Hello and welcome to chapter 7. I'm sorry that this wasn't out earier, but with the ending of my other story, the end of school drawing nigh, and a little side project I'm working on, I wasn't able to write this story much. But, here you go.
"That didn't go quite to plan," Lucy stated while getting up off the ground.
"Tell me about it," Jake said while also pushing himself to his feet.
"You alright?" Lucy asked her electric parter.
"I've been better," Jake replied while scratching his head.
"Well that's good. At least we didn't get that hurt from the fall."
"Lucy," a voice came from her earpiece, "there's been a change of plans." Lucy put one of her claws onto the earpiece.
"And what's that?"
"We have another client. He wants a talking pokemon."
Lucy was stunned. He wasn't going to do what she thought he was, right? The boss wouldn't hand her over some random guy that wanted her. How could he do something like that?
She soon remembered, however, that Team Rocket's Meowth was also a talking pokemon. Lucy didn't know what she was thinking. Of course the boss wouldn't sell her. After all the time they've been together, he would never do that.
"So you want us to also catch that meowth?" Lucy guessed.
"If you could," he said politely. Even though he said it nicely, Lucy knew that was a command.
"Got it," Lucy confirmed and then took her claw off of the earpiece.
"The Meowth, too? Don't you think that's too big of a job?" Jake wondered.
"It's not like we have a choice. If we have a client who wants a talking pokemon, then we need to do it. It's not an option."
"Or we could just turn you in," Jake said as a joke. The look Lucy gave him told the ampharos that she didn't take it as one.
"What was that?"
"Uh…nothing," Jake said hastily.
"That's what I thought. Now, come on. We need to find Team Rocket again."
"Right," Jake agreed.
"Looking for me?" a voice came from behind the two. Lucy and Jake looked behind them and saw the exact pokemon they were looking for. He was standing there with his claws unsheathed.
"Looks like he came right to us," Lucy said with a smile. She, too, unsheathed her claws and got ready for a battle. Jake also took his place. He was charging up a thunderbolt before Lucy stopped him.
"I want to duel this meowth one on one," she said. Jake didn't know why she wanted to do this, but what he did know was that he should listen to Lucy. Jake took a few steps away from Lucy and prepared to watch the fight that was about to occur.
For the longest time, the two just stood there, looking at each other, neither one of them budging an inch. Both of them bore into the other's eyes, and looked deep within their soul. Both of them were like bulwark statues, not even breathing.
"Um, I hate to interrupt," Jake interjected once this had been going on for about a minute, "but I thought you were going to battle, not have a st-" Jake cut himself off as he saw the two run at each other. "Finally," he whispered to himself.
Meowth started off and tried for a Scratch, but Lucy ducked under it and unleashed a Fury Swipes on the cat's stomach. After a few swipes, Meowth jumped backwards away from the sneasel.
"Oh yeah? Then get a taste of my Fury Swipes," Meowth shouted. He closed the distance and then started to slash viciously with his claws. Lucy dodged each one of them, gracefully moving side to side like a dancer.
After Meowth had tired out from vainly attacking, Lucy went in for the finish. She let fly lots of punches and kicks and well as a head-butt or two now and then. She kept it up. Punch, kick, punch, kick, kick, punch, head-butt, until finally she nailed Meowth in the stomach and that sent him into a tree.
"What move was that?" Jaks asked himself. This was the first time he had seen Lucy fight, so he had no idea what that move was.
After Meowth had slid down the tree he was struggling to get back up. Once he was back on his feet, he prepared to use another Fury Swipes. He wasn't going to give up.
Just then, the three of them heard a very strange sound. It sounded like buzzing and was coming from the tree that Meowth had slammed into. They all looked at the tree to see bee-like pokemon with stingers on the end of their arms and the end of their abdomen. They were not happy that someone just rammed into their tree.
"Beedrill!" Jake stated the obvious.
Lucy cursed under breath. "Run!" she ordered. Jake didn't argue and started to follow Lucy.
"Wait for me!" With adrenaline now rushing through his body, Meowth ran after them with the Beedrill not far behind.
"Meowth!" Jessie called out with her hands to her mouth. "Where are you, Meowth?"
"Wobbuffet?"
Jessie let out a sigh and put her hands down on her hips. "Where is that annoying cat?" Jessie said aggravated.
"Wobbuffet!"
Suddenly, Jessie felt something light hit her head. She looked up and saw that dark rain clouds covered the sky.
"Look like it's going to rain soon. Come on, let's find Meowth before we get caught up in this storm."
