Henry raised an eyebrow at the woman, not sure if he heard what she said right. "Excuse me, ma'am, would you mind repeating that?"

"She said monsters," Polly said, gently putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman's eyes went wide at this, and she was shaking a bit, unsure of what to do. Polly would normally hesitate before doing what she did next in front of someone like this. But seeing the fear in the woman's eyes, as if the monsters she had seen were staring her down from somewhere close at this very moment, Polly had almost no problem taking her mask off.

The woman in front of her shook harder as her eyes gazed upon the scar that rested on Polly's face.

Polly smiled warmly at the woman, "What's your name?"

"Uh, um," The older woman looked between Polly and Henry. For a second, she felt as if she was about to have a heart attack, but her eyes went to the shoulder Polly had her hand on. She noticed how gently her touch was.

She was shaking slightly less when she looked at Polly again. This time her whole face and not just the scar. The look in her eyes, and her smile, both were so comforting. She felt her fear and nerves begin to fade away as if they were never there in the first place.

"G-Gianna," She finally said.

"It's very nice to meet you, Gianna," Polly said warmly. "My name is Polly. If you can, do you think you can tell me about the monsters that you saw that attacked your husband?"

"W-Well," Gianna began shakily. The fear was starting to come back a bit as she remembered the monsters she saw, and how horrible they were. "They were big...and had pumpkin heads."

"Pumpkin heads?" Henry took out a notepad and started writing that down.

Gianna nodded quickly. "Yes! Pumpkin heads! I couldn't believe what I was seeing... it can't be possible, right? I-I'm surprised you haven't called me crazy already."

"Not crazy at all, Gianna," Polly said. "You're not the first person I've heard of who's seen a monster."

"And you have your husband, who obviously also saw them, right?" Henry questioned. "How is he?"

"He's at the hospital," Gianna said. "They're doing everything they can, but I'm really worried..."

"He's in good hands," Polly smiled at Gianna. "I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to him."

"What about the girl?" Gianna asked softly.

"The girl?" Polly asked. "There was a girl there too?"

Gianna nodded. "The monsters were taking her when me and my husband saw them. He tried to help but that's when they bit his arm off..."

"I better get this back to the station," Henry said, putting the notepad away. He looked at Gianna. "Are you sure you're okay walking alone?"

Gianna looked around nervously. It seemed she was trying to make sure for certain that there were no monsters around. "I-I don't know?"

"Well, how about I give you a ride?" Henry offered. "If monsters are lurking around it'll be much safer."

"I suppose you're right, officer," Gianna nodded her head. "Thank you.'

"It's no problem," Henry smiled. "I just wish we knew where those monsters went and, more importantly, where they're coming from."

"That's what I plan on finding out," Polly said. She put her mask back on. "Stay safe, Gianna."

Polly started to walk off.

"Wait!" Henry called out, running after her. "Are you sure you should be doing this by yourself."

"I'm not doing it by myself," Polly replied. "I know you and the other officers will do whatever you can to take care of these monsters."

"That's if the rest of them even believe it," Henry muttered. He wasn't really sure how he was gonna explain this all to the guys at the station but Matteo claimed to have been attacked by a monster and now this woman, and her husband, saw some too. There had to be at least something weird going on. He saw no reason not to believe them. "These monsters are dangerous, Polly. Wouldn't it be better if we stuck together at all times?"

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"I know you're not gonna have exactly the easiest time trying to convince the other officers of there being monsters," Polly said. "But there's no time for that. The more time we spend on something like that, the more likely something else is going to get hurt."

"Good point," Henry said.

"Get Gianna home safe and let everyone at the station know," Polly told him. Then, she was off.

NNN

Polly wasn't sure where she was going to find these monsters but she would find them. She couldn't let them hurt anyone else. She was on the rooftops, jumping from one to another.

"Hey, Jasper!" A voice made Polly stop for a moment. "We got some questions for you."

The voice didn't sound friendly. Polly looked around and saw a group of men surrounding Jasper. One of them pushed Jasper into the wall.

"Word is you're pretty close with these monsters we've been hearing so much about," The man held a knife to Jasper's neck. "Tell me what are they?"

"There are nicer ways to get someone to answer your question," Polly said as she kicked the man away from Jasper.

