RK9 Mew2: What indeed?

Shadow Huntress: I love writing Knuckles, he's just constant sass toward Sonic XD. And oh man, I spent a year backpacking around Australia, and on a road trip near flipped my sh*t when I saw an echidna trundling along the side of the road. Made everybody stop the car so I could dash out and have a real close look at them, they're so weird and adorable! XD Fingers crossed you get to see one! And as for Shadow, well...read on to find out...eventually^^;;;

LoneGarurumon: The Pokémon world is SO weird when you think about it (but of course, so is Sonic's) and I love it when two realities start to question the absurdities of one another :3 Glad you enjoy it, too!

Anon Tails Fan: Heh, my guess is everybody WANTS to cuddle Tails, but is trying to be extra-respectful to show that they know that they're people, not pets. :p Otherwise he wouldn't ever get out of hugs. ;)

Chapter Twelve: News Flash

It was a little while later (after people had dissuaded Knuckles from any impulse decisions regarding the termination of Sonic's existence) that the group, now consisting of seven members, was walking back through Viridian forest.

There had been quite a few explanations necessary, but now both Knuckles and Amy had been brought up to speed where the Pokémon-based culture of their current planet was concerned and Ash, Brock and Misty had been thoroughly lectured in the various applications (and misapplications) of Chaos Control - and what exactly had transpired yesterday morning on the home world of their visitors.

Pikachu was now also riding on Sonic's head, the little electric mouse still apparently having taken the biggest shine to the hedgehog ever since he had saved its master.

"Okay," Brock seemed to frown. "So, what you're basically saying is that to get home, you need to get this Emerald, and you may or may not be missing another one of your friends. The black hedgehog."

"Pretty much," Sonic shrugged. "That and maybe one weirdo crazy scientist, but I have no idea whether he came to your world with us or not. I hope not..."

"I think if he did, we should have heard something from him by now, shouldn't we?" Amy asked. "Eggman's not one to keep quiet, exactly..."

"Hah, no," Sonic gave a humourless snort. "You gotta hand it to him, at least giant checkered wrecking balls and death star rip offs in the sky are kind of hard to miss."

"Giant wrecking balls? And...death stars?" Misty asked worriedly as they stepped back onto the grounds of the farm. So far, they had agreed to head back to Pallet town for a first strategy meeting, have a look at maps there and work out a plan on how to best divide their forces when looking for the missing gem stone. After the first experiences he'd had with them, Knuckles hadn't exactly been pleased with the notion of accepting more of human 'hospitality', but he also had had to admit he didn't have a better plan at the moment.

"Er, yeah," Sonic replied, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat awkwardly. "That thing he pulled with the transdimensional-energy-suck-thingamajiggy, that's, uh, something of a regular Thursday afternoon with that guy back home. So I'm kinda hoping he didn't come here as well."

"Well, if he did, we won't let him get away with anything of that sort here," Ash said, determined. "Right, Pikachu?"

"Chuu!" Pikachu seemed to agree, nodding resolutely on Sonic's head.

Tails glanced up. "You mean, if he tries to attack here, you'll fight him with your Pokémon?"

"Well, yeah, sure," Misty said. "It's our home, after all."

"Um, yes, but..." Amy also cleared her throat. "I don't know, all this, the Pokémon battling for you and fighting in those arenas you told us about...isn't that kind of barbaric?" she asked, ears folded flat, expression anxious. "Most of them are so small and cute..."

"Well, we don't make them fight against their will," Brock cut in, gently. "It's in their nature to strive to overcome challenges – like, for example, battles - and to want to become stronger." He smiled. "They're not too different from us humans in that aspect."

"But you said you capture them to do it. If you have to imprison someone to make them do something, doesn't that mean they don't really want to do it?" Amy pointed out. "Sonic even said you tried to capture him! "

Ash winced. "Well, yeah, but that was a kinda misunderstanding. Y'see, usually when a wild Pokémon jumps out to confront a human it's because it wants to see whether they are strong and skilled enough to become its trainer. By defeating it you gain its respect and it understands that training with you will help it to become as strong as the Pokémon in your care. If a Pokémon doesn't want to be captured in the first place, it would stay hidden."

