Chapter VII
"Let Meowth outta here!" Meowth shook at the bars of the cage. Before he had awaken, Terri and Clark had stolen a cage from a pet store and placed him inside. He shook at them furiously but the bars remained firm.
"I KNEW we should have killed him…" Terry muttered.
"Now, now, you know he's still a pokèmon of the Boss," Clark said, biting off a piece of meat off his stick. The night was quiet and even he was getting worried that Meowth's screaming and yelling would bring James running.
"Why don't you just shut your big, fat Meowth for once?!" Terry screamed.
"I hwade(heard) you talkin' with dem 'utta Grunts 'bout Jessie! You slime! You-"
"All right, that's enough!" Clark kicked the cage as well, sending Meowth flying into the opposite side. Meowth winced in pain as fire seemed to lick his broken leg.
"OW! You coulda been nicer to da top cat, ya know," Meowth hissed. "But dere goes to say, dis is wrong! How can you twos contribute to Jessie's suffern'?!"
"Easy. You three were giving Team Rocket a bad name; we're supposed to strike fear into trainers' hearts, not to be cross-dressing, bumbling villains! We cannot accept failures, remember? Plus, both of us will get promoted," Terri said. "Besides, isn't Team Rocket supposed to be evil?"
Meowth paused. He never did think about that. Even he forgot that Team Rocket was supposed to be an evil organization devoted to much more than just capturing rare pokèmon for the Boss. Was he truly good at heart? Were Jessie and James as well?
"Even Team Rocket membas should have SOME conscious! We don't turn on teammates! 'Specially not givin' dem to da Labs!" Meowth scolded the two Dan'in members.
"All is fair in love and war," Clark bent down to come face-to-face with the angry feline. "And believe me, life IS war, and war is hell."
"Well, I hope you rot in Hell, you bastards!" Meowth spat at the two as they walked to their tent laughing. He made sure that he knew that they wouldn't come out again for some time and began hacking his way out through the thick bars. He couldn't make too much noise or there will be more than one person who would be in trouble.
*********
Misty awoke to a numbness in her leg. She glanced over and saw two caterpie snuggled on her calf, causing her foot to fall asleep. Her face turned slightly blue.
"EEEYAHHHHH!!!" Misty's screams echoed through the woods, scaring off all pokèmon within a two mile radius. Brock jerked his head up in surprise and sat up in his sleeping bag. Misty took one look at him and stopped screaming, pointing at his face.
"WHAT?!" Brock asked in annoyance.
"I thought I just saw your eyes open!" Misty pointed, her eyes bugged out. The two poor little caterpillar pokèmon got scared at her reaction and scampered off. Brock looked at her strangely.
"I always have my eyes open when I am awake, Misty," he said, irritated that he was insulted for having "special" eyes again.
"Oh," Misty then started shaking again as an aftershock of the buggy experience. She practically threw herself at Brock, seeking refuge under his arms. "It was two big ugly stinky bugs this time, Brock! I HATE bugs!"
Brock didn't know what to say or what to feel so he just held her and rocked back and forth until Misty stopped shaking. He knew of his friend's fear of bugs but never expected her to freak out so much that she needed his comfort. Heck, one of the first times he saw her scared of a "bug", she kicked him in the face!
Ash was still asleep. He had learned from the first time he slept in the same campground as Misty that he was always in danger of being woken up abruptly and so he slept with earplugs ever since.
*********
Meowth winced as the claws on his aching paw grew to nothing more than stubs. Fury swipes hadn't had much luck with the bars, but he had gone to slowly scratching at the somewhat weakened metal with one paw, so that it was weak enough to break with one slash of his sharpened claws on his other paw. Maybe it was weak enough…
Meowth prayed that Terri and Clark were still sleeping and wouldn't come out anytime soon.
He took back his right paw and slashed wildly at the bars holding him captive. Just like in the movies, the bars resisted for a few seconds before falling outward onto the soft grass. Meowth climbed out and his broken leg caught onto one of the sharp fragments of the bars. Meowth felt it dig into his flesh and fire raced up and down the injured limb again. It hurt more than the Snubble's teeth on his tail. He bit down on his tongue hard enough to taste blood but he held the scream in. Carefully, he lifted the leg over the fragments with his paws and started limping back to the cabin.
*********
The morning passed by as the trio continued on Ash's journey until about lunchtime. Brock set to making steamed rice with bits of meat on the side. He mixed the two together and divided the food among Ash, Misty and himself. His two companions gave him their thanks and they began to eat. The pokèmon were out of their pokèballs and took great delight in eating their pokèchow.
"Brock, don't you think you can mix a better type of food for Flareon? He's not eating," Ash stated as he saw Jessie make a disgusted face at her food consisting of odd-smelling pellets. She grimaced even more as Ash called her a guy yet again. Brock reached over and took a small bite of her food, making Jessie feel nauseated at the fact that a human was eating pokèchow. He swallowed and thought for a moment.
"It's supposed to taste good from a Flareon's prospective…I wonder why SHE doesn't like it,"
"Flare!" Jessie lunged at Brock's unprotected food and started eating away with great gusto.
"Hey!" Brock protested. "That was MY lunch!"
Jessie paid no attention: this Brock guy was a great cook…
"This
is delicious! Do you kids always eat things this delectable?"
Jessie stopped eating and tried to grasp the memory. But it faded away before she could reflect on it more.
Damn… she thought, angry to have lost another bit of her memory. She wiped off the bits of rice clinging to her fur with a paw and sulked.
"Poor Flareon…" Brock forgave her and scratched her behind the ears.
*********
After a short while, Meowth collapsed. There was no way he could make it back to the cabin…unless…
"Meo-Nya! Nya, Meow! Meowth, meow!" Meowth called out for help in his native tongue with a bit of trouble.
No one answered his call. He tried
again.
"Meow! nya…meow, Meowth?"
A young houndour peeked out of the bushes. He looked puzzled at Meowth whose eyes were brimming with tears of joy. Finally a pokèmon had answered his call! The woods were full of pidgies and ratata, both whom knew that they were naturally his prey and so had stayed clear of him.
"Grrowl?" The Houndour asked.
I gots to
get back to my friend who is stayin' at a cabin down the river. I have to tell him…something before its too
late. No time for questions. Please…will you help me?
Climb on my
back
"Meownyasu…" Meowth thanked the Houndour as the latter knelt down to allow Meowth to get on his back. After Meowth had made sure he was secured, Houndour dashed though the woods and towards the cabin.