Hey guys and welcome to chapter 12. I hope that you are excited for this chapter, so I'll let you get to it.

They were having a victory feast. True, it wasn't as triumphant as it would have been had they captured all of the pokémon they were trying to, but they got away with one, which was better than none. They had gained some money by doing a few odd jobs out and about yesterday and bought a lot of food for a victory meal while they occasionally checking in on the pokémon's activities. Meowth had been coming up with an idea of how to get the pokémon fighting each other all of yesterday. And it worked. Whatever Meowth did, it made them fight amongst each other. Jessie and James were digging into their food, not even waiting for Meowth to get back.

Eventually, Meowth did come back.

"So, how'd it go?" Meowth said, expecting to find all of the pokémon in cages. However, all he saw was the glaceon.

"We were only able to catch one because the others broke out of the nets," Jessie said with her mouth full.

"What!" Meowth was furious. "After all the time we spent scheming and staking 'dose guys, you go and blow it!"

"Oh come on Meowth, lighten up. At least we get to eat." James said. Meowth was not lighted up by that fact.

"I don't want to eat! I want to get on the boss's good side!" Meowth shouted.

"Is that what you plan on doing with me?" Lily shouted from her cage. "You're giving me to your boss as a present? Like I'm just some object?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Meowth said back, not fazed by the glaceon.

"I can't believe you would do something like this! All you Team Rocket grunts are the same. You're just evil!" Lily kept yelling.

"Yeah, that's what we are," Meowth said like it was nothing new. "You know, you're a lot more fired up then you usually act."

"Really? How do you know how I 'usually act'?" Lily barked back angrily.

"As I just said, we've been following and spying on you guys for a few days now."

"You… have been?" Lily's anger was now slightly turning to confusion.

"Uh-huh! We've been planning to capture you guys for a while now. But apparently some humans didn't do their job," Meowth glared at Jessie and James, but they were too busy eating to notice him.

"Wait…so did that bomb in the cave came from you guys?" Lily asked, still mad, but having calmed down a bit.

"Yup," Meowth replied, now filing his claws.

"Why did you help us back there if your plan was to capture us all?"

"Well, we can't very well have caught you guys if you got eaten by the sableye, now could we?"

"That's all you care about, isn't it?" Lily said, getting frustrated again. She stood up as she kept talking. "Capturing pokémon like me to get you money? You don't even care about how I feel, do you? You all are just heartless!" With this last statement, Lily slammed one of her feet down on the floor of her cage. She immediately regretted it once he leg shot up with pain. Lily had been so angry that she forgot she had a burn on the leg. She fell down and held her leg with her other front leg.

"What's the matter?" Meowth asked, not sure why the glaceon just fell over in pain.

"Why do you care?" she snapped.

"I was just wondering. Did you cut yourself? Is that why you have that bandage on?" Meowth asked. He actually wasn't around when she had gotten that injury and only saw that she had a bandage on when he woke up that morning.

"No, it's a burn," Lily decided to tell him. The pain was now starting to subside. "I got it from a houndoom,"

"A houndoom burn, huh?" Meowth said back.

"A what?" James asked from where he was sitting. Jessie and James had started to listen to the two of them talk. They were trying to figure out what they were talking about by only hearing one side of the conversation.

"This glaceon says she got a houndoom burn," Meowth repeated.

"Well, you know what they say about houndoom burns, right?" James said as he got up and went over to where Meowth was.

"What do they say?" Meowth and Jessie said simultaneously. James got out a stack of cards and flipped through them until he got to the one he wanted.

"Houndoom, the dark pokémon," he read. Jessie was now interested in what was happening and also came over to where Meowth was. The flames it breathes when angry contain toxins. If they cause a burn, it will hurt forever."

"Hurt forever?" Meowth said surprised.

"Does that mean that the burn lasts forever as well?" Jessie asked.