"But what if it only approached you to become friends?" Tails asked with a frown. "I know I wouldn't want to fight with anybody, I'd just want to talk to people..."

"Or what if it just approached you to ask what the heck this place is," Knuckles commented from the side. "'course, I dunno where I came up with that crazy random happenstance, but..."

"Um, but, generally, Pokémon trainers are good people," Ash tried slightly awkwardly. "If you capture a Pokémon and then see that it is really unhappy with you, you try and start figuring out what the problem is – or release it in case it really doesn't work."

"Well, it's a good thing that humans have this uncanny ability to never make a wrong judgement ever then, isn't it?" Knuckles remarked flatly.

"Well, uhm, we try," Ash said slightly helplessly, also exchanging a pleading glance with Misty and the older Brock to help him here, "And, and whenever we met somebody who had trouble with their Pokémon we can usually help them because it's a misunderstanding-"

"Come on, Knucklehead, they're kids," Sonic hissed at this point under his breath, elbowing his friend and rival in the side (which was in retrospect a bad move, mostly because elbowing Knuckles had a similar effect to elbowing a concrete block) "It's obvious they're trying to be nice to us, now quit being so hard on them."

The echidna snorted. "You're playing with fire, hedgehog. But it's your call."

"Um, what, what do you think, Amy?" Tails asked, perhaps slightly louder than necessary over Knuckles' comment, "You said Misty's sisters were nice to you, weren't they?"

"Well...yes," Amy said, looking like she also found this an awkward topic, especially with everyone listening to her. She threw a slightly tense glance at Misty, obviously not quite sure how close the human girl's relationship with her sisters even was. "They, um, really tried to make me feel welcome. Even though they thought I was a Pokémon. I...thought they were really good people, yeah."

"They might have been," Knuckles shrugged. "Others might not."

"And you, Sonic?" Tails ventured, now looking at the hedgehog like he was hoping he might be able to offer a solution to this dilemma.

Sonic shifted somewhat uncomfortably. The topic was definitely a bit of a delicate one in their current constellation, and difficult, too – on the one hand, he was pretty much the personification of personal freedom on Mobius, and there was scarcely anything he hated more than slavery and taking away of people's rights and dignity, which was what Robotnik and various other villains attempted every other day of the week. The thought that first Ash – and then even Oak – at first sight had attempted to capture and train him like a feral animal had rankled deeply.

However, Sonic also couldn't help but consider that, as soon as communication had been established, they had immediately backed off that notion and apologized, Misty's sisters seemed to have treated Amy...maybe not quite like a human, Sonic thought somewhat queasily, but they had still been kind, hadn't abused her or done anything against her will to her. In fact, the only one who had run into actual trouble with these people had been Knuckles (and boy, had his wannabe captors been cured of that idea...) and the humans who had attempted to harm him seemed to be despised as thieves and outcasts by the other people of this planet.

Lastly, no matter what you said, there did seem to be genuine friendship between Pikachu and Ash, or the other Pokémon that had been fed at the ranch yesterday night...

Sonic sighed. He still couldn't say he was completely and 100% on board with the idea of the culture of this planet yet, but he had to admit it didn't actually seem bad. He took a breath.

"Well, it's their world, li'l buddy. I honestly do think the Pokémon here are more like...yeah, intelligent animals than people. Maybe like...Chao?" Sonic suggested, glad to see that the body language of their human friends was relaxing a bit at his words. "And we keep them as pets and make them learn tricks and compete in races and Chao karate and things, and they seem to like it, so...?"

"Hm. That's true." Amy pursed her lips. "I also thought they were kinda like Flickie birds when I saw them. Even if that duck was a total pervert," she muttered to the side.

