I'm back again! This chapter is just the best; I had fun with this one since it comes close to my favorite and with some of my own ideas mixed in! You know I don't own Pokemon, but enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 35: Holy Matrimony
With Angelina pedaling her bike close behind, Ash and his friends travel the countryside on their Pokemon journey. They come across a poster of a young boy of ten years wearing a tailored suit with lavender-blue-hair and emerald eyes.
"Oh, no way!" Angelina gasped.
"Is that...?" Misty began.
"It looks like…." Ash added.
"It can't be." Brock said in disbelieved.
"James?" the young trainers exclaimed.
"Wow, it sure looks like James." Ash said.
Suddenly, a long black limozine pulled up and an old man stepped out. He was wearing a black tuxedo, had balding grey hair, and held a megaphone.
"Have you seen that boy in the photo?" the man asked.
"We have if he's James from Team Rocket." Ash said.
"Jolly good, eureka!" cries the butler happily. "Quick, to the estate!" he drags Ash and friends into the limozine as Angelina follwed behind after she placed away her bike.
Driving down the road, Angelina had a dazed expression as she stared out the window. The town itself, Chestnut Town; was without a doubt, the most beautiful place she'd ever seen. The front yard was a lush, green meadow, and a lake full of Magicarp was nestled between the rolling hills. Weeping willows playing on the surface of the water. The driveway was lined with magnolia trees, rhododendrons, live oaks with Spanish moss, and there were roses bushed as far as the eyes could see, all of them in bloom, perfuming the warm spring air with their heavenly scent.
"Hey mister, how much farther is this place?" Ash asked.
"We're almost at the end of the driveway." the butler replied.
"Seems like we drove past the main gate half an hour ago." Misty said, after sipping her tea.
"Whoa!" Ash said. He and his friends stared in astonishment at a big gray mansion.
"It's huge!" Misty exclaimed.
"Mmhm, I've seen shopping malls smaller than this place." Brock agreed.
Upon reaching the mansion, Angelina gother bike from the trunk while the others stared at the mansion.
"It's the biggest mansion I've ever seen!" Ash awed, Misty and Brock nodded in agreement.
"That is NOT the mansion! This little dog house is for Growlie, the favorite Pokemon of Master James." the butler yelled through a mega-phone. "Behind you there, that is the master's mansion."
"WHOA!" Ash and friends face-faulted in shock that another mansion nearby was three times bigger.
"Please, follow me." said the butler.
Ash and friends exchanged puzzled looks and follow the butler inside the grand house. In the front of the main entrance were two coffins surrounded by flowers.
"Coffins? W-was there a funeral here?" Misty asked.
"My master and mistress had only one child, a boy named James." the butler said, referring to a huge portrait that Angelina had seen on the wall. It contained a dark majenta haired woman sitting in a chair and holding a yellow parasol. Standing next to her was a dark blue haired man holding a brown cane. In the middle of the adults was a little blue haired boy holding a baby Growlithe. "This morning, Master James' parents passed away and this estate is now his."
"You mean that this whole estate is gonna belong to James?" Ash asked in shock.
"It's so frightfully tragic! After Master James ran away, his parents no longer had the strength to go on. Their hearts were broken." the butler cried, dabbing his eyes with a hankie.
"That's so sad." Misty whispered.
"And now they're…. I hope you find James and tell him real soon." Ash said.
"Real soon won't do!" the butler yelled from his megaphone. "His parents' will clearly states that Master James must marry his fiancée within 24 hours of their passing away! If not, this entire estate will no longer belong to him, but will be donated to charity! I must find him at once!"
"Hmm," Angelina narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She stared at the coffins and didn't dare move when Ash and his friends were escorted out the door. "Something doesn't seem right and I don't think its this funeral."
Angelina headed up the staircase un-noticed and hurriedly walked through an opened door, peaking out to watch the butler close the front door and turn around.
"So far, they haven't suspected." the butler replied, walking toward the coffins that were just opening.
Angelina gasped, "They're not dead?" the same man and woman from the portrait appeared from the coffins.
"Wonderful, Hopkins," said the woman.
"Yes indubitably," agreed the man. "And it won't be long that our James will be married to his darling fiancé."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the front door. The wealthy-dressed couple returned to their coffins and the butler headed to answer the door.
