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Little did Salieri know that Viola, with her ever present camera, did take a picture. And would later photoshop it to make it very embarrassing and out of context. But that's a story for another time.

Santalune City - Pokemon Center

Salieri sprawled across the length of a couch in the Pokemon Center's videophone lounge, which was mostly empty while she waited for the restoration of Veil and Biz. During that period she had made the a call to Mia to tell her of her win, and that she would stop by Lumiose soon before heading west to the coast.

The battle kept playing over in her mind. Salieri looked back on mistakes and guesses that had cost her. The biggest overestimation was of Viola's strength. She hadn't expected advanced techniques and well trained pokemon after continuous rounds of defeating chumps.

Viola also had a good type for dealing with Salieri's team. She brushed up on Grant, the next Gym Leader she planned to face, in a coffee table magazine about extreme sports next to her. He used Rock type pokemon, something that Salieri was sure her pokemon could handle. Sure, they would keep training, but the next gym didn't have her feeling as apprehensive, especially after this winner's high.

The nurse came into the lounge and delivered her pokemon. Salieri took them back and left. The next stop before going back home was to get lunch-

Route 22 - Detourner Way

-which she took out to Detourner Way. There were plenty of outdoor spots to eat in Santalune, but Salieri found the city bland compared to the vibrant ins and outs of her homecity. She found herself a nice big tree stump to sit on that overlooked a Rhyhorn racing track just off the road. In the distance, Rhyhorn jockeys did laps and practiced their runs, giving Salieri and her team something nice to watch as they ate.

[And then I was like 'Hi-YAH, can't touch this' and I whipped out one of these,] Biz bragged to the other pokemon as he pulled out a quill sword. [Yeah, no big deal or anything, it's just a sword. A sword I pulled outta me.]

Durendal ate without giving Biz attention. Being made of blades, he didn't find the feat impressive. That, and he was hiding his jealousy towards Biz's participation in the gym battle. Veil blinked at the quill sword, and with a swift Octazooka blasted it out of the Chespin's hands. "Veillantif!" Salieri curtly interjected. "I told you a thousand times, no Octazookas at mealtime!"

Veil nodded, not taking her trainer's tone seriously, before turning back to Biz Marquis. [Are you bad at holding things or are they flimsy? Lemme shoot another one, I wanna shoot another.]

Sal looked to Banksy, who had taken her food off to the side to eat alone. "Hey, come eat with the rest of us."

Banksy poked her head out with turtle speed, looking on at Biz try to defend the honor of his quills to the Horsea. Durendal wasn't very good small talk company either. The Torkoal declined, and a vein bulged on Sal's forehead. "Hmph. Idiot turtle..."

Out the corner of her eyes, she saw a familiar figure on a cliff across the road. It was Helena overlooking her pokemon training in the grass below. It looked like her Abra was working on a new move.

"HEYYY!" Salieri yelled across the road at Helena. She wondered if she was close or loud enough to be heard. Odds were it was the latter.

Sal furrowed her brow at Henrietta's finger gesture. Did Helena know what that meant? Maybe she was just as disrespectful as her brother. You can train and talk at the same time...whatever, if she wants to chat she can come here. The bandanna girl huffed and kept eating.

The Rhyhorn racers kept practicing, but now Salieri was watching Helena train, her pokemon soon following suit. Helena's party looked like they were working on fundamentals, leading Sal to believe most of them were freshly caught. Still, they looked like they were capable in a battle under her guidance. Sal specifically had her eyes on Loki, who embarrassed her the day before. Not bad, but I'll still kick your a** someday you sleepy connard.

By the time Helena came over to Salieri, she was packing up her lunch site with only Durendal at her side. Dune speared through the garbage with pointy jabs and dropped it in a bag Sal held open for him. "So you have more than one pokemon after all. You've been a busy Combee, huh?"

She shifted her eyes to Helena as Dune kept working. Now she couldn't remember why she called her over in the first place. "What's up? It looks like your Abra knows how to fight now."

