As Team Rocket and Bonnie made their way up the hill back to camp, Meowth noticed Bonnies limping had become more pronounced and also that she had fallen a fair way behind the group.
"You OK kid?" inquired the scratch cat pokémon stopping so that she could catch up to him.
" Yeah, it's just harder walking uphill than down," said Bonnie shrugging it off and moving forward attempting to hide her cringes as each step using her left leg hurt.
James overheard their conversation which caused him to turn around and observe the state of Bonnie who had indeed fallen quite a bit behind. Up ahead, he could see that they were almost back to the campsite as could see the fire he had not yet extinguished, still blazing in the distance. He felt sorry for her and was keen to get back to camp as quick as possible as it was getting colder by the minute, or so it seemed.
"Come on Twerpette," he said walking a few steps back to where she was struggling up the hill. Bonnie gave him an exhausted and tired look which revealed she had been trying to keep up despite the sore leg.
"Come on guys hurry up, it's freezing out here," called Jessie who just noticed everyone else had slowed down.
James looked at Bonnie and then said with a grin "better do as the lady says." Bonnie was about to counter that she was going as fast as she could and didn't need to be hassled, but to her surprise, before she could say a word, the lavender-haired man picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. James then silently started taking large strides up the hill to catch up with Jessie.
"Whaaa?," exclaimed Bonnie in surprised as she put her hands on the man's forehead to steady herself.
" Well, we were told to hurry up, were we not?" smiled James holding on to the girl's ankles to make sure she didn't fall off. " Just don't mess up the hair."
"Hey dats my spot Jimmy!" said Meowth crossing his arms before scampering after them on all fours briefly to catch up to the man who was moving surprisingly fast considering the extra weight.
Bonnie giggled at Meowth's reaction, watching him scamper below looking a bit like a little jealous child.
Jessie got back to the campsite first was quick to run to a spot right next to the fire. Bonnie had got further away from them then they realised and she was like all of them feeling the chill, which was unusual for Jessie as she was normally quite resistant to cold weather. She suppressed a laugh as she saw James coming out of the denser forest behind her and into the firelight with Bonnie perched on his shoulders.
"Honestly James, it's bad enough we are taking her in, but do you have to become a twerp taxi service as well?" she asked cocking an eyebrow while quite amused by the spectacle.
"Twerpette, was moving too slow for my liking," responded James simply reaching his hands behind him lifting the girl off his shoulders and placing her back on the ground.
"My goodness you're tall!" exclaimed Bonnie as he lifted her off. Once on the ground, she looked at the man and thanked him.
James nodded at her and sat on the log he was on before this entire fiasco had taken place. As soon as he sat Meowth jumped on him and sprawled across his shoulders in a very catlike manner, then poked his tongue out at Bonnie as if to indicate he had reclaimed his spot.
Bonnie smiled at this immature display and sat herself down on a log opposite the Rockets and started to rub her leg.
"So, what you do to your leg anyway?" asked Jessie turning her attention to the girl.
"And why are you out here all alone?" added James.
"It's not like you ta run away like dat. I mean I know da twerps are annoying but dats a little extreme," chimed in Meowth.
"I didn't run away!, " snapped Bonnie, annoyed at Meowth's comment. Before composing herself to explain the reality of the situation as she noticed all three pairs of eyes squarely on her looking sincerly interested in how she came to be there.
"We were going through the forest and were already a bit lost.." began Bonnie.
"Told you so, they were the ones who were lost, not me!" exclaimed James excitedly.
"Nobody cares James!" snapped Jessie at her partner.
"Ignore dem and continue Twerpette," said Meowth climbing off James's shoulders and moved closer to Bonnie keen to hear the rest of the story.
"Anyway, we stopped to have some lunch which was really yummy as Serina had made a whole bunch of Poképuffs early that morning before we left the Pokemon centre at the foot of the forest."
"Mmmmm Pokepuffs," said the trio in unison whose stomachs started to rumble again as they remembered their dinner which had consisted of one piece of bubblegum each.
Bonnie heard this as reached into her bag "You guys should try one there were heaps of leftovers."
She pulled out a large box from her yellow shoulder bag and handed each of them a cream filled poképuff keeping one for herself too as she hadn't eaten properly since lunchtime.