"Wobbuffet!"
Drops of rain splattered on James as he sprinted down the road. He could see the pokecenter up ahead and he was almost there. Thankfully, James had found another road that led to the pokecenter from the forest he had come from.
James looked down at Scarlett. Blood continued to seep through her wound and onto James gloves. The wound was very deep.
"Vul-pix," she said weakly.
"Just hang on; we're almost there."
James didn't even bother changing into his disguise. He immediately ran through the sliding door of the center.
The pokecenter looked pretty standard. There were a few benches and videophones around the lobby area and a desk near the back. Behind it was nurse Joy. At the time, she was focused on her computer, but she saw someone enter the pokecenter out of her peripheral vision.
"Hello and welcome to th-" she started to say. She stopped when she looked up and saw who was in front of her. He was a man with the Team Rocket logo on his shirt with a very injured vulpix that was bleeding everywhere.
"Look, I don't have time to explain, just help this vulpix please," the man asked her.
He said that he wouldn't explain, but Joy really wished he would. There were so many questions. Why was a Team Rocket agent in her pokecenter? Was he here to steal pokemon? Had he already stolen the vulpix in his hands. Did he hurt the vulpix?
Despite all these questions, there was something that Nurse Joy knew for sure. There was an severly injured pokemon in front of her that needed her help. Joy's confused expression turned to a serious one.
"Alright, hand it here," she instructed. The man handed the vulpix over to her. Joy's chansey had already gotten a stretcher once she had heard the commotion. Joy put the fire type on the stretcher and chansey pushed it into the emergency room.
"You wait out here," Joy ordered the man.
"Right."
Joy ran in after her chansey and closed the doors behind her. The red syringe icon above the door started to glow.
James went over and sat down on one of the benches now that he could finally catch his breath. He ran a hand through his hair.
"I need to get into better shape." James looked back at the emergency room. "Please be alright, Scarlett."
It had felt like they had been running for miles, when in reality it had only been about half of one. But, if you were being chased by a relentless pack of beedrill, you wouldn't be able to have an accurate representation of how long you've been running, either.
Up ahead of them, Lucy saw what looked to be light, a way out of the forest. She kept running until she broke through the trees. Once she was out, she found that she could not be more wrong.
Instead of a way out of the forest, what met her was a cliff. She looked down and saw that a river was flowing below them. Meowth and Jake had caught up to her and were now also looking down the long drop.
Lucy glanced behind her and saw that the beedrill were not stopping. They were closing in and there was no other way to go, so there was only one option. Lucy crossed her arms across her chest, closed her eyes, and, to her companions surprise, jumped off into the water below.
Jake followed Lucy's led and also jumped off, albeit not as graceful. Meowth was the last one to jump. He really didn't like water. But, upon weighing the choices of either getting stung by hundreds of beedrills or getting wet, Meowth chose the latter. After hesitating for a second, Meowth jumped off, just dodging a beedrill's stinger. Down into the water the cat fell, and he landed with a large splash. The current immediately started to sweep Meowth away. He tried to get up to breath, but the waves were too large and the kept pushing him below the water. He was only able to get gasps of breath.
Lucy and Jake weren't having a good time either. They were also being battered by the waves. Lucy was, however, able to swim to the shore. She got herself up and shook herself a bit to get herself dry. Not that it helped much, as it was now raining.
Jake was also able to combat the waves, and so he swam to the bank of the river as well.
Meowth, however, was not that good at swimming and couldn't swim to safety. So, Jake had to extent his tail for Meowth, who grabbed it. Jake pulled Meowth out of the river, dragging him in the sand. Meowth let go and got to his feet. He let out a shiver and then looked back where they had come from. No beedrill were coming after them.
"Looks like they're gone," Jake said.
"We can't rest now," Lucy commanded. "We need to find shelter from this downpour."
"What about that cave?" Meowth asked as he pointed to a nearby hole in the ground.
"Works for me," Lucy agreed.
"I'm not complaining."
So, the three ran into the cave in shelter of the rain.
Jessie did not have a convenient cave to jump into, so she had taken shelter under a rock outcropping. It wasn't the best, but it was all Jessie was able to find. The trees of the forest blocked some of the rain, but certainly not all of it.
"I bet James is at the pokecenter staying perfectly dry," Jessie said while gritting her teeth from the cold of being wet.
"Wobbuffet!"
She rubbed her arms up and down trying to keep warm. "But, then again, I also bet Meowth is being soaked." She started to look out through the rain. While she was looking, Jessie noticed something walking through the rain. Squinting her eyes, she could make out that it was a humanoid shape. Once the shape got closer, she could see the person clearly.
