Team Rocket has been trying to capture (steal) Ash Ketchem's Pikachu for quite a while now. Jessie, James and Meowth, who have failed to capture Pikachu many times, have been reassigned to a new project. Two other Team Rocket members have been assigned to work with the trio on this new project, Erika and Akira. However, the relationship between the newly formed "team" is a bit uneasy...
Jessie and James were standing around in the computer room waiting for something to happen. The computer room was about nine feet-by-nine feet large. It had a door leading to the building's main hall. The rest of the wall on that side was taken up by a huge computer. On one of the walls at a right angle to the computer and door wall, were lots of shelves. The other two walls were blank.
Sitting in a corner of the room sat a teenage boy, Akira. He had his hair separated into six dread-locks. They were colored like a rainbow; the dread-lock on the left side of his face was red, proceeding to the one the on his right, which was purple. He was listening to a CD on a portable radio (with headphones on), while watching his Smeargle paint. The smeargle was painting a picture of the Akira's ninetales, who was sitting elegantly posed.
Erika, who looked like she was some-where in her late teens- to early twenties, was examining bits of information on one of the computer's smaller screens.
"So you two failed at capturing Pikachu," said Erika, pushing her purple ponytail back.
"Yes, well I'd like see you try!" exclaimed Jessie.
"Yeah, that Pikachu is an expert on escaping," said James.
"Actually I have tried to capture Pikachu." said Erika.
"And you must have failed, didn't you! If you had caught it, then we would've heard of it!" said Jessie, triumphantly.
Erika scowled, "Listen, just because I didn't manage to capture Pikachu, still doesn't lower me to your level of failure. After all I only tried once, and you guys tried how many times?"
"Countless," moaned James, "We tried and tried, using brilliant plans, but they all failed!"
"Hah! Brilliant, you say! Well I am a technical genius, and I've been set in charge of the machines and computers that are in this project. With me modifying them, we'll have this mission accomplished in no time! And then Giovanni will have to see my brilliance. Once I've aced this mission, I'll be sure to be promoted. In no time at all, I'll be on the top of computer ranks!" said Erika, in an almost awe filled voice.
"Top of the junk heap is more like it," said Meowth.
"What did you say!" exclaimed Erika, shoving her face in front of Meowth's face.
"Waah! Hey take it easy!" shouted Meowth.
"What-did-you-say" growled Erika.
"Uh... I said top of the heap! You'll be winning in no time!" said Meowth.
"That's not what you said, but I guess I'll let you get away with having changed it," said Erika.
"Oh yeah? Well how about getting away from this?" said Meowth, swiping his claws across Erika's face.
"Ow!" Erika exclaimed in rage, "How DARE you!" She threw him into the air.
"Waaaah!" exclaimed Meowth, as he flew across the room. He went flying into Smeargle, knocking him into his painting. The painting crashed to the floor, right in front of the Ninetales face. Ninetales cried out, and reared up in surprise. Ninetales stood up, put her head back and let out a flamethrower attack. The fire narrowly missed Akira, who had noticed what was going on, and jumped out of the way just in time.
Akira stopped the CD, jerked the headphones off, and shouted, "Celestial calm down! It's all right!" Celestial, the Ninetales, looked at him.
"It's all right Celestial, that's it, just calm down." he said soothingly, stroking the Ninetales' head and neck. She rubbed her head against his chest.
"Ohhh..." groaned a rather crispy looking Meowth, as he struggled to stand up.
The Smeargle leapt up and picked up his picture. He examined it carefully. It looked all right, the paint on the Ninetales wasn't smudged. The surrounding grass was smeared a little, but it actually had an interesting effect. Smeargle put the painting back on the easel. He then looked at Meowth, and whacked the Pokemon with his tail, leaving a streak of green paint across Meowth's eyes.
"Hey, What did you that for!" said Meowth, trying to wipe the paint off. He only managed to smear it further on his face and get some on his paw as well.
"Smeargle!" said the Smeargle.
"How's the painting, Exquisite?" asked Akira, looking at the painting.
