Sorry for the slight delay in getting this one up. And sorry for the lack of James in this chapter. He'll be back in the next one!
As always, thanks for your reviews and continued support!
…
"…take one down, pass it around, eighty-one bottles of beer on the wall! Eighty-one—"
"You keep this up any longer and you're going to get eighty-one knuckle sandwiches!"
"Well, excuse me!" Meowth had a bit of a bite to his voice. "Gotta keep myself occupied somehow, and you don't seem to have any better ideas!"
"Oh no, I have a perfect idea!" Jessie clenched her fists so tightly she could feel her nails dig into her palm; the only thing keeping her from swinging one at Meowth was the fact that it was still pitch-black inside the elevator cab and she couldn't be sure of where her fist would land. "Let's break this cab apart from the inside and get ourselves out of this hellhole!"
"That ain't a better idea… that would just bruise our beautiful bodies."
"Not with some powerful attacks! And with my brute force and your fury swipes breaking open the ceiling—"
"Didja leave your brain back on shore? You know my fury swipes ain't that powerful!"
"WELL IT'S BETTER THAN JUST SITTING HERE!"
"Hey! You in the elevator!"
The muffled voice from outside sliced through Jessie and Meowth's argument like a hot knife, stunning both of them so much that their squabble was stopped short. "Don't worry, we're about to get you out! We're working on prying the doors open now."
"Well it's about TIME!" Jessie snarled. "Do you even know how long we've been in here?! I have so many better things to do than sit in a dead elevator all day!"
"Oh, thank the maker, they're savin' me from you!" Meowth exclaimed.
Jessie couldn't tell if he was being facetious or not. She elected to not dwell on that conundrum and instead continued to address her savior. "Now finally we can retrieve our little deserters and get back to—"
The sudden harsh light that flooded the elevator cab stifled the rest of Jessie's sentence, and she furiously blinked and rubbed her eyes as they attempted to grow re-accustomed to the brightness. Through her blinks, she was able to make out three figures, which slowly grew into focus revealing one to be a ship's engineer and the other two as security guards.
"There you are!" The engineer looked extremely remorseful. "Please accept our most sincere apologies for the trouble you've been through. We'd like to make it up to you by providing a discount on all your purchases made onboard during the entire length of the cruise. May I see your boarding pass, please?"
Jessie blanched. "Erm… boarding pass?"
"We've found her." One of the security guards grinned unpleasantly with his words, causing the engineer to grow a bit confused and Jessie and Meowth to exchange an anxious glance. "We've found the stowaway."
"Excuse me!" Jessie huffed, frantically pushing words out of her mouth in the vain hope of giving herself an alibi. "I am no stowaway! I of course paid for my passage—I just—my boarding pass—it, um—it fell down the elevator shaft! Yes! That's it!"
"Did this happen before or after you climbed onto the ship as it was leaving the docks?" The security guard pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to Jessie—a security camera image of her ascending the rope, mad resolve in her face, a terrified Meowth clutching to her arm like a lifeline.
Jessie fumed. "Well, I never! You could have at least gotten a better angle of me—that is so not my best side!"
Meowth groaned. "Our goose is cooked!"
The other security guard glared at them, unamused. "You're coming with us. Both you and your freaky talking meowth."
"Hey! Who you callin' freaky?!"
Jessie shrieked as she was roughly grabbed under the arms and pulled off the floor by the first security guard. "That is no way to handle a lady! And I am not a stowaway, dammit!"
"Make your case to our boss," the second guard said impatiently. "If you are in fact a paying customer then that'll be in our records and we'll be able to escort you to your room. But because you don't have your boarding pass on you, you'll have to come with us so we can verify that you're supposed to be here." He reached down and plucked Meowth off of the ground.
SWIPE!
"GET YOUR MITTS OFFA ME!"
"OUCH!" The guard dropped Meowth and brought his hands to his slashed face. Meowth bolted. The other guard let go of Jessie and fell on his face trying unsuccessfully to grab Meowth before he dashed out of the elevator cab.
"Get back here! Don't let it run off!"
"Baby, we were born to run!" Jessie yelped, leaping to her feet and trying to make a quick exit as well—unfortunately, the guard that had grabbed her was still sprawled in her way. She tripped and tumbled over and on him most ungracefully. The scratched guard was still clutching his face and yowling painfully, and the engineer was trying to move away as quietly yet swiftly as possible. Jessie took only half a second to recompose herself, push her hands against the felled guard's shoulders, and vaulted upright again, running after—
SLAM! She fell forward again as her left leg flew behind her, her right ankle grasped firmly by the guard on the ground. "You're not going anywhere, lady!" In an instant he was standing and had brought her with him, expertly pinning her arms behind her.
