Listening to music on his Rotom phone, Florian was completely tuned out of the surrounding as he took yet another long plane ride to the beautiful land of Kitakami.
He had recently gotten a call from Carmine and Kieran asking him and his friends to come and visit since it had been a while, and splitting his studies between Naranja and Blueberry Academy was getting kind of difficult. So he was happy to embark on his trip, sadly Arven had declined because of personal reasons and Penny had returned to Galar to visit family so he was stuck with Nemona for this trip.
He didn't mind Nemona but even he had to admit she was a bit overwhelming at times with her obsessive battle mania. So of course when he asked her to join, she was more then happy too with the opportunity to battle Carmine and Kieran once again.
He looked over to the seat next to him, Nemona was fast asleep. He looked at the time, they still had a good solid two hours before they would land in Kitakami. So Florian leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes and drifted off to a somewhat peaceful sleep.
2 hours later….
At long lasted they landed in Kitakami. With Nemona now wide awake and ready to meet their friends and have a fruitful battle. Florian just laughed at the typical Nemona antics as they made their way to Mossui Town. Walking past the community center and straight towards the home of Carmine and Kieran.
They knocked on the door upon their arrival. With Kieran opening the door.
"Florian, Nemona it's so good to see you guys" he said as he walked over and first embraced Florian and after that Nemona, his face blushing a slight red.
Florian took note on how much Kieran had grown, he had definitely grown taller in the two years since they last saw each other, though his face and hairstyle had remained the same.
"It's so good to see you guys again" Kieran said.
"It is absolutely. Come on let's have a battle!" Nemona declared.
Florian chuckled "Nemona we just got here don't you think it's a little early to start battling" he said. But Nemona simply enthusiastically shouted "it's never too late or early for battle" and with that she grabbed Kieran by the arm and almost yanked him out of the doorway and ran off with him.
Florian just chuckled as he watched the pair go off. And then when he turned his head he spotted Carmine walking through the doorway herself, with a bit of a sullen expression etched onto her face.
Florian flashed her a smile "hey Carmine. Good to see you again."
"Yeah…same" Carmine replied sullenly.
Florian caught up on this sudden and unusual distant behavior from her. Carmine, the woman who stole the spotlight in every setting she was in, confident, self-assured and sassy Carmine was suddenly acting distant and sullen.
"You okay Carmine. You seem…a bit sad."
Carmine clenched her first and looked at the ground for a good second before returning to meet his gaze and forcing a slight smile.
"Nothing ever gets past you doesn't it Florian?" she said as she walked over to him and hugged him. Florian tensed up as Carmine tightly embraced him for a good minute, as if she was unwilling to let go.
"Don't take it the wrong way Florian. I'm happy to see you but…this week is just…it's a difficult week and Kiki doesn't realize…" she started as she tried very hard to keep a stoic expression but Florian instantly saw how hurt Carmine seemed to look "he doesn't realize how hard this week usually is for me and…"
A hard and loud yell suddenly interrupted Carmine and the pair looked towards the source of the yell.
"That sounded like Nemona!" Florian said.
He and Carmine both set off away from her residence and ran towards the location of the yell. Right in front of the community center they where met with a very unusual sight.
Before their eyes, Nemona and Kieran where stuck, literally stuck as their gloved hands where seemingly entangled with each other. Both pulled on one end to try and get loose from each other, but instead they where literally joined at the hand, as if their hands were glued together.
And an even stranger sight was the two men standing a while back, laughing hysterically and pointing at Nemona and Kieran.
"HA STUCK IT TO YOU!" one of them, long with platinum blonde hair yelled out as he high fived the other more effeminate man.
"Told you it would work!" the other one said.
Carmine's sullen demeanor was now flipped and she was seething as she stepped right up to the pair, clenching her fists as she usually did.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!" she yelled out angrily.
"Oh," the taller one said "well you see my bro here figured I couldn't trick people for a third time in supergluing them together and yet it worked! So Akira pay up!"
The man known as Akira sighed and pulled out his wallet, giving a 100 poke dollars to his friend.
"SO YOU SUPERGLUED MY BROTHER TO MY FRIEND FOR A JOKE!" Carmine yelled again, her face becoming redder and redder.
At this moment Florian stepped in and went in to between Carmine and the two men. Looking the strangers up and down before saying.
"Look you had your fun. But don't you think it's about time you help our friends get unstuck Mr…"
Suddenly the two strangers smiled up and stepped backwards, before proceeding to suddenly do a backflip, land on their feet and then do a pirouette before saying in unison.
"We are the Double A's!" they exclaimed.
"I'm Alastair" the tall one spoke.
"And I'm Akira," the shorter one spoke "you probably heard about us!"
"Uhm…" was all Florian could mumble while looking at the pair in mild disbelief "uhm no sorry never heard of you."
The pair suddenly fell backwards to the ground with their face in complete and utter shock. As if they had been shocked by a Pikachu, they quickly however regained their composure and stood back up, trying very hard to hide their annoyance.
"Anyways could you please help our friends get unstuck. They look really uncomfortable" Florian pointed out as he turned back towards a despondent Nemona and Kieran, who where sitting on the ground, their hands stuck together.
"Oh yeah…" Alastair said with seeming sincerity "that must suck for them!" he yelled out again pointing at laughing at Nemona and Kieran and their sticky situation.
"ENOUGH!" Carmine said stepping forward "YOU TWO ARE GOING TO GET THEM UNSTUCK OR I WILL THROW YOU FROM THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN!"
"Carmine calm down" Florian said, trying in vain to calm his friend down.
Suddenly the Double A's looked Carmine up and down in curiosity before whispering to each other.
"WHAT YOU LOOKING AT YOU FREAKS! I WILL!"
"What's going on here?" they all suddenly heard. And then the community center manager stepped into view.
"You two again! I told you guys to get out of here!"
The Double A's looked at him with caution, giving one last glance at Carmine before they suddenly ran off shouting "THE DOUBLE A'S ARE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" running as hard as they could before disappearing out of sight.
"Those two…" the community center manager sighed before turning to the group "what's going on?"
"Well…" Florian pointed towards the situation Nemona and Kieran where in. Shocking the man as he tried to gauge the situation, all the while Florian looked up at an angry and confused Carmine who was probably wondering what he was wondering.
Who where those two?