"Well, it will never go away naturally," James explained. "If you used something like a rawst berry or a burn heal, then it will mostly heal it. Some of the pain, however, will never go away."

Never? Guess Sam was right Lily thought. But I guess I know why he was so smart now…

"Well this is no good," Jessie commented. "We need this glaceon in tip-top shape for the boss." Lily growled at this comment, but Jessie ignored it.

"True…" James thought. "Meowth, do we have anymore burn heals?"

"I'll check." Meowth went over to their balloon and looked inside of it. After a few moments of looking, Meowth came back with a green spray bottle.

"We're in luck. We had one left."

Jame took the burn heal and knelt down to he at eye level with Lily. He moved his hand next to the glaceon's cage. Even through his glove, James' hand instantly froze and became numb. He retracted his hand and started to shake it to warm up.

"Glaceon's an ice type, by the way," Jessie said mockingly.

"Thanks," James said sarcastically back. Once his hand was a little bit warmed up, James tried again, but this time, went for the bandedge. He was expecting to feel a blast of cold, but he felt heat instead. James started to unwrap the bandedge.

Lily didn't really like the idea of being healed for those guys' boss, but the burn had hurt her a lot and she would like it to be heal, even if it was only partially. So, she just let it happen.

James got off the bandedge and saw the reason it was emanating heat. All of Lily's front-right leg was a dark shade of red.

"Alright, this is going to sting," James warned. "Are you ready?" Lily nodded her head. James sprayed the burn heal, and Lily leg instantly felt like it was on fire. She closed her eyes and grited her teeth. The pain was unbearable. 'Stinging' was an understatement. After what felt like forever, the pain mostly subsided. But ,as James had said, she could still feel some of it. Lily wiped away some tears from her face that she had let out when she was hurting and looked down at her right leg. Most of the red was gone and had been replaced with the normal icey blue. Some red, however, still remained.

"There we go! Almost as good as new," James announced.

"You know, I'm starting to feel hungry," Meowth said. He hadn't eaten anything today.

"Yes! Let's get back to feasting," Jessie declared. All three of them went back over to where their food was and, once again, started to eat.

That guy was nicer than the other ones Lily thought. Wonder how he got mixed up in Team Rocket.

Just then, Lily hered bushes rustling, and so did Team Rocket. They got up on their feet and looked to where the rustling had come from.

"Look who's here," Jessie said.

Sam was running down the dirt road as fast as he could. He knew the balloon had come this way, but not where they were now. He knew their direction, but not their destination. Drake had mentioned following them until they stopped. Maybe they had stopped. Maybe Drake and Kate had already saved Lily, but Sam didn't know this for sure, so he had to keep looking.

Sam was so intent on looking for Team Rocket in the sky, that he almost fell into a hole that was in the middle of the road. He stopped himself at the last second. Looking down into the hole, Sam saw a small, pink pokémon trying to climb out of the hole.

It was Cassius.

The espeon was scratching at the wall, trying his best to get a grip on the dirt.

"You know, if you like falling into holes this much, you should take it up as a hobby," Sam teased. Cassius looked up and looked confused for a second. The look almost immediately melted away as he realized who was talking to him.

"I know someone who teaches a summer course if you'd like to enroll," Sam said with a smile.

"Es?" Cassius said.

"Hang on, I'll help you get out," Sam offered. He looked around and found a long branch on a tree. He went over and broke it off.

"Sorry about that," Sam apologized to the tree. The tree just continued to sway in the morning breeze, so Sam took that as his apology being accepted. He went back over to the hole. He threw the branch down into the hole. Cassius grabbed ahold of it. Sam started to pull the branch back. Cassius was heavier than Sam had thought he'd be, but it wasn't too much trouble pulling him out of the hole. Once Cassius got out of the hole, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You alright?" Sam asked his psychic friend as he knelt down to his height.

"Espeon," he replied back with a nod. Sam was a bit disappointed that he couldn't understand pokémon anymore, but that was how it was supposed to be.

