Recapture

[Elflady]

Alexis had begun to relax more, the subrubs were quite and empty, kids had gone to school and parents to work, a glance at Loreen told her that she was starting to calm down a bit, her earlier distress easily seen and understandable. But it really did look like they had made it out safely, no one had paid any attention to the two and it was just a short bit left. But then again, of course nothing can be that simple. Up ahead she could see a police motorcycle, no one was standing by it, yet, but of course there was a cop nearby. "Crap," she muttered out loud. They were probably going around the neighbourhood asking questions or perhaps just riding around looking for suspicious people, thank god Loreen had suggested they keep their own pokemon inside their balls.

Slwoing down to a halt Alexis went through options in her mind, what to do, what to do? They could turn around and chose another street, or they could continue on acting like everything was normal or make a run for it and drawing attention to them if someone saw them. She couldn't decide, each choice presented the risk of meeting the police and each offered a chance to get by unhindered, perhaps she could say Loreen was her cousin or other relative that had come from out of town, but what if she was too recognisable close up?

"Should we take another way?" She asked the girl. "Maybe it's safer if we turn at this road up ahead before the motorcycle and take that street instead." She suggested. There wasn't many places to hide either, nothing to shield them from view except entering peoples' yards which could look suspicious. "Or maybe it will look more normal to just go on ahead and hope we get past unnoticed, you can have your hood up if it makes you feel safer." Alexis heart was beating quicker already, of course she didn't risk anything by passing the police but if Loreen got caught she would not be able to locate the Rocket headquarter and find her pokemon.

 

[Minibit]

((Do we want to do Officer Jennys or a regular police force?))

Lorene swallowed, resisting the urge to pull her hood back up and lower her head. She shook her head, slowly "We should just act normal" she said, as quietly as she could without risking going unheard. She was at this point ninety percent certain that she had not been seen the previous night, but that certainty dropped as they approached the motorcycle.

They were passing directly beside the bike, and Lorene was just thinking over her hammering heartbeat that she was almost home-free, when the door to the house creaked open, and the blazing royal blue of a police uniform caught her peripheral vision, and she felt a chill as her muscles tensed up.

"Thank you for your time" she heard from the house, followed quickly by "Oh, excuse me! Hey you kids!" and the sound of approaching footsteps. Lorene closed her eyes, and took a shuddering breath as she stood, frozen in place. Gulping air again, she forced what she hoped was a pleasant-looking smile and turned around

"How can we help you, officer?"

 

[Elflady]

(Hmm, it'd would be nice to have Officer Jenny with the police, I'm kinda used to it after watching the anime, but maybe keep it more realistic by not having every single female officer a Jenny, but a few instead?)

Her heart sank as she heard the voice behind them and she cursed under her breath, was it really too much to ask to have a little luck? Apparently it was. Alexis turned around as well, looking at the police officer already trying to figure out what to say and do depending on what happened. Technically she had nothing to fear, except that it was most certainly illegal to harbor a criminal and helping said criminal escape, she doubted the police would see her side on the matter. Loreen on the other hand was probably more nervous, with all right of course, about it and for both their sakes Alexis hoped Loreen's face was unknown to the police.

"It's about the pokemon theft yesterday, have you kids seen anything out of the ordinary or heard something about it?" The female officer inquired as she stopped in front of them.

Alexis tried her best to frown as if thinking over something, praying to everything and nothing for aid. "No, I don't think so," she said, an apologetic smile accompanying the innocent look in her eyes she tried her best to seem real. She had always been good at, well deception, not splendid but she could lie with a straight face and she was relatively good at being collected and adapt to what happened. Of course she didn't lie all the time and was certainly not an expert as she didn't really enjoy lying, quite a contradiction you could say, but she hoped it would be enough.

 

[Minibit]

Lorene shook her head in concurrence with Alexis, keeping a solomn expression on her face. "We were hoping some of the pokemon might have escaped to the outskirts" she offered. "We were going to look for ours; sorry we can't help but if there's nothing else..." She glanced down the road, where the city limits were so, so close.

The officer gave a disappointed huff. "All right; but make sure to call the police if you see anything suspicious; don't try to engage suspicious persons yourselves, especially not without your pokemon!" she cautioned, mounting the motorcycle and fishing for the keys in the breast pocket of her uniform.

Lorene nodded and was turning around, feeling weak with relief, when the constable's voice called after her again. "Hey, isn't that a pokeball?"

