|Yellow|
It was now past five in the afternoon and I had finally organised all my luggage into place. The room was quite bland with walls painted an eggshell white, and a cold floor. There was a desk, wardrobe, single bed and a mirror. The bathroom attached was similar, containing the bare necessities that stripped the place of any comfort.

I should have gone down to lunch, but I couldn't bear to bring myself away from the small bubble of familiarity I felt with the contents of my luggage.

My work phone was completely empty, I assumed it should have contained the numbers of the K-Z members; that was wishful thinking now.

"Glorious." I sighed and took the grey paper folder on my desk to the bed.

The case was titled 'Exploited Spinarak: Rank C' and under it was a stamp that officiated it had been solved.

As I began to flick through its content, I felt a soft chime from my own phone, and eagerly grabbed the device.

"Uncle!" I could hear my voice instantly tremble as I realised how distant he really was.

"Amarillo, it's so empty without you. How is everything?"

I sighed and traced patterns onto the checkered bed cover, "Well I'm no longer Amarillo, say hello to Yellow."

"Oh, they've already given you a code name?"

"I don't think there's a sentiment behind it, more of a let's-strip-your-identity vibe."

"What?" I could almost see him tilt his head in confusion as I clamped my watery eyes shut.

"Uncle," I whispered, "Did you already know that they wouldn't want me?"

He paused before admitting "Lance informed me, but I couldn't have given you more reason to not go. Amarillo, or Yellow, you can get over this. They'll get used to you and improve once they realise you are hear to stay."

"You know I don't even want to be here." I combed a hand through the messy front of my hair.

"Once you change that attitude, maybe the members will have reason to accept you." He sternly said, before realising his own tone, "How is Pikachu doing?"

"Um..." My eyes darted around the room and I realised the last time I saw her was a few hours ago, "That's a good question."

"Go find her, I'll call you again tomorrow."

"Bye."

I put down the phone, then groaned. Did she really want to explore this artificial place?

"ChuChu?" I called as I ran to the bathroom and peered around, no luck. For a yellow mouse, she should have stuck out here.

She was really making me enter their territory.

I hesitantly opened my room door, then shook the fear away as I prioritised my Pokémon.

"ChuCh- oomph!" I staggered back at the impact, then regretted opening my eyes as Red looked down at me.

I was right when I assumed he could knock me out.

By the time I regained my composure, he was gone, and I lost the chance to ask about my misplaced partner.

"ChuChu?" I murmured as I walked past the row of bedrooms, "Please be here."

No reply.

I sighed, she had to be in here somewhere.

The conference room was as empty as it had been before, as was the kitchen. That left the one place I wanted to avoid. The common room.

I gulped and slowly walked to the doorframe, peering into the room and meeting Blue's eyes instead of ChuChu's.

"Can I help you?" She asked, though it was obvious help was the last thing she wanted to do.

"H-have you seen my Pikachu?"

Blue shrugged, then flicked through a leaflet she was intently analysing.

"Try Red's room." Green's deep voice made me jump, he hadn't even bothered to look up from the laptop.

"Thank you." I whispered as I began retracing my steps, dazed at the thought of entering his lair.

It took me a good five minutes to summon the courage to knock on his door and when I did, the sound painstakingly echoed.

"Come in, Yellow."

I opened the door to the width of my body as I peered in, and met his questioning eyes. "You knew it was me?"

"Blue and Green don't knock."

I ignored his response, partly because it alienated me from them again, but also because of the sight beside Red which made me step forward.

He was on his bed, peering at the screen of his phone and beside him were ChuChu and a male clone. The two Pokémon looked overjoyed at each other's company, and little jolts of static sparked between their cheeks.

I met my partners familiar eyes and sighed in relief, "You're okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. I'll join you soon, let me stay with Pika for a bit."

I frowned in slight offence, then looked back at the Pikachu who I had to assume was Red's partner. Unlike the human beside him, the Pokémon seemed to have a pleasant aura and I could tell his emotions were centred around a genuine positivity. I should be happy that ChuChu found good company.

I faked a smile at my Pokémon and then turned around to leave the room I had barely entered.

"Hey."

My body seemed to only jolt in this place.

Turning back, I gazed across the room at Red, who was staring at me with what could only be described as a creepy smile. It was as if he was restrained from giving me an actual smile, though I'm not sure why he would want to; this was probably a poor attempt at being intimidating. Or a good attempt at looking eerie.

"Yes?" I quietly asked, looking down at Red's Pokèball carpet as his eyes pierced into my flushed face.

"Did you ever run into that Dratini again?"

I blinked slowly, then remained mortified at the realisation that he remembered me as a defenceless child.

"You haven't changed." Red was smirking when I looked back at him.

"I wish I could say the same for you."

I gasped as I heard my own words, then clamped a hand against my mouth and rushed out in humiliation. That was so disrespectful. I winced and the image of his smile scarred my mind, then drove me to retreat into my new room and lock the door.

