"No, James! NO!" Jessie screamed as she watched her new partner plunge into the raging white water. She immediately froze, almost as if it had been her body that dropped into the water below. How could this possibly be happening?
Why the hell had James let go of Meowth's tail? She could have pulled both of them up to safety, James shouldn't have let go, shouldn't have tried to be a 'goodie-goodie'. She stared with horror at the water and thought back angrily at what she should have done, she should have made James go across that rickety, old rope bridge first. She had only gone first because James had seemed almost as scared as Meowth, but he didn't show his fear has openly. James' eyes had told Jessie, his beautiful green eyes were full of fear when looking at that bridge. She had been trying to be a good team mate by going first but if she had made him go first, then at least then she would have been the one drowning right now. She assumed all his fears had been realized in one quick moment, and she had been proven to be the worst team mate in Team Rocket history.
Jessie realized Meowth was still dangling precariously over the cliffs edge, clawing desperately at her to pull him up. She did so easily and unceremoniously dropped him beside her. She only had seconds to make a decision about what she was going to do next, a real do or die situation.
"Jessie?" Meowth asked timidly looking at the water and then back at her. She sprung into action, there was no way she was going to lose yet another partner. Her Team Rocket career depended on her and James succeeding together. Damn it, why did this always happen to her, she thought.
"Come on, we have to go down river and look for him" she breathed quickly starting her sprint down the path in the direction the water was flowing, Meowth not far behind her.
"Youse really tink he's alive?" the feline asked struggling to keep up with Jessie's frantic sprint. She completely ignored this and continued to run.
Of course he could still be alive, hurt badly, but very much alive. She came to a sudden realization that she was actually scared for James, terrified at the thought he could, possibly be dead. Jessie reflected on the situation as she ran, this feeling was unusual for her, normally she could care less about her partners or what happened to them. Just last week she had left her teammates to deal with a botched mission, turning her back on them when they needed her most. That was before James, he was undeniably different. Strangely, he made her believe that there was something to being a team, having someone to rely on, someone to be there and having someone that always had your back. Jessie had only known him for three days, but it felt like she had known him forever, like they were old friends. As she ran down the path it was becoming more and more difficult to convince herself that she was only searching for him for the sake of her own career and not for concern over him.
"James, you better not be dead or I just might kill you" she mumbled to herself, continuing to run down the path scanning the water for any flash of red uniform or of his lavender hair.
James hit the water hard, he figured he must have dropped at least twenty feet. The water luckily was pretty deep but it was freezing, stinging his body. That was the least of his concerns now, he fought his way to the surface and discovered he had already been carried far down the river. There were no banks he could possibly swim to, he just had to let the current take him.
With no way to steer himself, James kept scraping against the jagged rocks. They were tearing up his brand new uniform, after while they started to tear up his flesh. The painful cuts were getting deeper and deeper, the brackish water he found himself in not helping the pain situation. He blinked some of the water out of his eyes in time to see he was heading straight for a large rock. He tucked his legs up to his chest and prepared himself for the inevitable impact.
It felt like he had been trampled by a herd of Rapidash and then finished off with a punch in the stomach from Primape. His right side slammed into the boulder, snapping his right arm like a twig. James cried out in agony, and then managed to take a deep breath before the water pushed him under the rock. It pressed him underneath a lip on the large rock and the strong current was holding him there. He tried desperately to use his legs to push away from the boulder, but he wasn't strong enough. James was running out of air fast and he was terrified. He knew he was about to drown, and he also knew no one would ever be able to find him here, let alone Jessie and Meowth. His dead body would float under the rock until a school of Magicarp came along and ate him.
Just as he was about to take a big gulp of water to speed up the process, a strong burst of current came and propelled him out from the lip, steering him around the boulder back on his way down the river. James took deep breaths of air when he broke the surface, his burning lungs thanking him. He drew his throbbing, broken arm close to him and continued to be bashed down the river. He took a moment to think, he has been saved once but how long until he lost consciousness and drowned?
Jessie doubled over, panting heavily, clutching at a stich in her chest. She felt like she had been running for hours down this path trying to search for James. She wasn't sure how much longer she could continue to push her body, her legs were sore and her lungs were on fire. She knew, however, that if she didn't keep looking, James would certainly die in this river. She wouldn't allow her weakness to be the cause of that.
Meowth stopped a few feet from her and fell to the ground also panting hard. He looked up at her with one eye half open.
"Jessie…it's hopeless…he's gone," he struggled to say. Jessie shook her head at the worn out cat.
"No, we have to…have to keep looking for him. He'll need our help." She managed to say through her labored breaths. Meowth closed his eyes and nodded. They waited until they had caught their breath again and then took off down the path once more.
Jessie and Meowth ran down the path for another ten minutes before Jessie stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes grew wide with horror as she stared down the river. Meowth looked up at her confused and with great concern over what she could possibly be seeing.
