Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Home Is Where the R Is ❯ A Day in the Life ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Anna Sartin 
Anari experiences a typical day in the lives of Jessie, James and Meowth.
Anime/Manga: Pokemon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2013 | Pages: 7 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 510 | Status: Work In Progress
Anari experiences a typical day in the lives of Jessie, James and Meowth.
Anime/Manga: Pokemon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2013 | Pages: 7 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 510 | Status: Work In Progress
Home Is Where the R Is
Chapter Six - A Day in the Life
. . .
The next few months were not favorable to the Team Rocket organization. Several bases were discovered by the authorities and Professor Namba's underwater research facility had been completely destroyed in a disastrous attempt to capture a parent and child Lugia. The only thing Giovanni found more tiresome than Butch and Cassidy's groveling apologies over the incident was Namba's constant pestering for another base to be built. To rid himself of the annoying lot, he decided to permanently put Butch and Cassidy under Namba's command and let the three of them aggravate each other for a while. He had bigger problems.
The cops had really been cracking down and there was now a personnel shortage due to the large number of arrests. Tyson and his squad had been arrested only a few days ago. Fewer employees meant less revenue, and two days ago Giovanni had sanctioned pay cuts across the board which everyone was now grumbling about. Employees who were not actively contributing to the organization had been told they wouldn't be receiving any wages at all until they got their act together.
But the hardest and most personal blow of all had come yesterday when Giovanni had learned that his family mansion had been seized by the government. It was both his birthplace and childhood home, and he'd hoped to one day bring Anari there to live once he felt it was safe to come out of hiding. He'd been looking forward to the day when he could sleep in his own bed and he'd been planning to convert the rooms once belonging to his brother into a suite for Anari. He had no idea how to reclaim his property without bringing further suspicion to himself and revealing his location both to the authorities and possibly his enemies. The loss was upsetting him more than (he thought) a grown man had any right to be. He hadn't slept at all last night and had dark circles under his eyes to show for it. His troubles had continued to mount overnight, and this morning his usually immaculate desk was littered with reports that he had no time to read, requests he didn't have the funds to fulfill and complaints (mostly regarding the pay cuts) he was tired of listening to. He'd nearly torn the head off of a grunt who'd come to report that the computers were malfunctioning for the third time that month.
I need to fire the damned repairman.
The path to world domination was not as easy as he had assumed back in his youth. Dreams of limitless power still drove him with the same passion it had twenty years ago, but there were days he felt very, very old.
Anari had, for the most part, remained blissfully unaware of his troubles. Her days were spent hanging around her uncle's office, helping Mondo with deliveries or playing with the Pokémon agents left at HQ for safe-keeping. Three days a week her afternoons were spent being tutored by various employees Giovanni had chosen to instruct her in subjects he deemed it necessary for her to learn. His secretary was being paid extra to improve her reading and writing skills and several of the lab scientists tutored her in basic mathematics and the elementary sciences. He was in the process of selecting a competent agent to begin teaching the child how to decipher some of the easier codes Team Rocket used, and Giovanni himself was planning on teaching her the finer points of Pokémon battling once she actually had a Pokémon of her own to train. He had already successfully taught her three different ways to kick open a Pokéball in battle instead of using her hands. Despite both their initial fears, the two had developed a genuine bond. Practically everywhere he went the child accompanied him, so when he told her that she would not be joining him on the rescue mission he was leading today she was naturally upset.
"But I don't understand. Why can't I go WITH you, Uncle?" Anari asked.
"Where I'm going is dangerous," Giovanni told his niece. "You'll stay here at HQ where it's safe."
Less than an hour ago a phone call revealed that yet another one of Team Rocket's bases had been destroyed, and the explosion had attracted the attention of the police. Some of Team Rocket's best agents were now trapped in the secret tunnels under the building and needed rescuing before the police found them first. Giovanni intended to personally lead the operation, but it was no place to bring the seven year-old who was now tugging at his sleeve.
"I don't WANT to stay here!" the child whined. She'd been living at Team Rocket Headquarters for several months now and could finally navigate the many corridors without getting lost, but she wasn't keen on the idea of staying here by herself. She certainly didn't want to sleep alone in their dark quarters with her uncle gone. The last time she'd been forced to do so she's spent the first half the night with her head under the covers and the second half wandering aimlessly around HQ. Mondo had found her asleep in the supply room the next morning, curled up in a packing crate. Today going to Mondo was out of the question, as he was off-base assisting a pair of field agents. "Please don't leave me alone!" she pleaded.
"I exceed to your requests every day, often against my better judgement," Giovanni said firmly. "Now you will exeed to mine."
"I don't want to be alone," Anari said, looking at the ground. "Couldn't you bring Meowth back here first?" It was Meowth who had first accompanied her around HQ during her first week living there, and it was Meowth who'd slept in bed with her while Jessie and James were on vacation.
"Who?" Giovanni asked. Anari raised an eyebrow, wondering how her uncle could possibly forget the world's only talking cat.
"Meowth!" she said, curling up her hands and holding them near her face in an attempt to mimic his "Dat's right!" pose. "With Jessie and James!"
"Oh, those three. Fine, I'll have someone locate them. They can watch you until I get back."
Anari visibly relaxed, but part of her was still worried. "Uncle Giovanni?"
"Now what?"
"You... you will be back, right?"
"Of course I will."
"And you'll make sure they don't hurt Domino?"
Giovanni smiled. Domino was the one who'd called for assistance. Anari knew how fond he was of the young woman. Domino's (now deceased) mother had been a third or fourth cousin of his and he'd known her (also deceased) father since boyhood. Before Anari had come along Domino had been the closest thing he'd had to a daughter, although not even Domino herself was aware of their distant kinship.
"Don't worry, I'll get her out. I daresay she'd manage to escape on her own if it weren't for the fact that one of our top scientists has broken his leg." If it's not one thing it's another... he thought to himself, before adding, "We can't allow a man with that much knowledge of our organization fall into the hands of the police."
"Be careful, okay?" Anari pleaded. "I don't want you to die like..." Like my brother.
Giovanni placed a hand on top of her head. "Nobody's going to die today, Anari."
The little girl embraced him, and Giovanni was again hit by a twinge of sadness over the loss of his family home. He could still remember a much younger Domino running around the gardens picking flowers when she was Anari's age. His heart greatly desired that his niece should have similar experiences instead of spending her days in hiding as he now did. He could still hear Dominique's laughter in his head from the sunny day when his daughter had presented them with makeshift bouquets. How he had doted on her!
"Those tulips cost money, you know!" his mother had complained half-heartedly about the destruction of her flower garden, even as she accepted the childish bouquet from the little golden-haired beauty. Despite her general aversion to children (including her own at times, particularly when her sons were costing her money) Madam Boss had developed a fondness for the child, perhaps because she had also been fond of the girl's mother. To Dominique's utter devastation his young wife hadn't lived more than an hour after birthing their only daughter, and Giovanni vividly remembered the day he had accompanied the grief-stricken man home with his infant child swaddled in his arms. Father and daughter had grown very close, and she'd decided very early in her young life that she would one day follow in his footsteps. Now Dominique too was gone, and Giovanni was left to reflect on the sad reality that tragedy seemed to follow him and everyone he knew. He feared what Anari's future might hold.
At least she's safe... he consoled himself. For now, at least.
He had not been able to save his friends or relatives and he had failed to protect his family's estate as well; but even if he could not give his niece the life she deserved, he took some comfort in the knowledge that she had been successfully taken out of the hands of her parents' killer. He had done that, at least. Picking up the phone, he prepared to make arrangements for her continued safety, so he could go rescue another orphan close to his heart.
. . .
"What are you doing here?" a woman with short green hair demanded, as Anari stood in front of the Johto base where she'd been dropped off. The guard had let the child through the gate and told her to wait by the door for her escort.
"Waiting," Anari answered simply. One thing that fascinated the child was the fact that none of Team Rocket's bases looked alike. Some were in the mountains, some were underwater, some were even underground. A few were in cities, disguised as other things. She'd especially enjoyed visiting the one disguised as a video arcade. This one was as unique as the rest, but the people working here didn't appear to be very friendly.
"This is no place for children!" the woman scolded, grabbing Anari by the arm. "How on earth did you get IN here?"
"I'm waiting for Wendy! Let go, you're hurting my arm!"
"I'm Wendy," the woman said, releasing her. "And I don't have time to deal with nosey little brats today."
"The guard said I was supposed to meet you here!"
"You?" the woman asked. "Why would... I'm supposed to be meeting someone called Anari here."
"I AM ANARI!"