"If we do find anyone abusing their Pokémon, I'd say they're fair game, though," Sonic said, again casting a side glance at Ash and the others to see how they might take that comment, and was happy to see that they from their expressions at least, seemed to be agreeing with that sentiment.

"But I guess if you wanted to take somebody's Pokémon away...I dunno, I still haven't quite figured out how you take them around with you. Does it have anything to do with those spheres?" he asked, nodding at the red and white balls at Ash's hip. "Everyone around here seems to have them."

"Yeah, those things – I meant to ask, what are they?" Tails asked with a quizzical expression, walking close to the humans again and tilting up his head so his nose was nearly touching one of the orbs on Brock's belt.

"Do you want to have a look at them? They're called Pokéballs. This is an empty one," Brock said, apparently also relieved at the topic change as he reached for one of them, dislodging it and handing it down to the fox kit. Tails' eyes widened in fascination as the ball also abruptly changed size at the contact with the human's fingers, easily growing to the size of Brock's fist.

"Yeah, we use them to carry and store our Pokémon when we travel. Why don't you show them, Ash?" Misty asked and the boy nodded.

"Huh, yeah, guess I could – okay, watch this. Bulbasaur, it's your turn!" he suddenly called, at the same time throwing one of the Pokéballs into the air. The Mobians watched as it flew in a graceful arc, only to burst open to release a red flash of energy that then reformed into...well, a feral tortoise with an onion for a shell, if Sonic had been asked to name the thing. The little green creature had materialized in a leap and landed easily, shaking itself for a moment, before cocking its head at its audience.

"Buuuuulbasaur!" it informed them all helpfully. Sonic thought it looked quite pleased with itself.

"Hey, Bulbasaur, great work!" Ash grinned at it. "Now come back!" he called out, at the same time holding out the ball which Sonic hadn't even realized he'd picked up again. The same ray of red energy emerged from the center of the closed sphere, hitting the Pokémon and dissolving it back into light, which then vanished inside the gadget.

"Amazing," Tails muttered. "We don't have anything like it on our world." ('Only if you discount Robotnik's prison capsules, yeah', Knuckles muttered, but was ignored.)

"And it doesn't hurt the Pokémon?" Sonic asked. "Can't imagine it's comfortable in there..." he poked the ball Ash held out to him and cocked his head a little, thereby also nearly dislodging Pikachu perching there.

"Oh, no." Brock shook his head. "We think they quite like it in there. No Pokémon has ever shown signs of distress after exiting its Pokéball or exhibited fear at the sight of them."

"Huh," Sonic managed, for some reason now suddenly looking calculating. "And all you have to do to get one inside of them is point it at them and say 'come back'?"

"Well, if it's the first time you're capturing it, you need to throw the ball," Ash said, "But-"

"Cool! Can I borrow this one?" Sonic asked with a grin, at the same time already having snatched the empty ball out of Tails' hands.

"Hey, wait-!"

"Knuckles! COME BACK!"

"What the-?!"

And then the guardian of the Master Emerald was already cut off, mostly because he had disappeared the moment Sonic had thrown the Pokeball straight at his face.

A small, twitching, red-and-white sphere dropped to the ground where he had just stood. Sonic punched the air.

"Awesome!"

"Sonic! What did you just do?!" Tails looked mildly horrified, while the hedgehog had already raced forward and picked up the ball.

"You saw what I just did! I'm a Pokémon trainer now!" He grinned, before then abruptly looking contemplative. "Well. Echidna trainer, I suppose." Then he grinned again, peering at the mildly vibrating sphere in his hand. "Anyway, point is, Knucklehead has never been so not annoying!"

"Uhh..." Ash was only now slowly raising a finger, also sporting a rather worried expression, "Actually, Sonic, when a Pokémon is unwilling to be caught and you haven't weakened them before, they can-"

It was at this point that the ball exploded, and Knuckles burst back into existence. He did this, naturally, also with a fist into the hedgehog's face.

"WHAT THE HELL SONIC!"

