“I just deliver,” James told him, not meeting eye contact for he didn’t want to be recognized. “I don’t ask.”

“Ha!” came that annoying laugh in that awful voice. “I’ll bet you didn’t! You may just be the delivery boy, but any human being would be curious. I mean, I’m getting paid twice my year’s salary just to load this up and keep quiet.” Yes, James thought. Any human being would naturally be curious, and he was curious—but he didn’t care. There was a fine line that divided caring and curiosity, and he was far on the other side. It seemed that he had lost his humanity all those years ago, when his heart had been ripped out.

“Anyway,” the man continued. “How could I have passed up such a big job?” he pointed to the red R on his suit, “it’s not like I care about my current employment anyway. You know, James, there’s no use pretending ya don’t know me.”

James turned in his seat and glared at Butch. “What is it that you want exactly, Botch?” The teal haired rocket member’s eye twitched at James’s personal nickname for him but he stayed on his current track of mind.

“How did you get out?” he asked, in all sincerity.

“Simple,” James said, turning around to watch for the signal once more. “I wasn’t important enough to miss.”

Butch shrugged. “But you’re not back, of course. The job from your mystery employer?”

James nodded. “If I could have avoided it, I would have never come back here,” he told him. By here, he meant the Team Rocket base he was parked in. “But like you said, nobody could pass up a job that pays this well.” There was a long silence that James broke. “And I wanted to hit Team Rocket, and hit them badly. With the bounty on this cargo, whatever it is, it must be important to my ex-boss.”

Butch gave a sort of grin. “I see. They took something important from you, so you’ll do the same, eh?”

No answer.

He tried again. “Look, James, I’ll tell you the truth. I liked Jessie—don’t look at me like that, I didn’t like her that way—she had spunk. It was Cassidy that hated her. I don’t know what anyone told you, but she disappeared almost immediately after you two were separated.”

James’s fists clenched around the steering wheel. “She was assigned to a level five division. Their location is classified.”

Butch shook his head. “No, she wasn’t, James. Trust me.”

“Why should I?”

Butch nearly swallowed his tongue to keep from yelling at the blue haired man. “Because Cassidy was ‘assigned’ to that same thing. About a month after you left. I got some ‘Dear John’ letter—and I bet you did too—but I did some checking—”

“What are you getting at?” James hissed. His hand was in his pocket, clutching the letter Jessie had sent to him five years ago.

“Let me finish!” Butch snapped back. “Anyway, Mondo may hate my guts, but you have no idea how cooperative he was when I said I thought Jessie was in trouble.”

“I don’t care how much ‘spunk’ you think Jessie had; I don’t see why you were checking up on her.”

“The cases when both our teams were split up were too similar for my taste. I had to look into it and see for myself, and Mondo wouldn’t care about checking up on Cassidy, so I used Jessie instead. Do you want to hear what I found out or do you have something else to say, Jimmy?”

James bit his lip. He wanted to yell at that…that Botch for calling him Jimmy. It only reminded him of Meowth, who had called him that. Meowth—another friend he hadn’t seen in years.

“That kid, Mondo, he’s such a blasted innocent that he can get his hands on just about any kind of information—it’s amazing really. Now of course he couldn’t tell me anything about the level five teams, but he was able to get me a mailing list. It turns out, there were a lot of teams that were separated. One would get some big promotion, and his or her partner would be sent a letter like this one.” Butch handed James a crumpled piece of paper.

His eyes nearly left their sockets when he read the words.

‘Dear Butch,
I’m doing well where I am, and I think it’s time to let go of the past. I believe that I’ve changed, and for some personal reasons, I’m forced to tell you that we can no longer be friends. You gave me some good memories, but I have to move on now. Please understand.
--Cassidy’

It was the same.

The exact same letter he had gotten from Jessie, except the names were different. “Please understand”, those words had been haunting him all this time, and what had it been. A trick? Yes, a trick.

Butch must have seen the look on his face, “So you did get a letter, eh?” James nodded.

“What did they do to the girls? Jessie…and Cassidy, what happened to them?”

Butch stared at the ground. “I don’t know. Nobody seems to know. I’ve asked everybody I could without arousing suspicion. And I found out some other things. Jessie and Cassidy have some pretty deep roots in Team Rocket—deeper than you probably realize. They could have been eliminated for knowing too much. I cared about her—no not Jessie, Cassidy, you nimrod—and I want to know what the Boss did to her. I want revenge. But I also want to stay alive. I can’t find out anything useful without risking my neck, and it’s been five years. I’ve had to force myself to drop it.”

