Byron Parisi
Ryme City Police Department
No one wanted to sit by the FBI agent and her Gengar, it seemed. As soon as they had moved over to sit amongst the lobby's chairs, a full on crowd of people got up and moved away, leaving them with quite a bit of extra space where there had been none. The Gengar had made a snickering noise in response, but Agent Calder said nothing...and watching the way the Pokemon practically led her to a seat, Perry began wondering if there was something else going on with her. As bizarre as this was, he grew even more curious as the vapor haze seemed to shift away from them, moving out into the room before vanishing from sight.

Of course, he didn't have much time to think about it, however, as the phone rang and he had yet another call to deal with.

Rain Calder
Ryme City Police Department
Funny, it seemed even people here in Ryme City were wary of Ghost Pokemon. Rain had heard a number of people rise to move away from where they were sitting as she and her Gengar approached, an action she found almost amusing. Though she had learned how to interact with people, and even how to be somewhat comfortable around them, Rain definitely didn't mind the peace and quiet that spending time alone provided--especially given how rowdy things could get with her family back home. Besides, no one sitting close to her meant fewer questions, and that was probably for the best if she was honest. Once seated, she gave Nuala and Cerridwen free reign to explore and seek out what information they could find on their own, a request the twin Gastly gleefully fulfilled. Rain felt the temperature around her raise slightly as the pair darted away, and smiled a bit to herself. Nuala and Cerridwen had always been curious and a bit high energy, more like a pair of rambunctious baby sisters even though Azriel was pretty sure they were older than she was. They had always watched out for her, though, and Rain could hardly imagine working with any other Pokemon as her eyes and extended ears.

She wasn't sure how long it was before someone came to get her, but she heard a door open, followed by a surprised yelp from the young man working the desk before a deeper male voice called for her. "Agent Calder?"

"I'm here, sir," she called, pushing herself up easily and turning herself towards the source of the voice. It was only a moment before Azriel’s hand took up its usual position on her arm, turning her ever so slightly, adjusting before gently nudging her forward.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, Agent Calder. I’m Chief Moretti,” the male voice offered, and Rain was surprised by the warmth in it. He sounded oddly friendly, though she could hear just a bit of that stress in his voice as well.

“The pleasure is mine, Chief Moretti,” she replied, allowing herself to offer the man a small smile before nodding her head towards her Gengar. “Azriel’s as well.”

“Agreed, a pleasure,” Azriel agreed, but Rain knew that to the Chief, it sounded like a “Gen, Gengar!”

Though she didn’t see it, the chief nodded in appreciation to the Gengar, and then gestured back to the door. “Why don’t we move to someplace a bit more comfortable? My office is just down the hall.” Of course he’d want to get down to business as soon as possible, and she allowed Azriel to lead her through the doorway and down the hall to the Chief’s office. Her partner carefully directed her to a chair as Moretti moved behind his desk. There was a snort as the Chief’s partner Houndoom lifted its head from the enormous pillow it was curled up on to see who had entered the room, but after a moment the dog Pokemon’s head dropped back down and it appeared to return to its nap.

There was the creak of an office chair as Chief Moretti sat down and let out a long, relieved sigh before addressing them again. “Really, I can’t thank you and your team enough for coming, Agent Calder. We’re at a loss here--it’d likely be far easier to figure out what’s going on if we had more manpower, or fewer incidents of battling or Pokemon going rogue, but...Ryme’s been such a peaceful city for so long, there’s never been a need for a larger police force.”

“Save for that incident seven years ago,” Rain murmured bluntly, and the Chief flinched.

“There wasn’t much we could have done about that. No one suspected--” She held up a hand and shook her head slightly.

“I apologize, we’re going to get off track. That’s not what I intended, and you certainly couldn’t have done anything yourself, you weren’t chief at the time. That happened, what? Two? Three years ago?” She’d come across the information during one of her many attempts to research the city and RCPD before her trip out, but she couldn’t quite remember the number of years Chief Moretti had held his position off the top of her head.

“I’m coming up on three years next month, but I won’t keep the position if this city’s in ruins,” he grumbled in reply.

“We’ll get this sorted out before the city’s reduced to rubble, sir. I assure you, Sinnoh sent you some of it’s finest, and we’re going to give it our all. What discoveries have you made so far? The media didn’t have much information to offer when I tried looking into it, and the case file we were sent didn’t have much detail in it either.” The Chief coughed uncomfortably, averting his eyes, and she felt Azriel tremble next to her in silent laughter. It was enough of an answer, and that didn’t inspire much confidence in her.

Nothing, then. Or close to it.

“The Pokeballs making their way into the city are being smuggled in by someone, or a group of someones, who are exceedingly good at covering their tracks. We’ve always had a minor problem with illegal battle rings, but it’s gotten far worse, and we can’t crash and contain them fast enough. Even when we do, we don’t have the prison space to hold everyone--even if we’re just trying to hold the people who aren’t registered trainers but have Pokeballs on them. A few of the Pokemon who’ve gone rogue have been either captured in those illegal Pokeballs or otherwise contained by Ryme residents and their Pokemon partners, and we’ve got them contained, but...we can’t figure out what’s happened to them. Initially, we’d planned to release them back into the public, but they’re still displaying signs of aggression and destructive tendencies.” There was a squeal of protest from his chair as the Chief leaned back in it and ran his hands through his graying hair. “We’ve got a few other high profile helpers here from other regions, including a young lady working on obtaining official professor status that came from Kanto that’s been here for almost a week. She’s working on a focus in Pokemon behavior, and while she’s been trying to work with the contained rogues for most of that time, she hasn’t made very much headway.”

Rain’s eyebrows rose above the frames of her sunglasses. “They’re still displaying aggression and destructive tendencies? Isn’t that unusual?”

“Unless they’ve been mistreated by humans, or particularly aggressive species, it is,” Azriel agreed, not waiting on Moretti’s reply.

“You know I know that,” she replied under her breath, earning them raised eyebrows from Moretti, but the man simply answered the question.

“It is, and as I said, our visiting helper is completely baffled. I can introduce you, if you’d like. Let you see with your own eyes what we’re dealing with.” It was then that Rain couldn’t resist letting out an almost delighted laugh of surprise. Chief Moretti gave her a look of utter bewilderment as the Gengar beside her began snickering as well.

“Chief Moretti, what did they tell you when they informed you I was being sent?” she finally asked him, reaching up to adjust her glasses where they’d slid down her nose.

“Just that a specialist in information gathering would be coming to assist us, and a name. Rain Calder. May I ask what it is that you find so funny, Agent Calder?” he asked, sounding annoyed now.

“Just that I won’t be seeing anything with my own eyes, sir. I’m blind. Azriel and I would love to meet with your visiting specialist, though, and try to make a few observations of our own, if possible. From what I’ve heard, I find it difficult to believe that all of this is mere coincidence.”