"I suppose you feel that everything has gone off splendidly and according to plan?"

The cat-like monster merely threw a glare in the direction of the red-head. It was always her that gave him trouble first. James had little problem with him until Jessie spoke. Then again, Meowth felt he had more in common with James than he did with Jessie. Nevertheless, each of Meowth's plans (and even some of the ones James concocted) would follow this pattern:

A. The mecha ran perfectly. Always perfectly.

B. Meowth would drive the mecha until the team located the twerps.

C. The twerps, one way or another, would notice the mecha (although one would have to be a complete idiot not to notice a giant, metal monster that has just grabbed the ringleader's most beloved pokémon).

D. Jessie and James would continue into their motto. Why this part is absolutely necessary has remained a mystery to Meowth for years, but the two humans blame it on tradition.

E. No matter what material coats the outer shell of the mecha, the twerps would somehow manage to damage it at a critical point. Pikachu would be lost, and the control panel of the mecha would begin to emit a dangerous amount of smoke and electricity (i.e. any).

That would then bring Meowth to step F. Step F tended to be a confusion of many things, including the manifestation of Jessie's tendency to place blame on others, James's tendency to whine, and Meowth's tendency to panic and press random buttons in order to stop aforementioned emission of smoke and electricity, thus leading to step G, the "blast off."

This time, however, Jessie blamed and James whined, but Meowth barely lifted a paw towards the control panel. He leaned back and put his front paws behind his head instead as his whiskers twitched in resigned anticipation. Unfortunately, this action put him in range of one of Jessie's strikes. Meowth flinched as fuzzy, white spots clouded his field of vision. He reached up to rub the sore spot on his head as he narrowed his feline eyes at Jessie and her outstretched fist.

"Well?" Jessie said. "Aren't you going to do something, since you seem to think this is part of your stupid plan!"

Meowth shrugged. "Nope. Go ahead, Jess. Why don't you do something?"

James stopped whining. Jessie stopped fuming. They looked at each other briefly, eyes wide in their silent surprise. Then, with slow movements, they looked down at the cat manning the smoking control panel as if hearing him speak for the first time.

"What?" they said in unison.

"You heard me," he said as he waved a paw towards the console. "Go ahead."

For a moment, Jessie could only stare at her partner with wide eyes. Her lips parted as she slumped in her chair and turned to look towards the set of buttons embedded in the console before her. A shaking hand lifted, though she could have sworn she didn't command it. Her black-gloved finger landed a red button – red for roses, for her hair, for passion, and most importantly, for ejection.

In the next confused second, the trio burst through the roof of the mecha just before it exploded in a cloud of dust and shrapnel. Ash and his friends watched with pride as the Rockets rose into the sky. Yet even at the failure of yet another plan, Meowth tilted his head upwards to look his teammates in the eyes. A smile stretched across his feline lips.

"Any questions?" he asked.

The humans shook their heads and, in their silence, forgot about tradition for once.