Jessie and James just stood stock still in front of their boss, Team Rocket members all around them. None of them looked happy, all angry, some malicious, but one thing remained the same. They were all armed.

Jessie still had her Team Rocket uniform on, a little disheveled from being yanked out of her room. James on the other hand was halfway into his shirt, one sleeve empty and his hand sticking out of the bottom of his shirt, holding one of his boots. He didn't have his gloves on either, making him look all the more ridiculous than his partner.

"It's not our fault, boss. It was Ash and his stupid friends....and we weren't given any Pokemon to aid Weezing and Arbok in battle." Jessie interjected.

"Shut up! I you saying I'm to blame, Jessica?! You're lucky you even got into Team Rocket, if it hadn't been for me, you'd still be worthless flunkies with shoe prints on your rears from Pokemon Tech.. That's why I am firing the both of you, effective immediately! Butch and Cassidy had better results than you two losers!" he shouted, rising from his chair so swiftly, his Persian even jumped away.

"Meaning?" James squeaked at last, his emerald green eyes getting wide as they moved from each member's weapons

"We can't afford you morons telling the authorities about where we are and all of our members' identities. And I don't feel like paying for lifetime imprisonment for the both of you, so I'd rather we just shoot you and make it easy for the team."

"Shoot us?! Boss! Come on, give us a break! Please!" they screamed, both cowering and shooting their sights at all the guns.

"You didn't let me finish. Listen up cause I will only say this once. I'm a reasonable man, so I will give you one more chance. My sources located an island near Sunnytown a while back, with some rare and common Pokemon. I know you aren't familiar with it, but neither is anyone else. Clouded in fog and surrounded by deadly reefs. A no name place, simply because no one wants to bother taking risks. It has some ruins scattered about the place, nothing that hasn't been ransacked by my team already. A very private place."

"You wanted us to get you some Pokemon from there. Then we can live, right?" Jessie asked, her hands clinging together tightly. Giovanni nodded, sitting back down and petting his Persian as it slunk back to his feet.

"No, one of you gets to live. You two have been working together for a while and I still get no results. One of you has to go....the hard way. Whoever brings the best Pokemon back to the shore they were left on within 24 hours. If you fail to catch anything, well, I'll be short two bullets. Any questions?" he asked, his eyes suddenly bored.

"When do we leave?" Jessie piped, James nodding after he pulled his arm through his sleeve.

"Right now. Butch! Take James to the western shore. Cassidy! Jessie goes to the Eastern Shore. Wait there until they come back or the 24 hours runs down. We'll fetch whoever fails. Oh, you can only bring Weezing and Arbok, I don't want you to have too much defending you if either of you gets a thought about cutting out before your time is up. Get them out of my sight. 24 hours, you've got watches like everyone else, I'd keep my eye on it if I were you." Giovanni ordered, the clicking of guns echoing throughout the large room.

He gave a look of dismay as they were taken out, James jamming on his boot and falling on his face as he left. Butch groaned and grabbed him up by his pants, dragging the lavender blue-haired young man out the door behind the women.

"I can just hear those two shell casings hit the pavement." Giovanni sighed, then began laughing, his disciples soon joining him.

"Just my luck. All I have is my Weezing, and not a bit of food since this morning. These stupid trees don't have anything but flowers on them, no fruit, no nuts. How can the Pokemon stand such torture? Ten hours already and I'm going crazy!" James groaned, now with his shirt tied about his head.

The sun was killing him. Even Sunnytown wasn't this hot, but this island was covered with tropical trees and warm soil. His feet were starting to cook with each agonizing step.

Food and heat was all he was complaining about now, but not as much as he would normally. His life and Jessie's were on the line, complaining would only waste time and it was running out. He hadn't seen any of these Pokemon Giovanni had been talking about, but he didn't doubt their existence.

He stubbed his toe on a rock as he tried to increase his pace, steadying himself on one of the trees. He waited a moment, then started laughing. He'd been expecting Jessie to call him a klutz, that he was slowing them down, but it never came.

"Hah, forgot Jessie isn't here. One good thing about being alone is no one can yell at me," he chuckled to himself, starting to jog away from the area," Shut up, James and move faster. Your necks are on the slab for real now. Nothing's gonna stop me. Nothing...."

