Interviews with all the suspects

Outside Pallet Town, Kanto Special Economic Region (SER)

Chris looked at the chaperone, a blue haired woman in a skirted police uniform calling herself “Officer Jenny,” and Jill in her black blazer and skirt set. Officer Jenny had recommended that Jill change into a skirt, citing local customs. Chris noted, yet again, that Jill was wearing a pair of Doc Martin Boots and was a comedic contrast to her office look.

“Not a word out of you!” Jill snapped.

Jenny giggled slightly.

“I was wondering if you wanted to knock or if it should be Officer Jenny?” Chris said trying to sound innocent.

“Fine,” Jill rolled her eyes and knocked on the door.

There was a pause before they heard foot steps come up to the door from inside. The door opened and an older man, with gray hair, about five foot eight, with a completion that was half and half European and Asian. He was wearing the traditional white lab coat, a polo, khaki pants and matching brown belt and loafers. Chris noted his bushy eyebrows.

“Professor Samuel Oak,” Officer Jenny said, “These are special investigators from the United States.”

“Yes come in,” Oak said with a voice that was equal parts bass, apathy and annoyance threatening to overtake his stoicism, “This is about the boy that broke into my lab, isn’t it?”

“Yes Professor,” Chris said.

Oak turned and walked back into the lab taking one hand out of his coat pocket and waved it show his dismissal.

“Like I told the officers, I was going to release the specimen back into the wild tonight anyways, so if the boy wants to keep it, that is between him and his mother,” Oak said.

“We aren’t here to deal with the boy,” Jill said, “That is a matter for local law enforcement…”

“You are here about the specimen?” Oak stopped and turned around.

Jill walked into the home, followed by Officer Jenny and Chris. It was a small front room with a set of stairs to the left and an archway to a kitchen and dinning area to the right, and a door in back. The Professor was standing next to a large framed map on the wall.

“Yes Professor,” Chris said, “We have seen pictures of it.”

“It is not natural,” Oak stated flatly.

“It’s rather freaky,” Jill agreed.

“Well, I can assure you, I am not responsible for it,” Oak said, “It was like that when it was brought in here. I am not any sort of Genetic Doctor Frankenstein.”

“Ah, Professor, we were not going to make any such accusation. How about you start at the beginning?” Jill asked.

“You are clearly way ahead of us on this mystery,” Chris added, “We literally just arrived on the scene.”

“Ah, alright, well the highlights are as such,” Oak pointed at the map of Kanto with the surrounding Soviet Union, China, Koreas and Japan, “The Kanto Special Economic Region was established after World War Two as a sort of neutral ground for joint development, with investments from the Soviets, both Koreas, China, Japan, The US, and the British via Australia. Later we would get further investments from across the European Union. Obviously, the US and the British have had a massive influence, we are speaking English, but many names have versions in English, Japanese, and Chinese… Now, personally, my degrees are in Zoology, but I focus mostly on environmental impact, that is why I moved out here.”

“Environmental impact?” Chris asked.

“Yes, toxins in the environment, pollution and such,” Oak said before turning again and going to the door in the back, “I came up here to see what effect the Giovanni Chemical Plant was having on the environment. I expected to take occasional samples of the local animals, but mostly soil and water samples… come in, don’t be afraid, they are surprisingly docile.”

Professor walked into the back room and Officer Jenny gestured with an extended hand for Jill and Chris to got ahead. Chris and Jill followed the professor and looked around the room. It was clearly a lab, to their right were dry erase boards and cork boards with notes, numbers and dates, to the back was a door to the outside and to the rear left of the room was a series of lab stations, but to their immediate left were some five fish tanks and ten hamster cages with “Specimen” in them. There were orange lizards, blue squirrels and blue frogs.

“Thes are the samples?” Jill looked more closely at one of the frogs.

“A far cry from the water samples I had been collecting but yes,” Professor Oak said, “Those are the Pokemon currently waiting to be released.”

“Pokemon?” Chris asked.

