"Hey losers."
Cassidy's voice rang out in the vacant room, prompting Jessie, James and Meowth to turn in her direction. Like them, she wore civilian clothing, her usual dress replaced with a pleated red skirt and a frayed jumper, hair falling down her back in a single plait. She raised her eyebrows critically at their getup. "You didn't think to cover your heads? The cops'll be on you morons the moment we set foot in Sinnoh."
"If we'd been given a little more notice you wouldn't even recognise us," Jessie rejoined sourly. It was true that their outfits had been thrown together quickly; only a few minutes ago had the young agent knocked at their door and informed them their mission was underway and that they needed to be ready. "What's with all the urgency, anyway?"
"Don't ask me. Carter sprung it on all of us. He's probably orchestrating a dozen missions at once, judging by how stressed he sounded over the phone." She flicked her hand towards the door. "Come on, let's move it."
They rode the elevator down to the ground floor and strode with haste through the building, passing clusters of agents as they moved. Cassidy led the way into one of the briefing rooms and reached for the light switch before realising the light was already on.
Crouched down at the opposite end of the room was a young woman, her face towards the floor as her hand almost robotically petted the Persian next to her. She looked up as soon as she heard them enter, and quickly stood, recalling the cat pokémon to its pokéball as if she'd been caught doing something beneath her. James recognised her in an instant.
"Domino?" he questioned, taken aback. With her hair hanging in soft strands rather than curled as it usually was, she looked significantly different- less stiff, somehow- though it was unmistakably her, the very same girl who'd taken delight in ordering himself and Jessie around way back when Giovanni had been trying to attain Mewtwo. Jessie had evidently not forgotten that fact.
"You!" she gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the younger agent. Domino's fairly blank- if slightly despondent- expression morphed into one of mild disgust.
"Oh, you two. It's a wonder you're still around."
"What's that meant to mean?" Meowth snarled back.
"Stop bitching," Cassidy deadpanned. "I'm going to get Butch." She frowned at their unchanged hairstyles again. "And some hats."
Once she'd left, Jessie snapped: "Weren't you stationed in Kanto?"
"I was," Domino replied, putting on a sarcastic simper. "They flew me out here for the mission. Someone needs to lead you idiots."
Meowth hardened his glare on Domino. "An' what's wid da Persian? Dat smug, overgrown-"
"Wait," James interrupted. "Was that the boss's Persian?"
Domino sighed. "Giovanni's. Yes. It was just sitting around in his office all day, so... It's none of your business, anyway. By all rights you should be gone by now."
"Gone?" Jessie repeated, daring her to elaborate. Domino smirked.
"Fired. Killed."
"Listen here you brat-"
The squeak of the opening door cut Jessie off. Butch and Cassidy walked in, the latter holding a small box in her hands.
"Here," she said, tossing a beanie to James and a packet of hairbands and a cap to Jessie. "You can change your hair on the journey, we've gotta get going."
A group of about ten other Rockets- grunts, most likely- were waiting for them on the aircraft, mostly looking as unprepared as James felt. It had been three days since they'd discovered Harvey and Logan to be missing, and the shock of it had yet to fade. All that coupled with the lack of warning for the mission's start, he felt almost as if he was dreaming, not really there but observing something unreal and distant.
The aircraft started up once everyone was seated, and Butch tossed them all headsets so he could be heard over the whir of the blades above.
"All right," he began, directing this at the grunts, "you lot don't need to know much more than you'll be following our orders when we get there. We'll split you into about three groups- you'll either go with myself and Cassidy, Domino, or-" he gestured dismissively to Jessie and James, "-them. Me and Cassidy will be working on diverting the police's attention for the foreseeable future, and Domino- as she already knows- will be going around the region posting bail for all the agents who've been caught and have since contacted us for help." He somewhat reluctantly looked to Jessie, James and Meowth. "You're responsible for rounding up the agents who haven't been captured by the police, but are still stranded in Sinnoh. Anyone out of jail who called in was given directions to one of the Team Rocket owned businesses- one of the cafés. That's where you'll be positioned."
"Why not just go the extra mile and tell 'em to meet us at the spot we're landing at?" Jessie queried. "Seems like that'd save us a lot of trouble."
"Because, genius, there's a fair chance at least one of the calls we got was being tapped or monitored by the cops," Domino said, rolling her eyes. "If we told everyone the extraction point and the police show up, we're all busted and the whole thing goes to shit."
