Officer Jenny, red-faced and fighting back tears, stumbled out of the hotel and into the waiting arms of another pair of Jennies. Several more were escorting people from the building and controlling curious bystanders.

"Beta-Twelve, are you alright?" asked one of the comforting Jennies.

The recently-traumatized Jenny, Jenny Beta-Twelve, hugged the previous Jenny and began sobbing into her chest.

"Beta-Twelve. Look at me."

Beta-Twelve took a deep breath and slowly turned her gaze upward.

"What happened?"

"She got him," Beta-Twelve croaked.

"What? How?"

"He's gone, Kappa-Twelve," Beta-Twelve reiterated. "She killed her roommate, then she killed him, then she killed herself."

The second Jenny, Kappa-Twelve, eased her colleague back upright. "I'm so sorry."

The third Jenny began, "So, uh... I'll help you file a report-"

"Oh, fuck off, Psi-Eleven," Kappa-Twelve admonished. "She can file a report after she recovers." She opened the passenger door of her squad car, shooing her Growlithe out.

"Abandoning your post is a serious-"

"I don't care," Kappa-Twelve said, again cutting Psi-Eleven off. "Come on," she said to Beta-Twelve, "I'll buy you a drink."

"Th-thanks," Beta-Twelve said between deep breaths.

Beta-Twelve got into Kappa-Twelve's squad car while she let her Growlithe into the backseat and they drove away.

After a short drive, Kappa-Twelve pulled up to a bar just outside of Pallet Town. As they got out of the car, two men wearing black suits approached them. One had gloves on, and also had what resembled a couple of sheets of fabric wrapped around his tie.

"Jackson and Winchester, private investigators," one of them said, shaking Kappa-Twelve's hand, "would you mind telling us if we're on the right path to Pallet Town?"

Kappa-Twelve and Beta-Twelve pointed them towards Pallet Town.

"What are you looking for in Pallet Town?" Kappa-Twelve asked.

"Adultery," the men both answered.

"Carry on then," Kappa-Twelve replied, and the two Jennies entered the bar.

There were fewer patrons than usual in the bar, but it was still decently busy; a group of people were in a booth getting drunk beyond reason and the counter was partly filled by an assortment of gloomy old men nursing the same beer they had an hour ago. The two Jennies sat a few seats over from a man in his eighties humming a bittersweet tune from decades ago and Kappa-Twelve waved the bartender over.

"Morning, officers," greeted the bartender, a man who looked more fit to be the bouncer, "today's special is half-off on gin, and gin cocktails."

"Morning, Davey," Kappa-Twelve responded, "Just get some wings for me, and a drink list for her."

"Alphabetically or by proof?" Davey asked, holding up two different menus.

"I'll just take the gin, thanks," said Beta-Twelve sullenly.

"Alright," Davey half-mumbled as he turned to the wall of drinks behind him, "what brand are you after?"

"Get her something to drown her sorrows," said Kappa-Twelve.

"Ah, I know what you need." Davey grabbed one of the bottles and a glass and filled the glass halfway. "Gin..." He grabbed another bottle and filled the rest of the glass. "...'n' more gin."

"Thanks," Beta-Twelve muttered, taking the glass with both hands.

"If you don't mind me asking, it's only ten, what are you doing in here this early, officer?" Davey asked Kappa-Twelve.

"She's just had a harrowing encounter and I've taken her here to loosen up a little."

"Yeah? What happened?"

"She was the first on scene to a shooting. She went in and her Growlithe took a bullet."

Davey looked over at Beta-Twelve, who was still staring silently into her full drink.

"Sorry to hear, officer," Davey told her reverently. She nodded and took a small sip, and with a gag she put a few bills onto the counter.

"It's fine, it's on me," Kappa-Twelve said, and tried to hand her coworker the money from the counter.

Beta-Twelve refused to take the money back. "Look, it was enough of a favor for you to drive me here, but I'm not gonna let you just pay for it all too."

"Look, it's been a rough morning. This is the least I can do."

"I'm not completely invalidated just because I took a loss, alright?" Beta-Twelve replied.

Kappa-Twelve put her hands up defensively. "Alright, alright, you wanna pay for it then go ahead." She handed the money to Davey, who accepted it and offered Beta-Twelve the change.

"Keep it all. If I can't be happy I want to at least be nice to someone else."

The two Jennies sat in silence for about ten minutes and half a glass of gin when suddenly their heads snapped towards the exit.

"What happened?!" Davey asked, startled.

"Sounds like screaming," Kappa-Twelve said, and both Jennies stood and left.

Climbing back into the car, Kappa-Twelve patted around her person but was unable to find her keys.

"Did I give you the keys?" she asked her colleague.

"Nope."

"Are you sure? Maybe you just forgot-"

"I'm sure, and I'll prove it." Beta-Twelve pulled open the glove compartment and retrieved a breathalyzer. She blew just over an eightieth of a percent, showing the result to Kappa-Twelve.

"If you say so, then go in and check with the barkeep."

Beta-Twelve briskly reentered the bar. Moments later, she came back out and into the car.

"Nothing."

"He hasn't seen them?"

"Nope."

