I'd like to thank Haru-chan, who's wisdom has been a constant source of information. And now for an inside joke: Eve fell in the pond today... Okay, I'm probably annoying you now ^^, on with the story -- "Hey! Put that down!" Ash yelled at the man, referring to the gun pointed at him. "You could hurt somebody with it." His opponent gave a short, false laugh and pulled the trigger. A bullet flew inches away from Ash's ear before he even knew how to react. "Now shut up and step away from the prototype!" the man yelled. Shocked and dumbfounded, the boy stood frozen in his spot. Strange it seemed, since he'd been shot at before, why should he be so astonished? Maybe it seemed just too serious this time. Or this man really wanted something so much he'd spill blood to get it... Ash shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had to get back to reality or this guy would shoot him for sure, and it wasn't as if he could tell Galatea to take care of the guy-she'd kill him for sure. "Tell me who you are first!" Ash stalled, "And who do you work for?" The gun didn't move from its target. "Collin." "Collin what?" "That's all you're getting. And as for my employer-I work for Team Vicious," he stated loudly with forced, delusional pride and sounding a bit crazed, "the criminal organization that will run the world after the defeat of Team Rocket!" Ash hadn't been paying much attention, however. He was watching the android girl, who was getting that glazed look that meant she was computing something. Finally and suddenly, she lifted her head and, and then her arm-the one with the gun. "No!" Ash hissed so that Collin guy wouldn't hear. "You can't kill anyone." "It is self defense," she stated calmly. "Does it matter? If you would prefer I could knock him unconscious, but he would continue to peruse us-furthermore, I don't believe I could reach him before he takes a shot at you, who I should point out are not bulletproof." If she'd been human, that moment could have been described as vengeful...hating...a horrible impulse for violence that he'd seen in so many real people. But a machine...couldn't be. Just a machine-she wasn't dangerous unless someone told her to be, right? It wasn't as of Galatea could make her own decisions, but then again, Morada had said the thing was gaining a mind of her own, but... Ash glared at her, but didn't know what to say. How could he compete with that type of logic? How could he explain to a computer that human compassion meant not to kill? But it was self defense after all... "No," he said firmly. "You're a tactical whatchamacallit, aren't you? If we let him take us as hostages I'm sure that further down the line we can escape without hurting anyone." "I should point out that it is that type of thinking that gets most hostages killed." "If he really thought I was so expendable he wouldn't have missed me that first time. Now don't shoot him." There was a long pause, and she lowered her arm. "I may have to kill him later on." "Now!" Collin yelled, bringing their attention back to him. "The prototype goes with me. You're the property of Vicious now, android!" He jumped from the fire escape, and landed just in front of them. "And you," he swung around, pointing his gun at Ash, "convince her to be cooperative." Misty was getting tired of lounging around the cramped, makeshift base. Mostly everyone was still packed inside, discussing what they'd heard. Nobody seemed to know what to do-some wanted the android destroyed so their Boss could never have the schematics he needed. Other's wanted the firewall back up, so the machine could be reprogrammed to be on the side of the resistance. With a mechanical assassin on their side, their missing partners could easily be rescued. Misty, personally, was for the first one. Despite the fact that she'd agreed to help out these people, she certainly did not want any criminal organization to have an android of all things on their side. As soon as she found him, she resolved to tell Ash about this whole thing. He was probably with James and the robot, both boys thinking the machine was the long lost rocket girl. She'd tell him about the army, and they could tell Jenny, or just somebody who could get rid of those things. Artificial intelligence...too many horrors, too many possibilities... Starting to feel a tad claustrophobic in the shelter, she climbed the ladder and shut out the racket behind the sound proof hatch. She covered the door with leaves again, and took a deep breath of the forest air. Finally, a moment to herself. "Well look who it is." Misty whirled around and resisted the instinctive urge to shout "Team Rocket!" in an incriminating voice. Instead, she crossed her arms and made an impolite noise. "What do you want, Jessie?" Jessie straightened, hands on her hips and eyebrows arched. Misty noted she was almost at eye level to the woman, but not quite, and it seemed to give her antagonist an air of self-importance, but perhaps that had always been there. Misty admitted she'd never much liked Jessie, but then again she hardly liked anyone that reminded her of her sisters-tall, confident, and knowing their own beauty and reveling in it. "I didn't want anything, I was out here first," Jessie pointed out. "But as long as you asked I would like to know what YOU are doing here? Come to turn us into the police?" "No," Misty growled, although the accusation was warranted, "but don't tempt me." She knew she didn't have to answer that Rocket woman, but she felt she needed to explain herself. "I'm not on your side, if that's what you're thinking." "Never crossed my mind," Jessie gave a know-it-all smirk, and her voice got that high, mightier than thou tone that Misty often wished she could imitate for she'd never been too good at coercing