Everyone grew silent at my declaration, as if they didn't know how to react. Even Ekans and Koffing paused what they were doing to stare questioningly at me.
Finally, James broke the silence, "An Abra?! How are we even going to catch that? You know they're known for teleporting all over the place, right? Why do you even want to catch one?" I just shook my head.
"I already accounted for that, James. And the fact that it teleports is exactly why I want to get one in the first place. We'll just need to make a few preparations in order to catch it, that's all." Technically, we could just go to the Rocket Game Corner in Celadon City and save up for an Abra that way, but honestly, supporting Team Rocket in any way that wasn't needed just felt sleazy to me. So that meant we were just gonna have to catch one the old fashioned way.
"Once we catch one, we'll be able to teleport to whatever area the Abra previously went to. We would be able to travel much easier and it would also save on transportation costs." Of course, being in the Pokemon world for less than a day I had no idea if that was actually how the move Teleport works, but it seemed to make the most sense.
At the sound of spending less money, Jessie instantly salivated, "I like the way you think, Meowth! You're right, who needs a measly Pikachu when you can have an instant chauffeur whenever you want no expenses paid! Hahahaha!" She threw her head back and laughed deviously while I just rolled my eyes. Leave it to Jessie to be convinced by the money side of my argument.
Although considering she was poor growing up, I supposed it would make sense that she would just naturally be more money conscious, unlike James who grew up wealthy.
"Well, first we would need to get a Quick Ball."
"A...Quick Ball?" James asked me while Jessie was still laughing maniacally.
I nodded. "Yep, a Quick Ball works better if you use it immediately without damaging the Pokemon first. And considering that we can't really damage Abra and catch it normally, we have to bank on our chance as fast as we can."
James pulled out a notebook and a pen. "Alright, chances are that we can get that at the nearest Department Store, which would be Pewter City for us since we're in Viridian Forest. Is there anything else we need to get?" He asked.
"Nah, that's all actually! That actually brings me to my next step: to catch Abra by having Koffing drop the Quick Ball onto the Abra." If Ekans and Koffing weren't staring at me before they almost certainly were now with the WTF expressions they had on their faces.
Koffing couldn't resist asking me, "Why am I dropping the ball and not my master James? That's not really how it works…" It questioned me in its smoker-like voice.
I gestured to my head, "Because whenever a wild Abra senses our brain waves, it automatically assumes danger and just teleports away. Which is how it got its reputation in the first place." Pointing at Koffing, I continued, "Since you're able to levitate, you can go right above Abra's telepathic range and just drop the ball on it." Koffing still looks apprehensive, but didn't question any further.
James, who was listening in, readily agreed with me. "It's not a perfect plan, admittedly, but the payoff would be well worth it! What about you Jessie?"
The normally argumentative Rocket had no problems with the plan. "I say we go for it! Tomorrow, we get that Quick Ball!"
"Right!"
We all hastily made makeshift tents to sleep in for the night and promptly went straight to sleep. Afterall, we had a long day ahead of us.
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Turns out we were sleeping right under a Beedrill's nest. Funny how fate works sometimes, doesn't it? So not only were we still recovering from yesterday's shocking events, but we were now also full of bee stings and minor stab wounds, running for our lives without even a moment's notice.
When we thought we ran far enough, we stopped to catch our breath.
"-Wheeze-, I-huff-NEVER want to go back to this dumb forest ever again!" Jessie vowed, her long, disheveled hair coupled with her furious expression made her look like a vengeful demon for a second.
"Hah, I certainly agree with you there, Jessie!" James gave a shaky thumbs up.
Once we recovered enough, we started our trek through the Viridian Forest trail for Pewter City. After a few minutes of walking however, we started to hear some voices.
"-looks to me like you ARE following me, Misty!"
"I'm not! This just happens to be the way that I need to go!"
Our eyes collectively widened as we recognized who those voices belonged to.
'Crap, I forgot Ash and Misty were here,' I thought to myself, 'I think he should have caught a Caterpie and Pidgeoto at this time as well. We should probably just ignore them for now since they haven't realized we were here.' Also because Ash would absolutely smoke us in our current condition.
Jessie just groaned at the sight of the two trainers. "Let's just take a shortcut through the forest. I don't want to deal with this today." James and I both raised an eyebrow at Jessie.
"Well Jessie, you certainly are mellow today. Normally you would jump at the chance to teach two brats a lesson!" James commentated on Jessie's unusually non-combative behavior.
She shook her head, "I normally would, but I'm just too damn tired! We haven't even been able to eat breakfast yet thanks to those Beedrills, and nothing would make me lose my appetite more than dealing with that lousy brat's Pikachu!" She grit her teeth at the remembered humiliation.
