Here's Chapter Two R&R appreciated. Thanks to all who have reviewed so far and a special thanks to D Marco who gave me the idea for the names of the groups of trainers that team Rocket is chasing. As before I will attempt to incorporate any suggestions that you have if I can fit them in with my storyline.
Disclaimer: Read the one in Chapter One and figure it out.
Ash (15)
Misty (16)
Brock (18)
Jessie (22)
James (22)
Snake Bite Chapter 2
Team Rocket rode in their meowth head balloon just above the forest canopy spying on the comings and goings of any trainers they could find. The climate was not unlike that of Powder City hot and humid though in their balloon, being carried by a slight breeze, it was tolerable. Jessie and James both doffed their Team Rocket Jackets in favor of their black t-shirts.
They ignored the majority of the trainers focusing on the ones that meet with the descriptions in the paper they stole from the medical supply warehouse. So far they had no luck and the few that had seemed promising they were either not carrying a package, had not been to Powder City or were not going to Snowy City.
Still they searched as warm muggy morning turned to hot muggy afternoon when they came upon their first quarry, target group gamma, the two 10 or 11 year old blue haired trainers. Jessie landed the balloon near where the trainers were walking.
Jessie, James and Meowth all readied themselves for their opening act. "To protect the world from devastation." Jessie started
"To unite all peoples within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To extend our reach to the stars above"
"Jessie."
"James."
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light."
"Surrender now or prepare to fight."
"Meowth dat's right."
"Team Rocket!" both trainers exclaimed in fear because they had heard of Team Rocket and their penchant for stealing pokémon.
"Look James, they're cowering in terror," Jessie laughed, "that's the kind of effect the motto is supposed to instill."
"Yes Jessie it's nice to see a proper reaction instead of the attitude the twerps give us."
Jessie's face fell at the mention of the twerps. She felt like smacking James but instead just said, "Couldn't leave well enough alone could you James?"
James grinned stupidly, "Opps sorry."
Jessie recovered quickly, "You two look like fine upstanding lads now you should do us the favor of handing over any packages you might have received in Powder City and we will let you go with your pokémon." The two blue haired boys just stood there trembling. Jessie rolled her eyes, "Boo!" she shouted and both of them ran into the forest leaving their bags behind.
"Ha ha, dhat was too easy!" Meowth laughed as he open one of the trainer's bags James opened the other.
"I found it Jessie!" James pulled the package out of the bag and Jessie grabbed it from him. Pulling out a knife she made a small incision into the cardboard and through the foam packaging. When she saw the glass vials she smiled, "this is it."
*************
Team Rocket continued to search for the rest of the trainers despite their early success the going was still slow. As time went by the possible paths that their targets would be taking would increase exponentially. Understandably Jessie was in a hurry to get all of the packages sooner rather than later but finding the right trainers was becoming steadily more difficult.
It was close to nightfall and Jessie and James decided to put down their meowth shaped balloon. Most pokémon trainers would be setting up camp and preparing to sleep and with the light fading it would be easier to spot people at ground level as most trainers tried not to travel too far from roads and trails unless they had a specific reason to. Jessie and James walked along around the area spying on and interrogating trainers hoping to find one more of the groups they were looking for.
Unwittingly they stumbled across two trainers, both of them looked to be about 15 years old, one male the other female. The female trainer had green hair the male trainer had black hair, both were finishing their dinner and they appeared to be a rather happy couple. The female trainer cleaned off both of their plates and was rewarded by a hug from her male counterpart. She broke the hug, "not yet silly, later."
"Is it later yet?" the male trainer smiled as he wrapped his arms around her yet again.
She giggled as she broke his embrace again, "You are really being bad tonight. What's gotten into you?"
"I think a better question would be what's going to get into her?" Jessie said with disgust from behind the bushes where they were hiding, "they look like group alpha." The female trainer disappeared into the tent quickly followed by the male trainer. "We better hurry James. We don't want to be a knockin' when that tent starts a rockin'." Jessie, James and Meowth slinked their way towards the tent.
"This is almost too cruel even for me," Jessie paused, "Yep almost." She parted the tent flaps and the trio of Rockets stepped in.
The two trainers inside screamed when they saw Jessie and James the female covered her chest with her shirt. "To protect..." Jessie started, " well who knew?"
"Who are you?" the young male shouted.
"Trojan Man." James said in a singsong voice.
