Summary: After eating a random berry, Meowth starts having constant hallucinations, most of which aren't very helpful at all. Jessie and James have to help him through it while still trying to catch Pikachu.
"I'm starvin'," Meowth whined. He walked behind his human companions, tiredly dragging himself. The sun was just starting to rise as Team Rocket set out to find their hot air balloon that they got blasted away from the day before.
"Well, if you find any food don't be afraid to speak up," Jessie mumbled. All three of them were tired, but the sooner they found their balloon, the sooner they can make that day's Pikachu catching plan.
Meowth grumbled in complaint, but still kept up with his friends, even despite his much shorter legs.
As the sun rose and the trio walked, they started washing off their tiredness and were focused on finding their meowth shaped transportation that also had all their supplies. Meowth, on the other hand, was looking for something he thought was better than their balloon, and he eventually found it. "Hey, look!" Meowth exclaimed and stopped walking. A smile spread across his face. Jessie and James stopped too and looked back at him.
"What is it Meowth?" James asked.
"Look at all those berries!" the scratch cat exclaimed. His mouth was basically watering.
The teens quickly adopted Meowth's expression once they saw the same bush he did. It was the size of a fully grown raticate and completely filled to the brim with neon orange, triangle-shaped berries.
"There has to be hundreds!" Jessie exclaimed.
"I think I've seen those berries in a book before. I remember that they're safe to eat, but there was something different about them," James said.
"Different, schmifferent," Meowth said, "As long as dey don't poison dey're good enough for Meowth."
"And for Jessie," she added. The two ran for the bush.
"Hey, don't leave James behind!" James yelled and ran after them.
Soon enough, the three were eating the berries frantically. They tasted delicious! Jessie and James picked one at a time at first, but because of Meowth's claws, he was much faster than them so they started stealing from the pile he was making. "Hey!" the cat pokemon protested.
"Don't be selfish, we're a team," said Jessie in reply.
"Besides, it's not like you could have eaten all those by yourself," James added shoveling in berries.
Meowth glared at them but soon forgot his gripes. The three ate to their heart's contents, which basically stripped the bush clean. It wasn't long after their feast finished that they were reminded what they were doing wandering the forest in the first place. Soon enough, they continued their balloon hunt, but now full of food and newfound energy.
It didn't take long before they found the giant meowth head stuck high in the tree, the basket swung above them. James grabbed a string coming off of the basket and pulled, but nothing happened.
"Strange," he said, "that usually gets the basket down."
"Well, if you woulda looked up, you'd see dat da balloon is caught in a vine," Meowth said. The rest of Team Rocket saw the giant vine wrapped around their transportation.
"So it is," James mumbled.
"Meowth, go up and cut the vine," Jessie commanded.
Meowth made a noise of complaint. "Why me! You can climb trees too!"
"Yes," Jessie said, then glared at the pokemon beside her. "But I don't have claws to cut vines."
Meowth growled, but he knew she was right. Begrudgingly, the scratch cat climbed the tree. When he got to the vine's base, his claws extended. He was going to slash it with the hatred he had for his partners, but his hate got replaced with fear. Meowth screamed and fell off the branch he was on, accidentally cutting the vines on his way down. He planted onto the ground with the balloon close behind, but the cat pokemon didn't care about that. He jumped to his feet, eyes wide with fear. "Dere's a kangaskhan in dat tree and it's angry!" Meowth exclaimed.
Fear ran up Jessie and James' bodies. "Kangaskhan!?" they both asked, knowing how strong that pokemon is. The two looked at the tree, not seeing the seven-foot tall pokemon.
"Where?" James asked.
"Right dere!" Meowth pointed at nothing but leaves. "What are you waitin' for? Use your pokemon on it!"
James squinted to try and see what Meowth was talking about it. Jessie turned her attention onto Meowth, her eyes flaming. "You can't just lie to us like that!" she yelled.
"I wasn't lyin'! Look, it's-" Meowth looked back at the tree and confusion covered his face. "... it's gone…"
"It was never there to begin with!" Jessie yelled. "Why would a Kangaskhan even be in a tree?"
"I don't know, but I know what I saw, so dere's no need to yell at me! Dere was a kangaskhan!" the cat yelled back.
James had given up on trying to find something that resembled a kangaskhan, or any pokemon, in the tree. "Stop fighting," he said. "Now that we have our balloon back we can find those twerps and their pikachu"
Jessie and Meowth exchanged glares, then decided to drop it. Meowth jumped onto the basket while Jessie and James started to step over. The second the cat looked into the basket, fear was rekindled inside him. He jumped onto Jessie, much to her demise. "Don't get in dere!" Meowth exclaimed and tried to pull his teammate away from the basket.
"What is wrong with you!" Jessie yelled at him. She grabbed the cat and threw him off of her and onto James.
"What's wrong wit you! Can't you see dere's lava in da basket!" Meowth hissed as he climbed up James to get onto his shoulder.
Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Lava?" she questioned.