"Yum!, You are now my favourite twerpette," sang Jessie eating her poképuff greedily and licking her fingers.
"I have a name you know," said Bonnie tapping her good foot.
"Yeah ummm, Eureka isn't it?" asked Meowth as he licked the cream off his paws.
"Where did that come from? That doesn't even sound like my name!" exclaimed Bonnie frustratingly waving her arms at him.
"I don't know," said Meowth scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "You just kinda look like a Eureka, dats all."
Meowth smiled a toothy grin, and the others chuckled a little. In truth, they knew all the twerp's names very well, they just didn't use them to tick them off.
"Whatever, it's Bonnie," she mumbled really quite annoyed that these guys who had been following her and her friend around as far as she knew hadn't even bothered to learn her proper name.
"Anyway," the small blonde girl continued. " Squishy suddenly got up and hopped away really fast. I didn't think he'd go far so I ran after him in the direction I saw him. I kept running in that direction determined to find him and didn't see the cliff I was headed towards. I fell off and rolled down the side of the mountain. I think I did something to my knee and twisted my ankle because when I got up, it hurt to walk on my left leg. I couldn't go back the way I came as it was too steep so I grabbed a stick to help me walk as walked in a different direction I thought I'd find a smoother path if I kept walking…. But I didn't, " she looked down a little sad. Apparently, this had stressed her out.
"I tried calling for Clement and the others, but I don't think they could hear me, I even thought I saw Squishy in the distance and went in that direction for a while, but I must have been imagining things as I just got more and more lost. Then the sun went down and to make things worse I tripped over a log which made my leg hurt even more and broke my walking stick. After hours of being lost, I could hear strange noises in the forest and even something that sounded a bit like a scream."
Team Rocket looked at each other sheepishly knowing the scream was probably them when Wobbuffet made his untimely appearance.
"Then I saw your campfire," continued Bonnie, "and headed towards that...Poor Clemont is probably still looking for me right now," she teared up a little thinking about how worried her brother and the others must be. "I should have told them I was going to look for Squishy, but I didn't think I'd be gone long enough for anyone to notice, and I didn't even take Dedenne with me as he was happily eating with the others."
Meowth, who was at this point closest to her gave her a pat on the back.
"Don't worry dey will find you," he said sounding optimistic.
"But, it's so late!" exclaimed Bonnie clearly concerned. "They'll get themselves even more lost trying to find me, and I know my brother won't give up until he knows I'm safe!"
"Hmmm, maybe we could let them know you're alright somehow," pondered James who didn't really like the idea of the twerps getting more lost as that would not make finding them any easier for them. "I know, " said James excitedly standing up and raising his pointer finger in the air for his lightbulb moment. "We'll write them a letter so they will stop looking tonight."
"A letter?" sniffed Bonnie confused. "How would we get a letter to them when we don't even know where they are?"
"Gourgeist can take it and find them," offered Jessie. "She's part ghost pokémon, plus she can fly. I'm sure she'll get it there in not time."
"Hmmm, now what to write," though James rubbing his chin. He, strangely enough, was able to pull out an entire calligraphy set from his backpack.
"You packed dat but not food!?" questioned Meowth in annoyed disbelief.
"Well, sometimes I like to write letters to Nanny and Pop Pop," defended James.
"Ok I got it," continued James before writing the following note in the neatest handwriting the others had ever seen. Growing up as a heavily tutored rich kid had given him some unusual skills.
Dear Science Twerp,
Please be informed that the mini-twerpette formally known as Bonnie is safely within our care. She will be spending the night at our camp and will be returned to you when we all find our way out of this rather unpleasant forest. Don't worry about her as we are as keen to be rid of her, as you are to get her back.
In future, please take better care of this child as she is your responsibility and most definitely NOT ours.
Sincerely yours,
Team Rocket
Bonnie, Jessie and Meowth looked over his shoulders and read the note.
"You are so strange," said Bonnie finding the letter slightly insulting yet at the same time extremely amusing.
"You don't know da half of it kid," commented Meowth.
"Well, as bizarre as that letter is at least they'll know I'm alright and stop looking tonight," said Bonnie satisfied. "And by the way, my brother has a name too you know!"
"That's nice dear," dismissed Jessie.
James then put the note in an envelope and even sprinkled some rose petals in it as he viewed roses as his calling card. Meowth put his paw in some ink and made a print on the front of the envelope earning himself an annoyed glanced from James who felt this made the envelopes presentation look less fancy.
