Awakening
Chapter 25: At The Gala
Ashimi slowly woke up to find herself in a hospital room. "Should have called for backup, princess." Laiki spoke in a sing-song voice, not wanting to greet Ashimi in a gloomy way. "Comet and Pixel brought you here."
"Is everyone okay?" Ashimi asked tiredly.
"Ah... Well..." Laiki decided to start with the good news and just roll from there. "The pokemon are all alright, you'll be just fine too. Jonathan, Jessie, James, Dorme and Volt are fine. James' parents had to be given a little extra medical attention, but they'll fully recover."
"Zero," Ashimi sat up on the bed in alarm. "Where's Zero? What happened to him?"
Laiki let out a breath, there was just no avoiding this. "Zero digitalized himself to stop the radio tower's security system. He wasn't meant to ever re-digitalize because of all the bugs in his system. Pixel managed to retrieve him from the tower's servers, but he's not functioning properly. She's trying to fix him."
"It won't be that easy," Ashimi worried. "Zero isn't just a computer program anymore." She only hoped that there was even a little of his aura left, that the reason why she felt as if it had disappeared was because she was too tired to sense it. "Zero... I guess there's nothing more to do than hope for the best, I'll try to think optimistically." She realized that there was one person Laiki didn't mention. "What about Janebelle?"
"She didn't make it, but wasn't she the enemy?" Laiki pointed out, that made it all better from her point of view. To her, a loss was only a loss if she actually cared or was in some way affected.
"Yeah, but..." Ashimi sighed and let herself fall back into the pillow. "I guess she got her wish, it's still very sad though. She lived a hard life."
"Life is what you make of it," Laiki stood up from her bed-side chair. "I'll send a nurse over to run some tests and see if you can be on your way, no need to keep you here longer than necessary, or princey might hear about it and get worried." She referred to Ash, whom she called the prince of Team Rocket, as Giovanni was still king.
xoxox xox xoxox
After the group was allowed out of the hospital, James Sr. and Elizabeth excused the delay for the party and threw it anyway. They were still a bit scared of Jonathan, even if he wasn't serious in his threats. Ashimi decided to remain positive and hope that Zero could be restored. He had been taken back to the Viridian Rocket headquarters, Nidoran went along with Pixel.
It was the night of the gala, and Ashimi had been left with no choice except to hand over her pokeballs at the pokemon center with the promise of picking up her pokemon after the party. Of course, those were only empty pokeballs she handed over and she took hers hidden in her bag. She managed to keep them hidden thus far, but now that she was almost done getting ready, she wasn't sure how she would continue to hide them. She was in the bathroom of a fancy hotel room, as the Kojiros had insisted that the guests should not stay in the pokemon center to get ready, because the pokemon center was, as the name suggested, a place for pokemon and not for proper ladies and gentlemen. Dorme had gone over to her room to offer her assistance with her makeup and only a closed polished wood door separated the two girls. Ashimi examined her dress.
The red fabric of the skirt was too long, though Dorme insisted that it would be just right with her heals on, heals that Ashimi wasn't sure she could balance herself on. Yet Dorme insisted that they had to wear women's dresses not girls' dresses. Ashimi wasn't sure why she let Dorme talk her into this. Yet the most important issue at hand was not the length of the dress, but the fact that it clung to her body and left little room to hide the pokeballs. She wished she had one of those pokeball leg straps so she could hide the capsules under the flowing skirt, the only part of the dress that had a good amount of room. Sadly, she had misplaced her strap and didn't have any time left to find it, or buy a new one. She sighed, reduced the capsules to their smallest size and stuffed the six pokeballs down the top of her dress, hoping no one would notice them. At least the built in corset of the dress, seemed to be enough to hide the individual shapes of the pokeballs.
Ashimi exited the bathroom, still barefoot, holding up her skirt so she wouldn't trip on it. "I'm ready for the face paint," she announced.
"Makeup," Dorme corrected. She gave Ashimi a critical look, then let out a humorous little laugh. "You didn't have to go all out with the tissues, the design of the dress was favorable by itself, but you went through the trouble, so I guess it's okay. Though it's a bit too sudden a change."