Seeing the genuine fear from his friend, James got concerned. "Are you alright, old chum?"
"Of course I am! You two are da numbskulls dat can't see da lava right undah your noses!"
"There's no lava," James said. He grabbed Meowth off his shoulders and stood with both his feet in the basket. "See?"
Terrified, Meowth looked at his friend's feet. They were just standing on the lava. He got more confused than fearful. "How are you doin' dat Jimmy?" Meowth asked. He looked off James' feet and back at his face, but instantly regretted it. "MEOWTH!" he screeched. The sudden loud noise made James flinch, giving the terrified but limber cat pokemon a chance to catapult out of his arms, which he took and ended up landing outside of the basket. He closed his eyes as tight as he could. The scratch cat was trembling with fear.
"Meowth?" James asked worriedly.
"What do you think his problem is?" Jessie asked. Her rage had subsided when she realized that Meowth probably wasn't faking it.
"I don't know," James replied. "We haven't done anything today except walk around the forest."
The female Team Rocket member looked at James nervously. "Do you think it was the berries?" She asked.
James grew more worried than he already was. "Maybe…"
Flames returned to Jessie's eyes. "You idiot! You said they were safe to eat! I ate those things too!"
The blue haired teen gulped. "I'm sure that they're safe! I'll find my book on berries and show you."
"You'd better find it," Jessie hissed as her teeth grinded. James immediately started rifling through his part of the balloon while his partner climbed out to go the Meowth, who was still shaking. "What's wrong, Meowth?" She asked, curious about why he was so scared. She was also wondering what she'd have to go through if it really was the berries.
"J-James," the cat stuttered. "H-he stood on da lava. I-I don't know how, but his body was fine. I-it w-was his face." Any fear that disappeared through time was back again.
This only made Jessie more anxious for what she was in for. "What happened to it?"
"I-it started meltin'! Right off of his bones! I can't look back at him! He was my favorite and now he's… he's…" tears started to appear in the cat's eyes.
"He was your favorite? What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie asked harshly.
Meowth didn't respond. Instead, he looked closer to tears and grabbed his ears then pulled them down. Before she could question his actions, James held up a book. "Found it," he said. The pages started flipping as he looked for the picture of neon orange, triangular berries. Jessie left Meowth's side to join James'.
"What's it say?" She asks once the right page was flipped to.
"It is safe to eat," he said, then looked at his colleague. "For humans," he continued. "Pokemon apparently have intense hallucinations. There's no cure, it goes away after a while, but the more eaten the longer it lasts."
Jessie sighed in relief. "At least we won't get it."
"It's not directly deadly, but we still have to keep an eye on Meowth. It could be dangerous if he runs into something he's not supposed to."
"If we're going to look after him, go prove that your face hasn't melted off," Jessie said and shoved James toward their pokemon partner.
"What?" James questioned. He wasn't eavesdropping while they were talking.
"You heard me."
Without questioning it further, since he recognized Jessie's tone, he went up to the cat pokemon and started petting him like one would do to a real cat. "You don't need to be afraid, Meowth. It's not real."
Meowth didn't respond with words; he took one of his hands off his ear, making it spring back up, then put it on James' cheek. The teen put his hand over the pokemon's. "See? My face isn't-" he searched for the word that Jessie used, "-melted off."
Hesitantly, Meowth opened one eye slowly. The second eye followed. Meowth smiled. "I dought yous were a goner," He said.
"It was just a hallucination. Do you know what a hallucination is?" James asked.
The cats smile faded and he took his hand off James' face to cross his arms. "What, do I look like an idiot to ya?"
James smiled nervously and put his hand to the back of his head. "Well, I just thought, you know, this isn't your first language, and hallucination is a big word," he rambled.
Meowth closed his eyes and started strolling to the balloon. "Unlike you, I worked hard to learn how to talk. I bet I could talk human bettah dan you can."
James raised an eyebrow at that statement. "You don't even know what our actual language is called."
Meowth opened his eyes to glare at James. "Yeah, well-" he started, but quickly stopped. His eyes widened and he started looking all around.
"What is it?" James asked.
"Everytin's got holes in it," Meowth said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jessie asked.
"You know, like da moon. But it's on da trees and floor and-" Meowth stopped and jumped up. "Ah!" he yelled. He ran to James, who was closer, touching the ground as little as possible. Once he got to his partner he climbed up him as fast as he could. "I don't like water! Do something!"
"What are we supposed to do about it?" Jessie asked.
"It's just a hallucination, Meowth," James added.
Meowth clenched his teeth together. "Dat water is realer dan you are!" he said. In the pokemon's eyes, the infinite, ever rising water had reached his perch on his partner's shoulders, so he jumped higher to be on James' hair.
Under the weight of his friend, James lowered his head. "Hey, get off of my head. That hurts," he complained.
