Team Rocket vs Mew

Hun stood with Pierce, looking down on the Rocket scientists and the rest of Beta Team as they went about trying to find Mew. Beta Team consisted of Pierce, Wendy, Matori, Christopher, the Iron Masked Marauder aka Vicious, Carr, Sird, Orm, Sham, and Carl aka Keane. They were, all in all, a potent team, overseen by Professor Fuji and Lieutenant Surge. "I take it no luck?" Hun said.

"As of yet, no," Pierce replied. "But we're narrowing it down, following up on reports or news of sightings."

Hun scanned Beta Team quietly, taking a mental role call, and frowned upon seeing Carr. They had… problems, Carr and Hun. Rather Carr had problems with Hun and tended to try and cross the agent in all the wrong ways.

"Here it is," Pierce said to Hun, pointing out on the screen the Mew's location as it was patched through.

"It's not too far," Hun said. "Good. Less chance of disaster striking along the way."

"If you need backup, call in to the rest of us for help," Pierce said.

"Without fail," Hun answered, nodding in agreement. "Send an update to Giovanni. I'm on my way to fetch the others."

"Good luck," Pierce said. The two bowed to each other and Hun left to get the others.

PKMN

"Drop points are here, here, here, here, and here," Domino said, pointing out five different locations. "We can spread out from those."

"Bombs away I guess," Meowth said, looking uneasily out the jet at the jump he, Jessie, and James were going to be making. "Dese t'ings have been tested, right?"

"Tested? Sure," Tyson answered, smirking wickedly. Jessie, James and Meowth started, teeth clenched nervously. "Sayonara," Tyson said.

"Now, now, now!" Attila called out quickly. Tyson shoved them all out before they had a chance to jump on their own. The trio screamed in terror, plummeting towards the ground.

Tyson chuckled darkly and felt a glare on him. His smirk fell and he glanced back. Hun and Attila were both staring at him with arms folded, unimpressed. "What?" Tyson demanded. "What?" Head shaking, Hun turned and walked away. Attila threw up his hands hopelessly and followed his partner. "Yeah, I thought so," Tyson bit, frowning at them.

PKMN

Lucky for the Team Rocket trio, the parachutes had indeed worked, and their landing hadn't been as horrible as it could have been. At least something was going right. "Dat jerk Tyson. We could have broken our necks!" Meowth agitatedly said.

"Perhaps that's what he'd hoped for," James glumly said.

"Ridiculous. This plan can't work without us and he knows it," Jessie said, hands behind her head. "Now let's get to that mew and into our positions ASAP before Cassidy and Blip can show us up. Where are we headed, Meowth?"

"Huh? I t'ought James had de map," Meowth said.

"Me? I thought Jessie did!" James said.

The three froze in place, grimacing and shivering a bit. "Team Rocket's messing up again," they glumly said together.

"Maybe if we keep walkin' we'll happen on somethin'," Meowth offered lamely.

"We're going to be fired!" James wailed.

"Snap out of it James! Meowth may have something. Let's go," Jessie said. "As long as we keep going straight we should reach our destination in no time."

PKMN

"You aren't our destination!" James exclaimed in alarm about an hour later. As it turned out, they hadn't gone as straight as they'd thought they had, because if they had they probably wouldn't have run into their rivals.

"Jessie," Cassidy said bitterly.

"Cassidy," Jessie replied coldly, crossing her arms and turning her back.

"You losers messed up again, didn'cha?" Butch said.

"We're doing just fine!" James insisted. "You're the ones off course."

"Wanna wager on that?" Butch challenged.

"Hold up, hold up, arguing ain't gettin' us nowhere," Meowth said, attempting to break up the looming fight. "Let's just get our bearings from deir map and we can all be on our merry way."

"Fine," Jessie grumbled. "Care to point out to us where we are on your map then, Cassidy?"

"Don't expect help from me, Jessie Jess. You dug your grave, now you lay in it," Cassidy replied.

"You do have a map, don't you?" James asked, noticing then the distinct absence of a map.

Butch and Cassidy immediately flushed. "It's in our heads!" Butch quickly spit out. We memorized it."

"You forgot it too, didn't you?" James unhappily said.

Butch and Cassidy glared at James. James stared miserably back. Butch and Cassidy deflated. "Yeah," Butch admitted in a grumble. He cried out in pain as Cassidy hit him up the back of the head, glaring. "What?" he demanded. She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

"Hah! Putting us down when you're no better off. Typical," Jessie said to Cassidy. The two glared daggers at each other.

