Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai

Chapter One-hundred and thirty-eight: Rocket's Recovery

Jessie, James, and Meowth stood together in a Team Scorn base located somewhere in the Hoenn region. In recent events, the Team Rocket organization in its entirety had been dismantled and disbanded, all of its noteworthy members having been captured by the authorities. This was all due to who things had gone down during Team Rocket's mission in the Unova region involving the Abyssal Ruins; Giovanni, the boss of Team Rocket himself, had been captured by the heroes there. Dr. Zager and all other present members of Team Rocket there were also captured, but it was the capture of Giovanni that was the real devastating blow.

The capture of those members led to the capture of all other noteworthy members of Team Rocket, as well as many of their interests being found and seized by the authorities. Jessie, James, and Meowth had escaped capture only because they had been sent blasting off again; now, with Team Rocket no longer existing due to all of its noteworthy members having been captured, Jessie, James, and Meowth had been sent adrift in the world. They had nothing, and had found themselves in the Hoenn region, which is where they had collapsed from exhaustion and hunger.

But it wouldn't be their end; they were found by members of Team Scorn while out of it, taken to a team Scorn base in Hoenn, and fixed back up. That, plus the offer that Admin Ninja, the head of the Kunai Sector of Team Scorn which is the sector based primarily in Hoenn, is why Jessie and James, formerly of the now defunct Team Rocket, now both stood at attention among a number of Team Scorn rank and file grunts in that Hoenn base. Jessie and James were also wearing Team Scorn grunt uniforms now, the appropriate variations made for their uniforms based on what gender each of them are.

It's true; Jessie and James had ended up joining Team Scorn. Meowth wasn't allowed to join as a member in and of himself due to the fact that he's a Pokémon; if he were to join, either Jessie or James had to take official ownership of Meowth. After things were explained to him, Meowth agreed with Jessie and James that them joining the very team that they when they were Team Rocket had fought, as at this point they had no other real alternative. As for Meowth being officially owned, he decided that he'll go with James, citing some manner of 'bro code' kind of deal.

The new recruits into Team Scorn stood with their new fellows as Admin Ninja entered the room, his Admin's Assistant, Goemon, following in behind him. Although they knew that Team Scorn had an actual boss, Jessie, James, and Meowth got it that hardly anyone in Team Scorn outside of the admins have ever even seen the man. Ninja is the closest thing to a new boss to try to get on the good side of that the trio formerly known as the Team Rocket trio had. After entering the room with Goemon, Ninja walked to stand in front of the crowd of Team Scorn grunts, standing approximately in the middle of the line.

"Okay everyone, here's the deal," Ninja began, "Team Scorn's got a general mission that multiple sectors have to cover, a mission handed down to said sectors by the big man himself."

A female Scorn grunt who stood approximately two rows in front of Jessie, James, and Meowth raised a hand. "What's the mission, Admin Ninja?"

"Basically," Goemon said as he answered for Ninja, "We need to catch more Pokémon."

"Catch..." James spoke up, sounding surprised by the mission, "...More Pokémon?" It wasn't just James who was confused; Jessie and Meowth, as well as some of the other Scorn grunts in the room, expressed mild degrees of confusion.

Ninja took out a clipboard that had some papers on it. "It's actually more important that you may expect, everyone," Ninja began to explain, "According to the recent data collected on Team Scorn members as a whole, most of Team Scorn's rank and file level members only own one Pokémon. Guidelines set forth by the big man himself requires that all members have a minimum of two Pokémon. This is especially important for us here in the Kunai Sector, given that less than five percent of you men and ladies who make up the Kunai Sector's rank and file owns more than one Pokémon."

"And the Kunai Sector is somewhat short-staffed compared to the other sectors in Team Scorn," Goemon explained, "Low manpower combined with low Pokémon-power is part of why we were foiled as easily as we were when Dawn Berlitz and her companion Kenny Harris were in Hoenn a while ago. Not helping was how Steven Stone had to prove himself given he'd recently become Hoenn's champion at the time. He's still the Hoenn champ right now, and his efforts are constantly breathing down the neck of the Kunai Sector. We need to up our total number of heads here, and we at the very least can get started on that by catching more Pokémon."

Holding up a hand, a male grunt who stood directly in front of James asked, "Are there any places we ought to go to for catching more Pokémon, sirs?"

"Actually, yes," Ninja spoke up, "Some hordes of wild poison type Pokémon were sighted in the vicinity of Petalburg Woods. We'll go there and catch as many of said poison type Pokémon as possible. Each member of the group sent on this mission needs a minimum of two Pokémon after the mission's over. Any extras caught will be redistributed to other Team Scorn members in the Kunai Sector." The grunts were then prepped for the mission, and were surprised to learn that both Ninja and Goemon would be overseeing things personally on the mission.