people, and it was a useful skill. "I assume," Jessie continued, "you have some kind of ulterior motive. Finding out where the base is to send Jenny in?" Misty stomped her foot. "That's not it at all! I'm just helping out a little. The police are watching so closely for you all that I was asked to be a sort of moderator. I can go into town and get information without being conspicuous-but that's all I'm doing!" her tone got progressively higher, and she couldn't control the angry shaking in her voice. She wasn't helping the bad guys...she was a good person...she was doing the right thing...wasn't she? "I just want to find Ash, free those missing people, and get on with our pokemon journey-that's IT! You two gangs-Vicious or whatever-can blow each other to pieces for all I care, I-" Jessie, although she knew the orange-haired Twerp acted a tad more volatile with her temperament, she hadn't expect such an outburst. A bit taken aback, she'd remained quiet and kept the condescending remarks to herself as she waited for the little squirt to finish, but something caught her attention that forced her to cover Misty's mouth and cut the childish temper-tantrum short. "Shut up a second," she hissed, "I heard something." Misty pushed the gloved hand off her mouth but stayed quiet. At first there was nothing, but then she heard something...well it was something. The girls couldn't tell if the cause of the noise was in eyesight, so they couldn't risk opening the hatch to the underground room incase someone saw who shouldn't have. Instead, they managed to rush up a tree as soon as the sound was obviously headed in their direction. "What IS that sound?" Misty whispered. She'd have covered her ears if she didn't need to hold onto a branch for support. Jessie shrugged. "I think it's a pokemon. Maybe it's mating season or something-shhh! Here it comes!" 'It' was actually a she. A human she to be exact, and the noise was, in fact, that girl's particular version of singing (the true horror of it all being that she was attempting to chant the poke rap). From their position in the tree, the red-heads could see a short brunette slowly walking into the clearing, humming/whistling/singing/butchering an attempt at an American dub theme. She unbuttoned her white coat as she walked and tied it around her waist, revealing the black midriff top with a blazing red 'R' across the chest. The girl stopped her "singing" (much to the relief of the tree-bound spectators) and started muttering to nobody in particular. "Damn, I'm sure those bushes weren't there before...must've grown in since last year, or I could just be in the wrong spot..." walking at a slowpoke's pace, she began to stomp on the earth every few steps, listening closely to the thumping sound her feet made. Misty leaned over to get a better look. "What's she doing?" she asked in a hushed voice. "I think she's trying to find the base..." Jessie answered, looking serious. "She's checking for a hallow spot in the ground." "She on our side?" "I'm not sure, I've never seen her before. We can't take chances though... she's going in the wrong direction-completely missed the door." As the girl walked off down the path, Jessie climbed down carefully and stared after her. "She's headed in the direction of headquarters." Misty bit her bottom lip, not liking where this was heading one bit. "Let me guess, we're gonna follow her?" Jessie turned around and glared at her. "Who's this 'we'?" "I'd like to inform you, ~Jessie~, that I will never trust you," Misty snapped, hands on her hips. "I don't know who you'll turn your back on if you think there's something in it for you. You always have something up your sleeve, and I'm not letting you go off unsupervised until I find Ash and get out of this mess." "Unsupervised? Har har, I AM a big girl you know," Jessie retorted. "If there's one of us who need's a sitter it's you." She leaned down and looked Misty in the eye, making the younger woman uncomfortable. "You don't know how deep you're in, do you?" An ever so small spark of panic flickered for a moment in the darkest corner of Misty's mind. "What are you talking about?" And then she was surprised. Jessie only sighed, almost sympathetically, and shook her head. "Damn fool," she muttered, then louder, "Follow if ya want, twerp," she growled, regaining her original tone, "but don't expect to be able to just hop out when things get rough." After a half hour of walking through the woods, fifteen minutes of shameless flirting with the guards at the door, five minutes to steal some Rocket-grunt uniforms, and twenty minutes of crawling through the ventilation system, Misty and Jessie were crammed over the heating duct on the ceiling of the Boss's meeting room where the brunette rocket girl was tracked to. The Boss stepped forward, and for the first time Misty put a face to the man she'd heard so much about. She had to admit, she could understand why Jessie and James were always so worried about that man's approval-he was so ominous she felt nervous merely staring through the slits of light in the vent. She looked over next to her, was Jessie scared too? No...she was shaking but...tight jaw, clenched fists, red face... She hated him. She hated that man with a horrible passion. It was, as Misty considered it, perfectly understandable that the woman should be angry. This was the man who, after all, had experimented on Jessie and ultimately made a killer-copy that may be putting her best friend in danger. Come to think of it, Misty noted, this man had also made a copy of HER, and HER best friend was also with the electronic assassin! She anger started to replace her nervousness-this guy was going down! "I came to report about the cabin raid, sir," same the nonchalant, high voice of the Rocket