"I think some air is exactly what we need." I picked ChuChu up and grinned, "let's go before anyone notices."

"We have to be quick, I doubt they'll sleep for a long time."

I nodded my head and closed the door behind me, then walked quickly to the elevator whilst Red's loud snores acted as a cover.

It was six in the morning and although we had only slept for about two hours, something inside me was craving to roam around nature. The restlessness from this week had accumulated, I doubted it would disappear but gradual improvements with Blue had given me hope.

"I'll give us thirty minutes, let's just go to route five." I smiled at my partner, "Thank Arceus nobody is awake on this side."

ChuChu nodded her head but her eyes glinted, "That means there's no Red to catch you."

"Oh no," I shook my head definitively, "ChuChu you're insinuations are wrong, the group have just started to acknowledge me."

We reached the ground floor, and I smiled at the receptionist who was drinking from a flask of coffee. He nodded towards me as I passed out of the doors and onto the pavement, a tremendous weight dissolving from inside my chest.

Even though we were still in this large city, the soft light that touched my skin was serene. The sky was illuminating in a gorgeous blue that made all the buildings in the city look so much brighter. To my delight, there were only a few people around.

"There!" ChuChu jumped from my arms and towards the path on my right.

"The junction." I beamed and almost felt like my child-like self, now following my Pokémon as she ran towards the gap between urban and rural.

As I moved further away from the building, all the tensions of my body seemed to evaporate into the fresh air. Suddenly, the fears and anxieties that constantly clung to me decided to let go. It was amazing.

When ChuChu and I emerged into Route 5, I took a second to breathlessly appreciate the scenery.

The lush green of the grass gently swayed in parallel to the breeze that cooled my hot cheeks. Blossomed trees were planted on both sides of me, and the ledges planted above me paved the way to the Pokémon Daycare. Two Mankey were hanging from a branch to my right, cautiously eyeing ChuChu and I. The Oddish blended into the grass before me as their soft voices teased my partner forward.

This was more like home.

*

"Will you quit walking in and out of the room? Just sit down, pesky woman!" Green snapped, slapping down the screen of his laptop as I walked into the room again.

"Oh shut up geek," I rolled my eyes and crossly tapped my foot, "sorry for having the slightest interest in our missing member."

"That's not like you, you should be celebrating she's gone." Red met my eyes, then looked back at his dwarfish notepad.

"And so should you," I shot back, "but her things are all here. What if our perpetrator really is someone from the inside?"

"You honestly care about her?" Green scoffed, and I frowned as my fists clenched.

It wasn't that I cared, and these idiots knew it. They knew that my walls were as high as theirs. But they didn't talk to Yellow like I did, there was definitely a faint spark of connection between us; it gave me a little hope in the girl.

Then, she disappeared.

"Why don't you just do your job and hopefully she'll do hers." Green met my eyes, and I swear to Arceus if he was closer I would have slapped that smirk off his gorgeous face.

"It's ridiculous," I sighed and sat beside Red, picking up my laptop, "We know Vespiquen runs the game."

My eyes flickered to the footage again, and I watched the Gothitelle run to her partner again.

"Any luck with those witness statements?"

"Nothing but the obvious, we saw what they experienced." Red sighed as he flicked amongst the papers on his lap.

"The only structure we know is that the Gothitelle and Gardevoir are very close." I commented as a gear began to turn in my head, but it was interrupted by the abrupt ping of the elevator.

The three of us exchanged eye contact, but remained seated in curiosity.

K-Z was definitely experiencing some changes.

The sound of panting eased my uncertainty as Yellow gave herself away before she had even reached the common room. The girl looked like a mess as her eyes wandered around the room in embarrassment. Her long hair had frayed away from the typical ponytail and now framed her pink face, tardy was an understatement.

"I am so sorry," She burst out to my amusement, "I went for a walk in Route 5 with ChuChu, but she got stuck in one of the trees and the Mankey weren't very kind about it."

"We were hoping you'd take your things with you." Green murmured nonchalantly, and I shot him a glare.

That ass did not represent 'we'.

Yellow looked deflated at the comment, and I couldn't help feel a little bad for her.

"Go and sort yourself out, get your laptop and come back here." I met her afraid eyes with a calm expression, the corners of my mouth tweaked upwards.

The girl nodded her head gratefully and scampered away just like her Pikachu. I looked back at the snarky brunette with a scowl, "Cut her some slack. She's only eighteen."

"Wow Blue, you have a soft spot for her?" Green smirked again, and I groaned.

"Arceus you are so punchable, all I'm saying is that she's survived longer than all the others who have come."

I turned my sight to Red, who looked uneasy at the conversation, "I know you're dopey, but even you can't deny that the girl is different. She doesn't even come from an academy you idiots, Yellow's here because she was forced to."

Red sighed, "She's genuine, I'll give you that."

"I'm not telling you to suddenly trust her, I mean, I don't. I'm just saying that if we're sharing a case together, try to be less like assholes." I looked at Green, then back at Red, "especially you, because Arceus knows you're not actually one."

"And I am?" Green raised his eyebrows.

I mirrored his past smirk, "Glad we agree."

Gardevoir was close to Gothitelle.

"Oh yeah," I snapped my fingers, "Let me run something past you guys."