"Jess, what is it?" Meowth asked quietly. Her mouth couldn't seem to form the words; her brain wasn't allowing her to properly process what she seeing. All she could do was raise her shaky finger and point towards the source of her terror. Meowth's gaze followed it and he gasped falling to his knees.
"No way, poor James" he said with disbelief. In a flash, Jessie was running down the path again leaving Meowth to catch up.
"James!" She screamed, her arms stretched out towards a raging waterfall.
After being bashed by a few more rocks, James was quickly losing the strength required to stay conscious. His broken arm was throbbing with pain, every wave that hit it brought even more aching. His legs were becoming as cut up and bruised as his arms and he wasn't exactly sure if the rocks hadn't broken any of those bones.
As he was being rushed down the river he found himself hoping that Jessie and Meowth were not looking for him. He didn't want Jessie to see his dead broken body; he just wanted the water to carry him far enough away that he would be just a memorial plague at the Team Rocket headquarters. His Team Rocket career had lasted just three short days, but at least he had accomplished one thing. He had gotten tough, stone-faced, stubborn Jessie to warm up to him and actually want to be on a Team with him. From what he had heard around the training headquarters, Jessie was a loner and didn't want to be bothered with partners. He smiled to himself before being slammed into another rock.
He tried to scream out in agony but a wave crashed over him forcing him underneath the water. He once again fought his way to the surface taking nearly all the energy he had left in his tired body. The next rock would surely knock him into unconsciousness and he would defiantly be drowning in this river.
"This is what you get for being a goodie-goodie!" He yelled angrily out loud knowing that no one but the rocks so bent on killing him could hear. He flowed on ward and after a few minutes he began to think his weary mind was playing tricks on him. He thought he must have been imagining that the water was getting faster and more aggressive. He squinted his eyes in the direction of the flow and gasped. He saw that there was a waterfall just ahead, he couldn't tell how big it was but he knew it was most likely not going to be good.
James faced the waterfall with all the courage he could muster, which admittedly, he was sorely lacking. He had always been an easily frighten boy and he had not changed that much in his teenage years. He wasn't ready to die; he was terrified at the thought. He was only 17; he had so much ahead of him, so much of the world left to experience. This had to be cruel irony, he thought bitterly. He had spent his whole life being pushed and bashed down the path that his overbearing parents had chosen for him and now that he had finally made a decision for himself, it was going to end with him being pushed and bashed to his death.
He went to look up at the blue sky one last time and noticed that there was someone running down the path on the cliffs edge. He blinked some of the water out of his eyes and realized that it was Jessie. She was sprinting as fast as she could with her arms stretched out in his direction, as if she was trying to reach for him to pull him to safety. James heard her scream his name and his heart broke from the pain that he heard in her voice. He threw his good arm up towards her.
"Jessie!" he screamed backed as the waterfall finally carried him over towards his certain death.
Jessie wanted to launch herself over the waterfall's edge after James but knew she couldn't. She had heard him call out her name just before she watched him go over. That meant he was alive and still had a very good chance of still being so. Jessie stopped at the edge of the cliff and yanked off her pack back, then jammed her hands to the very bottom pulling out the longest rope she had. She looked at Meowth.
"I'm going to go down and look for him, I need you to stay up here and mind the rope." She said determination gleaming in her eyes. Meowth just slowly nodded and took one end of the rope. He tied it securely to a large boulder and gave her a paws up. Jessie tied the other end of the rope to waist and exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She walked calmly over to side and nodded at Meowth beginning her slow and careful decent.
Jessie didn't want to think about what she might find when she reached the bottom of the waterfall. She wanted James to be alive, to run to her and throw his arms around her. As she climbed down, she thought about how much she wanted what he had said the night before to come true. She really did want to be the greatest Team in the organization's history with James and Meowth; together as a great team of villains pillaging the world's trainers of their prized pokemon. Jessie gritted her teeth angrily, she also wanted to keep at least one partner longer than a week.
By the time she reached the bottom, she was soaked by the mist coming off the waterfall. Just the mist alone was freezing she could only imagine the water itself being just as cold. James had to be frozen stiff by this time she thought as she started scanning the water in attempt to find him. She climbed over the slippery rocks looking all around but she couldn't see anything.
"James! Please say something!" She called out, suddenly she slipped on one of the rocks and fell into the water. Luckily, she managed to only hit water and she struggled to pull herself out, her body was still weak from running. She shook some water from her hair and immediately froze. She noticed that there was something large floating in the water just a mere ten feet from her. She rubbed her eyes and realized with horror that it was James, face down in the water.
