program would create an image of him off of the one of Nostrad. To those not in the room, he would simply appear as if out of no where.

Jean-Pierre, a native Kalosian man, was dressed in a suit. His boots, gloves, pants and jacket were all a deep black, while the dress shirt was white and finally he wore a red ascot. His hair, dark but greying, was pulled back into a ponytail, giving it a near look in the front but the hair frayed in all sorts of directions within the ponytail itself as it gave in to its curly and wavy nature.

"Ratio," Jean began, his voice deep and low and the words, as they followed, all in his native Kalosian language, "is a master assassin." His eyes flickered across the room as he spoke, changing whomever he looked at in the eyes every now and then. "One of the best there is, if not the best out right. Fifteen years ago, I captured him." Jean's voice was a little louder when he referred to himself, and his lips curled only the slightest amount. "But he escaped," this time he looked down at Nostrad.

"Right out from under your noses." He'd expect Nostrad to take this blow to his pride, and he looked back up at the rest of the court, to look for reactions. His lups curled slightly more, making the faint smirk apparent to anyone who looked. "He has a specialty," he began again, louder again to drown out any protests, "in swift assassinations. He can take out anyone in a room he enters within the first few seconds of his arrival, and that's if you're well hidden and well guarded."

"Of him personally, we don't know anything. Not his real name, who hired him then or who hired him now. All we do know is that he's back, and he's already carving the lot of you to pieces; plans, people and all." They couldn't track his movements, only respond to them. Ratio's assassination also kept him one step ahead of his targets. The only stopping wall, Jean was sure, that Ratio had ever encountered was Jean himself.

"Ratio's most dangerous aspect is that he's an aura master. He can act without planning. Speak, move, gesture, anything. Then correct himself on the fly. Ratio can issue commands before you've even started speaking. He will respond faster, adapt more efficiently, and kill more swiftly in any given scenario." His eyes settled on Balibar. "He's greater than anything you've ever seen before."

Balibar snorted loudly and Jean's smirk broadened as a result. "I am here to protect Nostrad. The rest of you better figure out how you plan to survive. Call it a mercy that he hasn't already arrived to kill you, one by one."

Balibar glared at him. "You speak a lot of this man. If the court approves, I will handle the defenses against this man myself, as well as the hunt for him. We will see how your assassin holds up to my Quillon."

Benedict shot Salieri his best grin when he recognized her properly. It had taken a moment, but she was memorable because of the pokemon battle, and a little because of the way she'd made him vie for her attention. "Hello again."

The comment about working a camera had him confused for a moment, before the youth remembered that he had been interviewed before. But again, he was sure it wasn't that big of a deal. Other people had probably been looked at too. "Of course. Use every advantage to its fullest, right?" And public opinion could be a pretty big advantage.

Grant earned a look from Benedict, but he was too tired to be competitive or suspicious. Besides, Grant looked as worn out as he felt, and this girl had proven she wasn't exactly easy and going to fall for some one-liner. For now, he waited to see what the guy wanted.