Story Two: Soldier
She leapt the barbed-wire fence with the grace of a wild gazelle (or a Rapidash). She climbed the rock wall with the ease of a leopard (or a Persian) scaling a tree, only to, like a cat, make a perfect landing on her feet when she dropped down the opposite side.
Giovanni watched her train in the great yard of the hidden Viridian Forest Base. The scientists had done well. She was a masterpiece of ART. She WAS Myamoto.
Save for one feature: She had none of the Memories. It had been close to six months since the lithe, purple-haired young woman took her first breath upon emerging from the nurturing fluids of her Gestation Tank.
The geneticists and the medical staff, after extensive physical testing, confirmed her to be a success. Her cellular structure was stable, and her body was as healthy as any typical woman in her twenties. She was much the same as a Joy or a Jenny in that respect.
The mental testing and training began. Myamoto had some of the memories of her long-dead forebear, but only as far as the "how" of some things-how to best accomplish certain tasks set before her. Her life, death, relational ties ties-were complete oblivion.
She was like a very young child at first, a toddler, learning how to speak, accomplishing motor skills, but she learned quickly.
Smart as a whip-as the old saying went-Giovanni mused. Just like the old Myamoto. After only six months, Giovanni felt that it was time to see how she would do in the field. He had planned an exquisite First Assignment to test Team Rocket's new "ultimate soldier".
The original Myamoto never had a willingness to kill. She was the greatest field soldier that the Team had ever had, but she had always managed to accomplish her assignments without blood.
It was a harsher world now, The Boss surmised, so many against the Team-and it would increase. Many members, not all, but most, carried guns. Mya had taken well to her firearm training, but she needed a challenge besides inanimate objects to truly test her capabilities. (And those of the clones to come after her).
This would also be o be a test to be completely sure that the clone would bear none of the knowledge of the life of the original, which would compromise the Master Plan. Had the Joys and Jennys bore the same memories and exact mental processes of the original Joy Happenstance and Jenny Justicia, they would never have been able to be the army of perfect civil servants that they were.
Myamoto stepped into Giovanni's office after her training session, obeying her summons. She had a partial knowledge of who she was-that she was a Copy-and that she was destined to become the perfect Team Rocket member. Giovanni explained to her everything that she needed to know. She loved Giovanni, would do anything for Giovanni, for Giovanni was Father.
"Gio, you needed me?"
"Yes, Mya, come, I must show you something."
Giovanni led Myamoto to a large computer console. He punched a few buttons. A picture accompanied by text appeared on the enormous screen, a Teaa Team Rocket member profile.
"Do you know who this is, Myamoto?" Giovanni asked.
"No;" replied Myamoto.
"This is Jessica Mushashi Lillis, better known as 'Jessie'. She and her partner;" Giovanni pressed two more buttons and a smaller photograph and profile appeared on the screen, in the bottom right-side corner; "James Kojiro Rochester, have been...shall we say...dead weight in our organization as of late. I am setting before you a small task, Myamoto, a test of your skills. You are to kill Jessie Lillis."
"And her partner?"
"If he gets in the way. They keep a Meowth with them. He used to be my favored pet. If possible, I would like him to remain unharmed. But kill him, too, if it becomes necessary. I will show you the coordinates of the location from whence they last contacted me. They should be somewhere in that proximity."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere in the forest of the Mount Moon Range, a trio of Team Rocket members had made their camp for the evening. The Pikachu that they were pursuing, its Trainer, and his friends, the "Twerps", were somewhere in the mountain range, on their way to visit an old friend that lived in Mount Moon's caverns.
It had already grown dark and the stars were beginning to appear in the eastern sky. James and Meowth were laying out on top of their soft sleeping bags while Jessie got up from her seated position by the campfire to fetch some water from a nearby stream to make the night's stew.
Just as she had risen and walked but a few paces, a sound like a firecracker going off resounded among the trees and Jessie collapsed to the ground, clutching her stomach.
"JESSIEEEE!!!" James screamed as he ran to his fallen friend, sprawled upon the ground. Meowth saw a shadow among the bushes and ran into the forest after it!
"Jessie! Jessi Jessie!" James cried as he turned Jessie onto her back, seeing a shocking amount of blood seeping from a gunshot wound a few inches below the "R" of her jacket-chest.
"J-ames?" she croaked; "Wha-what happened?"
A bullet whizzed by James' head. He whipped around to see a shadow standing in the forest, only to quickly vanish! He leapt to his feet and sped after it.
"Who are you?!" he demanded; "Why are you shooting at us?!"
He was answered by two explosions of pain in his chest. He stood stone still for a moment, then sunk to his knees before sliding lifeless to the forest floor.
"James! No!" Jessie called out after she saw her partner chase after the dark figure behind the trees. She, unable to stand, dragged herself over the loam and rotting leaves with her arms, gasping as she choked and vomited up spurts of dark ruby blood.
She stared up as she saw something appear in the dithe dim firelight, a tall figure carrying in its arms the limp form of James! The figure deposited him as a rumpled and bleeding heap on the ground before her. Jessie's vision became bleary as she helplessly watched the figure level a gun shaft at her head and she saw the assassin's face.
"Mother?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harsh, bright lights seared painfully into her vision as she slowly opened her eyes. Jessie found herself in a hospital bed, awful plastic tubes projecting from the flesh of her right arm, monitors beeping and blipping all around her.
She felt a dull, throbbing ache in her stomach and her head hurt as it had never pained her before. She winced as she felt the veins in her temples pulse. A pair of gentle brown eyes gazed down at her.
