"And this is the washroom. Both sexes share it. I would advise you to bring a swimming costume or bath in your natural form to avoid any problems, sound good?" Rusty turned back to face Vaal and Ciel. The two pokemon had spent the last 40 minutes exploring the building with Rusty and Roland to get a general feel for the place.

The tour had taken the two of them around the whole building. It was expansive to say the least, four floors above ground with three floors below ground. The lower floors were designed to hold criminals and suspects, each floor designed to withhold pokemon of different levels. The first basement floor was intended to hold pokemon between level 10 to level 40, the second-floor level 41 to level 70 and the final storey was designed to hold pokemon from level 71 upwards or pokemon that were considered especially dangerous and required isolation.

The base floor housed the public access area of the LFP, including the reception, interrogation rooms, changing rooms and washroom. The was a waiting area for members of the public to the left of the reception as well as a visitor area where family or close friends could meet imprisoned pokemon under supervision naturally. Finally, there was a medical area just to the right of the reception with onsite medics that were on call should something happen to an officer or a prisoner in custody.

Out the back was the vehicle parking area for the emergency vehicles, including specialised pickup trucks, vans, bikes, jeeps and even a lorry that was designed large enough to contain pokemon the size of an Onix. There was an onsite mechanic, hired to maintain the vehicles of the force. His name was Jeff. He was a pretty nice guy.

The second floor held various meeting rooms, offices and the break room. It was referred to as the work floor by Roland. The third floor belonged to the responders, tasked with dealing with calls from the general public about emergencies and coordinating with the officers who were out on duty. The third floor was also the location of the security room watched over by Evil-eye, a Noivern that sent death glares at Rusty when the latter told Vaal and Ciel to call him by his nickname.

The fourth floor technically didn't belong to the LFP police, but rather its sister organisation the ALFP, Airborne Lethal Force Pokemon. Roland explained all fourth floors of every LFP station were actually all considered to be the headquarters of the ALFP. The ALFP performed a very similar role to the LFP, however focused entirely on the air space above the city itself, dealing with smuggling, thefts and other crimes that take place in the sky. Only pokemon that could fly in the air could apply to become a member of the ALFP, for obvious reasons. When Rusty was asked why he didn't become an officer of the ALFP he just shrugged the question off, replying that he could do more good as a general officer of the LFP then patrolling the skies.

"So what do we do now?" Ciel turned to Roland. The Aggron just pondered on the question as he itched his cheek.

"We could go to the office and show you the current case we are on" he offered, the time it had taken to tour the building had been shorter than he and Rusty first thought. They had another 20 minutes till it was lunch break meaning they had nothing better to do, the rookies would be sent home for the rest of the day after lunch. They would be invited out for a celebration at a local bar that was run by a retired LFP officer. Vaal looked interested at the prospect at leaning about the case he would be helping with, while Ciel just shrugged his shoulders.

"That sounds good to me" Vaal gave an enthusiastic reply while Rusty eyed his partner.

"Only if you're sure you can stomach it" he warned as he grimaced slightly, turning to walk out of the washroom. Ciel frowned.

"Why do you say that?" he called out after Rusty. The steel type paused briefly before looking back over his shoulder.

"Because you might not want to eat once you do" Vaal and Ciel shared a wary glance towards each other before shrugging, it couldn't be that bad they reasoned. Five minutes later, they found they were very wrong.

Ciel choked as he had to hold back the vomit while Vaal stared wide-eyed and pale at the images of the case. Various photos were stacked in four different columns. Each column had photos from each case.

"So far four-woman, all between 30 and 50 years of age have been found dead in the plumbing district alone, to make matters worse the perpetrator isn't set to just the plumbing district. We have cases in the construction district, farm district, performance district, energy district, pleasure district and even the dragon's district, for a grand total of 38 cases." Roland spoke in a low gravelly tone as his face went dead. "All the victims are between 30 and 50 years of age and female, no other points of similarity that we can find anywhere. They have a range of marital status, species, jobs, hobbies and none of them knew each other. The only reason we know that it's the same pokemon perpetrating all these cases is the method of death and how the victims are found."

All of the photos were in high detail from various angles and viewpoints. The women in the pictures were all in the same position and form, their natural form. Their arms were splayed out to the side at right angles from their body, and rusted metal rebars were used to pin the limbs in place on a wall, one through the hand, another through the joint where the elbow would be and a final one in the shoulder joint.

What caused distress in Vaal and Ciel was what the killer had done towards the rest of the pokemon's body. The lower abdomen had been hacked open with the pokemon's intestines, stomach, liver and kidneys having been left hanging down out of the exposed cavity. The reproductive organs, however, were missing from the exposed cavity and were elsewhere. There was a close-up photo of the pokemon's head. Two additional rebars were used to pin the head back through the eye sockets. The cheeks had been cut open to allow enough room for the womb and ovaries to be stuffed into the mouth. On the chest of each victim, a series of numbers had been carved into the flesh.