He'd made good progress through the tropical forest, sadly without a single encounter with any Pokemon. James was tempted to complain, but held it in. He was the only one who would hear it, so there was no point. He could say it in his head as easily as breathing.

He kept moving, the sky growing darker as night came into full bloom, the flowers in the trees closed and dripping with moisture. Tiny drops of it fell onto James' head, soaking into his shirt and hair. The night was hot nonetheless, more then James could stand. The shirt he wore under his Team Rocket uniform was black and sleeveless, nothing extravagant or stylish, but it showed off his slim arms.

James didn't normally show his arms to anyone unless the disguise he wore forced him too. He sighed at the thought, and went on."Too embarrassed about your tiny muscles, you coward. I can't even become head of Team Rocket now, they'll kill Jessie either way. We've been together since Pokemon Technical, this won't be the end of Jessie and James," he griped, pushing some vines aside," We're only 18, this is no time for dying. Not by a long shot, Giovanni. You're cracked if you think we're going to go down quietly."

"All right!" a voice shouted, the loud titter of birds and their flapping wings filling the air. James knew it all to well. He'd been with Jessie a long time, he couldn't fathom what kind of friend he would be if he'd forgotten her voice. "Hmm, she must have found some Pokemon. Hey, if she found some, there must be some where she is. Yes! James is blasting off to fame!" he said happily, starting to run towards Jessie's happy cries.

It didn't take him a long time to find her running away from some ruins, but she wasn't headed in his direction. She was headed east, back towards where she was dropped off. She had Arbok slithering closely after her, hissing its name repeatedly as it tried to keep up with her. There was also a Pokeball in her hand, her laughter and self-cheering glittering about her body.

"I did it! I'm not gonna die! I'm not gonna die! Yes! I'm gonna live! Yaaah hooo!!!!" she shouted, jumping up and down before she disappeared through the darkened forest, Arbok following her lead steadily. Soon, her voice was but a whisper, getting fainter and fainter the longer he stood in the brush, then nothing.

"She....but we agreed, we'd always help each other. Why? Why didn't she call out to me....we're partners....aren't we?" he said quietly, stepping out at last.

He looked at the ruins a moment, then at where Jessie had been headed, then back again. "Maybe she was just excited to catch one here. That must be it, she got excited and forgot. There's probably plenty of Pokemon in there....but....if I catch a better Pokemon....They'll shoot Jessie and if I don't, I get shot. God, what am I gonna do? I don't want to die, but I don't want Jessie to die either. Oh, James, just go in there and look. Maybe Giovanni overlooked something, something worth sparing both our lives....I hope." He assured himself, walking towards the crumbling ruins of what looked like a temple.

The light was poor inside, but it was nothing he couldn't handle, or the things he'd smuggled in his shirt before Butch had taken him to the island. He pulled out a pack of matches he'd taped to the inside of his shirt and pulled a branch off one of the nearby trees. He tore some of the fabric away from his black shirt and tied it round the end of the branch, then lit it.

James went inside the old temple slowly, the torch in front of him, his keen eyes peering through the silent shadows.

The inside was pretty filthy, littered with pieces of shatteredstone, weeds from beneath the stone floors strangling the ancient walls with their vines and dust covered roots. James leapt up as a few stones fell to the floor, grabbing his chest with his free hand.

"Stupid, you'd think everything is out to get you. Heh, I'd be surprised though if that happened. Giovanni wouldn't waste over a dollar to get me. Why does he have to kill one of us anyway? To test our loyalty? Or is this just some sadistic game he likes to play? Ah, I never would have joined if this is my retirement plan." He said harshly, continuing on his way through the shadowy maze.

Several twists and turns greeted him as he explored the place, the hours going by with them. He knew his time was up by now and Jessie and Cassidy were probably back at headquarters.

Jessie.

James sighed loudly. Plowing on with his head slowly lowering. He had never thought it would have ended like this, that he would have been handed such a lousy hand in life. If he'd known his luck was going to be this poor for 18 years, he would have gladly jumped off a cliff and saved himself a life of misery and humiliation in those last ten seconds.