There came the signal—a red, blinking light from the bushes. All clear. James revved up the engine. “There’s no way I could find out what happened to them either. I’ve lost most of my connections.” He signaled to the cargo. “But I’ll make Team Rocket suffer. I can’t find out what happened to her, but she’ll be avenged.”

Butch nodded. “The natives are restless. You didn’t hear it from me, but there might be a mutiny in the Team. The Boss’s head is mine, but I can’t fight until there’s an army to back me.”

James once again wondered what was in the cargo. It was obviously important, and hopefully the ‘boss’ would miss the thing. He was going to make that man pay for taking away Jessie. “Why are you being so civilized all of a sudden?”

Butch shrugged. “I’ve lost my edge. I’ve lost my girl.”

James pushed on the gas, but called out the window, “You let me know if there’s any news at all!”

There was an acknowledging nod, and Butch vanished from sight. James was alone with his thoughts.

It was going to be a long drive to Viridian, seeing as he was well into the Jhoto region at the moment. A lot of time to think.

She hadn’t left him. Jessie hadn’t left him. The boss had done something, sent out that letter so James would get the wrong idea, but Jessie hadn’t left him. It was a wonderful feeling. Even after he had read her letter, despite everything that he thought she had said, she was still his best friend. It was great to know that his feelings of comradeship were not one-sided after all. But what had happened to her?

Was Jessie still out there? Was she alive? He thought about the possibility of her also being sent a letter, supposedly from him. What if Jessie was out there thinking he hated her? How horrible…

What if-- *Whack! * the truck jolted as it hit a pothole on the bumpy, deserted road. Something in the cargo fell and James heard the crash.

“Darn it!” would he still be paid if something were broken? He opened the door and stepped out of the truck. He walked stiffly around back, and opened the door to the storage area.

There wasn’t a big mess. A container of some kind of liquid had toppled over and the floor was wet with the contents. The only other thing out of place was that part of a metal container had fallen away; James noticed that the case had contained some large, glass apparatus, and he was thankful that it hadn’t fallen. But he would still have to tie the thing down, for the road was pretty bumpy.

The glass on the case was fogged and he couldn’t see inside. It was a bit taller than he was, and the largest thing in the hold. Wires and tubes were sticking out from it and a buzzing sound emanated from the left side. Luckily it was bolted to the rest of the metal, so hopefully it wouldn’t fall.

Right now, James had the immediate problem of the wet floor. There was an old, dirty mop in the corner and James went for it. Midway, he slipped in the weird stuff on the ground, and his arms instinctively flailed out to help him keep his balance. James’s hand landed on the glass container and he was able to prevent himself from slipping.

Catching his breath, he stood up straight again, glancing at the glass to make sure he hadn’t damaged it. He found himself taking a second look. His hand had wiped away some of the fog-condensation from the glass, leaving hand-shaped window where he could see through. He saw what he was sure were lips.

James blinked a few times, and then swiped away some more dew from the glass so he could see what was inside. A person. Somebody was inside the glass, like some freakish coffin. But the person wasn’t dead. Listening closely to the buzzing sound he had heard before, he found there was a pattern. Buzz buzz…buzz buzz…buzz buzz…. Always steady. A heartbeat. That warm, familiar, heartbeat that aligned with his own.

James put his hand on the glass. “What did they do to you, Jess?”

She was floating in some sort of strange liquid that gave her a green tint—she was, however, obviously breathing, but how? Perhaps all the machines had something to do with it. Wires, gears, and oddly shaped metal with questionable purposes lined the walls of the tank, inside and out. And they covered Jessie’s body.

There was a long strip of metal on the left side of her forehead with lights and strange buttons on it, as well as wires and tubes—perhaps that was how she got air. From what James could see, there was a similar strip going from the back of her right ear to her cheek. Similarly, there was another strip going almost around her neck, like a collar with the front cut off. There was probably more electronics on her, but seeing that would require James to wipe away more condensation from the glass. So far her shoulders and above were visible—and James knew if she were awake in the glass, she’d prefer it to stay that way, for from what he could see, she wore nothing.

“Oh crap, what do I do now?” James panicked. She was alive—she was HERE, but she was in a tank. With wires, and buttons, and…gaah, he was going crazy! What was going on? And…and why was she supposed to be stolen from—kidnapped from the team rocket labs? And his employer… he wasn’t sure what his name was, or who he was with, but he was sure giving James a lot of money to deliver Jessie.

To deliver Jessie.