The shape was an old woman who had her back hunched over. In one of her hands was a cane and in the other was an umbrella. The rain was bouncing off the umbrella like frogs jumping out of water.
The woman approached Jessie and stopped.
"Now, what is a beautiful, young woman like yourself doing under that rock?" she asked loudly enough to be able to be heard over the rain.
"While I appreciate the compliment, grandma, if you haven't noticed, it's raining; and I don't like to get wet."
"Wobbu-Wobbuffet!"
"Well, I'm just now heading back to my cabin, would you like to come with me? It's very dry in there."
"You mean it?"
"Why, of course. It gets plenty lonely out here. I would love some company."
Jessie got out from under the rock and went under the old woman's umbrella. Since there wasn't enough room under the umbrella for Wobbuffet, Jessie returned it.
"It's not far from here. Only a small walk."
"Just lead the way."
Jessie later learned that her theory about James was true. He wasn't at all wet.
Inside the pokecenter, James sat, not really caring about anything. He twiddled his thumbs as he waited. James wasn't really in touch with the world around him. Even the trainer that came in to get her grimer healed didn't snap him out of his thoughts.
The trainer was very confused as to why a Team Rocket agent was sitting in the lobby of the pokecenter, but she didn't really give it a second thought.
The pitter-patter of the rain on the window was the only noise in the lobby.
"Scarlett, please be okay," James said to himself again.
Just then, the silence of the pokemon center was broken by loud sirens. James finally snapped out of his daze and looked out on of the windows. Out side were police motorcycles as well as one police car.
James was barely able to stand up before someone ran through the door.
"Hey you!" the Officer Jenny shouted while she pointed at James.
"M-me?" James stammered while pointing at himself.
"You're under arrest for being part of the criminal Team Rocket and for attempted pokemon theft."
"Wha-?" James was barely able to react before two other police were around him, handcuffing him.
The other trainer was now in the corner, watching the whole spectacle.
"But I d-" James started.
"Save it!" Jenny yelled. "My sister said that you fit the description of one of two pokemon thieves who tried to pull a heist a few days ago. Besides, being a part of Team Rocket is a crime anyway."
The two police officers had taken James' pokeballs off of his belt and were now shoving James outside and into the back of the police car. They slammed the door and started the car.
"Where are you talking me," James said in a panicked voice.
"To jail," Officer Jenny, who was driving, said.
James let out a sigh. "This isn't going to end well."
Jessie later learned that her theory about Meowth was also true. He was completely soaked.
Now in the cave, Meowth was finally out of the rain. He shook his fur off as did both Lucy and Jake.
"Man, what else could go wrong today?" Meowth said. Lucy ignored him as she looked out of the cave.
"This storm doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon," she observed. "It looks like we're going to be here awhile, maybe even for the night."
Meowth let out a large breath and then sat down. He finally was able to get some rest.
For the next fifteen minutes or so, no one said anything else. Everyone sat in quiet solitude, meditating on this and that. They all listened to the rain that was pouring in sheets outside the cave.
Lucy took out her earpiece and made sure that it was alright. It was. After all, it was waterproof for reasons like this.
"So, Jake," Lucy said while putting the earpiece back in, "I've been meaning to ask you something."
"And what might that be?"
"You can use the move thunderbolt when most other ampharos I've met can't. Why is it that you can use that move, but they couldn't?"
Jake thought about it for a second. "I think I inherited it from my father."
"Your father?"
"Yeah. My father was a raichu, and he knew thunderbolt. I think that I got that move from him when I was born. It's a genetics thing."
"Interesting." Lucy pondered what that meant.
"Speaking about moves, what move did you use back there in your battle with the meowth?"
"Oh, that? It's a move called Beat Up. The reason you've never seen it was because only sneasels can learn it." Lucy looked over to the other pokemon that was in the cave with them. "Hey you, meowth," she said to get his attention. Meowth snapped out of his daze.
"What do you want?"
"I was just wondering if you had a name other than Meowth, that's all."
"What's it to ya?"
"Nothing, just wanted to know."
Meowth let out a sigh. "Back when I lived as a street cat, I used to have a name, but when I joined Team Rocket, they just called me Meowth, so that's what I go by now."
"Since we're in the question mood," Jake kept the conversation going, "I was wondering when and why you joined the boss, Lucy. I know someone like you will have a story to tell."
Lucy gave a very deep breath which wasn't really a sigh, just a 'reminiscing breath'.