Meowth didn't respond. Instead, he started breathing faster as his imaginary water was picking up speed. The scratch cat jumped as high as he could off his partner's head and took in one large breath, then held it. James took a step back and caught Meowth in his arms. He was trying to swim, which was more of a frantic flailing than actual swimming, and looked to be struggling to keep his air in.
"Is he breathing?" Jessie asked.
"Um, I-I don't think so," James stuttered in reply. He could feel how fast Meowth's heart was racing and was worried that if they didn't do something soon that he'd drown in his delusions.
"What should we do? We can't lose the boss's only talking pokemon!"
"M-maybe we could try CPR? Do you know how?" James suggested hesitantly. It got the reaction he expected.
"CPR! I can't do CPR! Even if I could, I'm not going to put my mouth on Meowth's. He's a wild pokemon!"
James realized something. "He is a wild pokemon!" he exclaimed. James put Meowth on the floor in front of him, which made the cat flail harder. "What if one of us were to catch him and keep him in his pokeball until the berries were off?" James looked at Meowth. He had stopped trying to swim and now had his paws over his mouth, struggling to keep his air in. "But he won't like that once all this is over."
"Who cares what he wants," Jessie said. She brought a pokeball out of her pocket. "As long as he's alive he'd better be grateful." The ball launched out of her hand and it landed directly on Meowth's face, which had started turning blue. In a red light, he disappeared.
It was eerily quiet in the woods as the pokeball shook once. It shook again. The ball rattled for a third time, then stood completely still. All that was left was the sparks and the accompanying pokemon capturing sound. A different sound was heard, however; the sound of the pokeball opening.
After another red light, Meowth was on the floor coughing and gasping for air. "Are you okay?" James asked.
"Yeah," Meowth mumbled weakly once he stopped coughing. He got onto all fours and started shaking as if he was soaking wet. When he stood up again, he looked at Jessie. "But I don't wanna be captured."
"Well would you rather be choking on air!" Jessie yelled at him.
"No, I didn't mean like dat. Tank you for savin' me back dere, but I heard you guys talkin' through da wadah and I don't want you to catch me and keep me in dere for who-knows-how-long."
"But what if you see water again and you don't make it out that time?" James asked.
"Dat won't happen. It's all in my mind, so I should be able too-" Meowth stopped. He waited a second then said "I hear da twoips."
"Do you really hear them?" James asked.
"He can't tell the difference," Jessie said.
Meowth didn't like how unfaithful Jessie was in him, but he knew she had good reason so he ignored it. "Of course I really hear dem. Dey're sayin'," the cat extended his ears slightly, then quickly gulped in fear and took a few steps back. "Dey say dat meowth claws and charms are now valuable so dey got 100 meowths and declawed and decharmed em all and now der comin' aftah me!"
"You know, if you'd think about how absurd your daydreams are, maybe you'd realize that they're not real," Jessie complained. "Meowth's would never be valuable." Meowth glared at her for that last statement.
"Wait, I think I actually do hear the twerps," James said. That got Jessie's attention. The two teens started trying to listen for the twerps while Meowth looked around then pulled his ears down again.
"Ash, we're lost again thanks to you!" Misty yelled at him.
"Well, it not entirely my fault. You guys are the ones that let me lead the way again," Ash said and laughed sheepishly. Pikachu sighed.
Brock was looking at the map. "There should be a town not far up ahead. We just need to continue to follow this path."
The three twerps and their pokemon kept walking closer to their enemies.
"So Meowth's only half-crazy. What's the plan then?" Jessie asked. They whispered amongst themselves to form one.
Meowth wasn't paying attention to them at all. "Stop it!" Meowth yelled. The sudden outburst caught the rest of Team Rocket's attention, but also the twerp's.
"What was that?" Ash asked. "It sounded familiar."
"I think it came from over there," Misty said and pointed to the general direction of the team.
"Let's go check it out," Brock said. The other two nodded and the three started running towards Team Rocket.
Jessie and James grabbed Meowth and put their hands over his mouth. "Shut up, we need to be quiet if we want to catch pikachu!" Jessie whispered harshly.
"Just don't say anything until we finish our motto, okay?" James added.
The pokemon nodded, Jessie took her hand off him and grabbed the electric-proof sphere spear.
The twerp trio and their pikachu stopped right in front of the bush the rocket trio were hiding in and started looking around.
"I'm sure the noise came from over here," Misty said.
"Hey, anybody around! We're here to help!" Ash yelled.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu added.
Jessie saw her moment and captured Pikachu in the sphere. "Pika!" Pikachu yelled. The twerps looked at the electric mouse in surprise.
"Pikachu!" Ash yelled.
"Raichu?" Meowth whispered confused. "When did he evolve it?"
Jessie and James ignored Meowth. They jumped out of the bush.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double."
Ash balled his fist. "Team Rocket!" he yelled.