"Jessie, James," Ninja called out as the grunts were being divided up into teams to be led by Ninja and Goemon on the mission, "The both of you already own enough Pokémon to meet the minimum requirements of party count, so any of the Pokémon you catch on the mission will be redistributed to other members of Team Scorn who are lacking the minimum requirement."

Jessie and James, as well as Meowth, all nodded in understanding. "Yes, sir!"

Ninja nodded once in understanding. "Good. Anyway, Jessie, you'll be in the team that Goemon will supervise. James, you and your talking Meowth here are with me." Jessie and James were surprised to see that, although they were both working the same first mission together, they wouldn't be working together. Still, they did not want to cause a scene by insisting on working together, so they agreed, telling one another that they'll see each other later after the mission. After seeing Jessie depart to join up with the team Goemon was leading on the mission, James and Meowth proceeded to follow Ninja.

Onto their first mission as members of Team Scorn.

A short while later, the Team Scorn led mission was in the area of Petalburg Woods. The two groups were covering different areas, hoping to find that horde of wild poison type Pokémon so that they can catch as many of them as possible in order to give Team Scorn more Pokémon as a whole. While looking around the woods with James and Meowth, Ninja said, "So James, you have any interesting stories from when you and Jessie were in Team Rocket?"

"Well we were in Hoenn quite some time ago," James said, "We were trying to do our usual duties as members of Team Rocket, although Jessie got into doing Pokémon contests."

"What sort of usual duties?" Ninja asked as he lifted a tree branch out of the way to look clearly onward.

Shrugging, James replied, "Whatever our boss in Team Rocket told us to do, although Jessie, Meowth, and I would usually try to steal Pokémon belonging to the twerp and whatever friends of his he was traveling with at the time. We were particularly interested in stealing his Pikachu."

"Twerps, huh?" Ninja said, "Do you have their actual names?"

"The boy who has the Pikachu we usually tried to steal is named Ash," Meowth explained, "He's friends with the Sinnoh girl twerp who became Sinnoh's champion."

Ninja nodded once in understanding. "A boy named Ash who's friends with Dawn Berlitz, huh?" Continuing to lead his portion of the group on ahead, Ninja said, "Yes, the Ash boy you speak of is Ash Ketchum. Team Scorn has some info on him, actually."

Both James and Meowth perked up in surprise. "...Team Scorn has info on the twerp?" James said, looking and sounding genuinely surprised.

"We've have dossiers on Dawn Berlitz and all of her known associates and companions who are Pokémon trainers," Ninja explained, "Given how constantly they interfere with Team Scorn activities. We have dossiers on other noteworthy trainers as well." Ninja took his kunai out and used it to cut off a thin yet very stubborn branch from a tree that wouldn't go down easy. Putting the kunai away, Ninja went on, "Outside of Dawn, Kenny, and Trip, Ash has been judged to be the overall most threatening and dangerous member of Dawn's group. He is not a trainer that Team Scorn can take lightly."

James and Meowth were surprised by how Ash, of all people, has been deemed as a notable threat; back when they were in Team Rocket, most of the higher ups that James, Meowth, and Jessie answered to didn't even know who Ash was, and those who did know who Ash was didn't deem him worthy of keeping an eye out for. But the higher ups of Team Scorn consider Ash second only to trainers who own members of Sinnoh's Creation Trio. James, Meowth, and Jessie were aware that Ash and all of his friends were good trainers, but they didn't know they were good enough to be labeled by some villainous teams as legitimate threats.

Looking to Ninja, Meowth asked, "Does Team Scorn have any plans on dealing with those twerps?"

"For the most part, we're actually supposed to try avoiding them if possible," Ninja said, "If we see ahead of time that we can't avoid tangoing with them, then we have to come up with a diversion to distract them while carrying out an actual mission."

James and Meowth were further surprised; not only were Ash and his friends deemed as threats, but for the most part they're supposed to be avoided if possible. But then again, the Sinnoh girl twerp, her cringey friend, and the blonde one who seemingly idolized Ash all owned powerful legendary Pokémon, one of which being the reason why James and Mewoth along with Jessie weren't among the members of Team Rocket arrested at the Abyssal Ruins fiasco. If showing enough sense to keep at a distance from the twerps if possible would earn trust from the higher ups of Team Scorn, then James and Meowth intended to do so with gusto.