"What are you talking about?" Ashimi inquired in genuine confusion, while trying to stay still for Dorme to apply eye shadow.
The older girl rolled her eyes. "Ashimi, please, I know you stuffed tissues into your top."
"No, I didn't-" Ashimi stopped herself in refuting the ridiculous assumption. She did stuff something into the top of her dress, but it wasn't tissues. "I mean... I um... wanted to look... like a real woman?" She offered unsure.
"Understandable," thankfully, Dorme didn't make a fuss about it and didn't question how out of character her assumption sounded for Ashimi.
xoxox xox xoxox
Meanwhile, at the lobby, Jonathan was becoming frustrated with the game of Battle Zone he was playing on his phone against Volt. The goal of the game was to either capture the enemy base camp or defeat all the enemy units on a map. Each player had an army of pokemon as well as tanks and other weaponry at their disposal. The units could move around the map at a set pace, in whatever pattern the player decided, in groups or separately. Each player only saw their own units, giving the game a sort of Battle Ship style. The camp's location was set at the start and it could not be moved. Naturally, it was a smart move to leave some units behind to protect it, in case the opponent discovered its location. The camp marked the starting point of the units' march as they searched the map for the rival's resources. "What? No way! How do you keep finding my camp, do you have cheat codes or something?"
"I just have a soldier's instinct," Volt proudly declared. "Besides, you always put your camp in a corner or right in the middle of the map, so there are only five places where it could be. All I have to do is send out five scouts and send all my troops to the location of the one that spots your camp. You need to work on your war tactics, soldier!"
"One more round!" Jonathan requested, though just as easily, Volt reached his camp and destroyed it.
"You were desperate to locate my camp and sent out too many units to scout, so your camp was left unprotected," Volt pointed out.
"It wasn't in the corner or the middle this time!" Jonathan defended, claiming what little credit he could grasp.
"No, but it was right on the map's limit. You put it there thinking I would have to march a longer distance, but you forgot that my camp wouldn't necessarily be on the opposite end of the map, neighbor," Volt grinned victoriously.
"Neighbor? You mean your camp was right next to mine? But I sent scouts and didn't find any defenses!" Jonathan pouted.
"My defenses were inside the camp not around it. I know that if you found my camp you'd call back all your units to take it, but since you had sent them in different directions to search for the camp, they would all get there at intervals and the units stationed at the camp would be enough to defeat your soldiers as they came. You really need to learn how to properly organize a battalion," Volt instructed.
Jonathan leaned back on the couch at the fancy hotel lobby, "I give up. You're better at Battle Zone... but I'm better at real battles."
"I must disagree, on my honor as a gym leader, I insist that I am better at pokemon battles!" Volt argued.
"Want to find out?" Jonathan challenged.
"You're on!" Volt agreed.
A tense silence hung in the air, until Jonathan spoke once more, "but we left all our pokemon at the pokemon center, didn't we?"
"Yes we did," Volt nodded.
Jessie and James arrived at the lobby, along with James Sr. and Elizabeth, they were all dressed up for the event. "Johnny, could you tell them to stop cowering, it's kind of..."
James was interrupted by Jessie, "annoying!" She finished for him. Her dress was wedding style, as they were supposed to get remarried for the sake of the Kojiros keeping their promise of celebrating a wedding.
"Grandma, grandpa, you can stop cowering now, I won't kill you, I promise, I was only kidding anyway," Jonathan assured. The elderly couple looked unsure, but finally decided to settle for thanking him for his endless mercy. "Do I really look that scary when I'm mad?"
"I think you look adorable," Jessie squealed, though she was his mother, so she might be a bit biased about it.
James smiled, "you remind me of myself when I was your age."
Jessie rolled her eyes, "yeah, only with a whole lot more guts." James pouted and gave her a look like a sad Growlithe puppy in the rain. "But you were, and still are, adorable," she amended.
"Are we ready to go?" James Sr. asked unsure.
"Ashimi and Dorme are still upstairs, but they should be here soon," or at least Jonathan hoped they got there at some point in the near future.
