"The Case Of The Fire Inside."

I hope the junkyard and few blocks from here, one day burns down 22

Sapnap was trying to have a good night, really he was.

He was in a shitty run-down motel out in the middle of nowhere, a leak in the roof and the smell of mould violating his nose. The light was constantly flickering in the corner of his eye and they were all using Karl's phone's flashlight to look at the files they were going over.

They were in some small town off the coast, tucked away from most people's sight. George had been able to hack into an associate of Dream's to be able to see where he was heading next. Apparently, this was considered a selkie town, one of the last ones. They had left immediately to try to and warn them, racing to get there before the labs people.

The selkies hadn't believed them when they said that they were being hunted, chasing them out of the town with snarls and angry eyes. Sapnap didn't blame them, but man it was frustrating trying to save the lives of people who refused to believe they were in danger.

They had sighted the associate a day ago, scoping out the town in the same way they were. The operation was to go down any day now, and if the selkies wouldn't believe them and flee now, then they'd just have to wait and cut off the hunt before it got too bad.

It wasn't their ideal way of doing things, but it was necessary sometimes. Selkies weren't trustful people, especially not of humans. Having George on their team helped, but George wasn't very noticeably selkie, and not many people were convinced he wasn't coerced.

The fear selkies lived in day by day wasn't something they could easily alter, humans coming to them spinning tales of hunters and having a safe place for them to hide wasn't a reliable source. They had to make sure it wasn't a trap, which was understandable.

Sapnap would never judge those people for doing what they thought they needed to do to survive. The most he could do was ensure that they'd always have the option.

There were older selkies in this town, reaching the end of their years. They would be killed the second they were taken in, there wasn't much profit to them. The youngest ones would probably be raised in the lab, the same way Tommy was. Every other one would be sold off to whoever paid the most.

Sapnap would do everything in his power to make sure that would never happen, and if they wouldn't listen the first time then he'd make it work. They always did.

"Do we have a timeline?" Quackity asked, tossing his pen into the air.

"He set up his supplies yesterday," Karl said, pointing to the place on the map where they knew the team was hiding out. "I'd say he'd be doing it within the next two days, we'll set up a rotation so that we know whenever they do choose to move in."

"And asking the townspeople to move again wouldn't be smart?" George asked, frowning as he rubbed his eyes, his glasses tossed carelessly onto the bed. "This is always so much harder."

"They've lived here for years," Sapnap shrugged. "They don't want to abandon it at the first sign of trouble. And the team would see us if we went in now, we've gained enough of a reputation that it would freak them out and then they're unpredictable."

"We're celebrities," Quackity said, making them all giggle.

His phone rang out suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Who the fuck?" Sapnap asked, pulling the phone out. Not many people had his number, this was his work phone, only given out to people he interacted with while on missions. "I'll be right back, keep going over the plan or whatever," He called out, standing up and heading over to the door.

He opened it and stepped out, clicking the accept button and lifting it up to his ear.

"Hello?" He said, leaning against the door of the motel. "Who is this? I'm kind of in the middle of something-"