It also helps that doing so would help them avoid being sent blasting off again.

As James, Meowth, and some other Scorn grunts followed Ninja, they heard some cries up ahead. "...Those sound like Ekans and Koffing cries," Ninja said. Turning to look at the men behind him, Ninja said while pointing to two men behind James and Meowth, "You to, go find Goemon's group, lead them over here to help us surround the wild Pokémon horde." The two Scorn grunts nodded in the affirmative before taking off. After they were gone, Ninja led his men to sneaking up on the horde in order to scout things out before trying to make the captures.

Looking into the clearing ahead of them from their hiding spot, Ninja and his group saw a number of wild Ekans and Koffing, all of them generally hanging around and whatnot. Three of the Ekans were looking to have a Pokémon that none of the humans could see clearly cornered, but what was going on there none of them could even begin to guess. "...Okay," Ninja said quietly, "Once Goemon's group meets up with us, we'll surround those wild Ekans and Koffing, catch as many of them as possible, then take what we have and get out of here. We'll redistribute extra catches to other Team Scorn members as needed."

Getting Ninja's attention, Meowth said, "Excuse me sir, but if I may be so bold as to offer an idea."

Ninja, his interest piqued, said, "Go on."

"I myself am a Pokémon," Meowth said, "Not to mention how I can talk. It's helped me bridge gaps between humans and Pokémon multiple times in the past. If you'll allow me, I can go out to greet the Ekans and Koffing, explain to them that Team Scorn wants to catch them and give them homes with trainers who will care for them. It might work, even if only by distracting them long enough for the rest of us to capture them."

"...That sounds ballsy enough to work," Ninja replied, "And it would at least buy time for Goemon's group to meet up with us. Alright, go for it."

With the permission from Ninja, Meowth went on in and got the attention of the Ekans and Koffing. As far as the wild Pokémon knew, it was Meowth and Meowth alone who was there in the forest. "Hey-o, Ekans and Koffing!" Meowth called out, "My name is Meowth, and I am here to offer all of you the chance to find comfortable homes with good trainers who will-"

"Weezing-wee!"

"Shar-boka!"

Meowth was cut off when he heard cries from Pokémon he wasn't expecting. They were familiar cries, ones from Pokémon that he personally knew but wasn't counting on seeing ever again. Then, as if on cue, Weezing and Arbok, who James and Jessie had released a while ago, came into view, practically rushing at Meowth to cuddle into him, like friends who hand't seen each other in a very long time would hug one another. "Weezing and Arbok?!" Meowth cried out in surprise, "Is it really you guys?" After Weezing and Arbok confirmed that it really was them, Meowth turned around. "Hey James! It's your Weezing and Jessie's Arbok!"

"Are you for real?" James said, getting up and going in. Ninja, who can see that the Arbok and Weezing obviously recognized Meowth as a friend, allowed James to go in, only to see James promptly tackled by an overly excited Weezing like a canine Pokémon happy to see its trainer after a long time. "Ah, Weezing ol' boy, it's good to see you too!" James said.

After realizing what was going on, James and Meowth recounted the story to Ninja; long ago, James and Jessie owned Weezing and Arbok, and came across a horde of Koffing and Ekans who were being hounded by a Pokémon poacher. They were barely able to deal with the problem and, knowing that the Koffing and Ekans would still be in some degree of danger with out some protection, reluctantly released Weezing and Arbok to look after them. Some inquiry from Meowth confirmed that the horde of Ekans and Koffing was that very same horde from a while ago.

With James and Meowth explaining things to Weezing and Arbok, they were able to assure them as well as the Koffing and Ekans that Team Scorn was by no means like that horrid Pokémon poacher from a while ago. The Koffing and Ekans would all be taken care of by actual trainers. This made the process of capturing them significantly easier for Ninja and the others, as rather than have to ambush them and try to capture them via battle, they were able to catch them by casually tossing pokéballs at the lot of them, as they all were going to come along willingly.

James and Meowth, who were being followed by Weezing and Arbok, turned their attention to the three Ekans who looked to have a Pokémon cornered. Upon getting close enough, James and Meowth saw that it was a Buneary who was laying on the ground, looking to be tired and suffering from a status ailment of some kind, poison most likely as there were a bunch of Ekans and Koffing in the area. "Hey, something seems off about this Buneary," James said, "It looks different from the one that the twerp had in Sinnoh before he evolved it into a Lopunny."