Jessie began again, "I hope were not disturbing anything you two, we're just collecting packages that are being sent by courier from a medical supply warehouse in Powder City to one in Snowy City you wouldn't by chance have one would you?" By now Meowth had joined them and all three had started to make themselves at home in the now crowded tent rifling through various things.
"Get out of here you freaks what kind of perverts are you?" the male was becoming much more nervous.
Jessie studied both trainers then spoke, "Well James perhaps we should leave. Besides I'm sure your parents would love to know what you're up to." Jessie held up their IDs. While most parents in the pokémon world were aware of their offspring's recreational activities, even if they didn't always approve some, however, were not and would react accordingly. Jessie was a good study of body language and had read both of the trainers perfectly.
"Just tell them where the damn package is! I do not want my mom finding out what we've been doing." The female trainer yelled at her male counterpart.
"It's in the large blue backpack next to the tent," the male trainer said as if he were about to lose his best friend.
James went to check the backpack, "Found it Jess, just what we were looking for!"
"Good, " said Jessie as she turned back to both the trainers, "now you can get on with, well, getting it on." She laughed as she joined James and Meowth in retreating from the camp back to their balloon to set up their own camp for the evening.
*************
Team Rocket landed in some prickly bushes with a crash a ways away from their latest encounter with Ash and Company. While they were somewhat charred they were used to it. As much as she hated to admit it team twerp had matched the description of target group epsilon perfectly. Of course they wouldn't give Team Rocket any of the information they'd need to either winnow them out or confirm that they were truly group epsilon because of their past experiences together. It was Jessie's intuition that gave her the dreaded feeling that the twerps were indeed the carriers of the package, "They have the package James, I can feel it," Jessie said as she spat out a leaf, "why did it have to be the twerps?"
"Are you guys ok?" a purple haired trainer ran up to them. She immediately started to attend to James who seemed to enjoy the attention.
"I think I'm fine," James shook himself and looked at his rescuer, "I'm in the arms of an angle."
"What's happening?" a younger blonde haired boy ran up from their camp.
"I heard a crash and found these people. They might be hurt." The purple haired girl called back before turning back to James, "you should sit still. You wouldn't want to aggravate any injuries."
Jessie who up to now was neglected turned crimson with rage but it was Meowth who stopped her. "Jessie," he started, "purple hair, 17 years old and a blond haired boy looks like 15." Meowth looked in the direction the boy had come from and saw two other trainers a girl about 14 with black hair and a boy about 10 with red hair. "Jackpot Jessie, I think we found target group Delta."
Jessie's demeanor changed she wasn't the bright crimson filled with anger instead she was the quite composed almost Machvellian Jessie ready to pounce on her opponents weakness. "There's something I need to check," Jessie said to Meowth as she picked herself up and dusted herself off. Jessie glided over to the female trainer who was still attending to the very appreciative James. Jessie looked at what appeared to be the girl's backpack that had a towel covering it. The towel moved slightly and Jessie picked it up reveling a sleeping baby.
Jessie arched an eyebrow, "Meowth this is the group."
The girl who had been attending to James stood, "Huh? Why are you people looking for us?"
"We'll be asking the questions my dear," Jessie said flatly. "Now," she looked back at the baby on the 17 year olds girl's back, "what are you doing traveling around with a little kid?"
James and Meowth face-faulted. The girl having heard it all before became angered, "I'm sure you didn't just seek us out to be the morality police. What do you really want?"
"We're no police. We're Team Rocket!" Jessie started.
"Well whoever you are who died and made you Jesse Helms?"
"Jesse Helms!" Jessie was practically stuttering, "I'm way better looking than Jesse Helms!"
James looked at Meowth, "does Jessie even know who Jesse Helms is?"
"Beats me." Meowth answered.
"Look I'm doing the best I can. It's hard enough being a pokémon trainer let alone a single mom without all the crap I have to take from bluenoses like you!"
"At least I don't have a little kid to trudge around all over," Jessie shot back.
"But you're still traveling around with a guy yourself!" The girl motioned to James but her intentions were to see if Jessie had a weak spot.
Jessie looked at James then turned back to the girl, "trust me if you were traveling with him you wouldn't have a kid right now."
Meowth turned to James, "she just insulted ya again."
"Hmmm, hey wait." James finally caught on.
"I don't care who you are or what you want but I'm going to give you a battle!" The female trainer was joined by her three traveling companions who all had pokéballs drawn and ready.
"Go Pidgeot!" She shouted as the large bird popped out of its ball.
"Go Wartortle!" Her 15-year-old male companion shouted.
