The riveting log of sitting in a car for several hours

[flowerofmtsilver]

Who: Char and Vinnie
What: Investigation, stakeout, and Tim Rhyhortons
Where: Final Destination City
When: A few hours before all shit goes down
Warnings: Language, possibly violence

There was something wrong with Red.

And Sasha.

And Vinnie was hoping there was something wrong with Marie too, because that would be an excuse at least, but he couldn't really be certain. Either way, that was too many people turning into jerks without an expiry date. That was the most worrying part about it.

At first the Venusaur had quite reasonably figured that this would be something that would last one, two weeks tops. But it'd been months, which ruled out the possibility of it being some sort of magic or school phenomenon. After that, the possibility of an addiction to those drugged candies was brought up, but considering that Sasha seemed affected as well, the theory seemed unlikely. She had an aversion to sweets, after all. It wasn't until the pool party that something very important became clear: Red was not Red anymore. The purple blood, the unnatural physical strength and resilience all seemed to point towards the conclusion that this was someone who'd taken on his form, maybe even replaced him.

Except he didn't have any evidence, nor did he have any idea what could've happened to the real Red. The only thing to do in that case was to investigate.

Taking advantage of the few days he had off work while Max was at Angel Island, Vinnie had been trying to keep track of Red's comings and goings into the city. The strange part was, he'd noticed Sasha and Marie sometimes went the same way - usually not together, either - and he had a feeling it was related somehow. He was never really able to tag him for long though - smelling like he did, the breeze had to be in his favour for stalking from downwind, otherwise the game would be up pretty quickly.

From an outside perspective, it was probably kind of odd to watch a Venusaur of all things trying to stealth it into the city. Right now, Vinnie was crouched behind some bushes at the gate of the school, watching Red from afar - and for once, not dressed in garishly bright pink.

Comments

[rivalkidneypunch]

Char might not have known Vinnie as well as some people, but he'd been up against the Venusaur enough times to pick up on a few things: Vinnie, generally speaking, was about as subtle as a freight truck. He smelled like a perfume counter had exploded, used moves that centered around vomiting or Actual Literal Bulldozing, and he was definitely far too dense to ever pick up on social cues or body language that didn't come with a neon sign attached to it.

Vinnie wasn't shutting himself up in the greenhouse as much as he'd used to, but Char definitely still didn't expect to see him hanging out around the gates. Behind a bush. Surreptitiously. In an actually somewhat reasonable fashion palette. Still smelling like somebody'd gone hog wild with one of those spray-can air fresheners, but it was still pretty obvious that there was an effort being made to blend in.

It carried the chance of blowing Vinnie's cover, but Char honestly didn't really care about covering for whatever weird-ass task Vinnie was trying to do. There was nothing especially sneaky about the way his tangerine ass walked on over, nor was there any effort to whisper.

"What the hell are you doin'?"

[flowerofmtsilver]

Hearing the footsteps come up behind him, Vinnie glanced backwards for a second just to see who it was, before returning his gaze to his target. Couldn't let the trainer out of his sight in case he lost him, after all. Thankfully, Red was far away enough that he wouldn't be able to pick out any details of conversation - not unless things escalated to shouting or something - so the Venusaur felt secure enough to at least respond above a whisper.

But if Char was going to stay standing there in his bright orange firetailed glory, Vinnie felt pretty stupid crouching. He looked like an idiot taking this too seriously. Plus, height disparity. So with a sigh, he abandoned his bush-level post and stood up.

Voice at a low mutter, he explained, "Tryin' to figure out where Red's been going past few days. Something weird's been goin' on with him and the rest've my..." A look of self-directed annoyance flashed by Vinnie's face as he corrected, "his team."

[rivalkidneypunch]

Don't be in too much of a hurry to get up, Vinnie. These are the only moments in which Char gets to feel tall.

It was no secret to anyone that Char was not exactly Red's dearest and most admiring fan. He wasn't exactly interested in going out of his way to give Red anything (except maybe a solid kidneypunch or two). This little spy mission Vinnie had apparently embarked on normally wouldn't have interested him in the least -- he might have just chalked it up to the confused and yearning part of a team breakup that demanded there be some kind of reason or excuse for what had happened.

