Chapter 3: Force

When darkness fell, the temperature must have dropped another ten degrees. It was hard to crawl out of my warm sleeping bag when the whistles wakened us in the early hours of the morning, signaling the start of the mission. It was Attack Day. No time to sleep. Rockets sleepily began rolling their bags, someone dumped some water on the smoldering embers of the fire.

We were just out of sight of the city, tucked in the woods behind some sort of public works building, the workers there long since gone home, and not yet arrived for the morning. It was a good place for us to get organized to begin our storm of Lucid Labs. Occasionally, we would see the shuffling of other teams moving through the trees, and an anxious feeling began to well in my chest. The feeling surprised me – what was it about this task that made me feel different? This was just like any other mission we had been given, wasn't it? And James and I always nailed every one. Well, every one except the one we had been assigned to for almost ten years.

James arrived from a tent nearby with a handful of biscuits, two in each hand. He handed two to me wordlessly, his green eyes following the commotion around us. Men loaded our gear onto Rocket trucks quietly. A mountain of a driver climbed out of one of them with a green duffel bag slung over his shoulder. It was Samson he gave it to. I was too far away from them to hear the words exchanged, but the driver seemed confident as Samson gave him a hearty handshake and a pat on the back. Tagg and Buck were quick to take the bag from him.

Samson gave a brief, sharp whistle, and waved his hands over his head.

"Listen up! We have biscuits in the tent here. The tent will be gone in about 3 minutes. Eat up, chumps, because it will likely be your last meal for the next 24 hours." The group seemed to have already received that memo, because everyone was already quietly munching on their breakfast as he talked. "Here's the deal: you have all read through your paperwork. You know what you're doing. Let's just all do our jobs, and we'll have this work like clockwork, right?" Others nodded their agreement in the darkness. "Wrong, suckers!" With a cocky grin, he motioned for Tagg and Buck to empty the green duffel bag of its contents. A pile of inky black handguns spilled onto the grass. "For this mission, the White Jacket squad is going to have an advantage." Tagg and Buck tossed guns to each of the Rockets who surrounded them.

James shot me a panicked look. We have never used guns on a mission before. I'd maybe thrown a punch from time to time, but nothing we'd done had ever called for a gun. We may have been a diabolical gang bent on thievery and general no-good-ness, but there was always a sort of unspoken code that we would never kill anyone. Or had James and I just been living on the outskirts for so long, we didn't know how things had changed for Team Rocket?

I kept my expression strong and stoic, but inside, my heart was telling me to grab James, and run very, very far away.

Buck strode our way, handing us each a holster, a gun, and some ammunition. James held it like someone would hold a crying child – fearfully, away from him. Buck furrowed his eyebrows at my scared partner. "You do know how to use one of those, right?"

"Of course he does!" I countered, trying not to look scared.

Buck looked him over skeptically, "Fair enough."

Samson spoke up again. "This is going to be our day, ladies and gents. We are going to show Lucid Labs, Opelucid City, and all of Unova, that we are not a force to be trifled with. We move out in a quarter of an hour. Be ready! Now, let's hear it: Honor and Strength!"

"Honor and Strength!" The crowd called back.

Without missing a beat, Samson nodded proudly, and strode my way. I felt James straighten his stance beside me as Samson came close. "Nice twist, huh, baby girl?"

"Don't call me that, really,"

He touched a calloused tan finger to my chin, leaning close. "Just looking out for my members. You've got strength. Show us you can use it."

"I can use it," I hissed back.

"Good," With that, he leaned down, and kissed me loosely on the lips. His mouth was dry, cracked. I tore away, staggering back, and landed a punch on the side of his face. Samson raised a hand to his cheek, and chuckled. "There it is! My kind of girl..."

As he walked away, James bristled. I straightened my jacket, trying to look non-plussed.

"The nerve...!" He started.

"James, just don't-"

"Don't what? Who does he think he is?"

"I'll deal with him later, just don't worry about it!"

There was hardly any time to worry about it anyway, as the tents were being packed up and the trucks were driving away. In a huff, James handed me his gun and holster, and strode off towards the trucks. I busied myself with figuring out how to wear the holster, and another female Rocket nearby came over to help me get it rigged up.

"Your partner cares for you a lot," She said, tightening the belt around my waist. "Don't let that asshole Samson get in the way of that. You two are going to need each other today."

I felt my eyes widen. "I can take care of us, thanks."

She offered a sympathetic smile. "I just know how Samson is," She explained. "You're a big girl, you make your own decisions." With a clap on the shoulder that made me feel like maybe she'd been keeping an eye on us longer than I knew, she stepped back into the crowd of Rockets, cocking their new weapons loudly and excitedly.

"10 minutes!" Samson boomed.

The sudden bustle of the crowd made me feel anxious, and I looked to the trucks to find where James had gone. There was no blue hair anywhere to be found, though, and I had a feeling I would find him somewhere away from the commotion. With a frenzied stride, I let my feet take me into the treeline. The sound of the rest of the group was distant when I found him, sitting on a log out of sight of the trucks and their drivers.

"James! We need to go!"

He dropped his head into his hands. "I know. I know we do..."

"Well, let's go! They're going to leave without us!" I grabbed his arm as I got close, but despite his thin frame, he was too heavy for me to pull to his feet. He took my hand instead.

"Can you listen to me for one second?"

"You've only got one second!"

"Jessie," he dipped his head further between his shoulders. "I've just been thinking a lot about Delilah. About what would happen if..."

When he trailed off, I spoke up. "James, I know. But it won't happen. We need to go!"

"She fired a gun at them. That's how she died." He glanced to the gun now fastened around my waist. "I just have this feeling about this...about all of this." He took in a great gasp of air, tightening his soft hold on my hand. He threw his head back up to look my in the eye. "I don't think it's worth it, Jessie! I think we should go before this turns wrong. I think we could just run now-"

"James, no-"

"Jessie, please!" The sound of weapons loading and chattering Rockets behind us grew louder. James stood up. "Listen to me. Just this once. We don't need this. We are better than this. All of this!" He put his hands on my shoulders, and his eyebrows knitted. "And when he kissed you like that, I... Jessie, I... I think we need to be together. You and me."

My head was swimming. Behind us, I heard someone call my name. Leaves crunched and laughter approached as they came to find us.

"James, there is no time for this! We need to go."

His eyes searched mine. "I promised you we'll be fine. Can you just promise me you'll be here when there is over?"

I didn't even allow myself to think about the response. "I can't promise you anything."

He dropped his hands to his sides, dejected, stony. We stood like this for several moments, before Samson's voice called out "3 minutes, team!"

It was Tagg who reached us first, panting, "Everything alright? Let's go!"

James lowered his eyes. "Everything's fine." And walked back to camp.

Tagg frowned at me. "What's eating him?"