“Yes, a local child named them that, a contraction of Pocket Monster,” Professor Oak pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Professor,” Jill straightened up and looked at the professor, “How do you get Pokemon out of Pocket Monster?”

“We are equally fluent in Japanese and English here Agent,” Professor said, “The Boy who first found them spoke Japanese as his first langue, and in Japanese they take Pok from it’s version of Pocket and Mon from it’s form of Monster and join them with an accented E to form the contraction.”

“Ok,” Chris said, “But these aren’t natural animals, how did you get them and what are you doing with them?”

“No, mostly it is local children bringing them to me,” Professor Oak walked over to a computer and picked up a tablet, “I take measurements, pictures and then stick them with a tracking chip and release them back into the wild.”

“Who would glue a flower bud onto the back of a frog?” Jill asked.

“That isn’t glued,” Professor oak said.

“You mean the flower bud is growing in the frog’s back?” Jill asked.

“No, I mean the bud is part of the frog, there is a circulatory loop from the heart back to the lungs that goes right back up into the bud,” Professor Oak said.

“And you know this from pictures?” Jill asked.

“There is a pond next to a stretch of road not far from here,” Professor Oak said, “A father and his kid brought in one that was on the road asking me to heal it.”

“Road Kill?” Chris offered.

“Yes,” Professor Oak shrugged.

“Autopsy?” Jill asked.

“Not the term I normally use, but yes,” Professor Oak said.

“How does this work, legally?” Jill asked.

“I called in to file reports…” Professor Oak started.

“And it isn’t really a police mater, eventually the chief issued the professor a catch and release permit and told him to be ready for annual inspections,” Officer Jenny said.

“Which have yet to happen after three years,” Professor Oak said.

“Put to the side of the desk until it got knocked off the desk?” Jill asked.

“Sadly,” Jenny blushed a bit.

“That was until some goons tried to shoot a kid and his hamster,” Chris noted, “You mentioned radio chipping and release professor?”

“Yes, here,” Professor Oak handed Chris the tablet, “The Diamonds are the best estimate of where the pokemon were caught, the pearls are the locations.”

“Diamonds?” Chris asked.

“The base program had the pearl icons with ninety-nine different color variations,” Professor Oak pinched the bridge of his nose.

“How are you tracking them?” Jill asked taking the tablet from Chris.

“There are radio antennas on my roof and on a few other buildings in town,” Professor Oak said.

“What is this Giovanni Chemicals?” Jill asked.

“They are the reasons I am here,” Professor Oak said, “Giovanni Chemicals claims to run a clean chemical plant, but they have been suspected of discharging toxic chemicals into the environment…”

“Thank you, Professor,” Jill handed back the tablet.

“You don’t have enough evidence to prove anything, but you have suspicions, don’t you professor?” Chris asked.

“Of course,” Professor Oak said, “But with out solid proof, anything I say is just biased accusations.”

“So… what are the names for these?” Jill asked looked back at the containers.

“Oh, yes…” Professor Oak shook his head, “The toads are Bulbasuar…”

“Bulbasaur?” Chris asked.

“Yes, the child who first found him was REALLY into dinosaurs. The Squirrel Turtle Hybrids are called Squirtles,” Professor Oak pointed at the other blueish creatures, “And the orange lizards are called Charmanders”.

Jill and Chriss looked the blue squirrel in the container jump up on top of the log in it’s enclosure. They had seen the blue fuzzy tail sticking out before, but now she saw it was a hybrid of a turtle and a squirrel, with a torso enclosed in a turtle’s shell and a squirrel’s rear and fore legs, head and tail.

“He almost doesn’t have ears…” Jill noted.

“Thank you Professor,” Chris smiled.

“I am sure the police have provided you with my contact information in the event you need anything else…” The professor said.

“Yes, and here,” Chris pulled out a card with the phone number for the local cell phone they had gotten in the airport, “In case anything comes up…”

*

Jill and Jenny got in the front seats of the rental sedan. Chris got in the back. Jill wanted to laugh at the sight of the large man in the back of the subcompact sedan.

“So, where to?” Jenny asked

“A part of me wants to go trolling a mall to look for some young adults with blue and purple hair,” Chris said.