How could he do that!? Now that he’d found her, how could he loose her again? Since she had gone, he was without a best friend. When Meowth vanished, he had no friends at all, and was so angry at the world he hadn’t bothered to make new ones. And she was here. Jessie was back. Didn’t that mean it would all turn out all right? Would they finally have success in something—she had always said so, after all.

James began to search the metal casing for some kind of hatch that would open the glass and let her out. He found one, a small handle on the right side of the glass. It was locked, of course, but lock picking had always been his specialty. He grabbed a bent wire (he always had a few on him, just incase) and set to work. In no time at all the handle was unlocked, but as he was about to open it he had a thought.

He had no idea what that machine she was hooked up to was, or what it did. What if he unplugged her, and ended up killing her by taking out her life support? Or what if they had done something to her, so she couldn’t breathe outside the tank? James took his hand off the handle. He had to think, which was troublesome. He made plans every so often, of course, but he had usually followed around Jessie and Meowth. There had been Team Rocket to boss him around, and after that, his numerous employers who almost always had a plan for him to use.

He was getting nervous and agitated—what was he supposed to do now? He couldn’t think of a plan. There was no way he’d let anybody get their hands on Jessie, that was for sure, but how was he supposed to hide her? There was so much money on her pretty head…they’d be hunted down by every bounty hunter from Kanto to the Whirlpool Islands! Not good not good not good. It hadn’t been very bad when Officer Jenny’s had had arrest warrants for him—they still had warrants for him—because Officer Jenny’s never took the initiative. They only went after criminals if they actually did something in the immediate area of a police station—never bothered to try and shut down team rocket, they only arrested a handful of members when they robbed pokemon centers and convenience stores. But bounty hunters were different, they would track you down, and they were, more often than not, merciless.

Their only hope was that although every hunter knew about team rockets secret experiment, they most likely didn’t know that the experiment was a woman.

Still…there were a good number of criminals who knew he was shipping tonight, and he couldn’t risk staying parked for long. Regretfully, he put the metal sheet back on the box so that it looked unopened, but shut Jessie inside. He’d go to the checkpoint where he’d be safe. It wasn’t the delivery destination, so they wouldn’t take Jessie yet, plus if he went there it would be less suspicious than if he didn’t show up at all.

It was simple. James’s instructions were to take his cargo to Viridian City, but on the way he had to check in at a checkpoint in Newbark Town. There his cargo would be checked to make sure it was all there and secure. He could rest there, without the danger of bounty hunters attacking while he slept. It would be safer for both him and Jessie if they went there. In Newbark he’d be able to find help—somehow—and instead of Viridian, get those things removed from Jessie so they could live happily ever after.

Those thoughts seemed to calm him, and he went back to the driver’s seat and nearly went twenty over the speed limit in his haste to get to a safe haven.

“One of the canister’s broken,” said one of the workers at the checkpoint—a high-class restaurant that housed criminals in its upstairs property. It was considerably dark outside, for it was early in the morning, but this was when the cargo had to be checked, for in a few hours the food delivery trucks would come to bring ingredients for Le Cerebii’s expensive menu.

“I hit a pothole,” James explained truthfully, then lied through his teeth. “I didn’t notice anything had fallen, though.”

The worker grunted and began to examine the metal box. James stiffened, remembering the tampered lock on the glass case. If the box were opened it would surely be noticed… thankfully, the man stepped back, took one last glance at the cargo hold, and hopped down from the truck without touching the box. “That case’ll be deducted from your pay, kid,” he grumbled.

James clenched his fists—twenty-seven years old and he was still getting ‘kid’ at every job. He also got ‘baby face’ a whole lot, because he actually bothered to shave. “Whatever. I expect that box is getting me the big bucks anyway,” he said casually, trying to sound like it didn’t matter.

The man eyed him. “You didn’t open it, did you? They’ll check for prints in Viridean ya know.”

James waved a hand nonchalantly, “Relax, I didn’t touch the thing. Orders were to leave it alone, right? And I want my money, so I just go along with it.”

“Right,” the man agreed, and walked off. James cast another glance at the truck before going.

“Ya wanna join me at that bar downtown?” he asked the worker.

The man rolled his eyes. “Forget it, bud. I’m getting some decent wine from the restaurants storage.”

“Suit yourself,” James shrugged, and walked off. He knew the man would not agree to go with him, and that was good. He just wanted the man to think he’d be out drinking, so nobody would be suspicious if he left Le Cerebii. If they actually wanted to find him, they would have trouble for there were a good many bars downtown anyway.