"Unhand me this instant!" Jessie shrieked, struggling futilely to break free.
The scratched guard finally brought his hands away from his face and restrained her by the shoulders, further negating any chance of escaping. "You had your chance to go with us quietly, but you blew it."
"I don't do anything quietly! Now let me go! I don't have time for this! MEOWTH! MEOWTH!"
Meowth didn't hear her. The distance was not so great that he couldn't, at least under normal circumstances, but his escape route had shot him directly into a moving mass of passengers and rendered him trapped underfoot. His path seemed to be predetermined, and Meowth's anger quickly became anxious worry as his senses were clogged; all he could see were feet, all he could hear was a nonsensical jumble of voices, and he had no clue where he was going, how close behind him Jessie was… or if she had even gotten away from their captors at all.
He extended his claws once again, his instinct fueled by fear rather than fury this time, but before any unsuspecting shins became the victims of his next lash-out the group around him suddenly fanned out, setting Meowth relatively loose again. For the crowd had made their way through the narrow door, now able to disperse into their destination—the onboard casino.
The noisy, colorful commotion of slot machines pulled them like magnets, their footsteps falling in time with each and every electronic beep. Meowth watched them, mesmerized. He had never been inside a casino before and had never witnessed anything quite like this. It was almost like Jessie in front of a camera, or James catching sight of a new bottle cap. The passengers were drawn to them, glued to the flashy, busy screens, no force on earth from either man or Pokémon strong enough to tear them away. Some exchanged a sentence or two with each other as they watched the cylinders spin, but the strongest sounds of human speech came from the center of the room, and Meowth, intrigued, followed the sound, pausing every now and then to swipe some loose change on the floor.
Half-circle tables dotted the center of the room, all with a snappily dressed employee standing behind them, and most with other people sitting on stools around the curved edge, playing cards in their hands. Meowth scooted over to the nearest table and hopped up onto an empty stool, the dealer and two gamblers engrossed enough in their game that they didn't notice him.
"Raise by five." A chip was placed in the center of the table.
"Fold."
The dealer turned a card on the table over, revealing five different cards now face-up. Meowth studied the cards carefully as the dealer revealed his two cards. "Full house, two queens and three tens." A queen and a ten were the cards he had held.
The first player sighed, dropping her cards to the table. "Darn it. Flush." Meowth glanced at her two cards, both with hearts. He leaned in closer to the table, the wheels in his head whirring. Despite never having been inside a casino, he was fairly certainly he'd seen this game played before, if only in a movie or something like that. It seemed easy enough to put the pieces together and figure out the rules and goals of the game.
The woman seemed only a bit fazed by her loss. "No matter, I'll win it back the next round. Deal me in again—"
"What the?!" the dealer shouted, distinctly in Meowth's direction. Meowth jumped up a bit with a yelp. "What are you doing in here?! Pokémon aren't allowed in the casino! Ma'am, is it yours?"
"No, I've never seen it before," the woman said.
The other player also shook his head. "Not mine."
"Well, whoever it belongs to, it certainly isn't staying in here." The dealer moved towards Meowth as if to grab him, but Meowth had reached the end of his tolerance for being shunted around.
"I've had enough manhandlin' for one day!" he snapped, leaping onto the table on his hind legs.
The dealer let out a yelp of his own. "You… you… talk?!" he spluttered.
"I talk, and I learn! I think get the hang of this here game you're playin'…" He took the coins he had picked up off the floor and tossed them in the center of the table. "Deal me in!"
"This… okay, listen, I don't care if you talk or not, you're still not allowed in here!" the dealer exclaimed.
"What are you, nuts? I'm a customer carrying cash here! You really think toining me away is a smart move?"
"Yeah, deal him in!" the woman suddenly exclaimed.
The dealer looked at her incredulously.
"I'm going to make so much money betting against a Pokémon!" she laughed, tossing in a good chunk of her remaining chips.
Meowth gave her a sly smirk. "In your dreams, human!"
