Chapter 4: Cat and Mouse
Screams could be heard throughout the building. A few gunshots rang throughout the cold and polluted morning air of Amberton, waking the two lovers from their deep and happy sleep.
"Morning, beautiful. Did you sleep well?," asked James, kissing Jessie's forehead, thinking it was later in the morning and that they had woken up on their own. They were in disbelief of what had occurred the previous night and felt as complete as ever, content in their love for each other. Then another shot rang through the air.
"James? James, did you hear that?," asked Jessie, a worried expression upon her face.
"Yes, gunshots.....how strange..... And this early in the morning....hmmm....," responded James, thinking. "Maybe a fight broke out at the party?"
"I don't know. What time is it?," Jessie asked. She was still very tired and felt as if she only got one hour of sleep.
"It is around 3:45," said James after retrieving his watch from the pile of clothing next to the bed. They had only gotten an hour of sleep. This time, they heard screaming and something breaking in the room beneath them.
"James, we should go find Meowth. Something is not right."
"Yeah, let's get out of here," James agreed, throwing Jessie her clothes. They kissed and then dressed quickly, a skill they had acquired over the many years of speedy costume changes in Team Rocket. They then listened against the door to hear if anybody was coming. They heard nothing. They opened the door slightly and nearly screamed with surprise when a cream colored furball squeezed through.
"Meowth! Where have you been?," asked James.
"And what's going on?," Jessie asked.
"We need ta leave now. No time ta explain right now. Do youse two have all your pokemon wid youse?"
"Uh, yeah," answered a confused James.
"Meowth, what's happening? Who is shooting?," Jessie continued to interrogate him, as they were pushed out the door by Meowth.
"A traitor was discovered. The Elite are raiding da building, looking for him," Meowth finally answered, gulping and looking to his friends. "And we also need ta get youse two outta here as soon as possible," he finished, still leading his confused companions through the halls, and avoiding their further questions. "Stop! Shhhhh. Watch out, I tink somebody is coming dis way!" Meowth's acute hearing proved to be very useful in times like these.
They stopped and scurried into a corner in the shadows, so as not to be spotted by whoever was nearing. Jessie held onto James and he held her as well, like they used to do when scared. Meowth stood, ready to pounce, should anything happen. Two men and a woman stealthily ascended the staircase and into the hallway that Jessie, James, and Meowth occupied. They were well armed, well built, silent, agile, smart, and well-trained. Overall, they were the top of the top, the Elite, and ready to kill anyone who got in their way. These people had nothing to lose and had a thirst to take revenge on the good-doing world. They were almost ruthless. They were not ruthless like Team Rocket minions because they were more cunning and they knew when their actions would achieve what they wanted. In other words, they knew not to lash out without knowing the result of what their actions would be. The Minions acted before they thought, and the Elite carefully and speedily calculated everything out before they acted. They were well-trained to the tiniest thing. All of their senses were sharpened, even more so than the regular agents, like Jessie, James, and Meowth.
James and Jessie were now shaking and they could almost hear the adrenaline pumping through their brains. The hair on Meowth's back and tail stood on end as he watched the Elite members walk down the dark hallway. One of the men, the larger one with black hair, motioned for the others to search a nearby room, but they found nothing. The other Elite could still be heard raiding the lower stories of the building. Next, the three Elite moved into Jessie's and James' room, knocking down the door and storming inside. Jessie, James, and Meowth heard one of the men kick something and curse. They caught part of their conversation.
"They must have escaped. Damnit!," the woman said.
"They couldn't have gone far, though. There is no way they could have escaped, unless they are more crafty than previously believed," one man said.
"We must continue searching. The others are finding the 'traitor', so it is the perfect time to find them. The Boss will have a nice little reward for us, and I don't want to fail," the male who had kicked something and cursed said, glaring at his two colleagues. "Well! Let's move!," he yelled at them, and they scurried out to continue looking. They continued to walk down the hall, searching the rooms. Jessie and James wondered who the three Elites were searching for, but they knew in the back of their minds that they were the prey. They had searched all the rooms, but they had all been evacuated already. They headed towards the staircase, ready to search a different level of the building, because what they were searching for had not been found. The black-haired man let his partners walk to the staircase, while he stopped in the hallway, still not convinced that his 'prey' was hiding somewhere else.