Still, James couldn't turn back the clock and get back those wasted years, he couldn't change Giovanni's mind either. Once that man had his mind set about something, there was no making him think otherwise.

"I hate you, Giovanni. No, you didn't make me this way, stupidity did. Believing get rich quick schemes and all those petty thefts would pay off....I was a fool to believe I'd get anything out of Team Rocket. Giovanni would have gotten all the glory and money and me and Jessie would have went on getting a check each month. Argh! I hate my life. I hate it I hate I h...." he screamed, then a rumbling interrupted him. His whole body was taken in by the shaking, the pebbles and rocks on the temple floor bouncing around like jumping beans.

Soon, the floor started to give way, crumbling under his feet. "Oh dear." He yelped, screaming as his body fell into the darkness below him for what seemed like an eternity. James clawed and kicked as he went spiraling down into the seemingly endless abyss, desperate to stop his decent.

His stomach started to swish inward, toiling with sickness, his eyes welling up with dirt and tears, the cold air stinging at his face. James went on screaming, his lungs ready to burst, until he saw a river far below him, rolling and crashing violently in its underground sanctuary. He gulped in all the breath his sore lungs could take, slamming his moth and eyes shut as he slammed into the raging underground river.

James' head hurt as he woke up. His feet itched and his body was flooded with soreness. As he tried to reach for them, his hands stopped short. He tried to move his legs, but they wouldn't budge either.

'Open your eyes, dummy. Open them!' he mentally urged himself. His eyes struggled to open, tight with a burning pain, breaking open at last to a blinding light. Then his eyes adjusted to it after a few moments, his vision clearing steadily.

At first he thought he was dead, the sparkling light showering above him on silvery wings. The more he stared at it, the less he started believing he'd passed on. The glowing, winged thing began to fly down towards him, sparkles of light surrounding it like some surreal halo.

Soon it was hovering directly above him, a golden bird with long, flowing plumes of tail feathers, arching its thin head at him. He'd seen pictures of this creature in Pokemon Centers, derived from ancient tablets found in ruins like the one he was trapped in. There was no given name for it, no one had ever caught one, only seen by people in ancient times and etched into stone. He'd never thought he'd be so lucky as to see such a marvel of the Pokemon species in his lifetime.

James was so in awe of the creature, he didn't notice other creatures milling about him. All he could do was smile at the sparkling bird and stare. Then he felt a pinch in his wrists and ankles. He yelped as the pinching grew more intense, forcing his sore head to turn from side to side to see what was hurting him.

It was a group of other Pokemon, common ones like a few Charmanders, a Krabby and a couple of Clefairies, all tightening the ropes that bound him to a stone table. It was pretty shabby looking from what he could see, the corners broken off and crumbling still, cracks on the top and the floors about it.

He looked back at the Pokemon, who were no longer touching him, only watching him with tired eyes. Normally these species would have looked more adorable and vibrant, but they weren't. All of the Charmanders were dirty and hungry looking, very weak, the flames on their tails nearly going out with every small breath. The Krabby's shell was a bit cracked and worn, as were its claws. Its legs look like they were about to give way any second, shaking and clattering rapidly to keep its body up.

The Clefairies looked even worse, dirt spattered and old looking, bags under their tiny black eyes. He had to bet they'd never seen a Pokemon Center in ages, or anything else for that matter. He knew wild Pokemon could take care of themselves if they were in the right environment and with their own kind, but these poor creatures were far below the surface, the river probably their only source of nutrition. They were out of their element, nothing to help them evolve or get stronger, just the river, dust and these ruins. He was surprised they hadn't died long before now.

"Char....Charmander, Cha, Char, Char." One of the Charmanders spouted, in a small voice. The voice wasn't bouncy or cute like James remembered Ash's was. It was hoarse and grating, as if from disuse, and he saw that a few of it's teeth were missing as it spoke.

He didn't know what it said. James had never raised a Charmander, only his Weezing and Victreebell. All he could do was lay there and listen, turning his head back to the sparkling bird as it flew back up high to the ceiling, chirping out a beautiful melody as the other Pokemon started to talk.

It was almost like a whispered chant, none of which he could understand. He was human, not Pokemon, it took a while to understand each Pokemon you had and all he could understand was his own, not these.