"Hey, Cass has got a survivalist as a partner, and I'm a good tracker to boot, so gettin' back on the trail ain't gonna be a problem," Butch said.

"You couldn't track your way out of a paper bag!" James shot.

"Beat it, Raticate, you're in my space!" Meowth ordered Cassidy's raticate, who was growling at him. Meowth roughly kicked his rival. Raticate growled in anger and tackled Meowth, dragging them both into a battle so furious that the two had to be pried apart by their travelling companions and kept off the ground as they continued spitting and hissing at each other, trying to attack even in the air.

"You're losing sight of the goal, guys," a voice suddenly said.

The group gasped and spun. Their eyes widened. "Annie and Oakley!" Jessie exclaimed. Annie had been the one who had spoken, it seemed. Hmm, either the four of them were all way off course, or Annie and Oakley had sought them out. Possibly they'd heard the fighting and wanted to check on what was happening.

"You're slipping, people. Come on, pick up the pace," Oakley said. "You've got a lot to make up for and not long to do it in."

"Forgot your maps? Come on, we'll get you back on track," Annie said.

"That seems a bit cheap, and not at all to our benefit," James said. After all, how could they grow as agents if people kept carrying them?

If I slow down for you, otouto, how will you ever get better?

James smirked to himself on remembering the words. "Maybe, but we're spies. What do we care?" Oakley said.

"Cheap is part of our job description," Annie added, smirking. "We'll get you to where you should be, take a picture of the map, and sent it to all of you."

"Hey, t'anks for de help," Meowth said, lighting up. This was gonna work out after all thanks to them sisters! Annie and Oakley chuckled. Soon enough the two spies had left them each where they should be before wishing them luck and making themselves scarce. Texts with the pictures of the map came through shortly after, and the four were on the prowl again.

PKMN

Team Rocket spread out from on another, creeping slowly up on the locale of the legendary pokémon. "Steady," Pierce's voice said over their coms. Soon James, Attila, and Butch, on three different sides of the parameter, stopped and began to set up the laptops they would be using to record data.

"Attila, power levels. James, attack patterns and counter predictions. Butch, audio and video recordings," Hun said to them quietly.

"Roger," the three replied together.

"Alright. Jessie, are you ready?" Hun asked. No answer. "Jessie?" the agent repeated.

"I'm ready," Jessie said, voice quiet.

"Then let's all move in. Slowly. Let Jessie make first contact," Hun said. The others confirmed, and carefully Team Rocket began slinking out of the forest, surrounding the form of a sleeping Mew, who woke up almost immediately on sensing an approach.

"Mew?" it said, looking around at the seven agents creeping from the woods. One of them wasn't creeping, though. A female whose face it couldn't see.

"Mew," the female said, approaching carefully but not threateningly. "I want to talk," she continued as she came into the light. Mew floated in the air a bit startled, staring at her. It recognized this girl…

Mew stared at her for a long moment. "Mew, mew, mew, mew," it said. Jessie looked to Meowth for translation.

"Why are you surrounding me?" Meowth said.

"Because of how powerful you are of course," Jessie answered, turning back to it. "You hardly think I'd risk facing you alone, do you?"

Mew looked around at the figures surrounding it. "Mew mew," it deduced. "Mew, mew, mew."

"Team Rocket. Then you're dangerous to me," Meowth translated.

Jessie glared at it. It stared back, expression the same as ever. "You've crossed Team Rocket before. Multiple times," she said. "I'm not interested in those times. I'm only interested in one."

"Jessie, what are you doing?" Attila growled warningly through the com. Jessie pulled out the com, throwing it to the side. Attila's mouth dropped in shock. The others braced themselves, eyes wide. This wasn't the plan.

"I'm interested in the woman who pursued you who had hair like mine only shorter. The one that followed you up into the mountains long ago and never came back! There was a blizzard and they said she was killed in it, but no one could be certain because they kept receiving signals. That's the woman I want to know about! What happened to her? Where is she? What did you do you wretched little beast?!"

"Jessie, enough!" Tyson called out, stunned at her audacity.

"Jessie," Mew communicated through a mental link. Jessie and Meowth both started, eyes widening. It could talk! Err, telepathically. Mew thought on Jessie's words, remembering back to that time. The woman, the picture, the blizzard… It closed its eyes then opened them again, this time slanted in anger. It began floating back and forth, starting to feel threatened. "Mew."

