Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ The Vacation ❯ Chapter 1

[ A - All Readers ]

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, but what I do own are, Dr Leona Morgan, Bill Hunter and Quinn the helicopter pilot. Oh and part of the mansion's plan is owned by Capcom.

Chapter 1- The Boss's Little Problem

Giovanni sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, he could feel the beginning of a headache coming on. Persian rubbed her head against his leg sensing his need for comfort. He reached down and scratched her between the ears, just how she liked it, she purred happily.
He sat forward and picked up the neatly typed memo that sat on his desk, he reread it but it still said the same thing. One of his teams had stolen pokemon from another and not only that, they'd used the stolen pokemon to beat up the other team. He couldn't believe it, true he wished for his team members to be ruthless but still all his members should be able to work together in any situation. Instead it would seem certain members were arguing among them selves and he couldn't allow it to go on any longer, but what to do about it?
He closed his eyes trying to think of a solution, Persian rubbed her head against his leg again and suddenly it came to him. He patted Persian on the head and reached for the phone. He dialled and sat waiting, listening to the ringing phone hoping that she was in the house. He was just about to give up when the phone at the other end was picked up and a soft feminine voice said " Hello Dr. Leona Morgan speaking, how can help you?"
"Leon' it's me Giovanni."
It felt good to hear her voice again, it had been almost a year since he'd last seen her, the day she'd given him Persian. He could hear the smile in her voice as she said, " 'G' this is a surprise, what can I do for you honey?"
He shook his head a little at the pet name and said, "I have a favour to ask of you. How would you like to come and say down here for a couple of weeks?"
"You know I'd love to G but I can't leave the island unguarded some enterprising person might try to steal the pokemon and I can't have that."
Giovanni laughed softly, "That's where the favour comes in, while you're here, I want to dump two of my teams at your house, so the island wouldn't really be unguarded now would it?"
He heard a soft sigh on the other end of the phone and he knew he'd almost won, "Who and why?"
"Their names are Jessie, James, Butch and Cassidy, the reason being is all they do is argue with each other and it's getting out of hand, I'm hoping that a couple of weeks stuck on the island with only each other for company will iron out some of their problems."
She laughed softly, "The first two you've told be about before, the other two I don't think you've mentioned. Which reminds me how is Ash doing now?"
He sighed he knew the conversation would turn to this, it still hurt him to think about what had happened to the boy's father, his partner and he knew that it hurt Leona too. "He's doing well, he's in the Orange islands now Arthur would be very proud of him."
"Good for him, it must have been hard to grow up without a father. Have those two worked it out yet?"
He laughed "No and I doubt they ever will if I don't tell them."
"You should tell them you know."
"What and spoil all the fun."
He could almost see her shaking her head as she said, "I still can't believe they stopped really trying to capture that Pikachu all by themselves."
He laughed again, "Yes I know, they panic every time I speak to them, thinking I've found out their little secret."
"Which you have."
"Of course, that's why I'm The Boss."
She laughed and said, "OK you win, I'll come down in a couple of days, give me some time to get the place looking respectable again."
"I'd get a lot of food in too, they eat like horses, everytime they stay at headquarters I have to buy tons more food for the cafe."
"I'll make sure I do that and I'll bring Fluff with me, I know she'd like to see her sister again."
He reached down and patted Persian on the head before saying, "I believe Persian would like to see her too."
"Haven't you named her yet, that's not very nice."
"I just couldn't think of anything I guess."
"OK I'll see what I can think of when I get there."
"OK I'll see you in a couple of days then. I love you."
"Love you too G, I'll see you soon."
With that she put the phone down, leaving Giovanni holding his end of the phone with a bemused look on his face. He put the phone down and scratched Persian between the ears again, the large cat pokemon started purring again.
He reached forward, pressing a button on his desk and spoke into the intercom, "Would Teams Sundance and Meowth please report to my office right now and I mean now."
He sat back in his chair to wait. He didn't have to wait long, before he could hear someone knocking on the door. He pushed another button on his desk and the double doors that lead to his office swung inwards revealing the two teams waiting outside. He motioned for them to come in, they did so and soon the five of them were standing to attention in front of his desk. He hit the button again and the doors swung shut again.
He glanced quickly at them, Butch and Cassidy didn't seem worried at all standing there but Jessie and James did he could see it in their eyes, his inception finished on Meowth who was glaring angrily at Persian. Giovanni sighed softly and said, "It has come to my attention that your two teams seem incapable of working together and I am not impressed."
He glared at Butch and Cassidy making sure they understood how angry he was at them, "It is against Team rules for one team to steal pokemon from another team, do you understand me?"
"Yes Sir." The pair said quickly.
"That I could have overlooked but then you had to go to far and attack another team as well. I am not happy."
"Sorry Sir. It won't happen again Sir." They both said, looking at the floor.
"You're right it won't happen again. You four must learn how to work together. Which is why I'm sending you on a vacation."
"Sir?" All five of them said in shock.
"I'm sending you to the Morgan Institute in the Orange Islands. You will be staying there by yourselves for two weeks and God help you if you'll not capable of at least working together without arguing by the time I send someone to pick you up."
They were all looking at the floor now, worried about what The Boss would do to them if they couldn't work out their differences. Giovanni smiled softly, "You have two days to prepare for your little trip so if I were you I'd go pack."
He then pressed the button on his desk again, opening the doors. He sat back in his chair and motioned that they were dismissed. The four humans and the small cat pokemon hurried out of the office and as soon as they were outside he shut the doors behind them. He reached down and stroked Persian again, he just hoped this would work.

Chapter 2-Bags To Pack,

The five rockets stood outside The Boss's office for a couple of seconds not saying anything just looking at each other before Cassidy turned to Jessie and growled, "It's all your fault The Boss is mad at us."
Jessie glared at her and said, "If you hadn't attacked us this wouldn't have happened, so don't go blaming us for your mistakes."
With that she turned and stormed of down the corridor dragging her confused partner behind her. Not wanting to hang about with the enemy Meowth run quickly after his friends. Cassidy watched them go before turning to her partner, "How are we ever going to survive this?"
Butch shrugged and said, "Don't know what your so worried about. We're getting a free trip to a tropical island. It'll be easy to stay out of their way."
"I guess"
"That's the sprit, lets go pack."
"Fine you win, but I'm having the biggest suitcase."
"That's because you've got the most junk."
"Why you.." Cassidy turned to hit her partner, but he'd already started running down the corridor, she sighed and gave chase, promising herself she'd make him sorry for his last remark.
Meanwhile in Jessie and James' apartment, James was desperately trying to calm Jessie down, he wasn't doing a very good job. Jessie paced across the floor of the small living room, muttering angrily to herself as James trailed behind her trying to make her see that things weren't as bad as they seemed.
She stopped suddenly, causing James to slam into her back. He jumped back quickly expecting her to spin round and hit him but instead she turned slowly and said softly, "James, what are we going to do?"
James sighed, unsure of what to say, knowing that in the state she was in the wrong answer would earn him a whack round the head, he finally settled on, "As long as we're together it'll be OK."
She smiled at that and said, "Thanks, but I still don't know how we're going to put up with 2 weeks of Cassidy's snide remarks."
"So ignore her, we're finally getting the vacation we deserve. Just think bright sunshine, a beach, the sea and best of all it's free."
Jessie laughed at that, "Sometimes you say just the right things you know that."
James blushed bright red, and muttered a thank you. Jessie poked him in the arm, "Come on, let's go pack."
James nodded and followed her into the bedroom they shared. It was little bigger then the living room, there were two beds and two small wardrobes, one of each side of the room and a small cat bed in one corner were Meowth was currently sleeping. He'd run in here to hide from Jessie's wraith and fallen asleep. On spotting the sleeping cat Jessie walked over to him and poked him gently with the toe of her boot waking him up, he jumped up quickly and glanced up at the two humans. "What you wake me up for?"
"You can help us pack." Jessie said, sitting down on her bed.
"Why do I have to help? I haven't anything to pack."
"Because if you don't help, we'll give you to Butch and Cassidy as a peace offering." James said with a grin, sitting down next to Jessie.
Meowth glared at the two of them, "All right, you win, I'll help, just don't leave with those two."
"Don't worry Meowth we won't." Jessie said. The cat pokemon leaped up onto the bed and settled himself between his two friends.
"We'll gonna survive this ain't we?" he asked his two friends quietly. The two humans reached down and stroked his head softly.
"Of course we will...." Jessie started.
"As long as we stick together." James finished.
Meowth began to purr softly as his two friends began to stroke behind his ears, usually he'd have scratched them by now but for once he liked feeling the closeness of them. They sat like this for a while, just thinking about the up and coming trail and what they were going to take with them. That was until Jessie leaped up with a shriek, knocking James over and startling Meowth.
James picked himself up and looked at Jessie who had started pacing again, "What's up now Jess?"
"We've got to go shopping. I just remembered I need a new swimming costume."
"Why what happened to the old ones?"
As soon as James said it, he regretted the question, he remembered quite clearly what had happened to her other ones.
Jessie grinned at him and said, "You should know, you were wearing one of them."
James blushed, he really had to learn to keep his mouth shut, he hated being reminded about that incident. So instead of answering her he got of the bed and said, "I suppose we better go then."
Meowth started to laugh, causing the two humans to glance at him strangely, "Do you two know what time it is? All the shops are shut now, you'll have ta go in the morning."
The two blushed slightly, they'd lost track of time and felt mighty silly about it too. "Oh well, we'll just have to pack in the morning then."
"Guess so." James said with a laugh, trying to cover his embarrassment over the last topic.
Meowth hopped of the bed and run over to his own, "Well if you no longer need me I'm going back ta bed, you two fools can do what you want."
With that he curled up again, and quickly fell asleep. Jessie glanced over at James who'd sat down on his own bed. She grinned at him and said, "I'm going to bed now, what about you?"
James blinked at her for a minute before answering, "There's a film on tonight I want to watch, so I'll be in once it's over."
"What is it?"
He grinned at her and said, "It's called The Rattatas. It's an Italian film about killer Rattatas."
Jessie shook her head, James had the most bizarre taste in films. "OK, well enjoy your movie and don't wake me up when you come to bed."
James got up of his bed and said, "I won't Jess, I'll be real quiet."
Jessie laughed, James was never quiet. She shooed him out of the room and sat down on her bed. She smiled softly, knowing that what James had said was true as long as the three of them were together nothing Cassidy said would be able to effect them.
With that thought she changed into her night-clothes, climbed into bed and was soon blissfully asleep.

