A Girl’s Best Friend
Part 5

Chapter 11 - Alliance

"How dare they!" screamed Jessie, shaking her fist towards the door where their mortal enemies, Cassidy and Butch, had just made their get away with Pikapuff.

"Pikapuff!" shouted James, as he ran out the door, "Pikapuff!"

Jessie grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back in doors.

"That’s not going to help, we have to come up with a plan."

James sat on the floor crossed legged and cried.

"JAMES!"

Whack!

"Ooowwwww." Whined James, rubbing his head.

"Stop whining and let’s think of a rescue plan."

James stopped crying at stood up again.

"Let’s think of the best plan ever." He said enthusiastically.

"Yeah! This’ll teach them to mess with Jessie and James from Team Rocket!"

They stood there smiling triumphantly when Meowth interrupted

"Umm…so…what’s da plan?"

Jessie and James looked at each other and sweat dropped. They had no idea.

"Well, ummm, we could…"

"Hey! What are you three up to this time?!"

Jessie, James and Meowth turned to the broken window to see the familiar faces of three twerps and a Pikachu staring at them.

"Hey! Get out of here!" screamed Jessie, "We haven’t got time for you three twer…"

"…Hey wait Jess, maybe they can help us?"

Jessie looked at him as if he had said he had taught Victreebel how not to eat his head.

"WHAT!? The TWERPS? Help US?"

James looked at her pleadingly.

"Well we can’t get Pikapuff back with just the three of us."

Jessie stared at him sternly, then sighed. He was right of course; they couldn’t do it on their own.

"Oh all right." She mumbled.

She turned back to Ash and co and decided to tell them what had happened.

"Hey, you three all care very deeply about pokèmon don’t you?"

"Of course we do!" shouted Ash

"Don’t you shout at me you little…"

"…Hey Jess calm down."

James put his hand on her shoulder and she calmed down. She smiled back at Ash.

"Well then. We need a little favour of you."

"Why would we do anything for you?" shouted Misty.

"Quiet brat!"

She turned back to Ash.

"You’ve heard of that rare pokèmon Pikapuff haven’t you?"

"Yeah, I heard about it on the TV, I was gonna try and capture it, but I couldn’t find in the City, so we came looking out here. But instead we found you three." Said Ash

"Team Rocket scientist had created it, or something like that." Said Brock

"The last I heard it had escaped" said Misty, "Luckily for it."

Jessie scowled at her.

"Well, James has that Pikapuff, but our boss had some other rocket’s take it from us." Jessie sighed; she couldn’t believe she was going to ask this. "Well, we need your help to get it back."

"Yeah right!" said Misty, "Like James would ever get that Pikapuff!" James scowled at her.

"Well for your information Missy I DO have that Pikapuff. It came up to me when I was in prison and it wanted to stay with me."

"Oh yeah, " realised Brock, "How did you guys get of there anyway?"

"Never you mind." Said Jessie, "Are you gonna help us or not?"

"Why should we?" said Ash

"Because you love pokèmon, and if the boss gets his hands on that Pikapuff, then you can kiss that rare pokèmon goodbye."

Ash gasped, then turned to Brock.

"What do you think Brock, should we help them?"

"I don’t know. They may be Team Rocket, but a pokèmon IS in trouble."

Ash turned to Misty. Misty was looking carefully at James who was staring at the door with a worried look on his face.

"You know, I think they’re telling the truth."

James turned back to look at Misty. His eyes told her that he was generally concerned.

"I think we should help Ash." Misty said.

"You know, I think I agree." Said Brock

"What do you think Pikachu?" asked Ash, looking up to Pikachu sitting on his shoulder.

"Pika pika, Pikachu." It smiled.

"Haha, I’ll take that as a yes." Replied Ash, "Okay, we’ll help."

"Good, come inside. But remember, this is only a temporary alliance until that pokèmon is back safely got it?" Said Jessie.

"Definatly."

Ash and co walked round to the door and went inside. When they got in, the saw the mess on the floor.

"Whoa, what happened here?" asked Brock

"This is what it was like when we came back here." Replied James.

"Totally ruined." Said Jessie

"Da Pokemon were found tied up in da closet over dere."

"And Pikapuff is missing!" wailed James, who sat back on the floor and burst into tears.

"James!"

James quickly stopped crying before he got whacked on the head again.

"Well then. What’s the plan for getting Pikapuff back?" asked Misty.

James and Jessie sweat dropped and nervously smiled at them.

"Well, we were kind of hoping that…" started Jessie

"…You could make one?" finished James.

The Twerps sighed and Pikachu fell off Ash’s shoulder.

"Oohhh." Sighed Misty, "Well, you can at least tell us where Pikapuff would have been taken."

"It woulda been taken ta our Boss in Viridian City." Said Meowth

"Great, well you can tell us about what’s happened on the way there, come on." Said Brock, heading back towards the door, followed by Ash and Misty. "We can use your Jeep to get there."

"Hey wait!" the three Rocket’s chorused. They returned their pokèmon to their pokèball’s and ran out the door towards their Jeep.

