Hello and welcome to chapter 14. This one is a bit longer, so I won't keep you.

The blowing of the wind made the fire beast's large mane shimmer even more in the sunlight. The red crest on his forehead was a complete contrast to the blue sky and the white clouds behind him. From on top of the stone pillar, the entei could see all across the surrounding area. Looking across the large plains, he still couldn't spot the one he was looking for. She had gone in this direction, he knew that for sure, but he still couldn't find her.

The entei opened his mouth and let out a deafening roar that could be heard from miles around. The cry lasted for a few seconds before dying down. The echo of it lasted for much longer before fading into nothing. Afterwards, the entei jumped off of his pillar and onto the ground below, a drop that would normally hurt or injure regular Pokemon. This entei, however, was not a regular Pokemon. He hit the ground with a loud thud that caused a shockwave to ripple throughout the area, making a flock of pidgey fly away from where they had been scavenging for food.

Afterwards, the entei bent his back legs and went into another seismic jump that carried him to another large, rocky hill high above the ground. He jumped again to another, and then another, continuing to jump around on the high ground, his eyes darting back and forth as he flew through the air. He knew who he was looking for, and he would find her. He would get his revenge on the one who had caused him so much pain.

"What was that?" Lucy looked up from what she was doing and quickly scanned the area around her.

"What was what?" Jake asked while bent over, looking towards his ice type partner.

"That noise. Didn't you hear it just now?"

"No, I didn't hear anything. What did it sound like?" Jake asked.

"I think…it's that entei again," Lucy said slowly, the dread evident on her words.

"You sure?" Jake said surprised. He stood straight up, cracked his back, and walked over to Lucy. "I don't think I heard anything, let alone that entei. Maybe you're just imagining it."

"No, I know I'm not," Lucy replied firmly. "I've heard that entei enough in my nightmares to know that it's him."

Jake found this last statement odd, but didn't say anything about it. "Do you really think he could have followed us here? And what for? We're out of his territory."

"I don't know…" Lucy trailed off. Of course, this was a lie. She knew exactly why he was chasing her. She didn't think that this was the time to tell Jake that.

"Just…don't worry about it, alright?" Jake tried to comfort Lucy.

"Don't worry?" Lucy asked in an upset tone of voice. "Jake, you don't know what that entei's done to me! How can I not worry?"

Jake thought about this for a bit before answering.

"You're right," Jake agreed, "I don't know what he did to you. I don't know what that guy's deal is, or why he's intent on attacking you. To be honest, I don't really know what an entei even is. But…" Jake paused. "I do know one thing."

"And…what's that?" Lucy asked in a much less irritated than before.

"If that entei does decide to come after you, then he's going to have to get through me first." Jake said with confidence. "And then, he's going to be sorry he ever tried to attack you."

A silence followed what Jake said. Lucy was surprised by this sudden burst of confidence from her electric companion, but, considering some of the other things Jake had said to her in the past few days, she shouldn't have been.

"Yeah…" Lucy replied slowly. She took her eyes off of Jake and looked down to the ground, staring at the small blades of grass that reside there, slowly fluttering in the soft wind. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she inhaled and then exhaled. Opening her eyes, she gave a quick nod and turned away from Jake. She went back over to where she had been and went back to work.

"Come on, let's get these traps set up," she told the ampharos.

"On it!" Jake said back with passion. He ran over to where he had been, and continued to work on his part of the scheme.

While she was working, Lucy thought more about what Jake had said.

I can tell he means it, Lucy thought. But why? What have I done that would make him want to protect me like that? Maybe…

Lucy looked up from what she was doing and towards Jake.

…he's just that kind of guy.

"H…hey, Jake?" Lucy spoke up after she had thought about it.

"Hm?" Jake looked back over to the sneasel. Lucy stood silent for a few seconds before saying anything.

"Th…thanks," she was finally able to get out, and another smile came out with it. This caused Jake to smile too.

"Anytime," he replied with a nod. Jake turned back and continued to work on their trap.

The girl was looking longingly outside the window of the car. Because the car was moving fast, all the shrubbery and trees looked like blurs as the car went past them all.

The mother of the girl, who was driving the car, glanced back at her before getting turning her eyes back on the road.

Right before they had started the move to their new house, the girl's Pokemon had been abducted by members of Team Rocket. Officer Jenny hadn't been able to find the people that had taken Scarlett, which forced the two to move without her. The girl, however, was taking it pretty hard. After all, it was her first and only Pokemon that she lost.

The mother had tried to comfort her child, but nothing would really work. It took a lot to convince her that Scarlett was gone for good, and now she still hadn't recovered from it.

"Scarlett…" the small girl whispered as she looked past all the hills and tree, towards the skyline.

"Where are you?"