To Meowth, he didn't say it angrily. Instead it sounded very sinister and mysterious. The three twerps grabbed their shirts and ripped them off, revealing black Team Rocket uniforms. Meowth gasped. Suddenly Giovanni was behind the children. The scratch cat shot up straight and bowed at his boss. 'Meowth, you're now the twerp's partner pokemon.' He said. "But sir-!" Meowth started. His boss cut him off. 'James and Jessie have messed up one too many times. They're getting thrown into the company volcano. If you don't listen, you'll follow them.' Meowth's eyes widened with fear. "B-but sir…" He tried again. This time he was interrupted by a fan hitting his head. He closed his eyes out of pain and opened them again to see the twerps in their normal clothes, Giovani nowhere to be seen, and Jessie angrily standing over him.
"We said after the motto you can be crazy! Don't interrupt us! And if you do, at least do it during James's lines!" She hissed at him.
"Hey," James said offendedly.
Meowth ignored him and nodded, so Jessie turned back to the twerps. "Now then, where was I? Oh yeah, Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light," She said.
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight," James continued.
"Meowth, dat's wrong," Meowth finished. He realized what he said and turned to face seemingly a random tree behind him. "What'd you make me say dat for!" he yelled at it.
The twerps looked at the cat pokemon in confusion. "Is he okay?" Ash asked.
"Of course he is," Jessie lied.
As if to further prove that she was lying, Meowth threw a rock near the tree. Stumbled backward, like he was just attacked. "Just shut up already!"
Brock looked angry. "You have a sick pokemon but you're stealing Pikachu rather than helping him?"
"That's terrible!" Misty added.
"Yeah," Ash agreed.
"Pika-chuuuu!" Pikachu yelled. Electricity filled the ball he was in.
Meowth froze for a second and looked as if he was in pain. Then he put his arms out and closed his eyes. "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" he yelled. His feet rolled back so he was standing on his heels, but then he fell backward. Once he was on the floor, he opened his eyes. "Dat was a short blast off…"
Misty walked over to Meowth and picked him up. "You poor thing, your heart is racing," She said and started petting him.
"Twoipette?!" Meowth exclaimed. He tried to get out of her arms, but he didn't try very hard at all. It felt nice to be petted.
"Don't worry Meowth," Misty said and smiled. That's when Meowth saw the water trainer's head morphed into a pokeball. The ball flapped open and closed as she continued talking. "I won't hurt you, I'm here to help." Sharp teeth appeared on the pokeball. In a deep, menecing voice, it added 'I'll never let you go, Meowth. Neevvveeeer.'
Meowth didn't care about being pet anymore. "I don't wanna be captured!" Meowth screeched. He extended his claws and used fury swipes of Misty's face then jumped out of her arms and ran for his life into the forest.
Misty blinked in surprise at the sudden attack, but then she was furious at Meowth for scratching her. "Hey, come back here!" Misty yelled. "Where'd he go?" she asked Jessie and James, but they were gone too. The three children realized that they had actually lost pikachu.
"Oh no, Pikachu!" Ash yelled. He brought out a pokeball. "Pidgeotto, go find Pikachu!" he commanded as the pokemon came out.
"Pidge," The bird replied. It started flying through the forest.
Inside the forest, Meowth was running as fast as he could "I just don't like pokeballs! Unlike you, trainers actually want to capture me," he yelled at nothing as he ran right into a tree. He saw stars after the collision and fell onto the dirt.
"Dat really hurt," he mumbled from the floor. Jessie and James stood above Meowth.
"You were a great twerp distraction Meowth. Look what we got," Jessie said and showed the cat pokemon the trapped mouse.
Meowth smiled "Da raichu!" he said happily.
"Pika pikachu!"
Assuming that pikachu already corrected him, the teens decided not to mention how their loot was unevolved.
"Are you okay? You seem to be hallucinating more," James said, sounding concerned.
Meowth stood up and brushed himself off. "I'm fine," he said. Meowth started walking towards the balloon. He grabbed his ears and pulled them down.
"Why do you keep doing that?" James asked.
"Cause dey aren't shutting up."
"What?" Jessie asked.
"Meowth meowth owth," Meowth replied.
That seemed to mean something in pokemon language. "Pikachu pikachu pi pikachu! Pikachu pika pika! pika-chuuu!" electricity filled the sphere again.
Meowth looked like he was being electrocuted. "Looks like Team Rocket's blasten off again!" He yelled.
Knowing how he fell last time, James grabbed his feline companion before he could finish. The pokemon still seemed to think he was blasting off, so the teens exchanged looks and shrugged. They started walking back to the balloon, James carrying Meowth, Jessie carrying the ball on a stick with a still trapped Pikachu inside.
"Pidgeotto!" Team Rocket heard from right next to them. The teens turned to the noise while Meowth extended his claws.
"Not again," the cat hissed, but his teammates ignored him. Ash's pidgeotto flew full force out of the bush and used peck on the electric proof sphere, breaking it. Pikachu jumped to the floor, its cheeks sparking with anger. Pidgeotto landed next to it, glaring at them.