The way things stood now, though, even someone as staunchly determined to never hang out with Red ever had to admit that something wasn't quite right. If it was enough that Blue wanted him keeping an eye out for Red, then there had to be something going on, right? Char turned his attention in the general direction Vinnie was looking. Yeah, there he was. Red. In his stupid asshole hat, walking his stupid asshole walk. Char watched him for a moment, tail swishing thoughtfully.

"You don't think he's gonna notice you? No offense, but duckin' behind a bush don't exactly do much for you."

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Well he hasn't spotted me yet," Vinnie shrugged, with the added undertone of so don't blow this, Char. But if he were being honest, he wasn't entirely sure it was all him. Red always seemed a bit distant, a bit blank when he wandered into town like this - like he wasn't really paying attention to anything around him. Running on automatic seemed to be the most accurate way to describe it.

The Venusaur scratched his chin, also commenting, "I can usually tail'im for a few blocks, but the wind fucks with me once he's in the city." Damn buildings funnelling the breeze through a grid - it was impossible to stay downwind the whole time that way.

[rivalkidneypunch]

Undertone: utterly ignored. The Charizard line was pretty staggeringly deficient in the natural camouflage department, but they were hunters; it was like second nature to figure out stalking prey. The city environment was a definite obstacle. While a crowd could be used as cover, that didn't amount to much when you radiated the most powerful and distinctive smell on campus. Even if Red didn't spot exactly where Vinnie was, catching wind of him alone would probably be enough to deter him from doing anything shady.

If it were up to Char to do the following, he'd... well, no, tailing from the air wasn't an option either. The same wind currents between the city's skyscrapers that tossed Vinnie's scent around would make the slow, circling flight involved in tailing somebody who was on foot far too unpredictable and difficult. If Vinnie had already tried this more than once, then for all Char knew, Red could be much warier than usual, too -- a guy who owned a Charizard'd probably know how to spot a tail up in the sky anyway.

"Then y'need some way of containin' your stink, don't you?" Char asked, pointing out the obvious.

[flowerofmtsilver]

Vinnie furrowed his brows at the word choice, but Char wasn't wrong. He'd certainly thought about borrowing an Orange Army car, but that would be... the very opposite of inconspicuous, considering it was all armoured vehicles with mounted guns. Seeing something like that just casually driving down the street would've attracted even more attention.

Actually, he was a little surprised that Char didn't roll his eyes and write off the whole endeavour as some sad coping method or something. The Venusaur propped his hands on his hips and looked over at the Charizard expectantly. "Yeah, I know. So what, you got an idea or somethin'?" Because the way he talked, it sounded like he knew a thing or two and wasn't walking away in the next breath.

[rivalkidneypunch]

Char was willing to guess that Vinnie's scent didn't come with an off switch -- simply putting the brakes on the Outrageously Febreezy thing probably wasn't gonna happen. Covering it up with an even more overpowering smell wasn't gonna help him be any more inobtrusive, either.

Something that people wouldn't spare a second glance to out in the streets of a city. Something that could be a sort of barrier between the general public and Vinnie's little bubble of Freesia Monsoon Madness. Something that Red would not expect to associate with Vinnie, probably.

Honestly, Vinnie'd been pretty smart to think of borrowing a car, because that was the solution Char came to as well. He didn't think of the Orange Army and its military vehicles, though -- Orange Star was not generally a thing that rested fondly in Char's thoughts. Rather, he turned to the school itself.

"Why not gank one of the Driver's Ed cars? Ain't like anyone's usin' them until the term starts."

[flowerofmtsilver]

Vinnie blinked. The Driver's Ed cars were a sound idea, but he hadn't considered them an option considering the instructor to the course was gone. "S'no way t'get the keys for those, is there?" They were probably locked up tight somewhere, along with all the other class specific equipment between semesters. And trying to get permission from any of the other teachers probably wouldn't work if they were using them to, well, stalk a fellow student.