The chanting went on, and the sparkling from the great bird started to fill the room with a gentle blue shine. Then the table he was on started to match the color, shining a light back up to the bird.

'I am so dead. Their gonna vaporize me....no, they're cooking me, that's why they look so hungry. I'm dinner! Stupid, stupid, stupid! James, why do you always get into these messes?! This is one I'm not getting out of. Oh God, no!' his mind screamed.

"NO! Stop it, please! Leave me alone! Uh....I taste terrible! Trust me, even a Victreebell spit me out and they have great taste. Please! I'd rather be shot than eaten!!" he screamed out, but the creatures went on chanting, their voices starting to rise and echo throughout the room.

His ears hurt now, his chest burned, infecting body like a virus. Soon he could no longer move, his voice was lost to him, the pain taking him over. The great sparkling blueness filled his senses once more, the form of the great bird and other Pokemon melding in with it, their voices becoming one. The languages merged in his head, his chest getting hotter and hotter, his mind spinning. He forced himself to take it, not to give up.

Jessie........why???????????

Jessie and Cassidy stood stiffly in the speedboat, Jessie grinning smugly at her frowning driver. "I told you I could do it, you bimbo. Never underestimate my abilities again, Cassidy. Now you know I'm the best, not to mention the most beautiful. Hahahahahahaaaa." Jessie bragged, shoving her Pokeball repeatedly in Cassidy's frowning face.

"So what piece of trash Pokemon did you manage to sneak up on anyway, Jessica? Something weak and worthless I bet." Cassidy hissed out through gritted teeth.

"Hah, you wish. I got myself a Charmander. Stupid, sure they are, but they are stronger than that ball of hair you call your Pokemon. Giovanni will have to let me live now." Jessie shot back, unfazed by her remarks.

"So I guess you decided to ditch your idiot partner at last, eh Jessie? Knowing him, he couldn't catch a Caterpie if the thing was sleeping out in the open. Glad you decided thinking about number one, even if he aged you more than you let on." Cassidy snickered.

"Uh....yeah, well how much time is left anyway for him? I won't have to watch him....well, you know, get fired or anything? I don't dig that kind of stuff like you weirdoes do."

"Feeling a bit guilty, Jessica? Hmm? Doesn't matter, times been up for about six hours and Butch radioed me that he never came back. Second we get back to headquarters, Giovanni will send a few members to get him. They'll leave him there, nice and quiet, no mess, no pain. He'll never know he died. We still have to waste more time to track him down and get....heh, heh, fired, but its well worth it to get rid of one stooge today. Doesn't that sound nice, Jessie dear?" Cassidy cackled.

"Yeah, we'll see, Cassie. We'll see, don't underestimate him. We are both dedicated to this group equally. He might have found a Charmander too and couldn't make it back in time. Giovanni can't kill us both if we have the same thing." Jessie said, a little too quickly.

"No, then we'll bring you there and you two can battle. Whoever wins, heh, lives. And then the loser breathes their last. Trust me, kid, only one of you gets to live. No matter what."

Jessie looked at her sternly and started to say something, when she heard a loud explosion, the sky filling with light that shot far ahead of them.

Jessie whipped her body around, gasping harshly. "The island! Its....It's...."

"It exploded, Jessie. From the middle by looking at it, what a mushroom cloud!" Cassidy shouted.

Jessie looked back at her, seeing she was still looking at the decimated island, a puzzled expression on her face. "What is it? Did Giovanni house explosives there?"

"No, he just went there for vacations, a safe haven for him if Team Rocket were ever infiltrated. No one knew about the island, so he had no need for explosives there. And even if he did, there would have to be a million flash bombs and grenades to make a mushroom cloud at all. A warhead maybe, but he had no access to nuclear weapons. Well, not yet anyway." Cassidy sped on, pushing the boat's throttle up. She slapped the radio in Jessie's hand as the boat picked up speed, almost flying over the water like a rocket.

"Get the boss on the horn. Tell him what happened. Now!" Cassidy ordered.

Jessie nodded quickly and fiddled with the frequency dial for a moment. "Boss, come in please. This is Jessie, there has been an explosion on the island. Over." She rang out, then after a few moments, Giovanni's voice came across the radio.