"Smeargle." said Exquisite, the Smeargle, relaxing.
"Good, it's alright." Akira then turned to glare at the Meowth, "What's the big idea? Jumping into my Pokemon, and bothering them like that?!"
"Hey don't blame me!" cried Meowth, "I'm the one who got thrown! If you want to get mad at someone, that Erika over there is the one who threw me!"
Akira turned and scowling at Erika, said, "Why the heck did you throw Meowth at Exquisite?"
"Sorry Akira," said Erika, dryly, "I wasn't throwing it at your Pokemon. Your Pokemon happened to be where I was throwing it."
"Why were you throwing it in the first place?" asked Akira, a bit less angry.
"Because the wretched thing scratched me!" she exclaimed.
Akira raised his eyebrows, "so you threw the Pokemon because it scratched you. I always thought that good trainers didn't let their Pokemon out of control."
"Hey, it's not my Pokemon! Besides, you should talk! Just look at how your Ninetales reacted! One little scare and it started blowing fire. That's not exactly keeping your Pokemon under control is it?" said Erika.
Akira growled and said, "At least she listened to me! And you know she's been out of her poke-ball for the last hour. A lot of Pokemon tend to get rest-less if they're out of their Poke-ball with no exercise for any length of time. And Some Pokemon aren't even used to being out-side of their ball unless they're fighting!"
"Really, well your Pokemon are out of their balls quite frequently, so most of that shouldn't apply," said Erika.
Jessie and James looked at each other. James said, "They fight almost as much as we do."
"Really." said Jessie.
Akira scowled at Erika a moment longer, and then relaxed his stance. "So what's the deal with this computer, anyway?"
Erika answered, "Didn't you read the assignment papers?"
Akira replied, "I read them, but all they said was that we'd be using this super computer to capture Pokemon. It didn't explain how we're supposed to do that."
"Apparently you haven't been following Team Rocket's news very closely. Some of Giovanni's top computer mechanics noticed that their computers were picking up strange signals. After doing a bit of experimenting they realized that they were actually getting signals from what appeared to be other worlds."
Akira, deciding that Erika's explanation was going to take while, sat back down on his chair.
"They decided to take their experiments to a new level. And within the past two weeks, they've made a brake through! They can now send probes into other worlds. They have even figured out most of the calculations that they need in order to send people through. However, they have decided that rather then send people through, when it has not yet been determined how safe the procedure is, we will first pull others into this world. So our job is to use this magnificent machine to search out and capture rare and valuable Pokemon from other worlds!" Erika finished her explanation, and gazed in rapture at the computer. As she gazed at it, she noticed that Meowth was lounging on the computer.
"Hey, get OFF!" shouted Erika. Meowth, startled, leapt to his feet, landing on some of the buttons. Erika grabbed him, and threw him off of the controls. She then started typing furiously. Meowth plopped onto the floor, while the others stared at Erika and the computer.
Suddenly five small odd-looking robots (They looked sort of like five-inch wide spherical cameras in metal casing.), that were lined up on a shelf, started humming. They then rose into the air and vanished.
Meowth stood up, shook him-self and then watched along with the others, as Erika typed.
Finally Erika sighed, "Good, nothing major was done. Meowth activated some of the probes, sending them into another world. Other then that, all he did was confuse the computer about what we wanted it to do. I've managed to straiten it out. Now since we already have some probes in another world, we might as well start looking for Pokemon."
Computer, Erika typed to the computer, activate the video link with probes, numbers one through five.
Suddenly the big, five-foot, screen on the computer lit up. It first turned blue, then changed and showed a picture of a densely wooded forest, with both coniferous and deciduous trees.
"Now that's what I call a big screen TV!" said Meowth.
The screen then split into four main sections, with a smaller fifth section in the middle, each showing the forest from a different point of view.
Computer, typed Erika, put probe number five's viewing data on screen number two.
The computer had the large screen, along with four smaller screens, (thus it had two on each side of it); it transferred the smaller visual window on the large screen, to the smaller, more ordinary sized screen (about fifteen inches) that was on the bottom right. The large screen was then split evenly between probes' one through four.
