"They're repairing the machine. I should've fried it more, huh." A few weeks after Giovanni's usurpation, Pikachu and Ash took a break from their usual efforts coordinating allies in Lavender Town and had spent the evening monitoring the Silph Co. branch from afar. A large unmarked truck was parked in front of the building, and men were unloading large metal components piece by piece.

"They had to, sooner or later, especially with the rolling blackouts the news people have been talking about." Ash put his hands in his pockets. "Do you think we can get back in there?"

"That's a death wish if I ever heard one, Ash." Pikachu lowered her head and turned her back towards the laboratory. Its presence shook her less, but she still hated seeing the place, knowing what went on inside.

"Yeah, we shouldn't waste any more time here. I wanna see how Venusaur's handling training all the bug types to fight off Pokeballs."

/

Jessie and James were much more efficient when stealing Pokemon for a good cause. Every night, they received coordinates of Team Rocket activity from Meowth—who got them from the recruited Pokemon in the field—and headed out. Weezing, Arbok, and Crobat would land surprise attacks and distract the abductors, then the two former Rockets would nab the Pokeballs right out of their hands. Back at base, they'd release the Pokemon inside and lead them to Misty and Brock for a debriefing. That strategy worked, until now.

James was within reach of the Pokeballs when one of the Rocket agent spun around, threw a hook punch, and hit him in the jaw.

"Traitor."

Head spinning, James tried to focus on his attacker. "Look, uh…Don't take it personally."

Jessie watched James stagger and started running towards him. She grasped at the walkie-talkie on her belt. "We need backup. Now!"

Another agent slapped the device from her hands. "We got both of them!"

"Arbok, crunch as many as you—" She crumpled as the agent kicked her in the kneecap. "Arbok—"

Crobat tackled two of the agents with a wing attack. Weezing hid James behind a smog, and Arbok crunched the agent who had kicked Jessie.

One of the younger agents, a grunt, called out a Raticate, which bit Arbok's tail. More of Team Rocket's Pokemon—several Fearow, a Marowak, two Houndoom—appeared in red flashes.

The Fearow pecked Crobat out of the sky. The bat fell a few feet away from Weezing, who was the recipient of a bone club from the Marowak. The two Houndoom approached Jessie and James.

"Make it easy for us and don't fight. You're surrounded."

An agent standing behind James pulled out a small dagger marked with a red R. "See, this is why us grunts should be able to carry guns. You never know who you're gonna run into."

"You're preaching to the choir, Tom."

"Just stab 'em, already."

Jessie thought she saw a flash of lightning, but there were no clouds. A Fearow fell from the sky. Pikachu. Of course.

There was another flash and the agent with the dagger collapsed. James cried out.

Jessie crawled towards him, watching the fight unfold. Steelix and Venusaur had joined Pikachu and made quick work of Team Rocket's Pokemon. She edged closer to James and her shoulders to shove the Rocket agent off of him. The dagger had landed point-down in James's upper arm. Jessie removed it with as steady a hand as she could manage. Blood seeped through his shirt. She put pressure on the wound while grimacing at its depth.

"Jessie…if I…I want you…to have…my bottle caps."

"They stabbed you in the arm, you idiot. And they missed anything important. You're not dying." She rolled her eyes. "Meowth sent the big guns—we'll be out of here in no time."

An explosion shook the ground. Steelix roared in pain. "Electrode, return!"

One of the grunts pointed to two elite agents in suits. "We can call backup, too," He spat.

Ash's voice rang out. "Ditto, transform!"

James mumbled, "…Ditto? So much for the big guns…"

"Pikachu, double-team! Ditto, you too!"

A field of a thousand Pikachu surrounded the elite agents. A Magneton exploded into them, and a pocket of the illusion disappeared, then reappeared.

"Pikachu!" Ash stepped back. In a quieter voice, he said, "You know what to do."

Pikachu stopped thinking and felt the possible paths she could follow—where each lightning bolt could branch, where those branches could hit, where it would finally meet the ground. After a second, she stopped holding back and let the electricity flow. A thunder attack. The sky ripped open. It hit the Magneton, it hit the suits, it hit the grunts.

Vines wrapped around Jessie and James, and they fell into a hole that had not been there a minute ago.

Jessie turned around and was met by giant red eyes. Venusaur. She looked up to see Pikachu, Steelix, and Ash standing over her. She rose to her feet and pulled James up. "Thanks."

They hobbled underground until they were beneath Rock Tunnel, Steelix blasting through one of her own furnishings. They were met by Misty, Brock, and several wild Pidgey who just wanted to see what all the commotion was about.

Jessie cut James short before he could make a sound. "Don't be a baby." Jessie was pouring peroxide over the cut. Brock stitched it shut in four quick strokes. James inspected their work, impressed with their attention to detail.

