The Greatest Lesson: Chapter Two
I looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand next to the bed Jessie and I were forced to share. 2:30 AM. Then I looked over to my right, wondering why there was no circulation in my right arm. Meowth must be sleeping on my arm again, I thought. I wriggled my arm out from under him...and felt the weight shift and a pair of arms encircle my waist.
"Oh, James..."
Now I was officially freaked out. The voice hadn't been Meowth's...
It was Jessie's. I felt a pair of lips trail up my chest and neck. A feeling I had longed for. I kissed her forehead and down her face, but as soon as our lips met...
"Aaaahhhhh!" Jessie screamed. She smacked me with her mallet, causing me to cry out in pain and surprise. Meowth yowled and clawed the both of us.
"What in the name of God is going on here?"
The lights clicked on. Rapidash stood in the doorway. Her sepia-and-white hair was up in a messy ponytail, her pale skin covered only by a dark red tank top, gray spaghetti-strap sports bra and zebra-striped Limited Too underwear, but the scariest thing about her was that she was wielding a katana. The three of us shrieked in horror.
"Very funny," she growled. "Ha, ha. It is to laugh. Now someone answer my question before I test out my newly-sharpened katana on your heads."
We all began to speak at once, but our entwined explanations were such unintelligible jargon that Rapidash finally threw up her black-nailed hands and sighed in resignation.
"Forget it." she said exasperatedly. "I'm going back to my room to finish sharpening my swords. Next time, call me if something happens. Okay?"
As she left, Rapidash looked over her shoulder. "And I would suggest just giving up and sleeping in each other's arms, since it's gonna happen anyway."
Meowth jumped off of the bed and trotted after her. Jessie and I looked at each other, smiling sheepishly and blushing fiercely.
"Sorry," she whispered. "I...was just in the throes of a dream...and got carried away..."
I raised an eyebrow. "You dream about me like that?"
Jessie's eyes widened. "Well, I didn't mean...Oh, alright. Yeah, I do. Problem?"
I looked at her skeptically.
"Well, it's not like I have anyone else to dream about!" she said.
I mulled it over. "No...that's true..."
We laid down on the bed and put our arms around each other. Jessie rested her head on my chest. "Goodnight, James..."
"Goodnight, Jessie."
@----
When we woke up, James and I walked out to the balcony attached to our room. Even from there we could smell breakfast cooking in the kitchen, courtesy of Team Rocket's Rapidash.
We got dressed and headed for the kitchen. Sure enough, Rapidash had cooked omelets for breakfast. Meowth was already inhaling his. James and I sat down, digging into ours.
Rapidash grinned. "Like it?"
James and I nodded, being unable to speak articulately. Rapidash untied her apron and hung it in the pantry. "Y'all have lessons in ten, so eat up."
Then she walked out, leaving us to our half-eaten breakfasts. James slowly stirred some sugar into his coffee, emerald eyes never leaving me. I returned his stare, pouring cream into my own coffee. I blinked.
"Ha! I always win!" James exclaimed, standing up.
I snapped my fingers. "Damn it, James, can't you at least tell me first?"
He grinned. "You didn't ask."
Rapidash poked her head in the kitchen. "Okay, guys, time's a-wasting'! Get out on the lawn for martial arts and weaponry training on the double, men!"
I narrowed my eyes. "I'm a woman..."
"Whatever. You know what I meant. Just get some martial arts uniforms on-I'm sure you must have them-and meet me there."
Rapidash left again. James and I went to our room and changed. Our outfits looked more like the kind of stuff worn in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon than what Rapidash had been wearing.
We climbed down the rope and jumped to the ground. Rapidash was standing there with her set of swords and Korean Tigers Taekwondo uniform.
She instructed us to sit down. James and I sat carefully, not wanting to muss our uniforms. Rapidash sighed.
"Pathetic."
James growled under his breath.
Rapidash pulled a black katana from the stand. She unsheathed it, the morning sun glinting off of the recently sharpened blade.
"Now, students, which of you can tell me just exactly what goes into the making of a katana like this?"
