Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Team Rocket's Secret ❯ Chapter 3

Sunlight was already filtering through the spaces between the curtains when Ash opened his eyes. Pikachu was fast asleep on the pillow next to him, and he quietly sat up so he wouldn't disturb him. The last time he'd woken Pikachu up too soon, he'd nearly "blasted off."

"Ash, you awake?" came a soft whisper.

Ash glanced over at Misty's bed. "Yeah, I thought I was the only one up. What time is it?"

"I think it's around eleven," she yawned. "We must've been really tired to sleep in this late."

"Are the others up yet?"

"I don't think so," she shook her head, then lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Ash, do you really think we can trust those two? I mean, we run into them like every day, and they're always pulling some kind of trick. How can we know this isn't some big plan to get Pikachu?"

"I don't think they're gonna try anything," Ash said slowly. "James and Jessie hate pain more than anyone else I know, they'd never go along with a plan that would hurt them, and their boss would probably never allow himself to get shocked by Pikachu. I think they're in trouble for real."

Misty sighed and hugged Togepi tighter. "Maybe...but I still don't trust them..."

Suddenly a door opened to their right, and Jessie stepped out from what appeared to be a steaming hot bathroom with cleaner, if still torn, clothes.

"Bathroom's free," she mumbled as she sat back down on James' bed, toweling her hair dry.

"Um...thanks," Misty replied, heading inside with Togepi at her side.

Jessie watched her take off, then glared at her own kitty pokemon."Meowth, you awake yet?"

"Mmph...jus' five more minutes..." the little cat barely managed to mutter.

"You had eight hours, get up!" Jessie snapped, whipping the end of her wet towel at his rear. "We have to get our balloon, or don't you remember?"

"Yeowch!" Meowth cried, jumping up. He landed on Jessie's lap, rubbing the sore spot on his posterior. "Awright, awright, I'm up!"

"How'd you lose your balloon?" Ash asked.

"I thought it'd be impossible to lose something that big," Brock added, startling both of them.

"Geez, and I thought I was the only one awake," Ash sighed.

"I think James is the only one who isn't up yet," Jessie glanced down at her companion.

"I think it's amazing that you haven't smacked him awake," Meowth grumbled, pulling a chair over to the window so he could reach it.

"He has a good excuse for sleeping in," she said airily, ignoring him.

"So did the balloon pop or something?" Brock asked.

Jessie shook her head. "We tried to escape in it, but then we saw that their cars were going to catch up with us before we got very far, so we had to let it go."

"Let it go with all my pretty charms," Meowth sighed sadly.

"You mean you let it float off?" Ash asked.

"Not quite...we got shot down, actually."

"Shot down?" Brock gasped. "They shot at you?"

"The Boss did, right through the balloon."

Meowth nodded. "Right between the eyes!"

"So we bailed out," Jessie kept going. "We were right over the Boss's private pokemon collection, so James convinced a ponyta to get us out of there. And that's about where you came in."

"But how'd James get so beat up?" Brock asked, pulling his shirt on. "It couldn't have just been that fall off the ponyta."

Jessie shared a glance with Meowth, who shrugged.

"Might as well tell them," he said, "it can't hurt."

"Well..." she sighed, staring at the floor as she spoke, "to start off, the Boss never really liked us to begin with. I don't know why he kept us on the payroll, but it was probably just to keep Meowth out of his hair."

"Hey!" Meowth hissed.

"Am I lying?" she challenged him.

"That's not the point!" he growled, but he sat down and didn't argue again.

"But wouldn't your boss want a talking pokemon around?" Ash asked. "At least as a translator?"

Meowth shook his head. "He don't care about what a pokemon thinks, just as long as it does what it's told. He really didn't like me because I'd tell him why they were crying or yelling. He only wanted to hear pokemon secrets, and I wasn't giving him any."

"Pokemon secrets?" Brock asked, tilting his head. "I didn't know pokemon had any secrets."

Meowth nodded. "Yeah, there's a whole culture that humans don't know about. There are legends and stories about hidden treasures and where there are pockets of rare pokemon, and even the exact number of how many species of pokemon there really are."

"Wow!" Ash laughed. "Pikachu, do you know those stories, too?"

"Pikapika," the rodent nodded.

"I guess that's like the bulbasaur secret garden," Brock mused.

"Anyway, James and I started at Team Rocket together, but James met Meowth alone in the headquarters basement, and--"

"What were you doing in the basement?" Ash leaned back against the pillows.

"It's got all the pinball machines down there," he answered. "James found me there and thought I was a regular pokemon, and since there was no one around, he started talking to me in my language. And we were having a great conversation until--"

"Until I stumbled in on them," Jessie broke in, taking back the lead in the conversation. "I'd known about Meowth, but I didn't know that James could talk pokemon. After he explained it to me, I told him I'd keep quiet if he'd teach me how to do it. That's when I realized if I was going to keep him safe, we'd have to stay away from the rest of Team Rocket as much as possible, so when the boss said he needed a team constantly in the field, we volunteered."

The bathroom door opened then, and Misty stepped out, a towel around Togepi and another towel around her own head.

"Hey, Misty, you missed half of the story already!" Ash teased her.

"No, I didn't," she shook her head. "The walls here are really thin, I could hear the entire conversation."

"So...could...I, and I'm...half asleep," came the tiny whisper next to Jessie, who immediately turned and leaned over him.

"James! James, how do you feel?" she asked softly, pushing his unruly hair out of his eyes. "Can you see any better?"

He started to nod, then winced when it made his head hurt. "Yes, it's just my head that hurts now. Where are we?"

"We're in Tendo city," she said. "I got some rapidash to take us here."

"Wow...what about the boss? Is he still...is he still after us?"

"Don't you remember, Pikachu blasted all of them into the stratosphere," she grinned.

James smiled. "Oh, yeah...the memory's kinda fuzzy...I don't remember much after that..."

"Ya passed out," Meowth added as Jessie helped James sit up against his pillow.

"Yeah," Misty nodded, "and Jessie carried you all the way to the rapidash herd."

"Did you find the balloon yet?" he asked.

"You've only been asleep for one night," Ash told him. "We just woke up, too."

"Do you really feel up to searching?" Jessie asked. "I still don't think all those chemicals are out of your system yet."

"Chemicals?" Brock asked, somewhat startled.

"I'll be fine," James protested, but he wasn't sitting up either. "I just need a...little more...sleep..." and he drifted off again in her arms.

"Oh, my poor little James..." she whispered.

"What did you mean, chemicals?" Misty asked. "Did Team Rocket do that to him?"

Jessie nodded, a sparkly tear slipping from her eye. "The Boss found out what James could do a week ago, when we dropped by to pick up our paychecks. We weren't careful, and one of the other members caught James showing me how to talk to one of the oddish growing in the back of the building..."