Stand by you Chapter 2: From Confusion Comes a Plan, a pokémon fanfic

AN: This chapter was updated/revised on June 19, 2019.

Ash and friends rose early the next morning, eager to hit the road.

"I'll fill our canteens," Ash said as Clemont and Serena fed the Pokémon.

He headed out to the direction of the river, unaware that Meowth and Jessie were not too far behind him. When Meowth saw Ash approaching, he poked Jessie in the side.

"It's da twerp!" Meowth whisper-shouted.

Ash heard the outburst and turned to see a tired-looking Jessie and Meowth.

"Hey!" Ash said as he jumped back. "What are you two doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Jessie grumbled. "We're obviously filling our water bottles."

"Get lost!" Meowth added.

"I bet you're up to something. I ought to call officer Jenny over here so that she can arrest you before you try anything sneaky," Ash replied.

"Fine. Do it," said Jessie. "We're leaving."

"Doubt it."

"James was kidnapped by that crazy fiancé of his and we have to go rescue him before it's too late."

"What? No way! You must think I'm an idiot."

"Of course, we tink dat," said Meowth. "But what she's sayin is true. But it don't matta; yous don't gotta listen ta us."

They filled their canteens in silence and walked away. A few minutes later Ash and friends saw their balloon take to the skies.

"That was strange," said Serena. "They didn't even attempt to attack us."

"They didn't steal any of our stuff, either," said Clemont. "Usually they at least try to take some of our snacks."

"Be on the lookout just in case," Ash warned. "If I've learned anything about Jessie, James, and Meowth, it's that they never do things the easy way."

James' parents smiled and cried happy tears as they saw him and Jessiebelle walk out of the house together. They were both dressed in elegant clothing.

"We are so glad that you finally decided to grow up and leave that nasty organization and those bizarre friends of yours in order to settle down," said James' mother.

James opened his mouth to defend himself and his 'bizarre friends', but Jessiebelle gave him a menacing look and elbowed him hard in the ribs.

"Yes, I am also glad," he mumbled sarcastically.

"We have important figures from all over the world coming to witness your marriage so it is essential that we practice the ceremony beforehand," said James' father. "Shall we begin?"

"Oh yes!" Jessiebelle giggled. "The sooner the better!"

As Ash walked back to camp, he noticed a piece of paper blowing in the wind. Instinctively, he picked it up and read it. It was a wedding invitation. When he finished reading, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. Rather than explain, he handed it to Serena who read it along with Bonnie, Duplica, and Clemont.

"I just saw Jessie and Meowth. They said that James was kidnapped. Then I found this on the ground," Ash explained after they finished reading.

After a moment of silence, Bonnie spoke up:

"James' last name is Morgan?"

"That's not the point," Serena said with confusion and concern. "Why would Jessie think that James got kidnapped? Wouldn't he tell his coworkers that he was leaving? Unless he just ditched them…"

"No, Jessiebelle obviously captured him," Ash asserted. "And we need to do something!"

"We have no clue what you're talking about," said Clemont.

"Pikaaachu pika," Pikachu reminded Ash.

"Right…you four never met her," Ash murmured.

Ash told them about how James' family was super rich and that he ran away because he didn't want to marry Jessiebelle, who he was engaged to when he was five. He recounted their last trip to the Morgan estate, after which James vowed to never go back.

"That's awful," said Serena.

"I would have never guessed," said Duplica.

"If James was rich, why would he have been working as a Team Rocket grunt?" asked Clemont. "Those two would do anything for money. You'd think that he would marry her just for that."

"James hated living with his family. He enjoyed traveling and being with Jessie and Meowth," said Ash. "It's really only Jessie and Meowth who are obsessed with getting rich. James just follows their lead. That's what Misty always says..."

"Are we gonna help?" asked Bonnie.

"Well, they've put us through a lot…me especially…but I mean…"

"I think we should help," said Serena. "He may be a criminal but no one should be forced to marry someone they don't love."

"Yeah! Let's help!" said Bonnie.

"I'm with them," said Clemont.