"Anari the agent," Wendy replied, in a superior tone. "Not Anari the infant!"
"I'm not an infant!" the girl shouted, resisting the childish urge to kick the woman in the shin.
"Look kid, if you don't get out of my hair right now I'm going to take you over my knee and-"
Wendy's cell phone rang, cutting her off. She answered it and Anari crossed her arms, furious with her uncle for sending this rude, arrogant person to escort her.
I don't want to go ANYWHERE with HER!
"Are you serious?" Wendy asked the person on the other end of the line in an aggravated tone, eyeing the child in front of her indignantly. Anari stared right back, looking no more thrilled about the arrangement. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" Wendy yelled, before hanging up on the person she was talking to and shoving the phone in her purse. "Let's go!" she ordered, and Anari followed her reluctantly.
Even after learning the identity of her new charge, Wendy continued to treat Anari with disdain. It was certainly not lost on Anari that she was being looked at as an annoyance. Wendy saw children in general as a bother, and Anari had a feeling the nasty look the woman was giving her was the same she might give a piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
I'd gladly stick some gum on her shoes! the little girl thought angrily.
Both were relieved when they arrived at the meeting site and could finally part company. Jessie and Meowth were already there waiting, along with a strange blue Pokémon Anari had never seen before. The trio greeted both the child and her escort, but only Anari greeted them back. She quickly joined the group, while Wendy got back her car and drove away muttering, "I still can't believe the boss re-hired those imbeciles..."
"I hate her!" Anari announced, after Wendy had left.
"She wasn't very friendly, was she?" Jessie responded.
"No, she's MEAN!" Anari declared.
"I think I know her from somewhere," Jessie responded. "I just can't remember where. Well, no matter."
"And who are you?" the child asked the blue Pokémon.
"Wooooooobbuffet!" it answered.
"This is Wobbufet," Jessie explained. "He's part of our team now. It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it?"
"Yeah," Anari agreed. "It has."
"You hungry?" asked Meowth. "James is cookin' breakfast."
Wobbuffet seemed pleased at the prospect, and cheerfully exclaimed "Wobbuffet!"
"I wasn't talkin' ta you!" the cat informed the blue Pokémon. "I was talkin' to da kid!"
"Back in your ball!" Jessie ordered, deciding it best to avoid a fight. She was hungry, and not in the mood for anything that would waste valuable time that could and should be used getting them back to where the food was. Whatever the food was. As far as she'd known they were completely out of edibles, but James had declared that (somehow) there would be a "delicious meal" waiting for them when they got back. She hoped it wasn't another attempt to make salad out of tree leaves again. "This way!" she directed Anari.
"Sure!"
. . .
Anari loved the woods. She's spent very little time among the trees; the root of her affection stemmed from the many fairy tales she'd read about poor woodcutters, lost princesses, enchanted animals and other fascinating beings who inhabited the forest. Reality was nothing like a fairy tale, she knew, but the towering trees and the sounds of wild Pokémon seemed to have a magic all their own.
"So what's cookin', Odd Lookin'?" Meowth asked, unable to resist the quip as they entered the campsite.
"Soup," James replied. "And I do not look odd!"
"Dat blue head 'a yours looked in a mirror lately?" Meowth asked. Jessie kicked him. "Hey!"
"Where did we get ingredients for soup?" Jessie inquired.
"I found some mushrooms and wild onions in the forest, along with some herbs. At least, I think they're herbs. They're green, anyway."
"You actually EAT that stuff?" Anari asked, sniffing the bubbling pot. "Why not go to a restaurant?"
"Because we're in the middle of the woods, for one thing," Jessie told her. "James can't fit a local eatery in his pocket."
"No," James said, "But I've got this!" He held up one-third of a baguette, his share of yesterday's (or perhaps the day before's) theft from a bakery.
"What are we supposed to do with a hunk of dry, stale bread?" Jessie asked.
"Make croutons!" James replied triumphantly, breaking the bread into small pieces. This was a slow task, as the bread was hard as a rock.
Anari eyed the watery concoction doubtfully. At home she would be ordering her meal down in the HQ cafateria, where the staff would be falling all over themselves to make sure Team Rocket's heir was made happy. Agents were expected to order from what was listed on the daily menu Cook wrote out each day but Anari, like her uncle, got whatever she wanted. If she ordered pancakes for dinner, she got it. If she wanted steak for breakfast, she got it. It wasn't lost upon her that she was getting rather spoiled, but not until now did it occur to her how privileged she truly was. As she watched James happily add the stale bread to his "soup", Anari wondered if all agents ate this badly when they were out in the field. She recalled how her stomach had growled when she'd accompanied Butch and Cassidy on their assignment in Johto because her furious uncle hadn't given them any money.
James dished out their dinner into three wooden bowls and handed the first one to Anari. Meowth grabbed his next and Jessie took the last.
"Hey, what about me?" he asked, when he realized there were no more bowls left. Jessie shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, at least give me a spoon!"
Jessie surrendered the spoon, and James grumbled as he began eating out of the pot.
"Soup's great, Jimmy!" Meowth told him.
Anari couldn't disagree more. To say that what she was eating was tasteless wouldn't be quite accurate, since it left an aftertaste of what might be described as old shoe leather. When she whispered this to Jessie, the woman pointed out that it was better than the stolen jerky they'd had for dinner the night before, which had been tougher than old shoe leather. Anari sighed.
"Do you guys eat this stuff everyday?" she asked.
"No," James replied. "Some days we don't find any food at all!"
Anari was horrified. Of all the hardships she'd had to endure in her short life, severe hunger was not one of them. Her uncle always kept her well fed, as had her brother before him. Antonio had denied her a meal or two on occasions when he chose to punish her, but Anari could never remember being desperate for food.
"Not use to roughing it, huh?" James asked. Anari shook her head. "I wasn't at first either. As a boy I had the most delicious food! Filet minion, caviar, ice cream sandwiches... one of the few things I missed when I ran away from home was the food!"
"I like ice cream sandwiches," Anari said. "I haven't had one in a long time." Not since Big Brother died.
"It's been a while for me, too..." he sighed. "Ah, the memories..."
"You guys should buy food in town and keep it for when you're stuck in the woods," Anari suggested.
"That... might be difficult," Jessie said.
"See, buying food requires money," James told her, as if she didn't already know.
"And we don't HAVE any," Meowth finished. "Not since da boss quit payin' us."
"You don't get paychecks?" Anari asked.
"Not anymore," Jessie sighed.
"We owe Team Rocket so much money we have to pay THEM," James said.
"I still owe 'em seven of my nine lives," Meowth said. "I owed 'em all nine, but I paid two off."
Anari raised an eyebrow, trying decide whether or not the Pokémon had told a joke. She didn't laugh, the whole situation was far too depressing. Last time she'd seen Jessie and James they'd just gotten back from an all-expense paid vacation provided by her uncle. What had happened to make them fall out of his favor?
"Well, no matter," James replied. "We need to come up with today's plan. We've got a Pikachu to catch!"
"Being a field agent must be exciting!" Anari said. "I went on a mission with Butch and Cassidy once and we had to jump out of a helicopter." She neglected to mention that she'd been terrified out of her mind at the time.
"A day in da life of Me-owth is no picnic!" Meowth told her.
"Or mine," James agreed.
"Or mine," Jessie finished, before adding, "Until we catch that Pikachu I doubt any of our lives will be worth living."
"You're having trouble catching a Pikachu?" Anari asked.
"It's a special Pikachu," Jessie told her,
"The thing's invincible," James added.
"How are you going to catch it if you can't see it?" Anari inquired, genuinely puzzled. Everyone stared at her for a moment, equally confused, until a light bulb went on over Jessie's head.
"Not invisible," she explained. "INVINCIBLE. It means it can't be defeated."
"A Pikachu?" Anari asked, disbelieving.
"You'll see," Meowth told her. Jessie got to her feet.
"Well, if everyone is done eating, let's go!"
"To the balloon!" James shouted dramatically, and away they went.
. . .
To Anari's surprise, the owner of the "special" Pikachu turned out to be an ordinary-looking ten year-old boy accompanied by an ordinary-looking girl carrying a Togepi. They gave a shout of "Team Rocket!" and a third traveling companion appeared from behind a thicket holding a bag filled with herbs he'd been gathering.
"You guys again?" Brock asked. "We just saw you this morning!"
"Before sunrise!" Misty complained. "You woke up Togepi!"
"They woke up all of us," Brock reminded her. He'd been none-to-pleased to have his dream interrupted- he'd been judging a beauty contest consisting entirely of Nurse Joys- and even less pleased to have to deal with Jessie, James and Meowth first thing in the morning.
