The Cerulean police station appeared simple enough. Blue and white were the colours of choice, with a few posters up around the place, and a few rows of seats scattered around the entrance hall. A lone officer dressed in a blue uniform sat behind a desk at the far end of the small room, typing at a computer, and Rochelle quickly made her way over.
"Something I can help you with?" the officer asked as she looked up from her keyboard. Rochelle noted a small name-plate on the desk: it read
in simple engraved lettering. She took a second to compose herself, taking a breath to calm her slightly jittery nerves, and answered, "I need to report a crime."
"Could you please be a little more specific? Theft, assault, Team Rocket activity..." Rochelle stopped Jenny at the third possibility. "Yes, Team Rocket. At Mount Moon, to be precise. It's, uh... it's a somewhat long story."
"There hasn't been any sign of Team Rocket operating at Mt. Moon in four years. Are you sure it was them?" The officer was skeptical, Rochelle could tell that much. Perhaps she didn't believe that they were as big of a threat as they had been. Perhaps she believed that the Trainer was mistaken due to her relative youth. Either way, all that Rochelle had to say was the truth. Setting her pack down on the floor, she took a seat in front of the desk - Natalya hopping down to her lap and preening for a second before she settled down - and recounted as much of the basics of the Team Rocket incident as she could remember, focusing more on the Rocket activity than her own mishaps and avoiding the use of any of her friends' names. At a couple of points in the recount, she had to pause and take a moment to collect herself. Each time Jenny was sympathetic, passing her a box of tissues the first time.
"This is terrible news. The Rockets are getting bolder than they have been in past years. And you haven't called your parents yet?" Jenny asked Rochelle, to clarify. Rochelle shook her head, saying that she had planned to call them after speaking to law enforcement. "Here, I'll put you through to them," the officer said, picking up her phone and hitting a few keys to contact the operator desk.
"Yes, hello. Sanders residence, Goldenrod City, please," she instructed the operator, giving Rochelle a smile as she waited. When the phone picked up at the other end, she said, "Hi, Sanders residence? My name's Officer Jenny, calling from the Cerulean City police station. I have your daughter Rochelle here with me; she told me that she's been through a traumatic ordeal. Would you like to speak to her?" Moments later Jenny held the phone out to Rochelle. "It's your mother."
Rochelle accepted the handset, nervous about speaking to her parents over the phone. "Mum?"
"Rochelle... what's the problem, love? Homesick already? 'Cause you can come home anytime you want." Officer Jenny had chosen her words well: Dayna was unaware that Rochelle had been captured by Team Rocket.
"No, no, I'm okay. I just... you should know," Rochelle began, her nervousness building as she spoke. "On my way to Cerulean with a few others, I was, uh... kidnapped. By Team Rocket."
"You were WHAT?! Oh, God, are you sure you're alright? I should come over there... it's a shame Jon's working right now..." Dayna was starting to become hysterical. Rochelle had to calm her down quickly before she did something a bit too rash. Thankfully she wasn't speaking to her father, who would most likely follow the 'over-protective dad' route and get on the next Magnet Train as soon as humanly possible.
"No, no, Mum, I'm perfectly fine. We're all fine," she quickly explained. "They didn't do anything to me or my Pokémon, just locked me up for a little while until one of my friends broke me out. I'm fine, really. I have friends with me, and it won't happen again - "
"You can't be sure of that! Who knows what they might do, Rochelle?" Dayna interrupted, her hysterics rising. It wasn't working. Mercifully, Officer Jenny had given her some space to take the call, going through some paperwork while she waited.
"Mum, please, just hear me out. I have friends, and we all have Pokémon with us, and we're a team of our own. If I wasn't with them, I wouldn't be here talking to you. Next time I see someone from Team Rocket, I'm gonna run in the opposite direction, I promise you that. And I
will come home eventually. I just want to keep going despite this. My journey with Pokémon is only just getting started... you understand, right?"
Dayna didn't answer immediately; she was most likely thinking it over. Then she gave a nostalgic sigh into the phone and said,
"Of course. I remember when I was your age... my Clefable and I having such adventures. But you have
to be much more careful, Rochelle, you hear me?"
"Always, Mum. I'll call more often as well," Rochelle promised.
"Alright. Until next time, then. Love you."
"Love you too. Bye," Rochelle said, waiting for Dayna to hang up before she did so herself. At the sound of the headset clicking back into place, Officer Jenny returned to the desk with the papers she had been filling out. "She's okay? Nothing to worry about?"
"Everything's fine," Rochelle answered. Jenny gave her another smile and explained the paperwork: a standard incident-report form, which Rochelle agreed to signing. Jenny had already dealt with the description of the incident, persons involved and severity of the problems caused. All it needed was her signature, which she provided after reading through it to make sure it was accurate.
"This will give us some more evidence to help take down any Team Rocket members we find," Jenny added once Rochelle passed the form back. "Since they disbanded we've been picking up pieces of their old operations, getting an insight into what they were up to... but you don't really need to hear that, do you?" Rochelle heartily agreed, having already had a too-close-for-comfort experience with the criminal organisation and no desire to get involved with them any more.
"Then I guess we're done here. Thank you for coming in; enjoy the rest of your day," Jenny said, ending the conversation with a smile.
"And thank you. See you another time, perhaps in better circumstances," Rochelle said, picking up her heavy pack and slinging it about her shoulders, carrying the inattentive Natalya in her arms as she walked out of the station. Reporting Team Rocket's activities hadn't taken very long; there was still plenty of time in the day, though Rochelle was unsure what she should do. She didn't know where anyone else was at the moment, so she began to head back to the Pokémon Center. With any luck one of the group would be there.