"Yeeeeah..." Misty gave a pained grimace. "And when they do, they generally aren't too happy." She chanced a look over at her friend. "Reminded of Charizard, much, Ash?"

"He certainly does have the temper of a fire Pokémon." Brock nodded earnestly, and Tails wondered whether they would, in fact, have any difficulty fitting in here at all as they all watched both the maniacally laughing hedgehog and the irate echidna currently tearing over the grounds of the farm, accompanied by 'I'll stick YOU into a ball! AND mash you into pulp beforehand!'

xxx

"Ow. Ow. Not there. Ow."

"Serves you right."

The last sentence was growled rather resentfully by a certain echidna, now also sitting at the breakfast table in Professor Oak's kitchen. Next to him, Brock was currently trying to dab some antiseptic onto the various cuts and bruises Sonic sported due to the high-speed chase through the laboratory's grounds after the hedgehog had thought throwing a Pokéball at the Guardian of Angel island was a good idea.

"Totally – ow! - worth it. Ow."

"And here I thought aliens from another culture and civilisation would somehow turn out to be wiser and more advanced than the guys from this planet," Misty muttered. "Guess not."

"Was that why you were trying to attack Sonic when you wanted to capture him, then?" Tails asked Ash, curiously. "Because otherwise he'd just have broken out of the ball?"

"Yes." Ash nodded. "And, like I said, that's how you show a Pokémon your prowess as a trainer so you can earn its respect."

"Hm," Tails (who knew that Sonic earning Knuckles' respect at this point was probably impossible unless he somehow gave birth to a second Master Emerald, and wasn't that an image that would follow him into his nightmares) nodded cautiously. "Can you also capture humans with them?"

"No." Brock shook his head. "There's safeguards against that."

"Figures," Knuckles muttered, but was mostly drowned out by Misty's cheerful:

"Ash once totally managed to capture a riceball, though!" and Ash's embarrassed "Misty!" in turn.

"So, anyway, if we could get to actually planning how to find that Emerald we need to Chaos Control ourselves home now-" Knuckles cleared his throat, but was interrupted when the door opened, admitting yet another person into the (already crowded) kitchen.

"Everyone, I think I've just read something that – oh. Hello." Oak blinked at the sudden increase of people in his living quarters. "You've found some more of your friends, then?"

"'Friends' is stretching it," Knuckles grumbled, but Amy was more than quick enough to smile. "Yes, hello! I'm Amy Rose. You're Professor Oak, right?"

"That's right," the older human nodded. "Samuel Oak, at your service."

"Yes! You still gotta show me your laboratory!" Tails piped up, bouncing on his chair excitedly (and Sonic privately thinking that he'd likely have to prize his little brother from this place with a crowbar when it became time to go home).

"Sure, sure," Oak laughed, trying to make a calming hand gesture, "But I'm actually here because of something I saw in the local newspaper. Does this look familiar to you?"

He put down a page of the Pallet Town Pokénews ("Is there anything that isn't a Poké-something?" Knuckles asked) and pointed at a mid-sized article under the heading 'Community Heroes'.

"Local Boy Bug Catcher True Gem – Finds Jewel And Donates It," Sonic read aloud. "Wow. Talk about coincidences."

"Not that unlikely, actually." Tails cocked his head. "Apart from Amy, all three of us landed somewhere around Viridian City. I was hoping the Emerald might not be so far off. And since the hobby of everyone around here seems to be running around outside all day and...for some reason shuffling in grass a lot..." he trailed off for a moment, his face creased in a bit of a confused frown at the behaviour they'd observed from quite a few kids on Route 1, "...well. I was thinking sooner or later someone was bound to find it."

"So, that is it, then? Your Emerald?" Misty asked, peering at the (obviously amateur, but at least colour) picture to go with the article. The photograph showed what was unmistakeably the dark blue Chaos Emerald Robotnik had had wired into his machine.