"De ney ney!" Dedenne said with a nod.

"Piii!" Pikachu agreed.

"I'm in too," Ash decided. "But Kanto's thousands of miles away and plane and bus tickets are expensive. Even if we were to scrape together the money, there's not telling we'd be able to do anything to help."

"There has to be something we can do," said Clemont. "We just need to think about it."

Ash thought about his friends and allies in Kanto. Iris and Cilan were still traveling through Kanto, but they don't know about James' family problems. Misty was also in Kanto, but she had a gym to look after. Then there was Brock. Brock was busy studying to become a doctor, but the institute that he was working at was on break. Ash had just spoken to him a few days ago and Brock was thinking about visiting them in Kalos since he had nothing else to do over the two-week holiday. And Brock was a great leader.

"I have an idea," Ash announced.

James and Growly walked around the mansion's vast gardens, wearing their tuxedo and collar. After spending hours taking photos and meeting with financial celebrities, James needed a walk and some alone time with his old friend.

"Oh, Growly," he sighed. "I haven't been this upset in ages."

"Grrrrowlithe, Grrrrr," the Pokémon responded.

"I wish I could be happy to see you, but the chances are Jessiebelle is going to forbid you to live with us after we get married. She hates dogs, especially the kinds that breathe fire."

The Growlithe whined and rubbed his face against James' leg. James fed him a biscuit.

"I can't believe this is happening," James moaned. "I wish Jessie and Meowth were here. Even if they do get the invitation, there is no way they could get here in time for the wedding. It's only a day away. Jessiebelle did that on purpose, just to tease us."

"Grrrrow! Grow!"

"I know you want me to get over them, Growly, but I can't. I have spent nearly every moment of the past ten years with Jessie and Meowth by my side. We not only worked together but also slept together, ate together, traveled together, and shared every failure and success. We were even together on our days off and during the holidays. You can't just forget about people like that."

Growly nodded in agreement. He licked James to show his affection.

"I love you too," said James, smiling for the first time in days. "We won't give into her."

Ash managed to get a hold of Brock and he immediately jumped at the opportunity to help. Cilan was already a good friend to Brock, and Iris wasn't too hard to convince. They were happy to finally meet Misty in person.

Now they stood in front of the large that bordered the Morgan Mansion.

Misty released her Politoad, Starmie, and Vaporeon. Brock released his Spinarak and Leafeon.

"Stick to the plan," Misty whispered to the Pokémon. "Brock and I are going to pretend to be the McDuffie couple. You have to stay in your Pokéballs until we call you out."

Iris turned to Cilan and her Pokémon. "We're going to pretend to be the Mayfield couple, remember what Misty said about staying in your Pokéballs until we call you out. Pokémon are forbidden from attending so we can't let anyone but us see you."

The Pokémon nodded in understanding.

"Let's do this," said Misty

Jessie and Meowth were exhausted from traveling.

They had taken their Meowth balloon to the nearest train station and abandoned it in the nearby forest. Afterwards, they took the quickest boat they could afford heading to the Kanto region. After nearly 24 hours of nonstop traveling, they arrived in Sunnytown, not far from Brookside Manners, the small town where James' family mansion stood. That stupid bridge was nearly finished and they could get across by walking. However, the bridge was over ten miles away and a mile long. They had zero cash and could not even pay the five-dollar fee to rent a single bike. Mondo was waiting for them on the other side of that long bridge with a car to drive them, but while the bridge could take walkers, it wasn't ready to carry cars.

"Trainer Jess!" a voice called from behind them.

"Tyra? Is that you?" asked Jessie. Tyra looked younger, and her hair was a different color...

"No, Tyra is my older sister. She left the bike gang last year so that she could finally go to college. I took her place," the sixteen-year-old said proudly.

"How did you recognize me?"

"She always carried this group photo around with her. She said you were really cool. I'm Teeshy."

"Dat's great, but weeze gotta go," said Meowth.

"She told me about Meowth too! Wow, you really can talk."

"Yea, but not now."