"Wish I could understand you," Sam expressed his thoughts.

"Would you prefer if I talked to you like this then," Cassius' voice appeared in Sam's head. Sam smiled.

"Very," he said. Sam got back unto his feet. "Do you know where Team Rocket went?"

"This way," Cassius said telepathically as he continued running down the road. Sam was quick to follow him.

"Well, you know what I say," Jessie proclaimed triumphantly, "if you wait long enough, then they'll come to you!"

Kate and Drake were struggling to get out of the net that both of them were trapped in. Drake let out an Ember on it, but this time, it didn't burn. Kate couldn't bite through it either.

"Hah, save your energy," Meowth taunted, "'Dat's a reinforced net. It would take years for you to break out of 'dat one. Which makes me wonder why we didn't use 'dem in the first place," Meowth said with a scowl.

"Hey! We thought we could save money by not going all out and just using the cheaper nets instead," Jessie rebutled.

"Lily, are you alright," Drake asked to his sister who was in a cage not far from the net he was stuck in.

"I guess I'm doing well," she replied.

"What happened to your leg?" Drake questioned when he saw that her leg was no longer burned.

"They used a burn heal on it and now it's a lot better," Lily said, shaking her leg a bit.

"They healed you?" Kate was sceptical.

"Well, they did it so I would be in 'tip-top shape' for their boss, or something like that."

Kate was thinking of something. "Hey, you meowth," she called out to get the cat's attention. "Are you part of Team Rocket?"

"I sure am," he replied as he started to pack up all their belongings. They had already stayed too long and need to get out of here before anymore people or pokémon come to interrupt them.

"Well, I guess we didn't get all of them," James said while putting up their picnic blanket, "but we did get three of them, and three out of five isn't bad."

"Still, I would have liked to get all of them," Jessie pouted.

"So you told me about Sam being a humans so that we would be distracted when those two came and captured us?" Kate kept up her asking. Drake and Lily were surprised by this.

"Is that how you knew?" Kate ignored Drake's question.

"Ha, yeah, you've probably figured it out by now, but that whole thing was a lie," Meowth said.

"A lie?" All three of them said at the same time.

"Yeah, I made the whole thing up just to get you guys to fight. You were so gullible." Meowth started to laugh.

Lily looked at Drake, Drake looked at Kate, and Kate looked at Lily.

"But he was a human," Lily spoke up.

Meowth stopped laughing. "What now?"

"Sam told us that he was a human and a pokémon collector," Drake explained.

"But that whole thing was a fake. I made it up. I-"

"You better believe them," a voice came from behind everyone. They all turned around and saw a human with raven black hair with an espeon beside him.

"Because I'm living proof," Sam finished.

"Oh great, more twerps," Jessie said in disgust.

"I guess our pit trap didn't slow them down at all," James said with equal annoyance. Lily, Drake, Kate, and Meowth were just now starting to figure out who this guy was.

"Look here bub, but we caught all these pokémon fair and square so you can't have them," Jessie declared.

"G-guys," Meowth stuttered. "I think… that is the eevee from earlier."

"What? What are you talking about, Meowth?" Jessie asked, thinking he was crazy.

"Have you lost your mind?" James asked, thinking he was crazy.

"No, just look at him, doesn't he look very similar to that eevee?"

Jessie and James looked really close at the boy, but couldn't find any similarities between him and an eevee. But, then again, Meowth wouldn't lie about these things, so the two just passed it off as a 'pokémon thing'.

"So he was a human all this time." James stated once he realized that the espeon next to the boy looked like the one they had been spying on this whole time; another supporting clue.

"I don't care if he was a tree; he's not getting our pokémon," Jessie yelled as she took off a pokéball from her belt.

"Right," James agreed as he too took a ball of his belt.

"Well, I'm not letting you take my friends!" Sam was ready to battle these creeps, but there was one problem. He hadn't brought any pokémon to battle with, not that he even had any.

