Chapter 4: What's first?
Nexus had walked out to seeing everyone except Estelle and Karol. The second he popped into his sight, the ex-knight gave a slightly shocked expression. He looked fairly similar to himself. Although admittedly it was just the indigo dreadlocks that make it look like Yuri's same coloured hair. He quickly dispelled the shock and gave a chuckle. "Well, it seems my look seems to be catching. You have good taste at least."
The echidna himself laughed as he spotted Yuri himself, grateful that everyone else didn't seem to give the reaction Rita did when first seeing him. "Why aren't you all as surprised as the mage was?" Raven quickly butt-in with a wink and thumbs-up. "That'll be thanks to me kid. I let them all know what you looked like beforehand. It wasn't exactly easy trying to convince them, and as you noticed, I couldn't convince our genius mage back there."
Raven let out a laugh. "I guess with everything they've all seen, they're not surprised by anything nowadays." The krityan smiled at him. "Not after everything we've seen from you old man." Yuri chuckled. "Besides, after what the old man told us about this 'aer manipulation' thing, we had to check this out. Your friend could help us on how to use aer without blastia."
Nexus' grin faded a little. "Maybe." He then turned when he heard Rita make her way out of the inn, confused as to what took her so long. She walked right past him, giving him an untrusting look as she went up to the group. Yuri spoke up once again. "Surprised we didn't hear anything about your friend sooner, he could have really helped us with some of our adventures." The echidna shrugged a little sheepishly.
"Guess we were just unlucky. Besides, it all worked out for you anyway didn't it." Yuri nodded before they all heard something coming from the inn. Nexus immediately knew who it was, and let out a sigh.
"Roll the dice, play your cards, break the rules, that's who you are..." The hedgehog walked out of the inn, seemingly like a completely different person from just some minutes ago. He had his eyes shut as he sang the lyrics to the song he was listening to. He wasn't that good of a singer, but he couldn't really hear himself, so who cares right?
His eyes opened as he saw everyone. A cocky grin appeared on his face as he paused the song. "Joe. Pleasure to meet you all." Judith let out a giggle from his 'singing' as Raven shook his head with a grin. Rita just shook her head in annoyance while Yuri and Repede seemed indifferent to the whole thing.
"So, you're the guy who can manipulate the aer to attack." Yuri said, curious himself. The hedgehog nodded, that grin never leaving his lips. "And you all saved the world. It's an honor to meet ya." Yuri nodded in response. "Thanks. So, mind telling us all about this ability you have?"
They spent the next few minutes discussing everything that happened (including the made-up reason for the two friends being here), Rita paying extremely close attention given her research. The hedgehog finished his explanation and decided to not waste anymore of their time and asked if he and his friend could come along with them while they try to figure everything out.
"Of course you're coming!" A voice called out. They all looked right at the person who said it. It was Rita. She looked at them all in return. "What? He has to come with us for me to figure out how he has this ability doesn't he? We can't stay here and potentially waste time with these rumors flying around." Almost everyone nodded in quick agreement while the hedgehog grinned. He was starting to feel a bit better about all this already.
"So, where to first?" Joe asked, itching to get this little adventure started. "First we're going to Dahngrest where the rumors started to see if we can get any more information. Then we're going to Capua Torim to ask Kaufman if she any information on this. And then we're going to head for Nordapolica to talk to Natz, and maybe train a little in the Coliseum." Judith said with a smile.
Joe's eyes lit up a little when he heard that. He was hoping he'd hear that last part. "Are Estelle and Karol coming too?" Nexus added, noticing neither of them were there. "Mhm. They're back on the Fierta now, just waiting for us to get back. Estelle's pretty interested in you too ya know kid." The old man elbowed the hedgehog on the arm as he mentioned it.
"Well, I doubt we should keep a princess waiting should we? Should we get started on this little journey of ours?" Joe said, with a grin plastered on his face. "This isn't a vacation you know, we're doing this as business for their guild, and you're only here so I can figure out what's up with that ability of yours." Rita chimed in sharply, which drew an annoyed frown from the hedgehog.
"I'm aware 'O Genius Mage', but it's not like we can't enjoy ourselves either you know." He rebuttled. "I like this kid already!" Raven said patting the yellow hedgehog on the back which drew a quick laugh from them both, while Yuri gave a small grin and started to head off for Ba'ul and the Fierta. Rita groaned in annoyance as she followed suit. This better be worth my damn patience… She thought to herself.
Judith had walked up to Nexus and held out a hand for him. "Judith."
"Nexus." He shook her hand with a small smile. "Shall we get going then?" The krityan smiled back. "Of course." She walked on, leaving the two friends and Raven. "Good looking ain't she?" The old man muttered to the hedgehog with a grin, to which the hedgehog replied with one of his own. "Oh yeah."
"Don't think about chasing her though, Ol' Raven here already has his sights set on her." He said chuckling as he walked off after him. "Oh yeah? She could barely keep her eyes off me…" Joe replied to him walking beside him which drew a laugh from the old man as they continued this small competition of theirs.
Nexus shook his head and sighed. Great, I knew those two would be like two peas in a damn pod. God knows how they'll cope with two of them… I wonder if they'll know how to bring us back home, since we can't stay here forever of course. The echidna thought to himself as he walked after them. The adventure was about to begin for them.