Jenny turned and looked at him.

“No offense, but it can’t be that hard to find a lady with purple hair and a guy with blue hair,” Chris said.

“Lets head over to speak with these Giovani people,” Jill countered.

“We can go down market road on the way to the factor,” Jenny said brushing a few strands of her green hair out of the way.

Jenny directed Jill to drive throw town and down one wide road. There was parking on either side of the road and open air markets to on both sides with alleyways between sets of stands. All around there were men and women walking around. Over half the people had some form of dyed hair. There was a group of five women standing by the side of the road loading produce into their car.

“Want to take them all in for questioning?” Jenny asked sarcastically.

“Ok, now I have questions, like why?” Jill stopped the vehicle in front of a crosswalk.

“No need to make a scene about it,” Jenny said looking at Jill.

“I think running over the grandparents there might make more of a scene,” Chris pointed out his window at the elderly couple to their left.

*

Officer Jenny went to the front and knocked on the door. The door was opened by a nice looking young Chinese woman in a black blazer and skirt.

“How can I help you?” the woman asked.

“I have special agents here to speak with the management,” Officer Jenny said.

“Please come in,” the woman said holding the door open.

The three came into the small welcoming room. There was a desk with a few doors around the room and framed pictures of industrial machinery, families, and a map of the Kanto Special Region on the walls between the doors. Each door had a sort of digital code readers next to the handle. A pair came out of the door to the right.

“These nice folks are here to speak with Mister Grey,” the woman said.

“Right this way officers,” the woman said.

Jill looked the pair over. The woman was about five-foot-ten in height with long blonde hair in twin tails, wearing ballet flats, a black fitted dress, and a black jacket with a security card on her jacket lapel. The man was dressed in black slacks, jacket, and a white shirt with a sort of faded neon green hair in a hair similar to Leonardo in that Titanic movie. The woman led them down a hallway with a series of doors on the right but just framed pictures on the left. They were led to a final door on the end at the end of the hallway with a plate on it stating ‘Mr. Gray.’ The woman in the lead knocked, waited until the count of five and then opened the door. The young woman led them into the office. Jill noted the windows and cabinets on the wall to the right overlooking the parking lot and lawn and similar behind the desk in front of them as well, while to the left was a wall of monitors with security camera feeds from around the building. In the center of the room was a shorter man with black hair, clean cut and a white turtleneck shirt and black suit. He turned from the monitors and smiled at Jill and company.

“Mister Grey, these are Special Agents Redfield and Valentine from the United State,” Officer Jenny Introduced them.

“Welcome to my facility,” the man slipped a remote into a pocket, “Please call me Will. I am the manager of this processing plant. What brings you to my office?”

“We are with the PABS,” Chris said, “I am sure you have noticed the unusual animals around.”

“Of course, tell me, are you here because of the Umbrella investments or at the insistence of Professor Oaks?” Mr Gray went to sit on the front of his desk.

“What about Umbrella?” Jill asked calmly.

“Butch, get them the standard spread of reading material please. Agent Valentine, I am well aware of your operations against the Umbrella Corporation, it has causes… difficulties for Mister Giovanni,” Mr. Grey said, “Some time ago Umbrella decided that in order to get preferred status purchasing from us, it was worth their money to invest in Mister Giovanni’s enterprises.”

“How did that work?” Chris asked.

“Well, we process what are called for Rare Earth Elements, have you ever heard of Neodymium?” Mr. Grey asked.

Both Jill and Chris shook their heads to say no.

“Well it why ear phones have shrank from the giant ear muffs to ear buds,” Mr. Grey shrugged, “Mainland China has mountains of the stuff, but people don’t trust the communists to process it. They aren’t as transparent about their safety procedures. It gets sent to us here in the Special Region, we turn raw ore into refined ingots and spools of wire and ship them off to manufacturing plants in China, Tiawan and elsewhere.”

Butch handed Jill and Chris promotional pamphlets he got from the stacks on the counter tops by the windows.