[rivalkidneypunch]

"Did you forget you're talkin' to a teacher?" Char answered. "I run the class that covers shit like Steelixes and Wailords. Ain't no reason I couldn't get into a big holdin' area like the storage garage, right?"

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Yeah, but that means you'd..." Vinnie trailed off as a look of obvious confusion sunk into his face. He took a quick glance towards the speck named Red in the distance just to make sure he hadn't disappeared, and then returned his focus to Char. The Char that hated Red's guts and had no reason to care about the trainer's well-being. And the Char that was one big question mark in regards to whatever the hell he felt towards Vinnie himself.

The Venusaur raised a brow, but his expression was closer to are you sure, than what the hell do you think you're doing. In a tone of mild disbelief, he finished saying, "...be helping me?"

[rivalkidneypunch]

Well, you didn't have to go and call attention to it, Vinnie. Char looked a little surprised, as if he had not actually consciously considered whether he was helping Vinnie or not. "I ain't..." Embarrassment quickly took surprise's place -- yeah, okay, it was sort of hard to call this anything but doing Vinnie a favour, wasn't it? He debated claiming that he was just doing this because Blue was concerned, but admitting to being soft enough to worry about one persn was just as flustering as admitting to worrying about another.

Embarrassment finally settled back into comfortable, familiar irritation. "Yeah, well, guess you owe me," he snapped. "You just gonna stand here questionin' it while Red goes fartin' off to god-knows-where?" If Vinnie had tried tailing Red before, then he probably knew part of the route -- enough to make up for the time it'd take to get a car, maybe, but probably not enough to allow room for a lengthy examination of exactly what the hell Char was doing.

[flowerofmtsilver]

God, how did he manage to fall into debt again? Well, at least this time his huffy dragon pride wasn't making it as huge of an issue - Vinnie would fully admit he was willing and ready to take whatever help he could get in order to figure out the mystery that was Red's behaviour. This affected all their teams, not just Red's, so it was every bit in Char's interest as well as his own. He wasn't going to turn that away.

Vinnie countered the Charizard's annoyance with an eager smirk. "Then we oughta haul ass." Nothing like focusing on a task to take the edge off of confusing-as-fuck emotions.

[rivalkidneypunch]

Thank goodness they'd avoided that particular topic. Confusing-as-fuck emotions never had been Char's forte.

It didn't take long to get the keys they needed and hit the garage, currently a still and dusty graveyard of unused cars, go-karts, monster trucks, warp stars, and a few other things Char wasn't especially interested in. One car was probably as good as the next, Char figured; he simply grabbed the first key, tossing it in Vinnie's direction.

"I only stuck around Driver's Ed long enough to learn how to break into cars, but if you can fly a helicopter--" Not the kind of casual offhanded mention that a guy forgets. It kinda has a way of standing out, you know? "--then you can handle a car, right?" Because this was gonna be one hell of a subtle pursuit if it turned out neither of them was an ace driver.

[flowerofmtsilver]

Vinnie caught the key as he followed suit, nodding. "Car's way easier. I got this."

Too bad he wasn't in that particular Driver's Ed class - not that stealing cars as his idea of a fun time, but that was the kind of knowledge he would've loved to have years ago. It'd be some fun irony, maybe. The Venusaur examined the key in his hand and pressed down on the keyless entry button twice.

Not too far away, a car's lights lit up and the sound of locks sliding out of place could be heard. The vehicle in question was a dull silver sedan; it was a bit scuffed up across the bumpers but otherwise in good shape - not to mention completely unobtrusive.

Vinnie hurried over and plonked himself into the driver's seat. He could already tell the frame of the car, the weight and suspension were going to be different from what he was used to, but he'd just have to adapt quickly. No time to lose.

[rivalkidneypunch]

It'd been a long time since Char had even been in a car. As far as he could remember, the last time might have been back in Car Theft 101. It wasn't that hard for him to figure out why: getting into the passenger side took some adjusting -- wings pressed flat against his back, tail curled around him to keep the flame as safe as possible in the confined space. If he thought about it, he probably could have just sent Vinnie on his way alone and left it at that, but he'd already committed himself to doing something. Tight spaces might not have been a dragon's best friend, but letting other people take action while he sat back wasn't in his nature.