When the fiercer of the two men with the black hair stood in the middle of the hallway, searching for clues, he looked in their direction, thinking. Jessie gasped very slightly to herself, holding in her breath from fear, hoping they wouldn't notice them. Too bad this little act did the opposite of what she hoped. The male who was facing them locked his eyes on the shadow concealing them, then smirked, ever so evilly. He got his colleagues' attention and motioned to the shadow.
Jessie had her hand over her mouth, not believing that she could be so stupid. She never did dumb things like this, and wondered what had made her slip. They had been to Hell and back, but never had she made a mistake so horrible. Meowth was as tense as ever, the complete opposite of his human comrades who were violently trembling and holding each other tight enough to cause bruises. Meowth felt he had a job to do by protecting his two friends and by getting them out of the building. That was one of the things he came back to do after all. He had already tried to protect the 'traitor', seeing him off through an alley. He feared he wouldn't make it to safety, though. So, for now, he had to focus on his best, and possibly only, friends. He didn't know what The Boss wanted them for, but he knew he could not let them be taken.
"Jess, whatever happens, I want you to know that I love you," James whispered into his love's ear. He knew that the Elite could hear him, but they had already discovered them, so there was no use in keeping quiet. James felt Jessie's body relax slightly, but still trembling, and she kissed him.
"I love you also, with all my heart, James," Jessie replied. James could not see her face very well in the dark, but knew that she had tears making little trails down her cheeks. They clung tighter to each other as their hunters approached and stopped just before the shadow.
"Hey, guys, I think I heard something," the woman cruelly and jokingly said to her team mates.
"I wonder where it could have come from," the smaller man said sarcastically.
"It couldn't have come from this shadow, now could it?," the bigger man said, staring mockingly into the shadow, looking to Jessie and James. He couldn't see them, but he knew they were there, right where he was looking. He smiled. His team members suddenly pointed and cocked their guns at the shadow, level with Jessie's and James' heads. They closed their eyes and held each other, waiting for the inevitable. Suddenly, Jessie felt a man's strong and painful grip yank her so she screamed and James could feel her being ripped from his tight grasp.
"Jessie!"
"James!" The larger man holding her with a gun to her temple released her and backhanded her, making her hit the wall and slide to the floor in shock.
"Quiet, wench!," he spat at her. Pulling her up by her hair, making her scream again, he replaced the gun to her temple.
"Jessie! Don't you dare lay a hand on her again, you bastard!," James yelled, wanting nothing more than to punch that man and get his Jessie back, but the other two Elite's guns pointed at him made him rethink. Instead, James looked into Jessie's eyes. The blue spheres held silent tears and seemed to tell James that she loved him.
"Better watch your tongue! 'Accidents' happen quite often with firearms, you know. Wouldn't want any unfortunate things happening that would affect my ability to work, now would we?," the woman said, with a smirk across her face. James stared coldly at her, trying to hide the helpless feeling he felt. Meowth waited, still unnoticed, for the right time to attack. He would only attack if things got out of hand and his friends desperately needed him, because he could not risk being found out by the Elites. He had to stay hidden because somebody had to be able to protect his friends if they were taken out.
"What do you want with us?," James asked as calmly as he could muster, his eyes now locked on Jessie. She was writhing under the man's forceful grip on her wrists and the cold gun against her temple gave her a feeling of fear she never knew to be possible. She felt numb and only her brain seemed to be working, and she was frustrated because her body wouldn't move to her mind's requests. She felt weak and helpless, feelings she hated because she liked to feel she had control over her life.
"We don't want anything with you two. But someone does and will be most disappointed if we do not carry through with our job, so if you don't mind, we'll be leaving now," said the smaller man, the others prepared to leave with Jessie who was struggling to get free, but the black-haired man was too strong.
"Let her go!," ordered James. He had stepped completely out of the shadows so the Elite could see him. He had his fists clenched and a determined look on his face. He couldn't allow his Jess to get taken by these people. He had no idea what they were taking her for or for what purposes, but he knew they weren't good.
"Don't meddle in things that are way over your head and out of your control, boy," the woman said, her gun pointed at his head. "I told you before and I won't tell you again to not interfere with our business."
James lunged at the cruel woman, screaming, despite his warning from her.