…
The cruise ship's security offices were, of course, on the same level as the casino. Jessie was not aware of this, however, as her shrieks and screams of protest while being carted away drowned out any sound from the slot machines that might have escaped from the room itself. The protesting was for naught, as she was roughly shoved into a questioning room and onto a sole, lonely folding chair situated in front of a large desk. Undeterred, Jessie instantly bolted the second she was seated, but the door to the room slammed shut and the senior guard at the desk shot in front of the door in an instant, blocking her only escape route.
"You're really making my day difficult!" Jessie snarled, shaking with barely-controlled rage.
"You're making mine interesting," the guard countered affably. "Care to sit down and explain what you're doing here?"
"Don't flatter yourself thinking that I snuck on board this ship because I wanted to spend a week cooped up on the ocean with a mob of uncultured riffraff," Jessie snapped back. "I'm here for my Pokémon. They ran off and climbed onboard this ship, and I won't stop until I've found them! And once I do find them, you better bet your booty that I'll be jumping ship! I'm performing in the Vigroux City Pokémon Showcase tomorrow night, and I have no intentions of being stuck on this boat sailing away from my big moment!"
"I figured it had to be something important for you to climb onboard like a crazed stalker," the guard replied. "Thank goodness you weren't actually after one of the passengers, as we'd feared—"
"Would you stuff it already and let me go?! The sooner I find them the sooner I'm taking them back to shore and the sooner you get to quit worrying about me!"
"I'll radio the Pokémon daycare on board. If a Pokémon gets lost from its trainer we do our best to make sure it gets sent there. What Pokémon are you missing?"
Jessie seethed. "A wobbuffet, a gourgeist, and a meowth who can't keep his mouth shut." She took a deep breath, settling the anger inside her as much as she could. Losing her shit wasn't getting her anywhere—anywhere other than a security office, at least, probably the closest thing to jail on board this ship, and that was definitely the last place she wanted to be at the moment. She'd save her anger for when she finally found her runaway Pokémon… because if anyone deserved to bear the brunt of her impending explosion, it was them. "Now would you let me go? As they're my Pokémon, I feel that I'm the best prepared to search for them."
"You don't know the layout of the ship. We'll get our crew on the search, and when they find a lead, they'll bring them around here so you can identify them."
It was getting harder and harder to quell her rage. "Then what am I supposed to do until then? Just sit here?!"
"Yes," the guard answered bluntly. He removed his walkie-talkie from his holster and began speaking into it, asking whoever was listening to search the ship for an unclaimed wobbuffet, gourgeist, and meowth.
Noticing the guard was distracted, Jessie quickly zipped to the door. No better time than to make her esc—
He was in front of her again, blocking the door. As someone else blared an answer to him over his walkie-talkie, he looked Jessie in the eye and mouthed I don't think so.
"OH I'LL GIVE YOU PLENTY TO THINK ABOUT, DAMMIT!"
"What?" the walkie-talkie voice answered, perplexed.
"Nothing," the guard answered, pushing Jessie back to her seat.
"NOTHING?! YOU THINK THIS IS NOTHING?!"
"And hurry up on that search, will you? Their owner's getting antsy."
…
Gourgeist's eyes fluttered open groggily, the harsh lights of the kitchen storage area and the overwhelming scent of sweets boring into her like power drills.
Wait… where was she again?
She felt overstuffed, like a ragdoll too full of padding. The excess pressure was manifesting itself everywhere inside her, but especially her forehead, and she brought a limb to it wearily, vainly willing the throbbing to leave. She still couldn't quite remember where she was, but even thinking felt too painful at the moment. Her other arm slunk to her side, brushing something round and smooth on its way.
Gourgeist turned to the unknown object.
Blinked once. Twice.
And then shrieked.
It was an egg.
And suddenly every memory, including just how that egg had come to be, came crashing back in like a tidal wave.
She continued to shriek, zooming around the room, finding Wobbuffet now her only goal. Her panicked screeches were enough to reveal him from his hiding place, a drawer not too far from where Gourgeist had awoken. He looked as hungover and grumpy as Gourgeist had felt before she had noticed the little souvenir of their carefree amusement, and he put a blearily put an arm to his forehead and winced as Gourgeist continued to frantically blare at him, barely able to get a silencing command in. Gourgeist still wouldn't stop, and instead grabbed his free arm and used it to point to the egg.
For the first time since Gourgeist had known him, Wobbuffet's eyes actually flew completely open. Letting out the tiniest squeak of "Wob…!" his arms locked to his sides, a blush tainting his entire face with shame and disgrace.