In the picture it was resting on the hand of a young boy around Ash's age who was dressed in loose khakis and a sleeveless shirt, sandals and a straw hat, the very picture of summer outdoor activities, completed by the butterfly net he was holding in his other hand. He also seemed to be in the process of handing the Emerald over to a crew of smiling adults in suits and business costumes, all of them posing for the camera.

"Yes," Sonic confirmed. "Who are those guys he's giving it to?"

"It says here they're a 'Interesting Geography Research Society'," Amy pointed at the tag line of the picture. "Listen," she read aloud:

"'Yeah, I don't really care for gem stones. I think they're more interesting for rock-type trainers,' says Bug Catcher humbly as he donates the large jewel he found in Viridian Forest while on his search for the Beedrill rumoured to rule it.

'Honestly, I think you don't need a lot of money in life,' young Catcher says happily when questioned about the large value the strange gem could potentially be worth. 'I think you can also be happy just with simple things, like shorts. I like shorts. They're comfy and easy to wear!'

"He...sounds like a man of simple pleasures?" Amy hazarded a guess.

"His literal name is Bug Catcher?" Tails asked and Ash shrugged, a bit helplessly.

"It's actually a real popular name around here!"

"The as of yet undetermined jewel will be taken to the IGR laboratories of the Pewter Museum of Science to be examined and at a later date be put on display for public viewing in the rock section with a commemorative plaque telling people of the young local hero's generous donation," Knuckles continued reading aloud, then frowned. "The rest of the article talks about bug type Pokémon. And then about rock types and then about bug types again." He looked up at the humans with a frown. "Do you people have literally any other interests on this planet?"

"You don't know the half of it," Sonic muttered under his breath, but aloud he said, "It's their collective planetary hobby, Knucklehead. Lay off. More important is, how can we get the Emerald back?"

"Hm. You don't think they'd kind of give it to us if we asked them nicely, do you?" Tails scratched his ears. "It could be worth a try?"

"And say what, exactly?" Amy asked, looking doubtful, "'Hello, we're aliens, came here by accident, that Emerald belongs to our planet, please give it back'?"

"Well, it is worth a shot, isn't it?" Oak said, scratching his head. "Only you can't communicate by telephone because of the translator limitations, so I'll make that call for you. Just a moment." He nodded at them before whirling around and striding out of the room toward the laboratory. Inside, the sounds of keyboard clacking were briefly heard and then -

"Yes, hello? This is professor Samuel Oak. I'm just calling about that mystery gem stone from the Newspaper. Yes. Yes. Yes, actually...we have a group of aliens staying with us, they came here by accident, that Emerald belongs to their planet, so please give it back." There was a brief pause, then Oak looked at the receiver. "Hello? Hello?"

He stared at the group in the kitchen. Most of them had already face-palmed. "They hung up on me!" he exclaimed.

"No, really? I wonder why," Knuckles muttered under his breath, but then he cleared his throat and continued more audibly:

"Okay, then. Since we didn't actually expect anything else, let's go back to the more practical plan. We take it by force."

"You mean...steal it?" Ash asked, looking uncomfortable. "That sounds more like something Team Rocket would do..."

"Don't compare me to those loons," Knuckles said, eyes flashing in warning. "No. I'm not a thief. But this isn't theft because the Emerald belongs to us by right. Even in a world where we don't seem to have any rights by default."

The remark let the three younger humans reflexively glance at the floor, awkward now. Sonic sighed.

"Hey. Relax, Knucklehead is just being the Crimson Grinch again. But I think he is right," Sonic said, quickly as the echidna had already risen to his feet with a growl. "The fastest way to get at the Emerald would be to, yeah, steal it. Or take it back. Whatever. And we might be doing them a favour, too," Sonic said, glancing up at their friends (who still didn't look too happy with that situation) meaningfully.

"I told you we got here after things went wrong and ended in an explosion, right? Well, the Chaos Emeralds contain a lot of energy and they are not the most stable containers for it, as you can probably guess from the name. So far, the results of scientists poking at them on our world have always been...not…great," Sonic said, with a wince. "And holding on to one of them can be dangerous for more than one reason."