Brock patted him on the shoulder. "Pretty good, right?"

Ash, hunched over, dragged his feet towards his sleeping bag. He flopped onto it with an immediate snore.

James, still a little pale, yawned. "I second that motion. Good night."

Pikachu was also exhausted, but she noticed Meowth's absence. Wouldn't he want to know that the mission was a success? She peeked into the cat's communication hub—he had fallen asleep on top of the walkie-talkies, fur disheveled. Pikachu exhaled quickly through her nose in a silent laugh. She felt warm, her chest full of a quiet wash of fuzzed static. She returned to the main area, curled up on a corner of Ash's sleeping bag, and fell asleep with a faint smile.

Morning arrived too early. Pikachu felt hungover; her head throbbed to the beat of Steelix's daily fighting drills. She grasped her paws towards Ash's coffee.

"Really, Pikachu?"

"Just give some to me." She really didn't like the human drink, but it was helpful for headaches. Her taste was common in Pokemon—most could tolerate tea, or even beer, but never coffee. Meowth, she noticed, might as well have coffee for blood. She didn't understand how he could actually enjoy the black drink.

The pounding subsiding, she started going through her mental to-do list.

First, she had to talk to any new Pokemon who showed up at the cave, wanting to help. She made her way to the western end of the cavern, where Misty had led several Spearow, a Lickitung, and a dozen or so local Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar. Pikachu wished Wartortle didn't leave with Charizard for Saffron City. He always knew how to motivate and encourage anyone—even strangers.

She coughed. "Hi. Welcome. I'm Pikachu, and I really want to thank you for helping us out." She looked at the group of Spearow. "If you'd like to learn how to defend yourself and fight off Pokeballs, find Venusaur. You've already met Misty, right? She's going to help you too and she'll take you to Venusaur, so follow her." She then nodded at Lickitung. "If you're comfortable battling and would like to work in our high-risk day operations, follow me in a few minutes, and we'll meet up with Ash. Just, uh, let me know if you're interested." The Lickitung raised her hand. "Oh, okay, good." Pikachu smirked at the purple ghosts. "And I've got the perfect job for you guys! If you like messing with people, being invisible, and stopping Pokemon being caught for infinity energy, see Jessie and James—the humans with the bright hair in the Eastern side of the cave—and join our night operations."

"So…I follow you?" The Lickitung curled her tongue up.

"Yeah." Pikachu watched as the Spearow made their way towards Venusaur and the ghosts towards Jessie and James. "Let's go."

"So, what we're doing today is watching Jenny activity around Lavender Town. We want access to any official building so we can use the tunnels to get to the Silph Co. branch. Then we can break the infinity energy machine again, giving us more time."

"Um, I hope you don't mind that I ask, but more time for what?"

Pikachu stopped and weighed the question for a bit. "I guess it's not about giving us more time. It's about giving the Pokemon who've been captured more time until we can stop this whole thing." She brushed past Psyduck and Wobbuffet at the cave's entrance and gave them both a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"Hi Lickitung! I'm Ash, and this is Brock, who's going to come with us today since he's looking for supplies. And this is Ninetales, and this is Steelix, and Pidgeotto, and Beedrill…" Ash continued introducing all the day operations Pokemon enthusiastically. Her eyes showing just how overwhelmed she was, Lickitung nodded at each name.

"If you see any signs of Giovanni's location, or any information at all on what his next steps might be, make sure to report it," Brock added.

"Since you're new, you'll stick with me and Pikachu for today." Ash grinned as Pikachu nodded.

Lickitung gave a thumbs-up.

Hours passed, and Ash had drawn scribbles depicting the different paths that the Officers Jenny took. Pikachu wished she could hold a pencil better—they would be able to map more if she could take on half of that work. But it took so long for her to make marks on the paper, so she made runs around different areas instead, expanding their coverage. Beedrill had found a possible opening behind Pokemon Tower, and that needed to be explored further. But it would have to wait as dusk approached. All the Jennies would be on duty soon to enforce the curfew.

Lickitung was standing watch, hidden between two trees, ready at any moment to raise her tongue as if it were a flag to signal any Jenny's approach.

"We're done for today. Good job staying hidden! Glad to have you on board." Pikachu rushed through the last sentence. She really did mean it, but her mind was already on to the next task: finding out how the teams in other cities were doing and coordinating them so everyone was on the same page.

Wobbuffet saluted the team as they returned to Rock Tunnel.

Psyduck tilted his head. "There was a man in a suit nearby this afternoon. We confused him, though, and we haven't seen him since."

Pikachu's entire body tensed. "Good. Keep an eye out in case he comes here again. There were some guys in suits in the fight last night." Pikachu weaved through the buzz of the main cavern, intent on making it to Meowth's corner before someone presented her with another new situation that needed to be addressed.