"Above every victim, the following words were painted in the victim's blood. No more." Rusty moved over towards the table, opening the case file.

"The first victim was an Unfezant, named Olivia Fairfeather, age 39, married with two kids. She was reported missing on the 23rd of April, and her body was found four days later." he pointed to the column on the far left before moving on the column next to it.

"Second victim was a Liepard, named Quinne Sleekfur, age 31, single, no known children. She was found on 14th of May, last seen three days earlier." he moved on the column next to it.

"Our third victim, Elise Sharktooth was a Gabite, age 47, divorced, with a single kid and grandkids. She was last seen dropping the grandchild to a playgroup on the 3rd of July, found five days later though it is believed her body spent over 24 hours in that position." he pointed towards the final column on the far right of the table.

"The final victim was the most recent to date found about a month ago, found on the 13th of August, she is a Lombre, Dew Quickgrew, aged 40. Married, no kids. She last seen walking home from work, again three days before her body was found."

"You two doing alright?" Roland cut in as he leant down closer towards Vaal and Ciel. They had pale faces and were shaking slightly as they stared at the photos in a morbid fascination, it was horrific, yet they couldn't bring themselves to look away, this was going to be the first case they ever worked on after all. Ciel was trying his best not to throw up at the sight of one image, in particular, a close-up photo of Olivia, or rather, one of her private area.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ciel stuttered as he pointed towards the image, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. Vaal's eyes followed Ciel's finger before he tore away, retching slightly. Roland looked at the photo before confirming what Ciel had feared.

"Yeah, that's her heart. The murderer cuts out the heart and stuffs it in there. It's the same for every other victim" Ciel had to turn away at that as he put a hand to his mouth. Rusty and Roland stood in silence as their two new partners took a moment to collect themselves.

"No one will blame you if you throw up, we know that the academy shows you images and even lets you interact with plastic body parts, but they only show the tame stuff. I'm sorry to inform you but this sort of thing is more common than we would like to admit. Whoever is committing this, they are doing it to make a statement." Rusty informed the two pokemon as he placed the file back down on the table. Vaal straightened up as he used amnesia to forget his worries, namely the images on the table. Now much calmer he turned to face Rusty with a focused look in his eye, his face hardened, making sure that his eyes remained on the pokemon, not the table.

"I have some questions about the case." Rusty nodded.

"Shoot but three questions only, it's nearly lunch break." Vaal nodded before beginning his questions.

"The number on the chest, what does it mean?"

"We don't know, they are seemingly random, the only thing we know for sure is that they are all usually in the three-digit range, one case reported a four-digit number however the rest have been three-digit."

"Where were the bodies found?"

"Every single body has been found on a construction site or a remote residential area; every site a body has been found in either has no surveillance methods or a limited amount of it."

"Why the heart?"

"We don't know; there are various theories as to why the individual goes through all these lengths; however, no concrete reason has been established yet. And that makes three." Rusty concluded as he glanced at the clock on the wall. "Right now is lunch though, we can look at this later, let's get some grub."

Roland grumbled loudly as he stretched out his upper body before letting loose a relieved sigh.

"Sounds good to me." he glanced over towards the confused recruits, he grinned gently as he explained "This is the time officers are given a break throughout the day, it is more or less a habit we pause work and go eat. Want to join us? The old guys can pay the bill for you don't worry" Vaal blinked a couple of times before turning to Ciel to get his opinion.

"Oh, er Ciel?" The Persian was utterly out of the conversation, when Vaal spoke to him he jolted slightly, giving what he hoped was a confident smile, it ended up more of a sickly one.

"Sure sounds good," he said in slightly wobbly tones, the images had thrown him off considerably. The only pictures that the academy had shown were ones of missing limbs, stab wounds, impact marks things like that. They hadn't prepared him or Vaal for that…

"Come on, we know the perfect place, it will help take your mind off it" Rusty hooked his arm around Ciel's shoulders and guided him out of the room. He had an understanding look on his face. "The first case is always the hardest, trust me, I know, we have all been there. Let's go."

The two steel types took them out of the station, crossing over the road and down an alley towards a small restaurant. The restaurant had a little wooden hanging sign that swayed in the wind. It read Guilty as Charged in bright red letters.

"Boss, we got two newbies!" Rusty called out as he slid the wooden door open, the interior was quite narrow, with an old wooden counter running down the left side of the with stools of various sizes resting just beneath the countertop on the right side of it. On the left side was various cooking apparatus; an oven, gas cooking stovetops and various chopping boards with multiple sized cooking knives and spatulas. The room was empty except for one individual.