"What's taking them so long?" Volt wondered impatiently.
"You must never rush a lady," Jessie pointed out.
Elizabeth gasped, as if she had heard something shocking, which made everyone's eyes land on her. "I agree," she voiced in surprise. She composed herself and explained, "I didn't think I would actually agree with anything that a delinquent peasant would say."
"What did you call me!?" Jessie growled, her hands reaching for her mother-in-law's throat.
Elizabeth squeaked and hid behind her husband, who could only tremble as he recalled, "we left Alice at the pokemon center..."
James held back his wife and tried desperately to calm her rage. His mother muttering something about an inherited killer instinct wasn't helping. "Jessie, honey, why don't we go ahead to the limo and have some drinks?"
"Fine," Jessie finally calmed down at least enough to walk away from the scene, dragging James along by the arm. "If I'm going to get through this night without ripping someone's head off, they better have some strong drinks." Elizabeth fainted. James Sr. helped his unconscious wife onto the couch at the lobby, picking up the fancy fan that had slipped out of her hand and fallen to the floor. He fanned her with it for a few seconds until she woke up and composed herself. Then they left to wait at the limo, claiming they could both use some wine. It didn't sound like either party was looking forward to putting up with the other in a sober state of mind that night.
Ashimi and Dorme finally made their way down the stairs, arm in arm, because Ashimi couldn't make it down the stairs in her heals without holding on to something. For all the fuss Dorme made about being seen in her dress for the first time, she wasn't actually paying attention to anyone's reactions. Instead she was focused on her conversation with Ashimi about how cute Zero would look in a tuxedo and about how much they wished he could have been there. "I know what you mean," Ashimi agreed. "He would have looked so cute in a tux with that black piplup gijinka hat we got him."
The girls continued with their conversation, laughing and giggling, making a bee line for the front entrance where the limo was parked, seemingly oblivious to the two pairs of eyes that followed their every move. "They..." Volt began, a light blush creeping over his face. "Look prettier than I expected."
"Yeah," Jonathan agreed, sporting a similar expression. After a silent moment, the boys let out a unanimous sigh, "they completely ignored us, didn't they?"
"Yes they did," Volt undoubtedly agreed.
"Johnny! Volt! Time to go!" Jessie loudly called out to them from the limo and they hurried to get on. Both Elizabeth and James Sr. seemed horrified by the loud volume of her voice.
With the last two passengers in the limousine, the vehicle began to move towards the site of the grand gala. It was then that the conversation between Dorme and Ashimi died down, as Ashimi occupied herself with the tiny gourmet cookies available to snack on. Dorme couldn't shake the feeling that she had forgotten something and checked to make sure she had both her earrings on and the rest of the jewelry she intended to wear. She examined her lavender manicure and smoothed her deep purple dress before the answer was revealed to her, sitting in the very same vehicle. "Johnny! Volt!" She exclaimed, truly seeing them for the first time. The two boys pouted and pointedly ignored her, causing the blond to laugh nervously and gently elbow Ashimi.
"I know, I know, I'm not going to spill anything on the dress," Ashimi popped another cookie into her mouth and picked up a napkin, extending it over her lap to protect the red dress from any stray crumbs. "Better?" Dorme shook her head and pointed at the boys. "Oh... Hey guys, you look great!" Ashimi offered them a compliment, though they unanimously chose to ignore it because it didn't really feel much like a compliment if their mere existence went unnoticed until someone pointed it out to her. Ashimi shrugged and tossed another cookie in her mouth. "You gotta try these!"
Elizabeth sighed and downed another glass of wine, in the fastest way possible while still looking refined. She honestly had enough of unrefined barbaric women and girls for a life time. At least the boys were quiet. James Sr. offered her a comforting squeeze of the hand and reached over to refill her glass, but found that the bottle was gone. He spotted it in the hands of Jessie, who was drinking straight from it. Jessie finished what was left of the intoxicating beverage and set the empty bottle down, grinning in satisfaction at how wide open Elizabeth's eyes were. "My... wine..." Elizabeth gasped. It had been a particularly old and hard to get bottle, as most of those were purchased by Giovanni himself, though Elizabeth was sure he probably selfishly kept them stored in a basement somewhere or something because no one could possibly drink them all. Frowning deeply, she reached for another valuable bottle and began to chug it down in the most unladylike manner.