I raised my hand.
"Yes?"
"I don't know." I said, grinning.
James shot a look at me and raised his own hand. Rapidash raised her eyebrows, signaling him to go on.
He smiled wryly. "The beauty of a katana is the result of four qualities: Its shape, the lie of the grain on the blade, the undulating pattern on the cutting edge, and the minute dots which make up the design along the edge.
"The metal obtained is hammered until a thin sheet of steel is achieved. After being hammered and worked day after day, this sheet of steel is used to cover the body, made of a softer metal. The combination of the hard and soft metals gives the blade its flexibility and its strength.
"The final stage of the work consists of sharpening and polishing. This can only be done by experienced masters because the cutting edge and the beauty and richness of the blade's decoration depend on it."
James chuckled. "One can understand why at the end of World War II the Japanese went to all lengths to recover or buy back all the swords of value taken by the Americans or in the hands of collectors throughout the world."
Meowth and I stared.
Rapidash smiled. "Wow, James, you do know your weaponry. Couldnt've said it better myself."
She motioned for James to stand. When he did, Rapidash handed him a katana. "Okay, James, you've proved to me what you know about a katana, now, can you use one?"
I expected James to sheepishly reply "no", but he never did. James pulled a hair-thingy out of nowhere and tied his hair back, then unsheathed his katana. A far-away look appeared in his eyes as he ran a fingertip over the blade.
"Yes, I can."
"Great!" Rapidash exclaimed, unsheathing her own. "Then let's fight."
James grinned and narrowed his gaze. "I accept."
They bowed and then began to duel. It was nothing like fencing. There were strategic flips and feints built into the fight, and they weren't all from Rapidash.
Rapidash sliced her sword through the air, dangerously close to James' face. She chuckled. "Touché, James."
James looked puzzled...and then, a trickle of blood ran down his cheek. He put a hand to it. "You...you..." he stammered, looking at his bloodstained fingertips.
"I got you."
This seemed to make James mad. He flipped over Rapidash's head, dragging his blade past her hair as he went.
"Touché to you too, Rapidash." James said, holding out his katana. A few strands of hair fell from Rapidash's head.
She bent down and picked them up. "Alright, James, I believe you've proved to me what you can do."
"Dat's it? A little blood and some cut hair, and yer callin' it quits? Yer both pathetic." Meowth said.
"Meowth, the traditional Japanese way is to fight to the death." James said softly.
"And I don't think James and I want to lose any more parts of our anatomy."
James chuckled. "Ah, afraid I might hurt you?"
"Not really, but then..." Rapidash said, leaving the thought open. She picked up a unicorn-shaped dagger and slit her wrist with it, wincing slightly. We gasped as the crimson blood ran from the wound. Suddenly, it healed, leaving only perfect, snow-white skin.
"You can't heal yourself, James."
@----
After that, we continued on to full-contact sparring. Rapidash was fast(a little too fast), but I was more powerful. Needless to say, I won. With one well-placed back kick to the stomach, she was out.
"Ugh...that was a little too much, I think..." she said dizzily. Rapidash had swirls for eyes and little Lugias were flying around her head. I helped her up.
"Rapidash? Are you okay?" I asked, noticing that she was still a little unstable.
"Yes, James, I'm fine...Oh, look at all the pretty Lugia..."
"Rapidash! Snap out of it!" I cried as she collapsed in my arms. I sighed and carried her into the house.
Several minutes and wet washcloths later, Rapidash slowly and peacefully woke up.
"What the hell happened?! Ooohh James just wait till I get my hands on you-you'll be sipping soup through a straw for three months! I'm gonna-"
I put a finger to her lips. "Rapidash, calm down. You only got back-kicked. No reason to go loopy."
She wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, but you have legs of steel! How'm I supposed to defend against you?"
I rubbed the side of my head. Though we'd been wearing helmets, Rapidash had hook-kicked me in the temple-I had felt like fainting myself!
"You ain't bad yourself-after that hook kick, I wanted to faint, too!" I said.
