HEROIC HEARTS

@->->-

Hmmmph! So much for another brilliant plan, I thought as I picked myself up from the dirt (which wasn't an easy task since the spikes of my headband had lodged into the ground when I landed).

When I finally managed to uproot myself, a spray of dirt came up with me and covered my face and body.

"Hmmmph! Whadda stupid plan! I knew dis was gonna happen!" I heard Meowth grumble.

I scowled at the cat as I watched him untangle himself from the branches of a nearby tree and jump to the ground. "What's that supposed to mean?!" I demanded.

Meowth scowled back. "You know damn well what dat means! Yer plan sucked!"

Well, I was already angry, but now I was enraged! Being supervillains and unmasking Gligar Man was a great plan! Somebody needed to expose that charlatan for what he really was...especially after the way he humiliated us in front of the twerps that morning! How was I to know that guy's daughter was going to have a change of heart and decide to play superhero, too?!

"It did not!" I said defensively. "It's all YOUR fault for not making the Spinarak tank shock-proof!"

"No, it's all YER fault for stickin' us in dese stupid disguises and prancin' us around back dere!" Meowth retorted.

"Our disguises are NOT stupid!" I shot back.

"Well, YERS is cool -- you got the spiky black leather thingy! But me and James looked like complete morons in dose Metapod getups!" he told me. "Once again, you was only thinkin' of yerself...."

Before I could reply, I was interrupted by the muffled sound of James's voice. "Help! Help!! Get me out of this thing!!!" he cried.

I looked and saw James lying by the side of the road several feet away. He was tangled in the remains of his Metapod Man outfit, and he couldn't move at all.

The sight of him made me and Meowth forget all about our argument.

Oh! Poor James! I said to myself as I rushed to his side. Then aloud, "Hang on, sweetie! I'll have you out in a sec!"

I felt around for several minutes until I found the zipper, but the outfit was so badly mangled that I couldn't get it open.

"Here. Lemme handle it," Meowth said, unsheathing his claws. He then proceeded to Fury Swipe until the Metapod Man outfit fell away.

"Thanks, Meowth," I said as I put my arms around James and carefully pulled him out of the tangled mass of wires and padding.

Once he was free, James returned my embrace and leaned into me. Unprepared for his extra weight, I lost my balance and fell back to the ground...and since my arms were still around his waist, I pulled him along, and he landed on top of me.

His emerald eyes glittered as he smiled at me. "My hero!"

I looked up at James in disbelief. I'd expected him to be angry with me! God knows, he had every right to be -- he hadn't wanted to be a supervillain (or a Metapod Man) any more than Meowth had! But even after being publicly humiliated and blasted off again, James wasn't upset -- he was just happy that we were all okay. He's got to be, without a doubt, the sweetest guy in existence! Is it any wonder I love him so much?

But as I gazed at the loving expression on his face, I suddenly found myself feeling guilty. Meowth had been right -- the supervillain scheme had been my idea entirely, which meant that it was ultimately my fault we'd ended up where we were now. I'd been wrong to force them to go along with my plan against their will, and I'd been wrong to blame them when things got screwed up. I had been thinking only of myself and what I wanted, and my friends had gotten hurt because of it.

"I...I'm sorry, guys," I said softly.

James's smile grew even wider, and he nodded approvingly. "Apology accepted."

I returned his smile. I'd always had trouble swallowing my pride and admitting when I was wrong, but I'd been getting better about it lately. I think I have James to thank for that -- his patience and forgiving nature made me realize that I don't have to be perfect all the time...that he'll still love me, even when I make mistakes. And knowing that he loves me, no matter what gives me a peace of mind that I've never known before in my life!

"I'm sorry, too," Meowth said. "I didn't mean ta lash-out at ya."

"It's okay, Meowth. Really," I told him.

Meowth shook his head. "No," he replied. "I didn't really mean what I said about yer plan. It was a great idea! I was just pissed cuz I didn't get a cool costume like yers."

"Yeah!" said James. "How come we didn't get black spiky leather things, too?"

"Because you guys didn't WANT to be supervillains!" I replied. "You have to be REALLY evil to wear the spikes and leather, and you guys aren't...."

"We aren't?" they asked in unison.

"Nope!" I said. "You guys are the diet cola of evil...."

"....One calorie! Not evil enough!" Meowth laughed, finishing the sentence for me.

James smiled again and gently tweaked my nose. "Well, technically, you can't wear that thing either, Jessie."

"I can't?"

He shook his head. "Jess, you couldn't be evil if you tried."

Coming from anybody but James, that would've been an insult. When the twerps, or Butch and Cassidy say something like that, it's their way of calling me pathetic, but when James says it, it's because he's looked into my heart, and he understands that this isn't the kind of person I really want to be. James knows that I want to be more like him...to be good.

"Still, you look pretty damned hot in that thing," he continued.

My eyes widened. "I do?"

James nodded. "I am so turned on right now!"

I giggled as he leaned closer and began to kiss my neck. "Well, you know, James, I think you made an adorable Metapod Man!"

James pulled away slightly and raised an eyebrow. "I did?"

"Of course!" I replied. "You were such a cutie!"

This made him blush...which made him look even cuter than he already was!

I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair. "I'm really turned on, too," I whispered into his ear.

James's smile grew wider than ever before as he pulled me closer and pressed his lips to mine.

As our kiss deepened, however, Meowth broke in on us. "Okay, youse guys. If I hear even ONE joke about Metapod Man usin' his Harden attack, I swear, I'm gonna puke!"

When we heard this, James pulled away from me, and our faces turned red.

I was more than a little frustrated that Meowth had just killed the moment, but it was a good thing that he did -- we couldn't very well stay in the middle of the road for the rest of the evening. Now that we'd cooled off a bit, we realized that we needed to find a place to make camp for the night and get cleaned up.

Besides, James and I could always finish what we'd started later.

@->->-

There were no safe-houses in the area where we'd been blasted off, so we had to find a place to make camp for the night. After leaving the road and making our way into the woods, it began to get dark. Before long, however, we were fortunate enough to come across a clearing that would make an ideal campsite.

While Meowth gathered some wood and made a fire, James and I set up our tent. (After having a Gligar stuck to our faces and nearly getting stung by it, there was no way we were going to sleep out in the open!)

Once we'd rolled out our sleeping bags and put our personal effects inside of the tent, James brought some cans of food and cookware from his backpack and went to make dinner. I, however, remained in the tent.

I frowned as I studied my reflection in my hand-mirror. The sweat and dirt that covered my face had combined and become mud, and the purple war-paint I'd applied to my cheeks was now runny, dripping down my face and neck. My hair was matted and frizzled beyond recognition, and it was covered with mud, too.

"My, God! I'm a mess!" I cried.

Still, as awful as I looked, I couldn't help but smile. This is what I'd looked like ever since we blasted off, no doubt, but James had still told me that I look hot! That's another thing I love about him -- he thinks I'm beautiful no matter what I look like! A bad hair day, messy make-up...it's just not important to James. I feel the same way about him, of course -- I think he's handsome even when he thinks he looks terrible.

But even though what's on the inside matters more to us than what's on the surface, I still like to look pretty. A guy as wonderful as James deserves to be with someone beautiful, and it makes me feel better about myself, too!

So, I decided to get cleaned up before dinner.

With that, I grabbed some shampoo and soap, a washcloth, a towel, and my hairbrush and left the tent. I then told James and Meowth where I was going so they wouldn't get worried.

James nodded and continued to stir the soup he was cooking. "Don't be too long, though," he told me.

"Yeah!" Meowth added. "We ain't gonna start without ya, but we're starvin' -- we don't wanna wait!"

"Don't worry. I'll be back soon," I assured them as I took my leave.

@->->-

Once again, luck was on my side -- there was a small pond not far from where we'd made camp! The water was icy-cold, but it was also clear, which made it just right for bathing.

After peeling off my clothes, I jumped into the pond and submerged myself. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but my body quickly adjusted to the cold. (I was used to cold water, and so was James. In the seven...almost eight years we'd been together, we'd spent most of it on the road, and we often had to bathe in icy lakes and ponds.) When the initial chill subsided, I poured some shampoo into my hand and lathered my hair. I then scrubbed the mud and war-paint from my face and the dirt and sweat from the rest of my body.

Once I'd rinsed myself clean, I stepped out of the water and wrapped my towel around myself. As I was brushing my hair, however, I heard a strange noise coming from deeper in the woods.

I tensed. It didn't feel like I was being watched, but I could sense that it wasn't something to be ignored. After a moment of concentration, I heard the noise again -- somebody was screaming!

Well, now I was curious. The screams weren't coming from camp, so I knew it wasn't James and Meowth, but who, then, was it? Who else was in these woods with us, and what was going on that was making them scream?

Unable to resist the urge to investigate, I quickly pulled my clothes back on and headed in the direction that the screams were coming from.

@->->-

When I finally reached my destination, I saw a group of skanky looking guys standing around a pit and laughing. And it wasn't just any pit either -- it was the pit that James, Meowth, and I had dug that morning!

Taking care not to attract attention, I climbed to the top of a nearby tree so I could get a better look at what was going on. Stepping out onto one of the limbs, I could see that two women were trapped in the pit. They were the ones who'd been screaming.

Suddenly, I felt guilty. James, Meowth, and I had made that hole, and now people were in trouble because of it! And as I continued to watch the scene unfold, I felt my guilt giving way to anger. Who did these guys think they were?! The way they were treating those women reminded me of the way my ex-boyfriend used to treat me!

I couldn't stand it anymore -- I had to do something!

"Hey, tough guys!" I called down to them.

"What the?! Who said that?!" they asked, looking around.

"Up here, morons!" I replied.

The men looked up at me and scowled.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" I continued. "Looks to me like a bunch of pathetic losers trying to prove how big and bad they are by picking on a couple of defenseless travelers." I gave them a thumbs-up and smirked. "Yeah! I'm impressed! REAL goddamned impressed...."

"Who the hell are you?!" one of the men demanded. "Some kinda superhero?"

"Nope," I said matter-of-factly. "Just someone with a really low tolerance for bullshit."

This made them frown again.

"Look, I'll be honest," I told them. "I've had a really crappy day, and right now, my bullshit tolerance is zero and dropping. So, why don't you guys just run along before things get ugly?"

"And why don't you go to hell?!" one of the men shot back.

"Yeah! Mind your own business, bitch!" another one shouted.

Well, that did it.

"I've just made this my business," I replied. "And you've just made a big mistake!"

The men began to laugh. They obviously didn't think a girl could take them on.

And they were about to find out just how wrong they were.

As I reached for my poke balls, however, I remembered that I'd left Arbok and Lickitung back at camp. Shit! I cursed myself. Looks like I'm on my own....

I sized the men up as they continued to laugh and jeer at me. There were three of them, and they were all bigger and heavier than me, but I wasn't worried. I'd spent my entire childhood taking on the bullies who picked on me, and my Team Rocket training had honed my combat skills. No matter how big they were, three brainless thugs would be easy pickings.

While they were still laughing, I jumped down from the tree and delivered a roundhouse kick to the chest of the man in front. The force of the impact knocked him backwards, and he bowled over his two companions. Before he could get back up, I stomped him in the groin with the heel of my boot. His voice shot up at least three octaves as he howled in pain. He was down from the count.

I didn't have time to savor my victory, however. As soon as the first man was down, the other two scrambled from beneath him and moved in on me.

"So, this little hellcat has claws!" one of them remarked.

"This'll be fun!" the other one laughed.

I held my arms out, leaving myself open to attack. "Bring it on, pansies!"

The two men laughed again and began to charge me. I held my ground. As they drew closer and prepared to tackle me, however, I quickly withdrew into a defensive curl and somersaulted bewtween them. Unable to stop their momentum, one of them went sprawling face-first into the dirt, and the other one charged headlong into the trunk of a tree.

While they were still dazed, I took advantage of the moment, grabbing the closer of the two by the collar of his shirt and hauling him to his knees. Before he could react, I delivered a barrage of punches to his face and a swift knee to his stomach.

Meanwhile, the other man had recovered from his impact with the tree, and he came up behind me. I'd heard him coming, though, and I was ready for him. So, when he grabbed me, I used his large size to my advantage, dropping to my knees and throwing him over my shoulders as he toppled.

"You bitch!" he growled as he picked himself up from the dirt once again. "You goddamned little BITCH!!!"

"Come on!" I said defiantly, holding out my arms again. "Are you going to fight, or are you afraid of getting your ass kicked by a girl?!"

Those were the magic words.

No sooner than I'd said this, a fire sparked in his eyes, and he bared his yellow teeth. A guttural scream erupted from his throat as he began to charge me like a wild Tauros.

This time, however, I didn't hold my ground -- I met his charge.

My shoulder felt like it was going to explode, and a white-hot pain shot down my arm as I slammed into my assailant at full force, but the spiked shoulder-pad of my costume afforded me a bit of protection. He screamed and reeled backwards as the spike grazed him across the chest. It wasn't enough to really hurt him, but it sure did make him angrier than he already was -- the sight of his blood drove him into a frenzy!

Meeting his charge once again, I smashed him with a left hook and kicked his feet out from under him. Once he was down, I brought my foot up stomped him the exact same way I'd stomped his friend.

As I stood over the three men, they looked up at me with expressions of complete shock and bewilderment. I smiled at them. "Have you boys had enough, or do you want me to kick your asses a second time?"

Slowly, they got to their feet and continued to stare at me.

I held my ground and stared back.

The stare-down continued for several minutes, but as soon as I tensed my muscles....

"RUN FOR IT!!!!!"

"LET'S GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!!!!!"

"I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!!"

"And don't come back!" I shouted after them as they raced away at full-tilt. Once they were gone, I breathed a sigh of relief and ran a hand through my hair, which had become tangled and sweaty once again. "Stupid prick bastards," I muttered.

I then made my way to the edge of the pit and peered into the darkness. The two women were staring up at me and smiling. "Hey! Are you guys okay?" I called down to them.

"Yeah! We're fine now," one of them replied.

"Could you help us out of here, please?" said the other.

"Sure! Just hang on a sec!" I told them.

Scanning the area, I soon spotted the bamboo lattice that James, Meowth, and I had used to cover the pit that morning. It had been broken apart by the fat guy's Gligar, but there were still several large pieces that could be used as hand and foot holds for climbing.

After gathering a couple of the larger pieces, I lowered them into the pit and held them steady as the two women climbed out.

"Thank you," they said once they were free.

"Don't mention it. Those assholes had it coming," I replied. "What were they doing anyway?"

"We were on our way home when those guys jumped us," one of the women explained.

"They wanted money, but all we have is a notebook and a sketch-pad," the other one chimed in. "When they tried to mug us and came up empty, they got pissed and threw us in that pit."

At the mention of a notebook and a sketch-pad, the first woman frowned and disappeared behind a row of bushes. A few minutes later, she returned with both. "Doesn't look like anything was damaged," she said as she handed the notebook to her friend.

"Whew!" she sighed.

"Those must be pretty important to you," I remarked.

"They are," the first woman agreed. "There's more to these books than just scribbles and sketches -- they're our livelihood!"

The second woman smiled at me again. "My name is Celes. I'm a writer," she said. "And Terra, here, is an artist."

I returned the smile and shook her outstretched hand. "Pleased to meet you both. I'm Jessie."