Char glanced over to Vinnie, eyebrows raising just a fraction. He was sure the dude didn't need a verbal cue to go ahead and gun it.

[flowerofmtsilver]

Vinnie adjusted his seat and rearview mirror as Char and his many limbs scrunched themselves into the passenger seat. As he buckled himself in, his impulse was to remind the Fire Type to wear a seatbelt as well - but all things considered, it was probably more dangerous to try and restrain those wings and tail. Besides, he doubted that vehicle safety was any patrolling robot's concern.

Time to throw caution to the wind, then. The engine came to life and Vinnie floored it. He might have been taught all the rules and regulations to get his license, but the additional training to drive through a warzone had none of the restraint. It helped that martial law had left most roads fairly quiet, so there were very few obstacles on the road from the school into the city.

The little sedan flew out of the garage like a Zubat out of hell. Even with the miles per hour he was clocking to catch up with Red, Vinnie was focused and composed - that was hopefully reassuring.

"Tell me what y'know so far an' I'll fill you in," he said.

[rivalkidneypunch]

It wasn't like Char was a stranger to going fast. Once he'd gotten comfortable with having wings, it'd only been a matter of time before he'd gotten the hang of dives and sharp turns. Being up in the air under your own wingpower was, though, very different from being shoved into a metal box that was entirely under someone else's control. This was the first time Char'd even seen if Vinnie could actually drive competently -- it was pretty stupid to just assume that a guy who poisoned you on a fairly regular basis could be trusted to deliver you from Point A to Point B in one piece.

He was tempted to snap at Vinnie that there was nothing especially inconspicuous about going all 2fast2furious, but he held his tongue. Not like Vinnie was doing it just to show off, after all; they had lost ground to make up for. Char just folded his arms, pinning his tail away safely between his arms and his body -- the proximity to his own soul-flame didn't bother him in the least, and it'd keep the damn tail from trying to slap the ground and accidentally melting the dashboard instead.

"Pretty much jack shit," Char replied. "Dunno if you noticed, but I ain't exactly the kind of guy most people count as trustworthy. I know about what happened with you, and I know Blue's worried about Red, though I ain't sure if it's 'cause of what he told you or if there's something else goin' on."

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Then I'll tell you everything I got," said Vinnie, unconcerned with the reputed trustworthiness of his passenger. Professionalism deemed that their personal issues couldn't get in the way of things. If they were working together on this, then they had to both be on the same page, otherwise it'd never work.

"I got suspicious 'bout it all when his asshole behaviour wasn't wearing off after a week. He's been lying to the rest've the team 'bout me, starting fights for no reason... I know he's assaulted a Vaporeon and Blue, an' I think he got in a scuffle with Green." Though Vinnie tried to keep his voice level and calm as he doled out the facts, his eyes were definitely still pissed. This wasn't the kind of information that weighed on him any easier with time.

"First I thought it was a curse that wouldn't wear off, then Max suggested it was that drugged candy shit. It'd make sense if he was addicted t'the stuff, right? But he's not the only one acting weird..."

Vinnie slowed down as he entered the city, returning to a more reasonable driving speed. He had an idea of the area Red was headed to, so hopefully he could still get to the intersection before the trainer.

"Last time I talked t'Sasha too, she was being... I dunno, emotionally manipulative? Talkin' about some fight between you, Green, her an' Red durin' that week everyone was a dragon, trying t'guilt me. It didn't feel right. And Marie... actually, it'd be kinda hard t'tell with his moods. I haven't seen him recently, but I'm worried too."

[rivalkidneypunch]

Char stiffened, allowing his tail to shift a little. The heat of his flame might not have bugged him, but as Vinnie spoke, said flame had started to flare up white-hot. No wonder Blue had been so evasive when they'd spoken. Not just her, but Green? Red had to have known that both of them would keep quiet in order to defend their childhood friend. That kind of emotional bullshit, spreading lies and playing mindgames... The underhanded manipulativeness of it -- the cowardliness of picking on someone who believed in you -- made his hands clench and his stomach twist. Char didn't think highly of Red to begin with; he found the guy's apathetic, listless expectation that he was just entitled to have things always be okay downright detestable, but this active open malice was a whole different beast entirely.

