Xavian's Private Quarters

[Shiny Phantump]

Hazel was eager to get started with the team's plan. Finally, they were doing something about everything that was going on here!

Gladion would've been more eager about someone else doing something. He wanted to make sure Hazel got home safely, more than anything else. She'd just gotten her new lease on life. She was more willing to risk that than he was, but he couldn't in good consciousness tell her not to help.

Instead, he positioned himself in the public area of the lounge on the floor below, doing his best to scroll through his phone and act bored, despite how nervous he actually was. He wanted to be in psychic range of Hazel, just in case. Even if she'd be a ghost type for a bit at the beginning.

Hazel made her way upstairs, looking for the door to the private quarters that she'd had described for her, then turning away instead of entering to look for a nearby maintenance closet or another similar room. She found a locked door with a label she couldn't actually read, but it was all one word so it wasn't someone's name, and she couldn't sense any minds inside in Pa'u style. She turned on her Sensu style and pressed her head against, and then around the door in a direction she didn't really have a name for. Seeing nothing of interest inside, she went the rest of the way around the door.

Flicking back to Pa'u, she sent a message to Gladion in his head. "I found a room. It's mostly just full of dark."

She shut her eyes to focus, not that there was much visual distraction in the room in the first place, and concentrated on the room with her inner eye, looking for anyone inside it, but not reaching out to them because it would be ruining the point if they were knowing she was there. It was like hide and go seek. Except they were doing the hiding and seeking at the same time so maybe it wasn't actually like that.

 

[Panoramic_Vacuum]

The walk to Xavian's room was short, but to Steven it felt like it stretched on forever.

Aggron gave a worried grumble behind him, and Steven grit his teeth. "I know, I know," he muttered.

He'd come to the lounge to avoid having to take advantage of their host's trust and what did he end up doing? Going to knock on his door and invite him to a dinner with the intent to rifle through his quarters while he was gone.

He ran a hand down his face as they pulled up outside Xavian's door, and Aggron huffed quietly.

"I just don't know what to do when--," Steven waved one hand back toward the lounge, the other still pressed against his face, muffling his voice.

Aggron knew he was talking about Odette and Odile and the tears streaming down both of their faces. He felt a pang, too. Seeing two strong people crumble like that. All the smashing and stomping in the world couldn't fix what was troubling them...

Steven gave a world-weary sigh and dropped his hands to his side, smoothing his suit jacket on the way down.

He raised one knuckle to the door and paused. "Last chance to back out of this," he said, glancing over his shoulder.

Aggron's answering gaze was determined. So Steven turned back around, drew a steadying breath, and knocked on the door.

 

[Negrek]

Nate's heart about jumped out of his chest when Steven showed up... leading exactly the last group of people he wanted to see. What the fuck was he doing?

Getting in over his head, apparently, if the desperation in his voice was anything to go by. The girl with the espeon stepped in to intercept him, and Nate could only hope she'd salvage the situation. It was quick thinking, anyway.

It also didn't erase that the rich guy had definitely just seen all of them lurking around, and when he inevitably figured he'd been set up it was going to be pretty damn easy for him to figure out who was involved. Which on the one hand, if the rich guy thought he wanted to make something of it, Nate would be more than happy to take him on. On the other, if Orzo was the kidnapping bastard behind all this, Nate would prefer that he not have any clue who might've been rooting around, looking for dirt on him.

Too fucking late to worry about that now. Odette said, "Let's move," and he was more than happy to comply. More waiting would only mean more anxiety. They needed to do what they'd come here to do already. Mightyena stayed up ahead of him, alternately sticking by Odette and Odile and circling around to converse with Wes' eeveelutions.

It turned out the rich guy's place wasn't far away. Very nondescript. Suspicious, almost. Since when did somebody like that decide to hang out around the plebes instead of off in their own rich-guy world?

Didn't matter right now. For now, they had a job to do. And the first obstacle in front of them--the door. "Well, here we are," Nate said. "I ain't the best with locks. One of you want to take a shot at this one?" he asked, with a questioning look at Wes.