"Why don't you just give up and go away?" Ash asked.
"Never!" Jessie vowed. "Not until we catch Pikachu!"
It was at this point that the children noticed Anari, who'd just climbed out of the basket of the balloon. She'd seen many Pikachu in her young lifetime, but she wanted a closer look at the Togepi trilling happily in Misty's arms.
"You kidnapped a little kid?" Ash asked. "I knew you were rotten but I never dreamed the three of you were THIS bad!"
"Of course they are!" Misty told him. "How many times have they harassed us?"
"For your information we didn't kidnap anybody!" Jessie replied indignantly.
"Dat's right!" Meowth said. "We're babysitting for da boss!"
"Don't worry, little girl," Ash smiled, holding his hand out to Anari. "I'll take you home." Anari backed away from him, hiding behind James.
"You see?" James asked.
"Only you three would think it's all right to bring a little kid along to go theiving!" Brock scolded, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, what kind of future do you want her to have?" Misty asked. "You're setting a terrible example!"
Anari stifled a laugh as she buried her face in James' uniform. They just had NO idea!
"What business is it of yours?!" Jessie yelled.
"Because you follow us around everywhere we go!" Misty yelled back.
"That's right!" Brock agreed. "You want this poor kid to grow up to be like YOU?"
"I still say they kidnapped her," Ash said. "Look how many times they've tried to kidnap Pikachu!"
"Not to mention all the other Pokémon they've tried to steal," Misty agreed. "Once a thief, always a thief!"
"WE DIDN'T KIDNAP HER!" Jessie and James yelled at the same time.
"Well, kidnappers or not, you aren't getting Pikachu!" Ash told them. "You might as well just give up!"
"We NEVER give up!" Jessie informed him. "Haven't you figured that out by now?"
"You guys are hopeless," Misty sighed. She reached for a Pokéball, but Ash beat her to the punch.
"GET them, Pikachu!" he ordered.
"Ash, wait!" Misty and Brock both cried out, but it was already too late. Pikachu sent out a powerful attack, shocking the trio of villains and the innocent child under their care.
Waves of pain cascaded through Anari's body and before she knew what was happening she was airborn, screaming in terror and clinging to the basket of the balloon she'd been thrown into. Jumping out of a helicopter with Butch and Cassidy had been NOTHING compared to this! Just as she was getting used to soaring upwards the basket began to descend and her terror doubled. Meowth had also been thrown into the basket, but this offered them no promise of safety and Anari knew it. At that moment she'd have given everything she owned in exchange for a parachute. Jessie and James landed in patch of wild flowers; Jessie on her backside, James face-first. The balloon containing Meowth and Anari wound up tangled in a tree.
"Did somebody... get... the license plate number?.." Meowth asked dizzily, nearly falling out of the basket. Anari caught him just in time, nearly tumbling out of the basket herself. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself, when she noticed a wonderous smell in the air.
"What are those flowers?" she asked, calling down to Jessie and James. Distracted by the enchanting scent, she had (almost) forgotten her fright.
"Phlox," Jessie responded, rubbing her sore bottom.
"No, it's called Dame's Rocket," James corrected her, spitting the tiny blossoms out. "It's part of the mustard family."
"I like them," Anari said, climbing out of the basket and onto a tree branch. She wondered if the flowers would stay fresh if she gathered some to take home to her uncle. "It smells great!" The sea of tiny purple flowers provided a pleasant distraction for a moment, until a wave of dizziness hit her when she realized just how high up she still was and fell. Meowth attempted to grab her and failed, but by sheer luck her ankle caught between two branches, leaving her swaying dizzily back and forth.
"Dame's Rocket is an invasive weed," James told the now upside-down child. "Often mistaken for a flower called phlox, it robs the soil of nutrients and dominates the surrounding flora."
"Sounds just like Jessie," Meowth quipped from above.
Jessie threw a pebble at the cat and missed, before helping Anari out of the tree. "Weeds are just unappreciated wildflowers, much like myself," she told them. "And YOU," she informed her partner, "are knowledgeable about the most useless information."
"You okay, kid?" Meowth asked Anari, when he'd climbed down from the tree. "Not hurt are ya?"
Anari shook her head. "You do this EVERY DAY?" she asked, pointing to the destroyed balloon.
"Pretty much," James nodded.
"How aren't you dead yet?"
"We're not sure, really," James said, scratching the back of his head.
"Da boss should be givin' us hazard pay," Meowth sighed, smoothing down a patch of ruffled fur. "Or frequent flyer miles."
"The only thing he's going to give us is an earful when he finds out we got his seven year-old niece blasted into the stratospere!" Jessie declared, bring her teammates back to reality.
"He'll fire us all!" James moaned.
"I heard when da boss fires somebody he uses REAL fire!" Meowth added, hugging James' leg.
"I'm all right!" Anari insisted. She suddenly felt something poke her leg.
"Teddi?"
She looked down. It was a Pokémon.
"It's a Teddiursa," Jessie and James said at the same time.
"Not ANOTHER one!" Meowth moaned. The trio's last experience with this particular Pokémon had not been a good one.
"It's so cute!" Anari exclaimed, picking it up. "I used to have a stuffed Teddiursa when I lived with my brother."
"Teddiursa!" the creature said cheerfully.
"It is cute," said James. "But the last Teddiursa we encountered turned out to be nothing but trouble. I have a bad feeling about this."
"I want to take it home," Anari announced.
"Are you CRAZY?" Jessie asked her. "Teddiursa evolve into-"
"URSERING!" James shouted, pointing to an especially large, angry-looking one approaching their direction. It roared at them.
"I t'ink it wants its baby back!" Meowth yelled.
"Let's get out of here!" Jessie told them before sprinting off as fast as her legs would carry her. Meowth followed, and James and Anari brought up the rear. The ursuring chased them through the forest, until the group went over a cliff and landed in a river.
"I... don't... under... stand," James panted, after they'd swam to the shore. "Why is the Ursering still chasing us?"
"Maybe because she's still holdin' DAT!" Meowth exclaimed, pointing to the now-wet Teddiursa Anari was cuddling.
"PUT IT DOWN!" Jessie and James exclaimed at the same time.
"But I want to keep it."
"YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE IT BACK!" they all shouted.
Anari reluctantly set the Pokémon down, and it looked up at her curiously. "Ursa?"
"Now let's get out of here!" Jessie yelled at the sound of the approaching Ursering, and they all ran away.
"I wanted to keep it," the seven year-old whined, when they'd reached a point of relative safety. "And all the rocket-flowers I wanted are gone, too!"
"People in Hell want ice water!" Jessie retorted.
"There's no such place!" Anari shot back.
"Just stop it!" Meowth yelled, in no mood to listen to a philosophical debate. He pointed an accusing paw at Anari. "You could 'a gotten us all killed!"
Anari's lip begain to quiver, crushed that even Meowth was against her. All she'd wanted was to capture a Pokémon. What was wrong with that? Hadn't her uncle told her that capturing Pokémon was what Team Rocket was all about? Jessie told her to quit being a spoiled brat, and Anari began to cry.
"Nice goin', Jess," Meowth muttered, as if he himself hadn't had a hand in upsetting the child.
"Don't make me give you something to cry about!" Jessie yelled at the girl. James quickly got between the two, wanting to diffuse the situation before Jessie whipped out her paper fan and the little girl found herself soaring into the stratosphere yet again.
"We're all tired and upset," he told them both. "Why don't we go get something to eat?"
"Food sounds good to Meowth," Meowth agreed, and the two female members of the group nodded, not looking at each other. They all trudged off in search of a restaurant.
. . .
"How is dressing like THIS gonna get us food?" Anari wanted to know, poking at the ground with her yellow parasol. "These clothes are too hot and I keep tripping over the dress."
"It is a bit long on you," James agreed as he laced her corset. He was wearing an identical dress and carrying a powder blue parasol. A pink parasol whacked him upside the head.
"Hold STILL, would you?" Jessie commanded. She was currently lacing up his corset, but he had a tendency to wiggle around.
"We look silly," Anari complained. "Especially HIM!"
"Hey! I take pride in my ability to disguise myself so well!" James protested. "Not every man has the perfect figure and the acting talent to pass himself off as a lady of quality!"
"Not YOU," Anari responded. "HIM!" She pointed to Meowth, who was wearing a baby jumper with cherries on the front and a frilly bonnet that hid the Pokémon's pointed ears. As a finishing touch, James had shoved a pacifier in the cat's mouth.