"Don't they normally name such a big computer like this?" asked James.
"Name?" said Erika, "Sometimes they do. Usually it's either the people who created it who name it. But I haven't heard of this one having a name."
"Then what should we call it?" asked James.
"I know!" exclaimed Meowth, "We should call it The Meowth Explorer!"
"Why, is it going to explore you?" asked Jessie, "I think we should call it `The Ultimate Pokemon Capturer'!"
"We don't even know how well this is going to work." pointed out Akira.
"Don't worry about it, we'll figure out a good name!" said Meowth.
"That wasn't quite what I meant." muttered Akira.
"I, for one, don't think that naming this computer is the most important thing for us to figure out right now," said Erika, "We're in the middle of a job right now."
"How about Rocket!" said James.
Erika sighed, "I think that naming the computer can wait until we've finished this mission."
Computer, typed Erika, with the message appearing on the bottom left screen, have probes' one through five proceed on-ward, recording visual records.
The probes started moving through the woods, heading in a similar direction. Erika looked at the others.
"There are five probes in the other world and five of us, so if anyone wishes to, they may take manual controls on the probes. Just don't touch the key-board, or any of the other controls, unless I tell you to."
Erika worked with probe number one, Jessie took probe number two, James took probe number three, and Meowth chose probe number five.
As the probes proceed through the woods they spot a few bird type Pokemon. They also spot a few Pokemon that look similar to sentret and furret Pokemon, only smaller.
Suddenly there was a loud barking noise. Everybody jumped, and then Erika said, "Well, I guess the audio transmissions are working fine."
The barking noise came again. "What kind of Pokemon do you suppose that is?" asked James.
"I don't know," replied Jessie, "But there's one way to find out. Let's send the probes towards the sound."
The probes went through the woods, following the noise. Finally they reached a clearing with a house in it. Standing in the grassy part of the clearing, barking loudly, was a black Pokemon, that somewhat resembled a houndoom. Only this Pokemon was not a houndoom.
"What is that?" asked James.
"I don't know, but it's obviously some kind of Pokemon, and since we've never seen that kind before, it must be really rare and valuable." said Jessie.
"I've never seen any of those kinds of Pokemon," said Akira, "But that one does look a bit stronger."
"Indeed..." said Erika thoughtfully. Suddenly a door, in the side of the house (where else would a door be?), opened and a girl came out of the door, carrying a light blue leash. The girl had long brown hair, and looked like she was somewhere in her teens.
"Shadow! Come on, you wanna go for a walk?" called the girl. "Shadow", the black Pokemon, barked joyfully and ran up to the girl. She laughed, "All right, take it easy, let me get this on you."
The girl put the leash on Shadow and they walked down the driveway, towards the road.
Erika spoke up, "Shadow, huh? I wonder. That's probably a nickname. It sure doesn't sound like the name of a kind of Pokemon."
Being careful to keep the probes out of sight, Team Rocket followed Shadow and the girl. They walked down a hill, to a small stream, and then turned around and headed back up the hill. When they got back in the yard, the girl took the leash off of Shadow. He barked, and ran towards a very squashed looking plastic milk jug. Shadow grabbed the milk jug in his mouth, and ran back to the girl.
She grinned and grabbed at him, but he dodged away. He then took off, across the lawn. The girl ran after him, but she was not anywhere near as fast as Shadow. He ran around the yard, easily reaching fast speeds. He bounded over the ground; his back arching and stretching in an almost spring like motion. He was a very handsome Pokemon, with Amber brown eyes. He was mostly black, except for white fur on his chin, a white patch of fur on his chest and white fur on some of his toes. In fact the only thing not all that impressive, graceful, or beautiful about him was the crumpled milk jug that he was carrying.
"Wow, he sure is fast," said James.
"Really. I'll bet he could win a lot races," said Jessie.
"I wonder how powerful he is?" speculated Erika.
