He led them from the town towards the field, weaving through the trees and battling the weak pokemon pouncing at them through the tall grass. Pikachu walked side by side with Ash and May, gazing around at his surroundings and jumping at the pokemon rustling around him. Though he was faring better than the two humans he was paired with.
He sniffed the air as they walked and a very noticeable smell lingered, sticking to him and making his ears perk.
"Pikachu?" May asked, grabbing the mouse's attention. "Are you alright?" Tilting his head at her question it was only then that he noticed how far he'd fallen back. Quickening his pace he jogged to keep up. None questioned the pokemon, mainly because they wouldn't understand.
It didn't take much longer for them to round a corner and come face to face with a field of pokemon. Small Pikachu prancing about their parents, other baby pokemon enjoying their time in the sun.
Pikachu stepped forwards, his eyes widening as he gazed at the field. He walked ahead of them, Ash staring at the pokemon as he walked off, unable to suppress a smile.
"Is this where Pikachu came from?" May asked, Pikachu wandering over to a still sleeping pair of pokemon, nudging them with his nose and watching as they stirred slowly. Seconds later Pikachu was plucked up, crushed in one of the pokemon's grasp. "Pikachu!" May gasped, running forwards fearing that their new pet was in danger.
"Calm down, they're just greeting him, I get the feeling that he's their child." Gary advised, smirking at their horror streaked faces.
"Oh."
Gary walked ahead of them, after the pokemon to get a better look at who he believed were his parents. Leaving May and Ash alone.
"Listen May, I don't mean to sound irritating or anything. But, what are we going to do? We're stuck here, I'm fairly sure my mum won't like me staying over in another dimension." As he spoke it seemed to dawn on her, her smile fell and jaw slacked.
"We're stuck here, we're stuck here, with no way home." She grabbed at her hair momentarily, pulling sharply before relaxing with a long breath. "How'd we get here in the first place?"
"I don't even know, Team Rocket at the only reason we're here."
"There's no chance we can ask them to send us back is there?"
"No, that's about as likely as us going home by blinking."
"We can think of this later, right now it's getting us nowhere. I say we enjoy ourselves." Grabbing onto her hand he dragged her after him, towards where Pikachu and Gary were.
Ash crouched before the pokemon, smiling brightly at the baby with the much larger pokemon. The mother curled around the baby, watching with shock as he pried himself out to walk to Ash and May.
"This your mum Pikachu?" He nodded. "Want to stay here with her?" He nodded once more. "You can if you want."
Gary looked at him perplexed, not knowing what to say to the boy. He'd just gone through all that to get the pokemon and was releasing him so easily.
"You can't do it that easily, you need to release him." Gary poke up, more than a little irritated that he'd gone through all that for no reason.
"Listen here you little brats, no one makes a fool of me." All heads turned at the new voice, staring in shock at Jessie. She stood with James and their cat holding strange devices in their hands. "Give me back all the pokemon you stole from me, the boss will have my head thanks to you." She stepped forwards, pointing the capture device at the three humans.
Ash and May stepped back, holding their hands up in defence while Gary pulled out a poke ball.
"What the hell do you want?" He spat, standing in front of the two intent on protecting them.
"I want to keep my head, now if you don't mind move out the way. I can see the pokemon are long gone but these two will do great in their place."
"No chance are you laying a finger on them, they're about as clued up on pokemon as a baby, it's not fair."
"Step out of the way brat, you don't owe these kids anything. They're not from around here, they're the brats who stole Pikachu to begin with."
"What are you talking about?"
"They took him back to their home and locked him in there. We were rescuing the brat." Jessie insisted, holding in an evil smirk as the boy faltered with his poke ball.
"You're lying."
"Are we, ask them yourself, did they or did they not lock him in their room away from all people and pokemon." Gary looked to them, anger burning inside him at seeing their unwillingness to look him in the eye. "Let us send these horrible people back home without their poor, poor pokemon."
"What's the truth?" He demanded, directing his question to the two behind him. He refused to help people who'd harm a pokemon but with them he couldn't tell. They were clueless but something told him they weren't bad.
"We're not from around here. Pikachu came to our world in his egg."
"Your world?"
"Yeah, we came through to save him but we have no intention of bringing him back with us." May tried to explain, staring at the confusion on his face.
"You're explaining from the beginning once they're gone." He threw out one of his poke balls a black and yellow pokemon coming forth, its glowing red eyes trained on the trio ahead of it. "Get rid of these jokers." He turned his attention to the two. "He's handling them, explain."
So they did, the pokemon kept them at bay without sending them flying, taking on every pokemon they threw their way and knocking it down.
"You expect me to believe all that?"
They stayed silent, just staring at him.
"Guess I have no choice, finish them off and keep watch over us." The pokemon obeyed, charging for them with a glint in his eyes. "What do you expect me to do, I can't send you back. You need the tech they used, only Team Rocket has that kind though so you're out of luck."
"Not if you help us." May cut in.
"Why would I help you with an impossible task?"
"It's not impossible if we capture them." May wasn't sure where all her responses were coming from, but the more she thought about it the more her propositions made sense. If they captured Team Rocket they'd be able to pry information from them. They were the ones who started this so they should be the ones to end it too.
