Ash, Misty, Brock, Jesse, and Meowth soon reached Growly's estate. The familiar barking was not heard, however, and the door was locked.

"Growly," Jesse coaxed at the door. "If you're in there, bark!"

The group listened for a while, then a few seconds later with no response, decided that maybe the pokemon had already broken out of his house. Ash started towards the main entrance door of the gigantic mansion.

Misty called out after him.

"What the hell are you doing, Ash? Are you going to ring the doorbell and politely ASK Jezebel for James back?"

Jesse began to walk around the side of the house, hoping to find some other door or partially open window on the first or basement floor. Meowth soon followed. The two youngest kids were still fighting over Ash's brainless attempt at manners. Mrs. Ketchum was standing outside of her car, arms folded nervously as she watched her son fighting the redhead in front of a potentially dangerous place. If they could kidnap an adult man, they could easily kidnap kids.

"Ash," she yelled. "Stop fighting there. That's a dangerous place to be. We should just go now."

"Sorry, Mom," the dark-haired boy replied. He headed in the direction that Brock had discovered Jesse had gone.
Soon an excited yip erupted from the east wing side of the mansion.

"Look, a propped open window!" Ash exclaimed.

James regained consciousness in the water. As he looked around stunned, he realized he was in a large vat of water. He was naked except for his little boxers that crumpled up in the cold water. Shivering, he pulled his boxers back into shape and glared at the figure before him.

"Jezebel, why am I here?" he demanded to know. The unconsciousness had caused him to temporarily forget.

The evil woman approached him closely.

"We are getting' married soon, but as of right now, ya'll are a terrible mess for any weddin'."

Jezebel came over to James and retched his broken arm behind his back. James screamed at the top of his lungs; nothing had ever hurt him so much.

As Jesse crept into the house with the long chain of followers, a loud scream was heard, echoing throughout the house.

"It's James!" she cried.

As Ash, Brock, and Misty poured into the house, the trembling woman turned to them and dipped her head low.

"I thank you for helping me, so dearly I do, but could you let me actually do the rescuing myself? Please…." She felt a little embarrassed and blushed at her request.

Ash stood still and crossed his arms. "Are you going to give us any--"

Misty cut the boy off with her fist as she dreamily murmured to the sky, "Awww, how sweet… Now, Ash, shut UP! Does it really matter? As long as she leaves Pikachu alone we'll know she carried out her end of the deal!"

The three kids and Pikachu hastily made their way back outside the mansion. Meowth began to follow her, but Jesse pointed at him with a yell.

"I meant you too, you mangy cat!" As he turned to leave, Jesse smiled selfishly. She then heard another scream from the basement.

"OWWWW! STOP DOING THAT! I HATE YOU, JEZEBEL!"

James kicked and flailed around in the tub as Jezebel tried to cuff his hands together.

"Ah… have… to wash you… James!" she stammered out during the battle.

Finally, James stopped slipping on the smooth tub bottom and stood up to attempt his escape from the slippery trap. As soon as he was up, he felt a draft where his boxers had been. He looked down, and while hearing the giggling from Jezebel, he realized what had happened, and pulled his soggy boxers back up from around his ankles.

James managed to sneak out of the tub while Jezebel was still giggling giddily and clutching her sides; however, as she saw his figure looming towards the door, she grabbed his boxers and forced him back toward her. The blue-haired man desperately needed to escape. Should he forget his modesty and make a run for it? He could run faster than she could in that dress….

Jezebel pulled him back as hard as she could, then wanted to make some fun of it and began to change that direction to a downward one. Knowing just what she wanted to do, James abandoned all his fears and let her pull them completely down. As she began to giggle once again, he ran towards the door, unlocked it, and hastily opened it to escape. Feeling the redness enter his face and neck with full force, he looked back once at the laughing lady and covered as much as he could to resist total inexplicable embarrassment, and realized she was after him again.

As he turned back around to face the direction he was running, a person standing in the way made him fall over. He fell down as the person fell on top of him. It was a woman! She was draped over him!

He immediately scooted away, on hands and knees, towards the bathroom door as the woman tried to get up. The poor guy, being as pitiful and vulnerable as he was, didn't even look into the face of the female. Instead, he kept backing up until he reached a throw rug and draped it over his body. His eyes were still cast to the floor, totally humiliated and sorry for startling the woman by running out so quickly and so immodestly.

Suddenly, a sharp kick from the back end sent him sprawling back on the floor, onto the mystery woman's feet. She was wearing boots, tall, thigh-high boots. Could it be?

The boots moved quickly towards who James knew had kicked him… Jezebel. The person up above spoke.

"Don't you get it? He hates you! He is not going to marry you! Arghhh!"

With a loud yell the women clashed, wrestling in the hallway. The kneeling, hunched over figure of James turned around to witness the fight. It was indeed Jesse! He couldn't believe the smile that spread across his face the second he realized that Jesse had come to save him! Arriving back at reality, James saw that Jezebel had her whip wrapped around Jesse's neck. She was strangling her!