"Robotnik. And Shadow," Tails said, speaking aloud just what exactly Sonic had been thinking. At the humans' puzzled glances, the little fox added, "If they came with us, they would likely be hunting for that Emerald, too. And...neither of them would be particularly nice about it."

"I see," Brock frowned. "That does change things, you're right. I don't like it that much, either," he said, squinting at Ash and Misty, "But maybe them taking that gem stone as soon as possible is for the best. I don't want anything to happen that could hurt someone in Pewter City."

"Pewter City - that where the museum is?" Sonic cocked his head.

"Yeah. I'm the Gym leader of that city," Brock replied, and Sonic thought you had to be deaf not to hear the pride in his words. "Or, well. I was, anyway. Currently it's my dad looking after it. But still. It's my hometown. And if there's anything I can do to protect it, I will."

"First sensible thing anyone's said all day," Knuckles grunted, giving a curt nod of grudging acknowledgement toward the older boy. "Does that mean you would be willing to help us recover the Emerald?"

"Well...if it's for the best for everyone, then yes," Brock nodded. "Misty? Ash?"

Ash bit his lip as the stares zeroed in on him. "I...don't know. I don't like the idea of stealing. Or breaking in somewhere." His voice was quiet, but determined. "I don't think that's what the good guys are supposed to do."

There was a moment of tense silence at the table. Sonic and Knuckles exchanged glances, the hedgehog fairly sure he could read the silent question in his friend and rival's eyes – Shall we ditch them?

Sonic knew Knuckles would be pragmatic about this – the Guardian of Angel Island had a far stricter moral code than Sonic, who was mostly flexible as long as nobody got seriously hurt, but he correctly suspected Knuckles also didn't care much about the rights of anybody who in his view had wronged him first.

Sonic himself technically also didn't mind breaking into a museum if it meant that the Emerald would be in safe hands again, and he was fairly certain Tails and Amy would trust his judgement on the matter as well. But if that meant alienating Ash and his friends...Sonic could see that at heart, the boy was a good kid. Someone who tried to stick to the rules far more than him, at any rate. His eyes flickered back from Knuckles to Ash, trying to think of what he could say that wouldn't leave a bad taste in his mouth.

To his surprise, it was someone else who spoke first.

"Hey...Ash?"

"Yes?" The human looked slightly surprised as he turned toward Amy, who had addressed him. The smaller hedgehog fiddled a bit with her gloves, but then still looked directly at him and Misty when she spoke.

"I just...I think you should know we don't like stealing either. And we wouldn't do anything like that here, if we didn't have to. You've maybe seen that I like Sonic a lot," she said, a smile and a blush flitting across her face (and just a blush flitting across Sonic's), but when she continued, none of the seriousness had left her tone. "But the reason I like him is because he'd never do anything to hurt anybody. And everything he does do is to help people. He risks his life for others, nearly everyday," she emphasized, looking at the humans with wide, earnest eyes (also disregarding Sonic who was by now mainly looking anywhere else).

"He risked it for me a couple of times, too." Here she briefly glanced at the table, but then just as quickly looked back up. "But that's why I think if Sonic says that the best thing for everybody is to go and take the Emerald, then I trust him." She tried a smile. "Do you think you can trust him, too?"

The stares of the people at the table abruptly shifted to Sonic (who looked just a bit more flustered than he had a moment ago). "A-Amy..."

"Is that...really true?" Misty asked, interrupting him. "You risk your life for people?"

"Uh, well," Sonic finally looked away from Amy and cleared his throat. "Back home, we kinda all do. Even Knux, though you wouldn't guess it from looking at him," he said, casting a glance back at the echidna with a wryly raised eye ridge. The echidna shrugged, but also looked back at Misty.

"You've seen how that hedgehog fought against your pet monsters, I assume. Did you think he got this good at fighting by living a particularly peaceful life?"