"Yeah," Meowth said, "Buneary have solid brownish fur with cream colored fluff around their lower bodies, feet, and on the tips of their ears. This one has light cocoa brown fur, and pink fluff around its lower body, feet, and on the tips of its ears." The Ekans that had the Buneary cornered, surprisingly enough, were NOT being hostile towards it in any manner; they seemed to be looking over it out of sincere concern. The Ekans who was on James's far right side of view even rolled a Peacha Berry towards the Buneary, using its snout to nudge it forward.

The three Ekans all turned to look towards Arbok and Weezing who were behind James and Meowth. The evolved poison Pokémon turned to look to James and Meowth, with the former calling out, "Hey, Admin Ninja! We got an odd looking Buneary over here!" A few moments later, Ninja came jogging over, at which point James gestured to what was going on while saying, "Meowth and I found thi-"

"James, Meowth, get the Ekans to back away," Ninja said, sounding nervous yet excited at the same time, "That's a shiny Buneary that they're cornering."

"A shiny Buneary?" James said, sounding surprised. At Meowth's call, the Ekans backed away from the now identified shiny Buneary before Ninja went over to examine it. "...It's poisoned, although judging from other signs I'm seeing, it was attacked either on accident or by reflex. There's a Pecha Berry here that looks like it was rolled to the shiny Buneary by one of the Ekans." Turning to look up at James, Ninja said, "Do you have any spare pokéballs, James? I used the last of the ones that I had with me up catching a few Koffing before you called me over."

James nodded once in the affirmative. "Yes, sir. Granted I only have six spare pokéballs right now."

Ninja jerked his head to the shiny Buneary. "Catch it, then bring it over to were we set up the check-up station for the Pokémon we're catching. There should be some potions and Antidotes there. After the shiny Buneary is treated, make sure you bring it with you when I take you along for a special mission." James, surprised that he was being offered to come along on a special mission already despite how recently he, Jessie, and Meowth had joined Team Scorn, nodded obediently before taking out one of his spare pokéballs and using it to successfully capture the shiny Buneary.

...

A few moments later, the last of the Ekans and Koffing horde was captured. James and Meowth, given that the former was instructed to keep a vigilant eye on the shiny Buneary, sat out the rest of the mission, although they were joined by Weezing and Arbok. When the last of the horde was captured so that Team Scorn would have more Pokémon to use, James who still had some spare pokéballs used two of them to re-capture Weezing and Arbok. Ninja, knowing the story, said that Weezing and Arbok were free to remain with James and Jessie.

Speaking of the latter, Jessie actually cried upon being reunited with her Arbok, who James handed over to her. After Jessie had simmered down, James and Meowth went on to explain to her that Admin Ninja would be taking James along on a special mission due to James having captured a shiny Buneary. Goemon, who had gotten the details from Ninja, said that it would be just James who would go with Ninja, and that Jessie would have to remain behind. Meowth, who was officially under James's ownership now, would get to go along, though.

After all of the captured poison Pokémon were brought back to Team Scorn's secret Hoenn base, Ninja called James into his office to discuss the special mission that he had mentioned earlier. "There's currently an open mission available to all sectors of Team Scorn right now," Ninja explained, "A mission to track down and capture a wild shiny Pokémon. Species doesn't matter, it just has to be a shiny."

"Why is it so important, sir?" James asked, "Does Team Scorn have a client lined up to buy a shiny Pokémon? Similar things were done back when Jessie, Meowth, and I were still in the then existing Team Rocket, and I do know that shiny Pokémon are incredibly rare and valuable."

Shrugging, Ninja said, "We do have a client of a sorts, yes, but it's not a sale to be made on the black market." Gesturing to James, Ninja went on, "The 'client' as you have put it, is Boss's Assistant Ayane, who wants a shiny Pokémon. Given how much the first sector to succeed stands to gain from being the one to bring the right-hand girl of the boss the shiny Pokémon she wants, every sector wants to be the first to succeed." Leaning back in his chair, Ninja said, "That's where you come in. Given that you're the one who caught the shiny Buneary, the special mission will involve you gifting the shiny Buneary to Boss's Assistant Ayane."

"We're going to give the shiny Buneary to the boss's assistant?" Meowth asked.

Ninja nodded once in the affirmative. "This will net the Kunai Sector a lot of sorely needed income to help with missions. Additionally, it'll net James a very generous bonus in the pay he'll get for helping to complete the mission." Arching a wry eyebrow, Ninja added, "Plus, it'll prove James worthy enough to be promoted to one of the empty captaincy spots in the Kunai Sector."

That last bit caught James's attention. "Promotion to an empty captaincy spot?"