Chapter 3- Places To Go

2 Days Later
Giovanni paced up and down the roof of Team Rocket Headquarters, Persian at his heels, how long did it take for one helicopter to get here. True it had to travel all the way from the Orange Islands but surly it should be here by now.
The two teams stood watching him with bemused expressions on their faces, they couldn't work out why he was in such a fluster. They'd never seen The Boss acting like this before and it worried them but at the moment Giovanni didn't care what they thought all he cared about was seeing Leona again.
Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of a helicopter, Giovanni stopped pacing and Persian slammed into the back of his legs. He looked down at the large cat pokemon and chuckled softly as she picked herself of the floor. He patted her on the head, before turning to watch the helicopter land.
The pilot, a large man with wavy green hair, wearing a black jump-suit, climbed out of the cockpit. He nodded to Giovanni and then open the door on the side of the 'copter. A large female Persian hoped out of the door and rubbed her head against Giovanni' leg. He bent down and began to scratch her behind the ears, where he knew she liked it, she began to purr and tried to lick his face. He heard laughter behind him, and glanced round quickly enough to see Butch trying to stifle it in a coughing fit. He glared at the young rocket before turning his attention to the helicopter's other passenger.
He stood up as she climbed out and as the sunlight hit her face he was stuck again by just how beautiful she was. Waist length brown hair, pulled back and platted and bright emerald green eyes she was defiantly the most beautiful woman he knew, though she'd probably tell him he was talking rubbish. She looked over to him and grinned, before running over and planting a large kiss on his lips, he pulled her close kissing her back, totally forgetting there was an audience until someone whistled at them. He broke of the kiss and glanced around trying to work out who would be brave enough to do that.
It didn't take him long to work out, he glared at the helicopter pilot, but the man just laughed at him and winked. Leona laughed softly, braking away from Giovanni and whacking the pilot on the arm. "Quinn behave yourself." she said softly.
Quinn rubbed his arm and said, "Yes Doc, sorry, couldn't help myself."
"I bet." she said, before turning back to Giovanni, "Are these the ones who will be staying on my island?"
Giovanni nodded and lead her over to where the two teams and Meowth were standing. He motioned to the four rockets and said, "The first two here are Jessie and James, I mentioned them to you before." Leona nodded and smiled at them. leaving Jessie to wonder what The Boss had told this woman about them.
Giovanni motioned at the second pair and said, "These two are Butch and Cassidy, it's their fault we doing this."
"Really." Leona said softly, winking at the two of them. Butch and Cassidy looked at each other in confusion wondering why she was winking at them.
Giovanni pointed at Meowth and said, "This is that Meowth I told you about, the one who can talk."
Leona bent down and grinned at Meowth, "I've been told you can understand any pokemon, is this true?"
Meowth nodded and said, "Just about."
He wondered why she asked. She stood up, grinned at Giovanni and said, "He'll be useful when I start working on my translator , I'll have to borrow him if he doesn't mind of course."
Meowth couldn't believe it, someone other then Jessie and James thought he was useful. He decided he liked this lady. Giovanni looked at the five of them and said, "You five listen up, this Dr. Leona Morgan, she's a good friend of mine and it's her house you'll going to be staying in. So make sure nothing happens to it or there'll be trouble."
"Yes Sir." The five said together.
Leona shook her head and said "I don't care what you get up to as long as everything's in one piece when I get back. There should be enough food to last the five of you for two weeks 'cause I brought extra supplies. Unfortunately I've only two bedrooms so your going to have to share but from what I've heard you should be used to that.
You won't have to worry about the pokemon on the island, they mostly stay away from the house but I must warn you to stay on the paths if you decided to go exploring. It's very easy to get lost if you don't know where you are and some of the pokemon are wild and dangerous and I don't want anyone getting hurt. So have you any questions?"
She looked at the four teenagers and the cat pokemon waiting to see if they had anything to ask. She had to admit they seemed like nice people and she just hoped that they would be able to make peace with each other, she didn't want 'G' to take drastic action out on them. She looked at them and noticed that James was trying to get up the nerve to ask her something. She smiled at him and said, "Yes James you want to ask me something."
He blushed and said "Um can we catch any of the pokemon on this island?"
She nodded and said "You can but only by proper means no holes or nets. But be careful a lot them are at high levels who won't want to be caught. Is that all?"
James nodded and smiled his thanks thinking about what kind of pokemon he was going to try and catch maybe a Vulpix or a Pikachu, thinking that he'd like to see the look on Ash's face when he turned up with his own Pikachu.
Giovanni sighed, it was time to send them on their way. He motioned to the helicopter and said, "OK you five, it's time you left. I'll see you again in two weeks and remember you'd better be friends again by then or else. Do you understand me?"
"Yes sir." the five said together.
"Good. Now go."
Giovanni watched the five walk to the helicopter, James struggling under the weight of his and Jessie's bags, Cassidy dragging her own suitcase and Butch carrying a medium sized rucksack slung over one shoulder. Jessie reached the 'copter first, she climbed in and then helped James get their bags inside. Butch got their second but didn't seem in any hurry to get in, making a big show of helping Cassidy get her bag inside even if she didn't look like she needed any help.
Once everyone was inside, Quinn walked over and shut the door making sure it was locked in place. He then turned to Leona and said, "Once I've dropped them of I'm gonna go back to the hanger, just phone my boss if you need me OK."
"Will do, but if not I'll see you in two weeks."
Quinn nodded and climbed into the cockpit of the helicopter. He started the engine, and the as the rotor blades began to turn the air was filled with a low humming sound. The two Persians who had been sitting next to it, leap up and run to hide behind their owners. The 'copter climbed up into the air and took of in westward direction. Leona and Giovanni watched them go. He turned to her and said, "So do you think this will work?"
"Sure, if they don't end up killing each other."
"That made me feel a whole lot better."
"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be OK."
"I hope you right."
Leona sighed, "Well it's to late to worry about it now, come on I want you to show me round the headquarters since I never got to see it last time I was here."
The headed for the stairs, followed closely by their two Persians, they disappeared into the building hand in hand.
Meanwhile in the helicopter all that could be heard was the sound of someone being very sick. Jessie sighed and glared over to where Cassidy was bent over her puking partner. "Can't you tell him to keep it down, he's making me feel sick."
Cassidy glared angrily back at Jessie and snapped, "It's not his fault he gets air sick."
"Whatever." Jessie shouted back.
James sighed, pulled out his Walkman, pushed in the earplugs and turned it up as high as possible. It only just blocked out the sound of Butch being sick and Jessie and Cassidy arguing. He started to stroke Meowth who'd curled up in his lap and sighed, this was going to be one long trip.