James Sr. gasped, realizing that his wife must have already had one too many cups of wine if she was behaving like this, "dear... please..." He was ignored. Taking it as a challenge, Jessie grabbed another bottle and began to drink while James looked increasingly frightened.
The limousine arrived at its destination and the occupants headed to the front entrance of the mansion. Because of the delay waiting for Dorme to finish her hair and makeup and do the same for Ashimi while fussing over the tiniest details, most of the guests were already at the mansion. A stage akin to a wedding alter was set up to be used later, while at the present time, the guests occupied themselves socializing and traveling from one snack table to another, hardly eating anything at all, like picky Butterfree in a field of flowers. A live orchestra was playing softly and a few couples were gently dancing to the tune of the classical ballroom music. Both Jessie and Elizabeth made a bee line to the bar with their respective husbands hurrying after them in damage control mode.
Dorme had decided that the boys would start paying attention to her as soon as they saw that she was the prettiest girl at the gala, and went ahead without them. Ashimi watched her go, realizing all too late that she would miss Dorme's help to make her way around. As Jonathan and Volt exited the limo, she called after them, "guys, wait! I really need your support!"
Ashimi sounded so desperate that neither of them could bring himself to abandon her. None the less, the request sounded odd to Jonathan, who knew her quite well. "I didn't think you'd be nervous about being here."
" I don't mean emotional support," Ashimi stumbled out of the white limo, holding on to Jonathan for support in an unexpected hug. Jonathan paused, gulped and attempted to steady her. It was silly that it was so embarrassing, given how familiar they were with each other, but tonight Ashimi didn't even look like her usual self, she looked like a fairytale princess. Ashimi balanced herself on her heals and linked her arm with Jonathan's, doing the same with Volt on her other side and hoping it was enough to get up the stairs and through the front door of the mansion without falling on her face. "Okay, let's go!" She tugged them forward and the trio went up to make their entrance.
Dorme had taken a moment to examine the atmosphere and was waiting for Jonathan to walk up to her and ask her to dance or something. In fact, she'd dance with Volt too if he asked, that would teach Jonathan to play hard to get, and besides, he was looking quite handsome tonight, they both were. Dorme's jaw dropped and a squeak of indignation got caught in the back of her throat when she saw Ashimi enter the party area arm in arm with both Jonathan and Volt, as if they were both her dates. She was saying something about food and directing them to one of the tables which held a variety of miniature desserts on tiny gold rimmed glass plates.
Dorme huffed and felt herself fume, she was too focused on her anger to notice the presence of another girl standing next to her. "She gets all the guys, eh? Neither of them are half bad."
"This makes me so mad!" Dorme grumbled before she stopped to think about who she could be talking to. She looked at the girl next to her and gasped in shock. "Daala?!" She paused and tilted her head examining the enemy's light blue dress. "I didn't think such a scruffy looking enemy could actually clean up like a lady."
Daala felt herself tense with anger at the comment, but forced herself not to blow her cover further. "I can say the same for you."
"Hmp!" Dorme tossed her hair and adopted a self-righteous pose. "I'm always a perfect lady."
"Unlike her," Daala pointed at Ashimi, who was devouring one mini dessert after another, never mind that pointing at people across a fancy ball room was not exactly lady-like either. "Actually, her escorts are not very gentlemanly either, look at the three of them eat!"
Dorme gasped and marched right over to the trio. She refused to let them look like fools in front of the enemy. "Stop it you three! Behave!" She shouted a little too loudly, drawing more attention than the eating did. "Don't you see that Daala is here and you're making her look good!"
Ashimi, Jonathan and Volt paused in their eating. "The vigilante thief?!" Volt exclaimed.
"How did she get in here? What about those two Conkeldurr holding the fancy gold plated pillars at the gate? Why didn't they stop her?"Jonathan questioned.
