In the Cave – Jessie's Adventure
Things got a bit frantic not too long after we managed to wash up wet and tired on Ice Island. Sabrina was especially worn out and needed some time to rest. She really needed it –she teleported the boat from one side of Shamouti Island to the other and kept Team Rocket out of our hair. She let her guard, and ours, down here though. An attack helicopter searchlight pierced the night and swept over our stranded raft. A cry rose from the 'copter and the light moved shoreward toward us. We tried to scramble off the rocks into the thick trailing shrubby trees along the shore, but Janine got caught in the open. A bullet from a high powered rifle whined and ricocheted off the rocks. I grabbed the girl's wrist and yanked her hard into the shadows.
"Run for it!" Millie shouted.
In spite of my best efforts I lost track of the others as we pelted through the dense woods with its thorny vines and thick shrubs. My chest was burning when I finally stopped running and tried to figure out where I was. I bent over gasping and looked around in the dark smelling the heavy scent of moldering vegetation. "Sabrina! Millie! Janine! Where'd you get to?" I yelled forlornly.
"Damn!" I cursed to nobody. I stood up and put my hands on my hips and tossed my head. I was glad I had put my hair up now, I might have tripped over it if it had been down. "Nothing for it but to go uphill and scout my position," I said to myself.
The terrain was steep but I made pretty good progress. As I turned the corner of a thick trunk with stringy bark I looked into the yawning mouth of a cave just below the top of the hill. My curiosity got the better of me and I peered into the cave and noticed it had a flat, clean and dry floor. "Guess I'll stay here till morning," I sighed to myself. "The others will talk to Kanna and I'll find them later. What a klutz I am."
I awoke with a stiff neck and rolled over, "I swore I'd never do this again when I left Team Rocket," I groaned. I looked up and noted the cave had a skylight a ways further in. "Maybe I can climb up out of here over there," I thought.
I went around a corner in the wall and came face-to-face with an honest-to-God Articuno. It was taller than I and had a huge wingspan. I retreated quickly and tried to get my breathing and heart rate under control. I couldn't believe it, I had stumbled smack into the great bird's lair. I slumped to the cave floor with my back to the unyielding cave wall. "What the heck do I do now?" I asked myself. I scratched my head and thought for a minute, "Gotta check this out. The gals will want know about this place."
So I stood up and crept back around the corner toward the light streaming through the ceiling. In spite of my prior surprise I was not prepared for what greeted me. Instead of the raptorial blue ice bird a woman about my height, a little older than I, with violet hair was standing in the cave. I coughed and swallowed, "Um…Hi, you must be Kanna."
"Oh no, although my hair and face look a little like hers," she said in a warm voice.
"Well then…who? And where's the bird?" I demanded.
"You know my name. It is Musashi, Musashi Myiamoto. I am very pleased to see you again Musashi Jessica."
I was dumbstruck, it was hard to breathe for a minute. How could this be the woman I had heard so much about but could not remember? "This…can't…be…happening," I gasped.
"It has my dear. Let me try to explain," the woman who called herself my mother calmly offered.
"Be my guest," I murmured sizing her up. She was too young, of that I was certain.
"In a manner of speaking I died twenty-four years ago, but when Pokémon like Mew are involved death is not an end it is a beginning. I was buried by an avalanche covering my human form, but when I awoke and pushed my head through the snow and ice and shook them from my feathers I had become the legendary bird of the snows Articuno. I was doomed to wander the world rescuing souls from my own fate."
"But how…I mean how can you be standing here talking to me?"
"Legendary Pokémon know the transform move dear. I transformed into the form I had when I ceased being human," a tear formed at the corner of her eye, "I can't really be more than a replica of the woman who bore you my little Jess."
I sat down heavily on a stone. "This is a bit too much for me," I said shakily. I had imagined such a meeting for years, dreamed of it, but I had always come up against cold hard reality. Now my fantasy stood in flesh and blood speaking to me. "I want to know an awful lot mama, but answer this first. Was it you who rescued us in the mountains when that kid Snap was trying to get a picture of Articuno?"
"Yes it was," she answered. "It shocked me to see you in that uniform, but I did my duty…twice and plucked you and your comrades off that mountain."
"You know James and I have left Team Rocket and we're, um, lovers now," I mumbled. "But we plan on tying the knot, honest!" I added fearing her judgment.
"I suppose that is an improvement. Are you happy now?"
"Happy might be too strong a word but I do feel secure, loved and respected for the first time in my life. I apologize for not being the woman you were, you left a tough legacy to live up to," I said defensively.
"Oh? You wanted to disappear without a trace at a young age, failing to live up to your considerable potential – particularly as a mother?" she said disconsolately. "Jessie it is I who should apologize to you. I should never have let my work be so much more important than you. I lost all perspective because my boss admired and valued me so much."
I looked at her, she was much as I had imagined. Bright intelligent eyes, a soft lipped smiling mouth, a confident bearing. "What do you want? Why reveal this to me now?" I asked with a trace of petulance.
"This is not easy for me I can only hold this form for a short time Jessica. I don't know exactly why you are here, but I could sense it was important," she said.
"Okay – I'm here with some friends, one also is my boss, Sabrina Natsume of the Saffron Gym," I started.
"Mmmm? Any relation to Lucifer Natsume? He was an ominous and unnerving opponent."
"His daughter, we're here to ally ourselves with Lorelei Kanna to prevent Team Rocket from capturing the Legendary…well you and the other birds," I explained.
"I see," she looked pensive. "I will do what I can, but as you know Team Rocket plans their operations very carefully. I will be on my guard. Tell your friends what you must about me but be circumspect," she advised.
"I will mama," I said. With that I embraced her, "You feel real enough."
"In a way I am," she whispered, "I have waited years to speak to you this way. You have grown into a beautiful strong woman. I will visit you again in this form soon."
With that she said, "Grasp my shoulders!" She began to transform and I could feel the flex of her wishbone under my fingers as she flapped mighty wings and carried me aloft through the skylight.
She dropped me off in the forest not far from Kanna's cottage and I stumbled out of the forest as if from a fantastic fairytale blinking at the light of day.