Leaning against the counter with a lit cigarette in his mouth was an elderly figure, he had frizzy grey hair that was tied up in a tight ponytail behind his head. His face was wrinkled but still somewhat stern, with thick bushy eyebrows. He glanced over towards the door before inhaling from his cigarette deeply. He held it briefly before blowing out the white smoke in a perfect circle as he pushed up off the countertop.

"The usual then, Rusty?" he grumbled out as he moved over towards the back room to grab the ingredients for the regular, seemingly ignoring the two rookies that had stumbled in with him.

"Cheers, boss!" Roland called out after the retreating figure, only for the man to turn and flick something at the Aggron, what looked like a walnut shell slammed into his forehead, sticking into his forehead from the force.

"You can't call me that, rookie" he growled in a threatening tone before turning back towards the backroom. He slipped through the door as Roland gingerly removed the shell from his forehead, going.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch" the shell had left a bright red imprint in the centre of his forehead though it rapidly faded. Rusty just sighed lightly, as he eyed up his partner.

"I don't think he has forgiven you for the damages yet" he spoke in a manner of fact tone of voice as he moved over towards his regular position in the middle of the bar. Ciel and Vaal stood still in the doorway. Their faces were drooping slightly as the images of the case they would be working on again clouded their minds. Rusty noticed this and called over to them, motioning with his hand to come to join him at the counter with a coy smile on his face.

"Come on. It won't bite."

"Hard" Roland added onto the end of the sentence with a cocky grin decorating his face. Rusty just elbowed his partner in the stomach hard, causing the large pokemon to crumble over the impacted area, letting loose a grunt of pain. Rusty's elbow had glowed silver just before the impact, likely meaning the Aggron had just got slammed by a metal-infused elbow. Vaal moved over and sat on the left side of the Skarmory and Ciel followed, sat to the left of Vaal. Roland slumped down on an extra large and metal reinforced stool to the right of Rusty. The seat creaked a little as the weight dropped down onto it.

The only sound in the bar was from an old jukebox at the end of the room, playing what sounded like smooth jazz with what seemed to be a saxophone played a solo before other instruments, and a voice joined in. The four pokemon just sat there in silence, Rusty and Roland had gotten their phones out and were searching the new feed for anything funny, Vaal and Ciel just stared down at the counter with unfocused eyes.

Soon after the owner fumbled out of the back room with various jars, ingredients and what looked to be an iron ingot. He started to cook for the two regulars, what seemed to be a stir fry and a cheese board but with sections of iron instead of cheese. After 15 minutes, he turned around to deliver the food to the two officers. Rusty got what looked to be a chicken and spicy berry stir fry with iron filings for a topping, while Roland got a board of cut iron with some salad on the side and some chopped berries and sections of meat. He then bent down and reached under the bar and pulled out two bottles of non-alcoholic ale. Having done that, he finally turned to face the two newbies.

"What would you like?" he moved his head between the two of the shocked pokemon. Ciel was the first to recover; he raised his hand and gave a half-hearted smile.

"I wouldn't like anything I am afraid, thank you for offering" the man raised an eyebrow questioningly at Ciel before turning to Vaal, who just shook his head slowly, explaining.

"I don't think I could stomach anything at the moment" the man just huffed as his brows furrowed, placing his fist against his sides.

"I can cook more than steel dishes you know, if you aren't here to order you can leave" he grumbled angrily as he glared at the two pokemon, a little insulted as he believed the pair wasn't interested in order because he was cooking a steel type dish. Rusty cut in explaining the situation.

"They are new hires, they have just seen their first case boss, they are still reeling from it" that made the old guy pause before eyeing up his regulars.

"You boys are working the serial case aren't you?" he asked for clarification, Roland was the one to respond.

"That right, they saw everything" the old guy sagged as he put a hand to his brow, muttering quietly to himself.

"Oh boy..." he leaned back not facing the pair and lit a cigarette and started smoking, Rusty and Roland just started eating. After 10 minutes or so, Vaal finally broke the silence of the room.

"...how could anyone do such a thing?" Vaal wondered aloud. His eyes were wide and slightly clouded over in an unfocused manner, his body curled in on himself, making himself smaller.

"I don't know… I don't want to know..." Ciel replied, trying to get the memories out of his head.

"I mean… no one should have a cause to do anything like that should they" Vaal reasoned motioning his hands.

"Whoever is doing this probably has reasons why..." Ciel mumbled back, his eyebrows furrowing slightly, crossing his arms and looking sideways nervously. Vaal just shifted uncomfortably on his stool, his face twisting slightly.

"Well yeah, but it makes you think, how twisted do you need to be to do something like that"

"In my experience, it really doesn't take much." the old guy cut in, before lighting another cigarette on the stovetop. Vaal and Ciel focused their attention on the older man who just took a long take of smoke before continuing, smoke drifting from his nostrils.