Rapidash chuckled. "And they aren't even my strong point!"
The rest of the morning went in basically the same vein. Jessie and Meowth got their asses kicked by myself and Rapidash-in sparring and in swordfighting, of course. Around lunchtime, the four of us sat on the hanging patio and picked at our food. (Rapidash and I were immersed in The Art of War, and Jessie and Meowth were basically too tired to eat.)
"This book is one of my favorites." Rapidash said, looking up at me.
"Yeah, I can remember escaping to the library in my parents' mansion one day and finding an old leather-bound copy of it." I said. "I went down one night and, ahem, borrowed it. I've still got it." I gestured to the bedroom where my stuff was. "Keep it with me all the time."
We went back to reading.
Later that evening(try 1:34 AM), I couldn't sleep. I padded into the kitchen, picked up a caffeine-free Coke, and was about to head back to the bedroom when I heard Rapidash talking. A glow came from her room. Not being able to resist, I peeked in.
Rapidash was talking to the Boss.
"Well, Rapidash, how goes the war?" he asked.
"Just as we planned, Giovanni." Rapidash said, grinning.
The Boss grinned back. "Perfect. Jessie and James are doing well in their studies, I hope."
"Well, sir, Jessie is..."
The Boss raised an eyebrow. "James isn't?"
"Oh no, Gio, James already knows this stuff! Archery, martial arts, fencing, even lesser-known facts about oriental weaponry! He's a natural, Giovanni, and his physical skills are just as impressive. Why, just today he backflipped over my head!"
"I didn't mean that, though I'm proud of James for his profound knowledge of such things."
My heart skipped. The Boss, proud of me?
"What I meant was the project." he continued.
"Oh..." Rapidash chuckled. "Fairing well. You should've seen what they did last night..."
"Tell me later. You should rest, Rapidash. You've had a long day, and you know that a young woman in your condition shouldn't be stressed out so much."
Rapidash sighed heavily. "Yes, I know. Goodnight, Giovanni."
"Goodnight, Rapidash."
She turned the vid-phone off. "James, I know you're back there; come here and talk to me. I could use an understanding person like yourself."
I stepped into Rapidash's room. The whole thing was decorated in an oriental style. Rapidash obviously had good taste. She patted the bed next to her. I sat down.
"So...I take it you heard my conversation with Giovanni?" she asked.
"Yeah, I did." I raised an eyebrow. "How did you know I was listening?"
"I'm psychic, James. Didn't you know that?" Rapidash looked up at me. "Remember yesterday, when I mentally teleported my belt into my hand?"
I nodded. "Rapidash, can I ask you something?"
"Fire away."
I fidgeted nervously, not sure of how to begin. "Rapidash, the Boss said something about a 'condition' of yours. I don't mean to pry, but what condition did he mean?"
Rapidash sighed heavily again. "James...I don't know how I could tell you...or how you'd understand."
I put a hand on her pale shoulder. Her skin was cool, but there was a strange heat underneath...one that seemed almost inhuman.
"Try me."
Rapidash hesitantly put her hand on mine. I could feel the roughness of her palm; the thin calluses that she worked so hard to hide. I looked down at her, and for the first time saw the true Rapidash. Lines of stress creased her young face, symptoms of some great pain that she had hidden behind a snowy, expressionless mask.
"Well?" I urged gently.
"James..." she began.
"Yes?"
Rapidash closed her sepia eyes slowly, almost painfully. "I am a Pokemon."
I was stupefied. "W-what?"
She nodded. "Well, a Pokeman, anyway. A person with the ability to become a new species of Pokemon. When I was a child, my parents noticed that I acted like a horse all the time. I earned quite a reputation with my classmates at Tech, namely a bad one. As soon as I got older, before I received my trainer's license, I found I had the ability to use Psychic-, Dark-, and Fire-type attacks. I trained that type of Pokemon, my pet Ponyta being my starter.
