"Murder," said Nolan, immediately, without elaboration.
Right. Yeah, Dave'd read something about some grisly murder case where she'd been a suspect. Never actually solved, and most everything he'd read about the Escarpa clan had been served up with a large helping of obvious racism implying they were dangerous savages because they didn't wear enough clothes. Not trusting
that allegation farther than he could throw it. (Not as if people could murder each other without fucking superpowers. No, any murder committed by someone who'd ever been in the presence of a human proved that the races must be kept separate for the greater fucking societal good.)
And then his expression fell cold again. Sullen, one might call it. He said nothing at first, but his hand drew to his chest, fingers curling.
"...Non-human offworlders are a known phenomenon to the Covenant," he said, quietly. "Non-humans summoned by the light are... unprecedented. I cannot conceive of why the light should bring you here, Bellatrix, but clearly you must share some part of your group's responsibility to this world. I wish you... every success."
The Inteleon's face looked as if he resented his mouth for speaking the words.
Oh no, he
couldn't conceive of why the light would bring a Pokémon. Almost like they were fucking
people. (In some universes, apparently. It was a jarring thought that his own universe's Pokémon had somehow become an afterthought in the time he'd spent here. Cowboy world really
was driving him insane.)
"So you're saying sometimes you get offworlders who
aren't summoned? How does that happen?"
He watched, scowling, as Wes and Steven prepared to make a deal with Nolan. (Wes made it clear he was holding his nose in doing so, but did Steven
actually believe this shit?)
Was Nolan and his human enlightenment cult actually
behind the shadow Pokémon? Over the course of the conversation that'd become harder to believe. He'd had a legitimate snap reaction to Odette's spike, which could have been because he wanted to examine it or because he didn't want them to have it, but he'd then made no attempt to make an excuse to
keep it, so it had to be the former. And Nolan sure talked about Voclain with abject disdain. Like he thought the guy'd given humans a bad name, when they were
supposed to be these lofty fucking savior figures. Same with this Wolf guy. If Nolan wanted to throw them off the scent by sending them chasing after a scapegoat, then what was the fucking point of claiming the Wolf himself was a shadow Pokémon except different from every other shadow Pokémon? If he wasn't actually, wouldn't they find out and Nolan'd immediately look more suspicious for bullshitting them? If he was some kind of escapee from the shadow program that they wanted to get rid of, then wouldn't sending them after the Wolf after telling them he had his mental faculties mean they'd
talk to him, and he would
tell them? It didn't make any fucking sense no matter how he looked at it.
No, the human supremacists probably just had some
concerns about shadow Pokémon. Probably because it created Pokémon even more powerful than their pure, precious segregated humans.
He exhaled through his nose. "Look, okay, we all agree there's some twisted shit going on in Blaguarro. And
yeah, we'd love to do something about it, whoever's behind it. But like I said before, last time we encountered shadow Pokémon didn't exactly go fucking swimmingly. We'd need a lot more fucking firepower to waltz in and put a stop to it."
He took a breath. "Also, why do you keep saying our appearance has something to do with the shadow Pokémon? It sounds like it's been going on a whole lot longer than we've been here."