"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it!" Meowth retorted. "You'd be surprised how far da "cute widdle baby" act will get you."
Anari had no desire to dress as an infant, so she kept her mouth shut. The outfit she was wearing was bad enough.
"So who are we again?" she asked.
"We are the fabulous Midwich sisters!" Jessie explained. "Victoria and Madeline. You can be our cousin and Meowth's our baby."
"OUR baby?" James inquired. "If we're both women- and sisters- then he can't be OUR baby!"
"Fine, he's YOUR baby!"
"Just what are you insinuating, girlfriend?" James asked. "A lady of my high caliber would never have a baby out of wedlock!" Again Jessie's parasol violently made contact with his head.
"How is this going to feed us?" Anari asked again.
"We used these disguises to scam the owner of a nearby restaurant into believing we're fabulously wealthy," Jessie explained.
"He was so enamored by our charm and beauty he didn't notice that we "forgot" to pay," James added.
"Or dat we swiped everything dat wasn't nailed down," said Meowth. He'd been hiding under James' dress at the time.
"Um... why don't we just pay him?" Anari asked, not in the mood for anymore unneeded conflict. Jessie frowned at her.
"Two reasons: One, a being successful scam artist requires practice, just like any other skill, and this is a perfect opportunity to showcase our talents; and two-"
"...we don't have any money," James and Meowth finished for her.
"I have money," the child told them, pulling a wallet out of her pocket. "My uncle's credit card. He gave it to me before he left."
The trio of villains all collapsed in a heap.
. . .
"Are you sure that's not too big?" James asked, eying the giant panini sandwich Anari was holding.
"Nope, this is just right."
She carried the sandwich over to a nearby lake, where a single Psyduck was swimming around lazily. Jessie, James and Meowth sat down at one of the tables in front of the restaurant and began eating their own food. They were still in their disguises. Anari had wanted to abandon their "silly get-up" in favor of her own clothing, but her wet pants and shirt were still hanging in a tree along with everyone else's clothes. She'd abandoned the frilly hat, at least.
"I just t'ought of somethin'," Meowth said to his companions as they watched the child try to coax the Psyduck over to her. "She's da boss's kid now..."
Jessie and James both nodded and responded simultaneously, "Right..."
"And she's gonna be runnin' Team Rocket one day..."
"Right..." the couple agreed again.
"So what does that make her to us?"
"Uh... the mini-boss?" James offered. Jessie hit him with her parasol. "Ow!"
"Don't be ridiculous," she told him. "She's a kid!"
"Well, ya better go make up with her soon," Meowth said.
"Why should I?" Jessie asked stubbornly.
"Well, for one thing, she DID pay for that sandwich you're eating," James pointed out. Jessie crossed her arms childishly and looked away. Gratitude had never been one of her strong points.
"And because the boss'll be mad if she tells him how mean ya were to her!" Meowth added. "Besides, it'll be a long night if you guys keep fighting. I say you should go ova' there and yous two should squash it." James nodded in agreement. Jessie sighed.
"Fine."
When Jessie took a seat on the ground next to Anari, she saw that the little girl had eaten the meat and cheese out of her sandwich and was currently in the process of breaking the bread into pieces. She tossed the pieces into the lake one by one, trying to coax the Psyduck closer. It worked for a few minutes, but once she ran out of bread the Pokémon lost interest and decided to investigate the other side of the lake. Anari sighed wistfully.
"I wish I had my own Pokémon."
"Ask the boss. I'm sure he'll get one for you."
"Maybe..."
"Why were you so set on that Teddiursa?" Jessie asked.
"My brother gave me a toy Teddiursa when I was five," Anari said. "I slept with it every night. I lost it when... when I went to live with Uncle Giovanni."
"You mean you left it at the base where you used to live," Jessie said. "Where we met you for the first time." Anari nodded.
"When I saw that Teddiursa I just wanted it so much," Anari explained. "I didn't even care that the parent Ursuring was worried about its baby. You're right... I was being a brat. I'm sorry for being stupid."
Jessie stared at the lake, watching the light sparkle on the water's surface. She felt a wave of nostalgia as she remembered her much-younger self faced with a similar problem long, long ago.
"When I was a little girl," she said, as she threw a series of small pebbles into the lake. "I had this dolly. It didn't look like much and I was always knocking it around, but I really loved that thing. Then one night I lost it under the most... bizarre circumstances and for years I would have done anything to get it back."
"Bizarre circumstances?" Anari asked.
"It was stolen by a Jynx."
"That definitely sounds bizarre," the child agreed.
"It gets weirder," Jessie said. "For years I thought the Jynx was Santa Claus."
Anari burst out laughing, and Jessie laughed with her. A short distance away Meowth and James heard the sound of laughter and both let out a sigh of relief.
"Glad dat's over," Meowth said, finishing off his sandwich.
"I'll say," James agreed.
. . .
"I'm cold," Anari whimpered for the third time that evening as she cuddled Meowth against her for warmth. They were camping out for the night.
"You could always call Wendy to take you back to HQ instead of waiting for the boss to send someone to get you," Jessie pointed out. "Then you'd be home in your own bed instead of hogging my blanket."
"I'm never going ANYWHERE with her again!" Anari declared. "She's mean!"
"Meaner than Jessie?" James and Meowth asked at the same time. Jessie, who was laying between the two, whacked them both at the same time, mallet in one hand, paper fan in the other.
"Besides, I don't want to stay at home by myself," Anari added. "Without my uncle there it would be dark and creepy."
James personally thought Giovanni's presence would make a place seem more dark and creepy, but he kept his opinion to himself.
"Jessie, can I sleep with you?" he asked. Jessie had commandeered his blanket after offering hers to the child. Meowth had loaned his to James since he was sleeping with Anari, but the Meowth-sized blanket was woefully inadequate for a full-grown adult.
"No. I'm mean, remember?"
"Jessieeee..." he whined.
"Ya didn't t'ink she was too mean yesterday when you'se two disappeared into the woods for some "alone time"!" Meowth quipped.
Jessie's fan again made contact with the cat's head. "Shut up!"
"Please Jess?" James begged. "It's cold and dark and scary!"
Meowth snorted and Anari giggled.
"Are you serious?" Jessie asked, trying not to smile.
"And I think I have a concussion!" James whined dramatically, rubbing where Jessie's mallet had made contact with his skull. "I'll probably die out here alone in the cold, but nobody cares..."
"Get in here," Jessie said, opening her blanket for him. "We'll never get any sleep with you carrying on."
"Yay!" He dove under the covers and into the warm arms of his partner, not expecting the kiss that awaited him, unseen and unnoticed by the child and Pokémon laying only a yard or two away. Nor would they notice the two disappear into the forest together later that night, long after they'd fallen asleep.
. . .
Giovanni's rescue mission was a success. By the time an agent came and returned Anari to HQ the next morning Domino was already clamoring for a new assignment and Dr. Zeger was resting comfortably in the medical center recuperating from his broken leg alongside a few other injured agents.
"Another perfectly good lab ruined!" the man moaned, as he polished his monocle.
"At least everyone made it back," Anari offered optimistically. She'd wandered into the infirmary and asked how he was doing. Her uncle, who'd gone for two days without sleep, had immediately gone to bed.
"I despise Kanto," Zegar confessed to the little girl. "Nosy cops, nosy trainers and my work is constantly being lost or destroyed before I complete it. One of these days I'm going to be stationed in some remote region where I can conduct my research in peace!"
"Maybe you should build a laboratory that moves," Anari suggested.
"A laboratory that moves?"
"Yes, like on a boat or plane. Then when you get sick of being in one place you can move to another and take all your stuff with you!"
A light lit up in the old man's eyes, and he smiled. "A mobile laboratory... Maybe I'll just do that!"
. . .
A few days later, Anari was surprised to find a large package with her name on it sitting on her uncle's desk.
"It was delivered via Delibird a few minutes ago," Giovanni told her.
"What's in it?" Anari asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me that," he responded. "Open it."
She did so, and squealed with delight when she saw the first thing it contained. It was a toy Teddiursa, identical to the one she'd left behind months ago. The size and texture were the same, and when she examined it more closely she saw that the right ear had a line of stitching where it had been sewn back on, just like her own. Her eyes widened.
It can't be!
She held the plushie to her face. It was. It even smelled like her old bedroom. Her uncle dumped the box upside down on his desk and out spilled a number of small toys, books and even a little photo album that contained pictures of her with various Pokémon and several photos of her with her brother.
"What on earth?" Giovanni asked, picking up a cheap plastic necklace in one hand and a book in the other. "What IS all this?"