"One morning I woke up as a Rapidash! A black one, with a fiery face. I remembered from my childhood how to act like one, so I picked up my belt with my horn and began to wander back to my house. My parents called this 'organization for Pokemon and Pokemon trainers' and told them about me. Before I knew it, there I was, at Giovanni's desk."
This piqued my curiosity. "But why would your parents send you to Team Rocket? That doesn't strike me as a very loving thing to do."
Rapidash shrugged. "I come from the same area you do, James. The people up there, with the obvious exception of your parents, think that Team Rocket is an organization to help trainers, not steal from them."
"But if they were going to help you, why are you an Agent?"
"I'm actually an Executive." Rapidash replied matter-of-factly. "Giovanni had heard about cases like mine. In fact, he actually had people like me working for him. He pitied me. We both knew that I would never be accepted by the real world, so he took me in and helped me hone my skills. He gave me a new name and a new identity. No longer would I be Chi Tenshi, the horse-girl, but Team Rocket's Rapidash. No mess, no fuss. A nameless entity of the night."
"Chi..." I said softly. "That's blood in Japanese."
Rapidash(or Chi)smirked. "And Tenshi?"
"Angel. So your name could mean either Blood Angel or Angel of Blood."
"Yeah, that's right. I prefer Angel of Blood, actually."
I clenched Chi's bedspread. "I have so many more questions, Rapidash..."
She smiled. "We'll talk tomorrow-or later today, you might say, since it is two in the morning. I'm sure your brilliant mind must crave answers."
"Isn't that what all minds do?"
Rapidash shook her head. "Only the intelligent ones. People of lesser intellect don't need the answers because they figure they've already got them-like our friend Bunny, you might say."
"Ah." I stood up. As I walked out the door, I could hear Rapidash's voice inside my head.
"Thank you, James...for listening...and understanding."
@----
I sighed. Today was, without a doubt, the most boring day of my life. It turned out that Rapidash's computer had crashed, so she had asked James to fix it. James turned on the computer.
"Okay, Rapidash, what's your problem?"
Rapidash sighed exasperatedly. "I told you, it crashed! And, since I'm not a nerd like you are, you're fixing it for me."
James blinked. "Nerd?"
"Just get to reprogramming, Einstein!"
"Okay, okay..."
And for a good hour James reprogrammed, typing so fast his fingers were a blur. I watched for about five minutes, but found that Rapidash's carpet was more interesting. Meowth had fallen asleep.
Then my eyes fell on Rapidash's CD player. I picked up the earphones and pushed play. The beginning strains of Like A Prayer filled my ears. I softly hummed along.
At about Dear Jessie, James finished. I was still humming. I was sort of in a reverie(if you've ever heard Dear Jessie, I think you'd know what I was daydreaming about-or, to be more accurate, who), and not really paying attention, when all of a sudden...
"...I will make your dreams come true, for you..."
My eyes widened. I turned my head...and there was James, singing! I swallowed.
Rapidash and Meowth were laughing their asses off behind him. And still James sang. And not in his usual baritone, either. No, for this song, James was singing in a funny, lilting tenor, one I'd never heard him use. It was actually kind of freaky how sexy it was-or maybe it was just the song.
Or maybe it was the line James had altered. It was supposed to be he, not I, and I knew James knew that. Could he have altered it on purpose?
The song ended. I clicked off the CD player. James was acting like he was playing the violin. It was kinda scary. He grinned.
"Lovely day, isn't it, Jess?" he said in a fake British accent.
"Yeah. Whatever."
My cheeks were still burning. I was beginning to think that James had changed the line on purpose, and it embarrassed me even more. I stood up.
"You know, James, I'd so love to see you really play a violin." I said, smirking.
"Why not? Rapidash, do you have one?" Rapidash went to her room and rummaged around for a violin.
My jaw dropped. "James, you're not serious?"
"I am."
Rapidash came back with a violin. "Now be careful with it; I polished it this morning." she said as she handed it to James. He ran his eyes over the bow.
"You need to tighten the bow, Rapidash." he said.
"B-but I did!" she sputtered. James rolled his eyes and tightened it for her.
"Now, what shall I play?" he asked me.
