"Did you see that?" Jessie asked excitedly.
"I saw it all right," James replied.
"Mee-owth, dat's right!" Meowth meowed happily. "A brand-new twerp wid a brand-new Pokémon! Ah, da sweet scent of da flowers is makin' me one happy cat." He sniffed airily.
"Uh, Meowth...you didn't have a nose last time I checked," Jessie muttered. "How can you smell the flowers?"
Meowth felt his face very carefully. Jessie was right; he had no nose to speak of. "Dat's a good question, Jess. Maybe I just smells 'em wid my heart."
"The heart is not a sensory organ, Meowth," James pointed out mildly, looking through his binoculars. "Do you suppose we could somehow get all these Grass-Type Pokémon to the Boss?"
"Pokémon?" Jessie demanded, snatching his binoculars. "I don't see any...oh! Well would you look at that!"
"Haah!" Meowth cried. "I spies a pretty penny waitin' to be plunked in our account, youse guys!"
"Oh really, Meowth?" Jessie asked. "How's that?"
"Do tell!" James squealed.
"Well, as youse can see, or rather smell, dose Pokémon smell pretty sweet. When da Boss wakes up early in da mornin', he won't wanna smell no stinky tings."
"Who does?" James wondered aloud. Jessie shushed him.
"Dose sweet-smellin' liddle tings'll be waitin' at 'is door, sendin' off da wonderful aroma of fresh flowers. And da Boss'll say, 'It's all tanks to Meowth an' his crew dat I have dese lovely Pokémon ta make every day start out swell.' "
"Meowth's right!" Jessie said, linking her fingers with James's. "There's a profit in those Pokémon. Let's go!"
"Right!"
"Normally our plans would stink, but all we had to do was think!" Team Rocket chorused in unison. Down in the garden, Meg stuck out her tongue and continued to browse the flowerbeds, steadily moving closer to her special door.
---
Sora looked up from the book on the table. "Hey Ash! What did Uncle Elm want you for?"
"It was nothing," the boy replied offhandedly. "I was wondering, Sora...do you want to come along with me, Misty, and Brock? We don't know where anything in Johto is."
Sora brightened up. "Really? You want me to come along with you guys? If you don't mind, that is. I think it would be a good idea for me to hang around with more experienced Trainers. That way I can learn the moves."
"We'd love to have you," Brock added.
"Yeah!" Misty piped up. "Especially if I can keep playing with Cinna."
She had Sora's new Pokémon in her lap and was tickling him. Cinna squealed and rolled around. Ash smiled. "All right. We'll head off tomorrow, then. The four of us!"
Sora started to cheer, but stopped. "Um...Ash? There's something you should know about me...before we start spending time together. All of you, Misty, Brock. You should probably hear this. I have a confession." She took a shaky breath. "I'm afraid of Grass-Type Pokémon. Really afraid. Just seeing one sends chills through me."
"What happened to make you afraid?" Ash asked. Sora dropped her head down and stared at her hands. Pikachu crawled off of Ash's shoulder and patted her leg. She patted him distractedly.
"Well...when I was little...probably like five years old...that's when it happened. My Mom has a Meganium she calls Meg. Back then, Meg was still really strong, and I used to sit on her back and she would jump. She could jump really, really high. We called it the 'Meg Meganium Moonjump.' One day, while my Mom was working in the garden, I was playing with Meg. I asked her to do the Moonjump for me. So she got down on her knees and let me on her back..." Sora stopped. "Mom...can you?"
"Sure, hon." Mara took up the tale. "So Sora climbed up onto Meg's back, smiling and just so in love with the world. She yelled 'Make this the highest yet, Meg!' So Meg was inclined to obey her, since they were the best of friends. Meg got down, took off, and was going straight up when Sora fell off. It was a good ten-foot drop." She sighed. "I watched my baby crash down hard. She started to cry. I ran to take a look and saw she had broken her arm. Not just once, but twice."
Sora lifted her head. "I was so scared when I slid off Meg's back. I wasn't thinking too well then, and I thought Meg had done it on purpose. And then I fell, and it hurt so bad...I couldn't stop crying. Meg came over to try and pick my up. She sent out her Vine Whip to lift me up to my Mom's arms, but I was scared of her. I had never noticed just how big and strong she was before. I thought she might crush me. When she reached down to get me, I slapped her vines away."
"Meg was heartbroken," Mara continued, laying a hand on Sora's shoulder. "She didn't know what she had done to scare Sora so badly. So she stepped back and waited for me to get Sora. We rushed her to the hospital as fast as we could and got her arm taken care of. When we came back the next morning, Meg was waiting at the door with a bouquet of flowers for Sora. She held them out and got down so Sora could ride on her back, but..."
