Changes
Changes

Author's Note: I'm giving this a rating of PG-13 for some implied adult situations. The Team Rocket Motto I use is a more accurate translation of the Japanese. This is six years after the series. J & J are 23. Ash and Misty are 16.
** I do not own Team Rocket, or anything else Pokemon. I'm just borrowing them for a bit, but I'm not getting any money from this.




CHAPTER ONE: SLEEPLESS


James rolled over onto his stomach and pulled the pillow over his head. They had arrived in Celedon City rather late and, as they had no money and wanted to sleep in real beds, they had gone to the PokeCenter. They took off their Rocket jackets to avoid confrontation and turned in Arbok and Wheezing at the desk for rejuvenation. Meowth elected to go to the room with them and was curled up on the couch. Jessie was exhausted and had gone to sleep rather quickly. Lucky her. She wasn't subject to the commotion going on in the room next door.
James reflected on the day's work as he tried to ignore the moans coming through the wall. They had had a nice, simple plan and it had worked, too! Meowth had jumped out in front of the twerps and launched into a long soliloquy from Hamlet. (Meowth had developed a taste for Shakespeare about a year ago). The twerps just stared at him, dumbstruck. They were beginning to nod off and pikachu was already snoring. Jessie had thrown a pokeball at pickachu and it caught him. She ran over and grabbed the ball.
"Yes!" she cried. James ran over as well.
"Hot damn! Finally!" He yelled. This got the twerps' attention.
"Huh? Wha?" said Ash, as Meowth ran over to Jessie and James. The couple smiled at the kids.

"If you want to know who we are" Jessie began.

"Listen up kids!" added James.

"To guard against universal destruction!"

"To keep universal peace!"

"We carry out an evil of Truth and Love!"

"We are the loving and charming villains!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket will travel to the stars at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's Right!"

"Oh, no! Where's Pikachu?!" Ash yelled.
"Ha! Ha! Wha-" Said Jes, looking down at the pokeball.
"What's wrong?" said Meowth. Jessie's hands were shaking...no actually it was the pokeball. It began to to spark and emit a low whine.
>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"What's it doin'?" said Meowth. The "aaaa" noise grew louder.
"Oh," said Jessie.
"Sh--" James started.
>chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!

The ball exploded and sent the trio "blasting off again".

James sighed as they were flying through the air. He was so tired of this. He reached the zenith of his flight and began to fall. Jess had already pulled her ripcord and had ahold of Meowth. Mondo had given them parachutes not long after the "blasting off" crap had started. The first time they had landed in a slop of mucks. It was nasty, but at least it didn't hurt. The second time they had landed in a lake. James had spent a horrible ten minutes performing CPR on Jessie, hoping that he was doing it correctly. It's all well and good to do it in training, but when you're out on the field and your partner is turning blue it is very scary. When she finally came to, James fainted. That night Mondo gave them parachutes.
James pressed the button on his belt. It sunk in way to quickly. The parachute did not open.
"Oh, Great!" thought James. He looked down and did not see any large bodies of water. He looked up at Jessie and Meowth. They realized the problem and watched in horror. James then noticed something else. A flock of pidgys heading straight at Jessie.
"Oh, God! Please don't..." Too late. The birds got caught up in the parachute and it lost its air and began to plummet. James saw that he was falling toward a bunch of pine trees. He reached out and grabbed for whatever he could reach. He caught hold of the branches and tried to get a grip as he slid down. Pine needles stuck him everywhere and the branches ripped through his gloves. He was half-way to the ground before he stopped. He reached out and caught hold of Jessie as she came falling by. The impact caused him to slide the rest of the way down the tree, tearing his hand to shreds. They still hit the ground rather hard. Meowth moaned. James sat up and every joint in his body popped. Jessie did not move. After a while James became concerned.
"Jess? You ok?" Jessie did not answer. James limped over to her as fast as he could.
"Jessica!" He dropped beside her and saw that she was shaking. He let out the breath that he'd been holding and pulled her into his arms to check her. She had tears streaming down her face. She buried herself into his chest.
"Oh, James! When is it going to end?" She continued to sob as James stroked her hair. Jessie didn't deserve this. No one did. He decided then and there that they'd go to the next town and get a shower and sleep in a bed instead of setting up camp.

