Chapter 54

Chapter 54

"Officer here!" Jennie pushed past the crowd and stepped onto the apartment building's 4th floor proper.

She looked around and scanned the single mothers and orphans looking on and treating the scene as a show and frowned- there are way too many people here.

Thankfully, they parted for her as she walked forward and none dared to get in her way as she neared the 17th room of the floor.

She passes a man and heard him mutter something under his breath and Jennie couldn't help but stop to listen in, she raised an eyebrow, "Team Rocket? You knew it was them? Why didn't you call anyone?"

The man flinched when she focused a glare his way but nodded nevertheless.

"Y-yes," he replied shakily, "they came here to ask us about- about the girl and well- we- we didn't say anything but they found her anyways,"

"What did they look like?" Jennie asked.

"Uh- I don't know-" he shook his head followed by a gulp, "I mean I don't remember, do you remember Oddish?"

Jennie tailed the man's gaze and looked down to the plump looking Grass Type by his leg, it shook its head in a clear sign of denial, "Oddish!"

Jennie narrowed her eyes, "I see," she tipped her hat to them, "thank you for telling me this,"

She walked away from the man and his Oddish, knowing full well just how futile asking people bribed by Team Rocket is. Instead of wasting her time there, she went on ahead and proceeded to check on the girl.

Jennie once more left the confines of the crowd and stepped into a space near the door of the apartment devoid of people.

The empty circle everyone created made things easier for her but at the same time, she was worried that the rumors of "diseases" and "poison" being present inside the apartment might've been true. going into the apartment, prepare medics just in case there is actually poison in there," Jennie notified dispatch just in case.

And she knew what the reply would be, that she should "wait" but what if the girl was actually poisoned? What then?

Does she just let her be?

No- the answer is no and Jennie stepped into the apartment with clear intent to check on the young girl's health, if there isn't something that could kill inside, then good, if there was...

Well, she did promise herself to save lives at the cost of her own and she wasn't going to back down on it now.

Jennie walked with trepidation, she sniffed the air for anything amiss and found nothing.

Before long though, she was able to smell it. Her hand reached out for the walkie talkie on her chest to inform dispatch about the poison but quickly realized that she did, in fact, turn it off.

And if she turns it on well...

Her hand left the general vicinity of the device.

She was on her own now and instead of slowing down, Jennie went even faster, concerned for the girl's health.

She made her way to the room and saw a young girl being surrounded by Poison Types; a Beedrill hovered protectively in front of her while a Zubat hung inanimately on the ceiling above.

Jennie tried not to let the discomfort she was feeling show on her face, "well, it's because... we can't," she calmly explained, "yet. We can't do it yet."

"Why?" The girl's full attention was on her now and Jennie responded by doing the same.

Her gaze went to the dead Ratata on the girl's arms.

She should really convince the girl to drop the corpse shouldn't she?..

"Because Team Rocket, as much as I hate to admit it, is hard to root out." She looked down in shame, "their members are competent and well, they also have influence on a lot of things,"

"Right." The girl nodded, "so you're saying that you can't fight them? Is that it?"

"N-no, we can, but we need to go through a lot of things in the system if we want to properly stop them and there are several things that need to happen before Team Rocket is brought into justice and-"

"Why not just kill them?" The girl thankfully dropped the corpse but was unfortunately now nearing Jennie.

Jennie responded by moving backward, "stay back."

The girl stopped walking, "answer me."

"Because it's wrong." Jennie answered, "Ho oh and Lugia wouldn't want us to take people's lives,"

The girl paused, "but what about Team Rocket? Aren't they taking others' lives too? Why aren't the Gods punishing them?"

Jennie gulped, that's the kind of argument that has no concrete answer, "well yeah, but- look, I'm not here to talk to you about Ho oh and Lugia, I'm here to help."

"You can't help me," the girl coldly replied, "you said it yourself, you can't fight Team Rocket."

"Yes- no- I mean no, we can fight Team Rocket, it's just hard for us to do it."

"Then it's the same thing." The girl rebuked, "you can't help m-"

The girl wheezed before coughing violently, her knees gave out and she collapsed a moment later.

Without thinking of the consequences, Jennie ran forward and supported her.

She ignored the Beedrill flying her way as she pushed the girl in an upright position, she internally cursed as she tried to find a way to get her out of here while convincing the girl's Pokemon that it was the right thing to do.

When she noticed how cold the girl's skin felt, Jennie's Aura washed out of her skin to keep the girl warm, "okay, you just need to calm down and-"

The girl's eyes closed and she slumped, followed by her Beedrill a second later and the Zubat hanging on the ceiling fell to the floor right after.

Jennie activated her walkie talkie and called dispatch, "bring medics and nurse joys here, and a channeler too, it wasn't poison, but a haunting,"

Jennie looked around and searched for the Ghost Type responsible for making the girl this way before giving up once she found nothing.

She activated her walkie talkie again, "get here faster, the girl's life is in danger."