Scarlett had never stopped thinking about her trainer. The girl was probably missing her alot right now. Scarlett hoped that she would be able to see her trainer one last time before she was taken to the Team Rocket depot. Then, no matter what else happened, Scarlett would be happy.

A smile formed on the fire type's face when she thought of seeing her trainer again. She did miss her, and while traveling with Jessie, James and Meowth had been fun, no one made her happier than the girl who had taken her from the Pokemon shelter. She had only known her trainer for a few months, but those few months had been the best in her life.

The vulpix's thoughts were immediately interrupted by the feeling of wind on her fur. Shortly after, her cage smashed into the hard ground. The shockwave caused Scarlett's gash to erupt into pain once again. She let out a yelp.

"Careful!" James scolded Jessie, which was followed by a light backhand to her shoulder.

"These cages are slippery! Don't blame me!" Jessie rebutled. James knelt down to Scarlett's level.
"Are you alright?" he asked. After recovering her breath, Scarlett looked over to her side. The scar hadn't reopened, which was good. The vulpix nodded to show that she was fine.

"That's a relief." James stood up and turned to Jessie. "You need to be more careful. You could have reopened her wound," James scolded.

"I told you, these cages are slippery. It's not my fault," Jessie snapped back.

"Guys, could we save the fight'n for later?" Meowth interjected. "We're kinda still stuck in 'dese cages."

"If you have any bright ideas that we haven't tried yet, then spit them out," Jessie growled.

Team Rocket had tried almost everything that they could think of to try and break open these cages. Arbok's Bite and Weezing's Sludge didn't work, and neither did Victreebel's Razor Leaf. They even tried throwing Meowth's cage at Wobbuffet and had him use Counter. That didn't work either, and all they were left with was a slightly less than amused Meowth.

"There's gotta be a way to open these cages, right?" Meowth proposed "How did the hunters plan on getting us out?"

"That's a good point," James agreed. "We haven't really checked all around the cages yet. Maybe there's a mechanism somewhere on it."

"Let me see," Jessie said. She picked up Scarlett's cage again and ignored James' "Careful." Lifting it above her it, Jessie saw two indentations on the bottom. Both of them looked like half circles. Putting a finger in one and another finger in the other, Jessie twisted the holes. She continued to turn them until she heard a 'pop'.

The top of the cage flew off and hit the ground with a loud 'clank'.

"Well that was easy," Jessie said, a little bit annoyed that they didn't try that before now. She slowly put the cage down. Once it was on the ground, Scarlett slowly climbed out of enclosure, careful to not hurt herself anymore than she needed to.

James went over and did the same thing to Meowth's cage, twisting the contraption and letting the top fly off. Meowth practically jumped out of his cage once it had opened. He landed on the ground and took a deep breath.

"It feels so nice to be out of 'dat," Meowth said as he stretched his arms and legs.

"These cages are really well designed," James admired the cage after Meowth had gotten out of it. "They're made of a metal frame that can't be broken easily, and the only way to open it is on the bottom side of it, ensuring that anyone inside it can't get to it. And, to top it off, the only way to open it is by lifting up the cage and turning the lock mechanism, which very few Pokemon would be able to do, only humans. We could learn a thing or two from the people who made this cage."

"Your point is…?" Jessie asked, already bored by James' rambling.

"Well, we could try something like this when we go back to capture Pikachu after this is done with," James got the the point of his long speech.

Jessie shrugged with an, oh-okay-I-guess-that-works, kind of face. "But right now, we need to get this vulpix to the boss."

"Alright then, let's get back to it. Where did you guys park the balloon?" Meowth asked.

"Well…parked isn't the exact word I would use…" James said slowly. "You see, that ampharos that travels around with Lucy popped our balloon."

Meowth was surprised by this. "Why did he do that?"

"The two of them thought we had found you two. That's how we figured out that you had escaped."

"Is Lucy still burned?" was Meowth's first question.

"I think so, but she was walking fine," James answered the question even though he thought it was a bit wired.

"Good…" Meowth smiled at that news. Jessie looked at Meowth like he was crazy.

"Excuse me? How is that good?" Jessie asked. "She did try and is still trying to capture you, you know. The fact that she's recovering from that large burn that fast is anything but 'good'."

Meowth realized that he hadn't told Jessie or James what he had found out inside the hunter's base.

"Here, I'll tell you guys why on the way back to the balloon," Meowth offered.

"Sounds good," James agreed. He knelt down and picked up Scarlett so she wouldn't have to walk.

"We will be a bit behind schedule because we'll need some time to repair the balloon…again," Jessie brought up. "And with those other two on our trail, we'll need to do it fast. Let's get going."

"Right," James and Meowth agreed in unison.