"Explosion? There are no explosives on the island. Are you sure? What does it look like? Over." he demanded.

"A mushroom cloud, sir. Something on the island caused a massive explosion in the heart of the island, we don't know what. It just happened, but it only on the island. Over." She told him.

There was a long pause before Giovanni said anything, so long that Jessie began to think he'd hung up after a while.

She jumped with a start as his voice came out again. "Is James with Butch? Over."

"Uh, no....sir. He never made it back to the boat on time. Butch is on his way back to headquarters. James....was still on the island. What should we do? Over." she asked quietly.

"All of you are to come back to headquarters immediately. I will send a team back to the island to search for him now. If he's alive....it won't be for long. Over and out."

"But sir!...Tsk, darn, he cut me off. Now what?" Jessie groaned.

"Now we do as we were told. Back to headquarters, back to work." Cassidy snapped.

Jessie had no choice but to comply, slumping down on the floor of the boat, staring out at the still smoking island, growing smaller and smaller as they whisked across the calm seas.

Jessie had been in her quarters on the bed staring at a photo of her, James and Meowth smiling together on her nightstand when Giovanni came to see her. He had a small cardboard box in his hands. "Did they shoot him already? Is that what you came to tell me?" she said calmly, holding back a sniffle.

"No. We couldn't find a his body. But....we found this." He offered, reaching into the box and pulled out a torn, charred shirt with a red "R" plastered on it. It was burnt terribly, but a few bits of its white fabric still showed. There was blood encrusted on the sleeves, torn and shredded beyond belief.

"The team found it floating in a small river, very close to the where the explosion came from. He saved us the trouble of killing him....but the island has been ruined because of it. He was probably vaporized the second you heard the explosion, he couldn't felt a thing. But that's not the reason I'm here," Giovanni said, stuffing the charred shirt back in the box," I'm here to tell you that you'll be working solo for a while until I can find a suitable partner for you. Your assignment should ready before tomorrow morning. Meowth is going stay here, he's too weak and needs to be trained better than before to evolve. A talking Persian might be worth something....and an even better ally than before. Now wait here until someone brings your assignment down. "

He smiled at her, as malicious as ever, cold and demanding. She smiled back, matching it as best she could. "Certainly, sir. I'll wait here until my assignment is ready for me. Is that all?"

Still smiling, he replied," Yes, Jessie. I always knew you'd see things my way. Your future here will be bright indeed without James around. Brighter than you can imagine." He left her there after that, chuckling as he entered the hall

"Bright....yep, very bright. Brighter than James'. *sigh* Guess you got your freedom before me, I suppose I knew it would be you. You never really did know what you wanted to do really, being rich is fine, but you never knew how to do it. You never had a plan," she said aloud," You never told me what you wanted to do. You....you're dead, James. You lost."

She looked back at her nightstand to the picture of her, James and Meowth sitting there with their frozen grins trapped in time staring back at her. She picked it up, clenching it tightly in her quivering hands. "Good-bye James. Guess it wasn't meant to be after all. I can't....believe it's happened, but....it has. You're gone....and I have to accept that. I should have called out, but....either way, we would have lost each other. Better....God....Better you than me!" she wept, throwing the picture across the room, the glass shattered on impact.

She lifted up her new Pokeball and tossed it towards the same wall. "Charmander! Go!"

"Char....urk!....Char!" it yelped weakly. The thing had been sleeping when she'd caught it, or had been too weak and malnourished to move. It didn't matter, she had caught it anyway. "Charmander, flame-thrower that picture. Make it into ashes and you'll get all the food and medicine you can stand." She told it, its eyes perking up at her words.

It nodded weekly and unleashed its flame-thrower attack on the shattered picture until it was nothing more than a black stain on the steel floor. "Good Charmander. Now return," She said, holding its Pokeball up, bringing it back inside," As soon as the assignment comes, I'll get you all fixed up. Then I can get my Lickatongue back. A new life for us all. You'll see, no more screw-ups, no more Pikachu chasing. Just simple assignments, at last."

The beaches of Sunnytown were calm and bright, the soft sand cool in the dawn light. Most Sunnytown citizens are sensible and still sleeping, not yet ready for the daily workday or to leave their world of dreams. Most of them anyway.

