Lightning-Dono: Wow, I have time to update this fanfic :D Happiness for all! This fanfic will be much longer than planned, so get ready!
Answers to the ReviewSoft Flame Matthias – I know what you mean by that "rushed" feeling. I reread it, and I felt that I could've added just a bit more...just a little more to keep the reader waiting. But I was in horrible stress and I was kind of...typing. oO; What you said about Jessie and James was correct, and apparently, you've seen through the actual "plot". Jessie and James AREN'T murderous in my eyes either. Remember when I said James was speaking 'throatily' to her? James' voice isn't throaty...Butch's is. I will read your fanfic! In just a bit. :)
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"That was just too easy," Jessie said, speaking to her partner with a hint of egotism in her voice, giving it a rather jaunty spark. "Finally we capture the Pikachu that has been rumored by many other branches of Team Rocket to be 'the best'! I must say, though, I am doubting it's powers if it failed to protect it's own master. Plus, beating those losers aren't so hard."
James gave her a menacing grin. "What did you expect, Cassidy? Pikachu was bound to capitulate to our power – isn't that what we wanted?"
The fake Jessie grimaced. "I was simply hoping for much more of a challenge. Finally we have gotten back at that nutty kid who foiled our plans of the breeding center! How we ever managed to get out of jail after losing so much hope and ambition...And now I'm sinking so low as to wear the wig of a woman whom I have detested for so long!" With one sweeping motion of her arm, she yanked off the red hair to reveal a sheet of golden blonde. "Ugh! The very image of this hideous uniform never fails to make me nauseous!"
The purple-haired man removed the wig to unveil a lump of teal hair that had grown wavy beneath the wig. "No need to be so dramatic, Cass," Butch said in a dismissive tone. "At any rate, I have tranquilized the Pikachu. He should be asleep until we reach the boss' place."
"And return this wretched balloon to Jessie and James!" Cassidy reminded her partner strictly. "Plus settle that bet with them that we could catch Pikachu. Hah! Someone owes me money!"
Butch nodded cheerfully. In the horizon, the sun was rising, shedding colors of fluorescent yellow, a pumpkin orange, and red...
The color of Ash's blood.
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I pray that he's still alive. It took me so long to get to him, just getting him to like me back. And the next thing I know...He's gone. Misty had managed to lug the mangled body to the Pokemon center, driven by a futile hope that Nurse Joy could breathe life back into him. Why a deserted town had such a large Pokemon Center was beyond her, but it was exceptionally well kept for a town that appeared to have had a mini-apocalypse of doom hit it.
For the past thirty minutes of her life, she had reflected on everything she and Ash had gone through together, with the aid of others to guide them through their journey. But was it meant to end in such sudden means? Had the phases of love struck her simply struck her because she always needed to have her eyes set on something to keep her alive?
For the past thirty minutes of her life, she believes that she had never been so tense. Misty's eyes often followed the cracks between each carefully placed tile on the floor, leading her range of sight to the door that Ash was behind.
An Ash that in a state she would never want to see him in again. It was all too painful, just seeing a bullet lodged in his arm and gut, blood spouting freshly from those wounds...That image would be etched into the depiction of her life forever. A mental scar that refuses to disappear and eyes that would reflect the hurt contained for eternity. Already Misty felt like a shell – mere system of containing something while her feelings in a different dimension fed into her body.
Heels clicked hesitantly against the pale tiles of the Pokemon center, stopping before Misty with a sort of edginess. The red-head looked up uneasily to find Nurse Joy shaking her head slowly, eyes closed, tears clinging to her eyelashes like dew drops to a tender blade of grass in the morning.
"I'm sorry, Misty" the kindred nurse murmured softly, soft blue eyes seemingly more alive than usual. "He's gone."
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"What do you have to keep staring at the sun for?" Cassidy interrogated irritably, slamming a hand on Butch's shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting way. "It's detrimental to the state of your eyes."
The once tough man shook his head to relieve himself of the light-headed feeling he was getting.
"Oh, no, I was just..." He couldn't stop remembering sparks, thick smoke, gunfire...and the lifeblood of someone spilt before him. Never before had their partnership caused such a heinous crime. The writhing and screaming of someone that was innocent as something so dear as his best friend was taken away from him. For that moment, Butch felt like jumping clear out of the hot air balloon he was standing in. "I was just-,"
"Seriously now, haven't you ever seen a sunrise before? It's gorgeous, but not enough for you to stop fueling that fire so we keep floating!"
A sudden surge of hatred infected Butch's veins as he turned to face the overbearing woman standing before him with a sense of rebelliousness.
"Why don't you do it?" Butch replied bitterly, taking on a shiftless position in which he leaned on the edge of the hot air balloon coolly, watching Cassidy's reaction.
She looked rather outlandish, standing there, her hair in disarray from the wig she had worn before, fists clenching and unclenching, her breathing sounding rather forced instead of normal.
"What...did you just say?"
"I said 'Why don't you do it'? Surely you are capable of throwing another gallon of gasoline in that tank of ours..."
"Where are you trying to lead this?" Cassidy shrieked, her voice tainted with the pitch of hate. "Don't think you're going to get to me just by ordering me around! After all, it should be the OTHER way around!"
Butch sighed. "Am I the only one that thinks that you're just plain pushy?" His voice was rather blase.
"For your information, little man-," she paused to compare her height in relation to his. He had to be atleast two inches taller than her, but hopefully he wouldn't have the brains to figure that out. "-YOU were the one the boss addressed to complete the menial tasks! A man doesn't ask a lady to do such chores!"
"Well, this man does!" Butch shouted angrily. "Just because Giovanni is unjust to men, it's merely because he is still caught back in the old days where women were thought of before men in an area in which both are involved!"
"And that virtue still holds today!" The blonde turned away with disdain, refusing to turn and look her partner in the face. "And there's the boss' place. Let's land on that helicopter pad - I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Yanking on the rope to activate the landing sequence in silence, she realized how much she actually appreciated Butch's company.
As they landed, Cassidy spotted a clump of red hair emerging from the stairs that led down into the main building. Jessie. Butch carried a sleeping Pikachu to Jessie as though offering a sacrifice for an ancient ritual.
"I told you that we could capture Pikachu," Cassidy smirked, holding out her hand in a gesture of pure greed at Jessie's face. "Hand over the bills."
Jessie frowned at her rival's uninformed manner. "Too bad, you're not getting any."
"Why is that? Are you so dead poor that you just can't give us any money?"
James appeared by Jessie's side, staring at the Pikachu with a vague look of interest. "No. Jessie and I are quitting Team Rocket."