"Why you son of a bitch! You don't listen do you?!," the smaller man said, slightly entertained, when James tackled the woman to the ground, punching her face. James usually held strong beliefs against hitting women, but this was no woman. This was a horrible person who was taking his love away from him. That was all he had left, his love for Jessie. He was afraid when he admitted his love to Jessie because that gave him something to lose, and he had never had anything or anyone to lose before in his life. He was not going to let them take the only person that mattered to him. Suddenly, James heard Jessie scream his name and he felt a white hot pain in his leg. The woman he was attacking got up and kicked him hard in the ribs as while he was disabled by the pain in his leg.
"I should kill you now. But that was not one of His orders," the woman sneered at James, who was holding his leg in pain. The smaller man had shot him, he figured.
"James! James! Don't let them take me! Please James!," Jessie yelled as the man holding her began to carry her away. When James heard this, he stood up, despite the pain, and in a blind rage, tried to take them on. But he was outnumbered and had no weapons. He knew they would take his pokemon if he brought them out, and figured that Jessie had thought the same, so he continued to swing at them, knocking them over. They beat him down, though, his pain increasing each second. With his last efforts, he knocked down the man holding Jessie and she rolled from his grasp a few feet. James tried to strangle the man, pinning him down, when he looked up to see Jessie with the man's gun. It must have fallen from him when I knocked him over, James figured. James also noticed that the two other Elite's were busy fighting something else behind him, by the sounds of it. James continued to pin down and strangle the man, giving him a look of hatred for touching Jessie. James felt a new strength in his body, which gave him the ability to take on this man who was much bigger than he was. It was the kind of strength heard of when a mother sees her child trapped under a car, and finds the power to lift the vehicle. Adrenaline had its advantages.
Jessie had now crept up, the gun pointed for the Elite's head. She cocked the gun and hesitated, for she had never taken a life before, and was thinking of the consequences. James nodded reassuringly to Jessie to shoot the man, then saw the man smirk very slightly in a "don't be so sure you'll win" kind of way as he looked over James' shoulder.
A gun went off and Jessie screamed, then dropped to the floor. The gun she was holding slid across the floor, out of her grip. Blood formed a small puddle around her torso and the larger man laughed. "Jessie......," James whispered. He howled and punched the man, but was punched even harder back. He punched, kicked, and tackled the man, who was now standing over James, only to be hit with twice as much force as he was using. Darkness began to engulf him and he tried to fight it, but was loosing.
"Jessie......no......." James' agony ripped his mind apart at seeing his lifeless partner. Thoughts and memories flooded through his mind of the times they shared together and of the previous night. Everything was happening so fast: James telling Jessie he loves her, the party, the previous night, and now this. Everything was crashing down on him, including his consciousness. Memories and thoughts of hope and longing pushed him up, though. Trying desperately to get back up to Jessie, he was knocked down again after the woman continued to repeatedly kick him for attacking her. The last thing he saw before darkness overcame him was Meowth lunge at the Elites carrying Jessie away and a picture of her in his mind.
Meowth couldn't stand it anymore. He tried to let Jessie and James fight them off on their own, for fear of being discovered as an aid to the 'traitor', but it came to the point where he couldn't stand it anymore. He had first lunged for the Elite who had shot James, then woman came to assist the male and Meowth attacked her also. He scratched and clawed with all the skill he possessed, causing the two Elite to recoil back at him. They hit him and kicked him, sending him flying a few times against the wall. Through his beatings, Meowth saw the woman notice the black-haired man being strangled. She stepped away from helping get rid of Meowth, raised her gun, and shot out to kill James, but hit Jessie instead because Meowth had scratched her in an attempt to save his friends. He lunged for the woman again, seeing his friend drop to the floor. She pulled him off her face and threw him, causing him to land near the smaller man. That man received nasty cuts and gashes from Meowth as he lunged for him, but Meowth was too small and couldn't cause enough damage. The man grabbed Meowth and swung his head into the wall, instantly making him pass out.
"Come on, we are done here, and He will be pleased," the larger man said. Jessie's body was slung over his shoulder, bloodying it, but he was used to worse things. The other two smirked at James' and Meowth's bodies that lay on the floor of the dark hallway before following the skilled black-haired Elite down the stairs with their prize.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I was originally planning on combining this with the last chapter, but decided against it, and that is why it is kinda short. Reviews always welcome, please!