"Breakfast time, everyone! Come and get it!"
The gaggle of trainers was summoned to breakfast the next morning by Brock's voice, though the delicious smell of food was already attracting several of them to the picnic table at their campsite. As Brock began distributing plates, the hungry travelers dug in without hesitation, eager to feast on his masterful cooking. Ash was standing nearby, laying out several food bowls on the ground, before reaching for his belt and grabbing all of his Poké Balls all at once.
"Come on out, everyone!" he called out, as five different Pokémon emerged from their spherical shelters. Snivy, Sigilyph, Drapion, Absol and Houndour all joined Pikachu and Greninja in watching Ash, as he grabbed a bag of Pokémon food and started pouring it into one of the bowls.
"Alright, Pikachu and Snivy, here's yours." He started pouring food into the next bowl as the two smallest Pokémon walked up, ready to eat. Just as they were reaching in to grab their first food pellet, they were knocked away by a charging Houndour, who bashed into both of them with his shoulder, before burying his face into the food bowl and starting to devour it, nearly snarling as he ate.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ash exclaimed, as the others at the table turned to watch in shock. "Houndour, chill out!" Pikachu, angry and hungry, stepped closer to try and get this bully to back off. Snivy quickly wrapped her vines around Pikachu's midsection, yanking him back just as Houndour snapped at him with his teeth. Pikachu backed down, not interested in losing an arm over breakfast, as the Dark-type Pokémon continued to greedily wolf down the food in front of him.
"What on Earth?" Serena exclaimed, standing up for a better look. "What is he acting like that for? There's plenty to go around."
"What a bully!" Iris glared down at Houndour, who couldn't care less about her piercing gaze. "Why don't more trainers teach manners to their Pokémon?"
"I guess we should be feeding him last," Brock suggested, taking a bite of his own food.
"Yeah… or maybe first," Ash wondered, watching as Houndour finished off the bowl, licking up every last crumb before standing upright. He looked around at the other Pokémon, who were all watching him in shock and disbelief. He gave a low growl, as a sort of warning to the rest of them.
"It's all right, Houndour. You don't need to wolf it down like that." Ash walked up and produced Houndour's Poké Ball, returning the Pokémon to it, not wanting him to steal anyone else's food.
"Maybe Dark-type Pokémon are just more aggressive that way?" Madison suggested, as Ash poured another bowl of food for Pikachu and Snivy.
"That can't be it," Serena rebutted. "Absol's a pure Dark-type, and he's the biggest sweetheart in Kalos." She reached out and rubbed Absol's back as he stood next to her, causing him to mewl contentedly.
"Drapion isn't that way either," Shannon noted, swallowing a bite of breakfast. "So it's definitely not a type thing."
"You know, you've got a bit of a Dark-type collection going on," Brock observed with a grin. "You're going to become a Dark-type specialist before you realize it."
"No way," Ash answered, filling the last bowl of food, which Drapion started eating from. "There are way too many great Pokémon out there for me to limit myself to one type." He took a seat at the table, grabbing his fork. "Besides, Houndour isn't my Pokémon, so it's not even a collection." He took several hungry bites of his breakfast before reaching for his canteen of water, frowning when he felt the weight of it, feeling nothing inside.
"Darn, out of water." He stood up, still holding the empty canteen. "I'll be right back. I'm going to fill up at the stream we saw."
"Oh, do you mind filling mine up, too?" Serena asked, holding her own water bottle out toward him.
"Sure, no problem." He smiled as he received her water bottle, before looking around. "Anyone else?"
Six minutes later, Ash was carrying four bottles in his arms, as he backtracked toward a quiet stream they had passed not long before setting up camp the day before. Pikachu walked by his side, carrying one more water bottle above his head, always eager to give his trainer a hand. Once they spotted it, they picked up the pace a bit, walking over to its side and kneeling down, as Ash began filling the first canteen.
Ash and Pikachu weren't alone. On a cliff overlooking the stream, about fifty feet away, two uniformed criminals and their Pokémon were watching with devious grins on their faces, ready to pounce.
"That poor, unsuspecting little twerp." Jessie's voice was mocking, filled with faux lament. "He has no idea this is the last time he's ever going to see his Pikachu."
"He won't be getting away from us today," James continued. "He's never had to contend with this lovely contraption before." He held up a bizarre device that he was holding in both hands, which looked like a square bazooka topped with a tiny radar dish.
"If this doesn't work, nothing will." Meowth's eyes focused on Pikachu, as he handed Ash another empty water bottle. "And we ain't going back to Team Rocket empty handed, that's for sure."