girl below them. "Morada," said the Boss, "You better have a damn good explanation." Galatea showed little reaction to the change of atmosphere as she and Ash walked at gunpoint from the lush foliage of the Viridian Forest into the high but well camouflaged headquarters of Team Vicious. "Keep walking, boy!" Collin growled at Ash who was taking in the scenery, flicking the gun with an affirmative clang to serve as a reminder of who was in charge. The first few hallways were empty, turning off into darker corridors that blended into a vestibule of some sort with a tall set of double doors on the far wall. "This place," Collin informed them as he held the gun up with one hand and punched a code into a keypad on the door handle with the other, "Used to be the HQ for Team Rocket. It was destroyed when one of the Bosses experiments got away-who knows what that thing was-but Vicious rebuilt it." The buttons on the keypad suddenly illuminated the foyer with an electric blue glow for a split second, then a loud click informed the odd party that the door had unlocked. The room had, in a better past, been one of Giovanni's great offices/meeting halls. The floor had at one time been carpeted, the walls papered and decorated with pictures. It had once been symbolic for the classiest of thieves. Not anymore. What was so attractive about Vicious's enterprise was the extreme chaotic effect of his authority. Where as Giovanni held Team Rocket in line, like an illegal army out to steal, Vicious's people were wild. Most of the clientele was made from the more rambunctious of the Rocket agents, who couldn't sit still under the Boss's organized authority. Although Vicious did make it known he was in charge, and he was sure to keep track of each team to assure he got all the assets from each heist, he provided little rules. As it stood now, the great meeting hall was transformed into a sort of deformed arena/rec room. Stacked, shelf-like stands made from the same material as chain-linked fences reached to the ceiling and dozens of Team Vicious agents sat on each. Many of the agents on the ground were battling each other, be it with fists or pokemon, and sitting on a chair on a high platform like a king on his throne, was Vicious. The gang leader wore body armor that resembled the outfit he's used in his attempt to capture Cerebii, but this suit seemed to be an updated version with more freakish gizmos built in ready to blast things. You couldn't see his black hair from under the helmet, but a dark blue visor covered his eyes ant it was just transparent enough to glare down at Ash through. Galatea didn't seem to notice. She kept her head down as the agents called out to her, not hearing their lewd comments or their cheers for her body. She was too busy calculating, and if she had paid attention it was doubtful that she'd know how to respond anyway. Her tactical subroutines were working hard, running simulations of plan after plan, and attempting to find a non-violent means of escape per the request of the boy, although it wasn't probable. Finally, the part of her program that most coincided with Jessie came up with a "foolproof" plan to capture pika-er-I mean trick Vicious. Just in time. The ex-rocket in question stood, and eyed Ash for a long time and gave a horrible grin. "Collin," he called, "You did well here-the android and this little brat that ruined my plan to capture those pokemon in the Ilex..." "I did everything you asked, sir," Collin stated, straightening up. "Our agreement-" "Our agreement was that I would give you an android with witch you can use to avenge whoever it was-" "Doris." The name was greatly forces and emphasized. "Yes, yes, and you will have your android when my scientist use this little lady here to make more of her kind..." he got down and walked over to Galatea, looking her up and down in a way that even Collin and Ash could see was inappropriate. "The real woman would be uncontrollable but..." He reached out to touch the android's face, but as his hand was inches away Galatea gave an icy glare in perfect Jessie imitation and whispered in an icy tone, "Try me." Vicious jerked his hand back, paused for a moment, and laughed out loud. "Incredible simulation! The real Jessie was a wonderful brownnoser to those in authority, but I knew the stories of her famous temper! Excellent!" He laughed again, and his men joined in. But they soon stopped as another laughter resounded higher than the rest. There it was again-that perfectly devious, evil laugh that made Ash double check to make sure Pikachu hadn't been caught. Galatea, a perfect replica with one hand to the side of her mouth and head thrown back-just like Jessie. "Sorry ~master~," the tone was perfect. She didn't sound like the monotone innocence of the android anymore; this was exactly how the real woman's "evil voice" sounded. "But this just goes to show what happens to traitors like you. You won't get anywhere with me as your prisoner." With her attention diverted she did not notice the Meowth on its hind legs, carefully watching her every move, but she DID see the speechlessly angry expression Vicious's face, and she continued with exact, simulated glee. "I'm afraid that you got the wrong me..." she smiled at them, and picked up a shard of glass from a beer bottle broken on the ground. She held up the shard for everyone to see, then held up her other hand and swept the makeshift blade across the palm. The tactical programming and auto-response system gave the perfect satisfied look at the shock and anger on her antagonists' faces as they saw what appeared to be blood trickle down from the cut. "Sorry to disappoint you," said Galatea, "but I'm the real Jessie." James paced the hotel room. He'd been hoping to be out and looking for