Black

Chapter 4: Freedom of Thought

James and Jessie walked, mechanically, down a corridor in the great building complex. They were headed towards the elevator that would take them to the pokemon sorting zone – the place with all the cages – in the basement of the complex. Halfway down the corridor, Jessie stumbled.

"Anything's possible if you put your mind to it," the first said with confidence.

The two people stood in a dark room, discussing an experiment that the second of the two had come up with.

"Too true. I wonder, who do you think we should test it on first?" the second voice asked.

Butch looked Cassidy directly in the eyes and replied jokingly, "Oh, I have a fairly good idea on which of our friends would like to try it out."

"Oh yes," Cassidy laughed. "They'd be perfect!"

"I agree," said a third voice as he stepped forward from the depths of the shadows that concealed him.

Butch and Cassidy turned to face their Boss with amused expressions.

"You mean, you're actually going to go through with this crazy idea?" asked Butch.

"We weren't all that serious when we thought it up!" stated Cassidy. "It was just a sort of 'What If' scenario!"

"That is irrelevant. The point is, you thought it up, and I believe we can make it work. You forget that I have some of the world's best scientists on hand who can create almost anything I desire! It's an excellent idea. It will take some time for the scientists to create such a – 'potion', shall we call it – but it will be a great step towards world domination once it's complete. And I also agree that using Jessie and James to test it on is a good plan. If it doesn't work on them, it won't work on anyone! Good job, you two. You're dismissed."

Jessie grasped at the wall beside her as she crumpled to the ground. James stopped his march to the elevator and stood like a statue, waiting for his partner to get off the ground and continue in their assignment of going to the basement to move pokemon cages. A slight look of disgust and annoyance crossed his features, if that was possible.

It felt like she'd just plunged into icy cold waters. She spluttered for breath and hugged her sides which heaved with pain. Then, it was like her mind turned on. There was a dull drone that muddled her thoughts.

'What's going on?' It was so hard to think. Processing that thought alone, weakened her almost to the point of exhaustion. Her eyes wouldn't focus, and she had no chance of using any of her other senses. 'Where – no, must choose thoughts carefully, since… can't… think…' She needed to remember who she was. She was Jessie, she knew that. Ok, Jessie, what were you doing before this? A faint image of the electric rodent swirled by her mind's eye. Then she remembered what had happened, why she was like this.

Almost immediately with this revelation, the murkiness overtook her once more. The drone buzzed louder, blocking out her thoughts, disconnecting her mind and body again. But it wasn't before she had one last, effective thought, 'I am Jessie. I know who I am. They can't keep that from me forever. I will get out of this. I… won't… give up…' And all went black.

"Look who we found! They just fell out of the sky! Perfect timing, too!"

A Rocket Grunt held a fried Jessie and James by the collars of their uniforms. Another Grunt held a scruffy-looking Meowth and a burnt Wobbuffet under his arms. They were inside a building complex of some sort, and the room they were taken to was very dimly lit; colour was almost non-existent. Despite this, they could still recognize the red of the business suit of the Boss. He stood in front of them with an evil grin plastered across his face.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" spoke the Boss in a calm, yet teasing, tone. "My, my, you don't look all that good. What happened? You didn't lose in a battle, did you?" He didn't wait for a reply. "I haven't heard from you three in ages. That matters not, now, however. You are being given new assignments."

The trio looked up questioningly, and Wobbuffet spoke up their thoughts.

"Wobbu?"

"Ur – get back in your pokeball," Jessie uttered quietly, slightly aggravated, and returned Wobbuffet to its ball.

Giovanni seemed somewhat amused with this display and the smirk that was plastered to his face could only mean one thing. This gave our Team Rocket trio no comfort at all.

"Lenny, please escort Meowth to Lab 3-11 and tell Bernard he can begin his new task now." The grinning face was turned to Meowth, who gulped as the Rocket Grunt holding him dragged him out of the shady room.

The Boss turned his piercing stare onto Jessie and James.

"You can be of use to me, after all these years of disappointment."

He nodded to a figure that stood almost completely hidden in the corner of the room. The person stepped forward and revealed himself to be a scientist, dressed in a white lab coat and holding a needle with a murky olive-green liquid inside. Jessie cringed as the contents of the needle were injected into her upper left arm.

So many images flashed before her eyes it made her head spin.

"Mommy! Don't leave, Mommy! I don't want you to leave."

"I'll be back, don't you worry, my darling, my Jessie. Now could you please give your mother a nice smile for the camera?"

"I-I c-can't stop crying! Why do you have to go, Mommy?"

"Oh, dear…"

"My name's Jessie."

"I'm James."

"Do you ever wish you could fly away, James?"

"All the time!"

"Me too! Hey! Do you want to pretend that we're flying?"

"I dub thee, 'Chainer Jessie'! And you, 'Trainer Jimmy'!"

"Meowth! Glad ta meet ya! I can tell dat we'll be great teammates!"

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, dat's right!"

"Pikachu! Thuderbolt, NOW!"

"Team Rocket's Blasting Off Again!"

The visions began to blur. All was murky as Jessie's memories were taken from her, to be replaced by a hollow drone in her mind. The droning was very obedient.

"Off-Officer Jenny!" Misty panted as her and Brock met up with the police officer.

Jenny turned towards the source of the voice.

"We saw Jessie and James again – and Ash, he, I think he's gone after them!" Misty expressed with worry.

"What? What's all this about?" questioned the officer.

"Please, Jenny, it's our friend, Ash. He's chasing after the criminals as we speak, and Misty here is afraid he'll get hurt. He's always jumping into things without thinking," explained Brock.

"Oh dear. Does he know what he's getting himself into? This is one of the biggest operations the Team Rocket Organization has planned in a year. We haven't been this busy since the Red Gyarados incidence."

"Jenny!" yelled a desperate voice.

"Yes, Michael?"

"All of our growlithe – the ones that were resting in the pokeball room at the police station – are gone! Stolen!"

"What!" Jenny exclaimed, angered. "Hey, you kids said you saw the thieves? And your friend is going after them? I knew it! I knew their headquarters must be somewhere nearby! Michael, tell everyone to get their backup patrol pokemon prepped. We're going to stop these thieves if it's the last thing we do!"

Jessie and James were once again in the lowest basement, moving the many cages of the incoming pokemon. There were more Rocket minions now who were under the influence of the olive green 'potion'. Among the new test subjects were the pair that devised the experiment's creation. Cassidy and Butch worked alongside Jessie and James, and moved, looked, and were the same way; unnatural, unfeeling, dark. This ironic turn of events did not deter the pair, as they were lost to clouded, obedient minds.