"Celes and I are working on a manga -- she's writing the story, and I'm doing the artwork," Terra explained. "That's kind of why we're out here. We were on our way back from Katalia City, where we were doing research for the plotline of the story...."

I couldn't help but smile as I recalled the adventure James, Meowth, and I had there only a few short weeks ago.

"We want to make the hero of our manga somebody...nontraditional," said Celes. "We've always thought the Black Arachnid was a pretty cool guy, and we heard there were a couple of thieves in Katalia City who were reenacting some of his great heists, so I decided to model our hero after him...and I figured now would be a good time to look into it and learn more!"

My smile became a grin. "You're Black Arachnid fans, too?!"

They nodded.

"The Black Arachnid kicks so much ass!" Terra exclaimed. "He's MUCH better than the superhero we have in our city." She rolled her eyes. "I get so sick of always hearing how great Gligar Man is! He's way too hyped, if you ask me!"

"Yeah! And he's not even all that great -- I haven't seen such a lumpy superhero since Adam West played Batman!" Celes agreed. "That, and he only got into the superhero biz because it was a gimmick to sell his toys. Where's the honor in that?! Where's the intrigue?!"

"I think it's pretty lousy, too," I told them. "I don't like that guy at all."

When I said this, Celes and Terra exchanged smiles and studied me for a moment.

"What is it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we were just thinking...you look like you'd make a great superhero!" came Celes's reply.

"I would?!"

"Hell yeah! You saved us, didn't you? You whipped some serious ass!"

"And that outfit you're wearing is wicked cool!" Terra added. "You'd be so much fun to draw!"

This made me smile again. But as the two of them continued to discuss their manga and how I'd make the perfect superhero, I started to feel guilty once more. It was all my fault they'd gotten stuck in that pit in the first place -- saving them from those thugs hadn't been heroic at all. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to tell these women the truth. I owed it to them.

I shook my head. "Believe me, I'm no hero," I muttered. "I'm more of a villain, to be honest...."

They looked at me in disbelief.

I hung my head. "I'm just a second-rate Team Rocket field-agent," I confessed. "I was dressed like this because I wanted to get back at Gligar Man for interfering when my partners and I were trying to capture pokemon...and I saved you because my partners and I were the ones who dug that pit you fell into. We weren't working with those guys, but I was still kind of responsible for what happened. I can't be called a superhero...not by any stretch of the imagination."

"You're wrong," said Terra.

I looked up at them again. They were still smiling at me.

"A real villain wouldn't care who or what their plans hurt, but you did," Celes explained. "And it takes a lot of courage to admit when you've made a mistake and to try and atone for it, both of which you did exceedingly well."

"Y-you really think so?" I asked.

They nodded.

"Besides, just because you work for Team Rocket doesn't mean that you're a bad person," Terra added. "I doubt you just woke up one morning and decided to join because you wanted to be evil -- I bet you had reasons...good reasons."

"I did," I replied as I thought of my mother and the legacy I'd inherited...of how I had to accept it to keep James from getting hurt.

"We look at you, and we don't see evil," Celes continued. "You've got a heroic heart, whether you know it or not. And it's the people who don't know it...the ones who have to work to discover the hero within that turn out to be the best ones...."

My eyes widened.

"Still don't believe us?" Terra chuckled.

"Well, it is kind of hard to believe," I admitted. "Me...a hero...."

"Well, you are," she assured me.

I smiled again. "Thanks."

"Your partners are pretty lucky to have someone like you on their side," Celes remarked.

I blushed. "No. I'm the lucky one. I couldn't ask for better friends than James and Meowth -- they're the best!"

The two of them nodded.

"Just think about what we said, huh?" Terra told me.

Celes smiled. "Yeah. Even if the entire world is against you, we'll know the truth. You'll always be a hero to us."

I blushed again.

With that, the two women resumed the discussion about their manga and took their leave.

"I am so going to draw her costume for our hero!" Terra exclaimed. "I love that Goth look!"

"And I need to get writing!" said Celes. "I can picture it now -- the warrior woman, ever running from the darkness that threatens to consume her, but always stopping to help the little guy along the way...."

"This is gonna rock!" they said in unison.

"Thanks again," I said when they were out of earshot.

@->->-

Once I was alone again, I suddenly remembered that James and Meowth were still waiting for me. Uh, oh. They promised not to start dinner without me -- the poor things are probably starving by now...and wondering why I'm taking so long with my bath! I said to myself.

With that, I turned and started running back towards camp.

When I reached the pond again, I stopped for a moment to gather the bath items I'd brought with me, but they were gone. Before I could find out what had happened to them, however, I heard screams coming from the direction of our camp.

The screams of James and Meowth.

"JESSIE!!!!"

"JESSIE!!! HEY, JESS, WHERE ARE YA?!"

"Oh, no! They must be really worried about me!" I said as I listened to James and Meowth calling for me. I began to run faster than ever.

"JESSICA!!!!!"

Yikes! The full name! James only calls me Jessica when he's really serious...or really upset. I had the feeling I was in for a real tongue-lashing when they found me again.

After a couple more minutes of running, I saw James. He was wandering among the trees, screaming my name over and over again. My hairbrush was clutched in his hands, and tears were streaming down his face.

Oh, that poor sweetheart! I really did worry him! I said to myself. Then aloud, "It's okay, James! I'm right here!"

James turned around, and when he saw me, the look of anguish on his face became one of joy. "Oh, Jessie!" he cried.

I embraced James as he launched himself into my arms. "It's okay, James...I'm okay," I said again.

James buried his face in my shoulder and trembled as he continued to cry. After a moment, however, he regained his composure and pulled away slightly. Then, he frowned and grabbed me by the shoulders. "Don't you ever, EVER scare me like that again, Jessie!" he snapped, shaking me about.

Normally, I would've been angry with James for raising his voice to me or handling me so roughly, but I knew he wasn't doing it to be mean. I'd frightened him, and he had every right to be upset.

When James realized what he was doing, he released me and hung his head. "I'm sorry," he said contritely.

"No, James. I'm sorry," I told him. "I shouldn't have wandered off without letting you know...."

He frowned again. "You're damn right, you shouldn't have!" he cried. "Jessie, do you have any idea how terrified I was when I went to check on you, and you were gone?! I saw your hairbrush and stuff just lying there, and you weren't anywhere to be found! I thought you'd been attacked by wild pokemon, or that someone had...." his voice trailed off, and he started to cry again.

I reached over and brushed his tears away. "James, don't you know by now that I can take care of myself? And don't you think I would've called for help if I were in trouble?"

"I suppose," he sighed. "But that doesn't make it any easier for me. I love you, Jessie, and I worry about you sometimes. I just want you to be safe."

I smiled as I caressed his cheek. "I'm sorry, sweetie," I apologized again.

"Jessie, what were you doing anyway?" James asked, taking my hands in his own.

I hesitated for a moment. I couldn't lie to him, but I didn't really want to tell him that I'd gotten into a fight -- he'd just start worrying about me again. But as I gazed into his piercing green eyes, I knew that I had to tell him the truth. He deserved to know.

I then proceeded to tell him about how I'd heard screaming and gone to investigate, how I'd fought the three thugs, and how I'd rescued Celes and Terra from the pit trap we dug that morning.

A look of concern crossed James's face when I told him about the battle. "Those guys didn't hurt you, did they, Jess?"

"Of course not," I replied, doing my best to ignore the burning pain in my shoulder.

Now James was smiling. "That's good...but next time, would you please tell me if you're going to do something crazy like that? I don't want to miss out on the fun!"

I returned the smile. "You got it! Though I kind of had to do that one on my own -- I didn't have time to get you and Meowth."

James put his arms around me. "Okay. I'll forgive you...this time," he said, planting a quick kiss on my lips.

I reached up and tugged at the loose wisp of blue-violet hair hanging in his face. "What did I do to deserve a great guy like you anyway?"

He smirked. "Just lucky, I guess."

"That's for sure," I agreed.

With that, James pulled me closer and pressed his lips to mine again. I ran my fingers through his silky hair as I returned the kiss.

We stayed like that for several minutes, and I never wanted it to end, but the sound of Meowth calling my name ruined our moment for the second time that day.

"We should probably be getting back now," I said as James pulled away from me.

"Yeah," he replied. "Meowth is worried sick about you, too."

"He'll probably just be pissed that I held up dinner when he sees I'm okay," I laughed.

"But it's still not nice to leave him hanging," James told me as he draped an arm around my shoulders.

When the two of us got back to camp, we saw Meowth returning from another part of the woods. And sure enough, when he saw that I wasn't hurt, he quickly brushed his tears away and scowled at me.

"Where the hell were YOU?!" he demanded. "Two hours, Jessie! We was waitin' for ya for nearly two hours! And ya 'bout scared us ta death when we found out you was missin'!"

"I'm sorry, Meowth," I told him. "But something came up...."

"Jessie was out being a superhero!" James interjected.

Meowth gave us a quizzical look.

James then filled him in on what I'd done.

"Heh, heh, heh. All right! Way ta go, Jess!" Meowth cheered. "Sounds like ya kicked ass!"

I blushed.

"Those girls are right, you know," James said as he snaked his arms around my waist. "You really would make a great superhero!"

"Oh, no. Not you, too!" I groaned.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "It's true! You've got the strength, the courage, the cool costume...and you're WAY prettier than Gli-Girl! Give me ONE good reason why you can't be a superhero, Jess!"

I closed my eyes and sighed. "I can't be a hero because I'm a villain! I'm evil, James!"

"I think we all know that's a lie," he said, cutting me off.

"Yeah!" Meowth chimed in. "Jessie, we ain't dose twerps -- ya don't hafta put on an act for us!"

James nodded. "You're a good woman, Jessie. I know it, and Meowth knows it. So, why can't you see it in yourself?"

I looked down at Meowth...then up at James again. They couldn't have been more sincere than they were at that moment. Maybe they're right, I said to myself. And maybe Celes and Terra were right, too -- maybe I really can be a hero!

"The only crime yer guilty of is makin' us wait for dinner," said Meowth. "And even den, ya had a good reason for doin' it. So, if I hear any more crap about you bein' evil, yer in for the Fury Swipin' of a lifetime!"

"Okay," I conceded.

James laughed. "Speaking of dinner, I think we've waited long enough. Let's eat!"

"Yeah!" Meowth exclaimed. "Even though it's probably COLD by now!" He gave me a playful nudge when he said this.

"Yes! I did that on purpose!" I replied in my best supervillain voice. "Is there no end to my evil?!"

Now we were all laughing.

@->->-

Even though the soup was cold, it was still one of the best dinners the three of us ever had together. It certainly beat going hungry, and being reminded that my friends loved me more than anything made it taste that much better.

And all the while, I couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened. I still couldn't believe that people could look at me and see a hero! Deep down, I'd always wanted to be one, but I never thought it would be possible. Not with the life I've lived.

Now I wasn't so sure.

@->->-

"Something on your mind?" James asked while we were getting ready for bed later that night.

I blushed.

"Thinking about being a hero again?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, it would be pretty cool, Jess," he told me as he undid the clasp of my spiked headband and slid it off. His hands then moved to my shoulder-guards and breastplate, and he gently removed those as well. "I mean, wouldn't it be so much more fun to fight evil than be blasted off?"

"I suppose," I sighed, relaxing the tension in my aching muscles as James massaged my shoulders. "It sure felt good to beat the crap out of those guys!"

James smiled and kissed my neck as I pulled off my boots and gloves and wriggled out of my skirt. "Wish I could've been there," he whispered into my ear. "You're so gorgeous when you're kicking ass and taking names."

I smiled back. "I wish you could've been there, too. It would've been more fun to kick their asses as a team."

"Think we should go for it?" Meowth asked. "Ya really think the three of us can pull off bein' a superhero team?"

"I don't see why not," James replied. "I've always wondered what it'd be like to stick up for the little guy and defend people getting picked on. I'd have given anything to have somebody like that around when I was a lad!"

My heart sank when I heard this. Even though we came from two completely different worlds, James's childhood hadn't been much different from my own. Like me, he'd always been the outsider...the one that people always singled out to be ridiculed and bullied. We'd spent our entire lives being the underdogs.

But as I thought more about this, I realized why James was right. Since we'd always been the outsiders, we had experience when it came to dealing with bullies...and we could better empathize with the people we were protecting than some rich guy with a bunch of Gligar toys! Who better to defend the underdog than fellow underdogs...people who'd been there and understood?

"Then that settles it!" I exclaimed. "We'll stick around for a few days and be superheroes!"

James's smile became a grin. "You mean that, Jess?!"

I nodded. "We always talk about protecting the world from devastation, don't we?"

"Yeah!" he replied. "And it feels damn good when we do!"

Now Meowth was smiling, too.

"There's just one little thing, though," James said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I'm NOT dressing up like a Metapod Man again!"

"Yeah! And neither is Me-owth!" the cat agreed.

"But you guys were so cute!" I laughed.

"No way!" Meowth protested.

"We want the spikes and leather!" James cried, leaning into me and pinning me to the ground.

I smirked. "Oh? So you think you can handle the spikes and leather, do you?"

They nodded.

I smiled once again, and my heart fluttered as I pictured James in a skin-tight bodysuit, the black leather showing off his lean, muscular form. He may have been cute as a Metapod Man, but he'd be even hotter in an outfit that matched my own!

"You want it, you got it!" I replied.

James rolled off of me, and he and Meowth high-fived. "All right!" they cheered.

"I was going to make matching costumes for you guys anyway," I told them. "It wasn't any fun when you guys were my henchmen, and I don't think it'd be any better if you were my sidekicks."

"Yeah!" James agreed. "We're a team -- equal partners all the way!"

I nodded.

James smiled and took me in his arms. "You're the best, Jess," he said, planting a kiss on my cheek.

"So are you, James," I replied, tousling his hair.

Meowth snickered as James kissed me again and began to unzip my bodysuit. "Is dis my cue ta give you love-birds some privacy?" he asked, a sly smile spreading across his face.

A mischievous light twinkled in James's emerald eyes as he looked back at me. I knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Metapod Man! I choose you!" I cried.

James grinned and laid himself on top of me. "My Metapod sense is tingling, oh evil one!" he laughed. "I think I feel a Harden attack coming on!"

"GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!! I AIN'T HEARIN' DIS!!!!!" Meowth screamed as he plugged his ears and began to hum. With that, he darted out of the tent as fast as he could.

"James, that was naughty!" I said only half-reproachfully.

He smirked. "Well, he's the one who made that dirty joke!"

I reached up and gently tweaked his nose. "You behave!"

James laughed again. "Yes, oh evil one. My only desire is to please you."

Now I was laughing, too.

"Sorry. Couldn't resist," he giggled.

"Neither could I," I confessed.

"It was pretty funny, though," James continued. "That look on his face was priceless!"

"You know, James," I said, "tonight we should just skip the sex altogether and go straight to sleep...just to piss Meowth off!"

James's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped when I said this.

I smiled. "Gotcha!"

His expression of shock gave way to one of mild annoyance.

"Now THAT was a priceless look!" I laughed. "I really had you going for a minute there!"

James smirked again and shook his head. "Is there no end to your evil?"

"Nope! Told you I'm villainous!" I replied slyly.

"You behave!" James chided me as he held me closer and ran his fingers through my hair.

I giggled as he kissed me again and finished peeling off my bodysuit.