And not just him, apparently. Sasha too? Char could fathom Sasha hurting feelings, but he only knew her to do it out of blasé, spoiled selfishness -- just being too caught up in herself to put others' problems before her own, not actually going out of her way to belittle or manipulate. "There weren't no fight with her. I ain't even seen Sasha in ages. If I'd been dragged into this shit sooner..." He trailed off, teeth clenched in frustration. How long had people he gave a shit about been affected by all of this toxic bullshit without him noticing?

(Nothing was said about Marie, of course, because Marie couldn't possibly have mattered less in Char's eyes. Vinnie had a good point, anyway: how would you even tell the difference if Marie suddenly went all shitty and dickish?)

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Right. So she was lying too." So that was confirmed as well. Vinnie's mouth thinned into a frown as he let that new piece of information sink in.

"Well. I wasn't sure about the candy idea once I started suspecting somethin' was wrong with her too. Sasha can't eat sweets, 'less these were some kinda spicy lollipops or something. It wasn't 'til I got in an actual fight with Red that I noticed something weird. Apart from being way stronger than usual, he was bleeding purple."

Saying the words out loud sounded absurd if you didn't take into account the kind of school they lived at - and even when you did, well, nothing like this had ever happened before during Vinnie's stay. "I'm not sure this is some kind've mind control anymore, not if his body's been changed as well. But if Red has been replaced, then this new one can act like him, knows everything he knows, and can somehow spread this bullshit around. That's all I've managed to figure out, but it still doesn't amount to a real lead."

He turned a corner onto one of the larger roads and slowed down to cruising speed. It was around here that he'd usually managed to tail the trainer, and where he usually lost him when Red wandered off into one of the quieter, adjacent streets. Vinnie scanned the few pedestrians there were, trying to spot the familiar hat.

"I almost wish you had," he said offhandedly, just thinking out loud as he searched. "If you had reason t'sock him one, that purple blood might've been spilt way sooner. No one could've known that shit back then, though." Hindsight, 20/20.

[rivalkidneypunch]

Bleeding... purple. Yeah. Okay. Why not. Maybe someone had swapped Red with a Ditto at some point. Maybe it was Snatchers. Aparoids again? Your ability to take bizarre shit in stride increased exponentially once you started living in this city. If it was a case of being switched with some kind of evil twin, then that meant something had happened to Red -- who knew where he was (or if he was even in one piece) by now, if Evil Red had been running around for this long.

"...You actually fought him?" Char asked, a little surprised it'd come to that. If Vinnie already knew that Red had been assaulting people, then it wasn't like confronting him was out of the question, but he wouldn't have expected it to end in actually hitting Red. ...He didn't ask about it further than that. The Red whose friendship squad had looked up to him as a pristine example of heroism and kindness and the Red of right now were two very different things, and the "suffer in silence" thing that saurs seemed to love doing didn't really apply anymore if other people were getting attacked.

It didn't take Char much searching to spot their intended target. He was an aerial hunter: his eyes were built for searching out distant prey. "He just went past Sprinkletown," he pointed out, just in case Vinnie had yet to find him. Char didn't let his own eyes stray from the back of Red's distant head for long -- just long enough to spare Vinnie a quick sidelong glance.

"You mad at him?" A question that might have seemed pretty dumb, coming right on the coattails of talking about fighting the guy, but if this Evil Red thing was true, then the Red who'd spread lies to his team and told Vinnie he wasn't needed hadn't been Red, technically. That left all the things that'd happened before the line had been crossed from absent to full-on rampage of sadistic fuckery.

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Well, I was tryin' to break up a fight. But he attacked me too, so..." He hardly needed to keep elaborating on that point. Being selfless was one thing, but allowing someone to attack him without putting up any self-defense was just stupid.