"We...kind of thought that's just how you people were," Ash admitted, taking off his cap and rubbing the back of his head, forehead creased in a frown. "We didn't know it was this dangerous on your planet."

"Sonic tries to make sure it isn't for anyone else," Amy said, before giving a slightly pained smile. "And, well – even if it's dangerous, it's home. And without the Emerald, we can't go back."

She didn't say anything more. She didn't need to. The unspoken question hung in the air loud enough.

Finally, Ash sighed.

"...okay. We'll help you."

"Yes! Thank you, Ash, everyone!" Amy exclaimed, abruptly lighting up together with Tails and Sonic, even Knuckles' body language relaxing and becoming marginally friendlier. "You won't regret it!"

"And you're sure nobody is going to get hurt when you try to...retrieve your Emerald?" Misty asked, still looking slightly worried.

"Nah, I'm sure it'll be fine," Sonic nodded with a reassuring smile. "I'm the fastest thing alive, and Tails is a whiz kid when it comes to strategy development. I'm sure whatever plan he comes up with will make this a fairly easy mission."

xxx

"This is what now?"

"A message. From the boss." Jessie said, crumpling the piece of paper the delibird had delivered into one of her pockets. "We're supposed to contact him for new orders ."

"Is it a mission to steal food? I hope it's a mission to steal food," James mumbled sadly, clutching at his empty stomach. The Team Rocket trio was currently huddling in an alley of the city where the horrible red not-Pokémon had made them walk to and was trying to hide from a suspicious Officer Jenny who had already walked past the mouth of said alley three times.

"Oh, shut up now," Jessie said, trying to fiddle with the tablet they had stolen from a nearby electronics market (which was probably the reason the officer was looking around so suspiciously). "I've almost gotten a signal...there. Hello, Sir," she said as a shadowy figure of a man appeared in the chat window. The other two members of Team Rocket immediately tried to scramble to attention, which resulted in Meowth leaping onto James' head and the purple-haired man faceplanting onto the tablet PC.

Something like a sigh seemed to issue from the computer's speakers.

"Jessie. James. Something has come up," the angular-faced, orange-suited man on the screen said as they had all managed to prop the tablet up against a garbage can and were now kneeling in front of it. "And unfortunately, you three are the only agents in the area that I can spare for this."

"Of- of course, boss Giovanni! We won't disappoint ya!" Meowth nodded hastily. "Any Pokémon at all, we can get it for ya! Um...just still workin' on dose jigglypuffs, dough..."

The man on screen now seemed to have developed a headache.

"It's not about Pokémon this time," he said, irritably. A larger, cream-coloured cat Pokémon with a red jewel embedded in its forehead took this as an opportunity to lay its head on his lap, its ears twitching in contentment as he began to pat it absent-mindedly. "I need you to steal something else."

"Is it food?" James asked hopefully. Jessie smacked him.

"Sir, I'm sorry for my partner. Please, tell us what we need to do."

Giovanni pinched the skin above his nose. "The Pewter Science Museum has recently received a large, mysterious gem stone. I need you to steal it without attracting attention."

"Steal a gem stone?" Meowth asked, surprised. "But why-?"

"Meowth, be quiet!" Jessie hissed, quickly putting a hand on the back of his head and pressing him face forward into the concrete. There were muffled protests. "Whatever the boss wants, the boss gets, okay?"

"If you really are interested, a third party has offered a substantial reward for whoever can get him that stone without it being traceable who took it," Giovanni drawled. "And since your exploits have been a constant drain on Team Rocket's finances pretty much from Day One, I suggest you do your best to at least slightly remedy this situation. Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Of course, sir!"

"Mpf!"

There were three attempts at salutes with varying success. Giovanni nodded.

"Good. Now go and get that gem stone or else."

xxx

"Eyup!" Sonic stated once again confidently. "I'm sure that mission will be a piece of cake!"

To be continued...

Well, well, the team's almost together and the plot is looming! How well will The Great Chaos Caper go? Read on to find out...hope you liked, and if you read, please review! :D