Forgetting about his nudity, he leapt up and grabbed Jezebel around the neck as the throw rug fell off of his body. He wrenched her away from Jesse, who collapsed to the ground attempting to catch her breath. As the adrenaline pumped through his veins he picked up Jezebel and flung her body into the bathroom. He then closed and locked the door from the outside so as to hinder her greatly without killing her. He then grabbed his boxers from the edge of the doorway and put them back on as Jesse looked up at him from her place on the ground.

As he stood there, the vision of the handsome, muscular, scantily dressed man flooded into Jesse's eyes. She stood up as quickly as possible and walked up to him as he stood by the door, still panting heavily from the struggle. James was her man at that moment. She looked deeply into his jade eyes as he returned the gaze. Suddenly, James turned away. Tears filled his eyes as he stared downwards, turning back towards her.

"I'm so sorry for putting you through this, Jesse…" he murmured apologetically, waiting for a hit of agreement.

Instead of the usual slap from his partner, he was shocked to receive a warm passionate kiss on his lips. Soon he joined in with the sensual kissing and the new lovers were encased in an endless liplock… A beautiful moment until Jezebel broke out of the bathroom and ran directly at the embracing pair, an insane sneer on her face. A towel rack bar was in her hands, horizontal, intending to knock over both people standing in her way.

"James… Prepare for trouble!"

"Make that double!" James exclaimed.

Immediately, James whisked Jesse back from the impending danger and they stumbled backwards towards the balcony overlooking the main gym-room of the dungeon. It was an unexpected move for Jezebel; she kept running and stopped as soon as she had collided with an orange dog-like pokemon.

"Growly!" Jesse said happily. The poke-dog was too busy to wag a reply, for he was cornering Jezebel and growling menacingly at her.

"Puh-leez get this dog away from me! Why does it always hafta interfere with mah perfect plans?" She held both hands up defensively as Growly forced her to the wall.

As Jezebel screamed with no response, the door creaked open and a lustful Butch entered the hallway.

"Oh, there you are, baby!" he croaked excitedly as soon as he saw the southern belle. He ran over, picked Jezebel up, and threw her over his shoulder within an instant. As he walked away with Jezebel on his shoulder, it seemed to Jesse and James that she liked the treatment.

"Ohh, you're mah hero!" she sighed. "Ah hate that pokemon! But that rough treatment jus' now was purty nice; Ah neva had that kinda treatment before!"

All that the staring Team Rocket pair could see as Jezebel and Butch left was her putting her arms around his neck.

James looked back at Jesse, his long time secret love.

"I think they'll have a good life together," he joked to Jesse.

After a bit of forced laughter at their near-death situation, an awkward pause came. James was standing there before Jesse, clad only in small wet boxers. The silence was unbearable. Jesse filled it in.

"Uh… James… How do you feel about quitting Team Rocket?"

The smile from James answered before his mouth did.

"Yes…. It will be easy. They think that we are dead…."

Jesse was so happy that she gave him another kiss, more of a quick peck on the cheek. They held each other in a tight embrace. James blushed.

"You know what? I think we are dead, because I am in heaven right now…."

"And we can start our lives anew," Jesse added. "You and me. But we must take care of Giov--"

James interrupted her with a soft kiss. Jesse immediately stopped talking, followed his lead, and let herself lean against him, feeling the strength that he contained, never showing until now.

The two walked together hand in hand back to the window she had entered. Meowth met them outside the mansion, chuckling under his breath.

"Ya know, James," he started, "You really got to work on your pick-up lines."

Jesse's face flushed as the anger rose in her. "ARE… YOU SAYING... THAT YOU WERE DOWN THERE WITH US?"

The paper fan lingered above his head as the pokemon signaled a surrender.

"I'm just kiddin' guys, I wasn't down dere. I just guessed at what happened, dat's all."

He cringed, expecting the punishment, but Jesse dropped the fan and let it lay on the grass as the three walked back to the station wagon and Brock, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu.

Once there, Team Rocket thanked the group and insisted that they didn't need a ride. After the car sped away, Jesse, James, and Meowth glanced at each other, then at the gigantic mansion before them.

James turned to Jesse.

"Why don't we start off our new life by acquiring my inheritance, even if it's not all of it? Jezebel is now with Butch. I deserve that inheritance, for all the suffering I've had to put up with around here."

As he began to walk toward the door, an unexpected pull from Jesse held him back.

"What's wrong, Jesse?"

"James, we can make it fine on our own. Haven't we always done that?"

"And we'll never fight again! I hate fights!"

"I will try, James, but everyone must contribute to the well-being of our group. Now, let's go rent ourselves a hotel room!"

Jesse and James exchanged suggestive glances all the way. And Meowth felt an urge to rent a separate room.