"Go Tangela!" Her 14-year-old female companion shouted.
"Go Rattata!" Her 10-year-old companion shouted.
"So it's a pokèmon battle you want well you've got it! Arbok, Weezing go! Jessie started.
"Woba!" Wobbuffet said from behind her.
"Will you stay in your pokéball until I call you out!"
"Wobbuffet!"
"Victreebel Go!" James shouted as he brought out his second pokémon who immediately latched onto his head, "Ow, stop it Victreebel, attack them!"
Team Rocket's four pokémon lined up against the four pokémon of the group of trainers. "Hee hee," laughed Meowth, "four on four."
"You're forgetting something Meowth," Jessie raised her foot to kick Meowth into the lineup, " You're a pokémon too." Meowth landed next to Arbok with a thud.
"Arbok poison sting attack!" Jessie commanded and Arbok began to shoot poison needles at the pidgeot.
The girl's pokémon took some hits from Arbok but was able to shrug them off with minimal damage. "Pidgeot whirlwind!" The bird pokémon obeyed its trainer and sent a small tornado towards Arbok. Wobbuffet, however, moved between the tornado and Arbok and countered it back on Pidgeot who was knocked out. "Pidgeot No!" she cried as she knelt to comfort the bird. "Return," and the fainted bird disappeared back into the pokéball, "Go Fearow"
"I am getting sick of this!" Jessie watched as Weezing fainted both Tangela and Wartortle with a Hyper Beam, "Attack the trainers not the pokémon!" Meowth who had just finished off the rattata with fury swipes looked at Jessie as if she had grown a second head. "Do it now!" All Team Rocket's pokémon began their attacks; Victreebel used vine whips to knock the 15 and 14 year olds replacement pokéballs out of their hands before the pokémon could even be dispatched, Meowth put down a pidgey and with Arbok's help cornered the 10 year old trainer.
Jessie saw that Meowth and Arbok were holding the 10 year old and she immediately formed a plan to end the battle. "Arbok wrap that kid!"
Arbok immediately wrapped its coils around the 10 year old who could only squeak out a muted, "help."
The oldest girl looked to her youngest traveling companion and screamed his name, "Jim!" She turned back to Jessie, "What kind of pokémon battle is this? You're attacking us!"
"This isn't a pokémon battle. This is a battle for survival." Jessie's voice had an air of superiority in it.
"You bitch let him go!"
"Give us the package you're carrying and I will."
"What package?"
"Arbok tighter." The boy started to turn a darker shade of blue.
"Stop it please, all right you win, I'll give it to you."
Jessie smiled as the oldest girl began to rummage through her backpack and pulled out the package. "Arbok," Jessie commanded, "let him go."
Arbok immediately complied unconstricting its coils and dropping the 10-year-old trainer to the ground with a thud. "Are you all right Jim?" the girl asked her traveling companion.
"Yeah," he gasped for air, "I'll be ok."
"You got what you wanted. Why don't you go away!" the girl yelled at Jessie.
Jessie cut into the package with a knife moving some of the packing foam aside until she saw the vials containing the arbok venom. She smiled then turned to her partner James, "Lets' go." Both James and Meowth followed her away from the quintet they had just assaulted.
James looked back towards the trainers his eyes meet with the purple haired girl who had attended to him they both looked away from one another sorrowfully. "Jessie I don't like this why are we attacking trainers?" James whined, his voice indicated that he was not happy with Team Rocket's present more vicious attitude. "These people don't know what they are doing and we're beating the crap out of them."
"James," Jessie began, "if I want your opinion I'll give it to you."
*************
The rest of the day Jessie, James and Meowth searched for the last trainer. They had roughed up a couple of potential targets before letting them go because they were obviously not who they were looking for. Jessie was becoming steadily more angered as the day wore on without bearing fruit. James on the other hand simply wanted to flop down and rest. So far this was the hardest he had ever worked and it was supposed to be his vacation. Spying some grass near a small stream James sat down and began to wash the trail dust off his face. James sighed as he paused to look at Jessie whose face still showed grim determination even as she sat down to take a drink. James looked back across the stream only to see a brown haired boy getting some water. James' eyes went wide, "Jessie," he whispered as loudly as he could, "come here." Jessie looked back at James part wondering why he bothered her, part anger at him for giving her a command. Still she walked over to him, "what do you want James?"
"Look," he pointed to the boy, "I think I found target group beta."
