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"What? No, that's...she's...whatever."

Salieri looked out northwest to the sprawling mountain range besides the river. "I really thought...you know, he told me it was a date. He took me to the Ferris Wheel. He even bought the tickets."

Scoffing in hindsight, she turned her head, staring straight ahead down the bridge with a sardonic smile. "He told me he liked me. He also told me he was the king of Team Plasma, and knew we were being spied on and that he and E attacked Henrietta, that idiot, and he had Darumi and Lancer this whole time and-"

She covered her face, groaned, and slid her hands down to her sides with a sigh. "You were right. You told me not to get my hopes up and he turned out to be a real creep. Worst date ever."

Trying not to laugh was futile, and despite her efforts Salieri giggled at the jokes. She actually had seen N with his hat off before, at the Plasma Ball. There was no bald spot. He had a lot of hair. Luscious, green hair-

"Let's just hope he doesn't have diplomatic immunity. 'King'. That is so stupid."

She wasn't sure what they would actually do if they ran into N again. Now that she knew he was part of Team Plasma, her feelings towards him may have changed. But she felt the same about the organization: she wanted them out of her hair, except even moreso.

The rest of the Legends Crew sans her and Wayne were a different story. Would put a false friendship in the way of seeing the big picture? N could come back more dangerous than ever now that he had nothing to hide, especially if he brought E. Sal almost shuddered at the thought of the green haired girl. E was downright unsettling.

"The way we're going, we're going to have to kick his a** eventually. Which I can't say I'm not looked forward to, a little. If he thought I put effort into this date-oh man!"

Sal pulled at the clothes she wore with another sigh. "These aren't even mine. I have to give them back to Henrietta...that's going to be so awkward. I guess that can wait, her basic attire is like two outfits anyway...which is weird, cause so is mine..."

She reached into her pocket for some cash. They were about to come to the singer and his ukelele playing Floatzel, and she wanted to show her appreciation. Encouraging street music was good for Moze's sake. It gave him more people to jam with.

Salieri hesitated to grab Wayne's hand. It wasn't that she was adverse to his power because it reminded her of telepathy. Friends could be trusted with that kind of thing, like Salem and Wayne.

The last time he had used his power on her, each crack in the experience made her almost vomit. Since she could just puke over the edge of the bridge, it wouldn't be so bad. Besides, a new technique to master was invaluable.

She took his hand.

It lasted an instant, but Salieri relived the experiences from Wayne's point of view in realtime. When it was over, she felt like she dropped back into her body.

"Whoa." She shook her head to snap out of the trance. "Interesting." That explained how she and Chen Zhen were able to pull off such a big move to counter E's Beheeyem in Pokeland. It also showed her what Wayne's ex-girlfriend looked like. Now she truly knew the meaning of the male gaze.

Sal realized she still held onto Wayne's hand, and let go promptly. "Thanks. So, that's Tess, huh? She's not so bad. I thought she'd at least have horns." She paused. "What happened to the ice cream?"

Now they were close enough that Wayne would be able to see the reason Sal had pulled cash out of her bag: the tie wearing Floatzel was playing tropical sounding ukelele music again. The laidback looking singer, however, had taken a sushi break.

When they got close, Sal would stop to listen to the music for a minute or so. She wanted to hear what she was paying for, after all.

The backpacker snorted. "Except play Black Sabbath, apparently."

Caz stopped mid note to glare at his trainer. Nowell pointed back with his chopsticks accusingly. "Don't give me that look! You know metal on the ukelele would be a big hit, you know that!"

Salieri smirked. The Floatzel was actually pretty good for somebody without thumbs. Not the best ukelele she heard. But had never heard a pokemon play an instrument before. Or seen one wear a tie.

She dropped a few bills into the instrument's case. Nowell's face lit up again. That was the most money somebody had given him all day. He'd reached his goal.

The backpacker got up and waved his bento box out enthusiastically. "Hey, thanks! You just broke the record of my biggest fan-"

A Ducklett swooped down from the top of the bridge and grabbed the bento box with it's talons. Nowell looked at his empty hand, then up at the sky where the cackling bird flew.

"Ah crap. Hey, you guys are trainers right?"

Gear Station

"I suppose the floors of these tombs are always this...sticky," E commented in slight disgust as the Plasma Siblings waited for the next train to Anville Town on the Brown Line. N paced back and forth in front of the bench that Zero sat on in her human form, listening to E speak. He hadn't done much talking since Pokeland.

"Well one thing's for sure: we won't be needing a press conference for your debut. That loudmouthed pest with the megaphone made sure of that." E pinched her brow and shook her head. "Ghetsis will have to go on TV to elaborate on things. This should be swept under the rug-"

She snapped her fingers. "In a flash...N, it was a foolish idea. You really must be more careful when selecting your interactions with the humans. If I were you, I would have chosen-"

N swiveled and pushed her into the wall. For a moment E was surprised, but that soon turned to amusement. He looked stone faced now, but on the inside he must have been seething. "No one told me there were assassins."
"If there were really assassins, then your precious candidates wouldn't have made it out of Castelia City."
"I don't want anyone killed."
"You're fighting a war, brother." E's voice had become stern as she locked eyes with N. "Or do you not know that yet?"