@->->-

James sighed dreamily as he brought out one of his red roses and inhaled its sweet fragrance. "Amazing," he whispered.

I smiled and ran a finger along his smooth cheek. "You weren't so bad yourself," I chuckled.

He blushed. "That's not what I was talking about...though I certainly don't have any complaints!"

"What then?" I asked. "What's on your mind, James?"

"A lot of things," he replied. "It still blows me away to think about how far we've come...everything we've seen and done together. Every day is like a brand new adventure for us, Jess!"

"It sure is!" I agreed. "And tomorrow's no exception."

James smiled and took my hand in his own. "Jessie, every time I look at you, I can't help but think about all the adventures we've shared...." He paused for a moment and played with the ring on my finger -- the promise ring he'd made for me. "....And all of the adventures that lie ahead. And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced of how right it all is!"

I put my arms around James and rested my head on his chest. "I can't imagine anything better. Having you as my best friend...that's one thing in my life that really makes me happy. And you're the one person who's never let me down, no matter what. I used to be afraid that falling in love would ruin our friendship or change it...."

"Love has changed things between us, Jess," he told me. "It's changed things for the better!"

I nodded as I cuddled into him. James was right -- admitting our feelings to each other had changed us. James was like a different man now -- he was stronger than he used to be...more in control of himself and his life, more vocal, more daring. The only things about him that hadn't changed were his sweetness and his child-like innocence. And I've changed just as much as he has. I never used to let my guard down with anybody, but James had awakened the love and trust inside of me...the feelings I thought had died long ago. Because of him I've learned that it's okay to open my heart...to be vulnerable...to admit when I'm wrong. I've learned that being nice doesn't mean being weak -- James is living proof of that! I guess we're rubbing off on each other!

Love truly is an amazing thing!

"....It really makes you stop and look at the big picture," James continued. He smiled again. "It makes me realize that no matter how much we screw up, we're not really losers. Even if we never catch another pokemon for the boss, even if we never win a lot of badges or become master trainers, even if we never get rich, we'll never be losers as long as we have each other."

"Yeah!" I replied. "Things always turn out okay for us in the end...and it's always because we stick together."

He nodded.

Suddenly, however, my spirits darkened again.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, I was just thinking...coming through for each other is one thing, but if we're going to be superheroes, we have a lot more to contend with," I told him. "I know we'll be okay even if we screw up, but what if somebody else gets hurt because of us?"

James cupped my chin in his hand and smiled at me again. "You know what, Jess? I don't think we will."

"But how can you be sure?"

"Because I think those girls you rescued are right -- the best heroes are the ones who have to search for the hero within," came his reply. "Think about it, Jess! All throughout history, the people who made the world a better place...the people who made a difference were the ones that didn't look like heroes at first! All of history's greatest heroes were decried as renegades and troublemakers during their time...."

I returned his smile. "And making trouble is what we do best!"

"Precisely!" he chuckled. "Just look at the Black Arachnid -- he caused an awful lot of trouble, but he helped so many because of it...and he inspired somebody, too...."

I blushed as James caressed my cheek with the tip of his finger and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"Jessie, the way you helped those kids with the money we stole from the rich people was nothing short of heroic!" he continued. "That's what makes me sure we won't make a mess of things tomorrow. The right place isn't always within the law...but your heart is always in the right place...."

My heart started pounding as James placed his hand on my chest. I love when he waxes philosophical, the way he was doing now. I think smart men are sexy...and James is definitely sexy! And the fact that he was flirting with me while he was being philosophical only turned me on even more!

I grinned. "Your heart's always in the right place too, James...even when your hand isn't," I told him.

James blushed as I took his hand in my own and placed it on my breast. He gazed into my eyes for a moment and pulled me closer as our lips met in a passionate kiss.

@->->-

After making love for the second time that night, James fell asleep. As tired as I was, however, I couldn't seem to join him. Instead, I just held him in my arms, tracing the outlines of his handsome face with the tip of my finger and playing with his soft blue-violet hair. No matter how long I stared at him, I still couldn't get over how beautiful he was.

And as I gazed at my beautiful James, I found that I couldn't stop thinking about the costume I wanted to make for him. I already had a pattern in my mind's eye, and as I pictured James wearing it -- the tight, black leather showing off and accentuating his gorgeous body and the wind whipping through his hair, revealing a crown of spikes like my own -- I felt like a woman possessed. I couldn't just lie around and dream about it...I had to make that costume a reality!

So, taking care not to disturb James, I untangled myself from his embrace, threw on my robe, brought out my sewing-kit and the leftover leather, and got to work....

@->->-

While I was sewing the costume, Meowth came back into the tent. "Hey, Jess, whaddaya still doin' up?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep," I replied. "Had to get this done."

Meowth's eyes widened when I showed him the progress I was making on James's new costume. "Damn! Dat looks good!"

I smiled at him. "I've got one for you, too," I said, holding up a little cat-sized cape that I'd made from another piece of leather.

He grinned. "Can I try it on?!"

"Of course!"

I set down my sewing for a moment and helped Meowth put on his cape. I then fastened it with a spiked collar and held up my hand-mirror so he could see how he looked.

"Kickass!" he exclaimed.

"You like?"

"Hell yeah! Dis is way better den our other costumes!"

"I still say you made a cute Metapod," I laughed, tweaking one of his whiskers.

"Oh, don't start with dat again," he groaned.

I smirked at him and resumed my sewing.

For the next couple of hours, Meowth stayed with me, perched atop my head as I finished making James's costume and made a few repairs to my own. It was about three in the morning by the time I was done, and I knew I was going to be tired the next day, but seeing the look on James's face (and seeing how gorgeous he was going to look) would be worth it!

"Hey, Jessie?" Meowth said as I folded the costumes and set them next to our sleeping bags.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks again. Dese costumes rule...and dis really is a great idea."

"You're welcome," I said.

Meowth smiled at me as he curled into his sleeping bag.

I smiled back as I cuddled next to James again. He smiled in his sleep and put his arms around me. I returned his embrace, and soon I drifted off to sleep...and into wondrous dreams of him wearing that sexy costume and saving the world by my side.

@->->-

I awoke the next morning to the pleasant sound of birds singing. Slowly, I opened my eyes and smiled. Sunlight was filtering down through the canopy of trees overhead, creating flecks of gold in the thick, green shade. Meowth was still asleep, but James was gone. Before I could wonder where he went, however, the warm, sweet aroma of pastries wafted into the tent and made my stomach start to growl.

It could mean only one thing -- James was cooking breakfast.

Sure enough, when I left the tent, I found James kneeling next to the campfire, brewing a pot of coffee and heating up a few strawberry pop-tarts.

"Morning, handsome," I said, tousling his mop of hair and kneeling by his side.

His green eyes sparkled as he looked at me. "Morning, beautiful," he echoed.

"Sleep well?"

He nodded. "You?"

"Yeah...for all of three hours," I replied.

James chuckled. "Still sleepy? I've got a cure for that!" With that, he poured some coffee into a mug and stirred in some cream and sugar.

"Thanks," I said as he handed me the mug.

"So, what kept you up last night?" he asked.

I blew on my coffee and took a sip. "Oh, I was just busy," I told him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Busy? With what?"

"A little surprise."

"A surprise? It wouldn't happen to be a superhero costume, would it?"

I couldn't help but smile.

"I wanted to wait until you were awake before I tried it on," he said as he handed me a pop-tart. "But I did check it out, and it looks excellent. I can't wait!"

I smiled again as James draped an arm around my shoulders and took a big bite of his own pop-tart.

While we were eating, Meowth came from the tent and joined us. "Heh. Don't wake me up for breakfast, or nothin'," he said sarcastically as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Well, good morning to you, too," said James.

The cat's sour expression faded as he took a sip of his coffee and grabbed a pop-tart for himself. "So...how're we gonna go about dis superhero business?" he asked. "I mean, do we have a plan for dat, or anything?"

James and I exchanged looks. How, indeed, were we going to be superheroes?

"Well...." James ventured after a moment of silence. "Jess and I used to watch The Tick all the time back when we were at Pokemon Tech...."

I chuckled. The Tick had always been one of our favorite cartoons -- it was the perfect satire of all those cheesy goody-goody superhero shows! I remember, James and I would get together every Saturday morning and curl up together on the couch, waiting to see what whacked-out situation Tick would get himself into next!

Meowth gave him a quizzical look. "The Tick at Tech? What's yer point?"

James laughed. "Tick was a complete moron, but he and his trusty sidekick, Arthur, used to fight evil by patrolling The City and looking for wrongs to right."

I smiled again. "So...what you're saying is that we go back to the city, leap from building to building, and cause massive structural damage in our hunt for evil?"

Meowth grinned. "Sounds like a plan ta Me-owth! Whadda we waitin' for?! Let's go!!!"

"Not so fast, Meowth," James said, placing a hand on the cat's head. "We have to put on our costumes first!"

"Jess did a great job on 'em!" Meowth told him. "....And dere's a distinct hormonal influence in the design of yours!" he added, giving James a sly smile and nudging him with his elbow.

I blushed and buried my face in my hands.

I felt James put his arm around my shoulders. "Now I really can't wait to try it on!" he whispered into my ear. He leaned over and kissed my burning cheek as I looked at him again. Then, he got up and went back into the tent. Meowth winked at me and followed him.

"Yep. Dese new costumes beat the hell outta dose Metapod suits!" I heard Meowth say after a few minutes of shuffling.

"Yeah," James agreed. "I'd have to say that out of all the costumes we've worn so far, this is definitely one of my favorites!"

"Heh. The only problem I can think of is dat youse guys ain't gonna get no superheroin' done in dese getups," Meowth laughed. "Jess is gonna be too busy checkin' you out, and yer gonna be too busy showin' off for her!"

"Perhaps," James snickered. "But at least you won't have to hear any more Harden attack jokes."

I laughed as I listened in on their conversation. "Hurry up, James!" I called to him. "I want you to get your butt out here and start showing off for me NOW!!!"

I heard James giggle, and Meowth started laughing at him. After a couple more minutes, the two of them emerged from the tent.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw James -- he looked even better in that costume than I'd imagined he would! His form-fitting leather pants hugged him in all the right places, and the vest and spiked shoulder-guards left his slender but muscular arms and chest bare for all the world (or, at least, for me) to see!

James raised an eyebrow and gave me a sly smile as he turned around a couple of times and modeled his outfit for me. "How do I look, Jess?"

I smirked. He knew full well that he looked gorgeous and that he was turning me on. He didn't need to hear it aloud. "Eh. I've seen better," I replied, trying my best to sound nonchalant. As I got up and headed for the tent so that I could change into my own costume, however, I reached over and gave him a quick pinch on the rear.

James blushed as I winked at him and ducked into the tent.

@->->-

Once I'd gotten dressed, I rejoined James and Meowth outside.

"All right!" Meowth cheered when he saw me. "Time ta get dis show on the road!"

"Wait a sec!" James interjected. "What are we going to call ourselves?"

"Whaddaya mean?" Meowth asked.

"Before we can be superheroes, we need superhero names," James explained. "Think about it -- nobody's going to believe we're heroes if we just go around using our real names...and our enemies will know our true identities if we do that!"

"James, those twerps already know our true identities," I sighed. "What difference does it make?"

He smirked at me. "I'm talking about the supervillain enemies!"

I chuckled. He was really getting into this!

"Besides, everybody thinks Team Rocket is evil," he continued, becoming serious again. "If we use our real names or call ourselves Team Rocket, nobody's even going to give us a chance! We need superhero aliases!"

"Good point," said Meowth. "But what ARE we gonna call ourselves?"

"Well, it has to have something to do with our powers or our abilities," I replied.

"And what would dose be?" Meowth snickered. "We're just a buncha punk teenagers in black leather!"

"Maybe it could just have something to do with what we like," James suggested.

The three of us exchanged looks and pondered this for a moment. I looked back on some of the names James and I had come up with for our adventuring parties in Dungeons & Dragons for ideas, but Troll's Bane, the Jade Falcon, and Striking Eagle just didn't seem to describe us or what we were doing now.

I looked over at James and watched him pull out one of his roses. He inhaled its fragrance for a moment and brushed its petals across his cheek, as if to help himself think.

That's when it came to me.

"Roses!" I exclaimed. "We love roses...and we've got these cool spiked crowns! Maybe our name can have something to do with roses!"

Meowth smirked. "Oh, yeah! Roses are sooooo tough and scary! Jess, a superhero name needs ta strike fear inta the hearts of our enemies!"

"Ah, but you're forgetting something, Meowth," James said, brandishing his rose again.

"What's dat?"

"Roses may be soft and beautiful, but they can be dangerous, too," he replied. With that, he tossed the rose to Meowth.

Meowth reached up and caught the rose. He cried out in pain as its thorns stabbed into his paws. "Ouch! Okay! I get the point!"

James folded his arms across his chest and smiled.

"Maybe if we gave ourselves an evil-sounding name...." I muttered.

"How about The Black Rose?" said James. "That sounds kind of dark, and it certainly describes how we look...."

"Yeah!" I agreed. "It really does! The Black Rose it is, then!"

"Yeah!" James and Meowth echoed.

With that, the three of us joined hands. And as we gazed into each other's eyes, we suddenly found ourselves overwhelmed by the urge to go out and do good!

I smiled at my two friends as we broke from our hand-hold and started heading back towards the city. That's when I got another urge -- the urge to herald our arrival....

"If these people think we're here for trouble,"

James grinned at me. "Then, we're certainly going to burst their bubble!"

My smile became a grin, too. I knew James would be on the same wavelength -- he always is! "Instead of causing tribulation,"

"We've undergone a transformation!"

"Although it's way outside our usual range,"

"We're going to do something nice for a change!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Up til now, Team Rocket's been quite unscrupulous!"

"Being good guys for once will be super-dupulous!"

"Dat's right!"

Once we'd recited the heroic version of our motto, the three of us laughed again. Somehow, I got the feeling that James was right -- we weren't going to screw this one up.

Being good guys really was going to be super-dupulous!

@->->-

"See anything yet?" I asked.

James shaded his eyes and looked around for a moment. "Nope," came his reply.

I sighed. We'd been patrolling the city all morning, and during that time, we hadn't found any evils to fight or wrongs to right.

"Maybe we're not looking hard enough," James muttered.

"Maybe," I echoed. We hadn't exactly been patrolling, per se. We weren't leaping from building to building, Tick-style, and scouring the city for evildoers -- we'd opted to go with our own strength and keep a low profile, watching for evil from the shadows instead.

But so far, we had nothing to show for it.

"Maybe we ain't findin' nothin' cuz dere ain't no evil to find," Meowth remarked. "We was the supervillains, after all. Now dat we ain't supervillains no more, dere ain't nobody left ta fight."

"That's where you're wrong, Meowth," I said, remembering my fight with the three thugs the previous night. "Evil doesn't always come in supervillain form."

"Yeah," James agreed. "Sometimes it's more subtle."

"We just need to know where to look for it, that's all," I added.

Meowth nodded.

The three of us exchanged looks and thought for a moment. There had to be a hotbed of evil somewhere that always seemed to get overlooked. But where was it?

Our train of thought was interrupted by the sound of our growling stomachs.

"Well, I don't know about youse guys, but I sure as hell can't think on an empty stomach," said Meowth.

"Neither can I," James agreed. "Why don't we think about it some more over lunch?"

"Good idea," I said.