Akira just stared at the Pokemon. He's so graceful, and yet playful. He's amazing. His speed is incredible, normally you only see Ponyta run that fast. Akira walked up the computer's main screen and placed his hands on the computer's counter (i.e. a section that didn't have any buttons or controls), and watched the intriguing Shadow.
Shadow would let the girl get just within arm's reach, some-times even letting her touch him, before streaking away. Soon the girl stopped running after him, and just walked up to him, getting close enough to send him off again. The bond between those two is obvious, even without my knowing them, thought Akira.
"That's one agile Pokemon," said Meowth, "let's get it!" Meowth let go of the probe controls, and walked over to the main controls.
"Let's see now..." Meowth said, under his breath, as he looked at the controls. He then started pressing buttons rapidly.
Erika noticed what Meowth was doing and shouted in alarm, "Wait! This thing still hasn't been tested, and you don't even know how to work it!"
Akira looked at Meowth in surprise. Jessie and James watched Meowth, wonderingly.
"Uh... Meowth, do you have any idea of what you're doing?" asked Jessie.
"Sure I do, I'm gettin us another Pokemon!" said Meowth.
Erika scowled and was just about to lunge at Meowth, when suddenly the computer screen on the bottom left turned on. A message appeared on it:
Pokemon capture sequence activated.Specific Pokemon target, unidentifiable Pokemon kind, designated "Shadow".
Method of capture: Probes surround target and warp Pokemon to main computer room.
"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Erika. "It actually looks like you successfully activated it!"
"Of course I did!" said Meowth, "How could a genius like me not be able to?"
"But do you think that it's worth it?" asked Akira.
"Huh? What's worth what?" asked James.
"Do you guys think it's worth it, to take the Pokemon away from the girl when they seem so happy together. They seem to belong together. I get the feeling that they'd be very upset if they were separated." explained Akira.
"Oh don't be so wishy washy!" said Meowth.
"Really, Akira, get with the program. The whole point of Team Rocket is to get powerful by using Pokemon, including stealing them." said Erika. Akira frowned.
"Look!" exclaimed James, pointing at the screens showing the probes' video. All of the cameras were zooming in on the target Pokemon, Shadow.
"What the!" exclaimed the girl. Shadow barked at the strange floating objects, and when they continued to advance towards him, he turned and ran towards the girl.
"Shadow!" the girl exclaimed, as he came running towards her, with the probes following. Shadow made it to the girl, and she bent over, putting her arms around Shadows neck, in a protective gesture. The probes surrounded them in a circle.
One the bottom left computer screen another message appeared:
Warping systems activating.The probes began to glow a faint yellowish light. Then a beam of light shot out from each one, landing on Shadow and the girl.
The light changed from beams to spot lights. The probes started to hum, and the color of the light started to change rapidly. It went from yellow, to orange. Then to red, purple, blue, and green. Then back to yellow. The light then changed into white light. It increased in brightness, growing so bright, that it dazzled the eyes of any one who saw it. The light made a final flare, and then stopped.
Team Rocket's eyes where so blinded that it took them a moment to clear. They blinked until finally they could see normally again. The screens were all blank.
"What in the world?" asked the girl who had been transported along with Shadow. She looked around. She was in what appeared to be a computer room of some sort. What on earth is going on? She watched the strange floating cameras land on a nearby shelf. She looked down at Shadow to see how he was doing. He seemed all right, although he appeared to be as confused as she was.
The girl looked around, A Ninetales! But it can't be, can it? Quickly she looked around the room. In it there appeared to be a Ninetales, a Smeargle, a Meowth, and four humans, each with bizarre hair colors. One had purple hair, one had pink, one had blue, and one an odd rainbow colored dreadlocks hairstyle.
But if they're Pokemon, then I must have been transported into the Pokemon world! That is Way too Weird. Well if it's actually real, then I hope I can get home, but in the meantime this could be pretty cool! Especially if I get to make friends with an articuno, suicune, Ninetales, and lot's of other cool Pokemon. As the girl thought she studied the room in more detail. Wait a minute! They look like Jessie and James!