Chapter 4-Final Destination

Quinn thanked god when he finally saw their destination through the cockpit window, soon he'd be able to drop of his passengers and get back home but it wouldn't be soon enough. What with the girls arguing almost none stop for the past 2 hours and the guy puking he'd thought about crashing into the sea just to get away from it.
He pulled down the mic that was situated in his helmet and said "OK, we're nearly there, so fasten on those seat belts and get ready for the landing. Things are gonna be getting a little rough as we go in but it's totally safe."
The four teens quickly belted up, glad that the long trip was finally over. Quinn turned the helicopter towards the island. The helicopter was buffeted by wind as come into land, causing it to rock. Butch groaned, burying his face in his hands, glad that this hell would soon be over. The rocking and vibration got worse as Quinn brought the helicopter down in front of the large house.
Once the helicopter was safely on the ground, Quinn switched off the engine and hoped out of the cockpit, and opened the door to the passenger section. As soon as the door was opened Butch came flying out. He dropped to his hands and knees and kissed the floor, happy to be on solid ground once again.
Cassidy came next, she throw Butch's rucksack at him and then jumped out, pulling her suitcase with her. Jessie and James climbed out together with Meowth at their heels. James was still carrying all three of their bags, not that he really cared, he was always happy to help Jessie out.
As soon as they were all out, Quinn slammed the door behind them and hoped back into the cockpit and started the engine back up. "Well have fun kids, I'll see ya in two weeks." He shouted at them before taking of and heading back to his hanger on Mandarin Island.
Butch picked himself up of the floor and pulled his rucksack over his shoulder. He looked at the house, which was about three stories high, before turning to Cassidy and saying "Big ain't it."
Cassidy nodded, "Sure is and I can bet the bedrooms are on the top floor."
"More then likely."
The two partners walked up to the house, opened the double front doors, which had been left unlocked and entered the house. Jessie started to follow them with Meowth close behind, before noticing that James was following them. She turned to see what was keeping him. He was standing stock still, staring into the lush, green undergrowth. "James," she called, "what is it?"
He glanced at her, looked back into the jungle, shrugged and started walking towards them. "Nothing," he answered, "just thought I saw something."
"Probably a wild pokemon, that Doc said there wasn't anyone else on the island."
"You're right of course. Anyway we'd better get inside before those two nick the best bedroom."
Jessie laughed and nodded, but as the three walked into the house James still couldn't get over the feeling he was being watched.
When they got inside, they found that Butch and Cassidy were waiting for them. Cassidy glanced at them and said, "Butch thought we'd better explore together seeing as we suppose to be friendly and all that."
James could tell from Cassidy's tone that she didn't like the idea and he willed Jess not to say something to start another fight, but all she did was shrug and said, "Sure, if that's what you want."
Butch nodded and looked around the large hallway they were standing in. There were two doors on the right and one to the left, with a large flight of stairs in the middle, which lead to a small hall with two smaller staircases heading to the left and right to another hallway. "So." Meowth said, jumping onto James's shoulder, "Which way do we go first?"
James looked around and said, "I guess the best bet would be to find the bedrooms so we can dump the luggage. Least then we can look around without having to lug this stuff around with us."
Cassidy raised an eyebrow surprised that James had suggested a good idea. Butch nodded and the five of them headed up the stairs. Once they were at the top of the second flight of stairs the five looked around. There was one door to the left and two to the right. "So which way now?" Jessie asked.
"Lets go left." Butch said.
The other four nodded and headed through the left door on to a balcony that overlooked a large dinning room. They walked along the balcony until they came to another door, Butch opened it and they walked through to another hallway with a couple of doors leading of and the corridor carrying on round the corner.
"So which door to open first?" Meowth asked, "Left or right?"
"I say left." Cassidy said, pulling the left door open.
They walked into the room and James cheered. "Yes, we found a bedroom."
Jessie smiled softly at her partners happiness and looked around the room. The curtains were red, with a light lavender trim as were the bedcovers. A lavender vase full of red roses stood on a small chest of draws situated by a large double bed. She grinned and said, "I guess this is suppose to be our room then."
Cassidy sighed and said, "Which means the other door must lead to our room."
"My you're quick." Jessie replied quickly.
Cassidy glared at her and was about to answer, but a warning glance from Butch kept her quiet. The two left the room, slamming the door shut behind them. James dumped the three bags on the bed and wiped a layer of sweat of his forehead. "It sure is hot here isn't it?"
"How'd you think I feel?" Meowth said, hoping of James's shoulder onto the bed, "You haven't got a fur coat."
Jessie laughed softly, walked over to the windows and pushed them open letting in a cool breeze. She breathed in the cool air and smiled as James stood beside her. He grinned at her and said, "There's only one bed. I'll sleep on the floor I don't mind."
Jessie smiled and reached up and ruffled James's hair. "Don't worry about it, we've shared a bed before after all. Just as long as you stay on your own side of course."
James nodded and laughed, "Sure no problem."
Meowth grinned as he watched his two friends, they looked so cute together, now if only they would do something about it. Maybe this holiday would be just the thing to get them together, Meowth sure hoped so.
Suddenly there a knock on the door, Jessie jumped slightly, walked over to it and pulled it open. Butch grinned at her from the other side of the door and said, "Ready to finish exploring?"
Jessie looked back at James who nodded, "OK sure lets go. Coming Meowth?"
The small cat pokemon shook his head and curled up on the bed. Jessie nodded and she and James left the room and with Butch and Cassidy set of to explore the rest of the mansion.

Part 5- Exploration

They followed the corridor round the corner and came upon three doors, one at the end of the corridor and one either side of it. Butch opened the door to the right to reveal a bathroom. The bathroom's window curtains were teal coloured with yellow trim. "Well I guess this is our bathroom, so the one opposite has to be yours." Butch said, pulling the door closed.
"Guess so," James answered, "So we have no choice but to go forward."
The other nodded and James opened the door, and the four walked into the room and stopped in shock. The room was full of bookcases, rows and rows of them all full to the brim with books. "Wow," Jessie said, looking around, "I never seen so many books in one place before."
James nodded and said, "Only place I've ever seen this many books before was back home, my parent's library covered two floors."
"Pity they didn't have any books on how to bring children up right." Jessie replied, before looking round hastily to see if Butch and Cassidy had over heard that last remark, but they were already walked forward and were expecting the books in the first bookcase. James sighed softly and nodded, "Come on let's see if they've found anything interesting. "
With that the two friends walked to where Butch and Cassidy were standing, Butch had pulled a book out and was reading the back. "Find anything interesting?" Jessie asked them.
"Nope." Butch said, putting the book back in it's place.
Cassidy looked around and said, "I suppose there have to be some interesting books in here somewhere."
Butch shock his head and said, "I doubt it, I bet most of these are about pokemon."
Jessie nodded, "That does make sense, seeing as Dr Morgan researches them."
They continued walking through the bookcases till they come to a door at the other side of the room. Jessie pulled the door open and they walked through it to a narrow corridor which lead to a small staircase leading down.
They started down the stairs and found themselves in another small corridor, leading to another door. The opened this door and found themselves in another corridor, with two doors to the right and one on the left. The first door they come to was one on the right, so they opened it up and walked inside.
They found themselves in a large living room, the wall in front of them was mostly taken up by a large TV, from which various wires were attached connecting it to the stereo system. A video recorder, Playstation and N64 were also attached to the TV.
The left and right walls of the living room was taken up by huge bookcases filled with videos, computer games and CDs. In the middle of the room was a large red sofa big enough to seat four people, and two large red chairs. "Wow," Butch said, looking round the room, "will you look at all this stuff. I guess the Doc really likes her TV."
"Guess so," Cassidy replied, "least you'll gonna be happy here, I know how much you like playing computer games."
Butch grinned at her and nodded. One of his great loves was computers, there was nothing like blasting some unknown monster into oblivion to relive stress after a failed mission.
He turned away from Cassidy to see James jumping up and down excitedly in front on the videos. "What's with him?" he asked Jessie.
Jessie sighed and was about to answer when James pulled a couple of videos out of their places and cried, "Hay Jess, I can't believe it she's got The Return Of The Living Dead Part 2 I've always wanted to see that, and this ones Critters , it's suppose to be really good."
Jessie groaned knowing that without a doubt she would be watching the films sooner rather then later, she just hoped they weren't as bad as they sounded. James grinned at her, "I think I'm gonna like it here." he said, putting the videos back in their place.
Cassidy shook her head and turned to Jessie, "Well it looks like the boys are happy, though I bet they're going to argue over the TV."
"Probably." Jessie replied, keeping her voice neutral, unsure of what to make of Cassidy being nice.
Cassidy nodded and turned to the guys, "Come on you two lets go."
The two guys nodded and the four left the living room, and returned to the corridor, the next door was to the left. They opened that door and it lead into the dinning room they had seen from the balcony above. A large dinning table was the centre piece of the room, there were a couple of chairs next to the table, but they looked like they hadn't been used in years. A large fireplace dominated the wall next to the door they had entered through, a picture of a Rapidash hung above it. There was another door at the other end of the dining area but after deciding it probably lead back to the main hall they decided to go back the way they'd come.
Back in the corridor they walked to the second door on the right, opened it up and walked inside. As soon as they were inside James gave a cry of yippee and headed straight for the fridge. They'd finally found the kitchen and he couldn't wait to get something to eat.
Jessie looked around the room, while James rummaged in the fridge. It was a large room, the walls covered with a multitude of cupboards, with two other doors leading of, one of which she could plainly see lead outside. There was a large cooker on one wall next to the sink and a small dinning table with four chair. Jessie guessed this was where the doctor eat. She was just about to check out the other door when James pulled a plate out of the fridge, pushing the door shut with his foot. He turned grinning at her, "Look doughnuts." he said holding the plate up for her to see.
She grinned back at him, trust James to find the doughnuts first. He placed the plate on the table, and sat down. Jessie pulled out a chair and sat as Butch and Cassidy walked over and sat down too. Soon all four of them were tucking into the doughnuts like there was no tomorrow but still James managed to eat the most.
Once they were all gone they sat they decided to check out the other door in the kitchen, the one that didn't lead outside. They pulled it open and walked into a large storage room which doubled as a wash room. A large freezer stood on one wall, next to that was a washing machine and tumble dyer. The other walls were covered in shelves filled with boxes of dried food, both human and pokemon. They left the room and went back into the kitchen.
"Where to now?" James asked.
"Let's have a look outside, see if we can find out where the beach is." Cassidy replied.
Jessie nodded, that sounded like a good idea to her. The four headed out of the backdoor and into the back garden. It was huge. A patio table and chairs were set out in the middle of the lawn which was bordered by different coloured rose bushes, a set of swings were of to the left and a hammock had been tied up between a couple of Palm trees at the bottom of the garden.
"Nice," said Butch, "Very nice."
"Tell me about it," James replied, "look at all these rose bushes, I guess she must really like roses."
"You don't say," Jessie replied with a grin, "I'd never have guessed."
James grinned back at her, knowing she was only joking with him. "Look." Cassidy said, pointing over to a signpost that was stuck into the ground next to the hammock.
They walked over to it and saw it had been freshly made. There were signs pointing to the beach, to a swimming pool and to the meadow. "I guess the Doc didn't want us to get lost." Butch said, nodding to the sign.
Jessie nodded and said, "So where do you want to go from here."
"Let's check out the swimming pool it sounds interesting." Cassidy replied.
"OK let's go." Jessie replied.
They started down the path that lead to the swimming pool, and as they walked James couldn't help but shake the feeling he was being watched, as if something out there knew he was there and wanted to get him. He knew he was being silly but he couldn't get the feeling out of his system. Jessie who was always attuned to how James was feeling, (on most things anyway), could tell something was troubling her friend so she reached out and rubbed his arm with her hand. "You OK?" she asked a worried expression on her face.
He glanced at her and grinned, "Yeah I'm fine, just thinking that's all."
"About what?"
"This and that, nothing important."
"Oh OK, but we better hurry if we want to keep up with those two."
They picked up speed and had soon caught up with Butch and Cassidy. A few minutes later they had reached the swimming pool which turned out to be a large lake at the base of a large waterfall. Jessie grinned it was a really beautiful sight and tranquil too, but the peace was soon shattered by a scream and the sound of someone landing in the water. Jessie turned to see Cassidy splashing about in the water, shouting obscenities at her laughing partner.
Jessie grinned and look round for James, he was standing close to the edge looking out at the jungle, the perfect prey for her. She tiptoed up to him and pushed. With a yelp, he tumbled into the water but not before grabbing hold of her and pulling her in after him.
She laughed and whacked him on the head playfully, not really minding that she was wet, it was so hot here anyway. She looked across at Cassidy and as their eyes met she knew the other girl had the same idea she had get Butch. The two girls swam towards him, but he was laughing so hard he didn't notice. James wondered if he should warn the older guy but decided against it, Jess won't be to happy if he gave the plot away. So instead he began to swim lazily around the pool listening for a tell tale sound of a scream and a splash. He didn't have to wait long.
They spent the rest of the day in the pool messing about and mercilessly not really arguing that much. They headed back to the house as the sun began to set, and as they were tried from the trip and the exploration they all decided to go straight to bed.
As soon as they got back to their bedroom, Jessie pulled her night-gown out of one of the bags and headed down the hall to the bathroom to get changed. James watched her go and then stripped out of hid own sodden uniform and pulled on a clean pair of boxers and a T-shirt which was all he slept in. Meowth watched him change and said, "I see you had fun then."
James nodded and slipped into the bed, being careful not to kick the cat pokemon who was curled up at the bottom of the bed. "Yeah, it's wasn't that bad, they were actually nice to us. It was a real surprise, I just hope the rest of this holiday goes as smoothly."
Meowth nodded and said, "Well I going to explore outside, see what I can find."
"Be careful OK." James replied.
The cat pokemon nodded and hoped of the bed and up to the open window. He disappeared out of it and scrabbled down the ivy that was growing on the walls outside.
Meanwhile inside Jessie walked back into the bedroom, she glanced around and said, "Where'd Meowth go."
"He's gone to explore."
Jessie nodded and dumped her wet clothes on top of his, before climbing in the bed on the opposite side to him. She grinned across at him, "Today wasn't so bad was it?"
"Nope, I had fun. And I found those films I wanted to see."
Jessie laughed softly, "Night James." she said, lying down on her own side.
"Night Jess." James replied, before switching of the small bedside lamp beside him.
They lay like that for a while, taking comfort in each others presence before finally falling asleep.