Cassidy nodded. "The agents who meet you at the address we gave them will be given directions to the extraction point. Then they'll leave the café individually and take public transport there, to prevent them from being followed. Meowth and a couple of other agents will be positioned inside the café, in the back room, to meet the agents who show up, check that no one's bugged and give them the instructions. Jessie and James- you'll be outside the building itself, posing as employees advertising the café. Basically, your job is to yell and make it obvious where the agents are meant to go, in case anyone gets lost."
"Uh, backing up a bit here," Meowth said, his paw raised. "Ya said da cops could have tapped one of da phone calls... So what if dey do show up?"
"Honestly, there's a good chance that'll happen, between the lack of security regarding those phone calls and Jessie and James being so high-profile," Butch admitted. "But we're hoping that if it does happen, a good number of the agents will already be on their way to the extraction. Hence why you'll be sending them out in batches rather than waiting for them all to arrive. If you see the police, don't tell any more agents where they're meant to be going, and don't try to meet up with us, for Arceus' sake. If the cops know you're there they'll be sure to track anyone from that point on. Get away if you can, and then make it back to the pick up point once you're sure you're not being followed, but otherwise, we'll bail you out. The risk of arrest should be worth it, even if we only manage to get a few people back."
Jessie huffed, and crossed her arms. "Who would've guessed that you'd give us the job with the most danger of something going wrong?"
"We gave you the easiest job," Domino muttered in dismission. The trio scowled at her, but didn't argue back, considering everyone on board could hear their conversation. Better to maintain some illusion of being professional.
When the aircraft eventually landed several hours later on the large stretch of earth far enough from civilisation to be ignored, they disembarked (Jessie and James now sporting the hats Cassidy had provided) and eyed their surroundings cautiously. The rumours of the problems in Sinnoh had clearly not passed anybody by, as the group as a whole looked notably wary, even out there in the wilderness. They unloaded the boxes Butch and Cassidy had brought, walked for about half an hour to the edge of town, hailed down a few taxis, and arrived at a vacant building atop a slight hill.
"This isn't the café, is it?" a male grunt asked, frowning at the place.
"No," Cassidy confirmed. "This is our distraction." She looked over her shoulder at the building. "Team Rocket used to use this as a side business, sort of like the Game Corner in Kanto," she explained. "We stopped using it years ago, but we still own it- under an alias, of course. Neither the public nor the police have any idea it's tied to us, which makes it perfect for... Well. You'll see."
Butch scanned the group for a couple of seconds. "You and you," he said, pointing to two of the grunts. "Take those boxes inside. Be careful with them."
His subordinates swiftly did as he said, jolting into motion. Three more left with Domino, who twirled a set of car keys around her finger before setting off.
"Enough with the mystery," Jessie said impatiently. "What's in the boxes?"
"Explosives," came Cassidy's short answer. She looked suitably pleased with the surprised expressions she got from her rivals at this. "See, we want the police to be occupied with something other than tracking our operatives down- not just today, but for a while after, too. If they think some maniac is going around blowing up buildings, they'll be forced to look into it. This way, no one gets hurt, and the cops are left wondering about some imaginary threat."
James gawked at the grunts walking into the building, the boxes held to their chests. Next to him, Butch grinned, holding up his clenched fists and then splaying his fingers out.
"Boom."
James was very glad to be far away from the place long before it actually exploded. The location of the café proved to be wildly different, right in the middle of a bustling town, open to the world. Waiters milled about between occupied tables, oblivious customers adding to the background noise. It didn't look any less innocent than the businesses surrounding it.
They'd been told beforehand not to talk to the staff too much- only a handful of them knew who their employers were- but that, as usual, asking for anything "at rocket speed" was the coded signal of alliance. Along with the two grunts accompanying them, they soon got access to the back room of the café after a quick chat with one of the more knowledgeable waitresses.
"Right- Meowth and you two, stay here and give the aircraft's location out to the agents we send to you as soon as you're sure they're not wearing a wire or something," Jessie said. "Me and James will head outside and round up the stragglers. We'll call it a day when the place closes."
More than somewhat anxious, James walked back outside with her, getting a few odd looks from the assumedly innocent members of staff. He couldn't say he was feeling good about their role in the mission.