They heard the train down the tunnel. "If you don't strike first, you strike last."
N exhaled through his nostrils. "If pokemon get hurt in this, then-"
"Then what? It's not worth it? And your underlings won't always be around to secretly baby you, doing the dirty work you can't handle. You'll have to get your hands dirty."

She grinned. "Your train's here."

He stepped back, releasing her from the wall. E brushed off her shoulders. "I have errands I need to take care of. Call me when you want to be picked up from your...sabbatical."

With a snicker she turned on her heel and walked away. N watched her go until he felt Zero grab his arm. She pulled him into the train.

"You guess? Ha!" Salieri stepped in front of Wayne, putting a hand on her hip. "I'm the trainer who's going to become THE champion-"

"Cool," Nowell replied half listening as he took off his sunglasses. His eyes were a deep blue, with bright orange pupils that looked like tiny suns against clear skies. They flickered. "I think I've got it though."

He jumped up, way higher than any normal human should, and rapidly climbed up the side of the drawbridge to the top. "Natural Infusion," Salieri muttered to herself, watching Nowell go.

The Ducklett looked back and practically dropped it's stolen prize in shock when it saw Nowell standing level with it's flight atop the drawbridge. With one big leap, the backpacker jumped and grabbed onto his bento box. "Let go!"

Having no choice but to heed the order since he couldn't carry Nowell, the Ducklett released the box. Nowell and his food began to fall. He spun in the air, changing his position to see the water getting closer and closer. "Caz!" he yelled while taking a bite of sushi.

Caz sighed. The Floatzel took off his tie, not wanting it to get wet, and handed the ukelele to Salieri. He dove off the bridge just as his trainer disappeared below it.

Salieri looked over to Wayne, not sure what to make of the situation. Out the corner of her eye, she saw something going through the water at high speed. She ran to the edge of the bridge.

Nowell was standing on his Floatzel's back, balancing like Caz was a surfboard as the Floaztel carved a path along the river's surface. "Nice stunt-"

Caz's floatation sack puffed up full of air, and he accelerated to leap out of the water. His two tails continued to spin behind him, acting almost like a helicopter and propelling him through the air. Nowell had gone from surfing atop his Floatzel to riding through the sky.

They were flying.

The two of them peeled back around towards the bridge, and decelerated when they got close. Without the same forward momentum they steadily lost altitude and speed. Nowell flipped off of his Floatzel, still munching on his bento, and Caz slowed to a stop. He took the ukelele back from an awed Salieri and started playing again.

"Thanks Caz," Nowell told his pokemon, lifting up some sushi in appreciation.

"That was unreal," Salieri said slowly. "...I've never seen somebody work so hard to get back their bento."

Nowell shrugged. "It's not so bad. I've got, this, uh, thing." He pointed to his abnormal eyes. "Let's me sense danger. I knew I'd be okay."

A danger sense? That sounded like a useful ability any day. "So you knew that you wouldn't be in danger jumping off the top of a bridge?"
"Are you crazy? That's super dangerous. Don't try that at home, kids." Nowell quickly chowed down the rest of his food. "Sometimes you gotta take some risks."
"...you jumped off a bridge for a bento box even when your danger sense told you not to?"
"Hey, chill. I'm fine, aren't I? That wasn't even the most dangerous route to my goal."

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and nodded at Wayne. "You may wanna step to your left, by the way," he warned, putting his sunglasses back on. "Like right now."

Nowell smirked. "You're welcome."

Ducklett droppings fell from the top of the bridge down to where Wayne just stood. The trainer had avoided it completely. Salieri tilted her head, also confused.

"Did you just...wait, how is that a danger?"

"Danger to his mental health, probably. An itty bitty one." Nowell showed a sliver of space between his thumb and forefinger to show just how itty bitty it was. "Getting pooped on is usually stressful."

So he can sense danger around other people too? 'Danger' being a loose term here. "It's Aura, right?"

"Yeah! I don't meet a lot of people that know that? How did you-"

"We've got it too," Salieri told him, pointing between her and Wayne. She held up a finger and grew her nail two inches longer before shrinking it back down. "I can change my body around. He can share experiences."

Nowell's eyes widened at Salieri's display. "Huh. Weird. The name's Nowell, by the way."

"Well, I've got a last one too, it's-"

"I'm Salieri Del Forrest," Sal interrupted, punching at Wayne's arm while she was at it. "Battle Girl extraordinaire.

"Lee? Del Forrest? Uh-huh." Nowell picked up his backpack and slung it on his shoulder. "I've been training in Aura since I was about ten. My old man was an archaeologist so I wanted to travel in his footsteps. It gets pretty dangerous. You never know when you're gonna spring a trap or wake up some beastly pokemon. I needed it to get good."

Salieri crossed her arms. He looked young, maybe just a year or two older than them. It was hard to believe. "If you're an archaeologist, what are you doing playing music for money?"
"I was on my way to meet this band I usually travel with in Driftveil, but I lost my wallet and I wanna get some nachos in the city. Which I can do now, thanks to you Sal."

Nowell scooped all the cash out of the ukelele and put it into one of his backpack's many pockets. His eyes shifted to Salieri, who he looked over up and down. Salieri caught his eye and looked away, a mix of flattered and embarrassed. It was obvious he was checking her out.

"So." Nowell handed Caz the ukelele case, and the Floatzel packed up his instrument. "Are you guys some kind of Aura trainer battle couple? I saw you holding hands down the bridge."