"Our friend is in trouble and he needs our help," said Jessie.

"Are you talking about Trainer James?!" Teeshy asked excitedly.

"Yes…"

"Tyra always said that you two were close! Bffs!"

"If we don't get to Brookside Manners asap, I might never see him again."

Teeshy picked up on the irritation and sorry.

"Never fear, I have this double bike," she responded. "You can take it with me. I know a shortcut to Brookside Manners—the gang and I go there a lot to dumpster dive. Rich people throw away so much good food it's ridiculous!"

"Den let's go!" said Meowth.

Teeshy pulled a double bike from behind the closest dumpster. Meowth climbed onto Jessie's back and they took off immediately, pedaling as fast as they possibly could.

"We made it to the east wing," Brock whispered into a walkie talkie. "Over."

"Cilan and I inside near the buffet table, over," Iris replied.

Brock shook a tree branch. "Did you see that?"

"Yes."

"Misty and I will initiate part two of our plan. You two keep lookout and don't move until I give you the signal. If there's any trouble, you know what to do."

"Message received."

Brock and Misty crawled behind the large east tower until they were sure that no one could see them.

"Leafeon, go!" whispered Misty as she threw the into the air. "Help me scale that wall!"

Leafeon lifted Misty until she was level with her target window.

"Thanks, Leaf," said Misty. "Now use Bullet Seed!"

Brock's Leafeon shot at the window until it shattered. Alarms sounded. Misty clumsily climbed into the building, returned Leafeon to her ball, and hid under the bed.

"Now Iris and Cilan can do their thing," she whispered into the Pokéball.

Misty stayed hidden, under the bed and underneath her oversized dress while Iris and Cilan placed their Pokéballs and one of their devices under the buffet table. They then started throwing food as hard and as fast as possible. People screamed as spaghetti, meatballs, rice, fish, and vegetables flew in every direction. After a few minutes of chaos, two Machamp grabbed Cilan and Iris and literally threw them out of the party. Iris rubbed her sore neck and Cilan started to patch up a gash on his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Perfect," Cilan replied. "Are you?"

"I'm great." Iris lifted her walkie talkie and spoke: "The spaghetti flew at noontime. Over."

"Message received, over," Brock said as he released Spinarak. "Don't forget to give James this walkie talkie! And stay hidden!"

The Spinarak remembered their plan from earlier and climbed the tower. It looked in each window until it found what he was looking for. The alarms were still blaring as Spinarak launched a powerful String Shot into the target.

James turned around, shocked to see that a Spinarak had broken into his room. The Pokémon walked up to James. He took the walkie talkie out of the Spinarak's mouth.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"It's Brock. We're here to rescue you. Misty will explain everything. She's hidden under the bed in the room at the end of the hall. Try not to be seen or heard."

James demanded to know what was going on, but Brock insisted for him to hurry. James reluctantly returned the walkie talkie to the Spinarak and headed into the direction of Misty. Suddenly, three butlers and a security guard ran into the room. They were still trying to find out what had caused the first alarm to go off.

When they asked James if they had seen any trespassers, he gave them a false smile and said: "It was only this Spinarak. It broke in because it was hungry and it came in here when it saw that I had food on my nightstand. Nothing to worry about...Just a hungry Spinarak,"

"Would you like us to remove it for you, Master James?" asked one of the servants.

"No, I will take care of it. If you will please leave me alone to rest it will be much appreciated."

As soon as they were gone, James rushed into the room where Misty supposedly hid.

"Wow, it actually worked," Misty said as she crawled out from under the bed.

She stood up and looked into James' weary eyes.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," he sighed.

Serena, Ash, Bonnie, Duplica, and Clemont were eating lunch at the Pokémon Center when Ash's cellphone rang.

"Ash Ketchum and Pikachu speaking," he answered.

"Pikapi!"

Ash's words were jumbled because he had a huge piece of tofu in his mouth. Serena grabbed the phone from him and set it on the table, putting it on speaker.