Jessie right now, but he'd need Galatea and Morada to help him figure out where she was. Meowth had gone back to Team Vicious's HQ to avoid suspicion if he was missing, and Morada wanted to check up on Mondo and wouldn't be back until late for Mahogany Town was a long train trip (James wanted to go along too, just incase the real Jessie was being held prisoner at HQ, but Morada pointed out they were in no position to mount a rescue while the entire faculty of TR was on look out for him. She'd promised to check and see if Jessie was there, and if she was then they would figure out what to do next). The Twerp and the android still hadn't returned from shopping, and although he knew that shopping with the real woman was an all-day experience, James doubted if it were the same for a mechanical one and he was starting to worry. What if that damn thing had been caught? If Giovanni or Vicious or whoever got to it, then they'd have the firewall technology and doom doom doom. At this rate he'd never see Jessie again. Frustrated, he grabbed his jacket and headed out. But as he opened the door, he came face to face with none other than Domino, the Boss's right hand rocket. "'lo James," she said, pushing past him and into the room where she sat down in a chair, looking quite relaxed and in charge. "The Boss has a proposal for you." James glared at her. The Boss...the boss tried to trick him. He'd convinced James his best friend was a machine! In fact, the Boss probably still thought that James believed Galatea was the real Jessie. And then the man had said "I'll see you soon" in a tone he didn't like at all, a tone that always meant something bad in the movies. This had to be handled carefully-Domino was dangerous if she thought you were a threat to the organization. It would be best to play along until she left and he had a killer android on his side that could beat her up. "What does the Boss want with me?" James asked carefully, trying to sound as innocent as he used to be. "Simple," Domino crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair, putting her fingertips together to form a sort of teepee. "I expect you've had enough time to come to terms with it-and unless you're still as big of an idiot as the last time I saw you you've figured out that Jessie is an android." "Y-yeah..." James tried to sound like he believed it. "She doesn't remember anything though, so it's not the same." Domino grinned in a sly manner and looked him in the eye from behind her lashes. "You'd like it to be the same, wouldn't you James?" He nodded. That was all he wanted. Standing up and straightening her double colored uniform, she walked back towards the door, slipping a piece of paper into his hand as she passed by. There was a number written on it. "Give us a call, James," Domino suggested from the doorframe. "If you'd been a good agent, your dreams might have come true, but we can bring back the old Jessie for you. You just need to cooperate." She sent him one last, lying smile and walked primly out of view. James paused a moment, and picked up the phone. "Mondo, what are doing?" Cassidy demanded, growing angry the boy had been hogging the base's only computer for the past few hours. "Huh? Oh Miss Cassidy is there something you need?" he offered with usual childish vigor. "I thought you'd be with Butch right now..." That hit a mark, so she hit him. "Idiot!" she snapped. "I'm not one of those pathetic women who can't function without a man, I'm stronger than ~that~!" From the table, Doris looked up and for a moment discarded her sour expression and grinned weakly. "Sore subject, Mondo. Better calm her down now before she announces to the entire congregation she's got it bad for Butch." Cassidy whirled on her, "What!? I am NOT!" "Denial," Doris gave the Rocket-Girl evil smile, "Better lower your voice, hun." Cassidy, not one to let herself be humiliated, straightened up and stuck her nose in the air. "Anyway," she started, changing the subject and reclaiming her dignity, "crazy accusations aside, what ~are~ you doing, Mondo?" "Huh? Oh," Mondo snapped out of it and decided to give up trying to figure out what the girl's had been talking about. "Well remember those truck drivers that were taking you to Seafoam Port? Well Butch interrogated them and he found out that after they delivered you, they were supposed to bring some packages back to the Boss." "Packages?" "Yeah," he pushed some buttons on the keyboard and the screen suddenly filled with dozens of vertical rows of green numbers, some blinking a little. "Butch sent some of our Resistance workers to pretend to be the delivery men and we intercepted the packages. They're in another bomb shelter a half mile away-did you know this area is covered in bomb shelters?" The boy's tendency to jump from one subject to another without finishing the first was starting to wear at Cassidy's nerves. "Skip it, Mondo," she growled. "What was in the packages?" "I dunno," he shrugged. They might be weapons, explosives even so we can't blast 'em open. They're locked with some kind of electronic mechanism that has a code on it. See these numbers?" he pointed to the screen, "I've been trying to crack the code, but so far no luck." "I see," Cassidy muttered, pulling up a chair. She stared at the screen for a while, trying to remember her training. Each child of Team Rocket was trained in what was thought to be their best medium. Jessie, with her uncanny strength, had naturally been chosen for fight training. James, obviously not one for physical prowess, was trained in mechanics. He could do crude fix-it jobs on their many mechs, and pick locks. Since he wasn't a muscular as the average man, he was better at fitting through small spaces and sneaking around. With Cassidy and Butch, it had