"Enough idle chatter," Jessie commanded. "Time for step one of our plan: get his attention." She knelt down and picked up a rock the size of a softball, hurling it at the pair below.
As Ash began filling the fourth canteen, he jumped as something landed in the stream close to him, making a loud splash and spraying both himself and Pikachu with water. He leaped up and looked toward the splash, wondering if there was some sort of Water-type Pokémon in the stream that he hadn't noticed.
"Yoohoo! Up here!" He whirled around, looking up toward the source of the female voice, immediately recognizing the trio standing above him.
"What?! You three again?!" He clenched his fist as Pikachu ran in front of him, his cheeks sparking threateningly as he got on all fours, ready to launch an attack at a moment's notice.
"You should know you can't get rid of us!" Jessie taunted. "Now, prepare for trouble!"
"And make it double!" James added, trying his best to hold up his strange device in a menacing way.
Jessie continued to recite their Team Rocket motto, but her words were unintelligible over the sound of propellers, which were quickly growing louder, the oppressive noise drowning out almost everything else. Everyone turned around, watching as a small airship emblazoned with the Team Rocket logo came into view, kicking up air and blowing back the tree branches as it flew overhead.
"What?! What are those other jerks doing here?!" Meowth shouted, trying to be heard over the sound of the airship. The trio shielded their eyes with their arms as the vehicle approached, in order to keep out the dirt and dust that was twirling about. As James tried to protect his eyes, he felt his secret weapon slipping out of his grasp, and he gasped as it started plummeting to the earth below.
"No, no, no!" He clambered to the edge of the cliff, looking down and watching as the device collided with the ground, shattering into dozens of jagged and unsalvageable pieces. He could feel his body going cold, as their foolproof plan to capture Pikachu went up in smoke, their salvation vanishing in an instant. The airship continued on, undeterred, flying toward Ash and Pikachu, who were shielding their eyes as well.
"Well, well, look who it is!" Cassidy's voice rang out from a speaker installed on the airship, blasting out loud enough to be audible over the sound of the propellers. "A miserable little rat creature and his Pikachu!"
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding!" Ash squinted as he looked upward. "How many of these Team Rocket creeps do I have to deal with today?!"
"Don't worry, we won't be here long!" Butch's voice added, before a sound like a firework rang out. A bisected rubber ball attached to a thin rope shot out of the airship and rocketed downward toward Pikachu, who was too busy covering his eyes to see the threat coming. The ball closed around the Pokémon, snapping shut and trapping him helplessly inside, before the rope immediately retracted, pulling Pikachu into the air.
"No! Let him go!" Ash immediately started running after his captive Pokémon, trying and failing to jump into the air and grab him. He continued to run as fast as he could, knowing nothing except for an instinctual need to save his partner, as he'd felt many times before. As he ran, he failed to notice the ground giving way underneath him, until he found himself plummeting into a pitfall dug into the earth, landing hard on the bottom.
"And right on cue, he takes the bait!" Cassidy taunted, as the airship turned around and hovered above the pit that now contained Ash. "You people make this way too easy!"
"Hey! That's not fair!" James shouted from his perch, as he and his partners watched the action unfold. "Digging holes is our bread and butter! You can't just steal our techniques like that!" They continued watching as four cables dropped from the airship and into the hole, latching onto something and going taut. Seconds later, the cables started pulling up a large, transparent, plastic tarp that had been lining the bottom of the pit, which Ash was now caught up in.
Inside his plastic prison, Ash was rolling about, trying to get himself upright. He was eventually able to look up, watching as the cables came together to close up the plastic tarp like a bag. As he wondered where they were taking him, a rubber hose poked into the tarp and started dumping water on top of him. He immediately held up his hands to try and block the water flow, not wanting it to get in his lungs, as the water started to fill up the bag. The water was soon past his knees, showing no signs of slowing down, and he started clawing at the bag, trying to tear his way out, to no avail.
Outside, Jessie, James and Meowth continued to watch as the airship turned and started flying over them, back to wherever it originally came from. As it flew overhead, the vehicle made a sudden jolt upward, as it tried to avoid slamming the plastic tarp into the trees and tearing it. The sudden, sharp movement caused the ball containing Pikachu to bounce up and down, straining the thin rope attaching it to the airship, which quickly snapped. The Pokémon fell downward toward the trio, landing in Jessie's outstretched arms, as the airship started flying away, apparently unconcerned.
All three of the former Team Rocket members looked at the captive Pikachu for several moments, in disbelief, their brains not yet registering that this was real. Once it sunk in, their faces lit up in unison, and they all let out a loud, excited cheer.
