That was the only time when they were happy, that unlike Butch and Cassidy, Boss has never reserved any accommodation for them. Now, this unfair fact has saved their trio from a pretty unpleasant and premature act of arrest.
"Oh, finally I am flee flom dis tings! Dey are so uncomfortable! I knew I sould've taken the ones a few sizes bigga'!" the pokemon pleasantly claimed, taking his undercover coat and hat off.
"Good for you… Now, how about giving me a hand-… a paw, I mean?!" his friend testily complained while stuffing his backpack with some supplies left. "And you too, Jess. You know, I can't pack all of our belongings myself!"
"For first, I don't have paws…" she leisurely mumbled and demonstratively used some hairspray on her bun, pulling a couple of naughty ringlets together. "And secondly, I'm adjusting my hair, by following your advice, actually. You don't wanna us to get caught just because of my locks suddenly deciding to reveal their true beauty, do you?"
Trying to joke, she desperately willed to act like nothing has happened, though now it didn't sound and feel even half as funny as before. Her teammate only rolled his eyes and angrily grumbled under his breath:
"God, she was so much nicer back then on our way here…!"
"Huh? You said something, James?"
"Well, I…" he stumbled for a long moment, thinking of the best possible answer, but then his gaze fell on three almost done bags and the only remained clothes he was holding in his hands. The confidence immediately came back by itself. "I said that I had already packed everything, and we can move on!"
Now it was his turn to demonstratively throw those few left things into his backpack, do its zip and put it on, waitingly and proudly looking at his friends. Meowth quickly followed James' example, having tossed his little bag over his shoulders. Jessie only shrugged, slightly chuckled and, having carefully put her hairspray in, took her rucksack.
"Let's go," she said much more seriously.
"Right," boys nodded, and all three walked deeper into the woods.
After nearly an hour of wandering among the trees, they have finally found and started walking down an almost empty highway, with just a few lonely cars rarely passing by. And ever since then, they haven't spoken a word. Somehow, each of them knew, that they all just needed some time for themselves, to think of… of everything… and nothing at the same time. How will they manage to hide from the police, where will they live (and no, variant ' a prison cell' didn't really match their plans), who can they trust, and yet a lot of such things were restlessly spinning around in their heads. But it seemed, that neither of them didn't mind that dead silence, which has been filling the air for already about twenty minutes.
"Hey…" James was the first one to start a conversation, his eyes still steadily fixed on the horizon line. "So… you have any idea of where we should head now?.."
"Um… nope…"
"Not a thingle tought…"
"Oh, well… alright… We'll just… go ahead…!"
Meowth and Jessie only indifferently slowly nodded, murmuring a quiet "Uh-huh…" under their breath. A pause, now much more awkward, fell between them, and the guy has already regretted about ruining that sweet soundless harmony.
"Guyth!" the cat pokemon suddenly exclaimed, way too loudly for the ears accustomed to silence.
"What is it?.." after wincing and getting back to reality, his friends questioningly and still a bit detached stared down at him.
"Well… I'm not sure 'bout it, but… take a look at dat."
Jessie and James obediently directed their gazes to what he has spotted and was pointing at. It was a gray two-storied building, peeking out of the high trees and standing in about two hundred meters away from them; its rare small dark windows with no glass expressing nothing but coldness and depression.
"I wonder what it could be…" he continued his thought and looked up at them as if expecting them to know the correct answer.
"I don't have a single idea…" Jessie mumbled, but the next second became surprisingly encouraged, and even a cheerful smirk for a moment ran through her face. "But whatever it is, according to its look, it seems to be uninhabited. This can become a perfect shelter for some time!"
"U-um… A-are you sure about it, Jess?.." her partner unexpectedly asked in, for some reason, terrified voice.
"Well, of course, I am, James! Let's go!"
"Yeah, you're light! C'mone, Jimmy!"
"N-no, wait a sec! W-what if there are some good roots for it to be uninhabited?.." he nervously looked up at the sky, thinking up of the examples. "F-for instance, it can be a hazardous protected area… or there can live some dangerous pokemon…! O-or else, there can be Gastly and Haunter! You remember that tower and wrecked shi-?" but as he lowered his head again, saw, that his teammates have already been in about a dozen of meters away from him, determinedly heading to that chilling building. "H…hey! A-alright, I'm coming! But don't say I didn't warn-!"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, you have warned us…" Jessie shouted back, without turning around to him. "Calm down already, we've got some more important things to worry about, than a simple 'Haaaunted Hooouse'," she made a fake spooky voice, a mocking careless smile never leaving her face.
"Please, just don't joke like this!" he pleadingly squeezed her arm.
"Okay, okay, don't stress out that much," since she couldn't stand him whining, the girl tried to tranquil him, this time seriously.
"Listen, Jim, dere's noting scary in it. If dere was somethin' abnormal, I would sense it. Don't worry!"
"You'd better be right, Meowth…"
At a close look, the building seemed even more filthy and repulsive. A high concrete fence with a barbwire all around it; just a few trees and bushed, now being nothing but clusters of totally dried out branches; thick gates on almost all the windows — all this seemed to unconsciously make every single of pretty rare by-passers feel like a part of a second-rate, working only on cheep screamers horror game or film.
"A-alwite, I must admit, dat dis thin' really can give da creeps…" the talking pokemon moved closer to his friend's leg.