"Ironic, huh?" Jessie commented once they were on the street again, her voice safely washed out by the volume of the crowd of people outside. "A few days ago we were trying to get agents out of Team Rocket, and now we're trying to get them back in." She chuckled.
"Well... It's not like we have much of a choice," James said.
"Hm. I suppose it's better than leaving them for the police..." Jessie didn't sound too sure about her statement, but shook her head. "Never mind that now. Let's just get on with it." She breathed out, and added bitterly: "As long as we're not killing anyone." Her face suddenly bright with enthusiasm, she smiled at a passing couple. "Café Chrome is open for business, feel free to stop by!"
James followed her lead, putting a bit of distance between himself and his partner to cover as much ground as possible. Whilst he yelled out all the propaganda he could come up with, he observed the people around him, trying to work out who might be an agent. For the first couple of minutes, the only people he spoke to were genuinely potential customers; he waved them towards the café with all the zeal he could muster.
"Café Chrome: service at rocket speed!" he shouted for what already felt like the hundredth time. Botch really should have given them megaphones. As he was musing this, a woman approached him, eyes darting around. "Hello," James greeted inconspicuously.
"You the Team Rocket guy?" the woman blurted. James went pale.
"Shh!" he hushed, praying that no one else had heard her. "Use the code- ask for service at rocket speed," he whispered.
"Right. Okay, thanks." The woman walked off towards the café, clearly eager to get out of plain sight.
James counted four more definite agents after her who came up to him, and two people who he thought might have been Rockets, but wasn't sure about. A couple of hours had passed when Jessie tapped him on the shoulder.
"How you getting on?"
"All right," he answered. "I reckon about five so far."
"My throat kills," Jessie moaned. "Maybe we should go and ask those grunts to swap shifts for a while. They can handle a bit of shouting, right?"
"Uh, excuse me?"
They both turned to see a couple of people, a man and a woman, facing them with some apprehension.
"Yes?" Jessie replied, quickly putting on a cheery tone again.
"The café- did you say 'service at rocket speed'?"
"Certainly!" Jessie beamed. "Just ask at the till."
"Oh, thank you," the man said, breaking into a relieved smile. "Um... Do you mind showing us where it is? I'm not sure..."
"Of course, sir," Jessie said. She leaned towards James. "Let's show them the way and then get the grunts to swap places," she mumbled into his ear. He nodded his agreement.
Along with the two other people, they made their way through the herd of pedestrians back to the building.
"So we, er, go to the bar, or..." The woman trailed off, swallowing as she glanced around fearfully.
"We can show you," James offered, sympathetic to their nerves.
"Oh, thank you so much," the man said shakily. "We didn't even know if this was the right place or..." He exhaled.
"It's no problem." Jessie nodded to one of the waiters, who smiled back and let them through the 'staff only' door at the back. "Just in here," she said, holding the door open for them then closing it behind her. "Two more for you, Meowth... Hey, you two-" she looked to the grunts, "-fancy some yelling?"
"All right, stay where you are, hands on your heads!"
James felt himself tense with terror at the command, looking behind him to the voice's owner. The man and woman they'd led back had pulled out batons- as well as police badges- and held them in silent threat.
"Oh shit," Jessie murmured.
"You brought fucking cops here?!" one of the grunts shrieked.
"I said hands on your heads, now! You're under arrest!"
Acting quickly, Jessie grasped at her belt and hurled a pokéball forwards; Gourgeist quickly appeared, turning to her for instructions. In retaliation, the plainclothes officers mimicked her, sending out a Growlithe and a Luxray.
James snapped himself out of his frozen state and released Inkay, who warbled happily before it saw the situation. James felt briefly guilty for not spending more time with his pokémon before fear swamped all other emotions once more.
"Gourgeist, Shadow Ball!"
The attack grazed the Growlithe, who jumped aside but not quite in time. Snarling, the dog pokémon picked itself up and yapped in anger.
"Meowth, leave with the others!" Jessie called out. The grunts didn't need any further encouragement, dashing through the fire exit behind them- Meowth, however, stood his ground.
"I ain't just gonna-"
"Use Thunder, Luxray!"
Gourgeist took the full brunt of the attack, crying out as it fell backwards. Jessie gritted her teeth.
James forced himself into action. "Inkay, Psybeam on Luxray!" he shouted. The Luxray let out a sharp yowl as it was hit.
"Give it up- you're surrounded," the female cop said icily while her colleague babbled orders into his walkie-talkie.