"We got ourselves a Pikachu! We got ourselves a Pikachu!" they all sang in unison, unable to contain their elation, practically dancing in place.
"Finally, after over twenty seasons on the show, we've done it!" James proclaimed. "Pikachu is ours! And that twerp won't be taking him away from us again!"
"I always knew success would fall into our laps one day if we waited long enough," Jessie added. "Finally, our ship has come in!"
"Hah! So long, chump!" Meowth called out toward Ash, as the airship continued to retreat. "That loser ain't going to be bothering us again!"
Jessie and James turned as well, wanting to watch the object of their torment as he was carried off, far away from his Pokémon partner, who was crying out desperately for his trainer. The smiles slowly vanished from their faces as they watched him battle to keep his head above the water that was nearly filling his plastic confines, his pocket of air growing smaller and smaller. He was no longer able to struggle against the tarp, having no leverage with which to attack it, and it was all he could do to keep himself breathing.
"I don't think he's going to be bothering anyone again," James muttered. They continued to watch in silence as Cassidy and Butch's airship flew off, with a struggling Ash in tow.
Ash continued to fight against the constant stream of water flooding the bag, which was almost completely full at this point. He was floating near the top, his head contorted in order to breathe in the tiny air pocket that still remained, as he tried to force his hand up through the top of the bag and pull himself out, or at least create an opening. It was no use: the cables holding the bag had joined themselves together around the hose, leaving no space for him to reach through. Seconds later, Ash's face was completely submerged, as the last bit of air was forced out of the bag, replaced with water.
Ash began struggling even harder, trying and failing to not panic as he attempted to make some sort of escape route, with no oxygen. His lungs burned as he frantically tried to grab at the top corners of the tarp, trying to force them apart to no avail. He slowly grew weaker as he struggled, his arms feeling more heavy, his vision starting to fade to black. Soon he stopped grabbing entirely, as his consciousness started to slip away from him, the world around him vanishing as he began to weakly sink into the water.
A shock of alertness and fresh pain rushed through him as air suddenly hit his nose, and his eyes shot open as the world came back in an instant. He started coughing and hacking, taking a moment to compose himself before looking around, trying to discern what had happened. He spotted a large, jagged tear that had appeared in the side of the tarp, which water was now pouring out of. He kept coughing as he swam closer, trying to see what had caused the bag to tear open, when his eyes spotted a small, cream-colored tail ending in a brown spiral on the other side. The owner of the tail quickly climbed up the bag and out of sight.
Inside the cockpit of the airship, the two more competent members of Team Rocket were flying aimlessly, not worried about their destination just yet. Butch was grinning a self-satisfied grin, while Cassidy was practically giddy.
"This may not have been our most complicated plan," she spoke aloud, "but it's far and away the most satisfying."
"What should we do with him afterward?" Butch asked, glancing over.
"We'll give it a good ten minutes or so, to be safe," she explained. "Then we'll circle back and drop him in the stream. It'll look like it was an accident."
"Perfect." He smirked deviously. "With him out of the way, we'll have Kalos all to ourselves. We'll have whatever we want."
"Don't say it like that," she responded, wrinkling her nose. "Don't act like some stupid kid was standing in our way all by himself. It makes us sound incompetent."
"Yeah, well…" Butch looked forward again, not wanting to feel incompetent either, but it was impossible to deny the impact this one meddlesome trainer had had on their plans over the past few years. At least it was coming to an end, he thought to himself.
Both of them were startled as the airship tilted suddenly to the left, pulled down by a heavy weight. As the two criminals regained their balance, Cassidy carefully walked over to a window and peeked out, trying to see what had latched onto their aircraft. Her eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as she saw Jessie and James clinging to the landing skids underneath the ship, with Meowth's claws digging painfully into James's back. Jessie's right hand had a death grip on a short length of rope, which was still attached to the rubber ball that held Pikachu captive.
"Are you serious?!" She ran backward toward the sliding door on the side of the craft, throwing it open and lifting her leg, preparing to stomp on their hands and force them to let go. As soon as the door opened, however, she was blasted backward by a Sonic Boom attack from Jessie's Yanmega, slamming her against the back wall of the airship, jolting it once again.
"What's going on back here?" Butch ran backward after leaving the craft on autopilot, skidding to a stop as the former Team Rocket members clambered inside, Pikachu in tow, while Cassidy held the back of her sore head as she stood up straight. The two groups both leaped backwards, taking up positions on opposite sides of the aircraft.
"What are you three doing?!" Cassidy demanded, infuriated and baffled. "You have your stupid Pikachu, don't you?! Why can't you just leave us alone?!"