"But I jumped out of my Mom's arms," Sora cut in. "I ran away from her. I was so afraid that Meg was going to try to Moonjump me again, and I didn't want to fall another time. It was just too scary. So I ran, and ran into the woods outside of Newbark Town. That's where I met Vivi. He was like me. I found him all scratched up, with leaves all around him. 'You poor little thing,' I said. 'They got you with a Razor Leaf, didn't they?' I stayed out in the forest with Vivi until my mother came to look for me."
"We went back, but Sora wouldn't go near the house. 'I don't want to, Mommy,' she kept saying, 'Meg's there. I don't want her to step on me or anything like that.' I tried over and over to convince her that Meg would never do that, but Sora was stuck. The only way I could get her inside the house was to have not just Meg, but every one of my Grass-Type Pokémon leave the property for a while. And I only raise the Grass-Type. So it took some time for Meg to convince them all to hide while I brought Sora in. They were all so worried and were just dying to see her."
"I forgave Meg," Sora added. "I really did. It's just that even after my arm healed, I found that I couldn't go anywhere near her, not even to say I was sorry. I got shivers all through me every time I saw one of my mother's Grass Pokémon. Still today, I'm scared. It's really embarrassing, but it's true. You saw how I got scared when I saw the Chikorita."
Ash recalled seeing the girl's hand give that little twitch as she pointed to the Pokéball which contained the Chikorita. She was scared to just touch its Pokéball! She wouldn't pick it up.
"Childhood trauma," Brock murmured.
"Huh?" Ash and Sora asked at the same time.
"You were badly scared by a Grass-Type Pokémon as a young child, Sora," Brock replied. "That fear you felt during the incident has carried on throughout the years without fading. It's psychological. The fear will probably lessen in time, but never really go away. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Misty's terrified of Bug-Type Pokémon."
"That's not because I had a bad experience with them," Misty growled, glaring at Brock. "They're just icky and gross! Slimy, slimy, slimy!" She writhed in her chair. Sora smirked. "What are you smiling about, Miss Sora?" Misty demanded irritably.
"The world. The sky. But mostly the look on your face." Sora leaned back in her chair. She sighed. "I just wish that I could stop being afraid of Meg. She's not so much bigger than me now, but...I'm still scared. Why couldn't I have been afraid of something that my mother didn't raise, like Ghost-Type Pokémon?"
"Which reminds me, Sora," Mara interrupted. "Did you remember to string up the Gastly-Aways?" Sora flashed her a thumbs-up. "All right. Just checking. You know what they do to the azaleas. I'm going off to the store. Anything you need?" Sora gave her a thumbs-down. "Okay."
Sora rolled her eyes. She looked at the book again. "Misty asked to see more pictures of the other Pokémon Uncle Elm offered me," she said as Mara left. "And we were checking out their Evolutions, too. See? Cyndaquil goes to Quilava—my favorite—and then to Typhlosion. Really cool."
Ash looked at the pictures in the book. He had to admit, Typhlosion did look pretty strong. It was huge, too. He looked out the window to see Meg's big, green face. "Mega meg?" she called. Sora jumped. She shivered.
"Uh...N-no, Meg. Sorry. Mom's not h-here. What's wrong?" the girl stammered.
"Meganium! Meg! Megameg!" Meg cried frantically. Sora jumped up out of her chair.
"You're kidding!" Meg shook her head. "No? Oh...great." Sora turned back to the group. "Guys...we have a problem. Meg can't find any of the others."
"How many others are there?" Brock asked.
"Let's see..." Sora counted off on her fingers. "There's Jumper, Whistler, Fluffy, Airmail, Hydrangea, Littleseed, Rooter, Tramp, Vine, Bulby, Violet, Dandelion, Weed, Flower, Sprinkles, and Juniper." She looked up at the three friends. "My mom likes to giver her Pokémon fun nicknames. Now you know where I got it from," she said simply, "Come on! Let's go!"
Meg backed out of the doorway to let Sora pass through with plenty of comfort room. "Meg! Megmeg!" she bawled. "Meg-a-ni-um!"
"Look up!" Misty cried, pointing. The others followed her finger to the Meowth balloon.
"Is the circus in town?" Sora asked.
"Not likely!" came Jessie's voice. "Prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!" James added.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all people within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight-fight-fight!"
"Meowth! Dat's right!"
"Team Rocket!" Ash, Misty, and Brock cried together.
"Pi-pikachu!" Pikachu shouted.
Sora looked around at the threesome, then up at Team Rocket in the balloon. She shrugged. "I guess they're not the clowns," she murmured to Vivi and Cinna. Both Pokémon nodded.