"It's Cilan. We wanted you to know that everything went according to plan, so far. Misty's got James. Iris and I managed to cause a distraction so big that no one noticed the alarms at first. Luckily most of the guards headed straight for the buffet table and only a few went to investigate the east wing. Brock says that everything is looking good."

"Cilan and I are bored, just sitting here waiting for Misty and Brock to return, so we thought we'd give you a call," Iris added.

"Thanks for keeping us updated," said Ash. The rest of the group joined the conversation and they talked for about ten minutes or so.

"Hey guys, it was nice to talk but we should hang up now. I think someone is watching us," Iris said as she pointed to the bushes in front of them.

"Thanks for the call. Let us know when you have James," Serena said before they hung up.

"Whoever you are, come out!" Iris yelled in the direction of the bush that was rustling a moment before.

"I told yous to stop movin," said a familiar voice.

"Meowth?" Iris and Cilan asked in unison.

Jessie, Meowth, and Mondo crawled out of the bushes.

"What are you two doing here and why are you talking to Ash about James? What do you know that we don't?" Jessie asked the surprised teenagers.

"Ash called and said that James was in danger," said Cilan. "He practically begged us to help. We know Jessiebelle kidnapped him."

"Da twerp wanted to help us?" asked Meowth.

"I'm confused. Who else is here?" asked Jessie. "What's going on?"

"Cilan and I were visiting Viridian City, Misty was at the Cerulean Gym, and Brock is studying to become a Pokémon doctor in the next town over," Iris explained. "Since we were all in the vicinity, Ash recruited us for this mission."

'So, the original twerps are here too,' Jessie thought to herself.

"Okay," Jessie sighed. "We appreciate the help. Now tell us what your plan is."

"It's been a while," Misty said as she straightened her dress. She was now the same height as James, her heels added only an inch. "Lock the door."

James walked to door and continued to ask her questions.

"I'm so confused. Are Ash and the other twerps here too?" he asked. "What about Jessie and Meowth?"

"Keep your voice down," she chided. "I'm here with Cilan, Iris, Brock, and several of our Pokémon, including this Spinarak who's Brock's.

Misty glared at the bug-type. Though she was much braver now that she was older, bug Pokémon still freaked her out. She wished that she had its Pokéball with her so that she wouldn't have to stare at it.

"I have no idea where Jessie and Meowth are," she continued. "We had no way of contacting them…but we wanted to help."

"You and the others wanted to help me?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"Yes. Even though you are irritating, you don't deserve this fate."

"I'm very touched that you all want to help me escape, but I'm afraid you don't understand."

"What did I miss? Jessiebelle kidnapped you, right?"

"Yes, but it is a bit more complicated than that…. Jessiebelle blackmailed me. If I don't marry her, then she will have the police arrest all three of us on various charges. She can even bribe the police to keep us detained even longer than our actual sentences. If I do marry her, I will get my inheritance and Jessiebelle said that I could give Jessie and Meowth as much money as they need. They would never have to work again and the police won't be able to touch them. I have to do this for my friends."

Misty didn't know what to say. James looked so miserable and she couldn't believe she actually felt bad for him.

"You three have been avoiding the police for years, what makes you think that Jessiebelle would be able to catch you after you escape marrying her?" she asked.

"Jessiebelle has so much money that she could hire every cop in the Pokémon universe to look for me. Even if we did escape, we would spend our entire lives fearing the worst."

Misty's walkie talkie vibrated.

"Someone's trying to contact me," she told James as she lifted the device.

"It's Brock. Where are you two? Did James find you?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes. I'll meet you in a few," Misty replied.

She hung up and turned her attention back to James.

"I can't go with you," said James. "I really appreciate your help but I can't run away. My plan is to stay married to Jessiebelle long enough to make it official. In the Kanto region, that means thirty days. After that, I will divorce her. I will have half of my inheritance. I can use that money to bail us out of jail if the three of us ever get caught."

"But what about Jessie?" she asked. "Don't you love her?"

"How...?" he gave up on that question and looked down.

"Why don't you escape and marry her instead? Jessiebelle won't be able to marry you if you are already married to someone else."