"What are we doing?!" Jessie shot back, standing up, arms wrapped tightly around the captive Pikachu. "You already had the twerp captured! You could have just brought him back to headquarters! This is going way too far!"
Butch glared at his former coworkers, as James and Meowth got to their feet as well. "Your problem is you never knew how to go far enough! That's why you got the boot!"
Cassidy reached down to her hip, grabbing a Poké Ball and nearly crushing it in her grasp. "If you two are going to stand in my way, then you're going to pay the price!" She hurled the ball in front of her. "Charizard, get out here!"
"You too, Mightyena!" Butch followed up, summoning his own Pokémon to join the fight.
James took a nervous step back, eyes moving back and forth between the two Pokémon, before reaching down for his own Poké Ball and tossing it out. "Let's go, Carnivine!" A leafy, lanky, plant-like Pokémon resembling a Venus flytrap emerged from the ball, recoiling just as James did upon seeing its opponents. Yanmega flew next to Carnivine, ready to defend her trainer.
"Charizard, use Flamethrower!" Cassidy commanded. "Torch that overgrown plant!" Her Pokémon opened its mouth and lunged its head forward, spewing flame directly at Carnivine.
"Yanmega, stop the flames with Sonic Boom!" Jessie ordered. Yanmega flapped her wings with extreme speed, creating a powerful sound blast that shot forward into the oncoming flames, disrupting and dispelling them. Moments later, Mightyena leaped into the air and grabbed Yanmega's tail in its jaws, landing and shaking the Bug Pokémon about.
"Oh no! Carnivine, use Vine Whip and pull Yanmega free!" The plant Pokémon extended its vines and wrapped them around Yanmega's wings, trying to yank Jessie's Pokémon out of Mightyena's jaws. Seconds later, the wide-open Carnivine was consumed by a massive Fire Blast from Charizard, and it flew backward onto its back, practically burned to a crisp. James let out a panicked scream as he knelt down next to Carnivine, hoping against hope that the Pokémon might still be able to fight.
Jessie gritted her teeth, seeing an uphill battle in front of her, but full of misplaced confidence in her battling abilities. "Yanmega, use Silver Wind to get free!"
Yanmega's wings began to glow, and she flapped them in Mightyena's direction, sending glowing silver crescents directly at her opponent's face. Butch's Pokémon yelped and released its prey, and Yanmega quickly righted itself. As soon as she began flying freely again, she was slapped down to the ground by Charizard's powerful tail; seconds later, a charging Mightyena slammed the Pokémon against the wall with Take Down, nearly squashing it. Yanmega fell limply back down to the ground, nearly unconscious.
"Yanmega, no!" Jessie returned Yanmega to her Poké Ball, glaring down at Meowth as James did the same with Carnivine. "And where were you? Why weren't you fighting alongside them?"
Meowth held up his hands defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault I got good self-preservation instincts!" All three of them looked back at Cassidy and Butch, as their Pokémon advanced.
"You two have just made the biggest mistake of your entire lives," Cassidy growled, fire in her eyes.
"We're going to make you wish we did to you what we did to the twerp," Butch added threateningly. The trio looked back and forth between Charizard and Mightyena, already able to see their lives flashing before their eyes. Acting on instinct, Jessie looked down and slapped a button on top of Pikachu's rubber ball, splitting the rubber in half and freeing the Pokémon from its confines, causing James and Meowth to scream in shock.
"Pikachu, do something!" she pleaded, panicked and desperate. Pikachu instantly dashed forward, running past the opposing Pokémon and their trainers, charging up a Thunder Bolt and unleashing his full strength on the control panel of the airship. Explosions immediately rang out, as the entire airship began lurching forward, threatening to crash into the trees.
"No! You little vermin!" Cassidy and Butch raced back to the control panel, struggling with the controls and trying to prevent a crash. Pikachu dashed past them, whirling around and flinging an Electroweb at both Charizard and Mightyena, which sent a powerful shock through both of them. He ran by the both of them while they were briefly stunned, standing at the open door of the airship, trying to figure out how to climb down and help his trainer.
"Hey! Get back here! You owe us!" Pikachu turned around, jumping as he saw Jessie, James and Meowth all diving for him at the same time. He tried his best to dodge to the side, but his feet slipped on the now-unsteady footing of the tilting airship. All four of them tumbled out of the open door, their fall broken by some nearby trees.
Underneath the aircraft, Ash was being jostled about as the plastic tarp pitched to and fro, still filled almost entirely with water. As another explosion rang out, the tarp detached from the cables and fell toward the cliff below. Water began gushing rapidly out of the widening hole in the tarp, as it began rolling downhill, tossing Ash around as if he were trapped in a washing machine, sending more water down his nose and throat. Finally, the tarp tore completely in half, and Ash fell out of it just as his momentum sent him tumbling over the edge of the cliff.