Ninja nodded in the affirmative before explaining the hierarchy of Team Scorn. At the bottom were the rank and file grunts, which is the rank that James and Jessie both have now. There's a side-group of the grunt rank called Officer's Assistant; although still technically grunt-level members, Officer's Assistants are somewhat above the rest of the rank and file due to how they directly serve an Officer-ranked member as an assistant. There were three different levels of Officer's Assistant within Team Scorn; Captain's Assistant, Admin's Assistant, and Boss's Assistant. There's one Officer's Assistant to each Officer-ranked member of Team Scorn.

Above the rank and file grunts were the Officer ranks. The first and lowest is Captain, but they still have authority over most of the rank and file. There are supposed to be a total of four Captains in each sector of Team Scorn, but the Kunai Sector as an example of how it's understaffed at the moment only has two Captains. On paper, the Captains are equal to one another, but in practice the greater a Captain's position is compared to the others, the more trusted that he or she is; to give an example, a First Captain is given more trust than a Second Captain.

Above the Captains are the Admins, who are the immediate heads of the various sectors of Team Scorn. They run their sectors with the Captains under them helping them manage things more easily. Each sector of Team Scorn has only one Admin. Ninja says that there are currently four sectors in Team Scorn total, but he got it that a few more are going to be opened up, due to promising expansion into other regions. Ninja also cited a hope he has that some recruits that Team Scorn gets in those other regions will be assigned to working in the Kunai Sector, to help address its issue with being understaffed.

Last and far from being the least, there was the Boss of Team Scorn. There's only one Boss in Team Scorn, but he's the overall leader of Team Scorn as a whole. Ninja told James and Meowth that no-one in Team Scorn's standard rank and file have ever actually seen or heard Team Scorn's boss; in fact, the Captains have never seen or heard him in person either. Only the Admins, as well as Boss's Assistant Ayane, have seen the Boss; outside of them, the only ones to have seen the Boss were Admin's Assistant Akari, who served Admin Brother of the Katana Sector, and Ninja's own Admin's Assistant Goemon. And only Akari between her and Goemon had actually heard the boss speak. There were many in Team Scorn who were jealous of Goemon and (especially) Akari because of their incredible luck.

After explaining the hierarchy in Team Scorn, Ninja said, "So what do you say, James? Feel like not only getting some generous bonus pay, but also getting promoted to one of the empty captaincy spots in the Kunai Sector?"

James was surprised by what was happening; although he, Jessie, and Meowth enjoyed having been in Team Rocket, he would readily admit that they would never see any real promotions there. But here in Team Scorn, he as well as Jessie and Meowth were members for barely a little over a day by this point, and yet James was getting to see a promotion, and to an Officer rank no less, already. Team Rocket may be gone for good now, but Team Scorn was looking to pick up the pieces. And they already were offering James and his friends better than what they would have expected in the now defunct Team Rocket.

James gave a single nod. "Gladly. Just tell me what all I have to do."

END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT

Author's notes;

This chapter focuses near exclusively on Jessie, James, and Meowth, as they start their new lives as members of Team Scorn. Right off the bat they see that Team Scorn does things differently than Team Rocket did, and soon go on a mission that, coincidentally enough, leads to James and Jessie reuniting and re-catching Weezing and Arbok, with the Ekans and Koffing they were looking after being caught by Team Scorn members with promises to care for them. James is also lucky enough to catch a shiny Buneary, which ended up being his ticket to a promotion to one of the Kunai Sector's empty captaincy spots. Things are looking up for the trio formerly known as the Team Rocket trio.

The next chapter will see things wrap up for James and the others, before cutting back to focusing on the heroes over in the Unova region; they still have business to take care of before the Vertress Conference, and they're going to have some run-ins with the Longsword Sector of Team Scorn. Things will be getting heated up for the heroes, so don't turn that dial. As for me? I'm still working on completing the dex in Scarlet and Violet. I hope those playing the games are also having fun.

Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Argent (male Arcanine; alpha; Hisuian), Rapparata (Porygon-Z), Zancrow (male Volcarona), Leni (female Lucario), Tsukune (Palkia)

Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Giyu (male Samurott; Hisuian), Juan (male Pikachu; Libre), Black (Giratina; Origin Form), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Shallot (male Glaceon)

Trip's Pokémon: (on hand) Mr. Popo (male Magmortar), HedonismBot (Magnezone), Myde (male Empoleon), Veda (female Abomasnow), Deelia (Dialga), Fourze (male Electivire)

Ash's Pokémon: (on hand) Pikachu (male), Krookodile (male; Sunglasses), Scrafty (male), Meloetta (gender unknown), Hydreigon (female), Steelix (male; shiny)