"…I suppose, but Jessie and I aren't even a couple and besides, Team Rocket members can't get involved with their partners. If we get caught, we will be fired, and the Boss will likely send Jessie and me to the Team Rocket prison for life."

"Is there really a Team Rocket prison or is that something your boss told you just to deter you?"

"I don't know but it's something I really don't want to risk…I don't know what to do!"

"You can't let the world get in the way of true love!" She hit in the head with a paper fan.

"Do all girls carry those around or just the ones I know?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"You have to go to her because true love always conquers!" she said matter-of-factly. Anime stars lit up in her eyes. The walkie talkie vibrated again.

"We have something important to tell you, are you with James?" Iris asked.

"What's up?"

"Jessie, Meowth and Mondo are with us."

James grabbed the walkie talkie out of Misty's hand. "Jessie, Meowth, where are you?" he cried.

On the other end, Jessie and Meowth had grabbed the walkie talkie out of Iris' grip.

"We're outside the gate!" Jessie replied.

"We're comin ta get ya," said Meowth.

James was afraid this might happen. He explained his situation and his plan for after he married Jessiebelle.

"We can't let you do that," Jessie asserted. "That bitch will eat you alive."

"Dat woman's nuts!" said Meowth. "Even crazier den Jessie!"

"Based on what you've told me, I say she probably has a plan to counter your divorce idea," said Mondo. "Or will come up with one soon after."

James knew they were right but his options were limited. No doubt Jessie, Meowth—even Mondo, who was featured on their Kantonian wanted posters—would be recognized by several of his family members. All he could think about was how if he didn't do this, then Jessie and Meowth's lives, as well as his own, would be ruined indefinitely. At least if he went with Jessiebelle only his life would be ruined and while their situation improved.

"It's for the best," said James, beckoning a weak smile. "It'll be okay—you even wanted me to do this."

"Years ago, before I knew how awful she was," said Jessie.

James threw the device into the wall, breaking it into a dozen pieces before Jessie could continue her response. He then cried. Misty was shocked. She'd seen him cry before but not like this, and they were alone except for the (menacing) Spinarak. After scolding him for breaking her walkie talkie, they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Master James, is that you in there?" one of the servants asked. "It sounded like you were talking to someone, then I heard a crash."

Misty took the broken electronic and hid under the bed while James dried his tears. He opened the door to allow the butler to step inside.

"I was just talking to my new friend Spinarak," James said uneasily. "I…I was teaching her some tricks when one of her String Shot attacks accidentally hit the wall. No one was injured. No need to worry."

"I thought you were resting."

"Yes. I will do that now. Please do not disturb me."

"Yes, Sir! I'm sorry I interrupted you before. Rest well."

The butler bowed profusely then departed. James locked the door behind him. Misty climbed out from underneath the bed.

"I'm here for a reason," said Misty. "Not just because Ash asked me to come. I don't want you to do this. You're an adult. Are you sure this is what you want for yourself?"

"I'm not sure of anything anymore," he said bitterly.

"We can get you out of here. You might have to avoid your family for the rest of your life, but I once heard you say it yourself: Jessie and Meowth are your family. And Mondo, Wobbuffet, your other Pokémon…they'll be sad without you."

"I must stay here."

"I can't force you to come with me, but I really think it's what's best."

"Maybe one day they'll forgive me."

Misty stayed a few more minutes and tried to convince him that he was making a mistake. He wouldn't listen.

She walked over to the window and waved to Brock, who was hiding under a bush. He looked to see if the coast was clear and then released his Steelix. Steelix reached up and put his head on the window so that Misty could climb down. When she got to the bottom, she explained why James wasn't coming. Brock was heartbroken.

"I should've been the one to go talk to him! doesn't he realize he's making the biggest mistake of his life!" Brock said angrily.

"I tried to tell him but he's really worried about Jessie and Meowth. He's doing this for them. I told him that he should talk to his parents but he says that they would never listen to him. It's so sad," she murmured. "We better tell Iris and Cilan what's going on."