"She's all dressed up like a lady, so they probably didn't realize she wasn't supposed to be here," Dorme theorized. "With the party being delayed the Kojiros must have feared too few of the people they invited would actually show up and become lax about letting people in as long as they looked like they belong."
"Did she challenge you to a battle?" Ashimi eagerly asked.
"No, and it wouldn't matter anyway because we left our pokemon at the pokemon center, remember?" Dorme reminded.
"Yeah, that we did," Ashimi nodded mechanically. "So what did she want?"
"I... don't know," Dorme realized, she shrugged her shoulders and replied with the most logical reasoning that came to mind. "To cause trouble, I suppose."
"Where is she?" Jonathan looked through the crowd, but didn't see Daala anywhere.
Dorme looked to the spot where Daala was a second ago, but she was no longer there. "We lost her..."
"You mean you lost her, soldier," Volt complained.
"At least I spotted her!" Dorme argued.
"We better go look for her," Jonathan began the search. Agreeing with the fact that a vigilante and thief couldn't be left to run free at the wedding gala, Volt went off to search as well.
Ashimi held on to the table for balance. "I'll be on the lookout from here, since I can't really get around in these heals anyway."
Dorme sighed in exasperation and disappointment. "This is not how I imagined this night to be."
xoxox xox xoxox
In another area of the colossal ballroom, Giovanni made his way through the clusters of guests with Delia on his arm. Though everyone seemed all too happy to see them, he knew that they were terrified of him and jealous of Delia. If she didn't notice, or pretended not to notice, how green with envy people were of how gracefully she aged, Giovanni wasn't sure, but her cheer and positivity made them all the more bitter. The matter of the Kojiro wedding gala was supposed to be attended to by Domino's daughter, but the change of date gave Delia some extra time to convince Giovanni to go. It was neither his nor her first choice of a break, but from Delia's perspective, anything that got Giovanni out of the workaholic environment of his office was good enough.
Delia smiled with delight as she spotted someone she recognized. "Isn't that Surge's boy, over there next to the punch bowl?"
To call the towering General Electro a boy didn't seem fitting at all, but Delia always acted motherly to him, as if he was still a child. "Yes, I believe that's him." He wasn't there by requirement, as he had the night off, so Giovanni could only reach one conclusion. "He's probably here to try to pick up a rich girl."
Delia giggled. "But he's all alone. It seems all the young ladies are being shy. They must not want to approach him because he's a little rough around the edges." Most people would say that Electro, alias Thor, was rough all over rather than just around the edges, but Giovanni decided to humor Delia with a nod of agreement. She mused on the situation for a moment before deciding, "we should help him."
"Help him?" Giovanni was becoming curious, maybe the gala would be amusing after all. He wasn't even sure who exactly was supposed to get married, but he didn't really care. "How do you propose we do that?"
Delia thought about it for a moment until an idea hit her. "We should go talk to him. When people see that we're not afraid of him, they'll go talk to him too."
"I might scare them," Giovanni grinned, not at all disappointed by the possibility.
"Oh," Delia frowned a little. "I suppose that if they see you two talking, they might think you're planning an invasion or something."
"Not that there's anything left to invade, unless I invade my own territory, and that wouldn't really be called an invasion," Giovanni reminded.
"You're right, but it still wouldn't help Electro." Delia considered the options for a moment longer before suggesting another idea. "I know! If I dance with him, the girls will see he's not scary and he won't be short on dance partners for the entire night. You don't mind, do you?"
Giovanni grinned in amusement, the possibilities promised to be hilarious. He could imagine the towering general trying to dance with the delicate Delia. "Go right ahead."
Delia clapped her hands together in glee. "Thank you, Giovanni!" Then she went on her merry way towards Electro.
"This I have to see," Giovanni went off to find a good spot from where to watch.
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"Hello, Electro, how are you, sweetie?" Delia greeted with a smile, as if speaking to a small child.
"Lady Delia," Electro was visibly surprised at her presence. He knew that there would be someone there officially representing Team Rocket, but he had heard it was Dorme. "I'm fine," he replied a little stiffly. "I assume you're here with Giovanni?"
