"Boss! What are you doing in Neon City?"

The Boss clenched his fists. "I told you two ignoramuses that I'd arrive here yesterday to come and see the Pokémon you got!"

I scratched my head, turning to Jessie. "Oh yeah, he did say that, didn't he?" she said.

I nodded. "Guess we forgot. Sorry, Boss," I apoligized. Jessie had the Pokéballs on the desk in our hotel room. She walked over and picked them up. "Are these what you're looking for? We got an Onix, a Vulpix, a Golem, and a Geodude."

The Boss smirked. "Nice work. Looks like you aren't totally useless after all." He grabbed three Pokéballs. "You can keep the Geodude. The rest are mine."

Jessie nodded and I just watched as The Boss walked out the door.

"Well, that went much better than any other time we've tricked the twerps," I commented.

"Mhm," Jessie agreed. "The Boss may just give us a raise on our next paycheck."

I giggled at the thought. "Well, Jess, we really scored this time. I just have one question."

"What's that?"

"Who gets to keep the Geodude?"

Ash, Misty, and Brock had tried almost everywhere in town, but Team Rocket was nowhere to be found.

"They must've already left the city," Brock cried.

"We haven't checked everywhere yet," Ash reassured him. "They might still be here. Like, maybe in one of the hotel rooms!"

"ALL THE HOTELS ARE FULL, YOU IDIOT!" Misty screeched, slapping him.

"Geez, my apologies," Ash groaned, rubbing his hand against his face.

"If we sneak into the hotels when the receptionists are on break, we may have a chance."

"That's too risky, Brock," Misty sighed.

"What if we dressed up and said it was our turn to take shift?" Ash suggested.

"Wow. That's the only good idea you've had in ages, Ash."

Ash groaned and dropped to the floor, before quickly getting up again. "Well, first thing's first. We need costumes!"

"Geodude is worthless," I scoffed. "We might as well just give it back to the twerp trio."

James looked thoughtful. "But Geodude is a strong Pokémon."

"True, but what if it sees its old master in battle and turns to his side?" I countered.

"Good point. We should just give it back to them. It won't do us any harm. The Boss didn't want it anyways."

"I agree, let's go."

"But how will we find them?"

"Simple. Put on purposely terrible costumes and hope they spot us," I responded.

"Oh." James' eyes sparkled, looking hopeful. "It might be worth a shot."

"Or we could just wait at that other place where we first saw them," I thought out loud. "Or maybe we could try and find that camp that they made just outside of town."

"We'll do all three."

"First up is their camp."

"We've been looking for hours, and I'm starving," Ash groaned.

Brock turned in the direction of their camp. "I had sandwich supplies ready for when we came back for lunch. Let's go."

Ash was glad to race his friends to the camp. "I bet I get there first!" he challenged.

"I'd agree. You're way too eager about filling your empty belly that I wouldn't dare bet anything on you losing a race to get food."

Misty nodded in agreement with Brock. "Why don't we just see how fast we can get there together?" she suggested.

"Oh, alright." Ash looked slightly disappointed, but in the end he was glad to finally get some food. But little did he know what surprise awaited him when he should arrive.

"Team Rocket?!"

"What are you doing at our camp?!" Misty challenged.

"And what have you done with my Pokémon?" Brock asked. "It must've been you! I knew the pink hair seemed familiar."

"Well, well, well, Jess, looks like we have a few angry campers."

Ash growled. "How dare you steal Brock's Pokémon and then come to camp, searching for ours?!"

The pair burst into laughter. "They actually think that's why we're here?" James chuckled.

"I told you how idiotic they were," Jessie giggled.

Ash and the others did not find this funny. "Give me back my Pokémon!" Brock roared.

Jessie giggled, tossing a Pokéball in the air and catching it, repeating this as she spoke. "That's exactly what we came here to do."

She tossed the Pokéball to Brock. "Go ahead. Try it. We're not lying."

Brock grunted. "Pokéball, go!" He threw it to the ground and it opened, letting out...

"Weezing."

"Weezing? I don't own a Weezing!"

Jessie fumbled around, laughing nervously before grabbing James by the collar of his shirt. "DID YOU EVEN GRAB THE RIGHT POKÉBALL?"

"I-I'm sure I did." James rummaged around in his pocket, some bottle caps spilling out, until he reached back up, a Pokéball in hand. "There it is."

He snatched Weezing's Pokéball from Brock and replaced it with the other Pokéball, standing back beside Jessie and recalling Weezing. Brock growled. "This better be the right Pokémon."

He tossed it. "Pokéball, go!"

Out came Geodude. "Dude. Dude. Geodude."

"Geodude, return!"

"Dude."

Brock stuffed the Pokéball in his pocket, "What about my other Pokémon?"

"Sorry, but we already gave them to The Boss," Jessie smirked. "And unless you have the nerve to challenge Giovanni himself, I'm afraid your Pokémon will never return."

"The Boss?" Ash repeated.

"You mean, you work for somebody? You don't just do this for youselves?" Misty asked.

"How do you think we get money?" Jessie sneered.

Ash shrunk. "James' parents are rich?"

"You expect me to go back there after what Jessiebelle almost did to me?!" James looked horrified.

Jessie pet his shoulder. "Jessiebelle will pay for what she almost did to you, James. I can assure you of that."

"What did Jessiebelle almost do to James?" Ash asked.

Mist face-palmed. "You won't understand."

Ash crossed his arms with a growl.

James whispered something inaudible to Jessie, and the female giggled.

While Ash begged Misty and Brock to tell him what it was, the members of Team Rocket snuck up behind Ash, grabbing Pikachu and covering his mouth. Surprisingly, Ash and the others didn't notice.

The duo placed Pikachu in an electric-resistant glass container, laughing when he tried to shock them.

"Pika! Pi!"

"Hahahaha. You're wasting your energy. We've made an electric resistant container for you."

"Who knew a simple argument would be enough to get away with stealing Pikachu?"

"Hey! Give me back my Pikachu!"

"Ugh." The twerp noticed us.

I grabbed the container before James could, just as Ash sent his Pidgeotto flying towards us.

"And they're going to pop the balloon," I sighed.

"And then we're going to shoot to the stars and land in some awful place," James continued.

"What else is new?"

Pidgeotto, as predicted, pecked a hole in the hot air balloon, grabbed Pikachu, and flew back to the twerps.

"We're in for a bad landing this time," I grumbled. And, just to keep tradition, on cue, we both yelled out, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

Although this time neither of us sounded as enthusiastic as we usually did. I wonder why, I thought as we crashed into a forest.

"Where are we this time?" James asked, rubbing his head. I climbed down.

"Looks like a forest to me."

"I wonder which route we're on."

"No idea, but now we've got a head start on the twerps. Let's go!"

Finally, yes, I know., it took thirty thousand centuries, but here it is.