So, here he was, tossing and turning and listening to the people in the next room get it on. He flipped over again and sat up.
"Get a friggin' room!" he yelled.
"Uh, James...they are in a room." Jessie said.
"No, they are in a pokecenter...with thin walls. Sorry to wake you."
"That's okay. Try to get some sleep."
"Yeah, with all the commotion next door, it's kinda hard." James said. Meowth snickered from across the room.
"TO FALL ASLEEP! Sheesh. Pervert." James groaned, throwing a pillow at the cat.
The couple next door chose that moment to be particularly loud.
"That's it!" James groaned, " I'm going to get a soda. Do you want one?"
"Nuh-uh" said Jessie.
"I'll take a Poke-cola." said Meowth.
James walked to the front of the pokecenter. He got two colas from the machine and piddled around the magazine rack.
"Can I help you?" said Nurse Joy.
"Huh? No. Just..uh stretching my legs." James replied.
"Having problems sleeping? I have some tea..."
"No, no. That's okay. I'm hoping the people next door will be done when I get back..."James mumbled.
"Excuse me? Is there a problem?"
"Nah, the people in the room next door are just going at it like a pair of nidorans."
James walked back to his room leaving a red-faced Joy in the lobby. He rounded the corner and his eyes grew wide as he saw a pissed off pikachu sitting outside his neighbors' door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jessie!"
"What?"
"It's the twerps!"
"What?!" She sat up. "Where?!"
"Next door!"
"The noisy people?" she said.
"Yeah, do you believe that?" James sounded really peterbed.
"Oh, well." Jessie said, lying back down.
"That's horrible. They are just kids. You know they wouldn't be doing that if Brock were still around!"
"James, why are you making such a big deal out of this? One, I could care less what those brats do and two, they're not much younger than we were..."
"Jessie, the difference between 16 and 19 is immense, mentally and emotionally. They're just kids!"
"Sheesh, James. Get over it, Mr. Morality. Let deir parents worry." said Meowth.

James crawled back into bed.
"That's it," he thought. "We've been chasing these brats for six years. This ends tomorrow."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

James woke up the next morning to the ringing of the phone. He grabbed it and looked around to make sure Jessie and Meowth were still asleep.
"Yeah?"
"Mr. Kojiro?"
"Yeah."
"This is the front desk.There is a package here for you."
"Oh, Thanks. I'll be round to get it in a few minutes."
"No problem, sir."
James rolled out of bed and pulled on his pants. He walked to the lobby.
"Mr. Kojiro? Oh, it's you! Did you get any sleep?" said Joy.
"Yeah, finally." James said.
"Well, here is your stuff." James took the package and thanked her. He walked back to the room. There were two new uniforms in the box, a set of keys, and a note.

Jessie and James,

Sorry about the mishap yesterday. I checked both of the parachutes in these suits
and they are fine. I found all your stuff and loaded it in the jeep with a few more
supplies. There is some medicine for your hand, James, but I still think you should
have it checked out somewhere. Call me if you need anything else.