"Oh yes, he's right over..." Delia looked around but was unable to locate her husband. "It seems he has gone off somewhere."
"So, is there anything you need? Security detail maybe?" Electro asked.
"Not at all," Delia smiled sweetly. "I actually came over here to ask you to dance."
"Dance?" Electro was taken completely by surprise. "Ah... Well... Sure..." He couldn't very well refuse, but he was also terrified of somehow hurting her. She seemed to be so fragile in comparison to him and if she was hurt in any way he'd have the entire Rocket empire to deal with. Strong as he was, the general knew he couldn't possibly survive the full force of the entire Rocket military, he had trained them himself after all.
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Giovanni watched as Electro stiffly danced with Delia. He couldn't hear their conversation, but she was probably speaking to him as if he was a shy, socially awkward, adolescent boy. The Rocket boss was amused by the show until he heard a familiar voice calling out, "grandpa!"
Before he could stop to think of the consequences, Giovanni turned to look at the source of the voice and spotted Ashimi at a near empty sweet snacks table, waving him over. He hurried to her, "stop that, if you bring attention to yourself here-"
"Giovanni! So this is your granddaughter?"
"What a fine young lady!"
"Why she's lovely! You must introduce her to my son!"
The same people who were gossiping about the young girl in the red dress and calling her a savage glutton with no manners in their quiet whispers, were now just about ready to worship the ground she walked on.
Giovanni began trying to reply to each member of the crowd and laugh at all the right intervals. That lasted for a record breaking time of ten seconds before he recalled that he was the Rocket boss and he didn't have to humor all this gold digger hypocritical non-sense. "Move," he growled rudely. The crowd of aristocratic financial tycoons parted with nervous laughter and Giovanni escaped their entrapment with Ashimi in tow.
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Ash and Misty arrived at the gala, having been invited by Jessie as part of her plan to spice up the event by getting Ash to battle and make a big ruckus, he had a talent for it in the past years after all. They approached the bar where Jessie and James were at. "Sorry we're late, happy anniver-"
Before Misty could finish her sentence, James shook Ash by the shoulders, pleading and begging. "You have to help us! Jessie and mom got into a drinking contest and they're throwing things and refusing to stop!"
"Please, help us!" James Sr. begged as well. The elder and younger James appeared to have bonded over the rampages of their respective wives. "It's been years since she's done something like this, she hasn't been drunk since James was born. She quit to give him a good example, I didn't think she'd go back to her old ways after so many years. She's only ever had tiny sips of wine in moderation since then. I never could have guessed an extra glass of wine to relax would send her spiraling back to her old ways!" The old man cried.
"I didn't even know that story!" James exclaimed, tears streaming down his face.
"It was a shameful secret, oh the pain!" James Sr. and Jr. hugged each other and cried disconsolately.
"O-okay... I could try to help them clear their minds with the aura, maybe that will sober them up." Ash offered.
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A few feet away from the crowd, Giovanni let out a breath that was half relief and half annoyance. "We made it out, you can stop clinging to my arm now."
Embarrassed by how she blew her cover, Ashimi smiled sheepishly. At least these were not people that she would run into on a regular basis. "Actually, I can't walk on my own in these heals," she confessed, staring at the floor.
"If they're so troublesome, then why do you wear them?" Giovanni logically inquired.
"The dress is too long, and don't girls always wear heals for fancy parties like these anyway?" Ashimi looked up at her grandfather, then back to the floor upon seeing his disapproving expression.
Giovanni shook his head. "Do you think I was proper back there? Do you think I did what was expected in that situation?" Ashimi looked unsure of what to say and Giovanni continued. "We're Rockets, we don't conform to society, we rule over it."
Ashimi's eyes sparkled with admiration. "You're absolutely right!" She rebelliously ripped off her heals and threw them aside. "I'm going barefoot and if anyone has any problems with it, they can answer to my-"
Ashimi was going to say pokemon, but stopped when she saw Dorme rushing over, calling out, "boss!"
"Fists..." Ashimi finished.