"Hey! Are you two Jessie and James?" asked the girl, gesturing at two team rocket members, who were indeed Jessie and James.
Jessie and James looked at each other in surprise and then at the girl. "Yes we are, but how do you know that?" asked Jessie, suspiciously.
"And who are you?" asked James.
"My name's Heather. As for how I know you, well, you two are pretty famous, or infamous." Said Heather.
"We are?" asked James, in surprise.
"Yep."
"Did you hear that!? According to her, we're well known!" said Jessie.
"We did it!" said James.
"We've finally done it!" said Jessie. Jessie and James hugged each-other and started dancing around the room, chanting, "We've done it, we've done it, we've done it!"
"Hey, what about me? Am I well known?" asked Meowth.
"Well, you are if you're the Meowth who's always with Jessie and James." said Heather.
"MEOWTH!" exclaimed Meowth, jumping on Jessie's shoulders, as she and James continued dancing around the room. Suddenly Jessie tripped over her wobbuffet (who had come out of its Poke-ball without her noticing.); they all fell in a heap on top of it. Heather shook her head slightly, while Erika looked up at the ceiling.
"And I'm supposed to be the one who can't control my Pokemon?" asked Akira.
"Um, I hate to tell you guys this," said Heather, "But I don't know how well known you are in this area. Especially since if my guess is right, this isn't my home world."
"That's right," said Erika, "We were trying to transport Pokemon here, and apparently you got pulled here as well."
Jessie, James and Meowth (all still sitting on the floor) gave a depressed sigh.
"What I would like to know, is how, if you're actually from that other world, do you know about Jessie, James and Meowth?" asked Erika.
"Well," said Heather, "In my world Pokemon started out as a video game, and then the game was so popular they made a TV show out of it. In it Jessie, James, and Meowth are always trying to steal Ash Ketchem's Pikachu, but they always fail."
Jessie and James sighed again. "Too true." said James, while Jessie put her wobbuffet back in its ball.
"So there are video games and a TV show about Pokemon where you come from?" asked Erika, incredulously.
"Yeah. And see Shadow, here? He's not really a Pokemon; he's a dog. Though come think of it, in this world, he might as well be called a Pokemon." said Heather.
"So if you know about Jessie and James, do you know about us?" asked Akira.
"No," said Heather, "I've never seen you seen before."
"Huh..." said Akira, "Well I'm Akira, and the computer girl there is Erika."
"Who's Ninetales is that?" asked Heather, looking at the Ninetales who was watching the new arrivals warily.
"That's Celestial, she's one of my Pokemon" said Akira proudly gazing at Celestial.
Erika finished the examinations that she had been doing on the computer, and crossed her arms. "Well now, I'd say it's time we finished the job of getting that Pokemon. Jessie, James get off of floor, it's time to get to work!" exclaimed Erika.
Akira frowned as Jessie and James scrambled up.
"Right." said Jessie, "Prepare for trouble,"
"Make it double!" said James
"To protect the world from devastation," Jessie continued.
"To unite all people within our nation," said James.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" said Jessie.
"To extend our reach to the stars above!" continued James.
"Jessie!" declared Jessie.
"James!" declared James.
"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!" said Jessie.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" finished James.
"Meowth! That's right!" shouted Meowth, jumping over Jessie and James' shoulders.
"First of all, truth and love aren't evil. Secondly, if you guys think you're going to take Shadow from me, then you're wrong!" declared Heather.
"Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we!?" said Jessie, "Go Arbok!"
"Go Weezing!" shouted James.
"Arbok use acid!" Arbok reared back and spit out an acid attack at Shadow. Heather yanked Shadow out of the way just in time.
"Weezing tackle it!" Weezing dove at Shadow, but the dog dodged away.
Exquisite, seeing the battle expanding to full the room, quickly got his painting supplies put away.
"Arbok use poison sting!"
"Weezing sludge attack!"
Arbok struck at Shadow, successfully hitting him. Shadow yelped and leapt away, leaving Arbok to get hit by Weezing's sludge attack.
"Weezing use Smog!"