"You heard them, capture those pests, Umbreon." And he did, tackling them all to the ground and trampling on them to keep them that way. "If your plan falls through."
"It won't, trust me." He found it hard to find a reason to do such a thing but listened nonetheless. Standing he grabbed the three and pulled them closer, laying them down in front of May and the pokemon.
Their faces were swollen and they were glaring profusely , but other than that they looked like their normal idiotic selves.
"Alright Team Rocket, you heard what we said, tell us and you can go back to kissing your boss' feet."
"Not a chance. We are Team Rocket, we don't fall so easily. We stand united."
"We'll tell the boss you beat us in the match."
"So, there's this thing called a trapper. It catches pokemon and forces them into a condensed space. We used that on Pikachu, but it kind of malfunctioned and the condenser made a weak spot in the dimension appear allowing Pikachu to fall through. Using that we managed to pass through to take him back. You followed us through that too."
They all stared at Team Rocket dumbstruck, they'd never heard anything as strange as that but having an answer as to how this all happened did take a weight from their shoulders.
"Alright, we told you now let us go."
"Not yet, we need the tech too, bring it out here."
"No way, that wasn't part of the deal."
"I stood toe to toe with your boss. Saying you beat me would definitely get you a promotion."
Later that day once they'd worked out a plan they released the three, letting them execute it themselves.
"Some plan, they get to sit back and relax while we do all the hard work." Meowth complained, stood between his two comrades, using them as human shields without their noticing.
"We're getting a promotion Meowth, be quiet."
"We're gonna be the boss' favourite." They sang briefly before continuing to sneak back into their place of work and practically their own home.
"It just occurred to me." James started, stopping and waiting for the two in front to do so too. "Why are we sneaking into our own home, if anything that looks suspicious." They stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if they should hit him or themselves. Going with neither they pushed themselves off the wall and headed inside, striding confidently.
Once inside the building they dodged every grunt they could, offering a goodnight to the ones they couldn't. They were sure they stuck out like a sore thumb but that worry was pushed to the back of their minds.
Being as stealthy as a rich boy, bossy woman and cat could be they snuck up the stairs hidden in the side of the room, the lift having been turned off at closing time. They climbed upon the tips of their toes, listening for people above. Chatting could be heard, but exactly where it was was impossible to decide where they stood.
"Ok, I think someone's up ahead, act natural." They finished by striding up the remaining stairs, bowing to some of the younger grunts and carrying on.
"What are you guys doing? Only the lab guys are allowed up there after closing." They all froze at the pompous girl's voice, turning to face her and struggling with an excuse.
"Uh,"
"Um,"
"Well, um, we were helping out up there, we forgot something."
"Yeah, what Meowth said, they were short staffed." Jessie added, glancing down at Meowth appreciatively. "So we'll be off now."
"Yeah, bye-bye."
"Go to bed kid."
"Hey, wait a minute, I don't remember seeing you up there, who were you working with?"
"Listen brat, we gave our excuse now go to bed like a good little girl." Jessie seethed, this girl wouldn't give up.
"Why should I? You look suspicious, do you even come here?"
"We're wearing our uniform, we've been here longer than you and I don't think we have any need to explain ourselves to a child. So if you don't mind we'll go grab our things."
"I could've handled it." Jessie hissed, glaring at Meowth for ruining her rant. She'd barely gotten started.
"Course you could, you let a trainee rile you up and now we're behind schedule, if those brats are keeping their end of the deal we've gotta do it right."
"Why can't we just tell the boss we beat them?"
"Shut up James, and why? Because he'd never believe us but he's sure to believe that bratty kid." Jessie explained, stomping up the stairs towards the labs.
The two stayed back, well aware of the situation they'd fall into if they spoke to her. Jessie wasn't one to admit a defeat but even she could admit the boss wouldn't believe them. With only momentary hesitation they followed after, James at the back of the group as usual.
They pushed open the door to the lab, lucky that there wasn't anyone else sneaking around. They searched using the little light from the equipment still turning off, any use of the lights immediately alerting those in the building that someone was trespassing. Meowth went first, his enhanced eyesight making him the perfect guide. James stayed by the door, keeping watch and trying to filter in light from the corridor.
"Hurry up, who knows how much longer before complete power outage."
"Shut up, I do know that, but it's not exactly easy to see in this place. Whoever works here left it in a real state." Meowth complained, moving around the room and trying to see any kind of identification on the instruments.
James opened the door more, letting the dim lighting shine further inside, the lights were on their lowest level, another ten minutes and it would be pitch black.
"Aha, I found it." Meowth cried triumphantly running to the door without Jessie and heading down to the ground floor.
"Meowth wait!" James shouted, afraid that there would still be people outside their rooms. The cat didn't pause, running as fast as he could down the stairs and passing the few people still out before they could glimpse at his arms.
Jessie and James were close behind, shoving people out of the way and trying not to cheer over their promotion.
The trio met up outside the building, gasping for breath and staring at the device as though they expected it to vanish at a moment's notice.
"I can taste the promotion already. Come on, let's get this to those twerps."
They set of towards the meeting point, singing quietly about their promotion.
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