been the other way around. Cassidy had been trained for tactical, but more or less in computers while Butch and Jessie were beating each other up in Team Rocket's little version of boot camp. Trying to remember her own training-tactical, code breaking...simple. "Did you try assigning a letter to each number? Alphabetical order?" she asked, trying to spot a pattern in the green, flashing digits. "Yeah, I figured imputing hiragana would be too simple so I just skipped it. I got a word translated," Mondo answered. "the code to open the locks is actually a key word or sentence-a password." "What's the word?" "'Boss'." Cassidy leaned back in her seat. "Not surprising. Did you try reverse alphabetical?" "I'm on it." In a few minutes, the computer processed the word 'era'. Mondo paused, hands poised over the keys. "Now what?" "Latin," Cassidy stated. "It's dead but universal. Input the Latin signature then translate it." He typed it in. "'Return'. It says 'return'." Mondo continued to give the screen a critical eye. "I can get the little words like 'to' and 'the' but there's one major word I can't figure out." He pointed to a set of numbers. "It's a six letter word that goes before 'Boss', and I just can't think of a thing that would work." Cassidy silently glowered at the computer. Behind her, Doris did the same. "Um..." they were making Mondo feel uncomfortable, "Should I try Greek?" "Don't bother," Cassidy grumbled, quickly rising from her seat. "I know what it is." She went at a fast-walk to the ladder with Doris following and a confused Mondo trailing behind. "James came to my cabin saying that his friend was sick," Morada started to explain/lie to her boss. "I didn't know he'd left the Team-I don't keep up with these things ya know-so I thought fine, he's under my jurisdiction so I oughta take a look." Giovanni drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair impatiently, and she continued. "So I get there and I see this Jessie person floating in a tank-a TANK, sir! Damndest thing I'd ever seen..." "A tank?" Misty whispered to Jessie up in the vent. The woman shrugged in response and mouthed 'android'. "I figured it was some sort of life support system or something-thought she must've been pretty sick." Giovanni didn't seem to care. He just stared at her with angry eyes, knowing that the woman hardly lied and attempting to judge if she was doing so now. "How did James know where to find you?" Morada shrugged. "I dunno. He just started pounding on my door with some kid, made a big fuss. But anyway, I interfaced my computer with the machines Jessie was hooked to and ya know what my scans came across? She ain't human, sir." "I know that," Giovanni snapped. "Give me some relevant information or-" "I'm getting to it! And of course you know, I assume you built it, or stole it or whatever....but anywho, I was really amazed to find an android. Nobody ever built one that worked right before, and I was, of course, curious and that James guy as yelling at me for answers so I turned the thing on." Giovanni stood up straight, "YOU activated it!?" "Uh huh," Morada smiled and nodded, then continued quickly before her boss could scream. "so she was really weird to say the least-blank in a way. No memories, and she didn't know the first thing about being human. I found out there was some kind of firewall in her systems-" Giovanni rushed forward and grabbed her collar. "DID YOU DIACTIVATE IT!?" he bellowed in her face. Morada frantically shook her head, "Of course not! I figured it was blocking a virus of some kind so I didn't touch it!" "Then why," the man growled, "did my agent tell me her Humanity Program had been activated?" Morada paused. Humanity Program? When that Rocket agent had called the Boss, he'd said 'It's starting'... so...that was what it was... "I didn't do it," she choked defiantly, trying to breathe through the tightening grip around her collar. Giovanni was really angry this time. Normally he'd have a few grunts standing by to do his dirty work, but right now he seemed ready to kill her with his own two hands unless convinced she was worth sparing. "I didn't touch the program!" she shouted, starting to feel a little scared. "It just happened on it's own-the android's adaptive, right? It must have adapted to counteract the firewall. All I saw was a homicidal machine, and then I hightailed my ass out of there. I assume James still has the damn thing-if it didn't kill him." From above, Misty heard Jessie sharply gasp for air once, but she didn't say a thing. After a long moment of looking her in the eye, Giovanni released her. She fell to the ground, coughing a few times before sighing with relief. The Boss had turned her back on her, and two Rocket grunts had showed up on each side of Morada. "I can't let you go, not when you have this kind of information." He snapped his fingers and the grunts grabbed hold of her arms, ready to drag her away to the Team Rocket prison. Knowing it would do no good to struggle, Morada complied with the escort, but just as they arrived at the door she looked behind her to ask one more question to the back of the Boss. "Is that android the real Jessie?" Giovanni turned part way and grinned evilly. "Of course. Why do you think I didn't fire such a failure team-it was a wonderful experiment that I'm ready to complete." "Yes sir..." Morada acknowledged, and the Boss turned his back on her once more. Only from above did Jessie catch the small, sly, grin that crept up on Morada's face just before the door shut. Jessie poked Misty in the shoulder. "Come on, we're following her," she whispered, crawling towards the vent that should take them outside the room. "But why?" Misty hissed, trying to keep up. She didn't have as much crawling experience as a member of