He started reaching around frantically, trying to grab onto anything nearby that might be able to break his fall, but there was nothing around. As he braced himself for a very painful impact, he felt a pair of thin but powerful arms wrapping around him and jolting him in a different direction, before he slowed to a stop. Coughing and looking up, he could see Greninja's face looking upward, scanning the cliff side that he was clinging to, eventually spying a small, yellow Pokémon tumbling down the ledge. Greninja leaped upward once again, landing on the slope above and reaching out to catch Pikachu in one hand, pulling him into his grasp. Ash reached out and held Pikachu tightly in his arms, acting on instinct to keep his Pokémon safe.
With both Ash and Pikachu now safe, Greninja started leaping back down the side of the cliff, coming to a soft landing in the forest below. He let go of Ash, kneeling by his trainer's side as the boy started coughing violently once again, his body forcing water out of his lungs.
"Ash!" He could hear Serena's panicked voice from close by, along with the sound of racing feet approaching him. She kneeled down next to him, resting her hand gently on his back as he coughed and hacked up water. "Are you alright?!" He managed to give a vigorous nod before inhaling sharply and beginning another coughing fit. After a good thirty seconds of coughing and choking, Ash finally managed to catch his breath, looking up to see all his friends standing around him, worried expressions on their faces.
"Ash, what happened?" Iris asked, her hands clasped nervously over her heart. Ash looked back upward, his eyes drawn to the plume of smoke that was billowing from the airship, which was rocking wildly back and forth as it slowly descended toward the forest below.
"I'm not really sure…" he answered.
Up on the cliff above, the former Team Rocket trio were clinging to the branches of a tree that had broken their fall, all of them catching their breath. They took a moment to be amazed at what had just happened, and to be excited that they had managed to get one over on Butch and Cassidy. Their adrenaline began to slowly fade, as it was replaced with lucidity, and the full ramifications of their actions began to dawn on them.
"Guys… what did we just do?" James wondered aloud.
In a large office in a remote location in Kanto, a tall, brown-haired man was sitting behind a desk, stroking a cream-colored Persian that rested on his lap. As he looked over paperwork, a button on his desk started to beep quietly and light up. He reached out and pressed the button, activating a large screen that was built into the office wall opposite his desk. As the screen came to life, he could see the face of a green-haired man and a blonde, pigtailed woman; their hair was frizzed in all directions, looking somewhat burnt, and their faces were covered in soot.
"Giovanni, sir!" the man spoke, giving a salute. "Reporting in, sir!" The woman was too visibly enraged to greet her boss appropriately.
"Butch? Cassidy? What happened to the two of you?" Giovanni demanded. "Did you take care of your target?"
"We had him in the palms of our hands!" Cassidy blurted out. "But those traitors stopped us! Those filthy, rotten traitors!"
Giovanni's eyebrows raised curiously. "Traitors? Who do you mean?"
"It was Jessie and James, sir!" Butch explained, a bit more level-headed than his partner. "They interfered with our plan and stopped us from taking out our target!"
"What?! Jessie and James?!" Their boss was briefly stunned, not having expected to hear these names again. "They interfered with your operation? Was this intentional, or more of their trademark ineptitude?"
"They knew exactly what they were doing!" Cassidy shot back. "They were doing it entirely on purpose! They've turned against Team Rocket!"
Giovanni sat back, needing a moment to process this information. Jessie, James and Meowth had always been his most devoted minions, constantly pledging loyalty to him and Team Rocket; the three of them turning traitor was almost inconceivable to him. Incompetence he had come to expect, but never treason.
He sat forward again after a few moments, his expression resolute. "Very well, then. Get yourselves straightened out and prepare for further instructions." He pressed the button again, and the two operatives disappeared from his screen. He moved his hands to a nearby keyboard, typing away for a moment before the screen turned on again; he saw his own face reflected in it, as it began recording him.
"This is a message for all of our operatives in the Kalos region," he began, his voice cold and menacing. "We have been betrayed by three former agents. This transgression will not stand." His hands clenched into fists, an intentional gesture to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. "All of you, put your current operations on hold. Your top priority, for every one of you, is the capture of the traitors Jessie, James and Meowth. Once you have them in captivity, bring them to me. I will deal with this treason personally. That is all."
He hit another key on his keyboard, ending the recording and sending it out to all of his lackeys in Kalos, before turning his attention back to the paperwork in front of him. He barely processed it, his mind consumed by this new information, as he plotted out a special and painful revenge.