Gourgeist flew around him in circles, still yelling but not really saying anything, for a few moments before her panic and energies were spent. Exhausted, and just as mortified as Wobbuffet, she flopped down on the floor next to the egg, and directly addressed her fellow Pokémon, who continued to be uncharacteristically silent and still, gaping at the egg they had created.
To start, Gourgeist explained, on looking back on… what had happened between them, it seemed fair to agree that this was just a mutual bad decision brought on by the obviously spiked 'puffs. Wobbuffet nodded dumbly. With that settled between them, Gourgeist pushed herself off the floor again with a shaky resolve, declaring that, well, now that they'd had their fun, they'd better start being responsible again, get this egg off of the ship, and go find Jessie. This little mishap had probably set them back further than they had been anticipating, so she wasn't likely to be very happy with them when they finally returned… but, Gourgeist fervently reminded Wobbuffet (and herself), perhaps the egg would placate her. Had she ever received a Pokémon egg before? Wobbuffet shook his head, not knowing of a time since he'd known her, at least. Gourgeist anxiously lifted the egg off of the floor, cradling it in her silky limbs, still trying to verbally convince herself and Wobbuffet that perhaps this egg was a positive development, that Jessie would be so happy to receive it that she'd forget about everything else.
The two Pokémon looked at each other warily. There was nothing more to be said between the two accidental paramours, and so with one final unspoken agreement that they wouldn't speak of this again, they held hands and stepped out of the kitchen storage room.
Of course, they had been in there longer than they'd realized, and the kitchen was teeming with chefs and waiters.
Wobbuffet and Gourgeist, startled, froze in their tracks.
And it of course only took one person to take notice of them and sound the alarm alerting everyone else. "Holy—there are Pokémon in here!"
Letting out another pair of ear-piercing shrieks, Wobbuffet and Gourgeist scrambled for the exit.
…
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick…
The silence in the security questioning room was stifling.
Growing more and more antsy and uncomfortable by the second (and she hadn't exactly entered the room a picture of serene grace to begin with), Jessie twirled a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of her bun with her finger, something she never did, crossing and un-crossing and re-crossing her ankles in every single combination she could think of and looking around the room in a façade of boredom to hide her true aim of trying to formulate a plan to get the hell out of there.
She looked to her left where a corkboard hung, various informational flyers and newspaper clippings tacked onto it. She looked to the right and saw, below the conspicuous clock, a variety of security-related equipment hanging from the wall, some of it (nightsticks, handcuffs, pepper spray) causing her to recoil a bit. Twisting her head to look behind her, she saw over the door a large, long sign that proclaimed "DON'T STEAL AGAIN!" in a far too cheerful font. Yeah, nice try, she thought bitterly, a harsh smirk breaking across her face for a second or two. How ironic… she actually hadn't stolen anything today or even attempted to, and yet here she was.
And there was the door.
But Jessie could feel the guard's presence at the desk in front of her, even without looking at him, and she cautiously turned back to face him. He wasn't even looking at her, his eyes down and reading something on his desk, but Jessie could still tell that he was watching her regardless.
She exhaled stiffly, shifting in the chair. Running wasn't going to work, not even with the door only a few feet away. She already knew how fast this guy was.
She'd have to distract him. But how? Normally discreetly releasing a Pokémon and instructing it to do something disruptive did the trick, but of course that wasn't an option at the moment. Hell, even James and Meowth served as good decoys when the need arose, but that was out of the question right now too. Jessie had always just laughed off the fear of ever getting caught, but now completely own her own, the reality wasn't so funny anymore.
Buck up, Jessie, you're a big girl. You'll just have to rely on yourself right now.
But what evasive skills did she on her lonesome possess other than being quick on her feet, a skill that wasn't going to help out one iota in this particular circumstance? Angrily, Jessie roughly entwined her hair around her finger again, her mind inexplicably jumping back to the memory of James gently stroking it early that morning.
Her eyes locked back on the guard, noticing for the first time his strong arms and quick eyes.
She grimaced. No, there has to be another way. Dammit. She had never had any qualms in the past over using her flirtatious charm and good looks to get what she wanted or out of trouble… in fact, she usually relished the opportunity. But the idea now felt so disloyal to James that she almost felt like throwing up. Couldn't she just grab one of the nightsticks from off the wall and whack him senseless, then make a run for it? Logic reminded her that they were bolted to the wall; she'd need to utilize even more of a distraction to get any of the equipment free in time.
