Chapter 4 ~ Titanic?
An explosion from the front of the ship rocked the ground and sent everyone falling to the floor.
"Ruined!" thought Jessie, "Our perfect moment: ruined! And we were so close, so close!" She was almost sure James was thinking the same thing, but she didn't dare mention it. Instead, she exclaimed, "What was that?"
"I don't know," replied James, rubbing his head, "It felt like some kind of explosion from the direction of the front of the ship."
The words 'front of the ship' rung a bell in Jessie's mind. Her eyes lit up. "Quick James, what time is it?"
"Uh 10:02, why?"
"I knew it! Remember what the Boss said?"
"About what?"
"About the front of the ship and ten o'clock!"
"When?"
"When we were talking to him here before!"
A dim light bulb in James's mind brightened, "Toilets!"
"WHAT?"
"Oh, um, I mean… what were we talking about?"
"The BOSS and the FRONT of the SHIP!"
"Oh yeah! About not being near that front of the ship at ten!" James was confused. "But how could he have known that someone put an explosive there?"
Jessie groaned, "James, HE planted the bomb or whatever it was!"
"Ohhhhh! I understand!"
"Slow…" Jessie murmured under her breath.
"What was that Jess?"
"Um… I said let's go!"
"Where?"
"Up to the deck."
"Why?"
Jessie sighed. "Stop asking questions, just come."
Following the hallways and climbing the stairs, Jessie and James gradually made their way to the boat deck. When they got there, Jessie cried, "Oh my gosh."
The entire bow of the ship was submerged under water and the deck was already at a tilt. Crew members were handing out life preservers and everyone was milling about in a general panic. It looked a lot like a movie scene. An awful lot like a movie scene, in fact. But what movie…? Suddenly James got it: Titanic. He looked over at Jessie. She didn't seem to notice the resemblance.
"This could be fun…" thought James.
"What's going on here?" Jessie asked, glancing at James. He put on his best worried face.
"The ship is sinking and there aren't enough boats," James explained, "Half the people on this ship are going to die."
Confused, Jessie asked, "What?"
James didn't answer, he just pushed Jessie towards a lifeboat that was quickly filling up. "Get in the boat Jess."
"But James-"
"Go! I've got my own boat to catch."
As Jessie sat down in the lifeboat, she looked at James, still on the St. Stephen. Something was vaguely familiar about what James was saying. Something about the whole atmosphere, actually. It was just like… something clicked in Jessie's head. Titanic. Boy was she going to get James for this. She rose to get out of the boat, but it had already started to lower. Looking up at James who was watching her from the boat deck, she grinned. As the lifeboat passed the second floor of a ship, she noticed an open window. On impulse, she jumped through it. Behind her, she heard screams and, from above, cries of "Jessie!" She began to run towards the stairs.
"Jessie!" James called again. Turning from the deck rail he ran towards the stairs. While he ran, he wondered, "Does Jessie actually like me and escape from the boat because she didn't want to leave me and escape from the boat because she didn't want to leave me? Maybe she caught onto the Titanic thing and was just acting with the movie. Or maybe-" His thoughts were cut off when he ran right into Jessie at the foot of the stairs.
"Ouch!" James screeched, rubbing his nose. Then, remembering, he cleared his throat and grabbed Jessie's hands. "Why did you do that, why?"
Jessie smiled and tried not to laugh. "You jump, I jump, right?"
"Right."
"Oh God. I couldn't go. I couldn't go James." She said, hugging him.
Before they could recite anything else, the ship groaned and lurched.
"Come on," instructed Jessie, "We have to get back to the deck."
After climbing the staircase and emerging on the deck, James discovered something and reported it to Jessie.
"What do you mean there are no lifeboats left?!" she cried.
"Exactly what I said. There are no lifeboats."
"What are we supposed to do now?"
James thought for a moment. "I have an idea." He grabbed Jessie's hand and pulled her towards the stern of the ship. Climbing was a struggle since the deck was at a large tilt. Maybe even 45 degrees. Reaching the end of the boat, they grabbed onto the white rail encircling the ship.