"Hey, what's in here?" Angelina stepped farther into the room and looked around. She was about to leave, but her eyes locked onto an older girl wearing a flat yellow bow in her curly apple red hair and sharp blue eyes. An indentical resemblance to Jessie, the girl wore a white long-sleeved blouse underneath a fuchsia dress with white stockings and red pumps.
"Jessibelle? Is that you?" Angelina asked.
The older girl stared at her warily. "How'd you get in here, little girl?"
"Huh?" Angelina said, blinking in confusion. "I'm only thirteen, that's far beyond little! And we're related!"
"Well that makes perfect sense," Jessibelle smiled in a deranged way. "I'm surprised my parents didn't take you sooner. We would've brought you up more properly, but it seemed pointless since your so-called relatives had gotten to you."
"Excuse me?" Angelina growled, her eyebrow was twitching in aggitation. "They have more potential and a better life compared to being an ob-" she hardly had time to finish when Hopkins entered the room and threw James to a chair, who was held down by Jessie and Meowth. They were wearing black costumes while James as dressed in a blue suit. James' parents followed inside, looking greatly important; his father talking while his mother fanned herself. Angelina quietly headed towards the door, grateful she had not been noticed.
"I'm proud of you. You must uphold the family tradition."
"As our son and heir, you have certain obligations. The most important of these is to marry and continue the family line." his mother explained gently.
"Right." Jessie said, trying to act like James. Unable to keep his silence, James burst out screaming,
"Do I have a duty to be manipulated?"
Jessie and Meowth slammed their hands on his mouth and held him down as he began to struggle.
"I don't know what you're talking about." his father said unconvincingly.
"We only want what's best for us- I mean, best for you." his mother said quickly.
"A man who can't settle down is like a bumblebee without a nose," his father explained. "He'll never sniff the daffodils of life."
"You'll learn to be a real gentleman once you marry the right girl. And here she is!"
The chair holding James was sharply turned around and facing toward Jessibelle hiding her face behind a blue fan.
James' chair was spun around to face the opposite side of the room, where everyone noticed Jessibelle sitting on a second chair. A fan was drawn just below her closed eyes.
"As James' wife, it'll be your duty to change him from a worthless do-nothing into a respectable gentleman. My dear Jessiebelle..."
Angelina had to stiffle her laughter when Jessie punched Meowth for calling her tough, mean, and nasty. She also noticed Ash and his friends eavesdropping from the huge gape in the opened door.
"My names' Jessibelle. My only wish is to be your devoted and loving wife and companion. And also," the young woman reveals herself and snapped her fan shut. "To educate you in your duties as a gentleman of property."
This was no surprise to Angelina, but to everyone else except James' parents and Hopkins, they just could not believe the appearance. Jessie and Meowth were arguing while James was pleading to leave, but they wanted him to get married to get his inheritance.
"Is somethin' wrong? Why ever do you keep talkin' to yourself like that, James?" Jessibelle asked calmly.
"Talking to yourself?" Ash repeated quietly as he looked from Jessie and Meowth to James' parents.
"Meowth and Jessie are right in front of their eyes and nobody notices." Misty said, sounding surprised. Angelina even knew they were acting like they didn't know, and had a feeling something was going on.
"Say, here's an idea! Why don't we go down to the vault and count all the money you'll inherit?" Jessibelle said happily, clapping her hands together and standing.
Jessie and Meowth laugh greedily, holding James down and forcing him to nod. Jessiebelle shrieked in excitement, grabbing James by his collar and dragged him through the door. Angelina didn't have to step far until she confronted Ash in the hallway.
"Well I'm glad I won't be alone," Angelina said in relief. The foursome followed James and Jessibelle through another door and walked down the steps to the vault.
"Here we are at the vault! Lets go inside, your inheritance is in here!" Jessiebelle trilled, standing next to a button on the wall. She pushed it and watched Jessie and Meowth's eyes glittered up as they ran in, yelling "Cha-ching!" Although Angelina, Ash and his friends didn't see large piles of money, instead there was old gym equipment.
"Don't you fools get it? Jessiebelle tricked you into coming down here!" James cried, breaking free from his friends.
"... How did they spot us?..."
"IMBECILES!"
A sudden drum beat caused them to spin around to see James father, standing on a platform, a flat drum and beater in his hands. "Your mother and I are tired of waiting for you to grow up!"