With that, the three of us changed out of our superhero costumes, put on some regular clothes, and set out to find a place where we could get something to eat.

@->->-

Fortunately, our search for food wasn't as fruitless as our search for evil -- we found a small cafe after only a couple of minutes.

"We got enough money ta pay the tab?" Meowth asked as the three of us found a booth in a dark corner of the cafe. "I don't wanna do a dine-n-dash or get stuck washin' dishes."

"Neither do I," James replied as he brought out his wallet and looked inside. "But we should be okay as long as we don't order anything too expensive. Our poor waitress is probably going to get a cruddy tip, though. God, I hate the week before pay day!"

Meowth and I nodded in agreement.

After perusing the menu for a few minutes, the waitress came to take our order. Meowth got a tuna-salad sandwich while James and I opted to split a foot-long Italian sub. We also ordered a basket of pretzels and three large colas.

The waitress returned with our drinks and pretzels after a couple of minutes, but she informed us that the sandwiches were going to take awhile since it was the lunch rush. I made a mental note to chip in with her tip, no matter how much James protested that he should be the one to pay.

While we were waiting for our food, a woman entered the restaurant and seated herself at the table next to ours. Another woman joined her a couple of minutes later.

"Hey, Rhiannon!" the second woman said.

The first woman looked up and smiled when she saw her friend. "Hey, Laine!"

"How's it going?"

"Pretty good. You?"

Laine seated herself at the table. "I'm good, too."

Rhiannon nodded. "I hope Celes and Terra get here soon," she said, looking at her watch. "I'm starving!"

My ears perked at the mention of Celes and Terra's names. These women were friends of theirs! I don't normally eavesdrop on other people's conversations, but for some reason, my curiosity got the better of me, and I was compelled to listen in and hear what they had to say.

Laine's smile faded. "Oh, they're not going to be able to make it today," she replied. "Celes called me this morning. She and Terra got the idea for their manga last night, and they're going to be busy working on it for awhile."

Rhiannon frowned. "Well, I'm glad they've got the inspiration they needed, but it's a bummer they can't be here. I really wanted to talk to them!"

"Yeah," Laine agreed.

I couldn't help but smile...and wonder what Celes and Terra's manga was going to be like!

"Jessie...."

The sound of James's voice broke my concentration. I looked back at him.

"Jess, what are you doing?" he asked.

"I...um...uh...."

"You weren't listening in on those ladies, were you?" he whispered.

I nodded. "I know it's rude, but they mentioned those girls I helped yesterday. I wanted to hear what they had to say," I explained.

James smirked.

"Besides," I continued. "I just...I don't know. Something tells me this is important."

Meowth snickered and grabbed a handful of pretzels. "I think somebody's way overdue for some girl talk."

"That's not it at all!" I retorted. "It's just a gut-feeling I have...."

"Going with your instincts?" James ventured.

"Yeah," I replied. "It may give us the lead we've been looking for."

He raised an eyebrow. "Jessie, I don't see how listening in on a bunch of gossip is supposed to help us."

"Well, James, you said yourself that sometimes evil is subtle," I told him. "The people in this city know what's going on better than we do, so who better to turn to for information?"

"Point," he conceded.

I smiled at James and took his hand in my own, giving it a gentle squeeze. Then, we turned our attention back to the two women at the neighboring table.

"Mwa, ha, ha! Oh, that's funny!" Laine laughed as she handed a folded piece of paper to Rhiannon. "No wonder you're so disappointed that Celes and Terra aren't here!"

"I guess I'll just have to e-mail this to them later," said Rhiannon. "Still, it would've been great to see their reaction in person."

Laine nodded. "Where'd you find that anyway?"

Rhiannon grinned. "A really cool site called wshrubbsux.com," she replied.

"Oh, yeah! I've seen that place! It rocks!" Laine exclaimed. "I think Terra did some fan art for them -- a pic comparing W. Shrubb to a Slowpoke. They've got that same dopey face...."

"The Slowpoke is definitely better looking, though...not to mention smarter!" Rhiannon snickered.

"That's for sure!" Laine agreed. "That guy is so stupid!"

"Yep. Some village is definitely missing their idiot," said Rhiannon. "And he's crowned himself our king."

"You know, Celes was actually there when they were tallying up the votes, and she says it was rigged," Laine continued. "She wrote an editorial for the paper about some of the things that Shrubb's supporters did to skew the outcome, but it never got printed."

"Hmmmph. Wouldn't surprise me if his majesty wouldn't LET her editorial get published," Rhiannon snorted. "He is the one who said there ought to be limits to freedom, after all."

Laine scowled. "Oh, my God, he really said that?! I mean, I'm totally against libel and slander, and I think people have to take responsibility when they have rights, but limits to freedom?! Can you say Big Brother? Sheesh!"

"My sentiments exactly!" Rhiannon grumbled.

"I wonder who dis Dubya Shrubb guy is," Meowth whispered. "Sounds like a real world-class jerk."

James nodded. "Sounds like a politician," he remarked. "A crooked politician."

"James, all politicians are crooked!" I said.

He nodded. "I know. I meant more crooked than normal."

I chuckled.

"Urgh! That guy is so evil!" Laine growled. "Where the hell is Gligar Man when we REALLY need him?!"

"Yeah!" Rhiannon agreed. "If Gligar Man really were the vanquisher of all evildoers, he'd have kicked W. Shrubb's sorry ass seven ways to Sunday by now!"

"Ah, what do you expect?" said Laine. "Gligar Man is rich -- he probably VOTED for Shrubb!"

Rhiannon shuddered. "Now that's a scary thought!"

"Definitely," Laine replied. "I mean, what exactly has Gligar Man done lately?"

Rhiannon frowned. "Yesterday he and some dorky kid with a Pikachu beat up a guy and a Meowth in Metapod suits and a girl who looked like Boadicaea the Celtic Warrior Queen...."

Our eyes widened -- they were talking about US now! (And my smile grew even wider than ever at being compared to one of my all-time favorite historical figures!)

"What the?! Why?!" Laine asked.

"I don't know," came Rhiannon's reply. "I think they were messing around in his toy store, dressing his employees up like Metapods, or something."

"Oh, yeah. We all know how evil THAT is!" Laine said sarcastically. "Meanwhile let's ignore all the crime and corruption."

"I liked that Boadicaea girl...and those Metapods were cute, too," Rhiannon sighed. "I don't see what was so evil about them."

"Really!" said Laine. "I think they'd make better heroes than that chubbo, Gligar Man! And Celes said she and Terra actually met that girl last night! They said she's really nice!"

James smiled and nudged me with his elbow. I blushed.

And as we continued to listen to the two women bash Gligar Man and W. Shrubb, I suddenly realized that this was the lead we'd been searching for all morning! It may not have been a supervillain, but it was evil in one of its purest forms -- injustice. Somebody else had made complete fools of the people of this city -- this was our chance to unmask a REAL charlatan and bring the truth to light!

"That's it!" I whispered excitedly. "I know what we have to do now!"

James and Meowth looked back at me. A mischievous light was glimmering in their eyes.

"Yeah!" said James. "Let's go and kick W. Shrubb's sorry ass seven ways to Sunday!"

"Dis punk is goin' down!" Meowth exclaimed.

"This looks like a job for the Black Rose!" we said in unison.

"One footlong Italian, and one tuna salad?"

We looked up and saw our waitress carrying a tray with our lunch on it.

"Yeah, that's us," James replied.

She smiled and set the sandwiches down on the table.

"So, whadda we gonna do first?" Meowth asked as he pulled the wrapper off of his sandwich and took a bite. "I mean, we can't just beat the shit outta dis guy cuz of a little hearsay -- we need some solid evidence!"

James nodded as he split the sub in two and handed half to me. "Agreed. We should probably check out that website those ladies mentioned. It's probably full of interesting facts!"

"No doubt," I said. "But what do we do once we have the facts?"

James smiled at me. "Don't worry, Jess. I'm sure we'll think of something. We just have to wait and see what we learn, that's all."

"Well, one way or another, Dubya Shrubb is gonna get what's comin' to him!" said Meowth.

"Amen to that," James and I said as the three of us clinked our soda glasses together.

@->->-

Once we'd eaten lunch and paid the tab, James, Meowth, and I returned to camp, and James booted up our laptop computer. Logging onto the internet, he entered the url for wshrubbsux.com, and after a few minutes, a large, graphic-intensive page opened.

"Oh, man! Dose girls wasn't jokin'! Dis guy looks like a freakin' MORON!" Meowth laughed as a photograph of W. Shrubb loaded. "I've seen a smarter face on ol' carrot-top's Psyduck!"

"No kidding! He really does have that dopey Slowpoke expression!" James snickered as he scrolled down and came across the picture that Terra had drawn.

As James and Meowth continued to laugh at all the goofy pictures of W. Shrubb and read some of his idiotic quotes, I suddenly got an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach -- it felt like we were being watched!

I turned around and scanned the area, but I didn't see anybody. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that we weren't alone.

"Dis plan is like Swiss cheese...I guess dat means it's not very effective?" Meowth said, reading another of Shrubb's quotes. "What the freakin' HELL?! Does dis guy even know what he's talkin' about?!"

James chuckled for a moment, but then I felt his hand on my shoulder. "What's the matter, Jess?" he asked. An expression of concern was etched on his face.

"Someone's out there, James," I whispered.

Meowth stopped laughing when he heard this. "Are ya sure?" he whispered back.

I nodded. "I always know when we're being watched...and it's happening right now."

James frowned. I could tell from the look in his emerald eyes that he was thinking about the last time we'd been stalked like this. "Jess...do you think that bitch is after us again? You think she followed us all the way out here?" he asked nervously.

"Well, she followed us all the way to the Orange Islands...." I replied.

"But we took care of her back in Saffron City!" Meowth protested. "Bitchybelle's locked away in the looney-bin where she belongs now!"

"She could've escaped," James remarked.

I shuddered.

Suddenly, the look on James's face went from one of apprehension to one of resolve. "Well, there's only one way to find out if she's here or not," he said. "And it's better to deal with her now if she is than to be taken by surprise again!"

"Yeah!" Meowth and I agreed.

The three of us got to our feet and scanned the area for a few more minutes. We searched the campsite and the surrounding forest, but we didn't find anybody or even a sign that anybody else was even there! Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that we weren't alone. As we looked around, however, I got another feeling in my gut -- a feeling of safety. We were, indeed, being watched, but something told me that it wasn't by a menacing force. Whoever, or whatever, it was meant us no harm.

Probably just a wild pokemon, I said to myself. It's nothing to worry about. Then aloud, "I don't see anything. I guess we'll be okay."

"Yeah," said James. "I think we'd know by now if Jessiebelle were tailing us -- we'd have seen a Vileplume...."

"....Or caught a whiff of dat stinky perfume she's always wearin'," Meowth added.

I nodded. "False alarm. Sorry about that."

"Don't be," James said, putting an arm around my shoulders. "Can't ever be too careful, you know. Not when a psycho like that is involved."

I smiled as he leaned closer and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Alright, alright, enuffa dis!" Meowth said as I returned James's embrace. "Let's get back ta dat research!"

James and I released each other and sighed.

Focusing our attention back on the computer, James clicked on some of the site's links, which led to news articles and research reports about last year's election.

And what we saw shocked us.

Several inner-city precincts had to turn away large numbers of voters on election day -- most of them anti-Shrubb -- because they'd never been registered to vote. A lot of these same voters had, indeed registered, but the group that processed the registration forms had strong political ties to Shrubb. This group had also been responsible for a computer glitch that gave a disproportionate amount of anti-Shrubb voters erroneous felony convictions on their records, which rendered them ineligible to vote.

A group of Officer Jennies was fired when an internal investigation revealed that they'd taken kickbacks to set up a road block to one of the voting precincts on election day. The voters who never made it to the polls because of the road block were never given a second chance to vote.

The ballots that the city had used in the election had an odd layout which made a Shrubb vote clearly discernable while a vote for an opposing candidate could be easily confused with two or three other candidates. The company that had designed the Butterfree-ballots had also given enormous monetary contributions to Shrubb's election campaign.

Several ballot-boxes from anti-Shrubb precincts mysteriously vanished after the election, and the tamper-proof seals had been broken on the ones that were returned.

After the election, thousands of disenfranchised voters cried fraud and demanded a recount. The city commissioners gave election officials three days to retally the votes, but during this time, angry Shrubb supporters did everything they could to stall the recount process -- they'd even stormed the building where the recounts were taking place and threatened the volunteers with physical violence! An interview with volunteer Celes Conway quoted her as saying, "It looked like all hell had broken loose when those guys busted in! I thought people were going to get killed!" The volunteers did, indeed, finish their recounts, which showed that Shrubb's main opponent had won the election by a considerable margin, but because of the distractions, they missed the deadline by three hours. The head of the city commissioners, who belonged to Shrubb's political party, never did anything to stop the stalling tactics, and she declared the recount results invalid because of the missed deadline. Thus, W. Shrubb had been declared the winner and became the city's new mayor.

The list of irregularities, "coincidences," and abuses of power went on and on. And as I read about all of these disenfranchised citizens being intimidated and silenced by a system that only cared about itself, it reminded me of my own life...and the lives of my friends. James and I had been victimized by Quentin and Judith Woodson and Arianna Razzo -- used as tools for personal gain -- the same way this city's voters had been victimized by the local government and businesses. Meowth's silent voice had cried for help during his kittenhood and fallen on the deaf ears of an uncaring world, the same way this city's voters had their votes...their voices taken away from them by the deaf, uncaring system. If anybody knew how it felt to be disenfranchised, the three of us did. The thought of it made my blood boil!

"Holy shit!" Meowth cried. "Dis Shrubb guy is an even bigger cheater den dat Ketchum kid!"

"Ugh! I know it!" James agreed. "This whole thing just REEKS of fraud! God, I hate politics!"

"So do I," I growled. "An ass-kicking is too good for the likes of this guy -- we need to get him kicked out of office, too!"

"Good idea, Jess!" James exclaimed. "Local elections like these can be redone if there's enough evidence to show that the outcome was fraudulent...and we've got the evidence right here! We've got tons of it!"

"Uh, HELL-LO?! Earth ta Jessie and James! Dat's precisely why a recall election AIN'T gonna happen!" Meowth snapped.

"What do you mean, Meowth?" we asked in unison.

The cat rolled his eyes and sighed. "Think about it! Even with all dis evidence on-hand, nobody did nothin' about it! It was as plain as day ta everybody dat he cheated, and he still got away with it! Besides, the city commissioners and the local courts are all on his side -- dere ain't no kinda recourse!"

James folded his arms across his chest and smiled. "And that's where you're wrong, Meowth."

"James, do you have an idea?" I asked eagerly.

He nodded. "This just proves that it's not what you say -- it's how you say it! We just need to find a way to use this evidence to our advantage...to present it in a way that Shrubb's spin-doctors can't make excuses for it! The weird ballots and disproportionate number of votes against Shrubb's main opponent were dismissed as voter error, they justified interfering with the recounts by saying that they were unlawful...you get the picture."

"Den what're we supposed ta do?" Meowth queried.

"We use the evidence we have to force some more evidence out of Shrubb...incriminating evidence," came his reply. "And I know just how to do it!" With that, he turned his attention back to the computer.

Meowth and I exchanged looks. "What's he doing?" I asked.

"Damned if I know," said Meowth.