Jasper's eyes went wide. "Polly..."

Polly didn't hear him due to his voice being so low and her focus being on the men that had surrounded him.

"Go away freak!" The man yelled, holding his knife to Polly after getting up. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"How do we know that for sure?" Another man in the group asked. "She's a freak and now there's apparently a whole bunch of monstrous freaks going around. Who's to say they're not all working together."

As this was going on, Jasper stepped back a bit and snapped his fingers.

Before Polly could even get another word in, a pumpkin monster had jumped onto the man with the knife. Two other members of the group aimed their guns at it but were grabbed by another one who took a bite into one of them and ripped his head off with its mouth. It did the same to the other man.

"No!" Polly screamed. She ran towards the creature that just killed two. She would be grabbed by the other monster but she would spin up and kick in in the face. "Sorry, but I can't let you kill anyone else!"

The monster let out a roar and ran at Polly for a punch. The masked woman avoided the punches and gave some punches of her own. She then jumped out of the way when she saw the other monster running at her. Her getting out of the way caused both monsters to fall onto the ground after one tackled the other.

Jasper watched this. Dolly said that Polly was a really good fighter but he didn't think she'd be this good. He wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't let Polly get hurt badly, but he also couldn't tell the monsters to stop because, at least not right now, Dolly didn't want Polly to know what she was planning.

Polly took out two guns and shot at the two pumpkin monsters. It took a few shots, but both of them went down.

Jasper quickly went to leave. They had plenty more monsters and Dolly could always draw up even more. He then stopped when he noticed Polly was in front of him with her hands crossed. "How did you-"

"Those monsters," Polly said. "Where they yours?"

"W-What are you talking about?!" Jasper gave Polly a look that tried to tell her she was crazy. "I'm just a poor sap that got caught in the middle of this."

"Yeah right!" One of the remaining men from the group yelled. He and the others were coming towards them. "You killed our boss and now we gotta take care of you."

Polly stood in front of Jasper. "I think you should leave him alone. Those monsters obviously didn't like what you guys were doing." She looked around. "Who's to say there aren't more around here?"

"They would've come out after you shot the other two," A man said. "You're not fooling us!"

Polly didn't respond. Even if they had agreed to leave Jasper alone, she didn't have any intention of just letting them get away. They were criminals after all.

The next thing Jasper knew, Polly was moving quickly and knocking out each remaining member of the group. Those who did try to fight didn't last long. Jasper found himself able to look away, or even move.

When Polly was done tying the group up, she made her way back over to him, crossing her arms once again. "So your name is Jasper?"

Jasper slowly nodded his head.

"Well Jasper, I'm gonna need you to tell me everything you know about these monsters," Polly said. "They've been causing a lot of trouble."

Jasper looked as if he was having trouble getting words to come out of his mouth. He began stuttering and it didn't make any sense. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this without telling Polly what she wanted to hear.

Then, by some miracle, he was suddenly above her and being taken away.

Polly looked up as she saw a pumpkin monster with wings fly Jasper away from her.

Despite not being able to fly, Polly gave chase anyway. "Wait! Come back!"

Jasper just chuckled as he was taken away from the masked woman. They would lose her after a bit. "Thank you, Dolly."

"You're welcome," Dolly said. She was next to him on the back of another flying monster.

Jasper gave her a look of surprise. "Wait, you're here? But how? You were watching me?"

"Well not you," Dolly said. "I was watching Polly and seeing how she was doing."

"Well, she's onto us," Jasper said. "That was a close one. Couldn't you have gotten me out of there faster?"

"How was I supposed to know she'd make such quick work of those creeps?" Dolly responded.

"So what's the plan now? I'm guessing you're still not gonna tell her yet?" Jasper asked.

"Not yet," Dolly said. "What I need right now is for you to lay low for a bit. She's seen a couple of the monsters. That means she won't stop looking. You need to not be seen by her until she's on our side."

"How are you going to get her on your side?" Jasper asked. "And what if other criminals start getting the idea they can run things with us laying low?"

"We'll still be taking care of that," Dolly said. "Just need to be more careful for now. What I need to do is get Polly to see just how rotten the creatures she tries to protect are. And I've got the perfect plan for that."