Jessie just rolled her eyes and smiled as she found James's little upper-class quirks funny and in some way endearing. She called out her Gourgeist and asked the pokémon to find and deliver the letter to the Science Twerp.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Quite a long way away, the twerp crew were indeed looking for Bonnie. Braixen was leading the party with using her fired up branch as a torch.
"Where is she!?" cried Clemont in a panic as Bonnie had been gone for ages and it was well and truly night now. "It's just not like her to run off like this! Something must have happened to her!"
"Clemont, it's OK well find her," said Ash confidently trying to reassure his friend putting a comforting hand on his Clemont's back.
"I'm her brother, it was my job to look after her and now….now I don't know if she's even alright!," continued Clemont in his own little world of panic. "I don't even have an invention for this as I didn't foresee this exact situation!"
"Bonnie is a smart girl," said Serina trying to sound optimistic despite her own worry. Bonnie had become somewhat of a little sister to her. "I'm sure she wouldn't do anything that would get herself injured. She might even find us before we find her."
In truth, all were very worried, they seemed to be going in circles and didn't want to stray too far from where they had lunch in case Bonnie returned to that spot.
All of them were exhausted but going to bed without knowing where their littlest team member was simply wasn't an option.
"What will dad say?" sobbed Clemont now on his knees, losing what little colour his already pale face had and looking up to the skies in despair.
The moon glinted off his glasses which attracted the attention of a floating pokémon who just happened to be looking for them.
Gourgeist floated down towards the group.
"What's that?" asked Serina a little nervously pointing up to the strange creature.
"It looks like….Team Rockets gourgeist?!" commented Ash as the creature floated right in front of the panic-stricken Clemont who at this point was too distressed with not knowing where his sister was to care about the pokémon who was now in front of him.
"Team Rocket!," yelled out Ash into the surrounding forest. "If you three clowns are nearby GO AWAY we're REALLY not in the mood!"
"PIKA PIKA!" agreed Pikachu.
To their surprise there was no response. Not menacing laughter, no motto, just Gourgeist. It stretched out a tendril and held something in front of Clemont who now registered it's presents and looked at it bewildered.
"I think it wants to give you something," offered Serina, noticing the envelope.
"Ummm…. Thank you," a very confused Clemont said to Gourgist taking the letter from her.
"Look, it's definitely from Team Rocket!," exclaimed Ash noticing and pointing at the Meowth paw print on the front.
"Why would Team Rocket be giving me a letter?" said Clemont, turning the envelope in his hands scratching his head.
"We'll let's open it and find out!," suggested Serina who was quite intrigued by this development.
Clemont opened the envelope and pulled out the letter releasing a multitude of rose petals as he did so.
"Just when you think those guys can't get any weirder," sighed Ash flicking off a petal that that landed on his shirt.
Clemont read the letter out loud to the group.
"So Team Rocket have Bonnie?" voiced Serena, after a few moments of silence following the reading of the letter.
"I….I guess she's with Team Rocket then….I'm not sure if I'm relieved or should be even more worried now…" contemplated Clement.
" She'll be fine," said Ash decisively. "I've known those guys for a long time now and although criminals they don't hurt people. The only thing Bonnie has to worry about is putting up with them and their annoyingness until we're reunited."
"Should we send a letter back?" asked Serena looking towards Gourgeist who was waiting patiently near them for some kind of response.
"Nah, just talk to it, Meowth can translate," instructed Ash.
"Um…sure," said Clemont. "Tell them, thanks, and we'll wait for them on the other side of the forest when we reach it tomorrow."
"Geist," nodded the ghost/ grass type pokémon taking off back into the direction it came from.
" Well, that was odd, but at least we know she's not alone out here, even if she has Team Rocket as company. Let's set up camp and try to get some rest so we can get out of this forest ASAP," suggested Ash.
"Den ne ne" agreed Dedenne who had stayed out of it's Pokeball during the search for Bonnie. It was very relieved to know Bonnie was safe.
"Jessie has surprisingly neat handwriting," mused Serena glancing back and admiring the perfect cursive of the letter that was now on the ground, as she and Ash set up their respective tents.
" Ha ha," laughed Ash. "Something tells me that was James."