Looking over at the deep blue sea far below, James swallowed hard. Then, he noticed a single lifeboat filled completely with Pokémon and only one man.
"Hey, isn't that the Boss?" James pondered.
Jessie squinted her eyes in the direction of the strange boat. "Yeah! And he has all those rare Pokémon! That's probably why he bombed the ship! To distract everyone so he could steal all the Pokémon! I'm a genius!" She attempted to strike a powerful pose while still gripping the boat rail.
"Wow! How'd you figure that out so fast?"
"Elementary, my dear James."
James was puzzled.
Jessie ignored this and continued, "And James?"
"What?"
"Uh, wouldn't it be much easier on the writer if we just jumped off this floating hunk of metal instead of hanging here and completely reenacting the last hour of Titanic?"
"Yes, I guess it would." He suddenly looked alarmed. "Wait! We cant!"
"Why not?"
"The fall alone will kill you, remember?"
Jessie sighed. "You know, this isn't the Titanic, James. It's the St. Stephen. We aren't going to die. This ship is, like, less than half the size of the Titanic."
"But-"
"However, James, we will drown if we're weighed down by all these clothes."
James raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes. "What are you implying?"
"Well, I would suggest we remove our extraneous clothing so we can swim," Jessie replied, adding an emphasis to "extraneous"!
"Oh," James said with a slight tone of disappointment in his voice.
They both pulled themselves over the railing and precariously perched on the other side. Jessie kicked her shows into the water. She pulled off her gloves and stockings, and dropped them into the water as well. Finally, she slipped her dress off, pulling it over her head.
"Jessie?" James asked, "Why are you wearing your uniform?"
Under Jessie's dress was her tight, white Team Rocket skirt and her short black tank top. She was, however, not wearing the white jacket.
Jessie examined her outfit and replied, "We were in a hurry getting ready. I figured it would be easier just to keep this on. The jacket would've stock out though." Then she looked over at James. "Why are you still dressed?"
"Oh, uh…" James mumbled. He had been watching her instead if changing. She looked so graceful when she got dressed or undressed. Her moves were so smooth, so fluent. He always watched her when she changed into one of the many costumes they wore. It had become a habit by now. But could he tell her any of this? No. He finally came up with the lame excuse: "I was thinking."
"That could be dangerous for someone of your mental capacity, James. Now move!"
James quickly ripped off his shows, socks, jacket, shirt, and pants. Jessie noticed something strange.
"James, please help me to understand this. I at least have a reason to be wearing my uniform, but why, for the love of God, are you wearing a swimsuit?"
James looked down and blushed. Then a startled expression appeared on his face. "God, if I'm wearing my swimsuit now, what did I wear to the pool last night?"
Jessie had to literally bite her lip to keep herself from bursting out laughing. "James, it's okay," she comforted, "Now come one. We have to jump."
Eyeing the deep blue water far below, James got worried. "Are you sure this is going to work?'
"Of course I'm sure." Thinking quickly, she added, "We're gonna make it James, trust me."
"I trust you!" James yelled, over-dramatically. "And I thought we were forgetting the whole Titanic thing."
"We are, I just… I mean … oh forget it. Come on." Jessie balanced herself on the thin metal bars. She grabbed James' hand. "One…"
"Two…" James nervously added.
"Three!" Jessie cried. She bent her knees and prepared to jump.
"Wait!" James yelled, "I thought we were going to ten!"
"No, James. Three."
"Oh, okay. One…"
"Two…"
There was a silence. Jessie sighed. "Say three James."
"Oh! Fine," he whispered, "three."
Letting go of James' hand, Jessie reached behind James and gave him a push. His balance was thrown off and he fell towards the water. "AAAAHHH!" he screamed flapping his arms wildly. Jessie stood on the bars laughing. James hit the water with a huge splash and went under. He came up, coughing and sputtering.
"That wasn't fair Jessie!" he screamed.
Jessie just laughed again and steadied herself on the edge of the rail, She bent her knees and jumped. In her jump, she did a flip, then a twist, and finally assumed a dive position. She broke the surface with barely a splash. Surfacing, she took a big breath and looked at James. He was staring at her.
