The Sap Sipper

[HelloYellow17]

Wes took a long sip of his coffee and grimaced. He’d never really been a fan of the stuff, and drinking a tall black coffee in the later afternoon would usually be a terrible idea, but. Well. Given the plans for the day ahead, and the ever-growing fatigue from one sleepless night after another, he figured he might as well do what he could to stave off the exhaustion.

It would be far from his dumbest decision of the day, anyway.

Are we really doing this? Is this too reckless? The questions had been running through his mind on a loop all day long. He thought back to Laura and Jade, their apprehensive expressions when he mentioned the plan. They were nervous, too, no doubt. As they should be.

Still, they couldn’t afford to wait any longer. The evidence was too damning, and now that they knew who the culprit was, there was no reason to hold back. No matter how powerful the little bastard was, they still outnumbered him. Hell, Wes had half a mind to rally everyone to corner Orzo all at once—but no. He was too slippery for that. And they’d need hard proof first, anyway. Which they would definitely get tonight, Wes was confident of at least that much.

Both Neo and Novo were fast asleep at his feet; Wes wasn’t the only one who had endured several sleepless nights. They could rest for now. They would need it for what lie ahead.

He took another dreaded sip of his coffee and glanced over to where Mitch sat several tables away, chatting it up with Kimiko and some lady with a Houndoom. He couldn’t even be sure if Mitch had noticed him at all, but that was fine. Wes was content to let Mitch handle all the socializing for now. Gods knew he needed an opportunity to just sit and eat in solitude for once.

Said solitude couldn’t last forever, though, and the soft ping from Wes’ PDA told him just as much. His heart immediately leapt into his throat even before he pulled out the device and read the message from Odette. It was time.

With a steadying sigh, he drained the last of his coffee and straightened up. He gently nudged his Pokémon awake with his boot, both of whom rose with drowsy trills, then stood and made his way to Mitch’s table.

He cleared his throat once he was there and made eye contact with Mitch. “Sorry to interrupt. But Mitch and I have a…a meeting we need to head to.”

It was a lame excuse, and not even remotely convincing, but the look on Kimiko’s face said she understood. Wes decided to ignore the Houndoom trainer’s bewildered expression.

He nodded curtly at Mitch. “Let’s go, then.”

 

[Negrek]

Whatever the houndoom trainer might know about hoopa, Nate apparently wasn't going to find out. He looked up in surprise as Wes materialized by his table--where the hell had he come from? Nate couldn't have missed him somehow, could he? He wasn't that out of it.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Guess I'd better be going," he said, pushing back his chair. Mightyena scraped to her feet with a sigh, then gave herself a quick shake. "Good to meet you and all." He gave the trainers a couple vague nods (neither of them had said their names, right? He wasn't going crazy?) and reached down to scratch the back of Mightyena's neck. She swiped his fingers with her tongue in return. "Thanks for your help figuring out the Clink thing," he added to the espeon trainer.

"Good luck to you and your trainer," Mightyena said, giving the espeon a gentle nudge with her nose. "And you, too," this to the houndoom. "And your fighting gods... if that's what you intend to do." She trotted over to Neo and Novo, mustering a couple of tail-wags for them and leaning down to sniff them in greeting.

Felt like a hell of a lot of goodbyes for a couple of people Nate had met like five minutes ago, but whatever. With everything going on today, things felt kinda... heavy, somehow. He caught Wes' eye and jerked his head towards the door, then headed that way himself.

 

[Flyg0n]

"Strange, sure," Nate said. He fiddled unenthusiastically with his beer. "We're still missing shit somewhere." It didn't seem like anyone had new ideas. What Mightyena said made things more complicated... maybe. He didn't think they quite had what they needed to figure everything out yet. But they were close... they had to be close. "You know anything about hoopa?" he asked. "Even just regular ones, not all gold and shit. Haven't really met nobody who seems to know much at all."

"Not much. I've heard they can travel across universes of course, and there's one legend from my world about a Hoopa who was trapped in some bottle when it rampaged. But I'm not sure if it's the same for every universe..." she trailed off, eyes narrowed and lost in thought. "What you described sounds different from anything I've heard. Then again, I'm hardly a legendary expert."

"This is your world, isn't it?" Mightyena asked the houndoom. Something about all the people from the other boat being from here. "I thought it was supposed to be peaceful, but then how have you been fighting evil humans? That sounds like something that would happen in my world, but I didn't think it would be part of this one." She licked her nose, thinking. "Is your trainer a cop?"

Azar's tail twitched uncomfortably. "No, this is not our world, but it feels very similar. Earlier, maybe. Lourine talked to Xavian about it, it seems like the people we fought were stopped a long time ago here." he hesitated before adding, "No. Not a cop. Just someone who wanted to do the right thing."

Kimiko failed to repress a sigh at that. "You just summed up my last three days. I've felt like I'm just... missing something, but can't place what it is."

But Lourine also seemed to think they were being misled... what could that mean? Did she think Orzo was innocent and someone was framing him as a red herring? As Mitch asked her if she knew anything about hoopa, she checked her phone; the afternoon was quickly slipping away (why did it feel like the flow of time was so weird here?), but it wasn't dire as of yet... she figured she might as well go for it. "Misled how? What are your thoughts about what's going on?"

"Honestly? Usually the more something makes you look one direction it means you're looking the wrong direction. I don't know, but it doesn't sit right that after getting brought here by a Hoopa then people start getting offed. By what might be a Hoopa. It feels like we're all pawns in a sick game." she chewed her lip. "Maybe Orzo's game. And if what you said about this golden king crap is true then..." she let the thought hang, unspoken. What hope do we have?

"Give me a malicious organization to fight any day. Not this."

"Oh yes, we've fought them, too!" Olivia said, oblivious to her out of place her excitement was. "Lots of bad people back in my world, too. My human has thoughts that they might be involved with our ghost problem, but we haven't found any actual connections yet. But she did fight a thief who stole one of my teammates once! Oh, and then there was that one guy who threw that party..."

"If your instinct tells you there's a connection trust it," Azar growled. "Humans often excel at speaking without truth and saying many things they do not mean."

He tilted his head. "A party? Interesting. Perhaps you'll have to tell the story sometime."

Lourine gave a wave and bid goodbye to the trainers, as did Azar.

As they left, Azar pressed himself against Lourine's leg in a comforting gesture. Everything would be fine, somehow. He had to believe that.

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