A few harsh notes came from a wooden flute, held by James' mother, on another platform. "James, it's time to face the music!"
The recognisable crack of a whip brought their attention to Jessiebelle, suddenly wearing a pink leather tailcoat with matching boots and white jockey trousers. Holding a whip in one hand, and talking with a smug and terrifying air to her voice, she said, "You can't just do whatever you feel like any more! Now you'll obey... Jessiebelle! LET THE TAMEMENT, BEGIN!"
Swinging her whip around her head like a maniac, and laughing like one too, anyone could be scared of her. Especially James, and Angelina knew this was going a tad too far for her liking and was helping him escape no matter what. She hoped her friends understood the same as they watched on in horror.
"I'm starting to like you more dan her Jess." Meowth mumbled, gripping tightly to the sides of Jessie's hat.
"Thanks for the compliment. Hey, get of my head!"
The two proceed to argue, much to James' displeasure. Then James' parents surrounded Jessie and Meowth, now mumbling, "They see us!"
"Everything was fine until you opened that big Meowth of yours!"
"Do you take us for fools?" James' father boomed.
"We just ignored you until you brought James down here to the dungeon." James' mother said smoothly. Angelina knew things were looking desperate for Meowth and Jessie and wondered how they were going to get out of the situation.
Meowth pounded his fist into his hand, exclaiming, "Now you see us!"
Jessie finishing with, "And now you don't!" she threw a bomb that exploded and surrounded the room in white smoke. Angelina thought that was smart, yet she felt bad for James as he was coughing and searching frantically for his team-mates.
"Jessie! Meowth! Don't leave me!" James screamed, then felt a sharp slap on his face.
Jessiebelle appeared beside him. Her eyes were sparkly and dreamy. "At last, we're together! I'm so... happy!"
James' high-pitched squealing reminded Angelina of a five year old girl inside a candy store. She watched Jessibelle cracking her whip at the young man, dodging the leather whip and shrieking like a little girl, not sure whether to feel bad for him or not. James' parents sat in the corner, sipping at cups of tea and acting calmly and with total sophistication.
"You won't escape from me again, James! Hi-ya!"
"Those two were made for each other, just like you and I, precious!" James' father said joyously.
"It's a perfect match." James' mother agreed.
"Really? That's messed up!" Angelina said, refering to James and Jessiebelle.
"If you two weren't such lousy parents, you'd stop this mad woman!" James howled, running around his parents with Jessibelle hot on his tail.
"Should we try to help him?" Ash asked cautiously.
"I don't like to get involved in these family squabbles." Brock replied, which Angelina smacked him over the head.
"Tauros-crap! If we weren't wandering around here, we wouldn't be involved with what's going on with James!"
"I guess you're right for putting it that way," Brock said, rubbing the sore spot on his head. He nodded as he agreed with the girl, both just noticed James face-down on the floor with the whip around his ankle.
"Oh James, I knew you'd fall for me! I choose you, Vileplume!" Jessibelle threw out a Pokeball revealing a creature with a blue body, and enormous red petals covering its head.
"Vileplume!"
"That thing evolved?" Angelina explaimed, taking out her Pokedex. She remembered nine years ago when the pampered Pokemon was just an Oddish, right when James ran away from home.
"Vileplume, the Flower Pokemon. Its petals are the largest in the world. It fiendishly scatters allergy-causing pollen from its petals."
"Now Vileplume! Use your Stun Spore to slow James down and keep him from escapin'!" Jessiebelle commanded happily.
"No, leave him alone!" Angelina screamed, just as the Grass Pokemon released a tornado of topaz mist into the air. The attack, not only stunned the others, but also paralyzed her and fell to the floor, along with James who moaned about how it was just like last time.
Jessibelle laughed maliciously, standing dominantly over the younger girl. She removed her purifier mask and smiled. "Sleepin' like a baby," she looked at her fiance. "James, I'll make a gentlemen out of you yet, even if it destroys us! Oh, Hopkins!"
The butler appeared, carrying a knocked out Jessie and Meowth, back in the Rocket uniform and ruffled from a fight.
"Yes?"
"Would you please get a large broom and sweep up this mess?"
Everyone was thrown out of the mansion, landing on the cold hard ground. They groaned from the contact and slowly got back to their feet.
"Well, like they say, even a rose has it's thorns." Brock stated, referring to Jessibelle.