"So you're telling us that talking sneasel is the same one from Team Rocket boot camp?" Jessie asked to make sure she had gotten it. She was walking with both her hands behind her head.

"Yup. Hard to believe, isn't it? I didn't even recognize her," Meowth finished explaining.

"Small world," James commented. Scarlett gave a small nod from his arms.

"If that's the case, then why is she trying to capture you?" Jessie asked.

"I'm not quite sure, but I think she might have a big commitment to the boss of the hunters that are after us. She might feel like she needs to repay him for something," Meowth guessed.

"Well, if that's the case," James started, "then we might be able to-"

Before James was able to finish, Jessie took her hand and covered James' mouth with it.

"Shhh." Jessie quieted the two while motioning to be silent with a finger to her mouth. Afterwards, she crouched down and pointed to two small figures in a grassy clearing.

"Do you see what I see?" Jessie asked. James and Meowth joined her in crouching down and looked in front of them.

The two small figures were standing still, barely moving. They were small, red, and definitely a Pokemon.

"Are those what I think 'dey are?" Meowth questioned rhetorically.

They were a bit hard to make out, but with the color and the six tails, it wasn't hard to guess who they were.

"We're in luck," Jessie said in a hushed tone. "Looks like these two vulpix are just waiting for some to capture them."

"Are you sure we should try?" James asked while glancing back at the two foxes. "You know what they say. A pidgey in the hand is worth two in the bush."

"But these aren't pidgey we're talking about, these are vulpix," Jessie said, missing the entire point of the saying. "Can you imagine what the boss would say if we brought him not one, not two, but three vulpix?"

"Well…" James thought about it.

"Stop hesitating. We need to get them before they escape. Meowth, take care of Scarlett," Jessie took Scarlett out of James' hands, to his dismay, and put her in the hands of Meowth, who struggled to carry her because of the size difference, and eventually just put her on the ground.

"I'll get the left one, you get the right one, got it?" Jessie ordered James before running after the one closest to her.

James still didn't like this idea and thought something fishy was up, but decided that he should probably do what Jessie said if he valued his wellbeing.

As Meowth stayed behind, Jessie and James started to sneak towards their targets, who were still staying completely still.

When she was just a few feet away, Jessie dove and grabbed the vulpix so it couldn't get away. James did the same as he jumped and scooped up the second one.

But something was off.

Instead of feeling the soft fur and squishy flesh under his hands like he should have, James instead felt a hard, rough substance. He looked down to see that the thing he had in his hands wasn't a vulpix at all, but instead a wooden cutout painted to look like one.

"These aren't real," James came to the realization a little too late, as they had fallen right into a trap.

"Alright, who thinks that they're so clever?" Jessie yelled as she looked around.

Suddenly, nets came out from nowhere and wrapped around both Jessie and James, trapping them to the ground.

"Hey, who did this!?" Jessie said as she struggled to get free of the net, to no avail.

"Prepare for trouble, we caught you, you filthy crook," an all too familiar voice came from in front of Jessie and James.

"Make it double, we took a page from your book!" another voice sounded out. Jessie and James both looked up from their confinement to see a sneasel and an ampharos standing back to back.

"To protect the world from devastation," Lucy said with a grin.

"To unite all people wi-" Jake started.

"STOP IT!" Jessie interrupted with her booming voice. "That's our motto!"

"I'll have you two know that we have a copyright on that!" James shouted. "We could sue you for infringement!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Lucy said as she waved them off. "I'm not here for you two." Lucy walked passed Jessie and James and straightforward towards Meowth and Scarlett. "I'm here for you two," she said with one claw pointed at them.

"Forget it!" Meowth exclaimed. He got in front of Scarlett and then unsheathed his claws. "You'll have to beat me first!"

Lucy let out a sigh. She knew this was going to happen. It was inevitable, given Meowth's fiery passion
"I don't want to hurt you, nor am I in the condition to battle, but I will be forced to fight if you don't surrender."

"Never!" Meowth declared, outstretching his arms, and preparing for a battle.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and stared the cat down. "As you wish," she said in a low tone. "Jake!" Lucy called out without taking her eyes off of Meowth.

"Eh?"

"Make sure those two don't escape," she ordered, referring to Jessie and James.

"Got it!" Jake hummed back. He of course knew that Lucy wanted to do this herself, so he hadn't planned to get in the way.

Scarlett, knowing that things were going to get serious, decided to back off and watch the battle unfold from the sidelines, prepared to run incase Meowth lost.

Meowth and Lucy were now at a staredown, not unlike the time when they were in the forest right before they were attacked by beedrill. This time, however, it didn't take long for the two to get into combat.