"Something you need to realise is that there are a lot of people out there that can be all sorts of twisted, deadly or just downright weird. The longer you stay in this line of work, the more you will see of it." He matched eye contact with the two newbies.

"You need to decide if you are ready to face that, face knowing that no matter how many you put away, it's only a matter of time for someone just as twisted to rise and show themselves." his eyes narrowed as he warned the two newbies. "If you can't get used to the idea of dealing with a case just like this on a day to day basis, well then you have no place in the LFP."

"Arceus take me, Boss, we were trying to calm them back down a bit, not scare them shitless" Rusty called out in an urgent tone of voice. He was a little worried that this would put them off the case, making them demand to join a different situation or maybe even quit. That happened more often than anyone would think. The older man known as Boss just snorted and glared at Rusty, as if saying, so you brought them here?

"It's the bloody school's fault. They haven't been prepared for this. Obviously, I can sympathise with that, even if they knew what to expect there is a large difference to be made between just seeing the images of someone else's case to knowing if you don't do something this will keep happening. People are dying. The LFP needs pokemon willing to deal with the crime, not run from it."

"And who says we will run?" Vaal spoke quietly, his eyes locked on to Boss. Boss paused as he closed his eyes and sighed before elaborating the facts to Vaal and Ciel.

"There is a lot of twisted pokemon in the world. In this line of work, you will be forced to face the worst of it all: the killers, the thieves, the greedy and the corrupt. You have only just started and yet here you are sitting acting like the entire world is going to end" Vaal and Ciel looked away from Boss. They couldn't refute his words at all, they had barely spoken, dragged here by their superiors and had just sat there feeling sorry for themselves because of images from a case they were about to work on.

Rusty and Roland had been working the case for much longer and had likely been there in person. Yet, they were practically unaffected, if anything they looked at the images for motivation, using them as a reason to keep working on the case. But still, it felt like they were expecting a bit much from them just to bulk up and move on immediately after being exposed to that. Boss didn't spare the pair, however, instead just glared down with a ferocity that matched the Sergeant, one of the teachers at the academy.

"While the criminal population may only be around 1% of the entire city, the city houses nearly 100 million. You can do the math. Remember this kiddo. Some pokemon kill on orders of others; they have no other choice; they do it to make a living. Some kill for the rush of power, the sense of control it gives you knowing you control someone else's life. Some are mistakes, a miss-timed move, an accident. The case you're working on? It belongs to the worst kind of twisted." Vaal and Ciel shifted on their stools, they started sitting but straighter, pushing their shoulders back and raising their heads slightly.

"How do you mean the worst kind?" Vaal inquired as he leaned forwards. The old guy snorted loudly before answering.

"This case is the result of someone with an aim in mind. They aren't doing it for fun or on someone's orders. They are doing it as a means to an end. Those sort of people are the hardest to catch; they rarely slip up or ever stop because of a guilty conscience. They will keep killing until one of two things happens. They get caught, or they complete their mission." Boss leaned forwards with a menacing sneer taking form as he growled in a low gravelly voice.

"And I don't think you've got the stones to keep up with the case." he squinted as he brandished a rather large steel knife right under Ciel's nose. Ciel just gave him a nonchalantly looked down at the blade and back up to the older pokemon that was looming over him. His eyes narrowed as he glared back at the older man. The nerves he had from the pictures had been silenced, burnt away as rage and a feeling of competence started to swell inside of him.

Today had been a tough day, he had been made a laughing stock in front of his new co-workers, he nearly failed and fainted in the interrogation room test, he had been distraught at the sight of the pictures, yeah, but he wasn't a coward. And he sure as hell wasn't going to quit because some old geezer running a bar had told him he didn't belong at the LFP. He didn't know his past or what he had been through. Ciel felt his claws start to dig into his palms as his anger and frustration rose.

"With all due respect, sir" the sir had been dragged out sarcastically, with underlying tones of sheer contempt filtering into his voice. "But I don't believe you are in any position to tell us what we should or shouldn't do."

"We came to the LFP to get a job, to help protect the city, our city. We faced their tests, and we passed them. Yeah, we are troubled, distressed and truthfully a little scared of what we have seen. Because who the fuck wouldn't be after seeing those images! No amount of fucking training is going to prepare you for that shite!" Vaal yelled, slamming his fists down onto the counter as he supported his partner. "Who the hell do you think you are, telling us we aren't fit to be LFP!?"

"He is the ex-commissioner of the LFP, his if the former mentor of our current commissioner, spent over 40 years as a member of the LFP." Rusty calmly explained, avoiding looking directly at the pair. Silence fell like a heavy curtain in the room before Vaal just crossed his arms and scowled heavily.

"So what?"