Salieri stiffened up. Thanks was not something she expected to get. Everytime she received it she felt a little undeserving because most of her actions were self serving. The reason she let Loki learn Charge Beam was to remind him of his weakness without her, and so she could have a better battle when the time came for them to fight.

There was that, and Helena had seemed upset yesterday. A new trainer's discouragement couldn't be hidden on their face. As someone who's life was shaped by many unfortunate events, Salieri understood what it meant to be down on your luck. If it was Sal in Helena's position, then Moze would've helped her out. The old Moze, anyway. It was just something she felt she had to do.

"Don't thank me just yet," Salieri replied, cheeks slightly red. Being praised by a crowd was something she was used to as Gotengo's current leader, and it didn't mean much to her. But being thanked one on one made her a little flustered. "You still owe me a fight for that favor."

Dune hid a tiny smile at his trainer's slight embarrassment. What his trainer really meant to say was 'You're welcome', but she preferred to keep her real feelings under check. It wasn't easy to maintain a tough persona with your heart on your sleeve. The bandanna girl kept going. "They aren't dumb enough to get tricked out of bounds. I wanted to toss Viola's Vivillon over the edge but there was no way she would let me."

She smiled smugly. "I just got my badge, by the way."

"Uh, thanks." Salieri put down the garbage bag. The area was now cleared of trash. She reached into her badge case and handed the Bug Badge to Helena. It wasn't an entirely trusting act. Not expecting to be robbed meant you could be robbed at any moment. Sal knew that better than most, and even though Helena didn't give off that vibe, she was still on her toes.

"...so, your brother is kind of an enfoiré, huh? How do you put up with that?" As far as Sal could tell, Helena herself was not an 'enfoiré'. Loki may have been mischievous, but his trainer appeared to be nice at least.

Sal took her badge back and put it away. "Well he was 'just a d**k' when he insulted my base and everybody in it." She scratched her head, realizing she just called Gotengo her 'base' out loud. It sounded juvenile. Too late to retract it, though. "I mean, I did steal his notebook, so...I thought he was a noble..." This admittance was serving as a very indirect, half-assed apology. Salieri hated to apologize.

Her eyes met Helena's. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. But I'll have to get him back someday for what he said," she tacked on, as if her petty revenge was just another item on a list of chores. "Anyway, it must be nice to travel around with your brother. When he isn't being a d**k." The accent the Redgraves used indicated they weren't Kalosian. "Mine won't-"

She paused, taking back whatever she was about to blurt out about her own brother, and changed the subject. "Are you both challenging the league?"

Salieri couldn't help but give Helena a bitter smile in response. Treat others the way you wanted to be treated. The maxim was repeated to her many times before, by her schoolteachers, Arnaud, and even Moze at times. But she didn't like most of her teachers, kindness had gotten Arnaud to where he was now -sickly and losing his memory-, and the last time she saw Moze was very sour. Just thinking about it made her scar tingle. The golden rule was a nice thought, but experience told her it wasn't real.

"That's a cute idea." She folded her arms and swiveled to face the other trainer entirely, not smiling anymore. "Do you even know who my enemies are?"

Salieri looked down at the ground, shaking her head and rocking on her feet trying not to get angry. She hated how Helena was right. When it came to the nobility, Salieri was quick to jump to conclusions. Her underestimation of Viola's ability almost cost her the gym battle, but that wasn't something she'd admit to Helena or anyone else. It was a weakness she needed to work on. Next time, she wouldn't be so hasty.

"Yes," Sal said, just as flatly as Helena. "Yes I do. I just made a mistake, is all. That ugly jacket..." She flipped back her hair and looked away. "Bon dieu. Ugh, you sound like my dad... I won't try to rob your brother anymore, if that's what you want."

A moment later and she made eye contact with Helena again. "Tell me, out of all the Pokemon Leagues you could've challenged around the world, why pick Kalos? What did you come here for?"