"She's more like a cactus." Misty whined.
"If he marries her, James will get his inheritance." Jessie said.
"If he survives bein' married to her." Meowth replied grimly.
"Groww-lithe," growls a voice from inside the smaller mansion. "Groww-lithe!" The group turned to watch as the growling became louder.
"What was that?" Ash asked.
"It's coming from the dog house," Angelina said. The door was locked, but the Pokemon was insistent on being let out. A thud and a jolt of the door made it clear that it was trying to break the door down.
"Groww-lithe," called the voice again.
"Pikapi! Pika-pika-pi-ka-pikachu!" Pikachu tried to explain, pointing to the dog house.
"It wants somebody to open the door of that dog house." Meowth translated.
"Okay," Ash nodded, walking up to the door and grabbed the handles. He pulled on them, but it was shut tight. "It's locked! C'mon, give me a hand here!"
Angelina, Brock, Misty, Jessie, Meowth, and Pikachu helped Ash pull the door open. Togepi was just too young as it cheered on the side. The doghouse Pokemon rammed the door again, the doors flying open and sending the others tumbling backwards. Pikachu grabbed Meowth and left Jessie to take everyone's weight, as the free Pokemon walked over them and set off at a run into the mansion.
"Now what?" Angelina asked. It wasn't long until she heard glass shattering and saw a Growlithe carrying James on its back.
"Growlie says to go inside!" Meowth says, rushing inside with everyone else.
Angelina followed the others into the living room on the second floor of Growlie's mansion. She sat beside James and Growlie on the loveseat, Meowth on an armchair and Jessie leaning against it, while Ash and his companions sit on a long couch.
"You saved me, Growlie. Thank you." James smiled.
"Growl, growl!" the Growlithe growled in understanding and licked its Master's face.
"Well James, that fiancé of yours is truly despicable." Jessie said.
"Told ya she's just like Jessie." Meowth snickers.
Jessie grabbed the feline Pokemon and stretches him, yelling. "I'll make your mouth even bigger!"
"Oh, she's the reason I ran away from this estate. What a rotten day." James sighed, even Angelina looked disturbed as the memory came back to her.
~*FLASHBACK*~
"Merry Christmas, James!" a five-year-old Angelina ran up to her blue-haired best friend. She wore a dark green velvet dress with a white silk bow tied in the back and a green bow in her curly strawberry-blonde hair.
James, wearing a dark blue dress suit, spun Angelina in his arms happily. "I got you something," he took out a small box in shiny green paper and a gold bow.
Angelina took the gift and unwrapped it carefully. Her hazel eyes lit up at a golden ring with sapphire and emerald stones. It wasn't her size just yet, but she adored it nonetheless.
"My grandmama said it's for someone really special, and I thought of you right away," James said. He blushed when Angelina kissed his cheek and gave him a hug.
"It's so pretty, Jimmy! Thank you!"
"Everyone, your attention please!" James' father pinged a champagne glass. "I would like to announce our son James' betrothal to the daughter of the Redfield family, Jessibelle!"
"Oh no, not her!" Angelina cried. She watched her step-cousin with red braids wearing a blue-and-green dress was attending to James' appearance. She watched them stand together for the numerous photos that the diners were taking.
"James! Whatever are you doing?" Jessibelle gasped in shock during dinner when James was about to eat soup. "You seem to have confused your soup spoon with your flan spoon!" she yoinked the offending utensil from his hand, replacing it with a slightly different one.
James abandoned the soup in favor of some spaghetti. Angelina hoped it wouldn't get worse from there, but once again...
"You forgot your napkin!"
James snatched the cloth into his lap angrily, then picked up his pasta fork and began twirling the spaghetti onto it.
Jessibelle shook her head in abhorrence.
"AAUGGHH! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM MEEEEE!" James leapt from his seat with all eyes, adult and child, on him. "I can't take it anymore!" he made a dash for the door.
"Jimmy, wait! Don't leave!" Angelina cried, abandoning her seat.
Jessibelle took out a Pokeball and threw it in her fiance's direction. "My sweet James, you can't escape me. I choose you, Oddish! Stun Spore him!"
"Ooddrissh!" the tiny weed Pokemon sprayed out its toxic pollen, but the spores fell woefully short.
