We cautiously made our way out of Lavender Tower, just in case there was anyone else waiting to ambush us. You could never be too certain, especially in our line of work.
As soon as we all made it out of the tower however, we booked it to the only Pokemon Center in the town. Koffing needed medical attention as soon as possible. Turns out criminals also use the official Pokemon Centers regularly when no one is able to recognize them.
Bursting into the Center with the force of a rampaging Tauros and making a huge scene in the process, we instantly made our way to the Nurse Joy at the front, who thankfully wasn't busy at the moment. Guess we could chalk that up to the fact that ninety percent of Pokemon in this town were already dead.
Nurse Joy raised an eyebrow. "Hello, how may I help you guys tonight?"
James took out Koffing's Pokeball and gave it to her. "It's my Koffing, he seems to have swallowed so much gas that he self-destructed! And now he's a smoking crisp of a mon!" The nurse let out a small gasp before taking on a grim expression.
She grabbed the Pokeball and started rushing to the ER room, with us closely following her, "We don't have much time then. Koffing's skin is very thin and fragile, and it isn't until it evolves into Weezing that it's able to control its explosions better." When she saw that we were following her, she held up a hand.
"I'm sorry, but you guys can't come inside the ER, you're going to have to sit in the waiting room for now." James looked ready to tell her off, but Jessie caught his gaze and silently shook her head, odd for the normally outspoken Rocket member.
Once Nurse Joy was sure that we all had calmed down, she handed over the Pokeball to a Chansey and accompanied it into the ER room.
There was nothing that we could do now, but sit here and wait.
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The next few hours waiting were absolute torture. Bad enough that we were already sleep-deprived from staying awake well after midnight, but coupled with the added stress of the events of Lavender Tower and its effects on us (mainly Koffing), it was a miracle we hadn't completely snapped at the poor staff working here.
Finally, after what had seemed like forever, Nurse Joy finally came out with a Pokeball.
She smiled, "Good news, Koffing is doing just fine and has made a full recovery."
At our collective sighs of relief, she corrected us, "But even then, he will still need to refrain from battling for at least two days. Make sure you don't expose him to areas with high amounts of smog before then." Damn, was it really that bad? I had no idea how close we were cutting it.
James took the Pokeball from her. "Thank you, rest assured Koffing will be exposed to only the finest quality of air."
When we were done thanking Nurse Joy, we sleep-walked our way to the hotel, our mind a complete haze. To an outsider casually observing it would seem that we were one step away from passing out drunk due to how much we limped around like a Spinda.
As soon as we got inside our room, I collapsed on the floor before I could even reach a bed.
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I woke up the next day feeling very refreshed, which was especially surprising since I was sleeping on a hard wooden floor the entire night. Maybe being reincarnated as a Meowth made my mind more adaptable as well? That was definitely something to think about.
Not long after I woke up, Jessie started to stir.
"...Is it morning already?" Jessie yawned and turned around in her bed.
"Nope, four in the afternoon to be precise." James replied, already up and fiddling with Koffing's Pokeball.
"Damn, we've been out for a while then," Jessie blew some hair off her face, "well, I don't know about you guys but I'm as hungry as a Snorlax right now."
"I think I saw a place that serves Chansey eggs down the street-"
"Hold on," I interrupted, "are we just not going to talk about what happened last night?"
"What do you mean? I just remember James taking some pictures and leaving." Jessie said innocently. "Absolutely no ghosts, Pokemon corpses, or anything vaguely threatening there! Just a nice, WHOLESOME, haunted tower!"
James and I discreetly shared glances, and collectively shook our heads.
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After eating what was quite possibly the best brunch of my life, we went out on our way to Cinnabar Island.
We've also been looking for a moment to test out our alternate means of travel.
"So Shimazaki, do you think you could teleport us to Cinnabar Island?" I asked her once we were out of Saffron City. Time to see how Teleport really worked.
"Nope, only to places that I've been to and places that you guys have been to. If I can't properly visualize it, I can't teleport there." Huh, that was basically how it worked in the games, but what was the justification for it here?
My eyes widened in realization, "Wait, don't tell me you read our minds to see the kinds of places we've been to." She nodded.
"Yep!"
Without meaning to, I started breaking out in a cold sweat. Did that mean she knew who I really was? I had to make sure.
"Well what exactly did you see when you read my mind?" I asked her, hopefully sounding nonchalant.
She tilted her head, "It was really weird, honestly. There were places that I recognized, like Saffron and Cerulean City. But there were others that I just didn't recognize. Like, there was a city with a huge green statue, and a mountain with four heads! Where are those places at? Are they in Kanto?"
"Ehh...honestly it's been a while, I hardly even remember where those places were." I hoped to god that she would just drop it.
Luckily, she seemed to buy my excuse. Which was good considering that she could have read my mind to see that I was lying.
"That's fair. I don't perfectly remember all the places that I've been to either." She shook her head.
"Anyways, the closest I'll be able to teleport to Cinnabar Island is Pallet Town. Does that work?"
I turned to Jessie and James, who were closely watching us, "She said that she can only teleport to places that we've been to already, and naturally, Pallet Town is the closest to Cinnabar Island."
James swore, "Well, guess we might as well just fly the rest of the way there." The Rocket dramatically pointed forward:
"Shimazaki, teleport us to Pallet Town!"
The psychic fox nodded, "Alright!"
And then the world went black…
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For about four seconds, that is. I started to stumble and fall when I landed back on solid ground, but my feline reflexes caught me.
My teammates, however, weren't so lucky.
When they both recovered from being unceremoniously teleported and dropped on the grass, Jessie was the first to voice her displeasure.
"Hey! Could it hurt to give a bit of a warning before you do that?!"
Shimazaki just shrugged, which just pissed Jessie off further.
"Well, why don't we start the balloon? It's about to become evening soon, which means it'll be perfect for us to fly in the dark relatively undetected." I mean, a huge ass hot air balloon is going to get noticed either way, but whatever floats your balloon James.
Jessie calmed down at being reminded why she was teleported there in the first place. "Oh, right! No time to waste people, start up the flame! Chop-chop!"
Soon enough, we were in the air, and going directly south in the direction of Cinnabar Island. Before we started going over the ocean, we actually saw Professor Oak on our binoculars! And he was staring right at us! I wonder what he was thinking.
If I remember correctly, Team Rocket's original first meeting with Professor Oak wasn't exactly positive, but maybe I could turn that around here? I DID plan on making a profit off of James and Jessie's talents in robotics, sponsorship from an established and respected Pokemon professor would definitely smooth the way for us, gather more credibility for our work.
The only problem I could see was why should he help us specifically? What exactly can we do to make him interested in our work? Maybe showcasing my ability to talk would make him more favorable to us? The researcher in him would be dying to know how I-or rather, Meowth-accomplished that feat.
Questions for later, I suppose. Oh well, I got all the time in the world to plan out my moves, no need to rush.