“Umbrella, for their all their dirty secrets, did do a lot of legit business. They invested in Mr. Giovanni’s company and leveraged those shares of the company to get priority contract fulfilment on subscriptions for these refined materials that they needed for their high-end electronics,” Mr. Grey said.

“And what now? We shut them down two months ago,” Jill tried not to sound proud of it.

“We aren’t hurting, plenty of other customers are bidding on the materials that Umbrella was ordering from us every month,” Mr. Grey smiled, “The office in Viridian City has been busy dealing with the fall out. I understand it has even cut into Mr. Giovanni’s time at the Kenel Club.”

“Kenel club?” Chis asked.

“Yes, Mr. Giovanni likes to train dogs, it’s his hobby… Don’t tell me having hobbies are a crime now,” Mr. Gray said with a sarcastic tone, “How long do you think they would lock me up if they knew I plaid Dominos Cassidy?”

The blonde woman had been looking at the monitors, but rolled her eyes away from her boss before speaking.

“For years sir,” Cassidy muttered.

“Let me guess, that is how long she has to wait for you to finish a game,” Chris smirked.

“Most likely,” Mister Grey said.

“Why did you bring up a professor Oaks earlier?” Jill asked.

“Yes, he sees himself as our ‘archnemesis’ or something, the thing is he’s very smart and very correct,” Mr. Grey said standing up straight.

“What?” Jill said.

“These Rare Earth Elements can be really nasty,” Mr. Grey said, “Look at the workers, each one of them is wearing hundreds of dollars of safety equipment, many bits are only good for half a shift… still all of that is cheaper than the health care costs of them being exposed to the byproducts and raw materials without protection. If there was an incident, because of malice or mistake, it would be like the Union Carbide plant disaster in India. Not the worst in history, but very bad.”

“Mister Grey,” Chris said controlling his tone, “We previously were members of the Racoon City Police Department.”

“My sympathies,” Mr. Grey said, “That is beyond anything I could imagine. I would not have the gal to compare our risks to your tragedy.”

“Would you mind if we spoke with some of your staff?” Jill asked.

*

The hospital in Veridian City hadn’t been all that productive. The only thing of note from the interview was that Ash drew on a piece of paper the red and white octagon of the Umbrella corporation with a red capital R over it. Chris had shown him a polaroid of a red Maltze Cross on a white circle, but the boy was adamant that the patch was like he drew, only professional.

“Are you satisfied Agents?” Mrs Katchum asked.

“Yes Ma’am,” Chris said calmly, “We never had any problems with your son, we just wanted to try and get some specifics that was not in the narrative provided to us.”

“Oh,” Mrs Katchum said.

“Actually we want to catch the people who attacked your son,” Jill said, “Have you ever seen this before?”

Jill held up the logo the kid had drawn in a clear ziplock evidence bag.

“No,” the mother said putting out a cigarette, “I don’t let him watch TV either, most of what we get here is Anime, Chinese brain rot propaganda or Russian depression.”

“And American programing?” Jill asked.

“He doesn’t need to hear about your presidents having sex in the executive office,” Mrs Katchum noted.

“Fair enough,” Chris smirked.

*

Nurse Joy Vet Clinic, Veridian City Kento SER

As they walked into the clinic, a young woman in a pink nurses mini dress and a white apron and a white cap in her pink hair came to great the three.

“Greetings, I am Xi Na-ta-sha,” the woman introduced herself.

“Miss Ta-sha?” Jill held up the credientials.

“Oh, sorry,” the pink haired young woman said shaking her head, “Natasha Xi, I have been dealing with Japanese and Chinese labs all day. I am the lead Vet and manager for this clinic. I hope you don’t mind the franchise uniform. The Japanese corporation came up with it.”

“No, I have come to expect this island be a living Anime,” Chris said, “What can you tell us about the animal?”

“Pikachu, right?” Natasha said, her Russian accent coming out before she cursed in Russian and then switched back to English, “Mostly it is cats, dogs, normal hamsters, and now parents bringing in Squirtles that their kids find out in the woods.”

“Have you been in contact with Professor Oak?” Chris asked.