Chapter 6- James Makes A Discovery

James woke to see the sun shining through the open window. He sat up, pushing his lilic coloured hair out of his eyes and look across the bed at his sleeping partner. He smiled gently she looked so cute when she was asleep. He slipped out of the bed being careful not to wake Jessie.
He walked over to his bag, opened it up and pulled out his towel, which was white with little Pikachus on it, his sponge, some soap and some shampoo. He tip toed out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He walked down the hall and opened the door to the bathroom he and Jessie shared, he walked in shutting the door behind.
He hung his towel on the towel rack, he placed the rest of his stuff on the small shelf inside the shower before reaching over to turn the shower on. He stepped back and started to pull his T-shirt over his head, as he was doing so he heard the bathroom door open. He pulled the T-shirt of before turning to see who it was, he gasped in surprise when he saw who was standing there and began to back up. The woman in the doorway smiled at him and said, "James honey, you know you're suppose to say hello when you see someone you haven't seen in a while. I'm gonna have to punish you now."
"J....Jezebel," James whimpered, "H..How did you get here?"
She smiled and pulled her whip out from behind her back, she lifted it above her head and said, "You don't need to know that honey." and with a flick of her wrist brought the whip down catching James on his shoulder leaving a bloody cut in it's wake.
He cried out in pain, clutching the wound, as she brought the whip down again and again laughing all the while. James fell to his knees clutching his head between is hands, feeling the sting of the whip on his back. He started to scream and suddenly he was back in his bed, sitting up, hands clutching the blankets, tears streaming down his face, breathe coming out in little gasps.
He felt a hand on his back and turned to look into a pair of concern filled blue eyes, "Jess?" he said quietly, his voice cracking into small whimpers.
She pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly, he clung to her sobbing against her chest as she whispered nonsense, knowing the sound of her voice was what he needed to hear. When he'd calmed down a bit, he pulled back and looked at Jessie again, she smiled gently and said, " You all right now?"
He nodded softly, "Thanks to you."
She smiled at him, reaching up to wipe the tears from his cheeks, "Jezebel again?"
He nodded and she pulled him into another hug, thinking that if she ever saw that witch again she'd make her pay for all the pain she'd caused James. She released him and he sat back, he gave her a half smile before sliding out of the bed saying he needed food. She nodded, he always ate a lot after a really bad dream. "Do you want me to come with you?" She asked.
He shook his head, "No, I'll be OK. You go back to sleep."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be OK now."
She smiled at him, before snuggling under the covers again, as James started to pull some new clothes out of his bag. He chose a pair of cut of denim shorts and a plain black T-shirt. Once dressed he pulled a pair of trainers out of the bag, they were white with yellow lighting bolts on them, he'd got them while Jessie had been buying her new clothes before they'd left. He slipped them on and headed out of the room and down to the kitchen.
Once there he walked over to the fridge and pulled the door open, he peered inside, looking for something to munch on. He pulled out a small loaf of bread, some ham, lettuce and some tomatoes. He dumped the lot on the table and made him self a huge sandwich. He dumped the lot on a plate he'd gotten out of one of the cupboards and headed out into the garden.
The sun was just beginning to peak over the trees as he headed down to the patio table and chair. He sat down and started to eat his sandwich, thinking about earlier. He was just glad Jess had been there when he woke up, he didn't know what he would have done if he'd been alone when he woke up.
As he sat there the feeling he was being watched came over him again and then he heard something from within the bushes, frowning he dropped the sandwich back on the plate and slowly walked towards the sound wondering if there was a pokemon in there. Once he reached the bushes he dropped to his hands and knees and peered into the bushes trying to see what was in there. He came face to face with a pair of golden eyes in a face covered in black fur. Two large floppy black ears with golden lines on them hung down almost to the ground, the pokemon backed up a little bit, whimpering softly.
James frowned, could it be the pokemon was afraid of him, "It's OK little fellow, I ain't gonna hurt you."
The pokemon whimpered again, backing up even further until it was backed against the fence, it's tail tucked tight between it's legs it was a really pitiful sight. James crawled slowly forward, wishing he'd remembered to bring his pokeballs down with him, he slowly lifted one hand a reached out to touch the pokemon. His fingers were just inches from its face when it turned and fled into the shadows. He peered into the shadows trying to see it but it was like it had disappeared. He sighed softly and as he got back to his feet he wondered if he'd see the pokemon again, he'd never seen anything like it before, though it looked kinda like an Eevee.
He walked back over to the patio table and finished of the sandwich. With another sigh he picked up the plate, and headed back inside wondering what excitement the rest of the day would hold.