Team Rocket. Jessie turned around-awkwardly in the tight vent-and gave an angry look. "She was lying-I don't know how much but she was definitely NOT telling the whole truth and nothing but!" "How can you tell?" "Because if she's as smart as she acts like, she knows that if the Boss had a working android on his hands he wouldn't waist time with it on a ruddy pikachu assignment. She was hiding information from him and I want it!" Misty's eyebrow twitched. "Well you're not gonna drag me along on some vigilante jailbreak, I-" "Really? I thought you'd want to come," Jessie's voice was taking that smug tone again. "She said that James was with 'some kid' and I assume she meant your boyfriend." Misty's face went red. "All right I'll go," she grumbled, trying hard to sound like she really didn't want to. Jessie turned back around-again, awkwardly because of the cramped space-and the two continued their crawl in silence. Even if the kid had said something to her, Jessie probably wouldn't have heard it. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to pay much attention to anything. That Modara had been lying...but how much? The possibility of an android killing James might be part of the deception, but then again, what if... It was a shame she hadn't waited around for just a few more minutes. If she had done so, her question would have been answered. If she had, she would have heard the phone ring, and she would have heard Giovanni pick it up and say, "Hello James." "How do I get Jessie back?" James demanded, deciding not to bother with formalities. The reply was simple. "It's easy, really. You just bring me the android." Before James could wonder how that would do any good, the Boss continued. "I have her memories and personality program on file. There's a program in her systems that I want. It's an exchange, understand?" "N..no..." James started. "I get the program, and you get the memory and personality files. I don't need the android, she was just a prototype. You can take her, install the programs and leave to start your dysfunctional family, it doesn't matter to me. I don't want her, so you can take her off my hands and program her to be the woman she used to be, or of that doesn't suit you she can easily be programmed as a slave, attendant, or a PC-whatever suits your fancy as long as I get the program I need and you two out of my hair." James paused. He didn't know what to think at the moment. "I'll let you know," he said, and hung up. The Boss was lying, of course, but what James couldn't figure out was how he could pull off such a lie. Maybe if Jessie's memories...if the Boss had found a way to copy them, could Galatea really be programmed to be like the real woman? Well he certainly wouldn't settle for that! But...what if the Boss had the real Jessie? He would just hand over the real one and pretend she was still an android! Could he really get Jessie back that way? Meowth slammed down the receiver. "Line busy again!" he huffed. "Since when does James have a social life?" Well, if he couldn't talk to James.... Morada wasn't given a bad cell. In fact, she'd been given the Ritz compared to the other prisoners. It was the little room the guards would sleep in while off their shifts, sort of converted to a makeshift cell. With all the traitors showing up in Team Rocket, the other cells had been full; still, she was locked inside and handcuffed to the bedpost for good measure. Not to mention bored out of her wits. A guard left his walkman on the table in the corner of the room, but she couldn't reach it. When someone outside picked the lock and opened the door, what they saw was Morada attempting to bend into an impossible position, trying to reach the walkman with her feet. "That's...interesting," said Jessie, a bit stuck for words. "What's she doing?" Misty whispered as she trailed into the room. Morada crammed her neck around to look at the two. "Galatea? How'd you get here?" Jessie looked confused. "Gala-what?," she asked, turning to Misty, "She talking to you?" "Wait a sec!" the floored doctor whisper-shouted, "You must be the real Jessie, aren't you? Hurry and close the door before someone notices!" stunned, the girls complied. "Great, great what a relief, I thought I'd never catch a break..." She twisted herself into a semi-normal sitting position and faced Jessie. "Okay young lady, you've got some explaining to do. Where in the name of any rare bird and or dog have you been?" Jessie and Misty told their fractured stories. Morada noted Jessie conveniently left out most of the parts with the early android experiments, seeming to not want to talk about it. However, the woman-although she didn't say anything-seemed relieved that James was still worried and looking for her, but especially relieved that the android had not actually killed him. Misty had a somewhat different reaction about Ash... "Darn right he better be looking for me!" she shouted. "If that moron hadn't been such a heavy sleeper he'd have actually NOTICED when I was kidnapped! When I get my hands on him..." she began to grind one fist into her other palm and make a scary chuckling noise. Morada leaned over to Jessie and whispered "Is she still in that 'hit your crush' stage?" Jessie crossed her arms, "Don't mock it." "Riiiight," Morada understood and let it drop. "Anyway, it's all your fault that I'm in jail in the first place." The other two face-faulted, "OUR fault?" "Yeah it is!" Morada would have pointed an accusing finger at them had she not been handcuffed. "You saw me looking for the base you should have said something! I could have avoided this situation if I could have just found my brother first-you know him, Mondo-because I don't know how good their information sources are but the Boss is ready to start the