“Yes, I have been the primary relay contact for Professor Oak to the rest of the Nurse Joy Franchise clinics,” Natasha said.

“Have you done genetic testing or tested for viral infections?” Jill asked.

“Of course,” Natasha said, “I have read the work Doctor Chambers published on the T-Virus, it’s infection and VDNA signature. We haven’t found any links so far, the only infections determined have been a sort of fungal infection in their lungs.”

“Fungus?” Officer Jenny asked.

“Yeah, a common fungus, normally the immune system would clear it out, but in a percental of the Squirtals, it is almost like they have compromised immune systems so the fungus is causing lung infections,” Natasha said.

“So like Freddie Mercury,” Jill said.

“What?” Chris asked.

“The singer, from the band Queen,” Jilled said, “He technically died of a lung infection, but it happened only because he had AIDS.”

“We have checked them for AIDS and a few other similar immune system suppression diseases,” Natasha said, “The lab we contract miss understood the requests when we first started sending samples and screened them for HIV.”

“So what do you think is the cause of these infections?” Chris asked skipping over the talk about AIDs.

“Frankly I think these are genetic conditions caused by a synthetic grafting of DNA,” Natasha said, “That is the only thing I can think of. There, the Specimen in question is in the container on the island table. He is bigger than any of the Pichu we have seen so far.”

“The what now?” Chris asked.

“Pichus, the first samples of creatures like this were named Pichu,” Natasha explained, “But they were the size of ohh…”

The nurse held up her hands to indicated a size slightly smaller than a baseball.

“But this one is like an American Family Sized version,” Natasha said.

Jill looked and the animal in the glass cage was the size of a frozen turkey or a fat Corgi. It was yellow with brown stripes and black highlights like the picture they had been sent.

“Is it safe to go near?” Jenny asked.

“Oh, so far he is harmless, but we aren’t sure about infections,” Natasha hit a button by the door, “Kenji, can you bring patcient Pikachu over for the detectives to see?”

“Sure boss,” came a distant response to the intercom.

Jill and Chris froze up for a second at the sight of the lean young man in the white coveralls, mask, gloves and goggles go over to the Plexiglas cage and take out the yellow creature. He carried it over like he was holding a pet rabbit. The animal looked up at them and vocalized some sort of call that sounded like “Pika Pika.”

“I can see why the kid took a shining to him,” Jill said.

“Is he a he or a she?” Chris asked.

“He,” Kenji said from inside the room.

“Can you send any data or test results you have on him to our specialist?” Chris took out a card for Rebecca.

“Chambers… Doctor Rebecca Chambers?” Natasha was shocked.

“Yeah, Rebecca is our whiz kid when it comes to this stuff,” Jill said bending over to look Pikachu in the face, “We are the detectives.”

*

“I’ll get us some beers,” Chris said as he took off his jacket.

“I’ll find us a table,” Jill said.

Jill went to an open table and put her purse down and was about to take a seat when a passing bus boy quickly put his tray on another table and pulled a chair out for her.

“Thank you,” Jill smiled.

The young man smiled and bowed slightly before getting the tray and going to a recently vacated table. Jill looked around the room, she spotted a Russian Couple most likely on a honeymoon, some Korean Business men, some Chinese guys with polos for the state Television station, and a few Japanese men over in the corner chatting softly. Jill also noticed they weren’t looking at her. She followed their line of sight and realized what it was. They were looking at Chris’ holster and badge as he was talking to the bartender. Jill smiled to herself, she had to admit, she was all too used to carrying around a side arm from her years of being a solider and police officer in the US Army and Racoon Police Department, but for most people it was at best a novelty and more often a portent of bad things to see someone with a firearm. Chris came back with his jacket over his arm, a menu between his left bicep and torso, a bowl in his left hand and a pair of beers in his right hand. Chris handed the beers to Jill as he got to the table. Jill took them and looked at them, a Taiwanese brand from the label. Chris took the menu and put it on the table.

“You should put your jacket on,” Jill said, “Open carry is freaking out the other dinner guests.”