As she reached the rock separating the nook from the rest of the cavern, her face flushed. Why was she nervous about this? She pressed her back against the rock, letting its coolness center her. She could hear Meowth yelling into a walkie-talkie.

"Charizard! Calm down. Jus' give me any info you can." There were some rustling noises. "Okay, okay, I'll tell Pikachu. Don't do anyding stupid. You get that, bucko? Wartortle wid you? Okay. Yeah, jus' avoid da area for now, and we'll send reinforcements. I'm getting anudder call, you guys. Are you okay for now? Okay, I'm going. Radio me again if anyding changes." A loud sigh.

Pikachu took a deep breath and put her right foot forward to enter when Meowth began talking again. She stepped back. "Hello? Yeah, dis is Meowth, who else talks like dis? Hi Kingler. Okay, what's da problem?" Pikachu heard muffled growls and snaps coming through the walkie-talkie. "Woah. Woah. You're new. Calm down. You really tink dat? I don't wanna hear it. You don't even know. Pikachu is out dere fighting, and when she's not fighting, she's risking her life scouting in broad daylight! She's not here in HQ hangin' out on da couch." A pause. "Oh? So you dink she's not doing enough? So you dink she should come by you? And let HQ fall to pieces? Nah. Look, I get how frustrating it is to be stuck, and to see dings and not be able to stop it. I get it. But let me tell you someding. You gotta figure out a way. She's got ta help everyone, not just you. She's working so hard. Last night, she saved my best friends' lives—" His voice wavered. "I don't know what I'd do if she hadn't been dere. So it's personal right now. I know you dink you're problem is da biggest in da world, but I'm lookin' at a map of all da teams right now and deir issues, and I can tell you what you're goin' through is trump change." The sounds of paper shuffling. "I don't mean to be dismissive, I jus' want ta give you some perspective, is all. Kingler? I want you to call and update me on how dings are going tomorrow. I really do care about how everyone is doing, I jus' really want you to understand how bad everyting is everywhere else, okay? Don't be mad. Okay. Call me tomorrow." A heavy click and a groan.

Meowth swiveled around on his chair and caught half of Pikachu's face peeking in. His face turned bright red—almost as bright as a Kingler's claw. "How much of dat did you hear?"

"Ahh…um…all of it?" She put her paws up. "It's okay, I'm flattered!"

Meowth massaged his right temple. "So…updates: Charizard and Wartortle dink dere's a backup machine at da main Silph facility in Saffron, and dat dey've started to use it. We need ta send some Pokemon and humans out dere to help 'em out."

"That's pretty much the last thing I wanted to hear."

"I know. It sucks big time. But I have some good news! Corsola and Togekiss's team in Celadon have really been doing well gettin' humans on our side. Lots of Pokemon released. Erika, da gym leader dere, is going to join us. Should we send her to Saffron wit her Pokemon, since we can't really part wit anyone here?"

"Sounds like a plan." Pikachu shuffled her feet. "Hey Meowth, do you mind if I ask a personal question?"

"We're beyond dat point, Pikachu. What is it?"

"What, um, what was it like…being Giovanni's Pokemon?"

Meowth was expecting a question about his speech, or about his eating habits, or maybe something about him taking too many bathroom breaks while on duty. He was not expecting a question about the past.

"It's okay if you don't want to answer."

"Nah. I mean, I do want ta answer. It's jus' been, what, twenty years ago now since the last time I was really 'his' Pokemon? I know I'm still, technically, but man, I'm gettin' old." Meowth leaned back in his chair. "I'm not gonna tell you anyding ya don't know already, Pikachu. Pokemon are tools to him, nuttin' else. He got rid of me when dat Persian came along, jus' 'cause a Persian's more 'elegant'. He didn't care dat I could talk human, 'cause he t'ought Pokemon didn't have anyding to say anyway, so he barely used me to translate. If it wasn't for Jessie and James requesting a talking Pokemon, I would've ended up as a battery like all da od'er low-level normal-types in Team Rocket." He looked down at his feet. "So dis whole ding…it is personal. For me."

The air seemed thicker than before. "Oh." Pikachu ran her paws over her ears. "I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't know that."

Meowth shrugged and let out a quiet, nervous laugh. "I keep it light, huh?"

Pikachu returned the awkward laugh. "Hey. I was the one who asked."

"I'll see ya tomorrow, Pikachu. I got ta get some fresh air." Meowth walked past her, looking back and shaking his head while smiling. Pikachu wanted to reach out and touch him before he left—to do something—but she held back.

A/N: I went back to Chapter 3 to fix a plot hole so the story is consistent. Sorry about that! I also apologize for the updates being slower than before - I've had less time to write lately.