"You're awake. Thank God."
"M-M-Mondo?" Jessie choked.
"It's me."
Foggy fleeting memories flashed in Jessie's misie's mind. Vague pictures of the forest, of a shadow, of...oh, God, please, no!!!
"J-ames?" Jessie asked in a weak whisper.
"H-he;" Mondo stuttered; "is alive, but I'm not sure you should see him yet."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meowth traversed the forest of the Mount Moon range, headed for the Viridian Forest. He had set himself upon a mission.
He had watched as an assassin sniper-shot his only two friends in the world a few nights ago. He had watched in solemn silence when Mondo had run into their campsite, alerted by the sound of gunfire, with, of all people, Officer Jenny of the Mount Moon Patrol.
Mondo had not camped very far away. Meowth had not even known that he was following them this time. The youth was Jessie and James' Assistant, but Meowth thought that he was assisting another Team Rocket grouping that month. Perhaps, they had did not require his services and and he decided to follow them for a while. He, did, after all, have a little crush on Jessie.
They had ran into the clearing just as the assassin was about to put a bullet in Jessie's head as she lay unconscious on the forest dirt. The shadow-woman disappeared into the forest as soon as she saw Jenny, the brave Police Officer pursuing her with her own weapon drawn.
Mondo knelt beside the prone and heavily bleeding forms of Jessie and James, checking for signs of life, administering what help he could, and calling an ambulance on his cellular phone.
Meowth looked on as the ambulance helicopter arrived and as Jessie and James were placed on stretchers, loaded into the back of the aircraft and flown away. They must have still been alive, but the both LOOKED dead. Meowth did not know if they had survived after that.
He was going to a secret Rocket Base he knew of in Viridian. He had to. He had seen the assassin. Though he did not believe it possiblssible, he knew who she was.
When Boss Giovanni had first taken him in off the streets as a pet, Meowth had learned Team Rocket history well. That man must have tired from having to keep secrets from people all the time, from society, from lower members of Team Rocket, because he used to tell Meowth almost everything!
Meowth had always been very good at keeping confidentiality, but he supposed that maybe the fact that he could talk in human tongue was part of the reason that his Master preferred that Persian now...
He had seen the Records. Myamoto had been the Best. She had died in an avalanche years before he was born. He also knew of a certain project that Giovanni had dreamed about-but never undertook-a project similar to the Joy/Jenny Project that Meowth had learned Team Rocket was behind...
Could The Boss have gone ahead with the Project? The Myamoto Project? If so, it had to be stopped! It was just...too risky. An army of "perfecrfect Team Rocket soldiers"-too dangerous, especially after that incident a few nights ago. Was ol' Gio sending them not only to replace but also to ELIMINATE other Rockets?
Meowth determined himself to discover the truth. For the sake of the only two friends he had ever known, or, if the case may be, for the sake of honoring their memories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jessie sat at James' bedside, the flesh of her abdomen still soft and painful from her bullet-wound. Thankfully, there had been little swelling and she was beginning to be able to walk.
It had been several days since she had awakened in Vermilion City Hospital. She had learned from Mondo some of what had happened, but the Police was still searching for the gun-person.
Jessie had wondered why they would help them, members of Team Rocket, and got the answer that an Officer Jenny helps anybody and that Attempted Murder was something to be t taken seriously, even if the victims were criminals themselves.
Jessie was, however, to stand trial on some outstanding warrants as soon as she was released from the hospital. James, too, if he ever woke up. He was in a coma and his doctors expressed uncertainty that he would ever come out of it. At this point, there was still hope for his survival, but still much uncertainty.
The doctors said that, sometimes, if someone a coma victim knows talks to them, that they pull out of it. That was what Jessie had been doing for the last three days, visiting and talking to James.
Mondo said that Meowth was never found. He feared that the cat-pokemon had been killed. Jessie recounted what she could remember of that night to him, as it came back to her memory in snatches.
Jessie told him of a vision that she had-something that she could not shake from her mind no matter how hard she tried.
She knew that it was impossible-she had died when she was just a little girl, and she would never...try to kill her. The assassin's face...was that of her mother!
Was she, somehow, still alive? If so, where had she been all these years? And why would she want to murder her own daughter?
As vague as Jessie's childhood memories of her mother were, she recounted no abuse of any kind, only love. Mother used to do whatever she could to make life bearable for their poor family, including making Jessie food out of snow when they had nothing to eat-to make her at least THINK that she was eating something-to stave off the relentless pain of hunger. Things had gotten better when Mother had moved up in the ranks of Team Rocket. Giovanni was more generous with the salaries than that old Boss that Jessie remembered.
The body of Myamoto Lillis was never found, so in Jessie's mind, she had always imagined that her mother could still be alive, somewhere. Perhaps she was still alive and with Team Rocket, but if so, why did she never know about it? Jessie was certain that she would have known.
Perhaps her brain was just playing tricks on her-but the memory of the assassin's face echoed clear. Jessie was sure of what she had seen.
Something that was not in question, according to the Cops and Mondo, was that it was a member of Team Rocket who had shot her and James. The three bullets that the surgeons had extricated from them all came from a model of gun that was known that only Team Rocket members carried.
Jessie was determined, even though she could still barely even walk, to find a way out of this hospital-to find out the truth about who had shot them that terrible night-why it was a fellow Rocket-and if it was truly...her mother-no matter what.
She looked down at her partner and stroked a bit of blue hair from in front of his tightly closed eyes.
"I promise, James, I will find out who did this to us-and why..."