Lorene's nerves froze; she was certain the red and white sphere had been concealed on her belt under her hoodie, but realised that shrugging the hood down a few minutes ago must have lifted it. If the officer looked closely, she might even see that Umbreon was still present inside. Sweat dropped like bullets from her temples, and her tongue felt dry as she raced desperately for an answer

((I was thinking we could use the pokeballs like in the manga, if that's cool by you? I always liked the idea that a trainer didn't have to release a pokemon from it's ball to talk to it or look at it))

 

[Elflady]

Alexis was just starting to relax a little, the officer hadn't seemed to find anything odd about them and she was starting to believe they could move on unhindered when the woman's voice called out, effectively rooting Alexis to the ground. Damn. She should have known better than to have thought everything all right before they were out of New Bark, that was like asking trouble to come.

"Um," Alexis struggled to find the words, she too had her own pokemon left, still concealed in her bag thankfully but if she modified her own story a bit it could work out anyway, maybe. "Well, officer, you see yesterday we two were in the forest outside the city all day," at least she had been. Alexis licked her dry lips and continued as casually as she could: "We came back after the theft had taken place, so as my friend was saying now we are out looking for our remaining pokemon, hoping they might have gotten away somehow." Her voice cracked a bit in the end as her throat dried up again.

Now she just hoped her modified truth would work, and had more heart than a sense of duty that would lead to more questions.

(I've never heard about that before but it's a cool idea so that's fine with me.)

 

[Minibit]

((Off and on all through January I'm thinking in the back of my head 'I wonder if @Elflady is still into that pokemon rp...' and it's my turn all this time >.< I am so so sorry; I had it in my head that it was your turn and I didn't want to nag so I just kept busy with other stuff instead of actually checking the thread like a smart person ))

"What were two kids doing in the woods all day?" the officer said, her brows drawing down in a stern expression. "there are some strong pokemon deep in the forest, you know"

"We're pretty confident in our pokemon" Lorene butted in; hoping she wasn't sweating too visibly. "We thought it might be fun to have a camping trip; our parents just said we had to have pokemon with us"

She glanced sideways at Alexis; hoping the other girl would support her story. The policewoman looked between the two of them for a moment suspiciously, and then seemed to relax a fraction. "All right, but would you each mind giving me your phone numbers? I may need to call you for a statement about the condition of your pokemon if you find them later. It's an incident of foul play, and every scrap of information is useful."

Lorene breathed a sigh of relief, and opened her mouth to rattle off a fake number; hopefully she wouldn't try calling it until they'd gotten out of town.

 

[Elflady]

(That's alright, especially since I really dragged out the answer this time, I should have gotten to it sooner but there has been a lot this month, with moving, work and personal stuff so I haven't even been on Iwaku for awhile But if you're up for continuing then I'd be glad to keep this going.)

Alexis started to feel the pressure when the woman wouldn't let the subject drop, couldn't she just let them be and go hunt for Team Rocket or something, at least doing something more useful than nitpicking their story. This she thought without really considering the contradiction in it, after all the police had a member of the pokemon thieves right in front of her.

"Yes," she agreed to Loreen's story. "We two have been in the woods before, and as she said as long as we had our pokemon we are perfectly alright." At least she had spent a lot of time in the nearby woods, ever since she was small in fact, it was also a bit insulting that the woman doubted their ability to stay safe outside the city, neither of them were children but that was adults for you she guessed, if you weren't close to or above them in age then you were more or less a child in their eyes.

In a pure reflex Alexis gave her real phone number when asked, the thought of giving a fake didn't hit her until after she had spoken. But, she mused, it surely couldn't hurt, her phone number was no secret and it surely couldn't backfire later. "We'll be sure to call if we find something," Alexis added as an extra help to secure their story. No chance in hell would she call the police about any of this but better to appea honest and straight forward.

 

[Minibit]

(I'm definitely down for continuing! Don't worry about speed, I'm pretty busy and stressy these days, too)

"You kids watch yourselves, find a police officer if you see anything suspicious." The constable cautioned, recording the two numbers in her pokegear. For a moment, Lorene was worried she was going to change her mind and accompany them, but after looking them over, the officer gave a satisfied nod and turned around, walking back to her motorbike.

Lorene breathed a sigh of relief, and felt her knees weaken; for a second it was all she could do to stay standing. Her face felt hot; the rest of her did, too. Like the temperature had just gone up a million degrees. Was this what espionage was like? She wondered. No wonder she'd been assigned as a lowly grunt.

Shakily, she started to continue walking down the road to the forest. Placing a shaking hand on her pokeball, she wondered if Umbreon had been half as scared as she had been.