After trying a couple of different urls, James located the mayor's official website and searched around for a few moments. When he found Shrubb's e-mail link, he opened a new browser window and began to type again.

Meowth grinned. "Ya gonna spam him, Jimmy? Or taunt him, Black Arachnid-style?"

James smiled again. "Hardly. This is a sneak-attack all the way, Meowth."

I knealt by James's side and leaned closer to get a better look at what he was doing. I don't know nearly as much about computers as he does, but as I watched him in action, I was able to figure out what he was up to.

"Those are passcodes, aren't they?"

He nodded. "I'm going to try and hack his e-mail account. There's bound to be some...interesting tidbits in there."

I was impressed. Hacking into Shrubb's e-mail to find more evidence against him had never even occurred to me (and even if it had, I sure as hell wouldn't have had the know-how to do it myself)! "You're a genius, James!" I whispered into his ear.

"Yeah! Good thinkin', Jimbo!" said Meowth. "I take back all the cracks I ever made about you bein' dumb!"

James continued to focus his attention on the task at hand, but the smile on his lips grew wider than ever, and his cheeks began to turn a little pink.

Unable to resist how cute he looked, I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my chin on his shoulder. James sighed contentedly and leaned into me a little. His soft hair brushed against my face, and the tip of my nose brushed against his neck as I inhaled the wonderful fragrance of his body. He smelled sweet -- like roses. Pushing aside a strand of his hair, I pulled myself closer than ever and kissed him on the cheek. James turned his head slightly, and his eyes sparkled as he removed one of his hands from the keyboard and caressed my face for a moment.

Returning his attention to the computer once again, James entered a few more codes. Suddenly, however, the screen turned blue, and a large skull and crossbones appeared.

Meowth gasped. "What the?!"

"Is this what they call the blue screen of death?" I asked.

James shook his head. "No. No, a blue screen of death doesn't have graphics -- just a fatal error message. This is just a blockade to a secure bandwidth."

"Den whadda we supposed ta do?" said Meowth.

James grinned as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "We crack the code, of course!"

After a couple of minutes, the skull and crossbones exploded in a flash of white, and an Access Granted message appeared in its place.

"We're in!" he exclaimed. "All too easy!"

"....Said the level fifty computer nerd," Meowth said sarcastically.

James laughed. "The Mad Hax0r strikes again!"

"Alright, enough gloating," I said, unable to supress my envy of his superior computer skills. "Let's just read this guy's e-mail!"

James nodded and clicked on the Inbox icon. After a moment, a list of messages appeared.

And sure enough, when we read his correspondence, it confirmed everything we'd seen earlier -- W. Shrubb had been snuck into office by the businesses and government officials that he'd promised to serve. He was no leader -- he was just the puppet of those who'd bought the election. (And judging from the mind-numbing amount of spelling and grammar errors in the messages that he wrote, he didn't have the brains of a leader either!)

"Okay, so we've confirmed dat he's a cheat. Now what?" Meowth asked. "How're we supposed ta go public with dis stuff without makin' ourselves look bad? And more importantly, how're we gonna use dis information ta get the city commissioners ta approve a recall election? Dere ain't no way dey're gonna turn against him! Not with all the money dey spent gettin' him inta office!"

"But you're forgetting something, Meowth," I said.

"I am? What?"

"The people who bought the election only care about themselves. That much is obvious, considering how many people they hurt getting this loser into office," I explained. "They'd sell Shrubb down the river in a heartbeat if he wasn't useful to them anymore or if he turned against them!"

"Good point," said James. "But how do we make it so that he's not useful to them anymore? How do we turn them against each other?"

I grinned. "Don't worry, guys! I already have a plan...."

James and Meowth chuckled as they huddled closer to hear what I had to say.

@->->-

My plan was simple -- all we had to do was break into City Hall and steal the surveillance tapes of the mayor's office and find a way to air them for all the city to see. With everything that had been going on since the "election," there was bound to be footage of some of these shady arrangements (I got the feeling Shrubb wasn't smart enough to avoid being caught on tape or to destroy the evidence), and if people actually saw it on TV, there'd be no way for him to cover it up!

Once I'd told James and Meowth my plan and we worked out all of the kinks, we changed back into our superhero disguises and headed for City Hall. Hiding in the shadows of an alley, we silently waited for darkness to fall. When City Hall finally closed for the night and the mayor, the city commissioners, and all of the city employees went home, the Black Rose made its move.

Climbing up to the roof, we made our way into the building through a ventilation shaft. The air passages were like a maze, but luck was on our side for a change, and we were soon able to locate an air vent inside of the building.

"Looks like it's all clear," Meowth whispered as he peered down into the room below. "No security guards, no cameras...."

"Then let's get to work!" I said.

With that, James silently removed the grating from the air vent, and the three of us jumped down. "So, where do you think they keep the security tapes, Jess?" he asked as he turned on a flashlight and brought out a floor plan of City Hall that he'd downloaded while he was in Shrubb's account.

I studied the floor plan for a moment. We were in the main lobby, and there were corridors in each corner of the room, leading to various parts of the building. The two halls in the northern corners seemed to lead to offices and cubicle farms while the halls in the southern corners led to the lunchroom, restrooms, and custodial areas.

"I'm guessing somewhere around here," I replied, indicating the hall that led to the custodial areas. "I don't think they'd keep security tapes in the offices or the break room."

He nodded. "Good point."

Since nobody had any better suggestions, the three of us headed down the corridor that I'd chosen.

Now, James, Meowth, and I are seasoned veterans when it comes to breaking in -- museums, department stores, pokemon centers, mansions...we've done it all! And normally, it's no big deal for us since it's practically routine. But for some strange reason, tonight felt different. My heart thundered in my chest with each step I took, and rivers of cold sweat were pouring down my body, making the black leather of my costume extremely uncomfortable. And as I looked over at my friends, I could tell that they were just as edgy as I was.

Why? Why were we so nervous? We'd broken into places and stolen stuff without incident before. Why did tonight feel so different from one of our regular heists? Was it exhilaration from the knowledge that this time it wasn't for personal gain? Because an entire city was in trouble and needed us? Was it apprehension that we'd somehow manage to screw it up? Was it the funny feeling I had in the pit of my stomach that we were still being watched? Or was it a combination of the three?

"Let's try dis one...."

The sound of Meowth's voice derailed my train of thought and nearly made me jump out of my skin. When I regained my composure, I saw him bringing out his claws and picking the lock of a door we were standing next to.

After several minutes, Meowth was able to finesse the lock, and the door swung open. The only things we found inside the room were some mops, brooms, and cleaning buckets, however.

"Just the janitor's closet," the cat grumbled.

"Then let's try another one," James said, pointing to another door a short distance ahead.

One by one, we picked the locks to each door we found. But each time, our efforts were fruitless. Once we got to the door at the end of the hallway, it took all three of us to budge the lock. Meowth broke a few claws, I broke a few spikes from my gauntlets, and James went through a few lock-picking wires in the process, but we were able to get it open eventually.

And our efforts paid off -- the far wall of this room was lined with monitors, showing what was happening in the different parts of the building. Several shelves filled with videotapes lined the walls, and there was even a small storage bay where more tapes were being kept!

Meowth facefaulted. "Figures it's the last door we try and dat it has the hardest lock...."

"Of course," James told him. "Things like this are never simple, Meowth!"

"Oh, stop complaining!" I said. "We found it, didn't we? Let's just hurry up and get the tapes!"

"Right!" the two of them said in unison as they followed me into the room.

Figuring that the juiciest footage would be what took place immediately after the "election," the three of us dug into the archives and selected all the tapes of the mayor's office from the first three months of his term. And sure enough, when we viewed the tapes, everything we saw jibed with what we'd read at wshrubbsux.com and what we'd downloaded from his e-mail account.

"I can't believe he was so stupid he didn't even bother to erase these tapes or dispose of them somehow!" James remarked as he watched Shrubb shaking hands with the president of the company that had manufactured the ballots.

I smirked. "What are you complaining for? It works out perfectly for us, doesn't it?"

"I know," he sighed. "But it still makes me sad. I mean, this guy is such an idiot, he actually makes the twerp seem smart! And look at all the power he holds! What hope is there for this world if it's being run by cretins?"

"I see dumb people," Meowth whispered.

"Don't worry, James," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Shrubb may be an idiot, but we're going to teach him a lesson!"

This made him smile again.

Meowth shuddered. "Okay, I've already had more of dis guy den I can stomach," he said in a disgusted voice as he switched off the tape and ejected it. "Let's just grab dese things and get the hell outta here!"

James and I nodded in agreement and helped Meowth gather all the tapes of Shrubb's shady dealings.

"Who says you can't fight city hall?" James laughed as we shoved the tapes into a small sack and took our leave.

"Yeah!" Meowth and I said as we began to laugh with him.

It seemed as if we'd pulled off another flawless heist, but as we were heading back down the hall, we suddenly found that our way was blocked by a bunch of security guards.

"Hey!"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"They've got the tapes!"

"Stop, thieves!" They cried.

Well, now we were faced with an interesting dilemma. We had to make our escape, but we couldn't get around the security guards, and we couldn't fight them either. Sure, James and I could probably make quick work of them in an even match, but these guys had guns! And from the look of things, they had every intention of shooting us dead if we tried anything!

James and I exchanged looks. I didn't want him to be killed because of this, and I could tell from the look in his eyes, that he felt the same way about me. We had no choice but to surrender.

Slowly, the two of us set down the bag of tapes and put our hands up. Seeing that we were unarmed, the security guards put away their guns and approached us. Just as they were about to cuff us, however, one of them screamed in agony and crumpled to the floor. James and I looked and saw that Meowth had sunken his claws into the man's leg.

Good old Meowth!

Taking advantage of the other guards' momentary distraction, James floored one of them with a left hook, and I sent another one reeling with a high kick. Then, grabbing the bag of tapes once again, we triple-teamed the last one and bowled him over as we darted by.

Not wanting to take any chances that they'd recover and start shooting at us, James grabbed a poke ball from his belt and tossed it. "Weezing! Make a Smokescreen!" he commanded as his pokemon emerged.

Weezing nodded and began to pump out a cloud of black smoke. "Wee-zing weez!"

I then followed suit and released one of my own pokemon. "Arbok! Dig a way out for us!" I said.

Through the haze, I could barely perceive the cobra nodding her head. "Chaaar-bok!" Then, I heard a crashing noise as she burrowed into the floor.

James, Meowth, and I joined hands and jumped into Arbok's tunnel. Weezing followed us.

By the time we heard the confused cries of the security guards echoing through the tunnel, we already had a big enough lead that they wouldn't be able to catch us. It was difficult to gague time and distance underground, but once we were sure that we were a safe distance from City Hall, Arbok began to burrow upwards. Before long, we surfaced at a street several blocks away.

But we weren't quite safe yet.

When we looked back towards City Hall, we saw a beam of light shooting up from the roof, casting a beacon in the shape of a Gligar onto the black night sky.

"Shit! The Gligar signal!" Meowth cried. "Let's get outta here before Gligar Man and Gli-Girl show up!"

James and I nodded, but as the three of us made a run for it, a large Gligar swooped down and dive-bombed us.

"Too late!" James wailed as he ducked the stinging lash of Gligar's poisonous tail.

"Stop, evildoers!"

I looked up and saw Gligar Man standing on the roof of a nearby building. Gli-Girl was racing up the street on her motorcycle.

But the Black Rose would not be stopped! Not by the likes of them!

Quickly, I took the bag of tapes from Meowth and gave them to Arbok. "You remember where our camp is?"

Arbok nodded.

"Good! Hurry up and get the tapes back to camp! James, Meowth, and I will handle these guys!"

Arbok nodded again and burrowed back into the ground.

"Be careful girl," I called after her.

"Weezing! Go with her!" James commanded.

Weezing smiled as he followed Arbok into the hole. I could tell from the expression on his two faces that he wanted to be with his friend...to protect her. Besides, if it came to a pokemon battle, we still had Lickitung and Victreebel!

Fortunately, Gligar Man and Gli-Girl didn't seem to notice Arbok and Weezing -- all they cared about was apprehending us.

"You again!" Gligar Man said once he was close enough to see who we were. "I've defeated you twice already! When will you villains learn that crime doesn't pay?"

Hmmmph. Why don't you save the sermon for when sleaze-bags like W. Shrubb can't get away with stealing elections? I said to myself.

"Do you really think those new costumes are going to give you an edge?" Gli-Girl asked.

Gligar Man struck one of his dopey action-poses. "Will you surrender, or are you prepared to lose again?"

"Well, ya know what dey say, pops -- the third time's the charm!" Meowth quipped.

"Gligar! Get those evildoers!" Gligar Man shouted.

James and I smiled at each other and brought out our remaining poke balls.

"Go, Lickitung!"

"Victreebel, go!"

Lickitung emerged from her poke ball and assumed a defensive stance. Before James could duck for cover, however, Victreebel lunged at him and chomped down. (I know Victreebel isn't trying to hurt James when he bites him -- he wouldn't obey James at all if he didn't like him! He's just affectionate like his master, that's all. Still, I wish he'd save the love-bites until after the battle.)

"Stop! Cease! Desist!" James cried in a muffled voice. "Don't attack me -- attack that Gligar!"

Victreebel screamed and released James. Then, he took his position by Lickitung.

"Lickitung! Supersonic attack!" I shouted as Gligar dive-bomed us again.

"Victreebel! Razor Leaf!" James commanded.

Razor Leaf?! I said to myself as I watched Victreebel's leaves bounce harmlessly off of Gligar's tough carapace. Why is James getting Victreebel to use Razor Leaf?! He knows that grass pokemon are weak against flying and poison-types! Why didn't he just try to take it out altogether with Sleep Powder?! Then aloud, "James, what are you....?"

James winked at me. "Don't worry, Jess -- I know what I'm doing! We need to...."

"Two against one is cheating!" Gli-Girl shouted, cutting him off.

Well, now I was really angry! I couldn't stand how self-righteous and hypocritical these people were! I was more determined than ever to emerge victorious from this battle...and teach them both a lesson.

I placed my hands on my hips and cackled maniacally in my best supervillain laugh. "You'd know all about cheating, wouldn't you, girlie?" I sneered. "You and your old man let it happen all the time!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Gligar Man demanded.

James laughed evilly and came to my side. "It means that you let the biggest cheat of all get off scott-free. Either you're slipping up, or you've got ulterior motives!"

Now they were both frowning.

"Ya didn't seem ta have a problem with siccin' yer Gligar on us and lettin' dat bratty little kid zap us with his Pikachu yesterday...even though my friends wasn't usin' any pokemon of dere own!" Meowth added. "And I don't recall 'em usin' any pokemon against ya dat mornin' when ya got yer Gligar ta attack us!"

"One and two against zero sure sounds like cheating to me," said James.

"But that was different!" Gligar Man protested.

"How?" I asked. "What makes it okay for some to cheat, but not others? Does it depend on whether or not someone is your friend? Whether or not they serve your purposes?"

Gligar Man and Gli-Girl exchanged looks. They were at a loss for words.

"Everybody is self-serving to some degree. Everybody treats their friends better than they treat their enemies and people they don't know -- it's human nature," said James. "But when people get hurt because of that...when the greater good isn't being served, you have to stop and think about what you're doing!"

I looked over at James, and Meowth looked up at him. Even Lickitung, Victreebel, and Gligar stopped fighting and turned their attention to him.

