Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.
Author's Notes—contains slight references to "Prelude To It All."

to save team rocket

Team Rocket.

I am known as executive member Sway Coons, one of the top Rockets in the organization.

According to my file, I have been a member of Team Rocket since I was eighteen. It lists all of my accomplishments since joining, including my few failures. On my background information it details my birthplace (Ecruteak City) and my physical appearance (purple hair, red eyes) and my known family. I'm the product of a one night stand so my father is unknown but my mother is a well-known "dirty job" agent for the Rockets. I have no siblings, and that basically sums it all up.

So what's the point, right?

There would be no story if I told you. But I will start you off with the day my job became harder all because of my new roommate, Mewtwo.


My cell phone was ringing. I don't own a telephone, just my cell, and it's all I need. My service comes from a communications company owned by Team Rocket (my idea to invest in the area) and we rarely have to worry about outsiders finding out about our business. It also makes it easier for us to communicate with each other, although I talk the most with my mother and the boss.

Of course there's a downside, and that is the fact that during the thirteen years I've worked for Team Rocket and the nine years we've utilized the phones, I have never learned how to change the damn ring tone.

So it was the tune to the can-can that woke me.

"Dammit," I muttered sleepily as I rolled over and groped for the phone that was dancing around the nightstand from its vibrating. I finally found it and answered. "Hello?"

"Sway," I recognized the voice as my mother's, Ariana, "I'm on my way to your place."

"What? Why?" I asked, slightly alarmed. "Did something happen at the headquarters?"

"No, I have a package for you, from your grandfather," she said curtly, business as always.

I relaxed, assured that my job wasn't on the line again. It happens more often than you think. Now, however, I was curious as to what my grandfather had sent me, and I was wondering why he sent it through my mother and hadn't just done it myself.

But those thoughts had to wait as I remembered the presence behind me. Into the phone I said, "Okay."

I'm sure Ariana nodded in recognition of my answer before she hung up but I couldn't say for sure. I also pressed the end button on the phone and let it drop back onto the nightstand. I twisted my body back to face the man who lay naked in my bed. Neil was his name, a doctor at the local hospital who was paid to treat Rockets without writing up any suspicious reports. I think we'd been sleeping together for about two months, but I don't really remember.

"Hey," I said, getting his attention. He blinked at me sleepily before smirking mischievously.

"Hey yourself, beautiful," he said, "Wanna have another go before breakfast?"

I stared at him dispassionately. Everything he said seemed to come out of a cheesy movie. He acted as if he was a sex god but really he wasn't all that great in bed. His looks weren't half bad though, I had to give his parents credit for the genetics there. Or maybe it would be thanks to his buddy who specialized in cosmetic surgery.

"No. Get your stuff; I want you out of here before I'm done with my shower." I stood and headed towards the bathroom without even looking back at him. I don't know if he stared at me in shock or just stared at my butt since I wasn't wearing any clothes but I could feel his eyes on me until I closed the bathroom door.

I took a cold shower, taking my time so that Neil would be sure to be gone by the time I was done. It was actually a nice feeling to just let the water seep into my skin and run through my hair. I was contemplating whether or not I should use the body soap a previous ex had bought me as an anniversary gift when the water shifted in temperature and got even colder. I prefer cool water but it was too cold now for my tastes. I left the shower without soaping up once.

Throwing on a terry cloth bathrobe I tied loosely around my waist, I opened the door and checked for Neil's figure wandering about the apartment. He had gone like I said. That was nice, considering that some of my old "boyfriends" had gotten physical over being kicked out so abruptly and would try to confront me after my routine shower. That's how I met Neil, actually. I had to take the latest upset lover to the emergency room after he tried to backhand me and I knocked him back into a glass table. I liked that table, too.

Not long after I emerged from the bathroom did I hear a knock on my front door. I knew it was Ariana without even checking the peep hole and opened it without a second thought.

Ariana Winters, my mother, was about half a foot shorter than me so I had to look down at her if we were standing close to each other. I'm almost six feet and I avoid shoes with heels so that I don't seem any taller than I am. Nevertheless, despite our height differences Ariana is ten times more intimidating than I am. Her blue hair is short and can barely be pulled back into the blunt ponytail she favors. Our eyes are the same shade of bright red, and the same color as her lipstick. I can tell she used more make-up than usual today to darken her naturally pale skin. I'm thankful my skin color is a neutral shade as I detest the modern brands of cosmetics filled with their artificial colorings and chemicals.

"Was that your boyfriend who left?" Ariana asked, brushing past me as she entered. I closed the door, unfazed by her rudeness.

"Another ex," I commented. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Coffee," came the response. I disappeared into the kitchen and heated some water in the microwave. Neil hadn't taken his instant coffee with him so I mixed the powder into the cup and brought it back out to Ariana. She had taken a seat on the couch with her feet propped up on the wooden coffee table I had bought to replace the glass one.

"Here," I said as I offered the mug to her. She accepted it, grasping the mug itself instead of the handle, and took a large swallow. If it were anyone else I might have cautioned them against the heat.

"Tastes like shit," she announced.

"Have you ever tasted shit?" I asked, sitting down next to her and leaning back against the cushion.

"Yes," said Ariana, giving me a bemused look. She reached up to her neck and ran her finger under the collar of her shirt, pulling out two chain necklaces. Both had shrunken pokeballs attached to them, one made of almost clear aquamarine and the other of deep violet amethyst. She yanked the second one off her neck and tossed it lightly to me. "It's Mewtwo."

"The clone? I thought he was living on that island with his fellow cloned Pokemon from that incident a few years ago." I was surprised. Mewtwo was in this pokeball? I had never personally met him but I had heard stories. Three years ago he had lured trainers to the restructured lab he had been created in and cloned their Pokemon, declaring himself a Master. A boy had been killed but returned to life through the tears of the Pokemon. Afterwards Mewtwo had disappeared with Mew and relapsed time to cover up the whole event. I had later learned he was living on an isolated island with the other clones.

"Mew convinced him to join the Legendaries."

Wait. That meant… "I can't take care of him!" I cried, juggling the pokeball in my anxiety. Ariana half-rolled her eyes and snatched the ball from the air, holding it up for me to see.

"He's your responsibility until he learns to live in our world," Ariana said.

"Our?"

"The human world," she clarified.

"Why couldn't En or Rai do it?" I asked. Ariana shrugged her shoulders.

"Ask your grandfather," she said. She tapped the button on the pokeball that enlarged it. The pokeball popped open and released a purple energy that formed into the clone of Mew, Mewtwo.

Mewtwo hovered a few inches above the ground between the coffee table and my T.V. He turned stern dark purple eyes to us, regarding us expressionlessly. Telepathically he spoke, Who are you?

"Ariana Winters and Sway Coons," my mother introduced us with a flick of her wrist. "You may call us Articuno and Suicune."