Scared to actually blast off, Team Rocket wasn't disappointed at their loss just yet. They looked at each other, then James put Meowth in front of them. The cat pokemon's eyes were unfocused and wide while the rest of his was shaking with fear.
"You wouldn't attack a sick pokemon, would you?" James said desperately.
Pikachu's and Pidgeotto's faces loosed from their angry scowls and Pikachu's cheeks stopped sparking. "Pikachu, pik."
"Eott."
Jessie and James smiled at their temporary victory, but their faces fell when Meowth started whimpering. Before they could ask their pokemon what was wrong, Ash ran to be in front of them.
"Pikachu!" The kid happily said.
"Pika!" Pikachu replied with a similar tone, and jumped into its trainer's arms. Brock and Misty joined Ash as he returned his pidgeotto.
Team Rocket took the reunion as a chance to sneak away, but the twerps' "hey" stopped them in their tracks.
"Where do you think you're going?" Brock asked rhetorically.
Jessie laughed nervously. "Well to a pokecenter, of course," she lied. She took Meowth out of her partner's hands and started holding him like a baby, which seemed to calm him down slightly. "Our poor Meowth went crazy because of you twerps."
"You can't blame this on us!" Misty said.
"Maybe that's true, but maybe…" James started to say, but then he paused dramatically. "Weezing, smokescreen!"
After a red glow, the five humans and their pokemon were surrounded by thick smoke. "Weezing," it said. The three twerps where coughing as James returned his pokemon and Team Rocket ran away.
When the smoke dissipated, the criminals were nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd they go?" Ash asked.
"To a pokemon center, I guess," Brock said.
"I wonder what's wrong with Meowth," Misty added.
"What's wrong with him this time?" Jessie asked. She held Meowth as far away from her as possible. The cat was scratching wildly at the air.
"I don't know," James said. "Meowth, what's wrong?"
"So many magikarp," the pokemon whimpered.
Jessie dropped him. "That's it? Deal with that on your own."
"Ders hundreds!"
"Then use fury swipes. It's just magikarp."
"Okay," the cat mumbled. His claws got longer and he swiped in a more orderly fashion.
James was looking at the floor. "I don't like magikarps," he mumbled.
"Nobody does, James. They're magikarp," Jessie replied.
The teens watched their partner slash at the air in silence. Eventually, the cat stopped. "Did you get all the magikarp?" James asked.
Meowth didn't answer, he looked at his hands instead. "No," he mumbled. "No no no no! I can't evolve! I used all my smarts to talk! I can't learn to talk again as a persian!"
"Then stop evolving," Jessie said.
"How do I do dat?"
"Press B."
"Ya can't just-!" Meowth started, but then he looked at his hands again. "I guess ya can." He looks back at Jessie. "Tanks. Wait, where'd da twoips raichu go?"
James sighed. "Where it always goes: back to the twerps."
"I guess we should get looking for the balloon again and try tomorrow, huh?" Meowth asked.
Jessie and James looked at the giant Meowth balloon right in front of the pokemon's face then looked back at him.
"Maybe a pokecenter isn't so bad of an idea," James suggested.
Jessie glared at him. "We can't go to a pokecenter, you idiot. Our faces are on wanted posters in all of them. Jail won't do anything good for us or Meowth."
"We could wear costumes."
"It's too much of a risk for something that might not even help."
Meowth watched as his teammates argued. He felt a bit honored that they were fighting over him for once, but his joy was overshadowed by his guilt. He wasn't use to the feeling, so he assumed it was a hallucination. An actual hallucination continued. It was the thing that continually followed the cat pokemon, even as the other illusions faded.
'Look at that meowth, just letting its trainers fight over it.' 'Why doesn't it just run away?' 'It's level is too low. It'll get eaten alive.' 'Poor, pathetic meowth.' Meowth grabbed his ears and pulled them down, which muted his delusion. Muted, but didn't get rid of. 'Wow, he's not even going to help his trainers,' one said. 'Can't he talk human? He should actually make himself useful if anything.' 'Yeah.'
Meowth looked between his teammates as his hallucination droned on. The cat didn't want to choose a side, but he knew that letting them fight was just going to egg on his mind. Besides, even though their fighting wasn't an uncommon occurrence, it wasn't good for the team. He looked at the ground, let go of his ears, and asked "Remember when we hit a pidgeotto while blastin off?" It caught the rest of Team Rocket's attention. "And den it fell wit us and wanted to battle when we hit da floor, but all of your pokemon were weak from battelen da twoip so you sent me out."
"Yeah," James answered, "why?"
"Well, I held my ground against dat pidgeotto for a good while, and when dat ot'ah pidgeotto got me while we were blasten off today, I fended off all da Magikarp dat it put me in and reunited wit you guys."
"That was fake, Meowth," Jessie said.
"It felt real, so da point still stands: Meowth can handle himself; he doesn't need a pokecenter."
Jessie smiled at James. "Ha, I'm right, as always."
James stuck his tongue out at her in return. "Well, if you can handle yourself then why did you need us to tell you to use fury swipes and to stop evolving. Not to mention, we had to save you from drowning?"