All but two sleep, Nurse Joy and her boyfriend Maxwell, out to enjoy an early morning jog and the dazzling sunrise glittering across the tranquil ocean beyond the shore.

"Isn't this fun, Max? That fresh sea air, the soft sand....Mmmm, Makes me want to buy beach house. How about you?" Joy said happily, her white jogging suit flapping with her pink hair in the breeze.

Maxwell laughed, his own dark blue jogging suit pushed back against the wind. "Yeah, or at least going for a swim, alone with someone special. Maybe after her shift is over? Hmm?" he teased.

"Oh Max, I'd love to. That's so sweet of y....Oh dear Lord! Max look!" she shouted, sprinting ahead of him.

Max followed her rapid stride, his eyes meeting with what she was headed for. It was a boy face down in the water, his hair covered in seaweed and muck and clothes torn in several places.

Joy was pulling him out, flipping him over on his back, picking the filth off of him. The boy's hair looked like it was indigo, maybe lavender blue, he couldn't really tell with what little light they had before dawn. "He's not breathing, but he has a pulse. I'm going to try CPR. You know how to do that too, right?" Joy said suddenly.

"Yeah. Sure I do." He chuckled, getting down on knees. "Great, you pump his chest when my mouth leaves his. Ok. Here we go." She spouted, pinching the boy's nose shut and breathing down into him.

Max did as he was told, pressing his palms into the prone boy's chest, his cold bruised face as still as the air around them. "Keep going. He's still got a pulse." Joy urged, breathing down into him again.

They went on giving the boy CPR for at least five more minutes before his body jerked, a gurgling sound coming from his throat. Joy and Max pulled back quickly as water erupted from his mouth. Joy turned him on his side, letting him cough up the rest of the sea water, his voice filled with pain, a sad whimper forcing its way out as the water left him fully.

"Are you all right, kid? What happened to you?" Max asked him, patting his shoulder. The boy rolled back over, his eyes focusing on Joy first, then to Max, then back again. "Boating....accident. People....tried to kill me. Please....it hurts." He gagged out, the voice soft and deep. "Max, I'll stay with him, you go call the hospital. Quickly, please." Joy said, cradling the boy in her arms.

"Boy, this is the most exciting date we've ever been on. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow morning." Max chuckled, running off down the beach. Joy watched him go until he disappeared over the horizon."Don't worry, we run this beach every morning. There's a phone just ten minutes from here. You're going to be fine. Then we can contact your parents." She coaxed, but the boy tensed up, his face twisting with pain.

"No....no parents. I don't....ohhh....have anyone. Just....my Weezing. That's....that's all. No one else." He rasped out, his cold hands suddenly wrapped around her arm.

"You poor thing, an orphan. Well, don't you worry. We'll find help for you, I promise," she smiled, smoothing his hair gently,then paused," Hey, what's this? A necklace?"

"Pendant. Family heirloom....I never....never take it....off. It....reminds me....of my Mom. I miss her. Please, don't....don't let anyone take it away. Please Joy....don't let....them find me...." he wept, pushing his face against her chest like a frightened child.

"Hey, what are you talking about? The people who sunk your boat....is that who you're afraid of?" she asked, rocking him gently and patting his head.

"You can't....tell anyone else....Promise me, our....secret. Please, Joy....Please?" he begged in a muffled voice.

"Yes, of course. I swear. I won't tell a soul." She told him. "Team Rocket. They tried....to kill me. They must.....think I'm dead, I swam deep un....underwater, and I headed for shore. I was afraid to come up....they would have shot me. I stayed under until my lungs....hurt. They hurt....I hurt all over. Don't let them get me....please." he begged, sobbing harder.

"Oh you poor thing, you've been scared out of your wits. It'll be all right, trust me. I'll make sure of it....um....uh, what is your name, son?" she asked, holding him close and warmly.

"James." he said quietly.

"That's a sweet name. I guess you have met my cousins if you know mine. You just take it easy, James. The ambulance should be here soon. You're going to be just fine." She coaxed.

He leaned back in her arms, staring up at her weakly, his necklace hanging down his tattered black shirt. "I know that....now." he smiled, his eyes fluttering shut as he drifted to sleep.

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