“Yeah, they all got a good luck at the badge,” Chris smiled.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Jill said, “I don’t mind these new Sig forties, but I would much rather have a long arm in case of emergencies…”

“Like someone shooting at us?” Chris said as he put the bowl on the table and took a seat.

“Yeah,” Jill said picking up the menu, “The kid reported the crazies had Mini Fourteens. I wouldn’t mind having one of those shorty MP5s with a folding stock. Be a real surprise.”

“I would rather have a CAR15 personally,” Chris noted as he put pulled a hand full of things out of the bowl.

“What are those?” Jill asked.

“Sakura meteorites,” Chris said as he offered some to Jill.

“What?” Jill said.

“Wasabi Peas,” Chris said, “Developed a taste for them at Yama Sakura years ago.”

“What now?” Jill asked.

“Wasabi Peas? They are dried peas rolled in a batter made of Wasabi sauce,” Chris said.

“I know what Wasabi Peas are, I had a room mate that had stationed at the Marine Corps base in Okinawa at one point,” Jill said taking one from Chris’ hand, “Just didn’t look exactly like this.”

“Let me guess, you got the ones from the Commissary, these are lightly fried,” Chris said.

“Yeah,” Jill popped on into her mouth, “I was asking what is Yama Sakura.”

“Oh, it’s a joint exercise between Japan the US to prepare for a Commy invasion,” Chris said, “My squadron was brought in one year to be advisors. Before and after they have all sorts of frat parties with our Japanese counterpart units. Got a taste for these things then.”

“I got stationed in Korea for a while, but never Japan,” Jill noted.

“Yeah it is a trip,” Chris said.

“What would you like?” a waitress said coming over.

“How is the Udon Noodles?” Chris asked.

“Eh, the cook is Korean,” the Waitress shrugged.

“How is the Manduguk?” Jill asked.

“Really good,” the Waitress said.

“Two bowls please,” Jill smiled, “You have never had that have you?”

“No,” Chris said as he smiled at the two, “I’ll have what’s she having.”

“I’ll put the order in,” the waitress smiled.

Chris and Jill waited for the young woman to leave before speaking up again.

“It is a good thing that Berry and a team is only two hours away,” Chris noted, “And they have plenty of rifles, shotguns and machineguns in case things go wrong.”

“Yeah, too bad Carlos isn’t with them,” Jill muttered.

Chris glared at Jill. Jill knew that Carlos was a bit of a sore spot for Chris. She frowned as she looked at Chris.

“Look I get it, he was there for you when RC went to hell,” Chris said, “He had your back and built up your trust when everything was on the line. I am kicking myself for not being there with you, and since I wasn’t there, I didn’t have him at my back. To me he is still an Umbrella Merc… I know he has been with us for years now, but you know what I am saying. Besides, what was the reason he gave for not coming along or going with Berry?”

“That there is still an arrest warrant out for him in the Kanto Special region?” Jill answered with a question, “Yeah, he did bad stuff in the past, that is part of why Umbrella recruited him.”

“Seems to be how Umbrella recruited a lot of their UBCS mercs,” Chris said, “You trust him, maybe one day he will earn my trust.”

“Ok,” Jill said taking a sip of her beer, “What did you think of the veterinarian?”

“A little creepy with the Halloween nurse dress,” Chris was honest, “But I can see the Anime influence everywhere around here. I don’t think she is a suspect.”

“No, I mean the fan girlling over Rebecca,” Jill smirked.

“Oh, yeah, that,” Chris popped another pea in his mouth before speaking again, “Yeah, when she hears about this, she is going to turn as red as a tomato.”

“Fuck yeah,” Jill agreed, “What about Mister Grey?”

“Dirty, defiantly dirty,” Chris said, “Just not sure how… The records are all on the up and up so far, and all of the employee statements match up…”

“I have gotten fewer alarm bells walking into a used car dealership than his office,” Jill agreed, “His security people… a man and a woman both about five foot ten with lean builds…”

“I noticed that too,” Chris said taking a sip of his beer, “I am going to send the names back to see if they come up with anything in the records.”