"Leave," Meowth translated.

"Give me my answers!" Jessie shot.

"Mew!" Mew insisted.

"Leave," Meowth translated again, uneasily stepping back.

"What happened to her?!" Jessie shouted.

"Mew!" Mew exclaimed, immediately attacking with a powerful psybeam. Jessie dove out of the way nimbly, tackling Meowth out of the way as well, and the fight was on.

PKMN

"Dammit Jessie!" Tyson shouted, immediately sending out his two fearow.

"Everybody out!" Cassidy ordered, releasing Raticate, Sableye, and Houndour.

"You too guys," Domino said, sending out Cassidy's charizard, granbull, and tentacruel.

"Espeon go!" Annie ordered.

"Ariados, Vileplume!" Oakley said, sending out both her own.

"Steelix, come!" Hun commanded, releasing Steelix.

"I choose everyone!" Jessie said, releasing all the Pokémon she'd brought along.

"Mew!" Mew said, taking off into the sky.

"Fearow, one of you strike with drill peck and the other with fury strike!" Tyson ordered. "Keep it from escaping!

"Charizard, fire spin! Cloyster, mix it with water gun!" Domino commanded. "Make sure it doesn't go far!"

"Sableye, focus punch!" Cassidy ordered.

"Yanmega, Gourgeist, put that thing back on the ground with dark pulse and ancient power!" Jessie said.

Every one of the pokémon that could fly took off and got above Mew, attacking from every angle and not even giving the legendary a chance to get off a move, keeping Mew frantically dodging and trying to avoid being struck. More than one attack landed, however, and soon Mew was crying out in pain, being tossed around. It dove downwards again to get away then looked up once more, letting out a powerful psychic attack. Disable. Most dodged, though some were caught in it, but enough stayed in the air that there would be no easy escape for Mew that way.

"Guys, this thing's power levels are insane!" Attila said over the com.

"It hasn't started to really establish an attack pattern. It's being opportunistic while feeling out the situation, trying to find the easiest way to escape," James said.

"It's not playing with us, but it's not going all out just yet either," Annie said in response.

"Then we don't go all out. It's best to never do so unless given no other choice. If your enemy doesn't know your full power, you have an advantage," Hun said.

"Even at full power, Hun, I don't think we could take this thing down," Oakley said.

"Legendries have been caught before, sometimes by even solitary trainers," Hun answered. The others were silent. The agent had a point after all. Best they focus right now.

PKMN

Mew floated around in growing concern and unease. From all sides it was being attacked, never the same one twice in a row. The humans it was facing had proven far less predictable than it had thought they'd be. Mew was starting to feel like a beach ball being tossed around. It began to go on the attack. "Mew!" it cried out, letting out a powerful psychic wave that knocked back three of the Rocket agents attacking it. It gave a cry of pain as it felt something stab into its back. Spinning, it shot a psybeam at the attacker, a white-haired human of ambiguous gender.

"Hun, move!" a white-haired woman shouted. The other white-haired human leapt to the side nimbly.

"Steelix, rock throw!" the human commanded. The steelix went at Mew with a roar, and Mew's eyes lit up with an idea.

"Steelix!" the steelix said, releasing the attack. Mew floated in place before suddenly flying to the side. Instead of hitting it, the boulders struck others who were attacking Mew! A muscled brown-haired man screamed in pain as he was brought down by a boulder and hit the ground hard, losing consciousness. The blond woman with a spiralled hairdo and no hat let out a scream of pain as she was brought down too and pinned, unable to get out.

Another blond woman with pigtails that weren't spiralled shrieked in pain as a rock struck her leg and possibly broke it. She sobbed in pain, clutching it. "Goddammit Hun! Ah!" she screamed.

"Yanmega, steel wing!" the woman, Jessie, ordered. The yanmega responded eagerly. Mew dodged the attack and instead of striking Mew, it struck the white-haired woman, slashing open her side. She screamed in pain, collapsing to the ground.

"Oakley!" the blond girl trapped under rocks cried out, reaching towards the white-haired woman.

"Steelix, crunch!" the other human with white-hair ordered. Mew dodged once more and the other blond with spiral pigtails, this one wearing a hat, gasped and screamed in terror, throwing her arms up in front of her in a vain attempt to save herself. "Steelix stop!" the white-haired trainer shouted. Steelix turned with a roar, trying to avoid attacking the girl. Its body slid, though, and its tail whipped around, striking her in the head and knocking her to the ground unconscious, head badly wounded and bleeding.