"My stuff," Anari said softly. "They went back... and got my stuff." Her eyes filled with tears as she picked up an envelope from the pile of childish treasures with Jessie, James and Meowth's faces drawn on it. Inside was a note that simply read simply:
From your friends.
Chapter Six - A Day in the Life
. . .
The next few months were not favorable to the Team Rocket organization. Several bases were discovered by the authorities and Professor Namba's underwater research facility had been completely destroyed in a disastrous attempt to capture a parent and child Lugia. The only thing Giovanni found more tiresome than Butch and Cassidy's groveling apologies over the incident was Namba's constant pestering for another base to be built. To rid himself of the annoying lot, he decided to permanently put Butch and Cassidy under Namba's command and let the three of them aggravate each other for a while. He had bigger problems.
The cops had really been cracking down and there was now a personnel shortage due to the large number of arrests. Tyson and his squad had been arrested only a few days ago. Fewer employees meant less revenue, and two days ago Giovanni had sanctioned pay cuts across the board which everyone was now grumbling about. Employees who were not actively contributing to the organization had been told they wouldn't be receiving any wages at all until they got their act together.
But the hardest and most personal blow of all had come yesterday when Giovanni had learned that his family mansion had been seized by the government. It was both his birthplace and childhood home, and he'd hoped to one day bring Anari there to live once he felt it was safe to come out of hiding. He'd been looking forward to the day when he could sleep in his own bed and he'd been planning to convert the rooms once belonging to his brother into a suite for Anari. He had no idea how to reclaim his property without bringing further suspicion to himself and revealing his location both to the authorities and possibly his enemies. The loss was upsetting him more than (he thought) a grown man had any right to be. He hadn't slept at all last night and had dark circles under his eyes to show for it. His troubles had continued to mount overnight, and this morning his usually immaculate desk was littered with reports that he had no time to read, requests he didn't have the funds to fulfill and complaints (mostly regarding the pay cuts) he was tired of listening to. He'd nearly torn the head off of a grunt who'd come to report that the computers were malfunctioning for the third time that month.
I need to fire the damned repairman.
The path to world domination was not as easy as he had assumed back in his youth. Dreams of limitless power still drove him with the same passion it had twenty years ago, but there were days he felt very, very old.
Anari had, for the most part, remained blissfully unaware of his troubles. Her days were spent hanging around her uncle's office, helping Mondo with deliveries or playing with the Pokémon agents left at HQ for safe-keeping. Three days a week her afternoons were spent being tutored by various employees Giovanni had chosen to instruct her in subjects he deemed it necessary for her to learn. His secretary was being paid extra to improve her reading and writing skills and several of the lab scientists tutored her in basic mathematics and the elementary sciences. He was in the process of selecting a competent agent to begin teaching the child how to decipher some of the easier codes Team Rocket used, and Giovanni himself was planning on teaching her the finer points of Pokémon battling once she actually had a Pokémon of her own to train. He had already successfully taught her three different ways to kick open a Pokéball in battle instead of using her hands. Despite both their initial fears, the two had developed a genuine bond. Practically everywhere he went the child accompanied him, so when he told her that she would not be joining him on the rescue mission he was leading today she was naturally upset.
"But I don't understand. Why can't I go WITH you, Uncle?" Anari asked.
"Where I'm going is dangerous," Giovanni told his niece. "You'll stay here at HQ where it's safe."
Less than an hour ago a phone call revealed that yet another one of Team Rocket's bases had been destroyed, and the explosion had attracted the attention of the police. Some of Team Rocket's best agents were now trapped in the secret tunnels under the building and needed rescuing before the police found them first. Giovanni intended to personally lead the operation, but it was no place to bring the seven year-old who was now tugging at his sleeve.
"I don't WANT to stay here!" the child whined. She'd been living at Team Rocket Headquarters for several months now and could finally navigate the many corridors without getting lost, but she wasn't keen on the idea of staying here by herself. She certainly didn't want to sleep alone in their dark quarters with her uncle gone. The last time she'd been forced to do so she's spent the first half the night with her head under the covers and the second half wandering aimlessly around HQ. Mondo had found her asleep in the supply room the next morning, curled up in a packing crate. Today going to Mondo was out of the question, as he was off-base assisting a pair of field agents. "Please don't leave me alone!" she pleaded.
"I exceed to your requests every day, often against my better judgement," Giovanni said firmly. "Now you will exeed to mine."
"I don't want to be alone," Anari said, looking at the ground. "Couldn't you bring Meowth back here first?" It was Meowth who had first accompanied her around HQ during her first week living there, and it was Meowth who'd slept in bed with her while Jessie and James were on vacation.
"Who?" Giovanni asked. Anari raised an eyebrow, wondering how her uncle could possibly forget the world's only talking cat.
"Meowth!" she said, curling up her hands and holding them near her face in an attempt to mimic his "Dat's right!" pose. "With Jessie and James!"
"Oh, those three. Fine, I'll have someone locate them. They can watch you until I get back."
Anari visibly relaxed, but part of her was still worried. "Uncle Giovanni?"
"Now what?"
"You... you will be back, right?"
"Of course I will."
"And you'll make sure they don't hurt Domino?"
Giovanni smiled. Domino was the one who'd called for assistance. Anari knew how fond he was of the young woman. Domino's (now deceased) mother had been a third or fourth cousin of his and he'd known her (also deceased) father since boyhood. Before Anari had come along Domino had been the closest thing he'd had to a daughter, although not even Domino herself was aware of their distant kinship.
"Don't worry, I'll get her out. I daresay she'd manage to escape on her own if it weren't for the fact that one of our top scientists has broken his leg." If it's not one thing it's another... he thought to himself, before adding, "We can't allow a man with that much knowledge of our organization fall into the hands of the police."
"Be careful, okay?" Anari pleaded. "I don't want you to die like..." Like my brother.
Giovanni placed a hand on top of her head. "Nobody's going to die today, Anari."
The little girl embraced him, and Giovanni was again hit by a twinge of sadness over the loss of his family home. He could still remember a much younger Domino running around the gardens picking flowers when she was Anari's age. His heart greatly desired that his niece should have similar experiences instead of spending her days in hiding as he now did. He could still hear Dominique's laughter in his head from the sunny day when his daughter had presented them with makeshift bouquets. How he had doted on her!
"Those tulips cost money, you know!" his mother had complained half-heartedly about the destruction of her flower garden, even as she accepted the childish bouquet from the little golden-haired beauty. Despite her general aversion to children (including her own at times, particularly when her sons were costing her money) Madam Boss had developed a fondness for the child, perhaps because she had also been fond of the girl's mother. To Dominique's utter devastation his young wife hadn't lived more than an hour after birthing their only daughter, and Giovanni vividly remembered the day he had accompanied the grief-stricken man home with his infant child swaddled in his arms. Father and daughter had grown very close, and she'd decided very early in her young life that she would one day follow in his footsteps. Now Dominique too was gone, and Giovanni was left to reflect on the sad reality that tragedy seemed to follow him and everyone he knew. He feared what Anari's future might hold.
At least she's safe... he consoled himself. For now, at least.
He had not been able to save his friends or relatives and he had failed to protect his family's estate as well; but even if he could not give his niece the life she deserved, he took some comfort in the knowledge that she had been successfully taken out of the hands of her parents' killer. He had done that, at least. Picking up the phone, he prepared to make arrangements for her continued safety, so he could go rescue another orphan close to his heart.
. . .
"What are you doing here?" a woman with short green hair demanded, as Anari stood in front of the Johto base where she'd been dropped off. The guard had let the child through the gate and told her to wait by the door for her escort.
"Waiting," Anari answered simply. One thing that fascinated the child was the fact that none of Team Rocket's bases looked alike. Some were in the mountains, some were underwater, some were even underground. A few were in cities, disguised as other things. She'd especially enjoyed visiting the one disguised as a video arcade. This one was as unique as the rest, but the people working here didn't appear to be very friendly.
"This is no place for children!" the woman scolded, grabbing Anari by the arm. "How on earth did you get IN here?"
"I'm waiting for Wendy! Let go, you're hurting my arm!"
"I'm Wendy," the woman said, releasing her. "And I don't have time to deal with nosey little brats today."
"The guard said I was supposed to meet you here!"
"You?" the woman asked. "Why would... I'm supposed to be meeting someone called Anari here."
"I AM ANARI!"
"Anari the agent," Wendy replied, in a superior tone. "Not Anari the infant!"
"I'm not an infant!" the girl shouted, resisting the childish urge to kick the woman in the shin.