Mondo

James put his uniform on, except for his jacket and gloves, and went outside. He found the jeep and dug around, making sure everything was there. He then went in and asked Nurse Joy if she would look at his hand. She called over a chansey, who healed it some, but it was still sore. He thanked them both and went back to the room. Jess and Meowth were still asleep and he decided not to wake them. Yesterday was the worst day they'd had in a while. He had to end this assignment before it killed them.
Back when they started, the assignment had been sort of fun. He was just a goofy kid back then. It was like a game. After Brock had left the twerp trio, and that Tracy kid joined, it wasn't really the same. Those kids just got more annoying. The boss had taken them off the case for a while, putting Butch and Cassidy in thier places. Jessie and James had been stuck out in the Safari Zone doing busy work and getting chased by police growliths. They almost missed chasing the twerps. A year later they were reassigned back to pikachu. Their only condolence was that Butch and Cassidy had failed as well. Tracy had left a couple of years ago. Ash and Misty had been on their own since then. Even with only two twerps to worry about, Jessie and James had still been unable to catch that damn mouse.
James looked at his watch. It was 7:15. He knew the twerps would be asleep. What better time to snag pikachu? He went out to the jeep and got an electricity dampening collar and a syringe of pokemon tranquilizer. He stopped by the desk and picked up Wheezing and Arbok. He also asked if they could stay an extra day because he thought Jessie might be coming down with a cold. Joy said it was ok and that if Jessie felt too bad to send her up front. He went back to the room and left Jessie a note.

Jessie,

Take today off and rest well. I'm going to take care of something. We have this
room until tomarrow. I will be back this evening and I think all of our problems
be over.

Love,
James

James left the note on his pillow, with a rose, and quietly left the room. He bent down in front of Ash and Misty's door and looked at the lock. It didn't look too difficult. He was about to pick it when a thought occured to him. He tried the knob and it turned.
"Baka kids." he thought. He slipped into the room, which was very dark. There was a faint glow on the sofa. He crept over to the pikachu and injected him. Pikachu stirred a bit, but the tranquilizer took effect quickly. James gently slid the collar around his neck. He carefully picked pikachu up and slipped out the door. He put pikachu in his backpack and left the Pokecenter. He was about an hour out of Celedon when his bag stirred.
"Pikaaa." Pikachu moaned.
"You'll be fine, Pikachu." James said.
"Pika!" yelped Pikachu.
"Yes, I caught you. Just sit there like a good pokemon.
"Chuu!" Pikachu tried to thundershock.
"Sorry. I'm afraid you're really caught this time. The thing is, I can't stand chasing you anymore and Jes is about to have a breakdown."
"Pika pi." said Pikachu sadly.
"Well, its our job. But everything ends today. I'm turning you in and quitting Team Rocket. You can thunder shock Giovanni and escape for all I care."
"Pika."
"Well, anyway. I doubt the boss will hurt you. I don't know what is so special about you, but at least I won't have to worry about you anymore."
Pikachu sighed and sat back. He figured that he couldn't blame James too much. He was somewhat positive he would escape eventually. James pulled into the Rocket Gang Headquarters and grabbed pikachu.
"Kelly, I need to see the Boss." James said to Giovanni's secretary.
"But-"
"Now!"
"Okay, go on in." She sighed.

"Purrr. Perr Perr sian."
"Good idea, Persian, Red Kingler it is then. Let me buzz Kelly and then we'll go."
"A-hem." said James. Giovanni looked mildly surprised.
"Yes, James. May I help you?"
"I came in to say, sir, that I quit. I am taking Jessica and Meowth with me."
"Are you so certain that you speak for your colleagues as well?"
"Sir, if we don't quit, we'll go insane." James opened his bag. "By the way, here's the damn pikachu. We're done."
Giovanni's eyes widened.
"Excellent. I am glad you are finally ready."
"Ready for what? I quit remember."
"I ask that you reconsider your decision James. Your Rocket Gang training is complete, now. You are ready to move on to the next level."
"What are you talking about?" Giovanni smiled at James and pulled out a checkbook. He filled out a check and tore it out.
"James, this is your and Jessica's pay for the month. It includes your bonuses for capturing the pikachu, as well as a...shall we say incentive...to stay a member of my organization. Don't look at it now. Take it and return to your collegues. Look it over, discuss it, then return to me with your decision." Giovanni put the check in an envelope, sealed it and handed it to James.
"Come, Persian." he said and walked out of the room.