James walked for a while, thoughts straying from this to that to this again—from Jessie to a plan for getting her out of danger to Jessie again. He needed help, but who could he possibly ask? Butch? No, he couldn’t ask him. If he did, he’d have no ties back at the rocket base so if Giovanni found him there’d be no warning in advance. But who else was there…what had that Botch said? > “Mondo may hate my guts, but you have no idea how cooperative he was when I said I thought Jessie was in trouble.”

Yes! Mondo! He could call Mondo, how could he not have thought of that? James rushed to the pokemon center to use the vid-phone. He couldn’t make a call from anywhere near Le Cerebii without getting a taped line, but pokemon centers were always clean of wires.

James was not able to get over the fact that Mondo was no longer a little boy, but seventeen years old. He was still Mondo, however. He was still innocent, eager to please, gullible, in fact the only thing different was that he had gotten taller—but only buy a few inches.

He had greeted James with his usual excited stutter, “J-J-JAMES!? Is that you, Sir? I haven’t talked to you in soooo long, are you well?” actually the kid was so excited it sounded more like this: “JJJAMESisthatyousirIhaven’ttalkedtoyouinsoooolongareyouwell?” but James found he was still, after all these years, able to understand Mondo.

“I’m all right, for the most part. Actually I’m a lot better than I’ve been in a long time,” he answered with a smile. It was true. Although he knew he was in trouble, he was still so happy to know that Jessie was back, safe, and that everything would be okay. Mondo always made things better.

“That is good to hear, sir. Did my superior receive a new employment?” Modo inquired, smiling as always.

“No, but I found Jessie,” James told him, and smiled at the happy explosion from the other end of the line.

“YOUDID?THATISSUCHGOODNEWSISSHEALRIGHTWHATHADHAPPENEDTOHERBUTCHSAIDSOMETHING WASWRONGMAYISPEAKTOHER?”

James put his hands up defensively. “Hold on, hold on. She’s why I need your help, and remember this can NOT get back to Giovanni.” Mondo had been promoted to a high-rank secretary. He took care of all the paperwork that went into top-secret missions, employee statistics, booked Giovanni’s schedule etc. Lines of such importance in Team Rocket were never tapped, for fear of the recordings getting into the wrong hands, so it was safe to tell Mondo everything about the strange tank and those machines on Jessie’s body.

The boy looked thoughtful after hearing the story. “You’ll want my sister, then,” he finally said.

James’s eye’s bulged. “You have a sister? I didn’t know that!”

Mondo nodded. “She’s a member of Team Rocket, but you don’t have to worry about anything getting out. She is very attached to the doctor- patient confidentiality rule, and she’s no supporter of Team Rocket either.”

“Sounds like an excellent member,” James muttered sarcastically.

“Well she was such an important member, that when she tried to quit, she was almost terminated. However, since she has this whole work ethic, she’s the only doctor Giovanni actually trusts so he keeps her alive just in case he ever needs a doctor. She’s a wonderful doctor too, and I’m sure she can help you.”

James thought of all those wires. If Jessie had seen her face covered in that metal, she’d have probably exploded in a literal sense. “But how can she handle machines?”

“Quite well. Technology has far surpassed the scalpel—most medical procedures involve computers and so she is trained to work with them.”

James breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Mondo, I knew you’d come through.” He was feeling quite pleased with himself as he left the pokemon center, address of a Doctor Miranda Kokuan in his hand. But then he bumped into the last person he wanted to see.

“OW!” and yes, I did say bumped.

He was on the ground, and there were voices above him. “Oh, gee,” that was his first clue. Nobody said ‘gee’ anymore. “I’m really sorry mister, I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you okay?” the second clue was an all too familiar “Pika” from near the first voice.

“The Twerps!” James said on impulse, jumping up. But ‘Twerps’ wasn’t an appropriate term. Ash Katchum was there, with pikachu, but nobody else. That made it Twerp, singular, and one annoying pokemon. There was no tall boy with spiky hair hitting on Nurse Joy, there was no overweight kid with a sketchbook, and strangest of all, there was no orange-haired girl with a temper like a mini Jessie.

Just Ash.

And then, Just Ash exploded.

“WHERE HAVE YOU TAKEN MISTY!?” he screamed at James, nearly going off balance. Nurse Joy looked over with a surprised expression, and watched them from her desk.

“Eh? Who—oooh that girl twerp?” James asked. He’d never really taken the time to the twerps names, but since Ash announced who he was at every opportunity (I’m Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!) James at least knew that kid’s name. “I have no idea where she is.”

Ash was now at least up to James’s shoulder, and he still wore that stupid hat. His clothes were exactly the same, but in a bigger size, and Pikachu looked no different than the last time James had seen it when he blasted off for the last time. There was something strangely comforting in seeing this old enemy of his—it reminded him that some things never change.

