Jessie, James, and Meowth, having delivered Ash’s Pikachu directly to the Boss now had no idea what to do.
“What do you think we should do James?” Jessie asked.
“I don’t know,” James replied, “We’ve been following that twerp’s Pikachu for so many years I haven’t got a clue where to go for more Pokémon. Do you have any plan Meowth?”
“Nope,” the cat Pokémon sighed.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice began behind the trio.
Jessie turned around. “Cassidy!” she growled, “What do you want?”
“Well, Butch and I heard you’ve just brought in a Pokémon,” Cassidy laughed, “What is that? Your first successful capture in years?”
“Four years actually,” Meowth declared, sounding almost proud.
“Four years!?” Cassidy cackled, “You three most be the biggest los..”
An announcement from the speaker above her head cut her off. The voice coming out sounded as if it was coming from a young adolescent boy, occasionally changing in pitch.
“Will Jessie, James, and Meowth please report to the Assignment Center straight away,” it said, “Jessie, James, and Meowth.”
“Assignment Center?” James looked at his colleagues with a more confused than usual expression on his face. Jessie and Meowth returned his look, shrugging their shoulders.
Cassidy laughed again, and pointed in the direction of the AC, tears of laughter running down her face. “You three are pathetic!! The AC’s been in use for new missions for the last year! It’s for Rockets that seem unsuccessful when left to do their own thing. Only the worst members go there!”
With three sighs, Jessie, James, and Meowth walked solemnly to the Assignment Center and entered. To their surprise, the voice from the speaker did belong to a very young looking man, dressed in a suit. Nervously, he put out his hand to Jessie, but she pushed it away.
“Just tell us what you want us to do,” she said angrily.
“Right,” the man said, obviously terrified and avoiding eye contact. “We want you to go to Donoubt Caves, that’s 20 miles south west from here, to get something for us.”
“Mmm…donut caves…” James fantasized.
“No, Donoubt Caves,” the man corrected James, although he soon wished he hadn’t when he saw the look Jessie gave him.
“What do ya want us to get?” Meowth questioned. “Some Pokémon fossils or something?”
“Well,” the man said, looking more afraid than ever. “One of our Rocket members left a camera there…”
“And you want us to take pictures of the rare Pokémon in the cave?” Jessie asked.
“No, not exactly,” the man replied, white with fear. “We want you… We want you to bring the camera back.”
“BRING THE CAMERA BACK?!?!” Jessie screamed at him, her fist raised as if she was about to punch the poor young man.
“I’m sorry!” he cried, waving a piece of paper at her. “Your...your mission statement, maybe if you do well on this you’ll get a better job next time.” He began looking through over sheets of paper. “See? Look, getting a pizza for the Boss, cleaning the bathrooms. There are loads of other jobs!”
Jessie snatched their mission statement and stormed out of the room, heading towards the exit of the headquarters.
“Wait up Jessie!” James called, running after her to catch up.

“How sweet,” the large scientist said sarcastically, looking down at the Pikachu on the table, now asleep after being injected. The scientist removed the needle from the Pokémon’s arm, tiny in comparison to his. He walked to the other side of the room again and returned with a spherical object. “Now then, ULTRA BALL GO!!!”
He threw the ball at the sleeping Pikachu, which turned into a mass of red light, before disappearing inside. “Excellent,” the scientist said, picked the ball up again. “Soon it’s strength will be tested, to see if it’s worthy of Giovanni.”