Dorme had her eyes focused on the Rocket leader and her mind focused on the urgent message she had to deliver, so she didn't notice the shoes that lay in her path until she tripped over them and fell flat on her face at the Rocket boss' feet. Recognizing the girl who called out to him, Giovanni inquired, mentally preparing himself for the worse. "What did you do that was bad enough to make you beg for forgiveness on your hands and knees... And face?"
"Ow..." Dorme lifted her head off the floor and whined, "nothing, sir." She stood and examined what she tripped on, her eyes wide in recognition. "You took off your heals?" She gaped at Ashimi as if she had committed a terrible crime. "No matter how tiring it may be, a lady is not supposed to be barefoot in public! A lady's feet are very delicate!" She lectured, so absorbed in her indignation that she completely forgot about Giovanni.
"But you're so good at kicking, you can kick down doors and everything. How can your feet be delicate?" Ashimi shot back.
Dorme gasped and looked dismayed. "That is... That is not the point!"
"I'm a Rocket!" Ashimi proudly declared, "I don't conform to society, I rule over it!"
Giovanni looked proud at Ashimi's declaration and Dorme looked aghast. The blond lowered her head, fists clenched at her sides, body shaking as if she was a time bomb waiting to explode. For a second there Ashimi thought Dorme would punch her, consequences be damned, but instead, she ripped off her high heals and threw them behind her. She felt like she had an epiphany, that badass girls are better than proper ladies anyway. Dorme then turned to Giovanni and saluted like a soldier. "There is an enemy of Team Rocket in our midst, but it is of no concern, I will apprehend her myself!" Dorme rushed off to her mission, realized she would probably need some pokemon power and lifted her skirt to pull a pokeball off the strap on her thigh. A young man whistled as she released Hitmonlee. She walked right up to him, punched him in the face and sent him crashing to the floor with a broken nose. The crowd panicked and stepped aside to grant her passage as she and her pokemon dashed off.
"That pokeball leg strap," Ashimi glared after Dorme. "It's mine! Dorme! I was looking for that! What ever happen to leaving the pokemon at the pokemon center?!" She ran off in pursuit of the other girl and tripped over her long skirt. "Furball, I choose you! Slice this stupid dress down to size!" The feline cut the bottom portion of the skirt to make it shorter and easier to run in, then followed after his trainer as she rushed away.
Giovanni stood there, staring after them, until Delia joined him. She had finished her dance with Electro and left him with a few words of encouragement. "Was that Ashimi? She's so lively, reminds me of Ash at that age." She smiled sweetly as if it was all harmless fun.
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Ash took tiny sips of his wine to numb the pain of his aching head while Misty tried to console him. None other than Surge had joined them at the bar and he was still laughing. "I never knew Jessie was a master of the drunken fist," Surge joked. His wife was off in Hoenn on official business and he didn't feel like staying at the gym, so he went out without any real plans and ended up there. His military apparel stood out among the tuxedos and ball-gowns, but he was Surge, and no one dared to question his attire. He was glad to be there, the amusement he had gotten so far made it well worth it.
xoxox xox xoxox
Daala bravely, or foolishly, walked up to Electro and glared hateful daggers at him. He gave her a look that would make most people burst into terrified tears, but she remained unfazed. She had heard Jaina, or rather Janebelle died in an murder-suicide attempt that turned out to be only a suicide as far as she knew, albeit she had not seen the younger Rocket boy with the blue and orange hair lately. Daala had confronted Jessiebelle about the death of her friend, and was surprised by what happened, though she couldn't say it was not deserved.
After a staring contest with Electro that lasted several seconds, Daala stomped on his foot with her heal, catching his pinkie toe, then she ran away. Electro hollered in pain, hopped on one foot, then caught himself and roared like a beast. With a plethora of scathing expletives, he rampaged to give chase.
Jonathan and Volt witnessed the event, unnoticed by Electro. "I think I can respect her after all," Volt declared with admiration.
"If she actually has the guts to face Thor, she's worthy of admiration. It would be awesome if she joined Team Rocket," Jonathan agreed. "Thor is so..."