Char's eyes were indeed sharper than Vinnie's. On his cue, he turned his attention over to the storefront area of Sprinkletown and as promised: Red was there. Bringing the car up to a reasonable following distance behind him, the Venusaur began possibly the most slow paced pursuit imaginable. Let's just pretend he was trying to find a parking spot in the city, and not stalking some kid.

Vinnie didn't answer Char immediately. The question was so innocuous and simple that it felt like there should've been a similarly simple answer - but he had none. Staring intently at the back of Red's distant head wasn't revealing any truths either. It was hard to make out what he was justified in feeling, rather than what was an excuse or unsound blame.

"I dunno," said Vinnie finally. "I was hopin' it'd start to make sense after he was back to normal, but..." Obviously that closure had been denied to him for months. The Venusaur shook his head.

"There's nothin' I don't feel. Sometimes I'm pissed like I oughta just be done with'im, but I can't stop caring, either. I'm worried as hell but I'm still relieved I left. I really don't know."

[rivalkidneypunch]

He couldn't say the answer was a big shock, honestly. Vinnie'd been the one making the choice to leave, but other than that, everything about the situation rung a very familiar chord. Granted, Vinnie had a lot more complications to contend with, too.

There seemed to be no shortage of technicalities that could be used to claim Red didn't deserve any anger: it wasn't his fault he neglected his team if time sometimes flowed differently between Kanto and Final Destination City, it wasn't his fault if every time he came here he somehow forgot that he'd been here before, it wasn't his fault if the venomous words that'd stung Vinnie so sharply had actually been uttered by his evil clone-twin-Ditto-thing. Add in the fact that he didn't have the luxury of distance, sharing the same school with Red and the rest of his team. Maybe this meant he could still stay involved in the lives of the people he considered family, but this also meant watching the empty space in the team eventually vanish.

"You thought about what's gonna happen after the real Red's back?" Char asked, eyes staying on Red. Vinnie probably had a clear enough sight of his quarry by now, but it was still easiest to keep his attention on their target; Char'd always had the tendency to tiptoe his way into subjects that carried a lot of emotional weight, so this little degree of distance mattered. "What if he starts tryin' to win you back?"

[flowerofmtsilver]

"Not a whole lot," admitted Vinnie with a sigh. It has hard to plan for a future when he wasn't sure if things were actually going to go back to normal. All he really wanted to do was to focus on his studies and maybe figure out his own wants and needs a bit - but the Venusaur hadn't deeply considered the reality of how Red would step back into that life. It was inevitable that he would, of course, he couldn't escape it.

"If he came back right now an' wanted me back? No way. But... who knows how things change," he mused. Considering how much he'd changed as a person already, he couldn't rule out the possibility completely. Especially since there was still a fraction of his heart that was steadfastly Red's, that could never leave them. It pined for what they used to have even now, despite his higher reasoning knowing that they'd all come too far since then.

"There's a part've me that'll always belong t'Red. I can't say for sure if one day it'll win over my own ambition - but if it does, I want it t'be something I choose for myself." And not because anyone charmed or guilted or enticed him into it. Despite all his uncertainty, Vinnie wanted to be determined of that.

[rivalkidneypunch]

Char couldn't say he thought highly enough of Red to really be rooting for Vinnie to get back together with him, honestly.

"Choose it because you want it, or because you're obligated to?" It probably wasn't strictly necessary to include that shot at long-distant Weird-Ass Dad Lectures, but higher callings and responsibilities and sacrificing your happiness because that's what makes you a Good Person had come to be a pretty big part of Char's closest guess as to how Vinnie actually functioned -- those perceptions didn't vanish overnight.

It wasn't like he could say a feeling of because that's what I'm supposed to do didn't factor into this kind of thing at all, either. Char bit his tongue, keeping back the urge to say more. It was a lot simpler to keep things as cut-and-dry asshole remarks than to wade into the messy mire of "when it happened to me, I" or try and offer advice that it probably wasn't even his place to give. He might have been inching toward being more truthful when it came to himself, and he might have been coming around to the idea of actually getting to know what kind of person Vinnie was, but this was still an exceptionally heavy topic to deal with. Not the kind of thing you just barged into offhandedly at all.