“Don’t even try it, I know it was Team Rocket who kidnapped her—I saw the police records!” a pile of papers was waved in James’s face.

He sighed in an agitated way. “Look, twerp, I haven’t seen your girlfriend in around five years and I have my own problems to deal with,” he glared at the boy, “and in case you haven’t noticed, Team Rocket goes way, way, WAY beyond Meowth, Jessie and me. None of us are even on the Team anymore!”

Ash lowered his arm full of papers. “Is that why you just stopped coming all of a sudden?”

James sighed. He knew this kid wasn’t going to let him go without answers, so he figured, why not tell him everything? If he really was the same twerp, he’d help James out, and even though he didn’t like the kid, that Ash had a freakish way of always coming out on top and he could use that kind of luck on his side.

Casting a look at Nurse Joy, who was still watching them, James grabbed the kid’s arm and usered him through the sliding doors. “Come on, Twerp, I’ve got a story to tell you.”

After a great ordeal in sneaking Ash into the cargo hold, they were on road to Mondo’s sister’s place. James had been right, Ash was eager to help. He’d figured that maybe the disappearances were connected somehow.

Apparently, they had been staying at a pokemon center in Beige City, and when Ash had woken up, Misty and Togepi were gone. Her backpack had been left, but the pokemon were taken from it. Lucky for Ash, his pokemon had been healing after a gym battle and had been locket up under Joy’s supervision.

They made the turn into the Ilex forest instead of the Viridian , and drove until there was no room for the truck between the trees, then proceeded on foot (pikachu had been left to guard the truck) to the cabin that belonged to Mondo’s sister Miranda.

Reaching the log cabin, Ash knocked on the door.

No answer.

James knocked.

No answer.

They both began to pound on the door until a distinct “SHUT UP ALDREADY!!” could be heard from inside. A girl like a feminine Mondo, dripping wet and wrapped in a towel, flung open the door and glared at them. “Oh, this better be good.”

Funny, James had expected someone related to Mondo to be more…pleasant. “Er, Dr. Miranda Kokuan?”

“Not me,” said the girl. “You’re probably looking for me though.”

“Well then who are you?” Asked Ash. “Are you…uh…James’s friend’s sister?”

She brightened a bit. “Mondo? You’re friends with him?” she gave James a second look. “Oh yeah, I should have known. That girl he has a crush on—Jessie—I should have figured you came in the picture somewhere. Jessie and James, the super failures, always come in a set, right?” She smiled at him, and James had a sense that she wasn’t insulting him on purpose—it just turned out that way.

Ash, who was tired of being ignored, stepped in front of James. “Hi, I’m Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town.”

She looked at him thoughtfully. “Pallet? Ah, so you’re from Masara. So am I,” she seemed satisfied with them somehow. “I’m Doctor Morada Kokuan.”

Morada? James had thought Mondo had said Morada but he’d just thought he’d meant Miranda.

“Is Morada even a name?” Ash rudely voiced what James was thinking.

She glared at him. “It is now, kid.” She then turned to James. “So…as interesting as this is, why are you here?”

James shook his head. “Why don’t you get something on besides a towel and we’ll show you.”

“Woah…” Morada appeared to be at a loss for words. Ash too, and James realized that he’s only told the kid that Jessie had gone missing, but he hadn’t mentioned the machines. Ash had an almost horrorstruck expression, while Morada seemed to find it fascinating as they both stared at the machines, the tank, and Jessie.

“Is there a way to disconnect her from that thing?” James asked impatiently. Morada snapped out of her daze and took something that looked suspiciously like a Star Trek tricorder from the pocket of her lab coat, then a pokeball from the same pocket.

“Well lessee…” she said. “Zubat, go! Use supersonic, low band,” she ordered the pokemon as it appeared in a white flash. The blue bat flapped its wings and sound waves, too high to hear, came from its mouth and the reflecting waves came back to Morada’s tricorder thingy.

“I was about to open it, but then I thought it might hurt her so I needed a second opinion,” James explained.

Morada slapped her scanner shut. “Fascinating…” she said, more to herself than to him. Then she turned around to face James, and motioned to Jessie. “There’s not much of a chance of her being hurt in this case,” she said in a far to serious tone. “She’s not your girl.”

“What do you mean?” James managed.

She put her hand on the glass and faced the dormant occupant. “It’s an amazing replica, really, but this isn’t Jessica,” she said, and faced him again. “This is an android.”

NEXT *~*~* BACK