PKMN

"Shit!" Attila exclaimed from where he was positioned.

"Hun, Jessie, it's making you all target each other. It's taking us out by having us take each other out!" James exclaimed, immediately catching onto what Mew was doing.

"Steelix return!" Hun commanded the pokémon quickly, returning it. "Jessie, don't…" Hun began.

"Seviper, poison tail!" Jessie ordered, pointing. Seviper lunged with a hiss. Mew dodged, Seviper's tail drove through Hun's body, pinning Hun to a rock face! The agent cried out in anguish, doubling over.

"Seviper!" Seviper exclaimed in shock and alarm, quickly withdrawing and looking alarmed and confused. Jessie gasped, covering her mouth. Hun collapsed onto knees, shuddering.

"Hun!" James cried out, leaping to his feet in alarm.

"Shit!" Attila said again, leaping up. He'd gotten all the data he could, now they couldn't risk staying out of this fight anymore.

"They're all down 'cept Jess and Meowth. We've gotta get out there and back them up!" Butch said.

"Jessie, Meowth!" James shouted. He raced out of the bushes to face Mew. Butch and Attila leapt out of hiding too, scowling.

Mew looked around at them all, eyes narrowed. "Mew!" it cried out, releasing a psychic pulse. Butch and Attila cried out in pain, flying back and hitting the ground hard. James gasped, seizing Jessie and spinning her around behind a rock. The pulse struck him and Meowth and they both flew backwards. Jessie gasped, covering her mouth. Butch, Attila, James, and Meowth all started to get up, but suddenly were frozen in place. Disable! Jessie blinked then scowled, looking out from behind the rock. Mew was getting away.

"Oh no you don't!" Jessie said. She raced out of hiding, running after it scowling.

"Jessie, what are ya doin'?!" Meowth demanded.

"Jessie, don't!" James shouted. Jessie ignored them both. "Sableye, Gourgeist, follow me!" Sableye looked torn as to whether to obey or not, but soon did so. Jessie pursued Mew determinedly, following it up a cliff and climbing as fast as she could. "Jess, you can't take it on alone! Jessica, don't!" James frantically shouted, trying desperately to shake the effects of disable. Hun, still shuddering, looked upwards with a scowl. Butch desperately willed his body to move. Slowly his arm started to obey his brain's commands. He reached out for the panic button they'd been supplied, straining to reach it. He pressed but it didn't work. His eyes widened in alarm. He inwardly let off a string of curses and focused on trying to get his body to function again.

PKMN

Jessie climbed after Mew and finally reached the top of the cliff. She glared ahead, seeing it trying to break for it. "Gourgeist, leech seed!" she commanded.

"Gourgeist!" Gourgeist replied, attacking. Mew cried out in pain as its powers began to drain away. It turned around, shivering in pain. Jessie raced towards it and slid to a stop in front of it, scowling. It stared at her silently. She stared back, teeth clenched and eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"Leave me alone," Mew warned telepathically, sinking lower to the ground.

"Where is my mother?!" Jessie screamed. "Answer me you little monster! Answer me!"

Mew stared at her. She stared back, tears slipping down her cheeks now. Mew soon closed its eyes, bowing its head. "If your mother is alive, she pursues me still," it finally answered.

"What?" Jessie breathed in a whisper, eyes widening.

"If your mother is alive, where I am she isn't far," Mew replied. Jessie gasped, covering her mouth as a look of shock crossed her face and she sank to her knees.

"Gourgeist!" Gourgeist exclaimed in concern, forgetting her attack in favor of rushing to her trainer's side and trying to comfort Jessie.

Mew let out a sound of relief as its power began to return and it floated high into the air again. It stared silently. "You-you little wretch!" Jessie screamed, getting to her feet and racing towards Mew. Mew seemed to sadly sigh and sent out a psybeam striking Jessie dead center. She screamed in pain. Mew continued to channel the psybeam into her unrelentingly.

PKMN

Disable had finally worn off and James raced towards the cliff with a frightened Meowth, determined to reach their partner. They'd heard her screaming, and it chilled them to the bone. "Jessie!" James shouted frantically. He and Meowth began to climb. Suddenly Steelix appeared and stretched up to the top of the cliff, forming a staircase.

