It was already bad enough that Forrest himself was here. Did he really have to have all of this team out at the same time?

Though, there was certainly some intrigue and respect for Shaq’ti’s power. Admittedly he knew little of this particular member, but that perhaps made it all the more impressive.

Damselraed was tolerated until Forrest shooed her off. Neither Tristan nor Ether being in the mood to play. Not now. Not here. Not after what Oracle showed them, or what they knew they had to try to do here.

Confusion and disbelief covered Tristan’s face for a moment before he managed to pull himself together and put on his aire of stoicism. If Jonton really was here, then this just got a whole lot more complicated. Tristan’s mind raced as he tried to figure out what he was going to do.

More worrisome, though, was the prospect that this Ms. Shade might actually be working for Jonton, rather than gather and imparting information to Lady Fairfax as she was supposed to be doing. Unless she was some sort of double-agent and pretending to get close to Jonton to get all the information she could, and it simply hadn’t been safe in quite some time to debrief with Lady Fairfax yet.

And the Wharf just made the possibilities of what was going on effectively endless. Who knew what was going on here, or what they could be trying to do?

It didn’t help when, to the surprise of no one, Forrest urged Antligon to destroy the great gate that barred entry to the Wharf. Tristan thought it was an altogether melodramatic display, but kept his opinions to himself. Ether raised barriers to protect his trainer from the blast so they wouldn’t get dirty or dusty.

Ether scoffed telepathically while Tristan rolled his eyes and shook his head. As usual, Forrest didn’t take the time to listen to anyone while he was so invested in finding Jonton. That, and Ether and Tristan were sure they would just need to follow the sounds of explosions and screaming if they wanted to find Forrest.

The opposite of what they wanted to do right now. But, how did Forrest know that Jonton was here? Did Lady Fairfax just not tell him? Was she not worried about him as much as Ms. Shade? Or did she really not know? But, he was sure Forrest couldn’t know more than Lady Fairfax about her own son. And Tristan was sure that Forrest didn’t have a contact that knew more than Lady Fairfax. That would be absurd.

Still, he’d play it off and let him go on his rampage. He would be the distraction while Tristan and Ether went off to see if they could find Ms. Shade, or even Jonton. Perhaps they didn’t want to engage the former Champion right now, and would make a run for it. 

Even though he was taking the absolute opposite route towards a similar goal, Tristan stayed relatively near Forrest. After slinking off behind some crates, he let Veritas and Vertigo out to go do some reconnaissance. Forrest was more than able to hold his own, but he still didn’t feel comfortable leaving the man all alone. Tristan didn’t know what to expect here - what dangers might be waiting for them.

That, and there was a part of him, though he would never admit it, that didn’t want to stray too far from someone who could assist him in kind.