Chapter 12: Tyre Talk

The Jeep ground to a halt outside the Charachi City Hideout, and Josie and Dalel climbed out.

"What on Earth happened in here?!" exclaimed Josie, as she and Dalel walked into the hideout.

Careful not to step on any broken glass, Dalel went over to their cupboard and pulled out two duffel bags.

"At least out stuffs still here." He said, handing one of the bags to Josie.

"I wonder if the Boss…ex-Boss…knows about this."

As if on cue, the Video Phone started ringing.

Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-phone call-phone call

Josie and Dalel walked over to it and pressed the on button. There on the screen sat Giovanni patting his Persian.

"Sir!?" chorused Josie and Dalel.

"I’m s, s, sorry sir, we were, were just leaving, we didn’t mean to…"

"Quiet! I need you two to come back down the Viridian City."

Josie and Dalel looked at each other quizzically.

"But sir, I though you fired us."

"Yes I did, but I need you back here, meet me in the Viridian Gym. You are not being re-assigned; I just…need you for something, just for a while, especially you Josephine. Be here as soon as possible."

Then screen went blank and Josie and Dalel stood there blankly.

"Well, I guess we’ve got to go all the way back again I suppose." Said Dalel.

"You know it’s really scary how he knew we were here."

"Ha, yeah." Chuckled Dalel; "Well that’s Giovanni for you."

They picked up their bags and went back outside into their Jeep, driving all the way back to Viridian City.

Meanwhile, half way to Viridian City….

"This is defiantly not a good day." Whined James, as he got a spare tyre from the back of the Jeep while Jessie struggled to remove the busted wheel.

Jessie tugged at the wheel cursing under her breath.

"Come on you two, we’ve gotta get the Viridian and save this Pikapuff." Said Ash.

Jessie snapped her head around and eyed daggers at him.

"Well you’re not exactly helping by standing there staring into space you know!" she screamed.

She fell back into Brock as the wheel came flying off. She quickly got up brushed the dirt of her skirt.

"Hey, remember Team Rocket, you asked US for help!" Misty screamed right back.

Jessie huffed and walked over to James who was putting the spare wheel on.

"Are you done yet James?"

"Does it look like I’m done to you?" he snapped. He softened his voice. "I’m sorry Jess, it’s just, I’m really worried about Pikapuff, and with those twerps whining all the time doesn’t help I just…"

"…I know James."

Jessie put her hand on his shoulder. James peered up at her and smiled softly.

"Don’t worry James, we’ll get it back. I’m sorry for snapping at you, it isn’t your fault."

James felt like his mouth was hanging wide open. Apologising? Jessie? Being nice? These things had never been mixed with Jessie before.

‘I cannot believe what I’m doing.’ Thought Jessie, ‘This is nothing like me.’

But as she looked down at James, she saw something reflected in herself that she had seen in him many a time before. Love. Whether it was love for a pokèmon, love for a possession, or even a person. She smiled at him again and turned around, only to see Ash and Misty making kissing noises at her pointing at James.

"Kissy Kissy." They giggled.

Jessie growled under her breath and whacked them hard on the head with her mallet…which shut them up of course. James turned around to see what was happening, only to see Jessie blush bright red. Seeing James looking at her, and the Twerps giggling, Jessie blushed even more went around the other side of the Jeep to get some makeup from her bag. She had nothing else to do; she might as well make herself look more beautiful.

"So Misty, "stared Ash, "How about a battle to pass the time?"

"Ha, your on Ash, don’t think you’ll win though."

"Haha, I’m the one with 8 Pokemon league badges, as well as the four Orange leagues badges AND trophy, and now I have one Johto League badge too! Who do you thinks gonna win?! Hahahaha!"

An anger mark appeared on Misty’s forehead, "Arggh, I’ll show you Ash Ketcham!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Misty and Ash were cut short as an ear-piercing screech was heard from Jessie.

"What?! What is it?!" shouted James, jumping up from the ground and looking around. He saw Jessie staring into her pocket mirror.

"AHHHH! My lipstick smuged!"

Everyone fell over anime style. Meowth decided the give her a little taste of his claws.

"Don’t scare us like dat!"

Suddenly, they all heard a rumble coming down the road. Looking at the road, they could see a cloud of dust coming down. The cloud of dust speed past them, making all of them cough with the dust.

"Who, was that?" coughed Jessie

"I don’t know, whoever they were, they were, certainly in a rush." Coughed James.

"I think I saw a red R on the side." Said Brock.

"A red R?" said Ash

"Must be one of you Team Rocket people." Said Misty.

"Just because something has a red R on the side doesn’t mean it’s from Team Rocket." Defended Jessie.

"Ha! How many Jeeps are you gonna find with a big red R painted on the side?!" said Misty

"She has a point there Jess."

Despite Jessie’s earlier kindness towards James, she stared back at him.

"I thought you had work to do!"

James sighed; he knew it was to good to be true. After a few more minutes, the wheel was securely on, and everyone piled back in to the Jeep, James driving.

"Remember James, this time, don’t rely on Meowth to watch the road."

James ignored her and started the engine.

To be continued…