"He ESCAPED?!" The leader of the Dan'in roared. Terri and Clark cowered slightly.
"Yes, sir. It appeared that he used fury swipes on the cage to slice his way through and-" Clark began.
The leader slammed a fist on his desk and ordered them to get out of his trailer. The door slammed behind them. Terri and Clark slumped off to their tent, ignoring the comments around them made by fellow Dan'in members. They hated being 'Grunts'; doing grunt work and being ridiculed by members of the three higher-ranking squadrons. There had to be a way to get respect.
"I hate this shit," Terri muttered. Clark placed a rough hand on her shoulder.
"But we can get back on the Leader's good side. Let's go find and capture Meowth and James. The Boss shall be pleased," he said, smiling while running a hand through her short violet hair.
*********
'If only I had the rest of my memories…' she sighed. Who was James?
Misty was trotting by Brock and sighing happily.
"At last we'll get to sleep in nice comfy beds again at the pokèmon center. And I'll finally get to have a bath!" Misty said, imagining herself soaking in a nice bubble bath. Ash made a weird, disgusted face.
Jessie wished the twerp would shut up. The constant bouncing in Ash's springy walk was bad enough while in a pokèball.
A low rumbling was heard. The twerps turned around.
"AH! Team Rocket!" the twerps cried out on cue. Ash reached for Jessie's pokèball and released her. "Go, Flareon! Flamethrower!"
Jessie shook her head several times, blinking at the lavender-blue-haired man who was panting from his long journey. Flashbacks attacked her mind so rapidly, Jessie couldn't distinguish one from another. James' wispy hair fluttered across his face as he came to an abrupt halt, seeing the brats were in the way.
James! Jessie ran to James. Her best friend had found her! But before she could even give him a friendly pounce, James kicked her hard in the stomach. Jessie yelped and fell to the ground in pain. She stood up. Not once in the time she had spent with James had he even laid a finger on her in attempt to hurt her physically. He saw her as a savage creature, a new pokèmon to fend off.
"Buzz off, twerp! Let me through!" James scowled. Jessie was in trouble..he needed to get to Viridian City and not even a Flareon's flame would stop him, though Jessie was significantly smaller, like a baby Flareon so it probably wouldn't hurt THAT much….
James, you dolt! It's me! Can't you see?! Jessie got up again and advanced towards James. This time when she leapt up, James put up an arm in defense. The loose cuff swung and the metal cut Jessie under the eye. She fell but rose up slowly to walk towards James again.
"Oh…Flareon!" Ash admired its courage. "You still want to protect me from Team Rocket!"
Jessie snorted in disgust and pressed on, deliberately taking a small step at a time. James was getting impatient. But he had no pokèmon good against fire types…maybe Jessie's pokèmon would work…. "Go, Arbok!" he threw the sphere into the middle of the designated fighting ground between himself and the Flareon.
"SHA~!" the violet serpent hissed. Jessie thought of this as ironic, being attacked by her own pokèmon.
"Arbok! Acid!" James commanded.
"Flareon! Flamethrower!" Ash called out. But Jessie did not heed, not only because she still did not know how to control her powers, but because she didn't want to hurt one of her friends. So she dodged Arbok's acid, which wasn't that hard since she knew his attacks and abilities inside and out. But it was tiring for she had to keep up her speed to keep the awful acid from turning her into yogurt.
ARBOK! It's me! Jessie! she kept calling out. But the serpent couldn't believe that a pokèmon was his master so he kept on trying to spray her with acid. Pikachu snorted and tilted her head, amused and puzzled at the same time.
"Finish it off, Arbok! Glare!" James said. Arbok's eyes glimmered a silvery-blue and Jessie was frozen in place. "Wrap attack!"
Jessie was squeezed with such a considerable force that she couldn't breathe at all. Her ribcage seemed be on the verge of shattering as the serpent's squeezing increased.
Arbok…it is me, Jessie! Arbok, please! she pleaded between gasps. Still the squeezing became more intense and the weakened Jessie slowly gave up, unable to take the lack of air any longer. Arbok suddenly got curious in his opponent and gave her a quick sniff. Jessie's human scent filled his nostrils and his eyes opened wide with shock as he realized it was his mistress he was choking the life out of. Arbok recoiled in shock of what he had done.
Mistress! Wake up! Please wake up! Arbok begged the Flareon to wake up and breathe. The trainers were confused, only hearing Arbok's "sha~s", "bokas" and hissings.
"What is it Arbok? Finish it off! Team Rocket will finally have a victory and we can get onto Viridian City!"
"SHA~!" Arbok refused.
"Arbok refuses to battle?" Ash asked in surprise.
Mistress? Arbok, what are you talking about? Pikachu asked. Flareon was just crazy…was she?