"Arbok use bite!"
Heather watched the battle trying to figure out how she could help Shadow.
Weezing used Smog. Shadow started coughing trying to clear his throat. Arbok bit Shadow. He spun at Arbok and roared. (Technically, it was more of a bark then a roar, but in Pokemon moves it would have to be considered a roar. Unless of course there is a new move called Bark, but I hadn't heard of any such thing yet.)
"Arbok use acid attack!"
"Weezing use sludge!"
Arbok spit acid but his aim was messed up because Heather had jumped on him, grabbing his neck. The acid went towards Exquisite and Celestial, but they scrambled out of the way.
Weezing used sludge, but Shadow dodged.
"Arbok use screech!"
"Weezing use self-destruct!"
"Not in hear, you fool!" exclaimed Erika.
Arbok thrashed his body, knocking Heather off. He then used screech. Shadow shook his head, trying to ease the discomfort.
Weezing headed toward the wall.
"Shadow come!" commanded Heather. Automatically Shadow started towards Heather. Weezing started glowing and emitting a high pitched hum. Hearing the noise behind him, Shadow booked it over to wear Heather was, and they both scrambled to the other side of the room. Erika, Jessie, James, and Meowth also backed to the computer wall.
Suddenly the light expanded out ward in a huge ball.
"Celestial, Exquisite, over hear!" Akira called, as his Pokemon ran away from the self-destruct. They bounded over to him.
Arbok didn't quite make it away fast enough and was knocked out. The self-destruct orb flashed a final time, with an explosive noise. When their eyes readjusted, those by the computer wall found them-selves staring at what must have been a four-foot hole in the wall.
"Shadow, let's go!" shouted Heather, running towards the hole. Shadow followed her as they ran by the unconscious Arbok and Weezing and out the hole.
"Don't just stand there, go after him!" shouted Erika.
"And what about you? Are you going to just stand there while we do all the work!?" asked Jessie.
"No, I'm going to make sure the computer wasn't affected by your explosion!" said Erika, "Now all of you, you too Akira, get going!"
Jessie and James recalled their unconscious Pokemon, while Akira recalled Exquisite.
"Come on Celestial!" called Akira, as he ran towards the hole. Celestial ran beside him.
Jessie and James followed them out the hole.
Heather and Shadow ran through the woods. They could here Team Rocket crashing through the woods behind them.
Heather and Shadow found themselves running through what seemed like a large dried-out gully.
"Celestial use quick attack!" shouted Akira.
Suddenly there was a huge crash behind them. Heather spun around to see a large tree that had fallen mostly blocking the entrance to the gully. Celestial leapt onto the now horizontal trunk. Wow... She's even more beautiful and majestic than I imagined Ninetales to be.
"Celestial! This way!" called Akira running in a different direction. Celestial turned and gracefully jumped off the tree, running to follow Akira. What? But they were close behind us! Could they have knocked the tree over on purpose? Was he actually helping us? Well, whatever caused the tree to fall I'm grateful. Although I do feel sorry for the tree, but actually it looks like it was already fairly dead. I guess it'd have to be for a quick attack to knock it over.
I do hope I'm able to get home, but I ought be able to get back the way I came. I certainly can't do that right now though. I'll need to figure out how I'm going to get Pokemon without any Poke-balls or money. Heather laughed and shook her head, this is unreal!
"Well Shadow, looks like we've got a world to explore." Heather took a deep breath, smelling the fresh air of the woods. "This is Awesome."
"Heh. Let's go, Shadow!" Heather exclaimed taking off at a run. Shadow breezed ahead her.
Author's note: Before anyone asks, no, Heather is not myself. Back when I originally came up with the idea for this story, I did have myself in it, but when I tried to write it I found it too awkward. So I got rid of myself and created Heather.
If you read, than please review! All comments, compliments, questions, and constructive criticisms welcome!
Also, if you read this, and want to read more, let me know! Other wise I will only be writing this on the whim of when I feel like it. Knowing that there are people waiting to read more will give it a higher priority when I'm deciding what to write.