"I know! And he's so..." Albeit neither Volt or Jonathan finished their sentences, the two boys appeared to be perfectly capable of understanding each other. Their eyes shown with the bond of a true friendship based on their mutual dislike for general Electro. They hurried after Daala and her furious pursuer to witness the show.
Daala ducked under a long narrow table. She had no problems fitting through, but Electro's broad shoulders couldn't get through the space between the table's legs. He lifted the table in a furious rampage and threw it across the room as if it weight nothing at all.
Dorme, whose dress was now in a similar state to Ashimi's, saw Daala and ordered Hitmonlee on the attack. "Hi jump kick!" Daala ducked and the fighter pokemon leapt over her, his foot connecting with Electro instead. Dorme squeaked in fright, recalled her pokemon and dashed away while Electro took to chasing her instead of Daala. Spotting Ashimi ahead, Dorme grabbed her wrist and pulled her along, too panicked to question Furball's presence. "Run for your life!"
"What are we running from?" Ashimi demanded to know.
"Thor, duh!" Dorme shouted in terror filled exasperation.
"When I get my hands on you, I'll make you train until your muscles turn to dust!" Electro shouted. "All of you!"
Jonathan and Volt realized they had been seen and included in the threat. They took off running along with the girls, complaining in a chorus, "we didn't do anything!" Yet they knew it was useless to try to reason with Electro when he was angry.
"Let me go! Rockets don't run away! Real Rockets fight!" Ashimi shouted.
"Sorry Ashy, this is for your own good!" Jonathan picked her up and kept running.
"Put me down! We have to fight!" Ashimi argued.
"There's the boss!" Dorme spotted Giovanni with Delia.
"Sanctuary!" Everyone except Ashimi pleaded, as they took cover behind Giovanni. The Rocket boss sighed, people used to run away in fear of him and now they flocked to him for protection. How the times had changed.
Jonathan put the fuming Ashimi down, unaware that she was about to blow up like a bomb. "Poor dears, you look terrified!" Delia showed them compassion, which made Jonathan, Volt and Dorme surround her and cling to her skirts like frightened toddlers.
The loud roar of Electro was heard as he caught up to them. Ashimi had enough, she called out the rest of her pokemon. "Everyone, attack!"
xoxox xox xoxox
Later, Giovanni, Delia, Ash, Misty, Jessie, James, James Sr., Elizabeth, Surge, Ashimi, Jonathan, Dorme and Volt stood in front of the demolished mansion ruins. Daala had disappeared, both Elizabeth and Jessie were fast asleep, several of the guests were sent blasting off, and there was little to salvage of the once majestic mansion.
Electro emerged from the rubble and approached the group. Before he could make any threats, Surge walked over to him and gave him a pat on the back. "That was some party, eh?" He laughed loudly.
There were only two people in the world that Electro feared, Giovanni for obvious reasons, and his father, for reasons so deep and mysterious that Electro himself couldn't explain them. "Yeah..." The general felt he had no choice but to agree and let his rampage die down for the time being, but he would not forget it.
Surge went over to James Sr. and shook his hand, "you sure know how to celebrate!" He looked over at Giovanni, who appeared to be amused. "Are they our allies or what?"
"Yes, they are," Giovanni agreed. "I did enjoy the evening." It was quite a surprise to find out that James' lastname being Kojiro was more than just a coincidence like everyone assumed. James Sr. struggled to find a reply, but instead he fainted. The younger James caught him and set him down to rest next to his mother and wife.
"So, Ashimi, what are you planning to do now?" Ash inquired, making light conversation as if all that had happened was perfectly normal.
"I think I'll go to Pallet Town, then move on to Viridian City on foot, so I can do some training along the way before I battle for my final badge," Ashimi decided.
"You better do a lot of training," Giovanni warned.
"I will!" Ashimi cheered. "For now, we should go back to the pokemon center so you guys can get your pokeballs." Jonathan and Volt grinned sheepishly before holding out their respective pokeballs, which they had secretly brought too.
To be Continued
The title of this chapter is a reference to My Little Pony. As it was hinted, something happened with Jessiebelle that will be explained soon. Next: Chapter 26: Misleading Tactics