"Shadow Ball on Growlithe!" Jessie bellowed, ignoring the officer.
"Flamethrower!"
The two attacks collided mid-air, neither making it to their targets.
"Growlithe, use Bite!"
"Shado-"
Before Jessie could finish her sentence, the Growlithe sank its teeth into Gourgeist, rendering her unable to make the attack.
James willed some burst of inspiration to strike him, desperately trying to clear his head so he could think strategically. "Inkay-"
There was a metallic 'bang' as the fire door was kicked in behind them, slamming against the wall. Another officer stepped into the room, tazer poised. "Recall your pokémon!"
Jessie glanced at James, at Gourgeist and Inkay. Maybe they could last out a few more minutes- until more backup came and they were completely pummeled. Her instinct was to hold out as long as she could, but Gourgeist already looked to be in pretty bad shape. No point in hurting her further.
She sighed, and held out the pokéball. "Return."
Their pokémon (along with Meowth, who spat vitriol at the officers all the while) quickly taken away, Jessie and James were handcuffed, given an unenthusiastic reading of their rights, and hauled out of the café. They tried to keep their gazes down rather than meet the stares of the people who'd stopped to watch the display, but couldn't help but look up at the sound of further battling behind them. It seemed that some of the staff members had joined in the skirmish; customers fled the scene in terror as the police moved in on the building, overlapping yells accompanying the clashing attacks.
The officers holding them pushed the two into the back of a waiting police van before they could observe the fight in any more detail- the doors were shut, and Jessie laughed softly.
"That went well."
James flashed a feeble smile, sitting down on the metal bench. "At least this outcome was sort of expected, I suppose."
Ordinarily, he would have been much more panicked in such a situation, but the combination of the earlier promise of bail and the fact that reality still wasn't quite registering with him made the whole thing a lot less daunting. Unpleasant, certainly, but not unbearable. "How long do you think we'll have to wait until they come and get us?"
"Who knows," Jessie responded, shrugging her shoulders. "Sounded like it'd be today, but maybe they were just being optimistic so we wouldn't freak out."
"Let's hope not."
The doors opened again and three waiters were shoved inside the van, stumbling as they caught their balance awkwardly.
"Fuck you!" one of them yelled back as the doors slammed. They quickly turned their attention to Jessie and James. The waiter who'd given them access to the room in the first place- a man who looked to be in his early thirties with a swoop of black hair- glowered at them.
"Idiots!" he barked. "You led them right to us!"
James frowned. "I'm sorry-"
"Oh god," the youngest one sobbed, resting her head against the side of the van. "Oh shit."
"The agents who gave us this mission said they'd bail us out if something like this happened," Jessie told her gently. The girl sniffled, glaring at her.
"And you believe them?"
The van lurched forwards without warning, and Jessie pondered the statement. "More or less."
Within a minute of their arrival at the station they were whisked away to different interrogation rooms and thrown questions for the next hour and a half. It hadn't taken long for one of the cops to recognise the duo. Once they had, they seemed hell-bent on getting them to confess to various other crimes.
As a rule James wasn't very good at being uncourteous to people when it came to one on one encounters. Subsequently, it was difficult to ignore the balding detective interrogating him.
"If you give me the location that your accomplices were headed for, I could make this a whole lot better for you. It's obvious someone else orchestrated this little stunt- you could come out of this clean as anything, pal."
"Okay."
"I mean, your rap sheet..." The detective tutted gravely. "That's something we normally wouldn't negotiate with. But we can make exceptions. Honesty would take you a hell of a long way here. I'm optimistic you'll make the right choice."
"Mm."
"And the court'll love you, buddy. You're young- probably from an upper-class background too, judging by that voice, am I right? You play your cards right and you might even get down from a custodial sentence. I just need a location, names- I'd say a confession but you've all but given me one already, I mean, look at the evidence..."
The detective eventually gave up when it finally sunk in that he wasn't going to get more than two syllables at a time from James. Grudgingly, he relented and took him to a holding cell.
"You let me know if you feel like talking, okay pal?" the man asked, moving from the bars after locking the door. "Deal's still standing."
James watched him walk away with no small amount of relief.
He sat with his back against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest, and wondered if they'd given up with Jessie yet. Probably. Either that or some unfortunate soul had engaged in a battle of wills.
