Jess and I strolled silently side by side, the moonlight
being our only light on the path. Meowth was able to keep up with our pace,
being that we were moving so slowly. I was very uncomfortable with the
absolute quiet, but what could I do? What could I say?
"Jess..." I began. "Please say something."
"What is there to say, James?" Jessie muttered.
"Don't be like this. I can understand that I will be
missed, but..."
"Missed? No, you won't be missed, James. I'm angry
because you're leaving us like this! After all we've been through. You just
choose to forget all of that! Whether you like it or not, James, we're a part
of your life!"
"I'll miss you too, Jessica." Jessie stared in shock
at
me with her jaw hanging down for a moment, but then she regained her
composure.
"Let's just get this done and over with." I frowned,
but said nothing. Was I making the wrong decision? I mean, Jessie did have a
point- we had been through a lot. But I couldn't continue with this just for
her, could I? If she wasn't willing to tell me she needed me, then I saw no
purpose in staying.
"James, what did da Boss say when you told him dat you
was leavin'?" Meowth queried.
"That my last mission would be to retrieve that green
pokeball I told you about from the Pewter City Laboratory then he'd grant my
request. Why?"
"A Lab? The security's gonna be tough to get by!"
"Well, we have to try."
"Yeah. The sooner we get that pokeball, the sooner
James can get on with his life." She shot me a icy cold glare. I'm sorry,
Jess. If only... if only I didn't have to leave you, but I'm afraid I must.
Only you can stop me, Jess. I need a real reason to stay.
"I tink we'd better stop, Jess," Meowth suggested
nervously.
"Why? Don't tell me you're scared of the dark,
Meowth," Jessie smirked.
"No! I just got a bad feelin' about dis'" Jessie
sighed deeply then unrolled her sleeping bag onto the cool grass reluctantly.
"Fine." She crawled into it and snuggled against its
warm covers as I pulled out mine. I burrowed inside my bag as Meowth nuzzled
against me. "Good night!"
"Good night, guys," I yawned. I listened intently
to the soft, slow breathing of my teammates as they both drifted off to sleep
leaving me stranded with my thoughts.
Suddenly, I heard movement among the bushes as if
someone was following us- voices were echoing all around me- eyes were staring
at me through the darkness, lurking in every direction,
waiting...waiting... waiting..."
"Jess!" I cried.
"What?!" she snapped.
"Someone's out there, Jess," I muttered.
"James, nobody is out there. Now can you please get
off." Just then I realized I was strangling Jessie with my tight grip. I
released her slowly, my heart still racing.
"What if there is? What'll we do?"
"There is nobody out here so will you just..." A
twig snapped in a nearby thicket and some curses could be heard from inside.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" she sighed.
"That... noise?"
"James, there is nothing! Go to sleep!" Maybe
Jessie's right, I reasoned as I crawled beneath the covers. Of course there
was no one out there. Who would follow us? I mean, we were only after a
special pokeball... special pokeball... hmm... I wonder what's so great about
that
pokeball. Why does the Boss want it so badly? Oh well. I'll figure it out
soon enough. Meanwhile, I have to work with the problem at hand. The stranger
in the woods...
"James..." a voice called from the forest.
"James..."
I
pulled the covers over my head in fear. If I made it through the night...
Jessie gazed at me from her sleeping bag, hiding in
fright. She smiled at my innocence and child-like demeanor then once she made
sure I was asleep, she planted a kiss on my forehead lovingly, whispering,
"Good night."
I felt Jessie's warm lips touch me, though she believed I
had fallen into a restless slumber. And though I knew that she had done it
out of pity, not love, as I had hoped, I felt comforted by her and was able
to fall into a peaceful, relaxed sleep at last.
-
"James, get up," Jessie hissed. "If we're gonna do
this
job, we have to get to Pewter first!"
"Huh?" I grumbled as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
Jess lightly kicked my leg.
"Wake up," she ordered. "I need my breakfast!"
"You have hands. Use them." Anger filled her as she yanked
my sleeping bag away.
"Now," she growled dangerously.
"Y-yes, ma'am!"I immediately got to my feet and began
searching through my bag for our meal. Don't mess with Jessie when it comes
to food.
"Mmm! This food tastes so good, Brock!" a voice
complemented from the woods. Could it be...?
"Yeah! I just love your pancakes!" another called. It
sounded an awful lot like...
"Well, what can I say? I'm a great cook!" a third voice
replied. It was the twerp trio! With breakfast...
"Jessie, do you like pancakes?" I asked grinning. Ash,
Misty and Brock chewed hungrily on the freshly made pancakes.
"You have to make these more often, Brock!" Ash suggested.
"Well, one thing's for sure-I would't have any
leftovers!"
"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie began.
"What do you want now, Team Rocket? You're not getting my
Pikachu so don't even try!" Ash yelled.
"Oh, please. We didn't come here for that," Jessie sighed.
"Yes. We have a much more important job to attend to," I informed.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ash demanded.
"Breakfast first of all."We all jumped savagely onto the
stack of pancakes.
"Hey! Those are mine!" Ash threw himself onto top of us
as we struggled to steal the food away. "Cyndaquil, stop Team Rocket from
stealing my breakfast!"
We held up our prizes and were scorched by the flames of
Ash's pokemon.
"We're blasting off again!" we cried as we were hurled
into the air. Ash joyfully caught the plate of slightly burned pancakes.
"Hmm... another more important job for Team Rocket? It
doesn't make sense," Brock reasoned.
"What doesn't make sense, Brock?" Misty questioned.
"Why would their Boss give them a more important job if
they couldn't handle this one?"
"I don't know, Brock."