"Huh?" James and Meowth said, looking back down. They saw Hun holding out the pokeball from which Steelix had sprung. Besides Hun they saw also the rest of their team in various states. Meowth almost whimpered. James felt a sick feeling in his stomach and scowled darkly, head snapping upwards again. He leapt onto Steelix with Meowth and began racing up it, eyes narrowed and teeth clenched murderously.

I'm coming Jessie…

James leapt to the top of the cliff with Meowth and gasped on seeing Mew channelling psybeam into Jessie. Gourgeist and Sableye were stunned and confused, unsure what they could do. "Jessie!" James shouted frantically. Mew looked quickly over at him. "Sableye, shadow ball now, the strongest you can! Follow with focus punch. Meowth…"

"Night slash!" Meowth cut off, bearing his teeth furiously and leaping at Mew.

"Gourgeist, frustration then follow with the strongest dark pulse you can muster!" James commanded. Immediately the three pokémon attacked Mew as one. Mew cried out in pain, dropping its attack. Jessie fell to the ground with a strangled cry and lay there shuddering and only borderline conscious. James gazed at his partner in horror and fear as she looked weakly up at him, tears in her eyes, and rested her head once more when it took too much energy to keep it up. James' fists clenched, and his teeth. His eyes narrowed as he glanced sharply back. With a shout of rage he spun around. "Gourgeist, leech seed! Make it suffer!" Gourgeist, feeding off James's rage as well as its own, did so, firmly binding Mew in leech seed. Meowth continued to tear into it with night slash, Sableye pounded it with shadow ball after shadow ball. Mew let out an anguished cry that echoed loudly, tossing its head back as it writhed, quickly weakening. James watched on, teeth gritted and fists clenched so tightly that if not for the gloves he wore, his hand would probably be bleeding.

"Steelix, rock throw on Gourgeist, Meowth, and Sableye!" a voice commanded. Meowth cried out in pain, along with Gourgeist and Sableye, as they were knocked away from Mew and onto the ground. James gasped, spinning around in shock. When he saw who it was, though, anger vanished. There, on the edge of the cliff, stood Hun, attention wholly on Gourgeist, Meowth, and Sableye. Mew took off like a shot, making a break for it so it could vanish and recover. Silence reigned…

PKMN

Meowth, Gourgeist, and Sableye could only stare at the officer in shock from the ground and look questioningly at James, who had become pale and now looked more afraid than furious. After a moment of watching after Mew, Hun's eyes fell on James and James suddenly felt like he'd been punched in the gut. The look reflected in that gaze… It was disapproval…

James broke. Tears shining in his eyes, he clenched his teeth and closed them, looking quickly away from Hun and holding back a sob. He turned completely and ran to Jessie's side, falling next to her and gathering her up into his arms. "Jessie? Jessie, please," he pled. Her eyes weakly fluttered, settling on him. She winced, breathing in pain and closing her eyes, pressing her face into his body and holding his shirt tightly. He couldn't keep back the tears anymore. He sobbed, letting them fall. Footsteps approached. James didn't move. A hand fell gently on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," James said, voice breaking. "I just wanted it to stop hurting Jessie. She was in so much pain and it was just letting her suffer and I-I…"

"I know," Hun said, squeezing James's shoulder in a grounding manner. "But next time leave making it suffer to those who can stomach it."

"I can and did…" James said numbly.

"By those who can stomach it, I mean those who will be able to look back on their actions and not regret them forevermore," Hun said. James shuddered. "Next time leave making it suffer to those who can," Hun repeated. James sniffed, opening his eyes again and nodding, staring at Jessie. Hun looked down at the woman. "She'll be alright. If Mew had wanted her dead, she would be dead."

"You have the most erratic way of comforting people," James said with a grimace.

Hun winced, glancing away. "I'm sorry," the agent replied.

"I didn't mean it like that," James said, immediately feeling bad about how that had come out.

"I know… But you're right," Hun said. "Come. We need to get down to the others. Right now, with Jessie incapacitated, Butch is the only field medic we have. He'll do what he can for her, and should she recover well then she can help him with the rest of us who'll need it." James nodded and stood, lifting Jessie in his arms bridal style.

"Wasn't you pretty badly poisoned? And almost impaled?" Meowth asked Hun.