"It was about a year ago that he found me. I had pretty much given up on life. There was no where I could go, nothing I could do. I had fainted in a small basin because I was very injured and too tired to go on. That's when the boss found me. He took me in and help me back to health. Because I could talk human, he gave me job as his translator, and we've been together ever since."
"Never knew that about you," Jake replied.
"Well, now you do," Lucy said in a voice that made it clear she did not want to dwindle on the subject. "So Meowth, where did you learn to talk?"
Meowth opened one of his eyes and looked at the sneasel, but then closed it.
"I'm not tell you."
"Alright then." Lucy knew what it was like for people to ask too many annoying questions, so she stopped talking to him. Lucy gave a large yawn. "It's getting late, and I'm going to get some Z's."
"Good idea," Jake agreed.
Meowth didn't really like this Lucy girl, but she was right about one thing. Meowth was really tired himself, and it was time to sleep. He layed down on the ground and tried to get some rest. The rain outside provided a nice, relaxing noise to fall asleep to.
While they were traveling to her house, Jessie learned that people called the old woman Grandma Ranch because she used to run a ranch in the country some time ago. But she decided to move to this quiet forest for some peace. She still ran a ranch at her house, which was just a little bit outside of the forest.
Once they had arrived at the ranch, Jessie saw all of the pokemon that Grandma Ranch had on her ranch. There was everything from mareep to marill. From eevee's to exeggcute. Currently, all but the water types were hiding under a small overhanging that was built to keep the pokemon dry when it was raining.
If Jessie had brought any equipment with her, she would have seriously debated trying to steal all, or just a lot, of the pokemon. But, Jessie had neither net nor cage to catch anyone in, and just running off with one of them wouldn't be very successful.
Once Grandma Ranch and Jessie were inside, Grandma Ranch put up her umbrella and went into the kitchen to make some tea.
"Would you like some, dear?" she asked.
"Tea would be nice." Jessie was surprised how hospitable this old lady was. But, she wasn't going to deny a gift. Wobbuffet he immediately let itself out of its pokeball again once Jessie had entered the house. She payed it no mind.
While Grandma was making the tea, Jessie sat at a table and stared out of a window at all the pokemon at the ranch.
"Wasted opportunity," she mumbled to herself with her hand on her cheek.
"Wobbuffet!"
"Please, drink as much tea as you like," Grandma Ranch snapped Jessie out of her thoughts.
"Don't mind if I do!"
"So, what was a woman like you doing inside this forest," Grandma Ranch said as she brought the tea and set it down at the table. Jessie took a cup and started to sip from it. She found it funny that this woman was not fazed at all by her Team Rocket uniform. Jessie decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell her the story.
"Well, see, we were traveling to get to the pokecenter nearby when we were…stopped. Long story short, we ended up breaking the cliff off and fell down into the forest here.
"Who is this 'we'?"
"My partners and I. We were separated from each other, and I was out trying to find one of them when it started to downpour, so I took cover under that rock. The rest you know.
"I see," Grandma Ranch said as she went over to the window and looked outside. "It's getting mighty late and it's still raining. How would you like to sleep here tonight. I have an extra bed. You can continue your search tomorrow. "
"I'd love that!" Jessie would take sleeping in a bed over camping any time.
For the next twenty minutes, Jessie talked about this and that while drinking her tea. A large yawn from Jessie signaled that it was time to get to bed. She thanked Grandma Ranch for her hospitality, something Jessie didn't do often, and fell into her bed, falling asleep instantly.
James watched as the rain slowly drifted down the window of the car, lost in thought. It didn't take long for them to get to the police station. Once they were there, Jenny took James out of the car and led him to a jail cell. She took of the handcuffs and threw James against the wall, slamming the door behind him and locking it.
"Your court case is tomorrow, so I suggest you get some sleep," Officer Jenny said with a stiff voice. She walked away, her heels clacking on the solid stone floor.
James put up both of his hands to his face and let out a sigh of depression.
Oddly enough, the fact that he was in the slammer wasn't the thing that was bothering James the most. It was the fact that he didn't know if Scarlett was okay or not. She could have died in the surgery, and James would never know.
It was strange, the fact that he had grown so close to a pokemon that he had stolen, even to the point of caring about its needs.
James stared out of the barred window in his cell, and the darkness that now crept upon it.
"Please be okay, Scarlett," he said for the third time that day.
Things are starting to get real now. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can, but because of the side project I told you about, it might be away. What is the project? Well, just wait and see.