Chapter 7 - Plans Are Made

Cassidy woke with sunlight glaring her in the eyes, she groaned and tried to bury her head under her pillow, only to have it snatched away at the last moment. She glared up at Butch who was standing there holding her pillow in his hands, grinning like a maniac.
"Come on Cass, it's time to get up." He said.
She groaned and said, "Give me back my pillow and leave me alone."
He shook his head and stepped away from the bed, she sighed knowing she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Okay, Okay you win, I'll get up."
Butch laughed and said, "I thought I was gonna have to take drastic measures to get you up."
"Oh like what?"
"This." He said, jumping on the bed. He grabbed a hold of her and started to tickle her sides. She burst out laughing and started tickling him back, soon the pair of them were rolling about on the bed, laughing and tickling each other. After a couple of minutes of this, Cassidy pushed Butch off of her and said breathlessly "That's enough of that."
He sat up, grinning at her and said, "Spoil sport, I was having fun."
She laughed as she climbed of the bed, "I'm sure you were."
She opened up her suitcase and pulled out a short black skirt and a black T-shirt. She put these on and then pulled out a pair of black ankle boots and put those on as well. She stood up and walked over to where Butch was standing, she grinned at him and said, "Well come on then, lets go see if those two lazy bums are up yet."
Butch sighed and said, "Cass, I thought you were gonna be nice."
She smiled and said, "I am."
Butch shook his head, lead her out of the bedroom and as they started to walk down the corridor said, "Are you ever gonna tell me why you don't like Jessie anyway?"
"Only if you promise not to laugh."
"Promise."
"Well you see, I don't really remember what started this whole argument."
Butch stopped walking, to stare at her a minute, then his face cracked into a grin and he burst out laughing. "You don't remember, that's too much."
She sighed, "You promised you wouldn't laugh."
"I know, I know, I'm sorry but that's just to much."
"You're a jackass you know that?"
"I try my best."
"Don't I just know it."
With that the two of them continued walking, until they were outside the kitchen. Cassidy opened the door and the two of them entered to find Jessie buttering a large pile of toast, Meowth pouring maple syrup over a large pile of pancakes and James frying bacon and eggs on the cooker. Jessie looked up when they walked in and said, "Oh you're just in time for breakfast."
Cassidy glanced at Butch, but he just winked at her as if to say, go with the flow and see what happens. She winked back at him to say she understood and then the two walked over to the table and sat down. Jessie offered them some toast and they both took some, and a couple of the pancakes Meowth had been looking after too.
James walked over a couple of seconds later with two plates one covered in eggs and the other in bacon. He dumped the plates on the table, sat down and helped himself to five eggs, three slices of bacon, two pancakes and three slices of toast. Cassidy raised an eyebrow at the amount of food James had taken but decided not to say anything and the five of them eat in silence.
Once all the food was gone Cassidy said, "Thanks for the breakfast, but why'd you do it?"
"Well we were already up, and well I was hungry. It didn't really take that much effort to cook extra." James replied.
"Oh well thanks anyway."
James got up, picked up the plates, carried them over to the sink and dumped them in. He turned d back to them and said, "So what do we do today. Finish exploring or something else."
"Well," Cassidy replied, "I was thinking we could go check out the beach."
Jessie frowned slightly and looked across at James, he sighed softly and nodded. Jessie turned back to Cassidy and said, "Sure we'd love to go to the beach."
"OK then that's what we'll do." Cassidy said as she got to her feet, "I'm gonna go get changed, you wanna come with me Jessie?"
Jessie frowned slightly wondering what Cassidy was up to, but she decided she'd go along. She got up and followed Cassidy out of the door. James turned back to the dishes, and proceeded to wash them.
Meowth hoped off the table and run over to James, hoped up onto the counter and started to dry the plates as James washed them. Butch watched them work for a couple of minutes before getting up and walking over to them. He picked up the dry plates and said "So where do these go?"
James looked at him in shock for a moment before answering, "In that cupboard next to the cooker."
Butch nodded and proceeded to put the plates away. A few minutes later when all the washing up had been done and put away the two girls returned dressed in their bikinis carrying a couple of beach towels each. Cassidy tossed one of her towels at Butch, who caught it and slung it over his shoulder. Jessie walked over to James and handed him his, James thanked her and then said, "Okay then, let's go."
With that the five set of for the beach.

Meanwhile on Mandarin Island Officer Jenny had just received a worrying report. She held the report in one hand and carefully reread it, it was just as bad the second time around. She dropped the report on her desk and sighed. She stood up and walked out of her office and into the main part of the police station where the other officers were hanging around and generally getting on with there own business.
She got their attention and ushered them all into the small meeting hall at the back of the police station. Once they had all sat down she walked to the front of the hall and started to speak, "Can I have you attention please, thank you. I've just received a report from one of my sisters on the mainland and it contained some rather disturbing news.
"Bill Hunter the so called Pokemon Poacher has escaped from jail and is heading this way. Now I know some of you have heard of this guy and know what he's capable of. Remember this guy is so dangerous, he was kicked out of Team Rocket which tells you just how nasty this guy can be.
"He will not hesitate to take a life if someone gets in his way, so I warn all of you to be careful. I'll be putting up the wanted posters when I receive them from the mainland. Until then I want you all to be vigilant and what ever you do don't go after this guy on your own do you all understand?"
"Yes ma'am" all the officers chorused.
"Okay be about you business."
As the officers filed out of the room, Jenny sighed knowing the next few days were going to be trouble, she just hoped no one would get hurt.

Chapter 8- Ghostly Warnings
Meanwhile back On Morgan Island the two rocket teams had arrived at the beach and were struck by the sheer beauty of the beach. Clean white sand as far as the eye could see, was meet by clear blue sea, a row of palm trees formed a barrier between the jungle and the beach and they could see a few krabbys running about in the sand at the water's edge.
"Wow," Jessie said, taking in the sight, "This place is beautiful."
"For once I agree with you." Cassidy replied.
Butch laughed and nodded in agreement. The five of them walked further out onto the beach and looked for a suitable place to stop. They finally stopped half way across the beach and Cassidy dropped her towel on the soft white sand, straighten it out and lay down.
Butch placed his towel next to hers, pulled the T-shirt he was wearing over his head, dropped it beside him before laying back and starring at the sky. Jessie sat down a few feet away and frowned, suddenly remembering that she'd left her sunscreen back at the house. She looked up at James, smiled softly and said, "James would you do me a favour?"
"Sure what is it?"
"Would you run back to the house and pick up my sunscreen, I left it in our room."
"OK, I'll be back in a minute."
He turned to go, but stopped when he heard Cassidy call his name. He turned to her and said, "Yes?"
"Would you grab ours too?"
He nodded, turned and jogged back to the house, he walked into the kitchen and jogged along the hall and up to where the two bedrooms were. He walked into the bedroom he shared with Jessie and quickly saw the bottle of sunscreen sitting on the bed where she'd left it. He picked it up and walked over to his bag, opened it and pulled out a small beach ball. He had known this would come in handy and now seemed like the perfect time to use it.
He left the room and crossed the corridor to Butch and Cassidy's room, it was much like theirs but done in greens and yellows instead of red and lilic. He noticed their bottle sitting on the sideboard and picked that up too. He quickly left the room and started to head back to the stairs when a sudden chill blew over him.
He shivered and wondered why it had suddenly got so cold all of a sudden. As he continued walking the colder it got and by the time he entered the library at the end of the corridor he was freezing. He stopped and looked around, shivering violently, but all he could see were the bookcases. He sighed in confusion and continued to walk through the library until he came to the door on the other side, he reached up to open the door only to find to his shock that the door was jammed shut. He pulled at the handle with all his strength but it wouldn't come unstuck.
He sighed and decided he'd just have to go the other way, he turned and gasped in shock nearly dropping the items he was carrying. A man was standing in front of him, but a man like none he'd ever seen before, for one thing he could see the other side of the room through him. His frozen mind came up with only one conclusion, the man was a ghost.
James backed up until his back was pressed against the door and stared at the ghost before him. It did nothing but float before him, a small smile on it's face. There was something strangely familiar about it as if he had seen it before but that wasn't possible he would have remembered. What was more surprising was the fact it was wearing a Team Rocket uniform. A White Team Rocket uniform at that. The ghost cocked it's head to one side and smiled at him. "I bring you a warning." It said, it's voice was soft and not in the least bit scary.
James frowned and said, "A warning?"
"Yes, danger comes."
"Danger? What sort of danger?"
"Evil comes, in the shape of a man. He kills without reason, he will kill you if you let him."
"Who are you? Why are you telling me these things."
The ghost laughed softly, "Who I was is of little importance. I like you, you remind me of myself when I was your age."
"I do?"
The ghost nodded, causing black hair to flop into its eyes, he sighed and pushed the hair out of his eyes. "Yes you do. Take care my friend, look after those who look to you for protection."
"But I don't protect anyone."
"You would be surprised." The ghost said with a laugh, "Very surprised."
The ghost began to fade.
"Wait, will I see you again?"
"If your need is great, call me and I will come if I can"
With that the ghost was gone. James starring at the spot the ghost had been wondering how on earth he was suppose to call him if he didn't know his name. James stood there for a couple of minutes before noticing that he was longer cold, he turned around again and tried the door again. It opened easily, he sighed and hurried out of the room and back to the kitchen wondering all the while if he should tell the others about what had happened.
He decided against it, Butch and Cassidy would only make fun of him and Jessie, she'd only be worried about him then. He didn't want to worry her, so he decided to keep it to himself for now. He walked over to the fridge, opened it and pulled about a couple of bottles of coke. He carried the stuff outside and started walking back to the beach.
As he walked he decided he was going to try and find out who the ghost was, there had to be a clue on the island somewhere. All he had to do was find it, he sighed, that was going to be the hard part. He sighed and headed out on to the beach, he'd think about that later, he just hoped Jessie wouldn't be to mad at him for taking so long.