"Maybe we just made the inevitable come slightly faster. We still don't need to, and can't, go to a pokecenter," Jessie argued back.
"But Jessie!"
The two were back to fighting. 'Look what it did, that useless cat.' 'It can hear us can't it? Why doesn't it help.' 'If I ever get captured, I'd help.' Meowth grabbed his ears to bring them down again, but he heard something so he let go of them before he could. "What was dat?" Meowth asked.
"Was what?" James asked.
In Meowth's mind, then Earth between him and his partners grew a giant crack. The cat stood frozen with fear and confusion as the ground on the other side of the crack fell into nothingness. He walked up to the edge and looked down to the black abyss below. "James? Jessie?" Instead of a response, Meowth hears another crack coming behind him. The ground he wasn't on fell again, leaving only a thin strip left. 'Ooo, what's it gonna do?' 'my bet's on nothing.' the hallucination laughed. Meowth ignored the talking hallucination and focused on the other one. The ground surrounding where he was on broke off, leaving only a small square of floor encircled with an eerie blackness of nothing that was crawling up and removing the sky as well. 'You know, it's a shame its poor trainers had to get dragged into this,' it said. Meowth continued to ignore the voices, especially as the last of the ground disappeared into the nothingness that surrounded it. It felt like he was floating and falling simultaneously. 'It's just a hallucination,' Meowth thought, but that didn't stop him from being scared.
Jessie and James look at their pokemon partner. "What do you think he sees this time?" James asked.
Jessie shrugged. "Beats me, but just waiting around all day for Meowth to stop being crazy seems useless. It's still early, so we should make a new plan to get the twerp's pikachu. Besides," she smiled evilly and pointed to Meowth, still deep in hallucination, "we have a ticket out of blasting off."
James looked at his pokemon partner, then back at his human partner and shrugged. "I guess I can't argue with that," he mumbled. "But we need a new plan."
"We could always dig a hole for the twerps to fall into."
Meowth finally came out of his delusion with a shovel next to him. Jessie and James digging in front of him. They weren't very deep yet, so they must of just started. The cat pokemon sat there for a few seconds, thankful to be out of the darkness, but then he grabbed the shovel and joined his partners in digging. He's dug holes in stranger situations, believe it or not.
"Welcome back," James said as he dug.
"Yeah," Meowth mumbled. The only noise that followed was the scrapping of three shovels.
Meowth could tell his partners were kind of annoyed with him and his constant hallucinations, even though it wasn't really his fault. At least he didn't think it was. For what seemed like the first time in his life, Meowth decided that complaining wouldn't help. If anything, it would probably just give the voices more to say; they were quiet at the moment anyway.
Even as a freezing wind came by, the cat pokemon continued to dig as if it wasn't even there. After all, Jessie and James didn't seem to notice it. It had to be an illusion. It grew colder, but the cat still ignored it to the best of his abilities.
The hole was basically done as Jessie and James saw their Pokemon partner continue to dig, even as his whole body shook. They looked at each other. "I carried him here, so it's your turn to deal with this," Jessie said.
Glaring slightly, James looked at his human partner. "You only carried Meowth since he was lighter than three shovels."
"That doesn't make it not your turn."
"Why is it that my turn is always more difficult and longer than your turns?"
Jessie crossed her arms and glared at him. "Ever think that maybe you just make everything more difficult, James?"
"Oh, I make things more difficult. Last time I checked-" James got cut off by a sudden pain in his and his partner's face. They both could recognize the feel of a fury swipe at this point. After getting over the pain, they both directed their glares at their pokemon partner, who still had his claws glowing.
"What was that for!" Jessie hissed.
"We weren't even doing anything," James added. Meowth never scratched them for fighting in the past, so the teen disregarded that as a reason.
There's a first time for everything. "S-s-stop fightin'! We're h-here ta capt-ture a t-twoip pokemon, so lets c-capture dat pokemonn!" the scratch cat said angrily through chattering teeth.
James anger at Meowth got replaced with concern after hearing him talk. "Are you alright?" he asked. He started petting Meowth's head, thinking that might help somehow.
James's warm hand felt great on the freezing pokemon's head, but Meowth still pushed it away. "I'mm f-fine," he grumbled before climbing out of the hole they dug. Once at ground level, he started working on the cover for said hole.
"What's his problem?" Jessie asked rhetorically.
"Perhaps the hallucinations are getting to him."
The female Rocket member shrugged and threw her shovel up to the surface. "Whatever the reason, he's right. We need to make the best out of this situation by catching pikachu while keeping our get-out-of-blasting-off-free card just in case."
