I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

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.

"I'm 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 observed the girl's features- green hair, purple eyes.

Jennie wouldn't have recognized her as the "Beedrill girl" that the Rangers were gossiping about if it weren't for those oddly unique features.

Because the general description that she got of that particular girl was a reserved, if not healthy kid with a penchant for Pokemon biology.

The girl in front of her looked the furthest from that description.

Sunken eyes, hollowed cheeks, messy hair, and a distressed expression that made her look manic.

It was like the girl had been starving for weeks but Jennie knew full well that wasn't the case because she was witnessed leaving the Ranger's Exam for Darryl's Trainer School earlier this morning.

Which meant that she had been here for half an hour at best and a few hours at worst.

Jennie was leaning on believing the former.

"Are you okay?" The officer asked as she neared the girl, "speak up if you arent-" Jennie raised her Growlithe's Pokeball when she saw Beedrill move, "I'm not here to hurt you,"

The Beedrill didn't respond and simply continued its focused stare at her, though Jennie noticed that, for some reason, it was weakening as well.

The girl turned her head to look at Jennie and the officer gulped once she locked gazes with the child's bloodshot eyes, did she come out of a haunting?

Jennie looked around for a Ghost Type and considered calling in a Channeler but held herself back.

"I- I asked them to call a Nurse Joy!" The girl screeched, the stress clear in her manic voice, "not a Jenny!" She frantically looked around, making her distressed state clearer in Jennie's eyes, "Team Rocket has already left and- and- Ratata is dying-"

"He's already dead." Jennie didn't know why she uttered those words when she very well knew not to enable the stress of a panicked person by deescalating- which usually meant not to speak to them about the cause of their stress.

To Jennie's surprise though, instead of lashing out, the girl simply stood still as if in shock, which very well might be the case here but Jennie wasn't taking chances and she calmly waited for the girl to suddenly break out of her daze and start screaming at her.

"No he isn't." The reply was quick and dry, and still clearly borne out of denial.

Okay, so maybe she could still salvage this. Jennie took the only path forward, which... is still making the girl realize that her situation is hopeless and that the Ratata is dead.

"... look, I understand completely okay? I also lost-"

"No you don't."

The girl shot her a glare and Jennies' heckles raised up, she called on her Aura and felt the flames in her heart fan outward.

"I do. I really- really do- Team Rocket is a pest that needs to be taken care of and I know what it's like to lose something because of them."

The girl narrowed her eyes, "do you really?"

Jennie quickly nodded, "yeah," she answered and went with that angle, "Team Rocket is a symptom that's slowly killing the world."

The girl looked down and mulled over Jennies' words, "then why didn't you stop them? Isn't it your job?"

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."