Hey guys, and welcome to the very overdue chapter eleven. It seems that in Summer break, I actually have less inspiration to write than I did when I was in school, as counterintuitive as that may be. But, I haven't stopped writing. I will personally tell you all that if that happens. I'll try to have chapter 12 out a lot sooner, but no promises. Anyway, hope you like it.
The room was darkly lit; the only light was coming from a candle on the desk. Sure, Sneasel could have turned on the lights to study, but she became more focused if she used no other light source than a candle. She didn't know why this was the case, but it was what it was.
Sneasel was sitting by the desk in a chair. Other than the candle, the only thing that was on the desk was a reading book.
Sneasel stared outside the window of her room into the darkness of the night.
"Wonder how Meowth is doing," she thought out loud. However, when she remembered Meowth, she remembered what she had been doing before she had gotten distracted. She turned back to the book on her desk. The page she was on had one simple sentence.
"The big red dog jumped over the small yellow doghouse."
Sneasel took a deep breath and then started to repeat it to herself.
"Sneasel-sne, sneasel sneasel," she said out loud.
"One more time," Sneasel thought. She tried to say it once more.
"Sneas-do-l ju-sneasel sne-house." After saying this, she let out a sigh.
"Man, I didn't know talking human would be this hard," she said to herself. "How does Meowth do it?"
Suddenly, a knock came from Sneasel's door, which made her heart skip. Quickly, she closed the book and hastily shoved it in a drawer.
"Come in," she called out. The door opened and in came someone she wasn't expecting to see at this hour. "Meowth? What are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to come and see how you were doing."
"I'm doing well. So, how did it go?" She asked. A smile creeped onto Meowth's face, and Sneasel knew exactly what that meant. A smile worked its way onto her face too. "Does this mean you made it?"
"Just barely, but we passed. We technically didn't complete the task, but they thought we had done a good enough job, so we were promoted anyway."
Sneasel was so happy that she jumped up from her chair, ran over and hugged Meowth, something he wasn't expecting.
"That's so awesome. I'm really proud of you!"
"Yeah, thanks. But I'd appreciate it if you didn't crush me."
"Oh, sorry," Sneasel backed off, blushing a little.
"So, what are you doing up this late? I thought I'd find you sleeping."
"Oh, you know. Nothing much," Sneasel said while shuffling her feet. "Hey, Meowth, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Did…I mean…was it…hard…when you learned how to talk?" Sneasel stumbled through her sentence. She looked at the ground when she was done.
Meowth thought this was an odd question.
"Why do ya ask?"
"Oh…I was…just wondering, that's all."
"Well, yeah, it was pretty challenging. I had to work day after day in order to be able to speak right. But now, I can do it without any trouble. In fact, nowadays I talk human even if I'm talking to a Pokemon, like you."
"Oh…I see,"
Meowth let out a yawn. "After that mission, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. I recommend you do the same.
"I'll…think about it. Good night."
"You too."
And with that, Meowth left the room and closed the door.
Once she was sure he was gone, Sneasel opened the drawer again and pulled out the book. She got back to the page she was on.
"Alright. I'll just have to keep practicing, no matter how hard it is."
Lucy awoke to someone nugging her arm. She rolled over and tried to ignore whoever had touched her. The person poked her again.
"Leave me alone. I'm sleeping," she said groggily.
"But, Miss Lucy, you must take your medicine if you want to feel better," a voice Lucy did not recognize said. After a bit of hard work, Lucy opened her eyes and looked at the man. It was one of the boss's goons. She had seen him around the base but didn't know him by name. In his hands was a vial of medicine and a tablespoon with some of it. "This will help you with your burns," the man explained.
Lucy sat right up and complied, taking the spoon from the man. She swallowed all of the medicine. It tasted very bitter, but she didn't care. It's not like she hadn't tasted worse. It was at this point that the realization hit her. She was no longer inside the Pokecenter, but inside the medical bay they had on the airship.
"How did I get here?"
"We dropped by the Pokecenter and picked you up. You were sleeping, so we didn't wake you when we transported you here."
"Are we going back to base?"
"We already did, and now we are heading out again. You see, both of our clients want to pick up their Pokemon today, so we are traveling to an area to meet them both right now.
"I see…" Lucy's head perked up once she remembered something. "So…did we end up capturing the meowth and the vulpix?"
"Yup, our boss got 'em. His tyranitar destroyed the Team Rocket agents like they were nothing," the man said with a smile. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to sleeping."
"No, it's fine, I'm awake now."
"Alright then." The man walked out of the automatic doors of the infirmary, and when he did, someone else walked in.
"Hey Lucy. How you doing?" the ampharos said.
"Jake?"