"Shoot." Red yawned, then stared at Yellow as she walked back in.

She distanced herself at the armchair opposite us, then looked at me curiously.

The gears were turning again.

Blue snapped her fingers again, "What if Gothitelle and Gardevoir are siblings? The way Gothitelle reacted when her partner was injured was frantic, there's a possibility it could be more than close friends."

"That's genius." I raised my eyebrows, my heart still thumping from embarrassment from before.

"Definitely feasible," Green nodded his head approvingly, "but how do we go about searching for them?"

"Use the height measurement software on the footage and get their physical details for starters," Red put his notebook down, "then what?"

"Can you cross reference the heights with any known offenders that are siblings? Then filter the results to Kanto..." I trailed off in uncertainty as the others eyed me like a golden Magikarp.

"What?" I bit my lip and looked down at my hands in dejection.

"Now that's genius." Blue smiled at me, and I had to stop myself from gawping at her reaction.

"I'm on it, give me about ten minutes to fiddle around." Green picked up his laptop, moving to the conference room, where the main office computer was.

I smiled shyly to myself at the suggestion I'd made, then opened up my laptop and tried to hide my pride. It would only get knocked down again.

I logged onto the system, then looked back at up at Red and Blue, "What am I doing?"

"Good question." Red murmured without looking up.

There we go.

I sighed and stared at the blank desktop, full of unknown apps that bred unfamiliarity into my small-town self. My brain would have exploded if I didn't leave earlier, but now that I was back, it seemed exactly the same. All the good moments were brushed away as minor and insignificant; I still stuck out.

It was like a spiral of humiliation, and it was horrible.

Tears brimmed in my eyes and I struggled to blink them away whilst the urge to phone uncle suddenly became a priority. To my intense relief, the soft fur of ChuChu eased the isolation as she jumped from the arm of the chair onto my shoulder. I smiled as my partner rubbed her face against my cheek, feeling little sparks of static pass her happy aura into mine.

"They're just missing out."

"Thanks ChuChu." I whispered and leaned my head against hers.

Now that I think about it, I could do with some more sleep.

As if he had heard my thoughts and forbidden them, Green called out, "Get in here!"

In mere seconds, we had all put down our work and ran to the conference room, crowding around the advanced computer that Green had been using for the height system.

"What did you find?" Red looked at down at the large screen of the computer.

"I'll admit, that was quick thinking Yellow," Green almost slapped me with the compliment, "I ran the height measurements, some searches and then filtered down through gender and region."

"What are we left with?" Blue squinted at the four faces before us.

"Two pairs of sisters. The first are Miyuki and Ella Kim, down for drugs." Green pointed to two girls who looked more like distant relatives.

"Well how do we differentiate them from..." Red pointed to the other two faces, "Audrey and Simone Polazo?"

"Good question. We can't apply niche filters, so we need to think of important details to help."

Blue snapped a finger, "Clothes patterns? The perps stick to black."

"That could just be part of their general conduct." Red shook his head and looked down at me, "Any more ideas?"

I nervously racked my brains whilst staring between the four faces, something needed to fill the gap.

"Pokémon." It was as if ChuChu herself had lit a lightbulb, "The perpetrators must lack closeness with Pokémon if they're fine with Vespiquen killing them. Look at how long their trainer licenses lasted."

Again, they all stared at me as if I had the same amount of heads as a Dodrio, and I shrugged. "I think it's worth a shot."

"Green, do it." Red didn't move his eyes from me, "Yellow, I would never have thought of that."

Green's tapping on the keyboard was the only sound between the four of us and, though I wanted to accept the compliment, a part of me knew they'd undermined me.

"Well Ella and Miyuki still have certified licenses." Green turned to look at me, "But check this out."

With his permission, we crowded around the screen again. I scanned the information under both Audrey and Simone, processing the words that Blue began to read.

"License revoked under the account of abandonment of all three Pokémon partners: Politoad, Alakazam and Flareon." She pointed to the screen, "That was five years ago."

"Similar for her sister," I nearly jumped at the suddenness of Red's voice, "License revoked under abuse of Gloom partner. The Pokémon was not treated after being defeated in battles, and had no records in Pokémon Centres."

"Well then it's just as Yellow said," Blue met my eyes and I swear I detected a glint of pride, "they're Gardevoir and Gothitelle."

"Audrey and Simone Polazo..." I loathed their faces now, "What are their criminal records like?"

"Nothing serious, just petty crimes."

We were all silent for a shared minute, processing the new information and all the potential paths that could unfold. Personally, I had no idea what direction to move in.

"Well, you've just earned some well-deserved sleep." I felt a hand on my shoulder, then looked up at Blue.

I frowned and shook my head, there were so many things to do now, "But we just-"

"We're going to have a talk, you've been up for a long time. I'll wake you up for lunch." Her voice was firm, and something told me that the bed didn't seem like a bad option right now.

As I walked away, I felt that I'd been spared in comparison to Red and Green.

A/N: Some new clues for the crime in this chapter! Initially I wanted to stick to only writing from Yellow's POV, but I thought it would be interesting to write from the perspectives of the other members as they each get close. So far it's just Blue, but I love her.

The gang still haven't identified the pattern, has anyone figured it out?

Baii x