Jessie swallowed hard, trying to push away the ugly feeling in her stomach. The prospect of flirting had never felt so upsetting to her, but… desperate times called for desperate measures, right? James would understand, she was just doing what she had to do.
With that thought, she pulled her finger loose from her hair and began twining it again, although this time much more focused and deliberately. "So… do you get to deal with lots of fearsome folks here?" she asked, keeping her voice at her best mixture of sultry yet smooth.
"Not too often. Most crooks know there's not too many places to run on a cruise."
"Mmm, yes, I suppose so." Jessie continued to play with the strand of her hair, and when the guard glanced up at her for a second, she gave him a flirtatious wink. "Although I think even if any crooks did believe they could run or hide, they'd still think twice when they saw such a strong, strapping guard as yourself is the one they'd have to answer to."
"Oh really?" The guard looked up from his desk again and this time held his gaze with Jessie's, and she made sure the grin she gave him continued to be flirtatious and not a victorious one, lest she give away her ulterior motives. "You know, I actually don't tell this to anyone else I question in here…"
"Go on…" Jessie batted her eyelids.
"But I feel that you should know something… something very important."
"Yes?" Jessie breathed.
The guard leaned into his desk, getting as close to Jessie as he could without actually getting up. Looking deep into her eyes, he said, "…I know what you're doing. You're not the first person to try this. It didn't work for them, and it's not going to work for you."
Jessie's entire demeanor did a one-eighty.
"WHAT?!" she yelped, so forcefully that she rocked backwards and fell off her chair and onto the floor. He hadn't fallen for that?! WAS HE BLIND?!
"Next time, work on your subtlety," the guard laughed.
Jessie leapt to her feet, the folding chair she had been sitting on laying on its side to her right, and it only took her a millisecond to see her next course of action. She grabbed the chair and swung it at the guard's head, whacking him soundly with a satisfying smack. "How's this for subtle?!" she raged.
The guard gasped in pain, a hand shooting to his temple, and Jessie wasted no time. She swung a second time, letting go as soon as the chair hit his head again, and bolted for the door. "And don't get any ideas," she shouted at him as she turned the handle and shot out of the room, "I'm already spoken for!"
She heard the guard stumble awkwardly after her, shouting into his walkie-talkie, "Goddammit, she's loose! I need backup, NOW!"
And her run turned into a sprint.
…
"I'm in the money, the skies are sunny, I've got a lot of what it takes to get along!"
Meowth's gleeful singing as he scooped up the vast amount of money he'd won at poker (virtue of his quick learning, ability to pull off a good bluff, and for once in his life just some plain dumb luck) only served to annoy his opponent, fuming over her own quickly dwindling pile. Her companion was desperately trying to get her away. "Come on, honey, that's enough! You've lost too much money already!"
"I. Am not. Losing. To a goddamn POKÉMON!" the woman screamed.
"Too late!" laughed Meowth.
"Alright, that's it," the dealer growled, who was also losing a fair amount of revenue thanks to the feline's winning streak. "Get out of here! I'm not dealing you in again! You're still not allowed in here, and if you stick around another second I'm calling security on you, you hear?"
"Aw, keep your shoit on, I'm goin'," Meowth responded affably, taking his winnings and hopping off of the stool. "Always best to quit while you're ahead! Thanks a bunch for the great oppoitunity here, I had a blast!"
"I'm ruined," moaned the woman. "I'm headed to the poorhouse, and it's all because of a goddamn meowth."
"I'm drunk, right?" her hapless companion sighed. "Please tell me that I'm drunk and none of this is real."
"Whatever makes you feel better. Toodles!" Meowth waved goodbye cheerfully and headed to the service counter to cash in his chips. The clerk there, bless his heart, didn't seem annoyed or unwilling to serve a Pokémon (in contrast to the dealer), and handed Meowth the proper amount of cash without a word.
"This is enough moolah to keep us in the clear for a month!" Meowth exclaimed as he counted his winnings and headed for the exit. "Jessie's gonna be tickled pink when she finds out! That is… assuming she made a break for it like I did." He gulped a bit, feeling the heat of remorse engulf his face. He had honestly thought that Jessie was right behind him as he dashed out of that elevator, and even if he had made considerable distance by the time he realized she wasn't (and by the time he was able to move the direction he wanted to), he still should have gone right back to rescue her, not sat down to a game of cards.