"Look kid, if you don't get out of my hair right now I'm going to take you over my knee and-"
Wendy's cell phone rang, cutting her off. She answered it and Anari crossed her arms, furious with her uncle for sending this rude, arrogant person to escort her.
I don't want to go ANYWHERE with HER!
"Are you serious?" Wendy asked the person on the other end of the line in an aggravated tone, eyeing the child in front of her indignantly. Anari stared right back, looking no more thrilled about the arrangement. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" Wendy yelled, before hanging up on the person she was talking to and shoving the phone in her purse. "Let's go!" she ordered, and Anari followed her reluctantly.
Even after learning the identity of her new charge, Wendy continued to treat Anari with disdain. It was certainly not lost on Anari that she was being looked at as an annoyance. Wendy saw children in general as a bother, and Anari had a feeling the nasty look the woman was giving her was the same she might give a piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
I'd gladly stick some gum on her shoes! the little girl thought angrily.
Both were relieved when they arrived at the meeting site and could finally part company. Jessie and Meowth were already there waiting, along with a strange blue Pokémon Anari had never seen before. The trio greeted both the child and her escort, but only Anari greeted them back. She quickly joined the group, while Wendy got back her car and drove away muttering, "I still can't believe the boss re-hired those imbeciles..."
"I hate her!" Anari announced, after Wendy had left.
"She wasn't very friendly, was she?" Jessie responded.
"No, she's MEAN!" Anari declared.
"I think I know her from somewhere," Jessie responded. "I just can't remember where. Well, no matter."
"And who are you?" the child asked the blue Pokémon.
"Wooooooobbuffet!" it answered.
"This is Wobbufet," Jessie explained. "He's part of our team now. It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it?"
"Yeah," Anari agreed. "It has."
"You hungry?" asked Meowth. "James is cookin' breakfast."
Wobbuffet seemed pleased at the prospect, and cheerfully exclaimed "Wobbuffet!"
"I wasn't talkin' ta you!" the cat informed the blue Pokémon. "I was talkin' to da kid!"
"Back in your ball!" Jessie ordered, deciding it best to avoid a fight. She was hungry, and not in the mood for anything that would waste valuable time that could and should be used getting them back to where the food was. Whatever the food was. As far as she'd known they were completely out of edibles, but James had declared that (somehow) there would be a "delicious meal" waiting for them when they got back. She hoped it wasn't another attempt to make salad out of tree leaves again. "This way!" she directed Anari.
"Sure!"
. . .
Anari loved the woods. She's spent very little time among the trees; the root of her affection stemmed from the many fairy tales she'd read about poor woodcutters, lost princesses, enchanted animals and other fascinating beings who inhabited the forest. Reality was nothing like a fairy tale, she knew, but the towering trees and the sounds of wild Pokémon seemed to have a magic all their own.
"So what's cookin', Odd Lookin'?" Meowth asked, unable to resist the quip as they entered the campsite.
"Soup," James replied. "And I do not look odd!"
"Dat blue head 'a yours looked in a mirror lately?" Meowth asked. Jessie kicked him. "Hey!"
"Where did we get ingredients for soup?" Jessie inquired.
"I found some mushrooms and wild onions in the forest, along with some herbs. At least, I think they're herbs. They're green, anyway."
"You actually EAT that stuff?" Anari asked, sniffing the bubbling pot. "Why not go to a restaurant?"
"Because we're in the middle of the woods, for one thing," Jessie told her. "James can't fit a local eatery in his pocket."
"No," James said, "But I've got this!" He held up one-third of a baguette, his share of yesterday's (or perhaps the day before's) theft from a bakery.
"What are we supposed to do with a hunk of dry, stale bread?" Jessie asked.
"Make croutons!" James replied triumphantly, breaking the bread into small pieces. This was a slow task, as the bread was hard as a rock.
Anari eyed the watery concoction doubtfully. At home she would be ordering her meal down in the HQ cafateria, where the staff would be falling all over themselves to make sure Team Rocket's heir was made happy. Agents were expected to order from what was listed on the daily menu Cook wrote out each day but Anari, like her uncle, got whatever she wanted. If she ordered pancakes for dinner, she got it. If she wanted steak for breakfast, she got it. It wasn't lost upon her that she was getting rather spoiled, but not until now did it occur to her how privileged she truly was. As she watched James happily add the stale bread to his "soup", Anari wondered if all agents ate this badly when they were out in the field. She recalled how her stomach had growled when she'd accompanied Butch and Cassidy on their assignment in Johto because her furious uncle hadn't given them any money.
James dished out their dinner into three wooden bowls and handed the first one to Anari. Meowth grabbed his next and Jessie took the last.
"Hey, what about me?" he asked, when he realized there were no more bowls left. Jessie shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, at least give me a spoon!"
Jessie surrendered the spoon, and James grumbled as he began eating out of the pot.
"Soup's great, Jimmy!" Meowth told him.
Anari couldn't disagree more. To say that what she was eating was tasteless wouldn't be quite accurate, since it left an aftertaste of what might be described as old shoe leather. When she whispered this to Jessie, the woman pointed out that it was better than the stolen jerky they'd had for dinner the night before, which had been tougher than old shoe leather. Anari sighed.
"Do you guys eat this stuff everyday?" she asked.
"No," James replied. "Some days we don't find any food at all!"
Anari was horrified. Of all the hardships she'd had to endure in her short life, severe hunger was not one of them. Her uncle always kept her well fed, as had her brother before him. Antonio had denied her a meal or two on occasions when he chose to punish her, but Anari could never remember being desperate for food.
"Not use to roughing it, huh?" James asked. Anari shook her head. "I wasn't at first either. As a boy I had the most delicious food! Filet minion, caviar, ice cream sandwiches... one of the few things I missed when I ran away from home was the food!"
"I like ice cream sandwiches," Anari said. "I haven't had one in a long time." Not since Big Brother died.
"It's been a while for me, too..." he sighed. "Ah, the memories..."
"You guys should buy food in town and keep it for when you're stuck in the woods," Anari suggested.
"That... might be difficult," Jessie said.
"See, buying food requires money," James told her, as if she didn't already know.
"And we don't HAVE any," Meowth finished. "Not since da boss quit payin' us."
"You don't get paychecks?" Anari asked.
"Not anymore," Jessie sighed.
"We owe Team Rocket so much money we have to pay THEM," James said.
"I still owe 'em seven of my nine lives," Meowth said. "I owed 'em all nine, but I paid two off."
Anari raised an eyebrow, trying decide whether or not the Pokémon had told a joke. She didn't laugh, the whole situation was far too depressing. Last time she'd seen Jessie and James they'd just gotten back from an all-expense paid vacation provided by her uncle. What had happened to make them fall out of his favor?
"Well, no matter," James replied. "We need to come up with today's plan. We've got a Pikachu to catch!"
"Being a field agent must be exciting!" Anari said. "I went on a mission with Butch and Cassidy once and we had to jump out of a helicopter." She neglected to mention that she'd been terrified out of her mind at the time.
"A day in da life of Me-owth is no picnic!" Meowth told her.
"Or mine," James agreed.
"Or mine," Jessie finished, before adding, "Until we catch that Pikachu I doubt any of our lives will be worth living."
"You're having trouble catching a Pikachu?" Anari asked.
"It's a special Pikachu," Jessie told her,
"The thing's invincible," James added.
"How are you going to catch it if you can't see it?" Anari inquired, genuinely puzzled. Everyone stared at her for a moment, equally confused, until a light bulb went on over Jessie's head.
"Not invisible," she explained. "INVINCIBLE. It means it can't be defeated."
"A Pikachu?" Anari asked, disbelieving.
"You'll see," Meowth told her. Jessie got to her feet.
"Well, if everyone is done eating, let's go!"
"To the balloon!" James shouted dramatically, and away they went.
. . .
To Anari's surprise, the owner of the "special" Pikachu turned out to be an ordinary-looking ten year-old boy accompanied by an ordinary-looking girl carrying a Togepi. They gave a shout of "Team Rocket!" and a third traveling companion appeared from behind a thicket holding a bag filled with herbs he'd been gathering.
"You guys again?" Brock asked. "We just saw you this morning!"
"Before sunrise!" Misty complained. "You woke up Togepi!"
"They woke up all of us," Brock reminded her. He'd been none-to-pleased to have his dream interrupted- he'd been judging a beauty contest consisting entirely of Nurse Joys- and even less pleased to have to deal with Jessie, James and Meowth first thing in the morning.
"Why don't you just give up and go away?" Ash asked.
"Never!" Jessie vowed. "Not until we catch Pikachu!"