"A-are you serious?!" it seemed, that Jessie hadn't felt a thing about the terrifying atmosphere around them. Though, it wasn't completely true. Despite all her efforts to deny this ghost stuff, the last strong cold gust of wind made goosebumps run through her whole body. "Honestly, sometimes I think I'm the only man among the three of us!"
"Well, it doesn't mean I'm not the most handsome man, of course…"
"Okay, girls, if you're so horrified, I'll go first."
She turned around, determinedly exhaled, and took a few steps ahead, when suddenly a man in all brown uniform appeared from behind the fence, blocking her way. Judging by his great height, wide shoulders, and, on the whole, pretty frightening appearance, it was easy to conclude, that he was some kind of security guard.
"Oh, hi… we just thought that this place was uninhabited, and we could sta-…" she started, innocently smiling, but was rudely cut off by man's rough and indifferent voice.
"How the hell have you three got in here?! It's a protected area!"
"Told ya…" James whispered accusingly, coming closer to his partner, and then tried to answer: "Um… we just got lost a bit… we've never been to this region before… we're the… ehem…"
That fatal moment the opinions of who they are unexpectedly separated.
"…researchers from the university in Kanto…!"
"…Johto radio-stars…!"
"…toulists flom Sinnoh…!"
A couple of long and tensed seconds of silence seemed to last a minimum of five minutes. The trio members were confusedly staring at each other, while the guard got even more annoyed and gave them a skeptical look. He was already about to testily kick them out, when the recent news and orders suddenly came to his mind, telling him, that these three are something more than just a group of freaks.
"Wait a moment. Has your Meowth just talked?.."
"U-um, n-no! Y-you must've simply misheard the two of us!" trying to sound natural and successfully failing at it, Jessie nervously stepped on the tail of already extremely terrified pokemon, who, for his friends' surprise, didn't make a sound, and only clutched his teeth from the pain, guiltily gazing aside.
"That was a rhetorical question!" the harshness of his voice made all of them flinch again and get a little closer to each other. "Don't you try to fool me! Now, how about showing me your documents?!"
Another wave of panic covered them, the second one during the day. And now it was even more horrifying, than a few hours ago, mainly because of their possible end standing less than in a meter in front of them.
"R-right! The documents! L-let me see, I-I remember putting mine somewhere here!.." starting to search through all his pockets for the nonexistent pieces of paper, James was desperately trying to save as much time as possible, hoping for at least a little miracle to happen.
But it didn't. Being sick of this tomfoolery, the man roughly snipped his hands, then angrily groaned and pulled Jessie's and James' sunglasses and hats off, letting girl's hair eventually take its original crescent shape. Both gasped, instinctively trying to cover their faces, but the guard was already grinning with great, frenetic pleasure.
"So, you're the ones the whole Hoenn is looking for, huh?"
"L-listen, sir, m-maybe we could make it out someho-?" the guy started, stuttering, but his voice immediately dropped when he saw his interlocutor taking three pairs of shiny handcuffs and, what was the most frightening, a gun from his belt.
"Finally, we'll be respected! Now, I recommend you to surrender, put these chains on and follow me."
"H-hey, we don't want any troubles, o-okay?.. We just-…" his teammate warily held out her hands, trying to calm him down, as far as it was possible. But, again, she was cut off by the sound of a removing fuse and the weapon, aiming at her.
"I guess, you didn't get me right. I demand you to do what I say! And no stupid things, such as trying to escape or use the pokemon, otherwise…" the grin on his face became even wider. "Actually, about the pokemon. Give me all of your pokeballs. I'm sure, they're still all stolen from the other, fair, trainers."
A moment ago the only emotions prevailing within the trio were unbelievable fear and a little glimmer of hope. But now, it seemed, that one of them had suddenly forgotten about the whole situation they were in, about the gun and the possibility of being shot.
"How dare you say such things?!" Jessie's anger made her lose her mind for a minute, and she stepped ahead, followed by her friends' confused gazes.
"J-jess, what are ya-?!" Meowth tried to catch her hand, but she just waved away from him.
"For you to know, we've caught all of these pokemon ourselves! We're their rightful owners, they do love us, and we love them too! If you want to take them away from us, you won't be any better, than Team Rocket!"
"Settle down!" both James and Meowth screamed, and the guy swiftly pulled her back by tightly holding her arms pressed to the sides of her body.
"W-we're so sorry, sh-she is just a hotheaded person…" silly smiling, he was constantly cautiously looking at man's face.
And it has greatly changed. After hearing girl's last sentence, his expression turned from pleased and malevolent to more than furious. The cheeks immediately burnt with redness, and in his eyes there appeared a bright flame of offense along with the desire to revenge. All this brought Jessie back to reality. The next moment there came an awful realization of what she has just done.
"I… I didn't really mean to…" she tried to find an excuse but was too scared for her voice to listen to her.
"You know… since you're wanted dead or alive, there's nothing, preventing me from killing you right now…"
This maniacal whisper made all three shiver and recoil. Then everything happened too fast. A shot, disgusting smell of powder in the air, closed eyes, racing heart… and, for some reason, a strong push to the right and a loud moan…
Thanks for reading! Don't be shy and like/follow/comment the story if you liked it!
• Coming next: a lifesaving coincidence, not so pleasant savers, 'you can't have a good adventure without a chase', and a really ill-placed cliff.