"Espeon," Cassius stepped forward and got into a battle stance.

'You want to fight?" Sam asked. He nodded in reply. Sam took out his pokédex and pointed it at Cassius. After it had scaned him, all of his moves appeared on the screen.

"Got it," he said once he had memorised them. Sam put his pokédex back in his pocket.

"Let's go, Arbok!" Jessie yelled as she threw her ball. Out of it came a very large snake.

"You too, Weezing!" James shouted as he threw his ball. Out came a large, round pokémon with holes all over its body.

"Two on one? That's hardly fair," Sam said.

"Who do you think we are, knights?" Jessie said with lots of snark.

"An arbok and a weezing, huh?" Sam observed. "Both of them are poison type, so we have the advantage," he told Cassius. The espeon nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright, Arbok, let's start off with a Poison Sting," Jessie gave a command. Arbok did as it was told and shot many poison darts towards Cassius.

"Reflect," Sam called out. Cassius put up a psychic barrier, making all of the darts bounce harmlessly off. It had been many years since Sam had had a pokémon battle, so he hoped that he wasn't too rusty.

"Weezing go, use Sludge!" James called out while throwing his hand forward. Weezing puked up some black sludge and made it fly towards Cassius.

"Dodge that!" Sam called out. Cassius gracefully moved to the side and let the Sludge fly past him. "Now, counter by using Psychic on Arbok!" Sam was really getting into this. Cassius focused his energy on the snake. Arbok was encircled by a light blue glow before being lifted up into the sky. It was futilely struggling to get out as Cassius held his grip.

"Throw it!" Sam commanded. Cassius threw the arbok towards its master and smacked right into her.

"Now to deal with Weezing," Sam said. Cassius, however, did something that Sam did not expect. He got out of his battle stance, and sat down, his eyes closed. His tail started to twitch back and forth.

"Cassius?" Sam asked, wondering what he was doing.

"Quick, Weezing, use Sludge again!" James yelled to his pokémon. Weezing obeyed and spouted out another Sludge attack.

"Watch out!" Sam called out.

Right before the Sludge attack hit Cassius, he opened eyes and grabbed the Sludge with Psychic.

"Alright! Now send it back!" Sam ordered. With his Psychic, Cassius threw the Sludge right back at Weezing and hit it straight in the face. The force of the attack was so great, that it knocked Weezing back and, like Arbok, rammed into its trainer.

"Now, sent them flying with one more Psychic!"

Cassius closed his eyes again and focused his energy on all of the humans and pokémon. With a little struggle, Cassius lifted them into the air and sent them flying into the sky.

"Team Rocket is blasting off again!" they yell out as they flew through the the air, out of sight.

"That was great, Cassius!" Sam congratulated. He knelt down and pulled him into a proper hug. Cassius was painting from using a lot of his energy to beat Team Rocket.

"I think there are some pokémon that want to be released from their captivity." Cassius said after the hug was done.

"Oh, right," Sam remembered. He got up and walked over to where Kate, Drake, and Lily had been watching the whole thing. He first took the pegs out from the net that were keeping it in the ground, releasing Kate and Drake. He then opened the cage that held Lily.

"You guys alright?" he asked them. Lily and Drake nodded while Kate just gave a grunt. Cassius came over to join the newly freed pokémon. Sam let out a large sigh and knelt down to everyone's level. "Hey, look, I'm… sorry for not tell you guys the truth from the start. I really should have. I'm not asking for you to forgive me, you don't have to. I'm just glad you all are safe now."

Kate gave Sam a mean look.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to capture you guys. I've learned that you pokémon have feelings too. I know you don't want to captured, so I'm not going to." Sam got off of his knees. "So…I guess this is goodbye." Sam didn't want to leave them, but he also didn't want to capture them if they didn't want him to. He wanted them to live in the wild. With his face to the ground, Sam started to walk back towards his home.