Meowth suddenly laughed, forcefully, in an attempt to convince away his guilt. "Jessie? Needin' to be rescued? She can handle two lousy security guards! Besides, anything that increases our cash resoives is a cause for celebration, not complaining. This all worked out poifectly." Satisfied with himself again, he resumed his path towards the casino exit, this time surprisingly clear of foot traffic.
"Wobba-wobba-wobbuffet!"
"GourGEEEEIIIIIST!"
The panicked shrieks pierced Meowth's ears and halted him dead in his tracks, and half a second later, the two wayward Pokémon shot through the doors and into the casino like a cork popping from a bottle of champagne. Surprised, Meowth spluttered, "Well—fancy meetin' youse two here!" growing increasingly troubled by their alarmed state.
The two Pokémon screeched to a halt, turning to Meowth completely befuddled. "Gour…geist?" Gourgeist asked, utterly flummoxed.
"What am I doin' here? The question is what are you doin' here! If you wanted a break from practicin' this bad, you shoulda just—"
The doorway suddenly filled with the preposterous sight of a dozen sous chefs in slick white uniforms and tall chef's hats, most holding knives or cleavers, and all with enraged expressions on their face. "COME BACK HERE—"
They two screeched to a halt, but just outside of the casino, rather than just inside.
"Wo-o-o-obba!" Wobbuffet moaned miserably.
"Holy smokes, what did youse two do?!" Meowth cried.
"H-hey, you Pokémon!" one of the chefs shouted, angrily pointing a long, sharp paring knife at Wobbuffet and Gourgeist. "You're not allowed inside of the casino!"
"Yeah, so I've hoid!" Meowth snapped back angrily. "And we was just going, as a matter of fact, so if you'd be so kind as to clear a path—"
Yet another individual sprinting into the scene interrupted the bizarre encounter for the third time. It was a security officer. "That's them!" he yelped, pointing at the Pokémon and nearly plowing into a chef brandishing a rolling pin before he could stop himself. "These… these are the Pokémon we've been searching for!" He glared at the chefs. "Get back to the kitchen! We can take this from here!" He tapped a button on his headset. "Sir, I've found the Pokémon. They're in the—she what?!"
Meowth groaned, his heart sinking. "Knowing Jessie, that 'what?!' can't be good!"
"Yes, of course!" the guard was saying, nearly shouting in fact, into his headset, whatever calm conduct he possessed having been snatched away. "I'll restrain the Pokémon; you just get all your guys on nabbing her!"
"Aw, crap!" Meowth yelped, Wobbuffet and Gourgeist straight back to panic mode as well. "We gotta amscray, NOW!"
"No! STOP THEM!" screamed the security guard.
But the funny thing about humans, Meowth had long since observed, was that it was a rare human indeed who would fight a Pokémon directly. It was as if without a Pokémon of their own they were terrified to approach one, even a relatively harmless baby Pokémon. And as they were still on the inside of the casino doors, their chasers were all too rigidly bound by the rules to even think about sending any Pokémon after them.
"YOU!" shrieked an unfortunately familiar voice, derailing the standoff yet again. Meowth turned and saw his poker opponent charging towards him, fury in her eyes, her partner desperately and unsuccessfully attempting to hold her at bay. The fear that Meowth logically knew he should be feeling was kept somewhat at bay as all he could do was inwardly laugh; they reminded him exactly of Jessie and James, they couldn't throw anything at him that he didn't know how to handle.
"You give me my money back RIGHT NOW!" the woman screeched, flinging an empty wine glass at Meowth.
Oh yes… of course someone like her would be perfectly fine with attacking a Pokémon on her own.
Now that even the casino was no longer safe, Meowth wasted no time. "OUTTA MY WAY!" he screeched, dodging the tossed wine glass just in time, extending his claws, and swiping his way through all of the chefs, screaming in uncontrollable battle rage the entire time. Wobbuffet and Gourgeist screamed their way through too, and once they were clear they frantically scrambled down the hallway, not wanting to spend another second within striking distance of their varied group of pursuers.
"I said STOP THEM!" cried the guard.
"Run faster!" Meowth shouted to Wobbuffet and Gourgeist, neither of whom really needed the reminder. Terrified, the three Pokémon tore through floor nine so quickly they practically left scorch marks. The humans they had ticked off so thoroughly were unfortunately right behind them, their various angry shouts turning into a chaotic roar. Other ship passengers shrieked and cowered away from the pandemonium, none brave (or stupid) enough to stay in their way.