"There's something fishy going on and I don't like it. Not one bit. I may be wrong, but I think Team Rocket's in danger."
"But why are you worried, Brock? It's just Team
Rocket."
"Because their downfall may be ours too."
-
"Aaaah!" we shrieked as we flew through the air and
landed with a thump on the hard ground.
"Well, dere went breakfast," Meowth observed.
"Now what?" I queried.
"We get your pokeball," Jess answered, nodding toward
the Lab before us.
"All right! Let's go!" Jessie held me back before I
was able to dash off.
"Don't be stupid! This is a delicate mission, which
needs to be treated with caution. We have to be ready before we go in. Now
let's go get or supplies."
"Can we pick up some donuts too?" She slapped me in
response. -
Darkness fell over the quiet city of Pewter as we
expertly evaded the lenses of the security cameras adorning the Pewter Lab.
The musty building before us was shrouded in obscurity and foreboding.
Somebody should definitely call a redecorator. It looked completely
horrendous! Unless the old, run-down look was in nowadays.
"Binoculars?" Jessie asked as she "x"Ed off
items
on a list.
"Check," I answered.
"Rope?"
"Check."
"Smoke bombs?"
"I was supposed to bring them?" Jessie glared in my
direction. I grinned in response. "Just kidding." She turned away so I
wouldn't notice her smiling. No luck.
"A glass cutter?"
"Check."
"Donuts?" Jess raised her eyebrows at the question.
"Check," I muttered through a mouth full of
donuts. She rolled her eyes as we started on our journey to the heart of the
Lab.
"Meowth," Jessie nodded toward the door, which had
an alarm built inside. Meowth calmly opened a tiny hatch, filled with multi
colored wires. Meowth stuck his claws inside and snapped them all.
"And dat's how it's done," he smiled proudly.
Once we were sure the alarms had been turned off, Meowth picked the lock of
the door and we crept into the Lab. Even though we tried our best in keeping
quiet as we tip toed down the hall, our footsteps still echoed across the
narrow pathway.
"Stop!" Jessie hissed as she blocked my path. She
pointed at the space in front of us, suspecting the worst. She pulled out a
aerosol can, shook it a few times, and then sprayed the area before us. Red
lasers shot across the room, ready to trigger the siren.
"Meowth..." I whispered.
"Gotcha covered," Meowth grinned, holding up his
sharp claws. He pried open a little latch nearby and ripped all of the
circuits. But the alarm was still activated for some strange reason. However,
the lights were not.
"You stupid feline! Now look what you've done!"
Jessie screamed.
"Jess, will you keep it down? You do want to make
it out of here, don't you?" I whispered as I pulled out a flashlight. It
flicked on, lighting our way. “Hmm…there must be some way to short-circuit
this alarm...
Suddenly, I spotted the fuse box. I reached into my
pocket and pulled out tiny marble smoke bombs. After aiming with accurate
precision, I flung them toward the fuse box, destroying the alarm system.
"Hurry, Jess! We have to find it" I ordered. We
rushed down the hall quickly, barely gazing into each room to make sure our
objective wasn't amidst the experiments. Abruptly, I came to a halt before an
unrestricted area, causing a chain reaction of crashing behind me.
"James, what's the big idea?" Jessie snapped. I
merely pointed forward. In the center of the room was the green pokeball
inside a large glass enclosure. “Finally.” Jessie ambled into the room. I
extended my hand and seized her wrist, holding her firmly. v
She glared at me in anger for my reaction and I just
smiled and responded, “This is a delicate mission that must be treated with
caution. We have to be prepared before we go in.” I held up the glasscutter
deviously.
As we closed in on the target, we each got our weapons
ready-my glasscutter, Meowth's nails, and Jessie's house keys. Each of us
took a corner and began slicing glass. Before the glass could hit the ground
and shatter, I caught it in mid-air and took prize-the pokeball.
"Let's go!" Meowth cried with glee. Jessie simply
frowned. Why was she upset? We had finally managed to steal something and yet
she was so unhappy. Why? Was it my fault? Was she upset because of me?
Fate found us racing down the halls to the nearest exit.
For, as we turned a sharp corner, who else do we bump into, but none other
than Raquel!
"Raquel!" I gasped.
"James?" she queried in shock.
"Wh-what are you doing here? I thought you had
disappeared!"
"I quit Team Rocket and got a job here working the night
shift. The hours aren't too bad; I just got out now. But what are you doing
here? I thought you'd still be chasing after that Boss of yours. He didn't
even notice or care that I was gone!
"I'm afraid I still am. But this is my last mission.
He's
letting me go!" Jessie snorted at the sentence.
"That's great! Maybe you can work with me! They give good
pay! Come on, James! Do it for me!" I bit my lip. Raquel will always stay the
same.
"I don't know. Maybe." I peered at Jessie out of the
corner of my eye, whose frown became deeper. Unless she objected, I would be
left with no other choice. You don't want that for me, do you, Jess?
The sound of police sirens finally reached our ears and we
panicked in fright.
"Enough with this friendly chit-chat! We have to go!
Now!" Jessie yelled.
"But how will we get out?” I asked. Jessie, Meowth and I
glanced at each other in fright. Raquel pondered thoughtfully to herself then
opened her mouth to speak once again.
"This way," she motioned for us to follow her.
Reluctant, but unwilling to give in to the cops, we heeded her command. "Only
the workers can come out this way," she nodded toward the exit and held up
her key. "With the right disguise this might work..."
" Right disguise?" I didn't like the sound of it one
bit.
She closed in on me, an evil gleam in her eye and everything went black.
"And make it double!" I added.
"Oh no! It's Team Rocket!" Misty cried.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth! That's right!" Meowth concluded.
