Rain Calder
Ryme City Police Department

RCPD was hiding the captured rogues and the woman studying them in an older annex building, but that didn’t mean the building wasn’t secure. They’d been slowly trying to update the building for years, Chief Moretti explained before placing a call to their visiting specialist to ensure she wasn’t busy. It turned out that right now was a perfect time for her, and they were invited to let themselves in—Moretti knew the door codes, after all. During the exchange, it was glaringly obvious that whoever this specialist was, the Chief had a hard time keeping up with her. It sounded as though she frequently cut him off midsentence, and anything he actually expected from her was the opposite of what he got. Of course, that just made Rain more curious about who exactly this woman was.

She got her answer three hallways, an elevator, a keypad, five hallways, and another keypad later. Azriel assured her at one point that he was keeping an eye out for danger, but they both knew that was the case without his offering the information...besides, Nuala and Cerridwen hadn't yet returned, and she knew they'd have everything to say if they had found anything dangerous yet--it was almost as though they had an internal radar on her sometimes. A second after she heard Chief Moretti push the door open, she was greeted by a blast of cold air and the sound of fingers tapping away at a keyboard some distance away. The sound of typing stopped quickly as the Chief cleared his throat and announced, "As promised, I've brought you a visitor, Miss Redwood--wait, where has your Gyarados gone?"

There was the familiar rolling of a desk chair on what sounded most like cement a distance away, and given the first few noises she'd heard, Rain suspected the room they were in was large, but she hadn't necessarily expected to hear the woman kept a Gyarados, especially out in the open. "He's cooling down. We figured you'd prefer Puddle confined to a Pokeball rather than the building reduced to rubble the next time one of our angry friends tries to take my hand off again." Behind her sunglasses, Rain blinked in surprise. Though she could tell the woman meant every word that left her mouth, it was delivered in an airy, carefree tone that suggested she saw absolutely nothing wrong with any of the words she'd just spoken. Next to her, Azriel was just as surprised as the Professor-in-Training stood from her rolling desk chair, nearly tripping over the Vaporeon curled around her feet, and stretched.

Her standard issue white lab coat was the only professional thing about her, and even that bore an air of casualness that most professors seemed to lack, rolled back to her elbows as it was. Beneath it, she wore a pale green button up tucked into khaki capris, but mostly open over a brown and cream striped crop top that looked suspiciously like it was the top to a bathing suit. “Arceus help us,” Azriel muttered, “she looks like another Kukui.” Rain disguised her ensuing laughter as a cough into the elbow of her free arm, but refrained from replying to him as the woman approached them, all smiles and warmth.

"I suppose keeping the building intact is ideal," Moretti agreed, though he sounded as though some part of the discussion had made him uneasy. "But then, that means they're continuing to display hostile behavior?"

"That's correct, sir," the woman confirmed, a small frown pressing her eyebrows together and tugging the corners of her mouth down momentarily before her attention hopped back to Rain again. When it did, her green eyes filled with delight, "But we can discuss that later--I can't believe you brought me a guest!" Now, it was Moretti's turn to frown.

"Agent Calder is hardly a simple guest, Miss Redwood, she's here to assist us from Sinnoh. Agent Calder, this is Miss Liesbet--"

"Liz," the woman said sharply, interrupting the Chief, but not enough to stop him.

"--Redwood, professor in training. Miss Redwood, this is Agent Calder and her Gengar is Azriel."

"Don't listen to him, just Liz is fine--preferred, actually--but I'm pleased as pecha berries to meet you! It's nice to have company when you spend most of your day holed up in a lab like a Dwebble hides in its rock shell." She cut her eyes to Moretti as she extended a hand to Rain, and Azriel let out another snicker. The Chief looked uncomfortably between them for a moment as Rain did nothing, then gave a little cough before Azriel took over.

“She’s offering you her hand--lift your right arm at a ninety degree angle, straight forward,” he directed, and his Trainer obliged, though she fumbled for just a second. Rain wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but the professor in training’s hand was cool, but rough in her own, and she had a firm grip.

“Azriel and I are pleased to meet you as well. We understand you’re working with the contained rogue Pokemon?” Rain asked, and the woman nodded as there was a beep that sounded like a phone’s message tone off to her side, where Moretti was standing.

“Yeah, all the rogues that have been contained were moved here once the RCPD deemed it safe enough to do so--I actually caught a flight here from where I was studying Pokemon-human relations in Alola with Professor Kukui as soon as the news got out that they’d contained a few. We thought they’d calm down once they’d been away from people and potentially overwhelming stimuli for a while, but…” Liz raised a hand to tug at a lock of chestnut curls that had escaped the short, unruly ponytail the rest of her hair was kept in. There was another series of beeps, and Azriel watched as Moretti frowned, pulling a phone out of the pocket of his slacks. Once he looked at the screen, he paled.

“I need to step out for a minute, I’ll be back soon,” he offered before quickly stepping out of the room. Liz glanced after him with raised brows, and Rain didn’t give her a chance to continue in the silence that followed.

“Any idea what that might be about?” She nodded towards the direction she’d heard Moretti walking away, and Liz shook her head, still not having caught on.

“Could be a dozen different things, chaos is almost a daily occurrence here. Sometimes it’s battles, sometimes it’s rogues, sometimes it’s something completely different, but I’m honestly surprised he made it this long without his phone blowing up. I’m sure he’ll be back soon enough, though.” She sighed and shook her head after him before getting back to her previous topic of conversation. “But they’re not improving. Sometimes they calm down a little, but it’s usually short-lived, and if another human or Pokemon approaches them? Straight down the drain. Like I told Chief Moretti, I finally had to put my Gyarados back in his Pokeball because if another one took a nip at me or snarled at me, he was going to flatten the building. Puddle’s a bit better tempered than most Gyarados, but even he’s got his limits, and I know better than to try pushing him.”

“It seems pretty quiet in here--are you keeping the Pokemon in separate rooms, or…” It was then that her lack of sight was obvious. There were a few sizeable cages around the room, and even from their position halfway across the room, Azriel could see an Ursaring passed out against the bars of its cage. Liz frowned for a moment before her eyes widened, glancing from Rain to Azriel several times before her mouth popped open in a surprised ‘o’ of sudden understanding.

“Most of them, though I’ve got a few in here. RCPD set us up with a very helpful Chansey who Sings some of the rowdier Pokemon to sleep when they start causing trouble. It’s my understanding that she's just as troubled about the behavior of our guests as the rest of us are--that’s to say, I’ve got a Slowking traveling with me, and he’s been talking to her.”

Rain tilted her head slightly, giving a hum of interest at that last part. “Has he tried talking to your--you called them your guests? Or--do you have any ghost Pokemon among your visitors?” Liz’s expression fell slightly, and she let out what sounded like a sigh of defeat.

“It was one of the first things we tried--having Ein talk to some of them. It didn’t work. It was a lot of senseless attacking and wordless screeching. Eventually we agreed it best not to keep at it. As for ghost types, we--” Liz was prevented from finishing her sentence as Chief Moretti came rushing back into the room.

“Ladies, we’ve got a large scale rogue attack in progress! Agent Calder, I need you to come with me,” he ordered, and Rain found herself moving towards his voice automatically.

“We’re coming along too!” Liz announced before twisting back towards the Vaporeon that had been sleeping under her desk chair. It had started to stir at the commotion, but blinked and rose as Liz spoke directly to it. “Splish, we gotta roll out, got more guests to pick up!” At that, the Vaporeon bolted towards her, and they followed quickly after Rain and the Chief.