"Hmm, I don't know."
Meowth jumped onto James' head. "Why not that song you was singin' earlier, Jimmy?"
"The whole thing?"
I grinned, knowing he'd never be able to pull it off. "Yes, James, the whole thing."
James plucked Meowth off of his head. "Alright. From memory, then."
He tested the violin out, then began to play. For the entire duration of the song Meowth and I sat, spellbound.
"I never knew Jimmy could move his fingers dat fast." Meowth commented.
"Me neither."
James sighed and handed the violin to Rapidash, then flexed his fingers.
"Man, it's been a long time since I've played the violin." James said.
"I didn't know you could at all." I said.
James grinned. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Jess..."
"Cue da Twilight Zone music." Meowth said, giggling.
"Oh, shut up." I growled.
Rapidash sat down in her swivel chair and logged on to the Internet, ignoring us. After replying to a few e-mails, she clicked on her Favorite Places. James looked over his shoulder at her.
"What site are you going to, Rapidash?" he asked.
"The Team Rocket website, of course!" she replied. James raised an eyebrow and walked over to her.
"There's a Team Rocket site?" James asked skeptically.
"Duh, James, where do you think your e-mail address is located?"
"But...why is there a site open to the public about us, if Team Rocket is such a secret crime syndicate that half the agents don't even know what goes on in its inner sanctums?"
Rapidash sighed. "You have to enter a password to access the site, smart one."
Now Meowth and I were interested. We peeked over Rapidash's other shoulder. The site was actually pretty interesting. Rapidash clicked on a Pokeball icon. A page popped up, headed Poke-human Agents. There were eighteen small pictures of Pokemon there, each with a short summary.
I scanned down the list. Yuki Azarashi, Dewgong...Kitsune Taki, Ninetales...Chi Tenshi, Rapidash...Neko Kuroi, Persian...
"What's a Poke-human Agent? Da Boss never said anything about dose guys...wonder why?" Meowth said.
Rapidash hesitated briefly. "...Because these agents are his elite. The best. They are of great value to him. When a Pokeman—that's the proper term for them—is discovered, Giovanni goes to all lengths to see that she is brought to him."
"She?" I asked.
"Yes. Despite the fact that they are called Pokemen, Pokemen are always women. Genetics, I guess."
I wrinkled my nose. "What makes them so special?" I asked. "Do they make better bedmates then other women?"
"NO!" Rapidash cried, slamming her fist down on the desk. "They are gifted with the ability to become a certain species of Pokemon, and as such they have special powers." She turned to me. "One of those agents is a fourteen-year-old! Do you really think that she'd willingly have sex with a 32-year-old man? Besides, Giovanni's actually a great guy, and he'd never do something like that!"
Rapidash stood up. "I'm going to feed the Pokemon. If you need me, I'll be outside." She walked off in a huff.
James sighed. "Jeez, Jessie, do you really have to say the first thing that pops into your head every time?"
I nodded. James and Meowth fell over.
"Ya know," Meowth said, "Rapidash got pretty mad. Wonder why?"
"It's probably because she's in love with the Boss or something." I chuckled.
James looked down. "Can't you two see?"
"See what?" Meowth and I asked in unison.
He sweatdropped. "Come on, guys! The agility and speed that Rapidash possesses...Her power of fire and her psychic ability...everything about her..."
"And...what does that mean to us?" I asked.
"Last night Rapidash sat me down and told me her story." James said. "How she was called a freak and mistreated by her classmates at Tech, simply because of her love of horses, how Giovanni took her in, everything. That girl, Chi Tenshi..."
James indicated the picture of a black Rapidash on the computer. Meowth clicked on it, and a page popped up. One with a complete personnel file on Rapidash. I looked up at James as the realization hit me.
"...Is our Rapidash." James finished.
@----
Well, it looks as though Rapidash's secret is out! But Jessie and James still have a few more days with her. Can Rapidash teach them the lesson she needs during that time? Or is Team Rocket's newfound knowledge going to impede their learning process? Stay tuned to find out!