"Truth. Isn't that something all heroes are supposed to stand up for?" James asked.

"Yes...yes, it is," Gligar Man replied.

"Well, that's all we were doing," James told him. "We may have broken into City Hall, and we may have taken something that didn't belong to us, but it was in search of the truth...."

Gligar Man hung his head. He knew exactly what James was talking about.

"What's this all about, papa?" Gli-Girl asked.

"Why are you so interested in local politics anyway?" Gligar Man queried. "You're not from around here -- it's none of your business!"

"Because we know all about what happened," came James's reply. "It was wrong, so we decided to make it our business. If there's one thing my friends and I can't stand, it's manipulation...."

As I watched James, I finally realized what he was doing. He didn't want to fight with Gligar Man and Gli-Girl at all -- he just wanted to make them understand what we were doing and why we were doing it...to appeal to them as superheroes. That was why he hadn't been trying during the battle -- he knew that defeating them wouldn't accomplish anything except for making us look bad.

That's one of the things I admire about my James -- he can be a fearsome opponent when the need arises, but he also knows when it's better not to fight...to make peace. I was ready to *THWACK!* *POW!* and *WHAM!* the daylights out of those two, but now as I watched James reasoning with them, I realized that we could accomplish more if we brought an end to the fighting.

"You're right," Gligar Man said softly. "I...I knew the election was rigged...."

Gli-Girl gasped. "Papa!"

"Then why didn't you do anything about it?" I asked. "Why didn't you stop Shrubb or expose him when you found out?"

"Because...I was one of his supporters," he replied after a long silence. "I didn't think it was right to betray the candidate I voted for...."

"Not even after what he did ta dis city?" said Meowth.

Gligar Man hung his head again.

"So that's all you were trying to do?" Gli-Girl asked. "You just wanted to expose what the mayor was doing in the election?"

The three of us nodded.

She smiled. "Then maybe you're not such villains, after all. Need any help?"

"What are you doing, Latoya?!" Gligar Man cried. "These are our enemies!"

Gli-Girl shook her head. "No, papa. I don't think they are. All they want is justice...like any real hero would. They're right -- whether we support him or not, Shrubb tainted the vote, and he's not our rightful mayor. He needs to be stopped."

"What are we supposed to do then?" Gligar Man asked.

"We got the tapes dat prove he was cheatin'," Meowth replied. "We just need ta find some way of gettin' 'em on the air...."

"Hmmm...well, Shrubb is giving his State of the City Address tomorrow night on live TV...." Gli-Girl said after thinking for a moment.

That's when I got an idea.

"I know! If we could pre-empt his speech with the footage from the tapes, the whole city is bound to see it!" I said.

James grinned. "Great idea, Jess!"

Gligar Man nodded. "That might work."

"We have some dubbing equipment back at our place. If you want, we could consolidate all of the incriminating evidence onto one tape and make copies to distribute to the media," Gli-Girl offered.

"Sounds good," I told her.

"Then what are we waiting for?" she exclaimed.

"Uh...we kind of...don't have the tapes with us at the moment," said James.

"What do you mean?"

"We sent them ahead with our pokemon as a precautionary measure," he explained. "We'll have to go back to camp to get them."

"Why don't we do this tomorrow?" I suggested. "We'll come over first thing in the morning and make the dubs."

She nodded. "Okay. That'll work, too."

"So, we have a truce?" James said, extending his hand.

"Indeed we do," came Gligar Man's reply as he shook James's hand.

Then, Gli-Girl and I shook hands, and Meowth, Lickitung, and Victreebel shook paws (and vines and wings) with Gligar.

"Until tomorrow morning, then," Gilgar Man said as he, Gli-Girl, and Gligar took their leave.

@->->-

After our encounter with Gligar Man and his team, James, Meowth, and I headed back to camp. Fortunately, we made it without further incident, and Arbok and Weezing were already there with the tapes when we arrived.

"Good girl, Arbok!" I said reaching up and patting my pokemon on the head.

"You did really well too, Weezing," James said as he gave his pokemon a hug.

Arbok and Weezing smiled at us. Then, they smiled at each other and nuzzled together for a moment before we returned them to their poke balls. (Sometimes, I think those two are in love with each other, just like James and I are! It wouldn't surprise me -- they've always been best friends, and after all of the bonding we've done, they've become like us in a lot of ways!)

James and I exchanged looks, and I could tell from the expression on his face that he was thinking the exact same thing I was.

"Heh. Dose two make a cute couple...just like youse guys!" Meowth remarked. "Now all we gotta do is get Licki and Viccie tagedda and find a girl for Me-owth, and we'll be all set!"

"The love-in can wait," I replied sarcastically as I tweaked one of the cat's whiskers. "Right now we've got more important things to think about."

"Yeah," James agreed. "Like our plans for tomorrow."

I nodded. "Precisely. We need to have some kind of contingency plan for our meeting with Gligar Man and Gli-Girl...just in case they intend to double-cross us."

"You're right," said James. "It's great that we're not fighting with them anymore and that they want to help us, but I still don't completely trust them."

"Hmmm...maybe if we split inta two groups," Meowth suggested. "You and James can go meet with 'em, and Me-owth and the rest a the pokemon will be ready ta back ya up if somethin' goes wrong."

James smiled. "Good thinking, Meowth! But how will you know if there is trouble?"

Meowth closed his eyes and pondered it for a moment.

That's when it came to me.

A few months ago, when I was still getting used to being on the pill, I thought that I'd gotten pregnant. It turned out to be a false alarm, but during the few days of my "pregnancy," Meowth had bought several baby presents for me and James. We kept the baby carriage, baby clothes, and other things even though I wasn't pregnant, and now, one of those presents was going to be useful!

Going into the tent and rooting around in my backpack for a few minutes, I found what I was looking for.

"Well, I'll be damned!" James said when I returned with the baby monitor. "That thing is going to come in handy, after all!"

"Yeah!" Meowth exclaimed.

The three of us exchanged smiles. Hopefully we weren't going to need it at all tomorrow, but it never hurts to be prepared, and those tapes were crucial to getting Shrubb kicked out of office. This was one mission we couldn't screw up.

@->->-

None of us slept too well that night -- we were too keyed-up. We were excited about our plan and how well it was going so far, but at the same time we were nervous. The prospect of failure loomed like a dark cloud over us, and the consequences of failure were a lot worse than a bit of personal humiliation this time. An entire city was counting on us! Something that major just couldn't be ignored.

"Hey, James?" I whispered.

"Hnnnh?"

"James, are you awake?"

James slowly opened his eyes and looked at me. "I am now."

"Sorry."

He smiled. "It's okay -- I couldn't really get to sleep anyway. What's on your mind?"

"I was just thinking about the whole superhero thing again," I told him. "I still can't help but wonder if we're any good...."

"Well, we may not be the stuff of comic book legend, but we're certainly not doing that bad, Jess," he replied, taking my hands in his own. "Remember what I said last night about renegades? That's what we are. We may never shine in the spotlight, and nobody may ever understand or appreciate what we do, but it's people like us who end up making all the difference. The world is rarely made a better place by those who do things by the book and never cause trouble -- it's the people with their own philosophies that end up changing things."

"So, in other words, we're doing just fine...and we'll be just fine?" I ventured.

James nodded. "Precisely."

I smiled and wrapped my arms around him. "I love you," I whispered.

"I love you," he echoed as he returned my embrace.

Not wanting to disturb Meowth, who was already sound asleep, the two of us cuddled closer and kissed. Then, we fell asleep in each other's arms, confident that tomorrow would be a good day.

@->->-

After a hasty breakfast the next morning, James, Meowth, and I put our costumes on again and gathered the tapes.

"Okay, youse two, here's the plan," Meowth said as we headed for the Gligar mansion. "Me and the other pokemon'll find a place ta hide near the mansion. We'll listen on dat baby monitor while yer inside dubbin' the tapes, and we'll be ready if it sounds like ya need reinforcements."

"Sounds like a plan to me," I replied.

Once we arrived at the mansion, James and I gave our poke balls to Meowth, and he hid himself in a hammock of trees. While he was setting up the radio, I turned on the walkie-talkie half of the baby monitor and tucked it into the breastplate of my costume.

"Good luck," he said to us.

"Thanks," James and I replied.

@->->-

Sure enough, when we got to the mansion, Gligar Man and Gli-Girl were already waiting for us, and they welcomed us inside. Since everybody in the city already knew their "secret identities," there was no need for them to worry about being discovered, and showing us to the dubbing equipment in the laboratory was a simple matter.

While James and I began scanning the tapes, Latoya took her leave. The toy store was open seven days a week because of the huge demand for Gligar Man merchandise, and she had to go to work. Her father, however, remained behind.

"So...what exactly caused this change of heart?" he asked once we were alone.

"What do you mean?" I asked, pressing a button and deleting an hour of empty office footage from the tape I was scanning.

"I mean the other day, you were evildoers bent on destroying the city, and now you want to save the city," he explained. "I just want to know why."

James sighed. "We weren't trying to destroy the city."

"Then what do you call what you were doing?"

"Dressing people up like Metapods can hardly be called mass destruction," he replied, fast forwarding through a meeting between Shrubb and a group of lobbyists.

"Yeah! We were just getting revenge for you attacking us that morning!" I added. "You have to admit, it wasn't any of your business...."

"I saw a bunch of kids in trouble, and I decided to make it my business," he retorted.

James and I exchanged looks. Gligar Man had a point -- we had been up to no good. (Still, that didn't mean we had to be happy about him stopping us!)

"Let's just say we all made mistakes, and leave it at that," said James. "But now we have a chance to make up for those mistakes.

"You're right," Gligar Man replied. "The way I sat idly by during the election was disgraceful -- I need to redeem myself as a defender of the weak. And this is a great way for you to atone for your misdeeds. The most interesting heroes are the ones who used to be villains -- even I'll admit that!"

I couldn't help but smile when he said this...and think about Celes and Terra again. They'd said something very similar, and it made me wonder what the premise of their manga was going to be. (I had a pretty good idea!)

"At any rate, we're sorry for messing up your toy store," said James.

Gligar Man nodded. "And I'm sorry I misjudged you."

With that, the three of us shook hands. There was no need to worry about a double-cross, after all -- Gligar Man really was on our side this time. Now more than ever I was thankful that James had brought an end to the fighting.

After we deleted all of the extraneous footage from the tapes, we inserted a blank tape into the recorder and copied all of the remaining footage onto it. Then, we did a test-run to make sure that the dub was successful. Once we were sure it was flawless, we made several copies of the new tape -- a couple of backups for me and James in case something went wrong with the broadcast, a copy for Gligar Man and Gli-Girl to keep, a copy to give to the local paper, and a copy for each local TV station. The city was going to see this tape, no matter what!

@->->-

It was late afternoon by the time we finished with the dubs. It was still another four hours until Shrubb's State of the City Address, so James and I decided to stay in town. Gligar Man, meanwhile, decided to go to the toy store so that he could make his rounds and pick up his daughter. Before taking his leave, he told us to meet him and Gli-Girl outside the Channel 5 building on 6th and A at 8:45 sharp.

Once Gligar Man was gone, James and I rejoined Meowth. We found him and the other pokemon waiting where we'd left them that morning. The five of them were sitting in a circle, playing a game of poker. Arbok and Meowth seemed to be having an argument.

"Chaaaaa!!!" Arbok hissed.

"Whaddaya talkin' about?!" Meowth demanded. "Five kings beats yer full house!"

Lickitung and Victreebel (who only had two pair and an ace high and had folded) sweatdropped as they watched the exchange.

As Arbok and Meowth continued to argue about who'd won the hand, Weezing calmly set down his straight flush and took the entire pot of poke-snacks they'd been using as betting chips. He then divided them evenly between himself, Arbok, Lickitung, and Victreebel.

"Hey! Whaddaya think yer doin'?!" Meowth snapped.

"Wee-zing, weez!"

"WHAT?! I was NOT cheatin'!" he cried. "Ya can't just declare the entire hand invalid...."

Arbok, Lickitung, and Victreebel quickly came to Weezing's defense and began to protest.

Meowth folded his arms across his chest and scowled at them. "Fine! Screw youse guys! I don't eat poke-snacks anyway!"

"Having fun?" I asked.

The five pokemon ceased their argument and looked up at us.

James grinned. "I suddenly find myself getting the urge to do a tacky painting of this scene on black velvet. I'm thinking of calling it Pokermon...."

Meowth facefaulted. "Heh. Dat was so funny I almost laughed," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, knock it off, Meowth!" I said, changing the subject. "We made the dubs."

His mood brightened when he heard this. "Ya did?"

James nodded. "Now all we have to do is be at the TV station by a quarter of nine."

"Dat's still a few hours away, though," he said thoughtfully. "Whadda we gonna do til den?"

"We could get some dinner," I suggested. "Maybe scout out the TV station beforehand...."

"Yeah. I wanted to get there early, too," James agreed. "Couldn't hurt to get the layout of the place -- it'll make things easier later."

"My thoughts exactly!"

James smiled and put his arms around my shoulders. "Great minds think alike."

I returned the smile and gently tugged on the little wisp of hair in his face. "They sure do."

Meowth snickered. "Heh, heh, heh. If dis was a comic book, youse two'd be sharin' a thought cloud about now!"

James and I exchanged looks. Then, we both grinned at Meowth and placed our hands to our temples. "Then read THIS thought!" we said in unison.

Meowth began to laugh. "Now yer sharin' dialogue balloons!"

James and I looked at each other again.

"Wow! Sharing dialogue balloons is kind of sexy!" I remarked.

James smirked. "I agree."

Then together, "We should share dialogue balloons more often!"

"Alright, alright!" said Meowth. "Are we gonna get somethin' ta eat...or are youse guys gonna get a room?"

The two of us blushed.

"You're right," James replied after a moment. "We need to get some dinner."

I nodded. "And get to work!"

With that, the three of us changed out of our costumes once again and went to find a restaurant.

@->->-

As luck would have it, there was an all-you-can-eat sushi bar on J St. and Main -- just a few blocks away from the TV station! And we were hungry for seafood anyway! It was perfect!

"So, what's our plan for scoutin' out the TV station?" Meowth asked as we seated ourselves at a booth in the corner and began to fill out the little cards with our orders.

"Good question," James replied.

When we finished filling out our orders, a waitress came to take our cards and gave us each a dish of ginger root with wasabi sauce and a small pitcher of hot, green tea.

"Well," I said as I poured myself a cup of tea and stirred in a couple packets of sugar, "we need to find a way to get inside without attracting attention."

"We need to find their feed to City Hall and figure out how to pre-empt it with our tape, too," James added as he poured a cup of tea for himself. "It'll save us time when the speech begins."

Meowth rolled a slice of ginger in wasabi sauce and made a face as he put it in his mouth. "I already knew dat!" he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "I just meant how're we gonna do it?"

While we were pondering this, the waitress returned with the first round of our orders.

James broke his chopsticks apart and picked up one of his California rolls. "We could sneak in again, like we did at City Hall last night," he suggested.

Meowth grinned and dipped his tempura shrimp into a dish of soy sauce. "Yeah! Dat's what I was thinkin', too! Say, dose rice ball thingies ya got any good, Jimmy?"

James nodded. "Yeah! They've got crab, avocado, and cucumber in them! You should try some next time, Meowth!"