"You were out for a while. A few hours, in fact. Are you feeling any better?"
Lucy moved her legs and arms around, and they still hurt when she did.
"Not really."
"Sorry to hear that."
Lucy struggled to get off the bed she was on. She made it off the bed, but moving was still really painful.
"Lucy, you really shouldn't move right now," Jake advised.
"No, I need to see Meowth. Where is he?"
"Him? Why do you-"
"Just tell me. Is he in the holding cell?"
"Yeah, that's where he is."
"Good." Lucy tried to walk forward, but a sharp pain in her leg caused her to fall down. Jake caught her and propped her up right. He went over to a corner of the room and picked up something in the corner.
"Lucy, I-"
"I said I'm going!" she shouted. Lucy looked over to Jake and her expression changed when she saw what Jake had in his hands.
"Here, these will help," he said while handing Lucy the crutches. She took them with a smile.
"Thanks, Jake," she thanked. She left the infirmary, hopping on the crutches, and Jake followed behind her.
James looked out across the vast expansive land that he could see from the cliff he was on. He cupped his hands to his mouth and called out.
"Weezing! Where are you?!" he yelled out. Jessie came up next to him and did the same.
"Arbok! Can you hear me?!"
No response came.
"I can't believe we didn't blast off together," Jessie put her hands on her hips.
"I wonder if they were able to capture Meowth and Scarlett?" James speculated as he put one of his hands on a tree.
"I…don't know," Jessie replied honestly.
James' eyes lit up when he thought of something.
"You don't think they would have captured Arbok and Weezing as well, would they?"
"Why would they want them?" Jessie asked rhetorically. "Come on, let's keep up the search. They've got to be around here somewhere.
"Right."
Arbok waited on the ground silently. He was coiled up and had his head down. He looked thoroughly depressed.
Above him, Weezing drifted down to the ground from the tree he had flown up to. Arbok lifted his head up to his poison partner.
"Any sign of them?" he asked with hopelessness. He knew what the answer would be.
Just as Arbok expected, Weezing shook his head. The cobra let out a deep sigh.
"Are we ever going to find them?" Arbok wondered out loud.
"I don't know," Weezing replied while sitting next to the snake.
"Do you think they're alright?"
Weezing didn't reply, which made Arbok more depressed.
"We can keep looking," Weezing suggested.
"What's the point? They blasted off in an entirely different direction. They may be miles away from us."
"Yeah…"
The two waited in silence, not saying anything to one another. Arbok just stared out into the horizon while Weezing sat and thought about what to do.
The silence was broken by a loud noise coming from the sky. Arbok and Weezing both looked up to the sky to see a familiar airship flying over head. It flew right past the two and continued into the distance.
"Was that…?" Arbok stared with his mouth open.
"I think it was," Weezing confirmed. Arbok got on a new face. A face of determination.
"Come on. They have Meowth and Scarlett and we're going to get them back," He said with confidence. Arbok got up out of his coil and started to slither in the direction the airship was going.
"Are you sure?" Weezing questioned.
"I know that that's what Jessie would want, so if we can't find her, we'll go and save those two."
Weezing thought about it for a second, and then agreed.
"Let's go."
And so, the two headed off to go and save Meowth and Scarlett.
Meowth had awoken in a cage. Inside the room were many other cages, all filled with different Pokemon that the Pokemon hunter had captured.
Meowth and Scarlett had tried everything to break out of the container, but nothing worked. Clawing the bars, picking the lock, burning the lock off, even slamming into the bars, it was all pointless, as the cage didn't even dent.
"There's gotta be some way out of here." Scarlett hadn't quite given up yet. Meowth, on the other hand, had.
"If you have any other escape plans, then let hear it," Meowth skulked. Scarlett looked all around the room for something, anything, that could help them.
Just then, the two large doors the the prison opened. In came the sneasel and ampharos from before. The ice type was using crutches to walk.
"What do you guys want?" Meowth spat, not in the mood to deal with them.
"Wow, that's not a way to treat someone who's in clinical care," the sneasel that Meowth remembered as Lucy snarked.
"Yeah, well it is the way to treat someone who tried to capture me!" Meowth remarked. He turned his head away from the Pokemon at the entrance and closed his eyes. He wanted nothing to do with these guys.
"What about an old friend?"
Lucy's statement hit Meowth like a hammer that pounded onto his heart.
"Old friend?" Meowth thought. Looking up, the cat bore his eyes into Lucy's. "I've seen those eyes before," Meowth thought, "but where?"
That's when the realization hit him. All the memories flooded back to him at the same time. It was almost too much to take.
With his mouth agape, this was one of the few times Meowth was at a loss.
"No way, you're…" Meowth trailed off because he still didn't believe it. But, the evidence was very much there.