"Yes. And I was bad enough that I was among the first ones Butch tended to, right after Domino and Oakley. My fix was simple enough, an antivenom and a wrapping. The treatment will be elaborated on further, but one of us needed to get up there and back you up," Hun said.

"It shouldn't have been you if you were among the worst off!" James protested in alarm.

"I've survived harsher," Hun said. James tensed up and bowed his head, hating the memories that sprang to mind. Nonetheless, he nodded in understanding, and he, Hun, and Meowth returned to the others with Gourgeist and Sableye to regroup and report.

PKMN

James sat with Jessie cradled in his arms, looking around at the others. Butch was casting Cassidy's leg gently after resetting it. That hadn't been a pleasant scream to hear. It had been muffled by the gag in her mouth that prevented her from biting down on her tongue, but it had still been loud. James had sent out Chimecho to help Butch out, and it had proved exceedingly useful in helping control pain and heal wounds. It was the reason the worst Cassidy was doing now was worrying her lip and holding her partner's shoulders as Butch casted her leg as best he could. She let out a shaky sigh, leaning against a rock and closing her eyes tight, swallowing.

Annie had been examined for injuries. She was badly bruised and had some fractured ribs, but otherwise was alright. Butch had wrapped her ribs firmly and told her to stay as still as possible. Chimecho had helped with pain control so currently she was doing fine. Attila sat next to her on a log. Domino's head had been bandaged and she was leaning against the same log Attila and Annie sat on. Tyson, who'd regained consciousness but was eerily quiet, sat at her side hoping she woke up and then didn't fall asleep again, because it had looked like she'd sustained a lot of trauma. Butch had claimed it was better than it looked, but Tyson wasn't taking chances. Oakley's side was bandaged up. Blood seeped through, but Butch had managed to control the bleeding well enough with the help of Chimecho, and right now she just was moving as little as possible.

Butch finished up with Cassidy then checked up on Hun again, just in case anything had been missed. He frowned on seeing blood. "Oh f**k. Seriously Hun?" Butch said. Hun said nothing. Butch grumbled in annoyance. "Lift your shirt so I can rewrap it," he ordered. At least Seviper hadn't totally impaled the officer, Butch guessed. Hun did so and Butch, grumbling, wrapped the abdomen. He then turned attention to Attila and James just to be extra safe. Once certain everything else was okay, he finally sat back on the ground next to Cassidy with a tired sigh. "Ugh, what a day," he said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up. Cassidy wrinkled her nose and gave him a dirty glare, but didn't speak. She didn't have the energy to argue with him about his bad habit. He took a long drag and let it out in a steady stream.

James's focus was on Jessie, who was starting to come to. Meowth was hovering over her too in concern. "Come on Jess," the feline willed. Jessie let out a soft groan and her eyes began to flicker.

"James," she mumbled.

"I'm here, Jessica. So is Meowth," he assured.

"Wh-what about Mew?" she asked.

"Gone," James answered.

Jessie grimaced. "Typical. What a waste of our time," she remarked angrily, put out by the fruitlessness of their mission.

"And we all nearly got killed for nothin'," Meowth grumbled sourly. He sighed. "I t'ink we failed."

"We didn't. Not completely. We managed to collect a pretty good amount of data on Mew," Attila said.

"And I think-I think Hun and I both managed to get a-a tracker on it," Oakley said, grimacing in pain.

"Chime, heal bell on Oakley if you please," James said to his chimecho.

"Chime," Chime replied, floating over and casting it. Oakley sighed in relief. Chime patted her head with its tail and floated back to James's side, concernedly looking down at Jessie.

"So, what now?" Annie asked.

"We need to get somewhere safe for the night. My uncle's ranch is closer to our location than the Team Rocket outpost. From there we can contact the others and fill them in on what happened, given our emergency call button is out of commission," Attila said. "At my uncle's place we can get a good night's sleep and maybe things will start looking better in the morning."

"Works for me," Domino muttered, starting to come to.

Tyson looked worriedly over at her. "You feel nauseous at all?" Tyson asked.

Domino groaned. "Don't use that word," she pled.

"Dammit. Concussion," Tyson said, frowning deeply. "We're gonna have to keep a close eye on you for a while.

"If we're going to get to the ranch before nightfall, we should head out now," Butch said. He looked over at James and Jessie. "Can you walk Jessie?" he asked.

"I'll manage," Jessie answered.

Butch nodded. "I'll pack Cass, Tyson or Attila can pack Domino," he said.