Well damn. I guess my efforts to make Jessie and James disinterested in Ash's Pikachu have already paid off. Looks like I can cross off Team Rocket being beat by a little Caterpie off of this timeline now.
But didn't that mean that Caterpie wouldn't evolve since we didn't fight it? How would Ash's journey be affected by that?
I shook my head to clear myself of those doubts. It would be hypocritical of me to obsess over Ash after just lecturing Team Rocket to not do that for Pikachu.
Besides, bug type Pokemon evolve way faster than others, so it'll probably be fine.
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When we made it to Pewter City, the only indication that we had trekked directly through the forest were the sticks and leaves in our hair (or fur in my case).
We cautiously made our way through the city and looked out for anyone who could have possibly recognized us. It seemed as though no one did, although that probably had to do with Jessie and James changing out of their normal Team Rocket outfit in favor of more inconspicuous clothing.
After we asked for directions to the city's Pokemart, we finally made our way inside.
The actual Pokemart itself was pretty impressive though, the games definitely didn't give them justice. The best way to describe it would be a slightly smaller Walgreens with a lot more blue on the ceiling, and the pharmacy section replaced with potions and antidotes instead.
We walked up to the counter where the cashier gave us a smile.
"Hello, how may I help you guys today?"
It was James who asked, "Hello miss, we were wondering if you had any Quick Balls on sale here?"
She grinned in affirmation, "Interesting choice sir, as a matter of fact we do have Quick Balls! However, one Quick Ball costs 1000 pokedollars, compared to the normal Poke Balls that costs 200 pokedollars." James' eyes widened at the price, but nodded.
"We'll take two, thank you!" As it turns out, James wanted one for his Poke Ball collection.
Thank god that we could reuse a single ball here in case it failed the first time, unlike the games in my universe.
The cashier punched in some numbers on the register. "Alright, would you guys like anything else to purchase?"
"Err...maybe some Burn Heals as well?"
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Jessie waited until we went outside the city and got our blimp ready to go when she wailed on me.
"OW, god, Jessie what the hell?!"
Jessie would not stop kicking and punching me. "You never said that Quick Balls would cost so much Meowth! Now what are we supposed to eat?!"
I held my paws up and tried to placate her. "Jessie, seriously, I'm sorry I genuinely forgot how much they cost." When she looked to burst again, I quickly added, "Also got you guys some lemonade. I mean, it's not really anywhere close to a full breakfast, but it's something." I pulled out three cans of lemonade. Turns out that the Pokemarts also have vending machines there, go figure.
She glared at me for a few more seconds before snatching up one of the cans.
"This had better be worth our time, Meowth!"
"Don't worry, it will." It's not like I really had many options as it was.
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Once we were on the blimp, I explained to Jessie and James that Abras were commonly found on Routes 24 and 25, north of Cerulean City. Luckily, they didn't question Meowth's newfound knowledge on Pokemon, although I didn't know how long that would last. We made sure to gather enough supplies first to last us the trip there.
When we were at a point where the wind alone could carry us in the direction that we needed, we all took in the moment to just relax. Something that we all desperately needed.
It's crazy to think that I was only reincarnated here last night. It hasn't even been a day long, but it feels like weeks have passed by.
Left to my own wandering thoughts, I pondered what my next move should be. Sure, Abra would be useful to get to places, but then what? What was the end game here? What were us three going to be doing long-term to support ourselves? Because being a wanted criminal sure as hell wasn't in the books for me.
I considered what Jessie and James's strengths were. They were surprisingly good at disguises, I guess fashion could be something to do? But from what I remember about Jessie's backstory, she tried to be some sort of model and failed. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to open old wounds again.
They weren't exactly top tier Pokemon trainers either (no offense to both of them but it's the truth). So that was out of the question.
Really, all they did in the anime was just make robots to catch Pikachu. Which are always destroyed in the end thanks to that very same Pikachu.
Robots.
My eyes widened. I'd been sitting on a golden goose this whole time, and I never even realized it. Jessie and James were actually genius engineers, prodigies even, but no one ever realizes it because they act so goofy 90 percent of the time. It also could explain why Giovanni never fired them despite them catching damn near zero Pokemon. They both probably play a big part in advancing Team Rocket technology, so it would be unwise to let them go.
The best part is that we didn't even need to make anything that complicated to make a profit. People like simple stuff that makes their lives easier, as the invention of the coffee lid from my world proved. In the Pokemon world though, the possibilities were endless.
I spent the rest of the trip daydreaming about new things that we could potentially create and sell.
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It was about 2:30 in the afternoon by the time that we got to Cerulean City. Should be enough time to look for an Abra before it gets too dark.