Except for when they flew around a corner and found the one person on board who actually would run towards them.
"Jessie!" cried Meowth, not sure if he should be relieved or even more terrified. "Don't go this way!"
"Don't go this way!" Jessie shrieked, barreling into them and snatching all three of them up in an instant.
Then the Pokémon's pursuers also rounded the corner, and Jessie came face to face with yet another security guard, an enraged woman with a meek, terrified man trying to pull her back, and a dozen furious chefs wielding kitchen equipment of varying levels of threat.
"IS THIS ENTIRE SHIP OUT TO GET US?!" Jessie exploded.
"Get away get away get AWAY!" Meowth spluttered, trying to turn her around.
But then the cause of Jessie's panicked run came into view—five more security guards, one with two rather large, painful looking welts on his head. All five of them were built like dump trucks and brandishing nightsticks, and Meowth could tell that they weren't afraid to use them.
Their presence did not deter Meowth's wronged victim. "Give me my money back NOW!" she screamed, throwing a deck of cards at them just as Jessie bolted back the way she'd came, launching herself airborne.
The cards, not staying orderly in their stack as they sailed through the air, hit Jessie's back and appeared to pop like a firecracker, flying in every direction behind her in an almost starburst pattern. And as Jessie began to fall back down, she tucked in her legs and pushed her feet against the security guard about to catch her, propelling herself into the air again, cards now fluttering to the floor in a bizarre scene of marksmanship and style. The leapfrog action was enough for her to completely surge ahead of both her and her Pokémon's pursuers, and with a death grip on all three Pokémon, she ran to the decks as if their lives depended on it (and they quite possibly did). Their throngs of hunters didn't stay far behind for long, however.
"If we get out of this alive," Jessie snarled as she bolted along the far starboard side, ducking and dodging her way through even more flabbergasted passengers, "I am going to kill you!"
A line of lifeboats was just ahead, the first sight in awhile that actually gave Meowth hope. "Escape vessels dead ahead!"
"Way ahead of you!" Jessie launched Meowth through the air in an overhanded hurl without so much as a word of warning. "Cut that one loose!"
"AAAUGH! I AIN'T A HOMING DEVICE!" Meowth had to frantically twist his body to correct his projectile path. "FURY SWIIIIIIIIPES!" His adjustments did the trick; his swipe sliced the ropes on one side of the lifeboat cleanly through. He quickly jumped up to the other side and swiped again.
Jessie, meanwhile, of course hadn't stopped running, and tossed Wobbuffet and Gourgeist into the boat just as Meowth cut through the rope on the other side. Their chasers closing in, Jessie's instincts took over, and she somehow managed to lift the boat over the railing and throw it overboard, Meowth, Wobbuffet, and Gourgeist clinging to the sides for dear life. Only a second after it hit the water, Jessie scrambled up onto the railing and jumped off herself, mere moments before the welted security guard could grab her. "I'm jumping ship agaaaaaaaaiiiiiin!" she shrieked, mostly out of habit, landing squarely in the middle of the lifeboat with a crunching thud.
"Oh my god!" cried one of the security officers, sounding horrified. "She just risked serious injury to herself by making a jump like that—"
"Serious injury?!" Jessie yelled back up to the deck as their pursuers all leered over the railing in disbelief, stunned that the fall hadn't even injured her. "That was nothing! And see, I told you that I was only on board to collect my Pokémon, and once I had them back, I'd leave!" She crossed her arms indignantly, turning up her nose. "And after the horrific treatment I received onboard, don't even think that I'll be booking a trip with your company anytime soon! In fact, I plan to write an online review so scathing you'll be out of business in a heartbeat!"
SHWACK!
A thrown knife implanted itself right between Jessie and Wobbuffet, causing both of them to squeal in terror. "You thieves!" screamed the chef who had chucked it.
"Violent psychopath!" screamed the security guard who had been victim to Jessie and the folding chair.
"I WANT MY MONEY BACK!" screamed the irate gambler.
"Think about your critique later," Meowth said urgently, shoving an oar in Jessie's lap. "For now, let's get goin' on rowin'!"
"While the adrenaline's flowing!" Jessie agreed hastily.
She and Meowth probably set a rowing record with how fast they zipped out of there.