Arbok tearfully wailed that he had killed his mistress, Jessie. Pikachu contemplated this for a while. Pikachu had never really communicated with or paid attention to Jessie as a Flareon but she sniffed the air and realized it was Jessie's human scent that drove Arbok crazy, though it did not make logical sense. How could a human become a pokèmon? And all this time she had assumed that it was hunger playing a trick on her.
"CHU!" she called out to Ash.
"What is it?"
"Chu, pika! Chupi!" Pikachu swept her ears back in an aerodynamic arch, imitating Jessie's hair and proceeded to imitate Jessie's part of the motto, in Pikachu language.
"You need more ketchup?"
"CHU!" Pikachu face-faulted. During this time, Arbok had tried to imitate Jessie as well to James, but lacking limbs, he couldn't do it very well. James was getting rather impatient. He needed to get to Viridian fast!
"Arbok, return!" Arbok dodged the red beam and knocked the pokèball out of James' hand. James was getting fed up. Everyone was against him when they knew Jessie needed to be rescued; even Jessie's own pokèmon.
"Weezing, go!" James threw out his own pokèball. The two-headed pokèmon wheezed its name before confronting Arbok. After only a few words between them, Weezing took to Arbok's side.
"Why are you all against me?! God, what did I ever do?! Jessie is in trouble and I need to get to Viridian to save her! Why can't anyone understand?!" James raved on, waving his arms around, getting hit with the loose cuff several times.
"Flare…" Jessie stirred and got to her feet, sucking in air. Arbok and Weezing backed away, giving her air.
Mistress alright?! Arbok hovered around her.
Yes, I am ok, Arbok; don't be sorry. Jessie replied, shaking her head to rid it of a splitting headache.
Master
James worried about you
Jessie stared at Weezing, who had just spoken, and then back at James.
He had missed her? After how she overreacted, slapped and spat at him? Well, of course he should have been worried! But he hadn't worried about her during the Ursaring escapade so why would he be worried about her now?
"Fl-eon…" Jessie moaned and staggered to James' side. Both James and the Twerps were surprised.
"Get away from me!" James yelled, preparing to kick her again. "I need to find my friend Jessie!"
But this time, Jessie dodged his kick and tackled her friend to the ground. James was such a dunce; how else would she get through his thick skull and tap into his excuse of a brain? He fell to the ground and Jessie leapt onto his chest, snarling with anger. She had had enough of his stupidity. She heard some yells in the background but she took no notice of the twerps.
James stared hard into the angry eyes of the small pokèmon on his chest. There was something familiar about its glare. He'd recognize that glare anywhere; a cold stare that was only used with him in times of failure . And it had the same deep shade of sapphire in its eyes and the same curl of hair…
Something clicked in James' brain.
Was this the experimentation that Meowth had overheard about? Anything was possible at Rocket Labs but he had never heard of something so simple yet bizarre becoming a reality. A human turning into a pokèmon? Was this a coincidence or was this really his best friend? The eyes kept glaring at him.
"J-J-Jessie?!" he gulped and stammered, his voice hitting a high pitch. Jessie looked at him as if to say 'you finally got it, idiot' and went to snuggling against his face with hers. James was utterly confused as the furry cheek met with his. It wasn't often that a person found out his best human friend was a pokèmon of fire ability and it was even less often that Jessie would even apologize for what she had done.
"Jessie?!" the Twerps asked out loud at last.
"Jessie! What in the world did they do to you?!" he hugged her to his chest, crying tears of joy and sorrow at the same time. The Twerps were stunned.
"Flare.." Jessie muttered, not allowing her own tears through. There was no way she was going to go soft in front of James, not to mention the Twerps. Jessie heard his heart pounding loudly in his chest while pinned tightly to him.
"Jessie! Don't you know how much I missed you? I thought you were dead, Jess! I nearly-Jessie!" James pressed her closer to him.
Jessie jerked her head up and stared in surprise at him. Had her disappearance really affected him that much? Never in her life did Jessie ever imagine that James cared for her that deeply or would feel that guilty. Didn't this guy ever try to hide his feelings? He was even more upset about her new condition than she was.
"Flare…" she said, wishing that he could understand for he just shrugged at her comment and ran his fingers through the tuft of hair on her head.
"Lets go," James said, standing up with her in his arms and starting to walk away.
"HEY! You can't take my pokèmon!" Ash said at last. No way was Team Rocket getting away! The whole event with James discovering his Flareon was Jessie had to be staged. No way that could ever happen.
"Weezing! Smoke screen!" James signaled.
"Wee~ze…" a green-gray screen of smoke covered the area and James heard the Twerps hacking away. The Rockets took this opportunity to make their getaway and disappeared.