James nodded in agreement. The two climbed out together and helped their feline partner with the hole's disguise. While working, the bitter cold surrounding the scratch cat disappeared, but a different hallucination wasn't far behind it. He ignored it to the best of his ability; he ignored all of them to the best of his ability. When the sky was falling, when it was raining persians and arcinines, when everything besides himself doubled in size, when ghost type pokemon kept talking about becoming 'one of them', and everything else that came Meowth's way, he just ignored. The hallucinations still felt real, whether Meowth acknowledged them or not, so his body was still pushed and pulled by whatever his mind was doing. If anything, giving Jessie and James the cold shoulder the whole time made his partners more concerned than they would be otherwise.
At the same time, Ash and his friends made it out of the hole and reclaimed their pikachu. Team Rocket guilted the twerps into not zapping away a sick pokemon again and ran away to make a new plan. Next they tried a pokebattle, but it ended the same. Plan after plan, it always ended the same. Sometimes it was Meowth's hallucinations that got pikachu reunited with its trainer, but most of the time it was either Jessie and James's fault, or the twerps were just better than them.
Eventually, the sun started to set, and the Team Rocket trio were at their camp, exhausted from the non-stop day of failing to get pikachu. Jessie sighed. "A whole months worth of plans all failed in one day. What are the chances?" she complained.
James yawned. "We just need better plans, I guess."
Meowth nodded slightly in agreement. That's all he could do, really, since the gengars already duck taped his mouth closed.
"Well, if we're going to think of genius plans, we're going to need our beauty sleep," Jessie said. She glanced at the pokemon beside her. "And maybe tomorrow someone won't break all of our machines because he's crazy."
"Hmm!" Meowth protested without moving his lips. The gengars he saw around him laughed at his feeble attempts at talking. "Hmm mmf nmm mmmm!" He was trying to say how Jessie and James broke their machines too.
"Yeah, some shut eye would probably be good for all of us," James agreed. He and Jessie got to work setting up their sleeping bags. It didn't take long before their exhaustion caught up to them and Jessie and James were out cold.
Meowth, on the other hand, kept hearing all these voices. He tried pulling his ears down like before, but as soon as he starts to drift off they spring back up and the voices were even louder than before. The scratch cat jumped out of his child-sized sleeping bag and stared into the forest. "Just shut up already," he whisper-shouted, trying not to wake up his partners. They didn't listen. Instead, a new voice came from behind. "Machamp?" it questioned. Meowth spun around to see a six-foot machamp in front of him. Being in a mostly unknown forest, for all Meowth knew machamps could have been native to these woods. The scratch cat looked at his partners for help to see if it's real or not, but they were both in deep sleeps.
A genuine fear crawled up Meowth's body as he realized that the incredibly powerful fighting type pokemon before him could be real. He hasn't felt it this strongly since he almost drowned on air. Without removing eye contact, Meowth took a hesitant step backward. "Listen, buddy, wanna talk? We can work dis out," he whispered. 'What should I do?' thought meowth, 'I can't wake up James and Jessie. If der isn't really a machamp dey'd be furious with me. But what if it's real? Dey wouldn't be much good since da twoip fainted alla der pokemon.'
As the scratch cat thought, the machamp rollered all four of its shoulders back. "Ma-" it said as it stretched. "Champ!" it finish. The massive pokemon launched itself at Meowth, who stood there wide-eyed in fear. It grabbed the feline with all four hands and recklessly dove for the ground. As far as he could tell, it was the single most painful move Meowth has ever experienced, including all of Pikachu's shocks.
The machamp stood back up and flexed its bulging muscles. "Champ champ," it boatsed proudly. Meowth layed on the floor unmoving, but also, somehow, unfainted. Happy with an opponent being thoroughly beaten, the fighting type pokemon disappeared back into the thick forest.
It took a while, but the pain subsided enough for Meowth to sit up. He looked himself over to see no bruises, scratches, or any other signs of battle. 'So it was fake,' he thought. The scratch cat hung his head and whined quietly. "Oy vey, it's going to be a long night," he whimpered. He looked at his still asleep partners. "Long and lonely…"
It was still the dead of night when Jessie slowly stirred awake. She half opened her eyes to see Meowth's sleeping bag, but it wasn't on the floor; it was propped up right by a pokemon inside. "Stop it," she heard her pokemon partner mumble quietly from inside. "Stop it," he repeated.
The young Team Rocket member grabbed the sleeping bag and pulled it off, revealing Meowth sitting with his head in his knees, eyes closed, and ears pulled down. With the sudden absence of the sleeping bags warmth, Meowth quickly shot up his head and opened his eyes. He glanced to his side to see James still sound asleep. That only left three options, none of which where favorable. It was either a hallucination, a pokemon stole his sleeping bag, or, worst of all, Jessie woke up.
"What are you doing?" Meowth's worst fear had been realized, but to his surprise, Jessie didn't ask that with fury, but with curiosity. He looked over to see that she didn't look angry either. One of her eyes was covered as she rubbed it tiredly with her hand, but the other one, despite being half open, looked at him with concern.
'Could dis be a hallucination too?' Meowth thought. 'But I only imagine tings dat I don't like.'