It was at this point that the children noticed Anari, who'd just climbed out of the basket of the balloon. She'd seen many Pikachu in her young lifetime, but she wanted a closer look at the Togepi trilling happily in Misty's arms.
"You kidnapped a little kid?" Ash asked. "I knew you were rotten but I never dreamed the three of you were THIS bad!"
"Of course they are!" Misty told him. "How many times have they harassed us?"
"For your information we didn't kidnap anybody!" Jessie replied indignantly.
"Dat's right!" Meowth said. "We're babysitting for da boss!"
"Don't worry, little girl," Ash smiled, holding his hand out to Anari. "I'll take you home." Anari backed away from him, hiding behind James.
"You see?" James asked.
"Only you three would think it's all right to bring a little kid along to go theiving!" Brock scolded, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, what kind of future do you want her to have?" Misty asked. "You're setting a terrible example!"
Anari stifled a laugh as she buried her face in James' uniform. They just had NO idea!
"What business is it of yours?!" Jessie yelled.
"Because you follow us around everywhere we go!" Misty yelled back.
"That's right!" Brock agreed. "You want this poor kid to grow up to be like YOU?"
"I still say they kidnapped her," Ash said. "Look how many times they've tried to kidnap Pikachu!"
"Not to mention all the other Pokémon they've tried to steal," Misty agreed. "Once a thief, always a thief!"
"WE DIDN'T KIDNAP HER!" Jessie and James yelled at the same time.
"Well, kidnappers or not, you aren't getting Pikachu!" Ash told them. "You might as well just give up!"
"We NEVER give up!" Jessie informed him. "Haven't you figured that out by now?"
"You guys are hopeless," Misty sighed. She reached for a Pokéball, but Ash beat her to the punch.
"GET them, Pikachu!" he ordered.
"Ash, wait!" Misty and Brock both cried out, but it was already too late. Pikachu sent out a powerful attack, shocking the trio of villains and the innocent child under their care.
Waves of pain cascaded through Anari's body and before she knew what was happening she was airborn, screaming in terror and clinging to the basket of the balloon she'd been thrown into. Jumping out of a helicopter with Butch and Cassidy had been NOTHING compared to this! Just as she was getting used to soaring upwards the basket began to descend and her terror doubled. Meowth had also been thrown into the basket, but this offered them no promise of safety and Anari knew it. At that moment she'd have given everything she owned in exchange for a parachute. Jessie and James landed in patch of wild flowers; Jessie on her backside, James face-first. The balloon containing Meowth and Anari wound up tangled in a tree.
"Did somebody... get... the license plate number?.." Meowth asked dizzily, nearly falling out of the basket. Anari caught him just in time, nearly tumbling out of the basket herself. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself, when she noticed a wonderous smell in the air.
"What are those flowers?" she asked, calling down to Jessie and James. Distracted by the enchanting scent, she had (almost) forgotten her fright.
"Phlox," Jessie responded, rubbing her sore bottom.
"No, it's called Dame's Rocket," James corrected her, spitting the tiny blossoms out. "It's part of the mustard family."
"I like them," Anari said, climbing out of the basket and onto a tree branch. She wondered if the flowers would stay fresh if she gathered some to take home to her uncle. "It smells great!" The sea of tiny purple flowers provided a pleasant distraction for a moment, until a wave of dizziness hit her when she realized just how high up she still was and fell. Meowth attempted to grab her and failed, but by sheer luck her ankle caught between two branches, leaving her swaying dizzily back and forth.
"Dame's Rocket is an invasive weed," James told the now upside-down child. "Often mistaken for a flower called phlox, it robs the soil of nutrients and dominates the surrounding flora."
"Sounds just like Jessie," Meowth quipped from above.
Jessie threw a pebble at the cat and missed, before helping Anari out of the tree. "Weeds are just unappreciated wildflowers, much like myself," she told them. "And YOU," she informed her partner, "are knowledgeable about the most useless information."
"You okay, kid?" Meowth asked Anari, when he'd climbed down from the tree. "Not hurt are ya?"
Anari shook her head. "You do this EVERY DAY?" she asked, pointing to the destroyed balloon.
"Pretty much," James nodded.
"How aren't you dead yet?"
"We're not sure, really," James said, scratching the back of his head.
"Da boss should be givin' us hazard pay," Meowth sighed, smoothing down a patch of ruffled fur. "Or frequent flyer miles."
"The only thing he's going to give us is an earful when he finds out we got his seven year-old niece blasted into the stratospere!" Jessie declared, bring her teammates back to reality.
"He'll fire us all!" James moaned.
"I heard when da boss fires somebody he uses REAL fire!" Meowth added, hugging James' leg.
"I'm all right!" Anari insisted. She suddenly felt something poke her leg.
"Teddi?"
She looked down. It was a Pokémon.
"It's a Teddiursa," Jessie and James said at the same time.
"Not ANOTHER one!" Meowth moaned. The trio's last experience with this particular Pokémon had not been a good one.
"It's so cute!" Anari exclaimed, picking it up. "I used to have a stuffed Teddiursa when I lived with my brother."
"Teddiursa!" the creature said cheerfully.
"It is cute," said James. "But the last Teddiursa we encountered turned out to be nothing but trouble. I have a bad feeling about this."
"I want to take it home," Anari announced.
"Are you CRAZY?" Jessie asked her. "Teddiursa evolve into-"
"URSERING!" James shouted, pointing to an especially large, angry-looking one approaching their direction. It roared at them.
"I t'ink it wants its baby back!" Meowth yelled.
"Let's get out of here!" Jessie told them before sprinting off as fast as her legs would carry her. Meowth followed, and James and Anari brought up the rear. The ursuring chased them through the forest, until the group went over a cliff and landed in a river.
"I... don't... under... stand," James panted, after they'd swam to the shore. "Why is the Ursering still chasing us?"
"Maybe because she's still holdin' DAT!" Meowth exclaimed, pointing to the now-wet Teddiursa Anari was cuddling.
"PUT IT DOWN!" Jessie and James exclaimed at the same time.
"But I want to keep it."
"YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE IT BACK!" they all shouted.
Anari reluctantly set the Pokémon down, and it looked up at her curiously. "Ursa?"
"Now let's get out of here!" Jessie yelled at the sound of the approaching Ursering, and they all ran away.
"I wanted to keep it," the seven year-old whined, when they'd reached a point of relative safety. "And all the rocket-flowers I wanted are gone, too!"
"People in Hell want ice water!" Jessie retorted.
"There's no such place!" Anari shot back.
"Just stop it!" Meowth yelled, in no mood to listen to a philosophical debate. He pointed an accusing paw at Anari. "You could 'a gotten us all killed!"
Anari's lip begain to quiver, crushed that even Meowth was against her. All she'd wanted was to capture a Pokémon. What was wrong with that? Hadn't her uncle told her that capturing Pokémon was what Team Rocket was all about? Jessie told her to quit being a spoiled brat, and Anari began to cry.
"Nice goin', Jess," Meowth muttered, as if he himself hadn't had a hand in upsetting the child.
"Don't make me give you something to cry about!" Jessie yelled at the girl. James quickly got between the two, wanting to diffuse the situation before Jessie whipped out her paper fan and the little girl found herself soaring into the stratosphere yet again.
"We're all tired and upset," he told them both. "Why don't we go get something to eat?"
"Food sounds good to Meowth," Meowth agreed, and the two female members of the group nodded, not looking at each other. They all trudged off in search of a restaurant.
. . .
"How is dressing like THIS gonna get us food?" Anari wanted to know, poking at the ground with her yellow parasol. "These clothes are too hot and I keep tripping over the dress."
"It is a bit long on you," James agreed as he laced her corset. He was wearing an identical dress and carrying a powder blue parasol. A pink parasol whacked him upside the head.
"Hold STILL, would you?" Jessie commanded. She was currently lacing up his corset, but he had a tendency to wiggle around.
"We look silly," Anari complained. "Especially HIM!"
"Hey! I take pride in my ability to disguise myself so well!" James protested. "Not every man has the perfect figure and the acting talent to pass himself off as a lady of quality!"
"Not YOU," Anari responded. "HIM!" She pointed to Meowth, who was wearing a baby jumper with cherries on the front and a frilly bonnet that hid the Pokémon's pointed ears. As a finishing touch, James had shoved a pacifier in the cat's mouth.
"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it!" Meowth retorted. "You'd be surprised how far da "cute widdle baby" act will get you."
Anari had no desire to dress as an infant, so she kept her mouth shut. The outfit she was wearing was bad enough.
"So who are we again?" she asked.