Back outside, Jessie, James, and Meowth had climbed into their Meowth-head balloon and were floating towards the caves. Jessie’s attitude seemed to have improved.
“Now James,” she smiled. “Your Victreebel…”
James had nearly forgotten about his loss after all the event in the AC, and the corners of his mouth instantly dropped.
“After we’ve got this stupid camera,” Jessie told him, “We’ll go back to Pallet Town and pick it up.”
“OK then,” James sighed, looking slightly happier.
About thirty minutes later, a large rocky area came into view.
“Dat must be the caves,” Meowth noted. “Dere much bigger dan I thought dey’d be.”
“Yeah,” James agreed, staring at the vast amount of caves in front of him.
“We’ll have to split up if we ever want to find that camera,” Jessie told them. “Let’s go!”
The balloon landed in front of what appeared to be the entrance to the caves. The trio approached and discovered that the path inside forked in two directions.
“I’ll go this way,” Jessie said, walking to the right.
“And I’ll go this way,” James said, taking the other direction.
“I’ll go wit you Jimmy,” Meowth decided, walking after James.
All three entered the cave, and disappeared from site.
“It’s rather dark in here Meowth,” James said, squinting in the darkness looking for the camera. “I hope we find it soon so we can get out of here.”
“I’ll go in front,” Meowth thought out loud, “Cat Pokémon have better eyesight dan you humans.”
“All right,” James agreed, although still desperately searching for the camera. Just then, something appeared just behind James’ head. It gave a short cry, and then glided upwards towards the roof of the cave. “Why did you just touch my hair Meowth?”
“I didn’t,” Meowth’s voice told him from several metres in front.
James let out a shrill whine and started walking much faster to catch up with Meowth.
“Then what just touched me?” James cried, worried.
“You’re just imagining t’ings Jimmy!” Meowth reassured, continuing to search for the camera.
James looked around again nervously, and again drifted away from Meowth. The “thing” took this opportunity, and glided back down in front of him.
“Misdre!” it cried, giving a costly green smile to the poor Rocket member. Terrified, James screamed, and began to run back to the entrance of the cave.
“JESSIE!!!”, he screamed, “JESSIE, IT’S AFTER ME!!!”
As he neared the original fork he heard another scream, not his own, nor Meowth’s. It was Jessie. With a nervous glance behind him to make sure the ghost wasn’t following him, James forgot his own problems and ran in the direction of the Jessie’s cries.
Soon he found her, sprawled on the floor, the camera in her hands, and staring forward in terror. James followed her gaze, and saw her Pokémon Arbok and Wobbuffet unconscious on the cave floor, at the feet of a giant Tyranitar. Letting out a loud squeal, James removed his only remaining Pokéball, and released Weezing.
“I’ll save you, Jessie!” he exclaimed, staring intently at the dark Pokémon. “Weezing, sludge attack!”
The Pokémon obeyed, and shot a large amount of dark purple goo at the Tyranitar, which shook it off, and continued to advance on Jessie and James.
“Err..tackle?” James murmured, looking worried. Again, Weezing attacked, but bounced right off the Tyranitar. This time, however, the dark Pokémon, and shot a devastating hyper beam right at James’ Pokémon. Weezing was blasted across the cave, and landed next to Jessie, knocked out.
“What are we going to do now James?” she cried.
“I don’t know Jessie!” James sobbed, hurriedly dropping to the floor and hugging her with fear. “Meowth is probably too far away to help us now.”
“Well, we’ll just have to try,” Jessie decided.
“HELP!!!!!” they both cried together.
The Tyranitar got closer and closer, creating more and more fear in Jessie and James with each step. Accepting their immanent death, the two began to say their goodbyes.
“It was very brave of you to come to my rescue me James,” Jessie told him.
“Well,” he replied, blushing, “It was the least I could do. Jessie, there’s something I should have told you a long time ago. I..I..”
“Yes James?” Jessie said quickly, hoping he was about to say what she thought.
“I, I lo-” he began, but stopped and pointed at the gaseous, dark green object that suddenly appeared in front of them. “What is that?”
“Huh?” Jessie said, shaken from her dream of what would follow James’ declaration. “I don’t know.”
It glided up to the Tyranitar, which stopped, and glared angrily at the little Pokémon. A rainbow-coloured ball began to form around the little ghost Pokémon, and suddenly, it shot a beautiful beam at the giant Tyranitar. To Jessie and James’ surprise, the Tyranitar covered its eyes, and ran away heavily in the opposite direction. The little ghost Pokémon continued to watch until the Tyranitar was out of sight, before gliding down to James’ eye level.
“Th..th.thank you,” James said nervously, cowering as if he expected it to attack him next.
The little Pokémon’s eyes lit up happily, and it licked his shivering face. “Misdreavus!” it cried.
“Misdreavus?,” Jessie thought out loud. “I haven’t heard of that Pokémon before.” She drifted off into her own thoughts, not noticing the Pokémon continuing to lick James happily, and snuggling up to him. “If we could catch it, I’m sure the Boss would love it. What do you think James?” She looked at him.
“No way,” he beamed, “I’m going to keep it!”
“WHAT?!” she shouted, getting to her feet angrily. But then she remembered, how sad James had been when he lost Victreebel, and began to wonder again what he was about to say before the Misdreavus had appeared.
“Ok,” she smiled, and offered her hand to him to help him get up. James smiled in return, took her hand, and pulled himself up.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
“Right,” Jessie agreed. “But what about Meowth?”
“Misdreavus could look for him,” James thought, “Would you do that Missy?”
The ghost Pokémon nodded happily, licked James’ cheek yet again, and then disappeared through the wall behind them.
It was then that Jessie noticed that James had not let go of her hand. She squeezed it tightly for a second, and smiled at him happily. James smiled too, and nodded, as if confirming her thoughts. Still neither let go, and that walked silently out of the cave, and climbed into the balloon.
Soon, Misdreavus and Meowth emerged from the cave entrance.
“Hey Jim,” Meowth said, climbing into the balloon. “Dis here Misdreavus says you haven’t actually got it yet. I would do that now if I was you.”
“Right,” James said, picking up an empty Pokéball from a small box in a corner of the balloon basket. “Pokéball go!” He through the ball, and it bounced off of the Misdreavus’ flowing gas hair, and the Pokémon disappeared happily inside. “Welcome to the Team, Missy.”
“Now, let’s get back to da Boss!” Meowth said, looking at the sun setting over the cave. “You guys have got da camera, right?”
“Of course,” Jessie told him sharply. She looked at Meowth, who was now looking at their hands, still together, with an amused smile on his face.
She let go quickly, blushing red, and used her now free hand to raise the balloon into the air. Slowly, the balloon floated across the sky in the direction of the Team Rocket HQ.

Back at the HQ, the butch scientist was in Giovanni’s office.
“Sir,” he said, looking startled. “This is the most remarkable Pikachu I have ever seen. It’s powers are far greater than a normal Pikachu, and would be a valuable in any collection.”
“I am not a collector,” Giovanni told him, dryly, “Does it obey well? It would be no use in an army for a crime organisation if it doesn’t obey.”
“Well, sir,” the scientist continued, his voice far less aggressive than when he spoke to inferior agents. “We’re still working on its obedience. It should be ready in about a week...”
“A week!?” Giovanni bellowed, slamming his hands down on his desk. “You have the most advanced Pokémon catching technology money can buy, and it’s going to take you a week? I want it ready in three days. I have something planned. Three days, and no longer. Get out!”
“Yes sir!” the scientist said, looking terrified. He practically ran to the door, and let himself out quickly, slamming the door behind him.

To be continued…