As the scratch cat thought, he just stared blankly at Jessie. She thought that maybe her question was too vague. "Why do you keep pulling your ears down?" the teen asked, breaking Meowth's thought. "You've been doing it all day. I know James already asked you, but you didn't really answer."
"Oh," he mumbled, "well, ya know how forests are always crowded? Dose pokemon like to talk a lot and I've learned to ignore dem. Afta da tree Kangaskhan, dey started talkin' bout me. Sometimes dey talked about you and James too. Pullin down my ears can make dem quieter." He pulled his ears down lower. "I know dat dey're not real, but dey're so loud. Some of it could really be real pokemon talkin."
Meowth felt a hand petting him. Unlike what he'd been doing to James for most of the day, he didn't push it away from him. "Have you tried falling asleep?"
"Tried and failed. If it's not all da noise its a new ting comin outa da woods."
Jessie thought for a second. "Why don't you imagine something helpful is coming out of the woods? Like that jigglypuff that follows us around," she suggested.
Meowth shook his head. "I can't choose what I see," he said.
"But stuff you hear can influence what you see, right? Like all those times you thought we blasted off because you heard pikachu's shock."
"Yeah, I guess."
"So listen to this and see if it does anything," Jessie said. Meowth let got of one of his ears. He slightly regretted it as the voices droned on, but he focused on only the sound his awake partner was making. She was singing the jigglypuff song. He could tell it wasn't going to work, since it didn't mean anything in the pokemon language, it was just a person saying jigglypuff over and over again. All of a sudden, Jessie's voice changed. The words suddenly had meaning. He looked at his teammate to see her holding a happy pink pokemon singing into a green microphone/marker. As if it was magic, Meowth's eyelids felt heavier than lead, and all the other sounds of the forrest stopped.
Without thinking, the cat pokemon crawled onto Jessie's pink sleeping bag and fell asleep. Jessie smiled. She'd usually yell at Meowth if he ever tried to sleep with her, which sometimes happens because he wanted to be warmer, but this time she was just happy that he was sleeping at all.
It wasn't long before Jessie fell asleep too.
The sun sat high in the sky when the Team Rocket members started to rise. First was Jessie after a sunbeam went through the tree's leaves and made its way to her eyes. She groaned. Getting woken up was definitely high of the list of things she hates. Nevertheless, she was going to get started on making a new scheme to capture Ash's Pikachu. As she started to get out of her bed, she noticed the extra weight on top of her. Right before she pushed the sleeping pokemon off of her out of instinct, the memories of everything that happened yesterday refilled her tired mind.
With a sigh, Jessie layed back down, not knowing what to do about the cat on top of her. She looked beside her to see James still sound asleep. "James," Jessie whispered.
"A promotion? Why, thank you sir," James mumbled absentmindedly.
"James," Jessie hissed quietly, "wake up."
He opened one of his eyes slightly. "Why do I have to wake up? You're not even out of bed yet."
"Besause," Jessie whispered. She motioned to Meowth.
The teen blinked a couple times, his mind still mostly asleep. "Oh," James said, suddenly understanding what his partner was doing. He jumped up and gingerly moved his pokemon partner off of his human one and put him on top of the now empty blue sleeping bag. The Team Rocket member looked down at Meowth. "He looks so peaceful. Do you think the berry's effects are over?"
Jessie stood by her teammate's side. "I hope so. This whole thing caused us enough trouble yesterday."
"Yeah," James agreed. The two walked away to get ready for another 'evil' filled day.
About two hours later, they had nothing left to do but wait for their third member to wake up. Both sat in front of were he slept, watching in boredom. The two talked about waking him up themselves, but agreed it would be better to wait it out. It took a while before Meowth started to rouse. The cat pokemon yawned and stretched with his eyes closed. It wasn't until he started scratching behind his ear that he opened them to see Jessie and James both staring at him in anticipation. He stopped and stared back. An eerie silence broke out as the three looked at each other, unblinkingly.
The quiet was abruptly ruined as Meowth yelped and jumped back from his teammates. Jessie and James sighed in unison. "Looks like it wasn't over after all," James said.
"What's wrong this time?" Jessie asked, not sounding like she cared.
Meowth looked overly horrified. "Y-your faces," he stuttered in fear. Suddenly an evil, toothy grin appeared and his voice lost all the fear it previously had. "Dey look like dey usually do. It's terrifying."
The teens practically fell over in disbelief, but they quickly regained their posture to give Meowth looks that would have definitely taken two of his nine lives if they could. The scratch cat laughed at them. "I got ya good, didn't I?"
"Why you little," Jessie growled at him, "I'll get you good in a minute!"
"We'll give you something to really be terrified about," James added in a similar tone.
Still laughing, Meowth started running away from his furious companions. They chased after him with their pokemon's pokeballs in hand. "Glad to see tings are finally back to normal," he smiled.
A/N: This is just a one-shot, so no more chapter will be coming. Feel free to leave a review; I'd love to heard you're thoughts. I hope you liked it, but constructive criticism is always good too.