"Hmmm...I think I will," he said. "And you should try some a dis shrimp! It's ta die for!"

"It sure does look good," he agreed.

I sighed. So much for all of our brilliant planning ahead, I said to myself as I watched James and Meowth continue to discuss hand rolls and tempura. Once those boys got to talking about food, there was no stopping them! Still, I smiled in spite of myself. They were just too cute for me to be annoyed with!

Figuring that maybe the two of them were onto something with taking it easy for awhile and not thinking about our mission, I decided to relax, too. "You know what else you guys should try?" I said, breaking in on the conversation.

James and Meowth turned and gave me an apprehensive look, as if I were going to swat them for allowing themselves to be distracted.

I smirked and picked up a masago wrap from my plate. "The smelt roe!"

They breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's got a finer texture than the salmon roe -- it's not all big and slimy. And the saltiness of the eggs is a pefect complement to the sweetness of the rice," I continued, taking a big bite.

James laughed. "Why, Jessie, you're starting to sound like a regular food conniseur! Maybe I'm rubbing off on you more than I thought!"

"Maybe," I replied, tousling his hair.

James smiled as he leaned closer and kissed my cheek.

And as the three of us continued to take it easy and just enjoy our dinner and talk food, I found it easier to brainstorm and come up with ideas in the back of my mind. One idea in particular seemed so obvious that once it came to me, I didn't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner....

"I've got it! I know what we have to do!" I exclaimed after the waitress brought us a second round of food.

Meowth grinned. "Try and see if we can eat so much dat dey throw us out?"

James grinned, too. "Save room for dessert?"

This time, I really did swat them with my paper fan (playfully, of course). "No. I'm talking about our mission."

"Oh," Meowth groaned.

"We can still get dessert, though? Right?" James asked.

"Of course," I replied, giving him a kiss where I'd bopped him. "But first, listen to this -- if we get Gligar Man and Gli-Girl to empty the building for us, we can play our tape, and not have to worry about sneaking past security or getting caught!"

This piqued their interest. "Mmm-hmmm? Mmm-hmmm?" they asked in unison.

I smiled. "When the broadcast begins, we can get them to make up some phony emergency like a chemical spill or a fire, and they can play the heroes, getting the building evacuated. Once everybody's out, we can make our move!"

"Hmmm...dat just might work!" Meowth said after considering it for a moment.

James agreed that it was a good idea, but as he began to speak, I suddenly got the feeling that we were being watched again.

"Jess, what is it?" he whispered as I turned away from him and scanned the room. "You think somebody's spying on us?"

"Yeah," I whispered back.

"I thought as much -- I had that feeling, too."

"Who d'ya think it is?" Meowth asked.

I looked around for a few minutes, but nobody seemed to even notice...or care who we were. Granted, Meowth sometimes raised a few eyebrows, but without our uniforms or any special disguises, James and I just looked like normal teenagers. In everyday clothes, nobody would ever guess that we were Team Rocket agents. So who was watching us now? Who'd care about a guy, a girl, and a cat that were just eating dinner?

As I continued to look around, however, I did see a few familiar faces -- seated at a booth in the far corner were Terra, Celes, Rhiannon, and Laine! They didn't seem to notice us either, though -- Terra was showing off her new artwork, Celes was talking about something (her new story, no doubt), and Rhiannon and Laine were cracking up at all of it. It was doubtful they even knew we were here.

So why did I get the feeling that they were the ones who'd been spying on us?

I tried my best to listen in on their conversation again, but they were sitting too far away, and the restaurant was too noisy for me to hear anything clearly. I did manage to pick up a bit of what they were saying though, and it sounded like they were bashing W. Shrubb again. From what I could gather, Celes was adding a plot-twist to her story that involved the superheroes fighting the mayor of the city instead of working for him. Rhiannon and Laine also sounded like they were really excited about something that was going to happen later tonight.

Could it be? I asked myself. Are they the ones who've been watching us these past few days? Do they know what we're up to?

"Jessie, do you think it's them?" James whispered into my ear, as if he could read my thoughts. He'd spotted them too, and it sounded like he'd overheard some of what they were saying as well.

"I don't know who else it could be," I replied. "Celes and Terra are the only ones in this place that even know who we are...."

He nodded. "And it seems awfully coincidental that they'd show up in the exact same restaurant where we're eating."

"Yeah. It does, doesn't it?" Meowth agreed.

And as I continued to watch the women laughing and discussing their manga, I couldn't help but wonder if they'd planned all of this.

Oh, don't be ridiculous, Jessie! I told myself. Like anybody would try and turn us into superheroes just to get a corrupt mayor kicked out of office!

It did sound ridiculous now that I thought about it. But still....

@->->-

It was after eight when the three of us finished eating and left the restaurant. The TV station was about a fifteen minute walk from there, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

While we were waiting for Gligar Man and Gli-Girl to show up, we changed back into our costumes and poked around outside the building, looking for a way to sneak in. After a few minutes of searching, we found a side-door in one of the alleyways. It was one of those doors that was locked on the outside and could only be opened from the inside, but we weren't too worried about that -- picking locks was one of our specialties!

Getting in would be a simple matter.

When Gligar Man and Gli-Girl finally arrived on the scene, we told them our plan, and they agreed that it was a good idea.

"I don't like lying to people and making it look like an emergency when there isn't one," Gligar Man said.

"But it has to be done, papa," Gli-Girl told him. Then to us, "When the broadcast begins at nine, we'll go inside and tell everybody there's a gas leak in the ventilation system...."

"Hmmm...I could send Weezing inside and get him to use his gas attack for a touch of realism," James mused when she said this.

"Good idea!" I said.

Gligar Man nodded. "We'll bring all the employees outside, and when Gligar gives the signal, you three can slip in through the side entrance and pre-empt the broadcast."

"Right!" James, Meowth, and I said in unison.

With that, James brought out one of his poke balls and released Weezing. After telling him about our plan, Weezing drifted up to the roof and entered the building through a ventilation shaft. Once he was gone, James got out his lock-picks and opened the side door.

When James finished, Gli-Girl turned on a hand-held TV set that she'd brought with her. "....Attention, all viewers. Our regularly-scheduled programming will not be seen tonight so that we may bring you the mayor's State of the City Address," the announcer began. "Now, live from City Hall, Mayor Walker G. Shrubb...."

The scene on the TV then cut to one of Shrubb sitting at his desk. (He looked even more like a Slowpoke on live TV than he did in news clips and pictures!)

"My fellow citizens," he said, squinting his already beady eyes as if he were reading a cue-card. "Trustworthiness is the key to this administration, and I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness...."

"What the hell?!" Meowth muttered.

"Didn't he just contradict himself?" James asked.

Gligar Man buried his face in his hands. "I can't believe I actually voted for this guy!"

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family, so that's why we ought to make the pie higher...." Shrubb continued.

"The man is insane...completely insane!" I said, unable to believe what I was hearing.

James and Meowth nodded.

Gli-Girl made a face and turned off the TV. "Okay, I've had enough of this. Come on, papa! Let's go!"

Gligar Man nodded. "Right!"

With that, the two of them raced into the building, followed by Gligar. We then took our positions in the alley and waited for the signal. After a few minutes, an alarm sounded.

"Don't worry, it's just a minor problem!" we heard Gligar Man say as people began to pour out of the building.

A few more minutes passed, and Gligar flew past the alley, nodding to us as he swooped by.

That was our cue!

"Got the tapes?" I asked.

"Right here," Meowth replied, pulling one from the folds of his cape.

"Then let's get to work!" James exclaimed.

With that, the three of us pushed the side door open and disappeared into the building.

As we made our way down the corridor, we could see black smoke pouring from the air vents.

"Good old Weezing!" James chuckled as he brought out his poke ball again. He called for Weezing a couple of times, and after a moment, he appeared at the opening of a nearby air vent.

"Wee-zing!" he said happily.

James smiled at him. "Yes, you did very well. I'm proud of you!" He then drew Weezing back into his poke ball, and we continued on our way.

After a few more minutes of searching, we heard the sound of Shrubb's voice coming from a room further down the corridor. We followed it to a large studio where his image was displayed on several monitors.

If this wasn't where the feed was coming from, I didn't know where it was!

"Let's do it!" I exclaimed, taking the tape from Meowth and locating the media player.

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" Shrubb droned on. "We need to preserve and come up with an education plan that will have our children reading by grade three...."

James blinked. "Uh, what happened to grades one and two? Hell, we could read when we were in kindergarten! Right, Jess?"

"Well, we were lucky, James," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "My momma read to me when I was little, and your grandparents read to you. We may not have much, but at least we have that."

"I guess," he sighed. "Still, if he wants to make a point about how the education system has failed, he can hold himself up as a living example!"

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test," Shrubb continued.

"AHHHHH!!!" Meowth screamed. "Why don't ya learn some freakin' grammar, buddy?! Jeezus tap-dancin' Christ! Human ain't even my first language, and I can speak better den he does!"

"Definitely," I agreed.

"....And we need more family values too. Family values is good. Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream," Shrubb went on.

"Okay, that's enough out of you, Dubya!" James said, disconnecting the live feed from City Hall. "Holy shit on a cracker, that guy is dumb!"

I shuddered as I handed him the tape. "You were right, James! He does make that twerp look smart by comparison!"

"Well, if dis don't cause an uproar and get dat bastard kicked out, nothin' will!" said Meowth.

James nodded and pressed the play button. Then, the three of us joined hands. "Please let it work...please let it work...." we whispered in unison.

The image on the monitors was staticky for a few minutes, but then it cut to a scene of Shrubb meeting with a group of business lobbyists.

"Congratulations on your election, Mr. Mayor," the head lobbyist said as he shook Shrubb's hand. "Our support of your campaign was money well spent, I'd say."

Shrubb nodded and offered the lobbyists a box of cigars. "It sure were!"

James, Meowth, and I cringed.

The head lobbyist lit his cigar and took a puff. "You do remember our...agreement, don't you?"

Shrubb grinned. "The land for your new factory? Of course!" he agreed. "Bunch of parents and teachers wanted it for a new school. Kept whining about how the one downtown is overcrowded and falling apart, but hey! That's what private schools is for!"

"So much for his education platform," James snorted.

"....And family values," I added.

After a few more minutes of banter between Shrubb and the lobbyists, the tape cut to another scene of Shrubb meeting with the president of the company that manufactured the ballots. He chatted with the president for several minutes, just like he had with the lobbyists, and then wrote him a check. The president of the company laughed and made a joke about the windfall coming to him on the wings of a Butterfree-ballot as he took his leave.

After that, there was a scene of the chief Officer Jenny having an argument with Shrubb. She was angry because some of her police officers had set up road blocks to a polling precinct on election day, and her investigation had traced the payoffs they'd taken back to him. Shrubb simply told Officer Jenny that he'd had no control over the police department before the election and dismissed her.

On and on the tape went, showing countless scenes of Shrubb's meetings with the businesses that had paid for his campaign...each scene showing how blatantly the election had been bought.

That was when the phone began to ring.

"What the?!" Meowth said. "Sh-should we answer dat?"

"I don't see why not," I replied. "How would somebody on the phone know we're not supposed to be here?" With that, I picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

No sooner than the woman on the other end of the phone began to ask what was going on with the broadcast, another call came in on the second line. The man on that line asked the same question. Then a third line and a fourth and a fifth began to light up. Everybody was asking about the tape and what was going on! It took a few minutes to sort everything out, but eventually, I was able to tell all of the callers that the broadcast was actual footage from City Hall. When I hung up and the lines began to light up with new calls, I gave up.

"Hey, Jess! Look at this!" James exclaimed.

"What is it?" I asked.

He pointed to the computer that measured the network's ratings and compared them to the ratings of programs on other networks. Before we started the tape, only a handful of TVs had been tuned to Channel 5 for the State of the City Address. Now everybody was switching over from Survivalist on Channel 12, Who Wants to be a Bazillionaire? on Channel 25, and Totodile Hunter on Channel 29 to see our tape. Even the people who'd been watching cable were tuning in -- the ratings were going through the roof!

It was the perfect time for the most incriminating evidence of all.

Once the ratings had peaked, the tape cut to a scene of Shrubb and the head city commissioner sitting together in his office.

"Thanks for invalidating those recounts," Shrubb said.

"Not a problem," the city commissioner replied. "It was the least I could do, considering the...generous incentive you gave me!"

The two of them laughed.

"Those voters are morons anyway," the city commissioner continued, grabbing one of Shrubb's cigars. "I can just tell them some mumbo jumbo about recounts being illegal and how it was their own damn fault for not voting for the candidate of their choice. Not my fault they couldn't tell which hole to punch...."

I know I'd seen this scene before, but hearing that bitch gloating about how she'd helped Shrubb rig the election still made my blood boil!

Shrubb laughed again. "Yup! We played this stinkin' city like a baseball!"

The city commissioner facefaulted, but quickly smiled again. "Whatever you say, Mr. Mayor!"

At that moment, Gligar Man raced into the room. He huffed and puffed for several minutes, but once he caught his breath again, he frowned. "Is that tape almost done?" he asked. "The employees know that something is going on! I've got Latoya and Gligar trying to calm them down, but I think they've figured out it was just a false alarm...."

"Don't worry about it," James replied. "The tape just ended...and the phones are ringing off the hook!"

Gligar Man nodded and held out his cell-phone. "Speaking of phones, City Hall found out what happened, too. One of Shrubb's aides is on the line."

I took the phone from Gligar Man. "Hello?"

"What the hell is going on over there?!" the aide demanded. "Why aren't you airing the mayor's speech?!"

I chuckled. "We were experiencing some...technical difficulties," I told him. "But everything is under control now."

"What do you mean everything is under control?!" he cried. "We've got an angry mob outside of City Hall, demanding our heads on a platter!"

I grinned at James and Meowth and gave them a thumbs-up. The two of them smiled at each other and high-fived.

The mayor's aide continued to scream, but I just hung up on him. Then, I turned back to Gligar Man. "Give that tape to the TV station. Make them watch it. Tell them what really happened here."

Gligar Man nodded and went back outside to address the crowd. "Listen up, everybody! There's nothing to worry about!"

The employees quieted down and began to mutter amongst themselves.

"I'm sorry about the false alarm, but there was something that had to be done," he continued, holding up the tape. "Some very important information about mayor Shrubb needed to be made public, and we had to borrow your station in order to air it!"

Everybody began to mutter amongst themselves again.

From inside, James, Meowth, and I watched Gligar Man explaining the tape to the TV station's employees. They all seemed overjoyed, as if they'd been in search of incriminating evidence against him since the election. That tape was probably pay-dirt for them!

"We did good, didn't we?" said Meowth.

"Yeah. We did good," James replied.

"And you were right, James," I said. "It DOES feel good to do the right thing!"

He smiled at me. "Maybe the reason we always fail is because we're not supposed to be villains. Maybe we make better heroes than we thought."

"Maybe," I echoed.

"Come on, guys!" Meowth exclaimed. "Let's go and watch the fun at City Hall!"

Not wanting to miss Shrubb getting his sorry butt kicked by all of the angry voters he'd cheated, James and I nodded and followed the cat out the side door. Nobody noticed as the three of us left the TV station and raced away into the night.