We decided to check Route 25 first since it had a huge maze of trees that would provide a ton of opportunities for an Abra to hide and sleep in for the day. Instead we just got a bunch of battle hungry trainers who freaked us out every time they jumped out at us. I not so kindly reminded them to not be annoying brats whenever they wanted to battle us.
Definitely not my proudest moment, but in my defense, you can't just freak out people like that! Also I was hangry as fuck, so that probably had something to do with it.
After we switched to searching Route 24 instead, Jessie, always the impatient one, was the first one to start voicing complaints.
"Are you sure this is the right place, Meowth? We've been searching for about 2 hours and we haven't found a single Abra yet!"
I frowned, "Maybe we're just looking in the wrong places? I mean, we've only searched the tree maze and the Nugget Bridge."
James assumed a thoughtful expression. "Well, if I was a guessing man, I would say that Abras get awfully exhausted whenever they use their mindful mind powers for large amounts of time. So it would make sense if they were near a body of freshwater that they could immediately drink from after waking up, AND if they were under a nice amount of shade to rest under simultaneously." He pounded his fist on top of his hand.
"And the only place that fits that description at Routes 24 and 25, is the area directly underneath the Nugget Bridge!"
I stared at James, impressed. I guess I was still underestimating the duo subconsciously due to the anime always portraying them as massively incompetent.
Jessie however had no such biases. "Well done James! Let's go check the bottom!"
And wouldn't you know it, when we went down to check below the bridge, there was an Abra sleeping near the water.
"James," I said calmly, "you are officially the smartest member of our group." A comment that inflated James's ego quite a bit. "Can you send out Koffing so that we can do the strategy that we talked about?"
"Ah, yes, right away! Come on out, Koffing!" When James sent out his Koffing, I gave the poison gas Pokemon one of the Quick Balls to hold in his mouth.
"Alright man, you remember the plan? Blink twice if you do." When Koffing blinked twice, I smirked.
"Awesome. Remember, we're counting on you. No pressure though!" Koffing sweated a little at this, but soldiered on nonetheless.
Each minute that Koffing took slowly inching himself over Abra at the maximum height the bridge would allow him was absolute torture for all of us, but for me especially. I felt that if I failed, my only friends in this new world would never trust me again. This absolutely had to work.
Koffing soon got up to the maximum height of the bottom of the bridge. He slowly turned upside down and aimed carefully. When he felt that he had the right precision, he dropped the ball.
I watched the ball fall faster and faster as it gained momentum, until eventually…
It hit.
Abra didn't even get a chance to wake up from its nap before the Quick Ball enveloped its body in red light, and sucked it inside.
The ball wiggled once…
Then twice…
Then for a third time...
And then none at all.
We stared at the Quick Ball, as if the psychic fox would suddenly break out at any time and just teleport. But it never happened.
We actually caught ourselves an Abra.
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"So...does that mean that Abra is mine?" James asked us after we had eaten a very late lunch.
I licked my paws before responding, "By all means yeah. You bought those Quick Balls and it was your Koffing who pretty much directly caught it for you."
James let out a happy sigh. "I can't believe I have a powerful psychic Pokemon now! And it's all thanks to you Meowth!" He took a slurp from his leftover lemonade. "Although I wonder if it actually has any powerful moves."
Jessie gestured to the Quick Ball next to James. "Well, why don't we find out now? Go on, send it out. Meowth can ask it directly."
"Well, alright then. Abra, come on out!" The Quick Ball opened up and released Abra.
I approached Abra and decided to be the one to break the ice between us. "Hey man, sorry we interrupted your nap and all, but we were just wondering what moves you knew."
Abra just stared at me, then sighed, "First of all, I'm a female, not a male," I had the tact to look embarrassed, "and the only moves I know right now are Teleport and Rain Dance." I raised an eyebrow.
"Why...Rain Dance?"
She shrugged, "I saw some powerful water type Pokemon around here do it, and I thought it looked cool so I taught myself how to do it."
'Probably referring to Misty.' I thought to myself.
I translated what she said to Jessie and James. James was amused. Jessie was not.
"Well at least it can use Teleport, that's the most important thing. But it has no other attacking moves!" Jessie groaned in exasperation. "Is it even able to battle?"
James just waved off his teammate's harsh criticism. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure Abra will get plenty of experience in Team Rocket's endeavours. Hahaha!"
While the duo were bickering, I asked Abra, "Hey, I've just thought of an awesome nickname for you! Want to know what it is?"
Abra tilted her head, questioning my motives, but nodded. "Well, what's the nickname?"
"Shimazaki"
"...that's a really weird nickna-"
"It's a good nickname and you will like it!"