"Sit down, Mr. ..."
"Fiction," Ryker finished.
"Yes, sit down Mr. Fiction," one of the assistants said, ignoring his disbelief of our manly protagonist's incredible last name. Ryker took a seat across from the assistants at one of their desks. He shot a glance around the room while they prepared a couple of pages of data for him. It was a small room with a couple of work stations set up. The only object of extreme interest was a strange machine across the room. Ryker got up and wandered over to it almost immediately.
"And with that, that sho--...hey, what are you doing?" one of the assistants said.
"Checking this thing out," he said, poking buttons. "What's it do?"
"That..that machine is how we transfer Pokemon of interests between labs. It's like the PC Boxes run by Bill and his associates but instead of putting them in singular boxes owned by individuals, it's a community box that every major Pokemon lab across each of the regions can access. I'd appreciate it if you'd stop poking around at it," the assistant said as Ryker started pressing a bunch of buttons it, "as it's valuable machinery and costs a lot to fix."
"Shut up, I'm trying to bring up a history log of transfers," he said.
"Why would you do that?" the other asked, piping up from his silence.
"Are you stupid? There's no way they would've carried Oak's body and a haul of Pokeman out of here at the same time," Ryker said. He then wound up and punched the machine in the side. Suddenly a light flashed on one of the buttons. Ryker pressed the button and a history log opened up on the moniter. Ryker grinned, adding, "What time did they kidnap Oak?"
"About 2:30 or so in the afternoon, why?" one of the assistants asked.
"C'mere and look at this, nerd," he said, beckoning one of the assistants over. The nerd got up and grudgingly walked over to the machine. The history showed that a bunch of transfers had been made at about 2:40, all within seconds of each other. "Do you have any way of showing where these Pokemon transferred to?"
"Yeah, sure, just give me a second..." the assistant said. He punched a few buttons and then suddenly an in-depth look at one of the Pokemon transferred popped up. It showed that it had been picked up at about 3:30 or so from the lab in...
"Twinleaf Town," Ryker said. Suddenly the machine sparked and fizzled. The screen shut off and something in the back exploded. Smoke rose from the machine. Busted.
"You did this! You're gonna pay for this!" the lab shouted as Ryker walked from the room and pulled out his cell phone, completely blowing the guy off.
---
Laundry stopped and panted. He had been following tracks for half an hour now with no real sign of gaining anyone of them. The tracks were weird too. At some point they'd completely stop, at others they'd just flat-out change to Pokemon tracks. He had a guess that they were either riding on Pokemon or having Pokemon follow along behind them to cover the tracks but they kept going nowhere. Blaziken was still chasing them--the Speed Boost Chicken never tired and never slowed--but it was futile. He called for his Pokemon and it came running back to him. A quick pat on the head and a bottle of fresh water was the reward it got as it got sent back to its Pokeball to rest.
Laundry grimaced. The thieves knew the terrain. That was not a good sign. Locals? Or just months of planning to steal from the entire city? Neither boded well, but the former could at least limit his search. Laundry sighed and started walking back towards the city when his pocket suddenly started buzzing. Who was calling him right now?
"Hello?" he asked, placing his phone to his ear.
"Hey little bro!" said a familiar voice from the speaker.
"Oh hey Ryker, what's up?" Laundry asked.
"Normally I'd talk to ya a little bit, but let's get down to business," Ryker said. "You're working on the case up in Snowpoint, right?"
"Yeh, I just lost a couple of thieves in the snowstorm," Laundry said bitterly.
"Aw, tough break," Ryker said. "I know what that's like."
"Yeh, tell me about it."
"But hey, listen, before we get off track, I've got some information you may appreciate. You remember how Oak got kidnapped? While the kidnappers were here, they lifted a bunch of Pokemon too."
"Oh really?"
"Now, they couldn't just walk off with Oak and a bunch of Pokeballs at the same time. It's too much to carry in a single trip, y'know? So get ready for this little bro: they used this lab's transfer machine thingy to send the Pokemon somewhere else."
"So where'd they send them?"
"Twinleaf Town."
Laundry didn't speak for a moment. So a bunch of Pokemon were stolen from a lab by sending it to another lab. Meanwhile, a bunch of thieves in Snowpoint were jacking Pokemon. Suddenly the connection between the incidents grew stronger than similar uniforms. But why were they up in Snowpoint if the Pokemon got transferred to Twinleaf?
"You still there?" Ryker asked.
"Huh? Sorry, zoned out for a second," Laundry said. "Thanks bro, I gotta go."
"Aight, man, I'll catch you later."
Laundry hung up.
---
Ryker shoved his phone back in his pocket. He walked over to the table and picked up the information the assistants had prepared for him, then walked out of the room. THE METAGAME was leaning against the wall next to the entrance to the lab, prepared for any suspicions visitors. Ryker nodded to his Pokemon and they both walked outside cooly. He pulled his keys out and slammed the button labeled "GO TIME." Excalibur pulled up in front of the building and they both hopped into the convertible. Ryker handed THE METAGAME the papers and then tore out of streets.
"Hey, read me where the perp was heading after he left the lab," Ryker said.
"Machamp, Ma-Machamp Machamp, Champ Ma, champchamp-"
Ryker stole the paper back and looked at it. From witness reports gathered a few hours after the crime occurred, a couple of witnesses saw a pair in black heading north in a car. One more witness saw this pair shoving Oak into the backseat bound and gagged.
"We're on the road to Viridian City," Ryker said, letting off a cheesy grin as he sped north.
---
Not a Hufflepuff, Lucario, Town Hero has died during the night.
Day 3 begins! Deadline is Thursday, June 7th, at 11:59 PM EST!