Lucy made the first move. She lunged towards Meowth, her claw extending like a sharply tuned knife, glistening in the sunlight. The attack came in fast, but Meowth jumped just to the left of the attack. He swiped his claws at where Lucy would have been had she not reacted to the attack and ducked. With his other arm, Meowth came in for another Scratch while Lucy was still close, but she evaded that one too by pushing off with one leg and jumping away from the attack.

Once she hit the ground, Lucy stopped her momentum by digging her feet into the soil, kicking up lots of dirt in the process. Her legs felt like they were on fire, but she didn't stop; she couldn't stop. Almost immediately, she ran back towards Meowth and prepared for another attack.

James knew he had to get out of this net and help Meowth out. He unclipped Victreebel's Pokeball from his waist stuck it out of the net.

"Victreebel, use Razor Leaf and get us out of here!" he ordered. Victreebel jumped out of its Pokeball and turned around. It threw two, sharpened leaves towards the net at a speed that would cut almost anything in their way.

Except for this net, apparently.

The leaves hit the net with a clink and then bounced harmlessly off, fluttering to the ground and then becoming still on the ground.

"Well…that's not good…" James thought out loud while scratching his head. Of course they would have accounted for their Pokemon's attacks, why wouldn't they have?

Victreebel, however, had not quite given up yet. It kept chucking Razor Leaves at the net, hoping that one of them would break it.

"Arbok, try using Bite!" Jessie decided that she would try her hand at breaking the nets open. Arbok materialized out of his Pokeball and slithered over to the net containing Jessie. Then, taking in a deep breath, he bit down as hard as he could onto the wire mesh, gnashing his teeth back and forth to try and tear the net open.

That didn't work either, and Arbok just ended up with his teeth hurting.

Jake, of course, knew that neither Arbok nor Victreebel could break open the nets. They were made using the same material as the cages. The only thing that could get them out of there would be fire, because, unlike the cages, the net was not fireproof. But, as far as Jake and Lucy knew, those two did not have any fire types.

Well, except for the vulpix, of course, but Jake was keeping an eye on her. Currently, she was watching the battle Meowth and Lucy were having, distracted and not paying attention to anything going on over where Jake was.

"In fact…" Jake whispered to himself.

Lucy swiped her claws to try and cut Meowth, but he dodged to the side again. Meowth tried to hit Lucy in the chest while she was still recovering from her missed attack, but she bent backwards and let the attack fly over her. Lucy countered by straightening back and, before Meowth had a chance to react, gave him a quick punch in the stomach, which caused the cat to recoil.

Scarlett had been watching the battle from a safe distance. It didn't look good for Meowth. It was obvious that Lucy knew what she was doing, and Meowth was having a hard time keeping up with her speed.

The vulpix had been so entranced by the battle, she didn't notice the shadow that was encroaching upon her until it was too late. She turned around just in time to see two large, yellow hands reach down and grab her.

"Gotcha!" Jake announced, quite proud of himself that he was able to sneak up on her, even if it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Hey, let me go!" Scarlett squirmed to get out of the ampharos' grasp, but wasn't able to as the electric type held on tight. Eventually, Scarlett blew out a small flame that made contact with Jake's arm.

"Ow- hey!' Jake grunted before hitting Scarlett in her scar, causing her to once again yelp in pain. "Do that again, and I'll reopen that wound," Jake warned. Scarlett didn't try anything else after that.

Of course, Jake didn't want to hurt her, nor would he ever want to reopen her wound, but, Jake needed someway to keep her from fighting back.

Meowth staggered back as he was hit in the head again by Lucy. This time, thought, he struggled to shrug the attack off. His vision was blurry and his knees felt weak. This fight was a lot different than the ones they had back at the Team Rocket Training Camp. Lucy had gotten so much better at fighting since then, that Meowth was having trouble landing any kind of hit on her, while almost every attack from her hit their mark. Even with severe burns on her body, Lucy was ten times better than she was three years ago.

Now that Jake had Scarlett-who was the only one who could break open Jessie and James' nets-and Lucy was very much winning against Meowth, everything seemed to be going their way.

That was, until a very loud stomp of someone hitting the ground really hard came from behind everyone, followed by an even louder roar.

Jessie and James were the first two to look behind them to see who had made that yell. Arbok and Victreebel followed their masters and joined them in staring at the large beast.

Meowth and Jake slowly turned their heads, knowing exactly who had interrupted their skirmish. Lucy was the only one who was now not staring at the beast.

Lucy's eyes were closed, and she didn't dare open them. She was afraid this would happen, scared even. But, it wasn't something she could avoid, no matter how much she tried to. The sneasel was shivering out of fear and her breathing was becoming rigid, a very different stance than the one she had when she was battling Meowth.

"No…" Lucy said in a hushed tone. "Why is it you? Why is it always you!?"

Uh-oh. Guess who's back!

Thanks for reading!