"Sam? Is that you?" Sam heard a voice from somewhere in front of him. He looked up to see a boy a little younger than Sam with red and blue clothes on.

"Dallas?" Sam said, surprised to see his friend here.

"Sam! Where have you been," Dallas said as he ran up to Sam, "Everyone's been looking for you. Where did you g-" Dallas stopped when he looked behind Sam. "I see. You went on an expedition to catch the rest of the eeveelutions you needed, right?"

"What?" Sam said while looking behind him. Cassius, Drake, and Lily were all sitting there. Kate, was nowhere to be found.

"You really could have told someone where you were going before you just headed out like that. Everyone was so worried about you. Anyway, you're here now, and that's all that matters. So I assume that you've already caught these ones right?" Dallas said while pointing to the three pokémon behind Sam.

"No, I haven't," Sam replied.

"What? These are three of the four pokémon you need to catch in order to complete the pokédex. Why haven't you caught them already?" Dallas said with urgency. Lily and Drake were surprised. They knew Sam was a pokémon collector, but they didn't know that he was that close to completing the pokédex.

"I know that, but I'm not catching them."

Dallas was completely confused. "Sam, what's gotten into you? Why won't you catch them?"

Sam stayed silent for a few seconds.

"I didn't go on an expedition to catch all of the remaining eeveelution," Sam replied. "I went on a journey. While I was on that journey, I learned that pokémon have feelings like we do. They have families and goals in life, just like we do. These pokémon don't want me to capture them, and so I'm not going to."

"What are you talking about!" Dallas yelled. "You've been trying to complete the pokédex for as long as I can remember, and you're just going to give up when you're so close?"

"I… guess so," Sam said, just now realizing that fact himself.

Dallas couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Well, if you're not going to catch them, then I will!" Dallas clipped an empty pokéball of his belt and threw it at Lily. She turned her head as she prepared for the ball to hit her.

Smack

That smack was not the sound of the pokéball hitting a pokémon, nor was it the sound of the pokéball missing and hitting the ground. No, that smack was the sound of the pokéball hitting flesh. Someone's hand.

"I can't let you do that," Sam said as he held the pokéball up in his palm.

Dallas had had about as much as he could take.

"Fine then, if you want to protect these pokémon so much, then I challenge you to a pokémon battle."

"A battle?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, you heard me. If you win, then I promise I will never lay a finger on these pokémon. But if I win, I get my chance to catch them, and you can't stop me."

Sam thought about this. "But I don't have any pokémon to fight you with."

"Actually, I think that you have three pokémon who want to fight for you," Sam heard in his head. He turned around to see Cassius, Drake, and Lily all sitting behind him.

"You guys really want to fight for me?" Sam asked. Cassius and Lily both nodded their heads. "Drake?" Sam asked when he didn't do anything. Drake looked up at Sam, and then nodded his head slowly.

"Thanks guys," Sam pulled them all into a hug. That was, until his whole body started to freeze. He let go of them and shivered. He had kept forgetting that Lily was an ice type.
"How does a three on three sound," Sam called out to Dallas.

"What? You can't battle with wild pokémon."

"Try me."

"Alright then, fine. A three on three it is then." Dallas pulled out a pokéball and enlarged it. "I've been training for a long time, and me and my pokémon have grown strong. I'm not going to lose. I can't lose. If I'm going to be champion one day, I can't be beaten by you." Dallas thrusted his arm with the pokéball in front of him.

"I'll show you just how good I've become!"

Alright. Chapter 13 will be my last chapter in this story, no matter how long it is. I know this story isn't that long, but it is my first, so whatever. Because this story doesn't take place in any specific region, I didn't know what pokemon to give Team Rocket, so I just decided to give them their original. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading. The last chapter may take some time to make, so I don't know when I will be done with it. Bit I hope that you will be excited for it. See you next time.