Chapter 9- Jessie Catches A Pokemon

James arrived back on the beach to find everyone gone, their towels were still there but that was all. Frowning slightly he walked over to the towels and dumped the stuff he was carrying on to them before looking around trying to spot someone.
He heard laughter and glanced out to sea to see Butch and Cassidy swimming about a little way out. They were splashing each and generally just mucking around, James smiled slightly at the show before remembering there was still no sign of Jessie or Meowth.
He started walking along the beach away from the towels glancing from side to side trying to spot some sign of his two friends but not having much luck. He was beginning to get worried what if something had happened to them, he shook his head he wasn't even going to think about that.
He looked back and was surprised to find that he could no longer see the towels, it didn't feel like he'd walked so far. He was about to start heading back, thinking that they mat be back by now, when he heard a shout from further up the beach, recognising Jessie's voice he broke into a run and dashed to where he heard the shout coming from.
He arrived to find Jessie holding a pokeball in one hand and patting Arbok on the head with the other, she was grinning happily. Meowth was sitting nearby with a shocked look on his face. James smiled slightly happy to see Jessie was safe and happy, he walked up to her and said, "What's going on?"
Jessie stopped patting Arbok and turned to James grinning all the while. "I did it, I caught another pokemon."
James grinned back at her, he could tell she was really happy about it. "Great, what is it?"
"A Seel."
With that she called out her newly caught pokemon, the white seal pokemon sat on the sand looking up at his new owner, knowing with out a doubt that this woman would never treat him badly. The Seel walked over to were Jessie stood and rubbed his head against her leg, the small horn on his head brushing gently against her as he tried to get her attention.
Jessie bent down and stroked the pokemon the head gently, when she noticed a small mark on the pokemon's left flipper. Frowning slightly she called to James over to look at it. He bent down to take a closer look at the mark and frowned lightly as he tried to work out what it was. Suddenly it came to him, "Jessie, I think it's some kind of tattoo."
"A tattoo? Why would someone put a tattoo on a pokemon?"
"Some form of identification perhaps."
"Could be."
Meowth walked over to take a look as well and said, "I can just about make it out it says TR398."
"I wonder what that stands for." James said, sitting down on the sand, as he started to stroke the Seel's head as well.
"It's most likely that the TR part stands for Team Rocket, but I've no idea what the rest of it's all about." Jessie said, shaking her head softly.
"I know, " James said, grinning, "Meowth why don't you ask it how it got here."
Jessie grinned at James, "That's a really good idea James, will you try it Meowth?"
The cat pokemon nodded before turning to the Seel and saying." Meow Meowth Meow?"
"Seel Seel."
"Meowth Meow."
"Seel Seel Seel."
Meowth nodded and turned back to the humans, a frown on his furry face. "Well?" James asked.
"He said that he used to live with a nasty person, but then two nice people came and rescued him, and then he was released here and told that he was free."
James frowned and said, "So what does that mean?"
"I'm guessing that another team most of stolen him, given him to The Boss and he must have given him to the Doc, but for the life of me I can't work out why they would release any pokemon back into the wild. Especially when The Boss is always going on about how we have to steal as many pokemon as possible." Jessie said with a sigh.
"I'm confused." James said, softly.
"That's nothing new." Meowth said, with a laugh.
"Do you think all the stolen pokemon are brought here?" James asked.
"Who knows, But I think we should tell Butch and Cassidy about this." Jessie replied
"You do?" James said in surprise.
"Yeah, maybe they know something, or can think of something that will make sense of all of this."
With that Jessie stood up and recalled both Arbok and Seel, and clipped both pokeballs next to the one with Lickitung in it. James stood up as well and the three of them started back up the beach to where they had left Butch and Cassidy.

Chapter 10- Search For The Laboratory
The three friends soon made it back to the place where they had left the other two rockets and where surprised to find the pair of them asleep in each others arms. James starred at them in shock, he never knew the pair where a couple. He glanced across at Jessie, who looked just as shocked as he was, and asked, "So do we wake them up or what?"
"I suppose we better."
James nodded and bent down to lightly shake the pair awake, it didn't take to long. The pair sat up blinking and wiping sleep out of their eyes. Cassidy glared angrily at Jessie and James. Meowth noticed she was about to say something and quickly cut in by saying "We've something important to ask you so can we leave the hostilities till afterwards."
Cassidy starred at him before nodding softly. "So what's so important then?" she asked.
"Well you see I just caught a new pokemon but there's something strange about it." Jessie replied.
"What?" Butch asked.
"It's got a tattoo."
The two other rockets looked at each other and the looked back at Jessie and James.
"You' re joking right?" Butch asked.
"I wish." Jessie said, "It says TR followed by a number. We guess the number stands for Team Rocket but as for the number we've no idea."
Cassidy nodded, "You're right that is pretty strange, I wonder what all this means."
"We were hoping you might know." James said, sitting down on the sand, "I mean you seem to be higher in the bosses favour these days."
"Perhaps," Butch said, "But you're the ones wearing the white uniforms not us."
"This is hopeless, we're never gonna find out what it means." James said with a sigh.
"We could always ask The Boss." Meowth said with a laugh.
"Good idea Meowth, I sure he'd tell us." Jessie said, shaking her head slightly.
Cassidy was frowning slightly as if trying to decide something, she sighed and said, "This place has gotta have a lab somewhere right?"
"She's a doctor do I guess so." Butch said, frowning he was guessing where he train of thought was going.
"Then all we have to is find the lab computer, I'm sure the answer to this puzzle will be in there somewhere."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Butch asked, placing one of his hands on hers.
"Don't worry about it, we need answers and this is the only way to find out the answers."
"I guess." Butch replied, but he didn't look convinced. He hated the idea of Cassidy putting her self in danger. If The Boss found out about this there would be hell to pay.
Cassidy stood up and brushed loose sand off her body, "Lets get going then."
The others nodded and began to walk back to the house, when they reached the kitchen, Butch suggested that the girls go and get changed, they agree seeing as if was probably safer to wear more clothes when snooping round a lab. Butch went with seeing as his clothes were kinda wet and James agreed to meet them in the main hallway.
Once they had split up James and Meowth headed through the dinning hall and into the main hallway. While he was waiting James decided to check out one of the door on the right side of the room, Meowth decided to wait in the hall and sat down on the stairs to wait. He ignored the brown door and opened the blue door that stood next to it instead. It opened into a small cloakroom where a few coats were hung on hoods. There was another door leading out of that room and continuing to the right. He opened it and found himself starring at another toilet.
He heard a noise behind him, he spun round but there was nothing there, then he noticed something on the floor. He bent down and found that a pair of marbles were just sitting there. He could have sworn they weren't there when he came into the room. With a shrug he picked them up and dumped them into a pocket of his shorts, thinking you could never know when a pair of marbles could come in handy.
He headed back out to the main hall and sat down on the stairs next to Meowth to wait for the others. Meowth looked up at him and said, "Did you find anything interesting?"
"Nope, just a couple of marbles."
Meowth sighed, typical James to call marbles interesting. They didn't have to wait much longer for the others to get there. The girls were wearing the same clothes they'd put on before getting changed for the beach and Butch was wearing another pair shorts and another T-shirt.
James and Meowth got up and James told them what he found behind the blue door. The others nodded, Butch pulled open the brown door and the five entered. They found themselves in a long corridor, with a white carpet and two windows to left that looked out to the helipad in the front of the house. They followed the corridor round to a door. They opened the door and walked into another corridor, it was a small corridor which lead to a flight of stairs leading up a another door.
James reached for the door only to find it locked. He frowned slightly, seeing as this was the first locked door they had come across. He looked at the others and said, "I guess we'll have to leave this one for now, unless someone's got some lock picks on them."
The others all shock their heads, "Oh well maybe we'll find the key." Butch said, as he lead the group up the stairs to another long corridor. There was a door at the end of the corridor with a couple of doors one to the left and the other opposite it. James walked up to the one on the left and opened it. He stepped in and looked around, it was obvious to him that they had found the Doc's bedroom. He was about to leave again when he noticed a picture that stood on the dressing table. He walked over to it, picked it up and almost dropped it again.
It was a picture of the ghost, well the ghost and The Boss anyway. Though The Boss looked a lot young in the picture and was also wearing a white Team Rocket uniform. He looked at the picture for a couple of minutes before quickly shutting the door behind him. The others we leaning against the wall waiting for him, Jessie frowned when she noticed how pale he looked.
She walked over to him and placed a concerned hand on his arm, "You all right?"
James nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just tied I guess."
Jessie nodded but she didn't really believe that was all there was to it, but she wasn't going to push the subject with Butch and Cassidy standing there. The looked into the other door but it turned out to be another bathroom, so there was no where left to go but out the door at the end of the corridor. The walked through the door and found themselves above the main hall.
They decided to enter the door next to the one they had just exited and they found themselves in another corridor. This corridor was almost totally empty apart from another door an a small stuffed Growlithe that had been mounted into the left wall. They walked past the stuffed pokemon, not really paying to much attention to it, though James felt a little sad as he remembered his own Growlithe that he'd left back home.
They walked through the other door and found themselves outside on a huge balcony which over looked the lush jungle on the island. From here they could see the beach, the lake and the meadow that they hadn't visited yet.
"Well," James said, with a sigh, "I guess that's it then, unless we can get that door open we're not going to find the lab."
The others nodded and they return to the corridor with the stuffed Growlithe, but as they walked past it, Cassidy happened to glance at it and gasped in surprise. "Hay guys, this thing hasn't got any eyes."
The others stopped and turned to look more closely at the stuffed pokemon and soon discovered that the eye sockets were strangely empty. "That's odd," Butch said, shaking his head, "Why stuff something and then forget the eyes."
"Maybe they fell out years ago and she never got around to getting it fixed." Jessie said, with a shrug.
"You're probably right." Butch said.
James reached into his pocket and pulled out the two marbles he had found earlier. They looked like they might fit, and he didn't really need them so he reached over and pushed them into the eye sockets. There was a loud click and suddenly the Growlithe's mouth opened causing the five rockets to jump back. Something fell from the Growlithe's mouth and landed with a click on the hard wooden floor.
James bent down and picked up the object, turned round grinning. "It's a key and I can almost guarantee it's the key to the labs."
"More then likely, but what kinda person leaves a key inside a stuffed animal." Jessie said, with a frown.
"The type of person who doesn't want people snooping around in their labs." Meowth suggested. The others nodded and they started for the locked door down stairs, but Butch couldn't shake the feeling that all this was kind of familiar somehow.