"We are the fabulous Midwich sisters!" Jessie explained. "Victoria and Madeline. You can be our cousin and Meowth's our baby."
"OUR baby?" James inquired. "If we're both women- and sisters- then he can't be OUR baby!"
"Fine, he's YOUR baby!"
"Just what are you insinuating, girlfriend?" James asked. "A lady of my high caliber would never have a baby out of wedlock!" Again Jessie's parasol violently made contact with his head.
"How is this going to feed us?" Anari asked again.
"We used these disguises to scam the owner of a nearby restaurant into believing we're fabulously wealthy," Jessie explained.
"He was so enamored by our charm and beauty he didn't notice that we "forgot" to pay," James added.
"Or dat we swiped everything dat wasn't nailed down," said Meowth. He'd been hiding under James' dress at the time.
"Um... why don't we just pay him?" Anari asked, not in the mood for anymore unneeded conflict. Jessie frowned at her.
"Two reasons: One, a being successful scam artist requires practice, just like any other skill, and this is a perfect opportunity to showcase our talents; and two-"
"...we don't have any money," James and Meowth finished for her.
"I have money," the child told them, pulling a wallet out of her pocket. "My uncle's credit card. He gave it to me before he left."
The trio of villains all collapsed in a heap.
. . .
"Are you sure that's not too big?" James asked, eying the giant panini sandwich Anari was holding.
"Nope, this is just right."
She carried the sandwich over to a nearby lake, where a single Psyduck was swimming around lazily. Jessie, James and Meowth sat down at one of the tables in front of the restaurant and began eating their own food. They were still in their disguises. Anari had wanted to abandon their "silly get-up" in favor of her own clothing, but her wet pants and shirt were still hanging in a tree along with everyone else's clothes. She'd abandoned the frilly hat, at least.
"I just t'ought of somethin'," Meowth said to his companions as they watched the child try to coax the Psyduck over to her. "She's da boss's kid now..."
Jessie and James both nodded and responded simultaneously, "Right..."
"And she's gonna be runnin' Team Rocket one day..."
"Right..." the couple agreed again.
"So what does that make her to us?"
"Uh... the mini-boss?" James offered. Jessie hit him with her parasol. "Ow!"
"Don't be ridiculous," she told him. "She's a kid!"
"Well, ya better go make up with her soon," Meowth said.
"Why should I?" Jessie asked stubbornly.
"Well, for one thing, she DID pay for that sandwich you're eating," James pointed out. Jessie crossed her arms childishly and looked away. Gratitude had never been one of her strong points.
"And because the boss'll be mad if she tells him how mean ya were to her!" Meowth added. "Besides, it'll be a long night if you guys keep fighting. I say you should go ova' there and yous two should squash it." James nodded in agreement. Jessie sighed.
"Fine."
When Jessie took a seat on the ground next to Anari, she saw that the little girl had eaten the meat and cheese out of her sandwich and was currently in the process of breaking the bread into pieces. She tossed the pieces into the lake one by one, trying to coax the Psyduck closer. It worked for a few minutes, but once she ran out of bread the Pokémon lost interest and decided to investigate the other side of the lake. Anari sighed wistfully.
"I wish I had my own Pokémon."
"Ask the boss. I'm sure he'll get one for you."
"Maybe..."
"Why were you so set on that Teddiursa?" Jessie asked.
"My brother gave me a toy Teddiursa when I was five," Anari said. "I slept with it every night. I lost it when... when I went to live with Uncle Giovanni."
"You mean you left it at the base where you used to live," Jessie said. "Where we met you for the first time." Anari nodded.
"When I saw that Teddiursa I just wanted it so much," Anari explained. "I didn't even care that the parent Ursuring was worried about its baby. You're right... I was being a brat. I'm sorry for being stupid."
Jessie stared at the lake, watching the light sparkle on the water's surface. She felt a wave of nostalgia as she remembered her much-younger self faced with a similar problem long, long ago.
"When I was a little girl," she said, as she threw a series of small pebbles into the lake. "I had this dolly. It didn't look like much and I was always knocking it around, but I really loved that thing. Then one night I lost it under the most... bizarre circumstances and for years I would have done anything to get it back."
"Bizarre circumstances?" Anari asked.
"It was stolen by a Jynx."
"That definitely sounds bizarre," the child agreed.
"It gets weirder," Jessie said. "For years I thought the Jynx was Santa Claus."
Anari burst out laughing, and Jessie laughed with her. A short distance away Meowth and James heard the sound of laughter and both let out a sigh of relief.
"Glad dat's over," Meowth said, finishing off his sandwich.
"I'll say," James agreed.
. . .
"I'm cold," Anari whimpered for the third time that evening as she cuddled Meowth against her for warmth. They were camping out for the night.
"You could always call Wendy to take you back to HQ instead of waiting for the boss to send someone to get you," Jessie pointed out. "Then you'd be home in your own bed instead of hogging my blanket."
"I'm never going ANYWHERE with her again!" Anari declared. "She's mean!"
"Meaner than Jessie?" James and Meowth asked at the same time. Jessie, who was laying between the two, whacked them both at the same time, mallet in one hand, paper fan in the other.
"Besides, I don't want to stay at home by myself," Anari added. "Without my uncle there it would be dark and creepy."
James personally thought Giovanni's presence would make a place seem more dark and creepy, but he kept his opinion to himself.
"Jessie, can I sleep with you?" he asked. Jessie had commandeered his blanket after offering hers to the child. Meowth had loaned his to James since he was sleeping with Anari, but the Meowth-sized blanket was woefully inadequate for a full-grown adult.
"No. I'm mean, remember?"
"Jessieeee..." he whined.
"Ya didn't t'ink she was too mean yesterday when you'se two disappeared into the woods for some "alone time"!" Meowth quipped.
Jessie's fan again made contact with the cat's head. "Shut up!"
"Please Jess?" James begged. "It's cold and dark and scary!"
Meowth snorted and Anari giggled.
"Are you serious?" Jessie asked, trying not to smile.
"And I think I have a concussion!" James whined dramatically, rubbing where Jessie's mallet had made contact with his skull. "I'll probably die out here alone in the cold, but nobody cares..."
"Get in here," Jessie said, opening her blanket for him. "We'll never get any sleep with you carrying on."
"Yay!" He dove under the covers and into the warm arms of his partner, not expecting the kiss that awaited him, unseen and unnoticed by the child and Pokémon laying only a yard or two away. Nor would they notice the two disappear into the forest together later that night, long after they'd fallen asleep.
. . .
Giovanni's rescue mission was a success. By the time an agent came and returned Anari to HQ the next morning Domino was already clamoring for a new assignment and Dr. Zeger was resting comfortably in the medical center recuperating from his broken leg alongside a few other injured agents.
"Another perfectly good lab ruined!" the man moaned, as he polished his monocle.
"At least everyone made it back," Anari offered optimistically. She'd wandered into the infirmary and asked how he was doing. Her uncle, who'd gone for two days without sleep, had immediately gone to bed.
"I despise Kanto," Zegar confessed to the little girl. "Nosy cops, nosy trainers and my work is constantly being lost or destroyed before I complete it. One of these days I'm going to be stationed in some remote region where I can conduct my research in peace!"
"Maybe you should build a laboratory that moves," Anari suggested.
"A laboratory that moves?"
"Yes, like on a boat or plane. Then when you get sick of being in one place you can move to another and take all your stuff with you!"
A light lit up in the old man's eyes, and he smiled. "A mobile laboratory... Maybe I'll just do that!"
. . .
A few days later, Anari was surprised to find a large package with her name on it sitting on her uncle's desk.
"It was delivered via Delibird a few minutes ago," Giovanni told her.
"What's in it?" Anari asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me that," he responded. "Open it."
She did so, and squealed with delight when she saw the first thing it contained. It was a toy Teddiursa, identical to the one she'd left behind months ago. The size and texture were the same, and when she examined it more closely she saw that the right ear had a line of stitching where it had been sewn back on, just like her own. Her eyes widened.
It can't be!
She held the plushie to her face. It was. It even smelled like her old bedroom. Her uncle dumped the box upside down on his desk and out spilled a number of small toys, books and even a little photo album that contained pictures of her with various Pokémon and several photos of her with her brother.
"What on earth?" Giovanni asked, picking up a cheap plastic necklace in one hand and a book in the other. "What IS all this?"
"My stuff," Anari said softly. "They went back... and got my stuff." Her eyes filled with tears as she picked up an envelope from the pile of childish treasures with Jessie, James and Meowth's faces drawn on it. Inside was a note that simply read simply:
From your friends.