war." Before the others could comment, a ringing sound filled the small room. Actually it was... "ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!" "Agghhh!! I hate that ringer," Morada groaned, hunching her shoulders to try and block out the sound. "Where's it coming from?" asked Misty. "My bra. Get these cuffs unlocked so I can answer it," the doctor muttered, glaring at her jacket. It took about a minute, but the caller was persistent and presently Morada, with both hands free, produced a cell phone from her shirt. "Hello?" "Doc! Where are ya?" Meowth demanded. "And where's James I can't get a hold of him." "I dunno....I'm in the Rocket prison in Mahogany but when we get out we'll head for Viridian and bring the resistance with us, that sound good?" "Whatever ya want, kid, dat's not what I called about." There was a pause. "We? Who's wid yuz?" "Misty and Jessie." "WHAAAAAAAAAT!?" that last one was loud enough for the room to hear and Jessie's ears perked up. She made a grab for the phone, but Morada jerked it away. "Dude what's your problem?!" she wined to the cat. "Are yuz serious?" Meowth sounded panicky. "Are yuz sure dat's Jessie? Are yuz POSITIVE?" Morada opened her mouth to say yes, and then she realized she had absolutely no idea. "No," she said quietly, "I'm not..." From the other end, the cat sighed. "Put her on da phone." "Will do," she returned cheerily. She'd been holding the receiver with one hand and fighting off Jessie with the other anyway. Finally, she handed the spastic Rocket girl the cell phone, giving her a look and trying to determine if the woman was real or not. It didn't seem like Galatea-no, it couldn't be-but what if there were more who looked like Jessie...? "Meowth? That you?" Jessie demanded. "Where are you? Are you with James?" Meowth paused and listened. "Well you sound like da real Jessie," he finally said. "But so did da other one. Da other one was kinda weird though...." "What are you talking about, Meowth?" Jessie asked, face read and tone disbelieving. "Of course it's the real me, who are you talking about-are you telling me you can't tell the difference between me and a machine?!" "She was bleedin!" the pokemon insisted. "Android's don't bleed." "Bleeding?" Jessie repeated, trying to process, trying to think...how could she prove she was real? Morada, who had overheard the last part, popped into the conversation. "Is he saying the android's bleeding?" Jessie nodded, "well if it is Galatea-that what we named her-it could just be a trick. Her systems are maintained by red colored plasma that runs through her avatar like a circulatory system. Looks like blood to the naked eye." "HA!" Jessie chirped, "Did you hear that, Meowth?" "And," Morada went on, "If she showed up with Ash then it probably is Galatea. We sent them out shopping..." Meowth, who had heard that last part too, agreed. "Yeah, she was with da Twerp! Dey're both locked up in da dungeon, and da Boss-I mean Vicious-sent out massagers ta find James and tell him dat dey'll trade da real Jessie for da android." There was silence for a long moment. "He's real worried about yuz, but if Vicious or da Boss gets da android den it's all over for everyone. I'll go and see if I can find him first." Click. Misty, who'd been maintaining a respectful silence, noted the uncomfortable atmosphere in the room. She shifted in her spot, not knowing what to do exactly. For once, she was involved in something overwhelming, and Ash wasn't there to say something stupid and make everything seem okay. Why wasn't anyone saying anything stupid...? This was so much bigger than she'd expected, and since she was dealing with outlaws, so much more deadly. "J-Jessie?" she started, watching to woman who'd been staring silently at the phone, although the line was obviously dead. Jessie looked serious. It was eerie. Finally she spoke in a low, clouded voice. "Let's go." Although she seemed darkly angry and menacingly calm, the woman was obviously volatile at the moment. "Go where? Back to base?" Misty asked carefully. "No." She seemed so mad at herself, but why? "We're going to Viridian City. We have to save the damn android and save the even more damned world." James had taken a walk to clear his thoughts. If the Boss had been lying, when he turned over the android the agents might kill him or lock him up and he'd get nowhere. If the Boss was actually planning to give James the programming to make Galatea into Jessie, the problem still stood that that thing wasn't the real woman he wanted. And if the Boss was holding the real Jessie hostage than he'd get the real one, but then there was the problem as was with the rest of the scenarios-the Boss would still get the firewall technology. James was furious with himself. Why did he care? He'd never really given much about the well being of others, what did he care if the Boss set an android army loose? What did he care about the gang warfare? Honestly he didn't. But although he was no optimist, he was still so close to finding the real Jessie and what if... What if he found her? What if it was like old times again? What if they really did live happily ever after-but that was just it. Nobody could live happily ever after in a world run by Team Rocket. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and interrupted his thoughts. Whirling around, he'd expected to see Morada or Galatea or the Twerp, maybe even Domino, but who he saw was agent Collin from Team Vicious. "Wha-wha-wha-what are YOU doing here!?" he shouted, backing away and reaching for Wheezing's pokeball. Collin glared at him. "I thought I knew you," he said icily. "Sure we were only acquaintances but I thought I knew the kind of man you were." "What are you talking about?" James was, as usual, confused. "I'm talking about when we were back in Team Rocket," the other man shouted in crazy sounding anger. "And Doris...I thought you cared about Jessie the way I cared about her-how could you betray your partner!" James was flabbergasted (author's note: my that's a fun word, I felt the need to put it in somewhere) and he stared at the man not knowing what to say. Collin was clearly insane-back arched a bit and to the side, he wasn't standing normally. His eyes were pale and confused, darting everywhere yet somehow holding James in his unfocused glare. "Really Collin," James said, trying to make his voice sound calm as he defensively put his hands in front of him, "I don't know what you're talking about. How did I betray Jess?" "YOU'RE DEFENDING THAT ASEMBLIGE OF GEARS WHILE THE REAL WOMAN IS LAYING IN A CELL AT VICIOUS'S BASE!" Collin seemed to snap right then and there, lunging at James and grabbing his collar. "HOW COULD YOU!" he yelled in his face. "If I were in your place I'd kill myself before I betrayed Doris..." James was going to explain to the poor, crazy agent that he only protected Galatea because she was a link to Jessie, but instead he focused on the last thing Collin said. "The REAL Jessie? Where!? Where's Vicious's base?" he jumped up and pushed Collin away, trying to get a straight answer before the guy started another tangent. Muttering to himself and seeming to decide to push his anger aside, Collin handed him a cellular phone that looked remarkably like the one Vicious had sent him. "I've been sent to propose an exchange," he grumbled. "the android for the real Jessie." Noticing that James still eyed the phone with suspicion, he assured him that it was neither tapped not equipped with a tracker. "Call us with your decision, and if you decide that you'll do it-which I highly suggest you do even though Jessie deserves someone better-you can bring the android to the old Team Rocket HQ in the Viridian Forest." With that, Collin stalked off to leave James with a dilemma. Two gang Bosses, the same offer, and if he gave one side the advantage the other side would surely kill him. Not to mention he had no idea who really had the actual Jessie! Whoever he gave the android to would use it horribly, but if he didn't give it to anyone he'd still have to rescue Jessie from one of the gangs, whichever it was. And then there was the problem that, whatever he decided, James had absolutely no idea where Galatea was at the moment, and it wasn't as if he could produce another Jessie look-alike out of nowhere... Wait! Maybe he could... James gave a standard Team Rocket laugh as an idea started to form in his head. A weird idea, but it just might work. He picked up the phone Collin gave him and dialed a number. "Yeah, I considered it." He told the person on the other line. "I've decided, I'll hand over the android." Cassidy pushed through the small group of people trying to open the large, metal crate. "I've got the password," she shouted as she waded through, and they parted to give her room. Pushing the 'audio' button on the keypad she took a deep breath. "Please state password," said a computerized voice. "Return to the era of Madame Boss," Cassidy replied loudly and clearly-and the crate split open with a bang. The sides of the box fell to reveal five tanks, filled with green liquid. And floating in that, were five androids. Mondo ran out from the hatch, rushing over to her and pausing to stare at the spectacle. "I forgot to tell you," he said to her, but his eyes were fixed on the floating synthoids. They were in the image of Team Rocket agents, except for the one shaped like none other than Misty. "For every batch of prisoners sent to Seafoam, another batch of androids was sent back to the Boss. You were part of the last batch of prisoners, and that means-" "That means that we may have these," Cassidy finished. "But the Boss has the rest." Mondo nodded, and was silent for a while. Finally he spoke again, trying to change the subject. "What was the password?" "Eh?" Cassidy turned to face him, "Oh, it was 'Return to the era of Madame Boss'," she repeated, but before Mondo could ask what that meant, the computerized voice spoke up again. "Password accepted." The tanks started to vibrate-the tubes and attacked wiring snapping off with hissing clouds of steam. A high, shrill tone filled the area, breaking the glass on the tanks. And as the green liquid spilled over the ground, the androids opened their eyes. Tbc. Hi all, it's the author (no da) and I just wanted to apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I'd taken a week off from writing, and this one is longer than usual so it took me a bit. First of all I wanted to say sorry that people are a tad OOC, but that's part of the point. This story takes place 5 years in the future when the characters have grown and matured to comply with the situations in their lives. In other words, they're supposed to be a little out of character. But I don't know about B&C, since I've never put them in a fic before and I wasn't sure how I should write them ^^;; Anyway, the next chapter will probably be the last! (gasp, I know it seems like this has been going on forever) and I'll be able to finish up some other fics I started (I'd stopped because I wanted to give my full attention to this story) but anyway, you can look forward to the ending (hopefully, that may just be my wishful thinking there -_-;; ) Oh and to whoever it was that asked if I'd seen Bubblegum Crisis-yeah I have, although I didn't mean for this story to sounds like it. I honestly don't think it does, since the sexandroids were trying to be liberated and Galatea is just going along with things, but to each his own interpretation I suppose. Please review! Feedback means a lot to me ^_^ NEXT *~*~* BACK