Jessie thought the boy looked a bit young for 13 years old but at that age it was often hard to tell. As the boy left the stream's edge back towards his camp Jessie strode from the concealing bushes and began to cross the stream looking back to James she nodded 'let's go.' James got up and started into the water until he felt something tug at his pant leg. "Ya fergettin' something James?" Meowth said just before climbing up on James' shoulder, "Ya know how I hate to get wet." James and Meowth joined Jessie on the other bank.
"C'mon you two slowbros," Jessie hissed, "I don't want to lose him." All three walked up the trail until they came to the lone trainer's camp. They hid behind some conveniently placed bushes and watched to see if he had any other company with him. When Jessie was satisfied that he was alone she walked from behind the bushes with James and Meowth following closely.
The lone trainer was startled when he looked up to see three unfamiliar people wander into his camp, "Can I help you?" he asked perplexed.
"Are you delivering a package to Snowy City?" Jessie asked the boy.
"Yes," he said coldly as he eyed Jessie James and Meowth suspiciously.
"Well we're going to take it."
The boy frowned, "let me get it for you." Jessie became unnerved at the boy's cooperation he was up to something. "Here you go," the boy pulled a pistol from his backpack and pointed it at Jessie, "Get the Hell out of here!"
Jessie didn't flinch at the site of the boy with the gun perhaps she would have had he shown some kind of logical fighting stance and had the safety catch of the gun off. Instead he stood there not unlike an old cartoon character holding a gun with one outstretched arm and the other arm planted firmly at his side.
Jessie smiled and threw a pokéball at him, "go Arbok!" The pokéball hit him right in the hand holding the gun, "Ow!" he cried as unbeknownst to him Arbok materialized behind him. He pointed the gun at Jessie again and pulled the trigger but nothing happened. Realizing the safety was still on he fumbled with the catch trying to release it.
"Arbok wrap him." Jessie coolly ordered the pokémon who obeyed seizing the boy in its coils wrapping the outstretched arm holding the gun with its tail causing the boy to drop the gun. Jessie calmly walked over to where the gun lay she picked it up looked at it then calmly switched it from 'safe' mode to 'fire' mode.
"Children shouldn't play with guns, you're a perfect example of that." Jessie yawned, "You see kid you should not point a gun at something you are not willing, are not capable and are not ready to destroy. Otherwise your target may get really mad!" Jessie bared her teeth at the boy. "Now I believe we we're about to relieve you of a package where is it?" Jessie stuck the gun barrel right between the boy's eyes though her finger lingered on the trigger guard not the trigger itself.
The boy panicked, "It's in my backpack, take it, I don't care!" Tears formed in his eyes.
"You'd better not be lying to us or..." Jessie took her finger off the trigger guard and slipped it in-between the trigger and trigger guard.
"I'm not lying, honest, I swear!" he said between sobs.
"Check it, James, Meowth."
Both did so and quickly found the package. Meowth cut into it with one of his claws, "Jessie this is it."
"Now isn't telling the truth better than lying," Jessie ejected the gun's magazine and emptied the chamber. The bullet fell to the ground where she picked it up and placed it back in the magazine. "Arbok release him." Arbok again did what it was told dropping the boy who was left breathing heavily on the ground in a crouching position.
Jessie walked away from the boy, "C'mon you two let's get going. The twerps aren't going to find themselves." James and Meowth followed casting glances back toward the boy until he was out of sight.
As the trio of Rockets made their way back towards the Meowth balloon Jessie was silent as she thought of the twerps. How they had beaten them every time, how they had destroyed countless master plans even the plans that were well thought out and logical. Merely a thunder shock from that pikachu or an attack from one of the twerps' other pokémon and they were sent blasting of again. Anger stirred in Jessie, not this time, she thought, this time Team Rocket will be victorious at any cost, she clenched her fist, and the twerps would be in for the shock of their lives if they persist in getting in her way.
The sun had set by the time they made it back to their balloon Jessie climbed in and put the package with the others then stuck the gun and its magazine in with her things. "There's nothing more we can do tonight. I'm going to go change and I don't want you two perverts following me."
"You're not even my species Jess," Meowth said putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes.
"That's why I don't want you following me as for James I only included him because I didn't want him to be lonely. I all ready know he won't follow." Jessie walked of to be by herself.
"You know Meowth one of these days I should follow her." James said dejected as he realized he had just been insulted again.
Meowth opened one eye towards James, "Are you kidding do you know how many Team Rocket members would lose their bets?"
END CHAPTER TWO