Kappa-Twelve cursed under her breath and got out. "Can you let Growlithe out? We'll have to leg it."

Beta-Twelve glared at Kappa-Twelve.

"Alright, sorry, I'll get it then."

The two Jennies and Growlithe were closing in on the source of the scream. They'd reached the neighborhood where the noise had originated when Growlithe stopped in his tracks and whimpered.

"What's wrong, boy?" Kappa-Twelve asked, turning around and crouching down to Growlithe's eye level.

Growlithe whimpered again.

"Come on, we gotta keep moving," she said, gently gripping Growlithe by the back of the neck.

Growlithe yelped and ran back to the car.

"Let's keep moving, shall we?" Beta-Twelve said impatiently, "Or we could be too late."

Kappa-Twelve shrugged. "It's a pretty sparse area, it'd be easy to see anyone trying to..." She trailed off.

"What?"

Kappa-Twelve pointed off into the distance. Down the road, up a hill and behind some trees was Professor Oak's lab, and it was on fire.

"Oh, that's horrible! I'll go see if there's anyone inside, you call for a firetruck!" Beta-Twelve shrieked.

"Understood," said Kappa-Twelve, as she made the appropriate call on her Pokegear. Beta-Twelve sprinted as quickly as her waifish figure permitted to the lab, while Kappa-Twelve elected to get a head start on canvassing the neighborhood for information. She figured any crime would have already been carried out, but the least she could do was work to solve it.

Behind the first of the two houses' front doors was a brown-haired woman with a Mr Mime at her side.

"Hello, officer," she said cheerfully.

"I'm sorry to bother you, madam, but do you happen to know anything about that fire?" Kappa-Twelve pointed to the flaming lab.

The woman stepped out her doorway, looked at the fire and gasped. "What a horrible thing to do! Is Professor Oak alright?"

"It's far more likely we'll be able to ensure his safety if you can give us some information. Have you seen anyone suspicious? Heard anything?"

"Well, I heard a scream a little while ago coming from the Oak house-" she nodded towards the only other house on the street- "and I tried to report it to you over the Pokegear, but the signal was out."

Kappa-Twelve pulled a notepad and pencil from her satchel, quickly noting what the woman had told her.

"Alright, thanks for your time, at least," she said as Beta-Twelve came up behind them. The woman closed her door.

"Anything?" Beta-Twelve asked.

"Maybe, the lady had no signal on her gear. You?"

"I kicked down the door but there was nothing inside. At all. Possibly an insurance scam."

Kappa-Twelve scoffed at that waste of their currently-precious time as the sound of a firetruck's siren approached.

"Tell you what, I'm gonna sit down for a minute. My feet are getting numb," said Beta-Twelve as she flopped down against the woman's house.

"Yeah, me too," Kappa-Twelve added, doing the same.

They watched Oak's house intently for a few minutes, during which time the firetruck went by. No sign of anyone entering or exiting. Eventually, Beta-Twelve noticed her colleague was fidgeting quite frequently.

"You alright?" Beta-Twelve asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Beta-Twelve, accepting the answer, looked back towards the house.

"Hey, what's that in your hand?" Kappa-Twelve asked, having a pretty good idea of what Beta-Twelve had in her hand.

Beta-Twelve looked down. She was holding a sharp stone in her left hand, and a handgun in her right. Since she last saw the gun, it had gained three notches in its side.

"Oh, yeah... this was the gun that killed my partner."

"So... you stole evidence?" Kappa-Twelve asked.

"Thanks for the heads-up, deserter," Beta-Twelve replied, putting the items into her satchel. "I disarmed the shooter and used the gun against her, then I guess I put it in my bag on instinct."

Kappa-Twelve made a noise of acknowledgement and pointed to the house they were watching.

"You think we ought to take a look inside?"

"I think you ought to have taken a look inside first thing, Kappa-Twelve."

Kappa-Twelve sighed. "Present's the closest we can get to the past. Let's go now."

"Alright," said Beta-Twelve, as they got up and crossed the road to the Oak residence.

They reached the house and Kappa-Twelve began by knocking on the door, while Beta-Twelve walked around the house to check for a back door. No response came. She knocked again.

"Is everything alright in there?" she yelled.

Still no response. Kappa-Twelve kicked down the door. A second later, she fell backwards screaming.

"KPD!" Beta-Twelve yelled as she ran back around to Kappa-Twelve, brandishing the gun.

There was no threat, only Kappa-Twelve, rolling around and squealing with her skin red and peeling.

Beta-Twelve soon understood the situation as a similar affliction befell her, and she collapsed against the wall.

"What happened?!" she asked.

"I don't know!" Kappa-Twelve replied with a heavy cough. "A dirty bomb?!"

Taking a deep breath, Beta-Twelve picked up a stone and forcefully scratched two more notches into the gun.

"Beta... Twelve?" Kappa-Twelve asked.

"I'm sorry," Beta-Twelve whispered, her hands shaking and her breathing laborious as she pointed the gun at Kappa-Twelve.

The last thing Kappa-Twelve saw was Beta-Twelve, as she fired a shot into Kappa-Twelve's chest and turned the gun around.