Chapter 11- An Answer Found

After unlocking the locked door the group stepped into another corridor which lead to a spiral staircase leading down to the basement. They walked down the stairs and opened the door that was at the bottom. It lead into a large room, and as they walked in James was hit by the smell of antiseptic, he hated that smell it always reminded him of hospitals.
They looked round the room and quickly saw that it was divided into two halves, on the side they were on was filled with normal laboratory equipment, test tubes and the like and the other side of the room was filled with filing cabinets. Twenty of them in fact and no sign of any computer. Cassidy groaned, she knew what that meant. Butch glanced at her and said, "This doesn't mean what I think it means does it?"
"I'm afraid so." Cassidy said.
"What's up?" James asked.
"She hasn't got a computer, meaning we're gonna have to search for the information we need by hand." Cassidy answered.
"You can't be serious." Jessie said, regarding the filing cabinets.
"Yeah," added Meowth, "It will take forever to search that lot."
"Not so. If we each take 5 each and you Meowth help who ever we might find what we're looking for before tonight." Butch said.
"OK then what are we waiting for." With that James marched forward pulled open the top draw of the nearest filing cabinet, pulled out a handful of neatly typed papers and began to scan the page headings looking for something relevant to the topic they were searching for.
The others soon followed his lead. Hours went by, until the silence was broken by a triumphant cry from Jessie. The other quickly rushed over to where Jessie was standing, she showed them what she had found. It was a huge list of all the pokemon that had been stolen by Team Rocket and given to her by The Boss. The list also included what state the pokemon was in when she received it and what she had done with it. By the side of each pokemon name was a number. It was obviously what they had been looking for.
"So," James said, looking the list up and down, "what does this all mean?"
"I'm not sure but I think it might mean we all have the wrong idea about what Team Rocket stands for." Butch said.
"How so?" Meowth asked, looking up at the humans.
"Well, not one of these pokemon where healthy when they were brought here. So I'm thinking that maybe The Boss has been rescuing mistreated pokemon and sending them here to be fixed and released back in the wild." Butch said, slipping an arm round Cassidy and pulling her close to him.
"But that makes no sense not all the pokemon stolen can be mistreated. I mean we've stolen pokemon that were OK." Jessie said.
"But Jess it does." James said excitedly.
"It does?" Jessie and Meowth said together.
"Remember when we stole that togapi."
They nodded, and James continued, "The Boss said he wanted rare pokemon yet he was interested in it and we couldn't work out why. Maybe it was because he knew it wasn't mistreated."
Jessie nodded, "That kinda makes sense, I guess."
James grinned and said, "Best of all it means we're not the bad guys we've always thought we were."
"You're right." Jessie said happily, pulling James to her and giving him a huge hug. He hugged back blushing slightly. Jessie released him and said, "Lets get out of here."
Butch nodded and said "Not a moment to soon either, I'm starved."
James laughed and said, "You can say that again."
He placed the papers he was holding back into the filing case they came from and slammed the door shut. They then headed out of the room and back up to the dinning hall to get some food.
As they walked James felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders he had always felt that it had been a great mistake to join Team Rocket but now he knew it hadn't been a mistake at all. Of course The Boss wouldn't be to happy if he found out that they knew about the real reason behind Team Rocket but for now James was happy. He finally felt like he could follow his heart, he just had to find the right time to tell Jess just what that was.

Chapter 12- The Trivia Pursuit ......
They arrived in the kitchen and quickly set about putting some food together. They decided on hamburgers and chips, once it was cooked and eaten they dumped the plates in the sink vowing to wash them up later.
They then decided to head into the living room, Butch and Cassidy quickly clamed the sofa leaving Jessie and James to take the two chairs. Meowth jumped up on James lap and curled up. James patted him on the head and smiled. "So," Jessie said, "What are we gonna do now?"
"Whatta mean?" Meowth asked.
"Well it's to early to go to bed, but to late to go outside."
"I guess you're right." Cassidy said, "so has anyone got any bright ideas."
"We could play a game?" Butch suggested.
"Like what?" Jessie asked, hoping it would end up being truth or dare that Meowth keep trying to get them to play
Butch grinned and said, "Well I happened to notice a trivia pursuit box upstairs, I was thinking I could go grab the questions and we could have ourselves a little quiz."
"That's not such a bad idea," James said, "Me and Jessie could be a team against you and Cassidy and Meowth could ask the questions."
The others nodded in agreement and Butch dashed up stairs to grab the questions, a pen and same paper to write down the scores. While he was gone they rearrange themselves so that Meowth had a chair to himself, Jessie and James sat down next to the TV and Cassidy stayed on the sofa. Butch returned, handed the box of question to Meowth and the sat down next to Cassidy.
"Right, I suppose we should sort out the rules." Butch said.
The others nodded in agreement. "What I was thinking was Meowth could ask each team a question and they get it right then they get two points but if not then it goes to the other team and if they get it right then they get one point, does that sound fair?"
The others nodded and then they all turned their attention to Meowth who had opened the box and took out the first question card. "Okay, lets begin," Meowth said, "I start with Butch and Cassidy so get ready."
He cleared his throat and then began to read, "Name the different pokemon that Eevee can evolve into and their elements?"
Butch and Cassidy conferred quickly and then Cassidy said, "Jolteon element electric, Vapoureon element water, Flareon element fire, Burakki element dark and Eebi element psychic. I think that's all of them."
"Correct 2 points to you."
Butch marked the score on the paper as Meowth pulled the next card out of the box. James hoped they would get an easy question, he'd never even heard of two of those Eevee evaluations. He turned his attention back to Meowth just in time to hear the question, "What moves does a Ditto learn?"
James grinned, they knew a lot about ditto's seeing as their friend Mondo had one, so he answered the question, "It only has one move, Transform but once it's transformed it has the moves of the pokemon it's transformed into."
"Correct." Meowth said, reaching for the next card.
This went on for a couple of hours and neither team was really lagging behind and soon they were neck and neck. Butch grinned and said, "I believe it's time to up the stakes a little, the first team to get a question wrong loses the game. Sound fair?"
"I guess." said James, "Lets do it."
Meowth picked up a card, turned to Jessie and James and read out the question, "How many evaluation stones are there and what are there names?"
James grinned, another question that wouldn't be two hard for them, after all they had seen all the evaluation stones on their travels. He winked at Jessie and answered , "There's five evaluation stones, Leaf, Fire, Water, Thunder and Moon stones."
"Correct," Meowth said, "Butch, Cassidy it's your turn now."
Meowth reached into the box and pulled out the next question card, he grinned and said, "Name the rarest pokemon?"
Butch and Cassidy groaned, they really had no idea what it was. The conversed in hushed whispers and then Cassidy asked, "Is it a Arcanine?"
"Sorry guys, that's not right." Meowth said, sadly.
Butch and Cassidy groaned again, James grinned, cried "We won I can't believe we won."
He then grabbed hold of Jessie and planted his lips on hers. He held her close as he kissed her, she was stiff with shock but soon she melted into the kiss. Her hands sneaked up and she pulled him close to her. They stayed like that until they heard the living room door shut as the other members of the group quickly exited the room.
Jessie and James continued to sit and stare at one another, unsure of what to say to one another and with out another word Jessie climbed to her feet and dashed out of the room. James stayed where he was, starring at the door. He sighed loudly wondering what he had done that was so wrong. He stood up, his thoughts a mass of confusion. He opened the door and was surprised to find Butch waiting for him. The green haired man winked at him and said, "She went that way."
He pointed towards the kitchen, "You should go after her."
James nodded his thanks and dashed after her, knowing he had to make her see that he loved her.

Chapter 13-......Of Happiness

When James caught up with Jessie she was standing on the beach, down by the sea staring into the water. He walked across the beach until he was standing next to her.
"So what now?" Jessie asked after a couple minutes.
"I don't know, Jess, all I know is that I've wanted to do that for years."
"Really? Me to."
Jessie grinned at him, he smiled back. "So you're not mad at me then?"
She shook her head, "No for once you got something right."
She laughed to show she was joking, he laughed with her. "But I don't get why you run of like that."
She stopped laughing and said, "I had to sort out what I was feeling and I didn't want to go blurting out the way I felt if it was just one of those things for you."
"You should know me better then that Jess, I'll always be here for you as long as you want me to be."
She nodded and said, "I guess we should head back to the house before they come out looking for us."
James nodded and offered her his arm, she took it and the two headed back to the house. Both thinking how lucky they were to have each other and knowing they always would even if they hadn't said those dumb words yet.
**************************
Meanwhile on Mandarin Island Officer Jenny was still in her office starring at the all the files she had on Bill Hunter. There were so many of them, she picked up the file containing the witness statements and trail transcript and had just started reading one of the statements when there was a knock on the door.
She sighed loudly, placed the statement back on her desk, before getting up to answer the door. She was surprised to find her boyfriend Quinn standing there holding a large pizza box and a flask of some drink. He grinned at her and said, "It was kinda obvious you weren't coming home tonight so I thought I'd come to you. Besides I thought you might be hungry."
Jenny couldn't help but smile as she let the young green haired man into the office. He placed the pizza box on the table and dumped the flask next to it. Jenny sat back down and accepted a piece of pizza that he offered. She ate it hungrily as she hadn't eaten all day.
"So what's that ya been reading?"
"I shouldn't really tell you."
"Come on ya know ya can trust me."
She sighed and said, "OK if you must know it's the witness statement of Dr. Morgan."
"She was involved with that case, I didn't know that. Do ya think he's gonna go after her?"
"Probably, it's a good thing her islands deserted at the moment."
Quinn hit himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand and swore loudly.
"What is it?"
"The island isn't deserted, after I dropped the doctor off at Viridian City I took four kids from there and dropped them off at the island."
"What those children could be in serious danger."
She jumped out of her seat, Quinn jumped to his feet as well and said, "I'll go and get my helicopter."
Jenny shock her head and said, "No can do. If Bill is on the island and he hears the helicopter he's sure to kill them. We're going by boat, go get Nurse Joy and meet me at the docks."
Quinn nodded rushed out of the station. Jenny headed to the armoury and grabbed a couple of guns as well as a handful of pokeballs containing Growlithes. They would come in handy if she had to fight Bill. She then hurried out of the station and to the docks.
****************
Back on the island a dark shape smiled in the darkness revenge would soon be his.

