4. Team Rocket travels.
After a lot of pain, complaining and arguments, Team Rocket finally got the balloon up in the air, complete with all three members and Pikachu, who was still inside his glass prison. This was an achievement in itself considering that the two human members of the Team were seriously hungover. James had a headache, which wasn't helped by the fact that his head had hit the floor that morning, and he was whining about everything being too loud. Jessie was very, VERY grouchy, and was yelling at both James and Meowth for no good reason. Meowth was simply tolerating it.
After a few minutes of travelling, when everyone had calmed down, their victory, in his prison, was trying to come up with an escape plan. He had given up trying to give his fellow pokémon filthy looks (he couldn't compete with Jessie!), so instead played on James' sympathy by looking completely and utterly dejected. It worked and James began pleading with Jessie.
"Oh, please can't we let him outta the box?" She ignored him. "He looks so upset! I just wanna pet him!"
"Do you also wanna get shocked?"
"Oh. I hadn't thought of that." That was the end of THAT idea. Pikachu turned to Meowth and addressed him, pokémon to pokémon.
"Pika." The cat decided to answer.
"WHAT?"
"Pika pi."
"I will NOT let you out!"
"Pikachu - chu. Kachu!"
"Well, I'm not in a box, so I wouldn't know what it feels like."
"Piiii -"
"Listen up, rat! It ain't gonna woik! I'm not gonna free ya so ya might as well give up!" With that, Meowth turned to see what his team members were talking about. Pikachu sat down and frowned.
"Chu!"
The other two were discussing how to make a good impression on the Boss.
"We could say the motto," suggested Jessie.
"He hates the motto." James cringed at the thought of Giovanni yelling at them.
"Hows about we just knock politely, hand over dat electric mouse, pick up our paycheques and get out?" said Meowth. The other two said in unison: "Brilliant!" Jessie was getting more and more eager: "He'll be so happy, we might even get a pay rise!"
"Or a promotion!" said James. Meowth closed his eyes dreamily and added:
"I'll be top cat again." Jessie and James kept on and on with more things they'd like.
"He'd have to be nice to us!" she said.
"Extra nice!"
"I could get my own personal stylist!" Not that she needs one, thought James.
"I could go to drama school just like I'd always wanted until my parents found that Jessiebell!" God I hate her!, thought Jessie.
"All the kitty chow I could eat!"
"We could have an early retirement, Jess."
"Why would we want to do that?" James was stumped for an answer to the question. He didn't know what to say. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
"I… don't know… but we could." There was an uncomfortable pause. Then Jessie noticed a familiar building and pointed to it.
"Rocket Headquarters! Take us down Meowth!" The cat pokémon began to manoeuvre the balloon. Just as he began their descent, it juddered and stayed at the same level. "What's wrong, why aren't we landing?"
"Da controls are stuck!"
"Well, UNSTICK THEM!"
"Dey won't budge!" Meowth was pushing and pulling with all his might to no avail. James started to panic.
"But if we can't land, where are we going to end up?"
"We could be drifting forever!" shouted Jessie.
"I don't wanna die up here!" said James as the two of them clung to each other and trembled. Meowth swiped them both with his claws.
"Calm down! All we need ta do is find a good open space, then we can let some air out of the balloon and drift slowly to Oith!" His team members let go of each other and Jessie patted his head very uncharacteristically.
"You're right. It probably won't take long to walk once we land."
"Walk!" whined James. "In that case I'm having a nap now…" He sat in the bottom of the basket and fell instantly asleep. Jessie sighed noisily.
The giant Meowth head drifted peacefully through the sky, it's two awake occupants looking for a place to land.