"Arceus, can I please make like an Abra and teleport?"

*

I frowned as I reached the last page of the document, scanning the information in dissatisfaction.

Celadon Fabrics was shut down after a major factory in Gringey City was inspected with a warrant. Officers found the overused Spinarak stacked in cages and in extremely poor health. The Pokémon were retrieved immediately, and photographic proof of the working conditions was obtained. We can confirm Celadon Fabrics contained a collection of strong silk that was illegally produced from exploited Spinarak. The finance manager, Trevor Clayborne, was taken in for questioning and with much interrogation, he provided us with a file that contained spreadsheets on the company's transactions. Now able to track the major money deals, we can work towards preventing suppliers from selling their produce.

It was well into the evening now, and I assumed this was the K-Z's normal attempt at occupying rookies. It had worked. I was disgusted at the company who had stolen away large quantities of the Spinarak species, but there were holes in this attempt of a decisive conclusion. I knew I wasn't the most intellectual person, and definitely had a weak idea of legal concepts in comparison to the skilled people around me, but what was stopping me from using their knowledge for answers? The one thing I treasured was my understanding of Pokémon; when uncle homeschooled me I made sure to do my own studies into species.

"Time to mortify myself more." I looked back at ChuChu but she was now well asleep on a pillow, enjoying the nap after her playdate.

I pushed the papers back into the file and made my way to the common room, but the three were walking down the hall in the direction of the elevator.

"Green you know you love my humour."

"I know I hate your humour, pesky woman."

As expected, they hadn't noticed my presence. I cleared my throat before they could reach the elevator, and all of them immediately turned to look in my direction with expectant expressions.

"I have some q-questions about this case." I bit my lip, not really knowing who to make eye contact and settling with the paper in my hands.

"What?" Green spoke, and I shifted my eyes to his face.

"Well I, um, there's no information on what happened to the Spinarak after the case was closed. Where did they go after they were retrieved?"

"You actually read all of that?" Blue snorted and then gazed at me in amusement, "Look kid, we only give our chain of information to the police force, they're the ones that deal with all the messy legal entanglements. The Pokémon were probably given back to Viridian forest."

"B-but," I steadied my breath and my face burnt knowing that I was questioning them, "Spinarak don't belong in Viridian Forest. They only inhabit Sevii Island in Kanto and it would disrupt the natural order for a new species to be placed there. That's not the only problem, the case initially discusses how Ariados were also captured, but their silk thread has a tendency to be toxic, so what was the point? Even if the Ariados were used to breed, it would only have a minor contribution to the masses of Spinarak they already stole. Why Ariados?"

I finally stopped blurting words, and fiddled with the paper as I hesitantly looked across to Blue and Green. It would take immense courage to acknowledge Red after what I had said before, courage I didn't have. My hands were trembling a little because it was completely out of my nature to bombard strangers with questions, but I had to prove I cared.

"Well," Blue took a step closer to me, "Aren't you a little busybody? Green, it's your turn this time."

Disappointment lurked as I realised I wasn't the first to ask these questions, nor the first to get the answers.

Green sighed, and then seemed to fix his vision on a spot above my head, "You're not the first to notice the Ariados issue, but you are the first to point out the location problem. I'm afraid we can't answer your Sevii Island crisis. The company first traditionally caught a few Spinarak from Johto and used them to produce a new silk that went under sampling, they were treated more ethically back then. Hence the evolutions. I can't confirm their post-evolution use, but we assume the Ariados were kept as partners to some of the labourers. Does that satisfy your questions?"

I looked back at Green whilst processing the information then gulped, "One more thing."

"Shoot." His frown did not look pleased at maintaining the conversation.

"You said you guys only deal with the chain of reasoning behind solving the cases you get, so do you not directly involve yourself?"

"It depends on each case and its rank," My nails dug deeper into the weak paper as Red spoke instead of his friend, "Sometimes, with permission, we work undercover in corporate fields to investigate. We're also expected to arrive at every crime scene for any high ranked cases and have meetings with witnesses or forensics. It varies for each case but we rarely get involved with the end product. Don't worry about it."

His last sentence insinuated I wouldn't be here long enough to witness the group work a new case. I nodded my head at them and murmured a "Thank you" as the group entered the lift.

Before I could retreat back to ChuChu, Blue called out "Dinner is until eleven."

I looked back up as the metal doors closed on the three, and noticed the two guys glancing at her with surprised expressions, as if she had just spoken out of line.

A/N: Whew, I intended to add in the next section but the chapter got a bit too long, so I'll integrate it into the next chapter. To be honest, I've been satisfying the craving of sitting down and just writing this story and though it feels great, I have tons of college work to catch up on 😳

I've started planning out the main crime for the plot, and I'm honestly so excited for it to unfold. If anyone is into Crime/Mystery I hope I do you justice.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you in the next one xx