"What was that?!" he cried.
Jessie grinned. "A front one-and-one-half with a full twist."
James blinked. "A what?"
"It's a kind of dive."
"When did you learn to do that?"
"Back when we were in Pokémon Tech," Jessie replied, shuddering at the school's name, "One of the electives I chose was diving. I didn't really learn much before we were expelled, but diving was a pretty straight forward class."
"Oh. I took ballet."
Jessie snickered, "Ballet?" What did you learn there?"
"Plenty," James defended, "I can show you a soute, pas de barre routine we learned when we get out of this water."
"Speaking of getting out of this water, we should start swimming. Do you have any idea where we are?"
James looked around. "Nothing but water in every direction and no way to tell which direction to go."
"Hey! You got that from episode 17, 'Pokémon Shipwreck'!" cried Jessie.
"Well I didn't say it then, the twerp did, so I'm not reusing my lines."
Jessie sighed. "Well, let's just swim to the left then."
"No!" yelled James, "Right! Right is the right direction to go if we want to be right. Wait…" James was really confused.
"James, let's just go straight."
"Fine." James was too mixed up to argue.
They swam off, not having any idea where they were headed.
"Moon crystal power!" Serena cried as she held up her compact and began to transform into Sailor Moon.
Serena's cry was soon followed by, "Mercury star power!"
"Mars star power!"
"Jupiter star power!"
and "Venus star power!" as the other scouts transformed. More "creeps" from the Negaverse had confronted the scouts. There was no choice except to beat them.
After the scouts had transformed, they ran to the Negabeast.
"Hey, Nega-creep!" Sailor Moon called out, "You'll never beat us. I'm Sailor Moon, champion of justice. I will right wrongs and triumph over evil – and that means you."
"You Sailor brats are no match for me and dark powers!" responded the Nega-enemy.
"Oh yeah? Just watch us!" Sailor Jupiter replied.
"Mercury bubble blast!" yelled Sailor Mercury, firing her bubble attack. The Nega-villain dodged the attack.
"Try and match this!" called the villain. A brilliant purple light shot from its finger. It hit all of the Sailor Scouts and they fell to the ground. "Hahaha!"
Sailor Venus held her head. "I feel so drained."
"Me too," replied Sailor Mars.
"The Nega-monster cackled, "I have drained you all of your energy and your powers! What will you do against me now? Nothing! Hahaha!"
"I know!" Jupiter cried weakly, "Let's use our Pokémon!"
"Yeah!" the other scouts agreed.
"What?" asked the Nega-confused thing, "What's a Pokémon?"
"Where have you been?" asked Sailor Moon, "Like, under a rock or something?"
"Pokémon is the new "hot fad." informed Sailor Mars.
"We just had to join in and try to 'catch 'em all'!" laughed Sailor Mercury.
Sailor Venus worried, "I hope it doesn't become more popular than
Sailor V!"
"Anyway," Jupiter took a red and white Pokéball off of her belt, "Go Raichu!"
A large brown and yellow mouse appeared and yelled, "Rai!"
Mercury grabbed her Pokéball. "Squirtle, I choose you!"
"Squirtle!" cried the tiny turtle.
"Vulpix, go!" called Mars.
Her six-tailed fox said, "Vullll!"
"I choose Jynx!" Venus added.
Jynx, the "human shape Pokémon," sang, "Jynx, Jynx!"
"And I choose Eevee!" concluded Sailor Moon, "Go!"
"Vee!" cried the small fox-like thing.
"What's that?" asked the Nega-bully, "A stuffed animal?"
Sailor Moon was angry. "A stuffed animal? We'll show that Nega-creep! Come on scouts!"
"Raichu, thunder!"
"Squirtle, water gun!"
"Vulpix, flame thrower!"
"Jynx, lovely kiss!"
"Eevee, quick attack!"
All the Pokémon combined their attacks and hit the Nega-enemy.
"What? This can't be!" the villain screamed as it flew into the sky and disappeared with a "ding!"
The scouts all hugged their Pokémon. "Thanks, guys!" they said, "We never could've done this with you!"