Jessie scrambled to get to him but was stopped just inches from reaching his side. She panicked, how long had he been lying like that in the water? Was he still alive? Why couldn't she get to him? Her mind was racing, she couldn't think straight. She pulled and stretched trying to reach him but something was holding her back. Then she realized with a jolt that she was still tied to the rope. It was a risk but she needed to untie it, she had to get to James no matter the cost. Her numb, shaky fingers started to claw desperately at the knot.
Meowth nervously paced the edge of the monstrous waterfall. Every now and then he peered over the side trying catch a glimpse of Jessie down there. She had been gone far too long for his liking; he knew James was most likely dead. Try telling Jessie that though, and Meowth decided he wasn't quite that brave. She was going to either bring his cold, mangled body back or get herself killed trying. She was determined to save James and Meowth felt sorry for her.
Suddenly, he heard a light thump over by the rock the rope was tied to. Meowth turned around and freaked out, the rope that had been taught the whole time was now lying loosely on the ground. He ran over and gave the rope a tug, his heart plummeted to his stomach when he realized there was no weight on the other end. What was he going to do? Fear was over taking him, had he really just lost the first two human friends he had ever made?
He shook his head and ran over to his pack and pulled out his own rope. He tied it to the same rock and around his waist just like Jessie had. Meowth couldn't let both his new friends die. Maybe he couldn't save James, but he wasn't about to lose Jessie too. Meowth was a lot more agile then Jessie and was repelling himself down the cliff in no time.
Jessie had pulled James out of the water and had him lying on his back on one of the flatter rocks. She was frantically checking him for any signs of life, and her mind was racing again. He looked terrible, his arm was obviously broken and they were both cut up badly. His legs were also very bruised and cut, she was sure that at least his ankle was broken. His head had a huge gash on the back and it was staining his beautiful lavender hair red. Her heart jumped up to her throat when she realized he had no pulse and wasn't breathing at all. Her nurse training came flooding back to her and she started CPR.
"Come on…James…" she grunted between compressions on his chest. She bent down and pressed her lips to his to give him the two required breaths, taking just a moment to notice how soft his lips were. Jessie continued the pattern of compressions and breaths, and then she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. She glanced over to see it was Meowth but didn't stop her rescue efforts.
"Jessie, he's gone. Youse know dat, youse gotta stop." Meowth said quietly. She shook her head, he couldn't tell if those were tears or just the mist running down her face.
"No…I can…save him," she panted bearing down hard on his chest. Her arms felt like lead weights and her shoulders were searing with pain. Regardless of her own physical pain, she bent down slowly to give him two more breaths and on the second one, James suddenly coughed up the water held in his lungs. Jessie hastily gathered him into her arms as he continued to cough and sputter rapidly.
"Jessie," he wheezed reaching his hand up, she grabbed it and held on tight.
"James, you idiot! Why the hell did you let go of Meowth's tail? Never mind that, you better not die. Help is on the way." She said angrily but she breathed a sigh of great relief. He just nodded, closing his eyes. Meowth looked at her curiously and leaned over to her ear.
"Jess, what help?" Meowth asked quietly. She ignored him again and quickly dug into James' pocket, pulling out a pokeball. She pressed the button and threw it into the air.
"Koffin, go!" she yelled. A purple, round pokemon flew out looking highly confused at being called upon by the female instead of the male.
"How'd ya know he had dat?" Meowth wondered out loud, Jessie shot him an impatient, evil look.
"Does it matter? Koffin, your master is in trouble! Go to the Team Rocket training headquarters and get help!" she yelled at the pokemon. It grunted in reply and flew off.
"Uh, Jess? Why didn't ya send me? Da pokemon dat can talk?" Meowth asked. She gritted her teeth, balled up her free fist and pounded him on the head. He staggered back, clutching his charm.
"Moron, you're already worn out from running and Koffin can fly a lot faster than you could ever run." She said shaking the pain out of her hand. She felt a little sorry for hitting him, but she was stressed and that was how she dealt with the emotions. Jessie wasn't about to tell Meowth she hadn't sent him because she needed him there, that she was still worried about losing James.
James coughed for a little while longer and then fell silent, the only sound he made were his labored breaths. He shivered hard from the cold water and Jessie tried to pull him closer to her but only managed to hurt his arm so she just let go. She tore off some material from his tattered shirt and had Meowth keep it pressed against his head. She looked around the sky for any sign of Koffin, it had been a while since she sent him off.
"Where the hell is that flying toxic waste?" She whispered nervously. Meowth looked at her then back at James, he was getting paler and bluer.
Suddenly, Meowth's ears perked up and he jerked his head up to the sky. An excited, relieved grin spread across his face and Jessie looked at him curiously. He pointed up into the air and both Jessie and James looked up. In the distance they could see a black Team Rocket helicopter speeding in their direction.
"Thank you," she whispered quietly giving James a slight hug. He smiled up at her weakly.
"See, we do make the perfect team," he managed. She stared at him in disbelief as the Team Rocket medics took him away.