James burst out of the main mansion's door and sprinted past the oversized dog house. "Please leave me alone! I can't stand it! Growly!"
"Groww-lithe!" James' pet Growlithe, followed his master out of the house.
Jessibelle was chasing them with the Oddish in her arms. "Where are you going, James? I haven't finished teaching you the correct way to eat spaghetti yet."
"I want to do things my way, Jessibelle!"
"You're not running properly, let me show you the right way!"
Angelina stood outside the mansion, tears falling down her face as Jessibelle walked back dejectedly when James and Growly were no longer in sight.
~*END FLASHBACK*~
"Ever since I was a kid, I hated how upper-class society had ruled for absolutely everything. Jessibelle is so rich, and marrying her would be the worst mistake of my life." James finished his story, then smiled and pets his Pokemon. "Growlie is my only true friend on this stuffy estate."
"I always wondered what it'd be like growing up in a place like this." Misty said thoughtfully, her eyes were glassy and spaced-out.
"Who woulda' thought being rich would be such a bummer." Meowth wondered aloud.
"Honestly, no one deserves to be forced into a marriage, especially to someone who's abusive and obsessively-manipulative!" Angelina said, rumaging through her bag and pulled out a small black box where she kept a silver chain holding a golden ring with sapphire and emerald stones. "I considered this a promise of our friendship, but with everything that happened, it was pointless."
"Y-you kept it after all these years?" James stared in disbelief from his grandma's ring to the disappointment and upset on Angelina's face.
"Of course I did! If it wasn't for Clarissa introducing us, we would've never been friends! All those good times we had together just isn't worth regretting, and things might've been completely different if Clarissa was still alive." Angelina choked back her tears, but her voice spoke painful volumes that everyone sympathized what she was going through. The silence wasn't helping matters either as the air was so thick, a knife would be able to cut through it like butter.
Suddenly, large cracks appear in the wall of the house and there is a loud explosion. Jessie and Meowth are sent flying through the roof. As the dust cleared, everyone leapt to their feet and Growlie prepared to defend everyone.
"My sweet James, you can't escape me." Jessibelle stood proudly, hands on her hips with her Vileplume in front.
"Leave me alone!" James demanded.
"Back off, Jessibelle!" Angelina yelled. "He doesn't want you!"
"Vileplume, stun them to sleep just like before!" Jessibelle ordered.
"Vile-plume!"
The Weed Pokemon blasted greenish-yellow spores towards everyone as Growlie breathes out flames and blows them away.
"Now Pikachu, electric shock!" Ash commanded. The electricity struck Vileplume head on while Growlie released flames that engulfed the Grass-Pokemon alive in front of Jessibelle's eyes.
"Oooh! Keep away from me! You horrid thing!" Jessibelle shrieked, running from the mansion with her burning Pokemon in tow.
"You're the best, thank you." James smiled, his Growlithe barked happily.
A while later, Angelina had lost sight of Ash and his friends. After all they had been through today, she was not doubting they were ready to leave. She watched James say goodbye to Growlie and asks it to look after his parents, she didn't blame James for living with Team Rocket than the upper-class lifestyle. She tried not to cry as Growlie howled sadly as James heads off, also pedaling her bike down a stone bridge towards the gates of the mansion.
"Angelina, help!"
Angelina turned around as she heard the voices, Ash and his companions were running towards her. Not too far behind them was Jessibelle.
"RUN AWAY!" Angelina screamed and pedaled at the highest speed.
"Oh please, won't ya'll help me find my beloved James?" Jessibelle asked, lifting the skirt of her dress as she runs.
"Believe me, Miss! He's the one who finds us!" Ash yelled back.
"Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed.
And so, Ash and friends dash away from the magnificent estate, eager to get on with their Pokemon journey. But has our heroes learnt anything from their visit?
"Yeah, maybe!" Angelina laughed.
"YOU'RE NOT RUNNIN' PROPERLY!" Jessibelle shouted.
§To Be Continued§
*Chapter is based from the episode "Holy Matrimony"
*James' childhood is revealed, Angelina became his friend through Clarissa.
*James gives Angelina a friendship/promise ring for Christmas, but James runs away after his engagement to Jessibelle was announced.
*James owns a Growlithe.
*Jessibelle and Angelina are step-cousins.
Just reading this chapter excites me as well. Next chapter will be up soon, thanks for reading!