"Looks like you finally recognized me. About time."
"Meowth, do you know this sneasel?" Scarlett asked. He didn't answer, and instead kept looking on.
"That can't be you! Sn-Sneasel?" Meowth was finally able to get the name out. She put up a hand.
"I go by Lucy now."
"Lucy…" Meowth let that settle with him. "I…I didn't recognize you. You look so different, and can talk."
"Yeah, I'm a lot different since we last met. How many years has it been? Three?"
Meowth thought about it. "About that, yeah." Meowth's demeanor changed to a more happy one. "Hey, come on and let me out so we can catch up. We can talk, like the good old times."
Lucy let out a sigh."I can't do that," she said while wagging one of her claws.
"Wh-why?" Meowth gasped, his joyful attitude had gone as fast as it came.
"See, I work for the Pokemon hunter that captured you, so I can't just go and let you out, now can I?" Lucy asked rhetorically.
"Lucy? Come on? You're not serious, are you?"
"I am," She said sternly. "I'm…sorry," she quickly said, and then turned around and limped out of the room with her crutches.
"Lucy, wait!" Meowth shouted as he went up next to the bars. She didn't even turn around as the ampharos and Lucy left the room, the doors closing behind them.
"Lucy…"
Once the doors closed, Lucy looked back at them and gave another deep sigh.
"Something wrong?" Jake asked.
"What? Oh, it's…nothing."
"Are you sure? You seem kinda-,"
"I'm sure," Lucy interrupted hastily. Jake didn't buy that nothing was wrong, as something was clearly troubling her, but he decided it would be best if he didn't press any further.
"Attention," a voice came from over the intercom. Lucy and Jake looked up to the speaker it was coming from. "We will be landing soon. We need everyone to their places."
"Well, guess that's my cue," Lucy said. She started to hop away on her crutches.
"Your cue?" Jake wasn't entirely sure what Lucy meant by that.
"I need to be there for the exchange, to translate any Pokemon that might need it, you know."
"I gotcha."
Lucy continued on her path. Jake came up and walked beside her.
"So Lucy, you and Meowth were friends at one point, right?"
"Well…yes, at a time we were."
"So, won't it feel weird to sell him over to someone?"
Lucy took a deep breath and turned head away from the ampharos.
"Jake, my loyalty lies to this organization now. I can't have some old friends getting in the way of that."
Jake had heard a bit of regret in her voice, like she was fighting whether or not that was what she truly wanted.
"But from what I heard of you two, you seemed like really good friends. Are you really just going to-"
"Jake, you say that like I have a choice!" Lucy said just under a yell, which took him by surprise. Lucy shook her head to clear her mind. "Look, just…don't talk to me, okay?" Lucy walked away, and Jake didn't follow.
"Lucy…"was all he could get out.
Arbok and Weezing had followed the aircraft all the way to its landing point, which thankfully wasn't far from where they were originally. Now, the two poison types hid in the brush, watching the ship land from afar.
"So, what's the plan?" Weezing asked. Arbok didn't answer and kept staring at the craft. "Do you have a plan?"
"I… no I don't," Arbok respond honestly. "Jessie and James always came up with the plans. I don't know the first thing to do."
Weezing looked back at the airship. It was fully on the ground now, and a large ramp had come down from it. Lots of people ran down the ramp, as well as the boss in charge. Around one of his arms were white bandages, slightly stained red with blood. Arbok smiled a bit at this sight.
Beside him was the Sneasel from earlier, except this time she was on crutches.
"So that's the damage the entei did," Weezing examined, feeling slightly sorry. He wasn't there personally for what had happened to her, but had heard the talk that Jessie had with James while he was in his Pokeball.
"Yeah, she was hit pretty hard," Arbok added.
A little bit after those two, two other grunts came out, but in their hands were cages, one containing Meowth, the other containing Scarlett.
"There they are," Arbok pointed out the obvious. "But I have no idea how we're going to get past all of those other humans?" There were so many of them, they would have no chance. "I guess it's hopeless."
"Don't say that!" Weezing snapped at his partner. "Remember what Jessie and James always did when something didn't go their way, or they didn't have a plan? They went through with it anyway. They worked on their feet and didn't give up. So neither should we. To do so would be an insult to our masters!"
Arbok was taken by surprise. Weezing wasn't usually this riled up. But he did have a point.
"You're right," Arbok affirmed and turned back to the group. Now he was ready. He didn't have a plan, but Weezing made him realized he didn't need one. "Then let's do it!" the snake yelled and jumped out of the brush, while Weezing followed behind him.
Hope you guys liked it. Again, I'll try to get chapter 12 out as soon as possible.