Not knowing what time it was troubled him. He would have liked to have had some sort of anchor, something to base how worried it was reasonable to be on, but his cell didn't even have a window to check if it was dark outside. James guessed about three hours had passed so far, though he knew that time slowed to a crawl in jail, so didn't trust his judgement.
He tried to sleep, failed, and lay on the cot fretting about whether what Butch had said was true at all, whether anyone was coming or if they'd just been the mission's collateral. Then the detective came back for round two, this time using solely scare tactics, telling James how severe some of his charges could be if he didn't give him something to work with. James found he had no problems ignoring him this time. The guy left with another "Something something blah blah pal."
James' thoughts chased themselves in circles: Harvey and Logan, getting out of here, Carter, Harry... Dejection had nearly taken over when the sound of rattling keys dragged him out of his thoughts. A cop unlocked the door to his cell and pulled it open, the metal joints creaking in complaint at their lack of maintenance.
"You're lucky, kid. Your lawyer just posted your bail."
Said lawyer turned out to be one of the grunts who'd left with Domino, now sporting a cheap pinstripe suit that appeared to be at least one size too small for him.
"What about Jessie?" James asked the grunt as they walked towards the entrance of the station.
"She's already waiting in the car outside. So's your weird cat."
Before the cop let James collect his shoelaces and pokéballs, she solemnly read him the terms of his bail- which included not leaving town- and proceeded to fit him with an ankle tag.
"Is- Is that necessary?" James stammered, asking himself how he was going to get out of this particular predicament.
"Considering your track record with escaping and not abiding by bail terms, yes," the cop told him stonily. She pushed the device shut so it pinched James' skin. "All right, you can go get your stuff."
They walked out into the bitter evening air towards the parked four by four, the streetlights fencing the darkness off into blotches. A distant rush of traffic was all that swallowed the silence. Jessie opened the car door for James as he got nearer, and he and the grunt climbed in.
Domino was in the driver's seat, sunglasses covering her eyes to hide her youth. "You know," she said tiredly, "when we said we'd bail you out, it wasn't an invitation to mess things up."
"Oh shut up," Jessie shot back. "We sent back all those agents, didn't we?" She paused, looking concerned. "They did make it back, right?"
"How do you think we knew you got arrested?"
James cleared his throat. "Um... Before you start driving, they put a tag on me," he said, hoping that Domino gave him a quick and painless death.
"Oh yeah, me too," Jessie added, much more flippantly.
Domino reached under her seat and produced a small toolkit. "Hold on, I'll come back there," she said, clambering over to the seats behind.
"You have the tools to remove these right here?" Jessie asked incredulously.
"Uh, yeah. What do you think I've been doing all day? You're not special, basically everyone had a tag."
It took her about ten minutes with each tracker: she cut halfway through the black plastic so the wires were exposed and then fitted a new, longer length of wire into the tag so the alarm wouldn't go off and notify the station when she cut through the rest of it. She then drove further away from the station before digging a couple of pokéballs out of a plastic bag and releasing the pokémon inside them. Two Bulbasaur appeared, crawling over her lap.
"Aaand voila," Domino said as she attached the removed tags to each of the pokémon with some string. She took the Bulbasaur out of the car, and placed them down in a patch of grass. They absently began trotting off in the direction of some bushes; she observed them for a few seconds before jumping back into the front seat. "Okay, let's go."
"And dat'll fool da cops?" Meowth questioned, unconvinced.
"For long enough for us to get the hell out of Sinnoh," Domino replied. "You're welcome."
She turned the key in the engine when James realised something. "Wait- what about the waiters who got caught at the café? We can't just leave them."
"Can and will," Domino answered shortly. "Look, we took into account expenses for bail money for the agents who contacted us and for you two dopes. Nothing else. So even if I wanted to, I don't have the cash to get them out." She shrugged. "They should have just kept out of it."
"But-"
"Just be grateful we came back for you. Your bail wasn't exactly cheap, you know. We had to slip a bribe in as well." Domino knitted her fingers together and stretched her arms out. "Besides, they'll be out soon enough. This'll be their first offence. So stop whining."
The engine sprang to life as she twisted the key forwards. Light pollution tinted the horizon a dull orange as they drove down the empty road.
"Pity we missed Butch and Cassidy's part of the mission. Apparently that thing lit up the sky all over town when it went off." Domino's laughter rang out, hollow.