"It'll have to be Attila. I'm feeling dizzy and my vision's blurry, so I'm probably concussed too," Tyson said.

"On it," Attila agreed.

"Oakley and I will be able to make it alright I think. If the pain gets bad or Oakley starts to bleed too much, we have Chime to save us," Annie said, smiling approvingly at James's pokémon who she personally thought was absolutely precious.

"Chime!" Chime sang, trying to do a superhero pose. Annie giggled at it.

"So, lets go," Butch said, taking one last drag of his cigarette then standing up, stomping it out. He bent and picked up Cassidy in his arms. Attila did the same for Domino

PKMN

The fatigued and cranky team walked slowly towards the ranch thinking only of how comfortable collapsing into beds would be. Considering, of course, that nothing tried to off them on their way there. They were climbing a pretty steep path, now. "I'll bet Attila, Hun, Annie, Oakley, Tyson, and Domino have never had to worry about disappointments and failures like this one," Cassidy wryly said. "Now they can know how it feels."

"Who you kiddin'? They've all failed before no thanks to those twerps," Butch said.

"Ooh I could just destroy those little brats," Jessie agitatedly said.

"Get in line," Cassidy replied bitterly.

"Excuse me? We were dealing with them long before you were, you pretentious little snob!" Jessie shot.

"That may very well be, Jess, but all of Team Rocket has a vendetta against them," James soothed.

"Yeah, and dat's not a place ya wanna be. Take Attila and Hun for instance. I mean Hun may act all formal and even tempered and polite and stuff, but dat's not an agent you wanna mess with," Meowth agreed. "And Attila with his brawn and unpredictable temper ain't a tank ya wanna be facin' down neither."

"Lucky for the twerps, Rocket ain't much into child murder," Butch said. He looked towards Attila, who was in the lead. "Attila, how much farther?!" he called.

"We get to the top of this cliff and we'll be on his property!" Attila called back. "Then we just have to cross the field and get to his house."

"Finally," Butch said, grimacing. He was getting tired out from carrying Cass.

"I'll carry her for a while if you need a break," Tyson offered. The dizziness was mostly gone, and his vision seemed to be normal again.

"I'm good for now," Butch replied.

"I'll bet you are," Tyson replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Butch asked, eyes narrowed. Tyson chuckled, saying nothing further.

PKMN

About half an hour later, the group was panting for breath and standing outside of the ranch. Attila swallowed and handed Domino off to Tyson, approaching the door a bit nervously. He had no clue how he was going to explain this. Maybe he'd leave the others out and tell his Uncle he'd brought a few buddies over who were gonna spend the night. He'd ask if they could use the barn, then his uncle wouldn't have to know how many buddies 'a few' actually was. And he wouldn't get suspicious over the state they all were in. The guy had no clue he'd joined Team Rocket, and Attila kind of wanted to keep it that way. "Stay here," he told the others. "I have some buttering up to do. Don't expect beds, but hey, hay is actually pretty comfortable."

"You can't be serious," Annie said. "The barn?"

"You have great memories of that barn," Attila replied, smirking and winking at her. She blushed deeply as the others looked at her in surprise. Grimacing, she shrunk down a bit in embarrassment. Attila chuckled and entered the house.

"Great memories of the barn, huh?" Oakley asked, folding her arms and frowning at her sister.

"At least I have memories," Annie replied, fluffing her hair with a huff. Oakley scowled at her sister, looking ready to fight, but then sighed in annoyance and let it go, shaking her head hopelessly.

PKMN

Attila entered his Uncle's house. "Hey unc?!" he called out. He heard shuffling upstairs and quickly headed up, so his uncle wouldn't come down here and get a look at the crowd he'd brought along.

"Attila?" his uncle asked, sleepily coming out of his bedroom. "I didn't know you were coming here too. How are your friends? It's been some time since they left."

"They're fine. Had quite an adventure hiking out here. Loved every minute of it. Hey, uh, mind if I take them out to the barn tonight? Gonna be up pretty late and don't want to disturb you," Attila said.

"I suppose," his Uncle answered. Perking up, the man asked, "How long will you be here?"

"A couple days maybe," Attila said.

"Your boss is very flexible," the man said favorably.

"Yeah. A real peach," Attila replied, grimacing. "Thanks uncle. Love you." Turning, Attila quickly went back downstairs to hurriedly usher the others into the barn.