At the same time Sénon had sent the message to meet up, Lars had arrived, right on schedule, just outside the Fortree Rescue & Treatment Sanctuary—otherwise known as the Fortree Gym (if anyone wanted to just skip the aviary and go for the badge).

“Where the hell are you—” he hissed, having already asked the Sanctuary staff if they’d seen a redhead come by (the two he’d asked answered in the negative; the brown-haired one even apologizing profusely while the ash-blonde just gave him the filthiest glare before shaking her head. Scary much?) and was now pacing outside.

Even the avians that called the Gym home knew something was up and were cawing, watching the blonde pacing just outside the perimeter.

Approximately ten minutes later, he finally booted up his own PokéGear and turned on the tracking signal.

Yeesh…

Where was he even going to start looking?

What a nightmare…

He was pretty sure that Sénon didn’t keep a phone (or if he did, it might be out of charge or something like that, an expensive paperweight even) so trying to contact the other would be hard—if not downright impossible.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m goin’,” he remarked, finally leaving the Sanctuary grounds and keeping an eye on the tracker he’d so recently opened…

Huh, what a second, what the fuck?

What was he doing all the way out on Route 119? Had he forgotten—

“Mamma mia,” he continued with a groan, pinching the bridge of his nose.

How could the other forget they were going to meet at Fortree? Squaring his shoulders before dropping another sigh, he then began to wind his way towards where the tracker was pinging, wondering what had so stolen the other man’s attention for him to forget they were supposed to meet up and discuss… something.

Something important.

“Where the hell have you been?” were the first words out of his mouth the moment he realized where the other had gone off to.

“Honestly, you were the one who mentioned meeting outside the Gym, but then you didn’t turn up and I almost got on the wrong side of someone… yeah I’m not going to go there,” he added with a huff.

Much tempted as he was to break out his vape and take a smoke, the sight of the strange blue flowers caught his eye.

“Oh. I already encountered some of those. But at a completely different place,” he remarked.

“And don’t worry, I already asked to have samples sent to illeana reyes and Eva Morales for them to examine. It’s… just like… those strange ‘rifts’ that’ve been appearing all over the place,” he continued as he pinched the bridge of his nose again.

For in the back of his mind, he could hear the soft, snarky chuckling from the one who shared his headspace.

“So… what is it exactly you wanted to talk about all the way out here?”

“Bitch, you said this particular time,” he remarked as he quickly pulled up the message and showed it to the other, “…but it’s way past that now!” he added with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Anyway…” he said as he pulled out his vape and flipped it on, taking a drag for a bit to calm himself down as he looked at his redheaded counterpart.

“Flowers aside, you mentioned you wanted to talk with ‘them’, right?”

There was only one ‘them’ he would mention so casually.

“Do you need me to summon ‘em from Shoal Cave, or what?”

Because as it was, the Hoennian weather was already veering towards the uncomfortable, and there was no way in hell the iceborne mirage would be appearing anywhere that was hotter than the lowest levels of Shoal Cave at the moment.

And then the entire situation went from solemn to outright—

What in the fuck?

Lars blinked at the sight of the report, and he just looked at the screen with this incredulous look on his features. “If I did that, I’d have told you. But you can clearly see that my name ain’t on the damned thing,” he pointed out.

“Maybe it was your wife?” he added a few moments afterward with a shoulder shrug.

However, fact of the matter was that there was no name on the report that was flashing on-screen, so…

“I don’t have the fucking slightest, man,” he continued with another shrug. “Either way… do you want me to call ‘em from Shoal Cave?” he prompted once again.

Clearly, what had happened after the world-crossing had affected the other in more ways than one. How could he have forgotten their meeting today?