Chapter 14- Missing Friends

James woke to the sun shinning through the window and a heavy weight across his chest. He looked down slightly and smiled when the top of Jessie's head came into view, she'd been using his chest as a pillow.
He slowly slipped out from under her, trying as hard as possible not to wake her up and only half succeeding, she murmured something sleepily and he smiled again, bent down to kiss her softly on the forehead and to say "I love you too."
She snuggled back under the covers as he dressed and left the room. He was surprised to find Meowth curried up in the hallway fast asleep, but guessed the cat had decided to give them some time alone. He carefully stepped over the small cat and headed towards the kitchen planning to cook himself and Jess some breakfast.
He walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find a note pinned to the dinning table. He picked it and quickly scanned it:
Gone on a picnic,
should be back by dark,
B & C
James folded the note and stuck it in his back pocket, smiling slightly , he'd never seen either Butch or Cassidy as picnic people and wondered if they'd had another reason for going out.
He opened up the fridge again and pulled out a packet of bacon, and then headed over to the cooker. After putting the bacon under the grill, he headed outside to gather some of the beautiful roses from the rose bushes outside, hoping that the doctor wouldn't be mad at him for cutting of a few roses.
Once outside he was surprised to find the black and gold pokemon from the other morning sitting in the middle of the lawn watching him. He ignored it and headed over to one of the rose bushes with lovely red roses on it. He cut a couple of and then turned to find that the pokemon was sitting beside him, he looked down at it, shrugged and then hurried over to a white rose bush to get some of them.
After cutting off some of those he hurried back into the house to make sure the bacon wasn't burning, it wasn't so he turned it over before turning his attention back to the pokemon. It sat on the doorstep watching him, he kneed down and clicked his fingers together softly calling the pokemon to him. It watched him for a few minutes whining softly before darting back down the steps and disappearing into the garden. He sighed softly and got back to his feet.
Once the bacon had finished cooking he placed it onto two plates, placed the red and white roses in a vase and placed all three items on a plate. He walked back to their room and went inside. Jessie was awake, sitting on the bed brushing the tangles out of her long red hair. He smiled at the sight, he walked over to the bed, placed the tray on the bed and leaned over kissing Jessie on the cheek.
She looked up at him and grinned. "I cooked breakfast." He said, pointing to the tray on the bed. She picked up the vase of roses, smelled the flowers and then placed them next to the other vase on the chest of draws before tucking into the bacon. Once they'd finished, Jessie turned to James and asked, "So where's everybody else?"
"Well Meowth's outside in the hall asleep and Butch and Cassidy have gone on a picnic."
"So, we've got the house to ourselves then?"
"Yep, I guess so."
Jessie grinned, "That's just what I wanted to hear." she said, snuggling up to James.
He wrapped his arms around her, and the two began to kiss again.

*************************
It was dark by the time James come back downstairs with Jessie following him. The went into the living room and were surprised to find Meowth watching TV. They joined the cat pokemon on the sofa. He looked up at the two humans and said, "Have you two quite finished now?"
Both Jessie and James blushed and James nodded, before asking, "Haven't Butch and Cassidy come back yet?"
Meowth shook his head, "Nope not yet."
James frowned the words of the ghost coming back to him, could they be in some sort of danger. Suddenly a scream cut through the night, James jumped to his feet with Jessie close behind. "What the hell was that?" she asked, looking at James in shock.
James frowned, he was sure it had sounded like Cassidy so instead of answering Jessie's question he turned to her and said, "I want you and Meowth to stay in the house and try and get in touch with the nearest Officer Jenny."
"What are you going to do?" Jessie asked softly as if she already knew the answer.
"Go and investigate that noise."
"I was afraid you were going to say that, just be careful OK."
With that she hugged him and kissed him gently, he kissed her back and said, "Will do, make sure you stay in the house OK."
She nodded as she watched him leave the room, she scooped Meowth up in her arms and hugged the cat close. "I'm scared." she whispered softly.
"Me too." Meowth replied.
She hugged the cat closer as she hurried out of the room in search of a telephone, she just hoped James would be OK.

Chapter 15- A Walk Into Darkness

James headed away from the house in the direction the scream had come from, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hoped this wasn't what he thought it was, but in his heart he knew that it was.
He hurried through the undergrowth but stopped suddenly when he heard the sound of something following. He frowned slightly hoping it wasn't Jessie or Meowth he didn't want to see them getting hurt.
The noise stopped suddenly and he gasped in surprise to see the Burakki that he'd seen that morning looking up at him. It mewed softly and started to walk forward again before stopping and looking back at James. It was obvious the pokemon wanted him to follow it.
James was confused but that didn't really surprise him, he'd been kinda confused since he'd set foot on the island anyway. He followed the pokemon through the jungle under he came to a clearing. He could see Butch and Cassidy, they seemed to be unhurt but they were tried up and would be no help what so ever.
Of whoever had attacked them there was no sign, James crept forward slowly the Burakki following closely. Suddenly James felt a hand grab his ankle, he kicked out with his other leg hoping to get a good hit in but stopped when he felt the end of a gun pushed against the back of his skull.
"I knew there was more then just the two of 'em." A voice growled in his ear.
James gulped, this was bad this was very bad. "Now I'm gonna let go of you now and you'll gonna behave or else ya gonna be dead do ya understand."
James nodded, he couldn't trust his voice. He felt the hand let go of his ankle and the gun was pushed harder against his skull.
"Now get up."
James stood up, he was shaking like a leaf, so much for protecting people when he couldn't even protect himself. He let himself be lead into the clearing, he glanced across at Butch and Cassidy but they were both looking away from him. He sighed so he'd failed them as well.
Suddenly the man behind him shouted in pain, the gun left the back of his head for a few seconds but it was all James needed as his rocket training came into play. He dropped to his knees, rolled and kicked the guy in the shins causing him to holler again. James spotted the Burakki who was busy biting the guys ankles and legs.
James lept to his feet and charged the man try to wrestle the gun from the guy, the rolled around on the floor thumping and kicking each other. James was trying his hardest but it really was no contest the guy was bigger and much stronger. As the blows continued to rain down upon him, he felt himself losing consciousness.
As he drifted away he could smell a strange scent in the air and from the distance he could hear shouting and the sound of gun fire and then the world went black.

Chapter 16-The End Of The Holiday

James woke slowly and looked up to see Jessie smiling down on him, relief flooded through him at least she was OK He tried to sit up but couldn't quite make it so Jessie helped him up. He looked around and sae to his surprise that he was still in the mansion.
He turned to Jessie and said, "After you left the mansion, we were searching for a phone when I heard someone banging on the door. We went down to investigate it and I was shocked to find an Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy and that helicopter pilot at the door. Officer Jenny said she thought we were in danger and I told her she was to late.
"We rushed out of the house in the direction I'd earlier heard that scream coming from and we got there we found that bloke beating you. I was so afraid you were dead."
She stopped talking for a minute and James squeezed her hand, she smiled at him gently and then continued speaking. "Officer Jenny told the guy who's name was Bill by the way, to get off of you and when he wouldn't she shot him straight in the head. It was kinda nasty. I rushed right over to make sure you were OK and Meowth run over to Butch and Cassidy and untied them. Thankfully you were still alive and Officer Jenny wanted us to go back with her and it was then that The Boss and that Doctor arrived in a helicopter. It seemed that the pilot, Quinn I think his name was had phoned the Boss and told him what was going on.
"The Boss told Officer Jenny that if would be OK to leave us here and that the Doc would be able to take care of you. To my surprise she agreed and after carrying the body back to the boat and they left. The Boss sent his helicopter away as well and then he picked you up and we returned to the house and you've been here ever since."
"How long?" James asked, softly.
"A couple of days."
James nodded, "So everyone else is OK?"
"Yeah everyone's fine, Butch and Cassidy are a little shaken up but they're OK."
"I glad. But that really leads to my next question, what are we going to do now?"
Jessie took hold of James hand and said softly, "I don't care what we do as long as we do it together."
James smiled at her and then said "Well then I guess there's this kid we need to terrorise."
Jessie laughed and said "Yeah I bet he's got lazy while we've been gone."
The two began to plan what they were going to do to the kids laughing and joking all the way.
If James had looked out of the window he'd have noticed the ghost was watching them. The ghost smiled at the laughing couple and turned to disappear into the woods, knowing that he could trust them to watch over Ash and keep him safe.