@->->-

When we arrived back at City Hall a few minutes later, we climbed to the roof to get a bird's-eye view of the action. Crowded around the doors was an angry throng of citizens holding up signs that read Hail to the Thief, Don't Blame Me, I Voted With the Majority, and various other anti-Shrubb messages. All of them were chanting "RECALL!!!" over and over again.

"Heh, heh, heh! We sure stirred up a nest a Beedrills with dis stunt!" Meowth snickered.

"Yeah! Only this time, we're not the ones getting stung!" said James.

"A refreshing change of pace, I'd say!" I agreed.

After a few minutes, Shrubb and the city commissioners came outside, surrounded by a group of aides and security guards. The crowd began to boo and hiss.

"My fellow citizens! I...." Shrubb began.

"We want our votes back, you crooks!" a woman shouted, throwing a rotten tomato at him. Shrubb ducked, and the tomato splattered across the head commissioner's dress.

"Yeah! Get outta office, ya lousy bums!" a man shouted. He threw a rotten egg and got Shrubb right between the eyes!

"He's really got egg on his face now!" Meowth laughed.

Several other people in the crowd began to shout obscenities and pelt Shrubb and his associates with garbage as well.

"Why is it that every angry mob always has garbage to throw?" I wondered.

"Hmmm. Must be some kind of rule," James replied.

The security guards tried to calm everybody down, but to no avail. The crowd didn't stop chanting and throwing garbage until Gligar Man and Gli-Girl showed up a few minutes later.

"Gligar Man! Help us!" somebody cried.

"Yeah! The mayor is a cheat!" said somebody else.

"They're insane!" Shrubb shouted, giving Gligar Man a pleading look. "You've gotta help me!"

Gligar Man shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, but the proof is on the tapes -- you stole this election."

Shrubb frowned. "You sell-out! I thought you was on my side!"

"I was," he admitted. "But even I make mistakes sometimes. Some very wise people taught me that being a superhero means always doing what's best for others...even when it isn't what's best for yourself." He looked up towards us when he said this.

James, Meowth, and I exchanged smiles.

"The way I see it, you've got two choices," Gligar Man continued. "You can either resign now and let the citizens hold another election...or you can face criminal charges and get thrown out of office anyway."

"Election fraud is a very serious offense, Mr. Mayor," Gli-Girl chimed in. "But the choice is yours."

Shrubb and the city commissioners muttered amongst themselves for several minutes. Then, they hung their heads and stepped down.

The crowd began to cheer.

"Don't let the door hit yer ass on the way out!" Meowth called down to them.

James and I laughed. The cat couldn't have said it any better!

Once the people had run Shrubb and the city commissioners out of town, they appointed Gligar Man to be their interim mayor until they could get more candidates together and hold another election. As I watched them celebrating, however, I couldn't help but feel a little sad.

"What's the matter, Jess?" James asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Oh, it's nothing," I sighed.

"It's not nothing," he told me. "Now what's wrong?"

I looked up at him. "I guess it's just that...once again, we did the right thing, and nobody notices or cares. I get so tired of that...."

"So do I," he admitted. "But Jessie, you have to admit that this feels better than if we hadn't done anything at all."

"I know it does," I whispered. "Still, it'd be nice to be acknowledged. We did all of the work, but everybody thinks Gligar Man is the hero! It's just not fair!"

"Not everybody," he said, pointing down to the crowd. "Look!"

I peered down at the crowd and saw four women standing apart from everybody else. Two of the women were Celes and Terra, and they were looking up at us! They smiled at us as our eyes met, and I could tell that they knew the truth. The other two women were Rhiannon and Laine, and when Celes and Terra pointed at us, they looked up and smiled, too. James, Meowth, and I waved to them, and they waved back.

"See," he whispered. "It's not a total loss."

"You're right, James," I replied. "You're right...."

@->->-

Once all of the chaos had died down, the three of us returned to camp. As we were getting ready for bed, however, I was hesitant to take off my costume. Now that our mission was complete, we weren't superheroes anymore -- just Team Rocket. When I took my costume off, I'd stop being "that Boadicaea girl," and I'd just be Jessie again.

"You know, it's kind of a shame that we can't just quit our job and be superheroes full time," James remarked, as if he could read my mind.

"Yeah, but superheroin' ain't gonna feed us or pay the bills," Meowth told us. "We got a job ta do, and it happens ta be a bad one!"

"Well, just because our job is bad doesn't mean we are," James retorted. "I liked being a hero! It was fun!"

"So did I," he admitted.

"Me, too," I said. "Maybe James is right -- maybe we really are better at being heroes than we are at being villains! Maybe we really can do this someday!"

James nodded.

"But until den, we gotta keep tryin' our best ta be the worst!" Meowth laughed.

I closed my eyes and smiled as I thought about everything Celes and Terra had told me and what James had said. Sometimes the best heroes are the ones who don't know they're heroes at first...the ones who have to find the heroes within. The renegades may not get all of the fame and glory, but they're the ones who end up making all the difference. And that's what really matters....

"You're going to be such a beautiful superhero someday, Jess," James whispered, derailing my train of thought. "You're beautiful no matter what you are!"

I smiled again as he snaked his arms around my waist and began to kiss my neck.

"You know, James," I whispered, turning around and running my fingers along his bare chest. "We never really got much of a chance to do all of that flirting with each other that Meowth was so worried about."

"Yeah," he chuckled. "All of that superheroing kind of got in the way!"

I blushed. "But we're not superheroes anymore, are we?"

James grinned. "Why, Jessie! Are you flirting with me right now?"

I nodded and pulled him closer. "I loved you as a Metapod Man...but I love what you've evolved into even more!"

"I love you, too," he replied.

"Heh. Should I give youse two love-birds some privacy?" Meowth asked as we leaned in to kiss each other.

James and I exchanged looks. Even though Meowth knew the drill by now, we just couldn't resist.

"Well, James, you may not be a Metapod Man anymore," I began, "but I bet you've still got a great...."

"AHHH!!! I'M LEAVIN', I'M LEAVIN'!!!" Meowth cried, plugging his ears and racing out of the tent.

"Jessie, that was naughty," James chided me once he was gone.

"Well, he's the one who made that dirty joke in the first place!" I chuckled.

Now James was laughing, too. "You behave!" he said, gently tweaking my nose.

I held him closer than ever and pressed my body against his. "Quit playing around, and make love to me, James," I whispered into his ear.

A light twinkled in his emerald-green eyes as returned my embrace and lowered me to the ground. "I thought you'd never ask," he whispered back.

@->->-

I know I always seem to say this, but every time James and I make love, it gets better and better! There's nothing I love more than being close to him...sharing myself with him. No matter how rotten I feel...no matter how bad things may seem, I always know that James loves me. And knowing that he loves me...that we'll always be together, no matter what makes me feel super!

Our love for each other and our friendship...being a team matters more to me than being rich, famous, or successful ever will! True love is a strange thing -- it can melt the coldest heart, turn the most pathetic loser into a winner...even make a villain into a hero. Just look at what it did for me!

As long as I have James, anything is possible!

When it was over, James fell asleep in my arms, but I remained awake. I just laid there and looked at him while he slept, running my fingers through his hair and tracing the outlines of his facial features. "God, you're beautiful," I whispered.

James smiled in his sleep, as if he'd heard me.

I cuddled into James, and as I continued to gaze at him, I knew in my heart that we really were going to have a better life someday. For the longest time, I was convinced that I was evil and incapable of love. But James proved how wrong I was about myself. Such a sweet and beautiful man could never love someone who really is evil, and he loves me with all his heart and soul...he loves me as much as I love him. I know now that I can't ever be evil as long as I have him.

Love truly is an amazing thing.

Epilogue

2 Weeks Later....

It was a beautiful, sunny day as James, Meowth, and I made our way through the streets of a small village near Azalea Town. That twerp had just won his second Johto League badge the night before, and all we'd gotten were a bunch of bug bites, but we'd managed to escape in one piece, just like we always do.

Now it was time to take a break. Goodness knows, we'd earned it!

As we were searching for a place to get some lunch, we passed a shopping-plaza that had a variety of stores. I was tempted to stop at one of the boutiques to see what kind of clothes they had on sale, but we didn't really have the money for me to go on a shopping-spree, so I decided against it.

But then James saw something that piqued his interest. "Oooh! A comic store!" he cried. "Can we make a quick stop, Jessie? Please?"

I wanted to say no (I'd just declined an opportunity to buy clothes, after all), but he was making those big, wobbly eyes at me! How could I resist?! "Oh, okay," I sighed. "But let's make this quick...and we're NOT buying anything!"

James nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Jess!"

With that, the three of us entered the store.

Meowth didn't seem too interested in any of the comic books, so he just kept himself busy by batting around some twenty-sided dice at the Dungeons & Dragons supply center. I stayed with him and browsed some of the new D & D campaign modules for the Sword Coast. As I was looking at a chapter on how a Dungeon Master could include Drizzt Do'Urden as an NPC in their players' party, however, I heard James calling to me from the other side of the store.

"Hey, Jessie!"

"What is it, James?" I called back.

"Come here, Jess! Meowth! You've GOT to see this!"

I sighed and placed the book back on the shelf. Why do I get the feeling we're going to be buying something anyway? I asked myself.

When Meowth and I found James, he was standing at the New Releases shelf. He grinned when he saw us. "Hey, guys! You'll NEVER guess what the #1 bestseller is this month!"

"You're right -- I probably won't. What is it?" I asked.

James grinned again. "It's a new comic series," he replied. With that, he held up the very first issue for the two of us to see.

My eyes widened when I saw the comic book. On the cover was a picture of me, James, and Meowth in those black leather superhero disguises we'd been wearing a couple of weeks earlier! The three of us were striking action-poses, and Arbok and Weezing were behind us. Written across the top were the words, Team Rocket Saves the World!

"Oh, my God!" I whispered as I took the comic book from James. "Oh, my God!"

He chuckled. "And you didn't think anybody was going to notice!"

I couldn't help but smile as I flipped through the pages. The pilot story chronicled the adventures of two young pokemon trainers and their talking Meowth companion and showed how they went from mild-mannered teenagers to leather-clad superheroes and deposed an evil demagogue. In the comic it was a president rather than a mayor that we were fighting, but the plot was still strikingly similar to what we'd done! And when I got to the back page with the About the Authors section, I saw pictures of our old friends, Celes and Terra!

"So this is the manga they were working on!" I mused. "Wow! I knew they'd talked about basing their heroes on us, but I had no idea they were actually going to make us the stars!"

James nodded. "You were right, Jess -- those two WERE the ones who'd been following us around!"

"Heh. I guess dey was just takin' notes for dere story!" Meowth remarked.

"Wow! I'm glad they were able to do so well -- this comic looks pretty cool!" I said, flipping through the pages again.

"Yeah," James agreed. "And you know what else is cool?"

"What?"

"We were an inspiration to them!" he exclaimed. "Because of us, they were able to write and illustrate a story that lots of people are enjoying!"

"Yeah...that is cool!"

Meowth smiled at us. "It's pretty heroic, too. It takes somethin'...or someone really special ta be an inspiration! Just look at ol' Black Ac and what he did for Jessie!"

James and I returned his smile. Then, we smiled at each other.

"Jessie," James said. "I know you didn't want us to buy anything, but do you think we can make an exception for this?"

"Of course!" I replied. "We've GOT to buy this!"

"Yeah! Dat'll be one helluva story ta show yer kids someday!" said Meowth.

James and I smiled at each other again. I wonder how proud our kids will be to know that mommy and daddy got to be superheroes for awhile...and that we got to star in our very own comic book! I said to myself.

While I was thinking about showing our children these comic books one day, James grabbed a few issues off of the shelf -- one for himself, one for me, one for Meowth, and one to keep in its wrapper as a collectible.

Just as we were heading for the checkout counter, however, Meowth stopped. "Hey, guys, wait a sec! Ya ain't gonna believe dis either!"

"What is it, Meowth?" we asked.

Meowth handed us large box from one of the shelves. Inside the box were three action figures that looked like me, James, and Meowth in our superhero disguises! On the back of the box was a label that read, The Black Rose. Once a team of villains who fought against Gligar Man, these three soon reformed and played a pivotal role in helping our hero depose a great evil. While the Black Rose doesn't follow the straight and narrow path and rarely does their work within the confines of the law, there's no denying that they're heroes in the truest sense of the word. Heroes come in all forms, and these three are living proof of that. On the bottom of the box was a label, showing that the toys were manufactured by Gligar Man's toy company.

"Would you look at that!" James said. "We're action figures, too! We really have hit the big time!"

I laughed. "Yeah! Not even that twerp has his own action figure...or his own comic book, for that matter!"

Meowth smirked. "Super-zeroes, my ass!"

"Looks like we'll be buying a few MORE things today!" James remarked as he grabbed three more boxes from the shelf. "I'm sorry, Jess. I know this is costing us everything we've got, but...."

"It's okay, James. It's worth it!" I told him. "This is a little bit of history for us! Something we can pass on to our children someday!"

He smiled.

As we were about to continue on our way to the checkout counter, we suddenly heard a familiar voice behind us. "AUGH! What in the world is this?!"

We turned around and saw Ash standing at the New Releases shelf where we'd been a few minutes ago. He was holding a copy of our comic book, and he had an expression of utter shock on his face.

"What's wrong, Ash?" the other two twerps asked, coming to his side.

"Look at this!" he whined, showing them the comic book. "Team Rocket has their own comic! What's up with that?!"

James, Meowth, and I snickered.

Even though we were standing only a few feet away, I don't think any of them recognized us. Since it was our day off, we weren't dressed in our uniforms. (I was wearing a pink mini-skirt and a matching tank-top, and James was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans.) And since they can never tell who we are without our uniforms, we were nothing more than a couple of ordinary teenagers to them at the moment.

Deciding to take advantage of their blindness, we slipped away while they were still staring in wide-eyed shock at our comic book. Quickly, we paid for our items and took our leave before any of them could spot us and pick a fight.

@->->-

"Well, this may have wiped out all of our funds, but we still made out like bandits!" James remarked as we left the store.

"We sure did!" I agreed, admiring our action figures and comic books one more time.

"Wow! Whoda thunk we'd have an actual line of merchandise?!" Meowth exclaimed.

"But it's more than that," James told him. "Meowth, we did the right thing. Getting rid of W. Shrubb was what really mattered. This is just a bonus...a reward for doing the right thing!"

"James is right," I agreed. "I know I was kind of disappointed when it happened, but getting that bastard kicked out of office really was a reward in itself. That makes this all the nicer because we weren't expecting it!"

"Lots of things are nicer when they're unexpected...heroes and recognition!" James said, draping an arm around my shoulders.

I shifted the shopping bag I was carrying to my other hand and returned James's embrace. "Yeah! Looks like we defended the honor of costumed action figures everywhere, after all!"

"And very nicely, I might add," James whispered, pulling me closer.

"Of course!" I replied. "We're Team Rocket -- we do everything in style!"

"And we do it tagedda, too!" Meowth chimed in.

James nodded. "Best friends forever. That's what makes us winners...even when we lose!"

"That's right!" I exclaimed. "And that's why we'll be together forever!"

With that, James turned me to face him and pressed his lips to mine. And as we kissed, I knew that he really was right -- our friendship and love always saw us through the hard times, and we always seemed to prevail because of it. Could it really help us make a better life for ourselves someday soon? A life where we really could be heroes all the time? I was sure of it!

Love is an amazing thing, after all.