A Rat for Team Rocket - Ch 1

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

"Wobbbb-buffet!"

With those words, the trio of Pokemon thieves (along with their blue annoyance) went flying into the sky. After yet another Thunderbolt from Pikachu, the three were defeated. They could hear Ash and his friends congratulate their Pokemon on another victory.

After a few minutes of flight, the three noticed their landing point; right in the middle of a group of sleeping Golem.

"This won't end well ...!" James said as they fell, Wobbuffet landing on Jessie's head and bouncing away ... Smacking into the face of a Golem. The rock Pokemon instantly awoke, its red eyes glaring at the humans and Pokemon in front of it. Team Rocket began to back away slowly, looking around for a way out.

"Golem ... Lem, Golem." The Pokemon said. Jessie and James looked down to Meowth.

"It pretty much said it'll give us a five second head start." Meowth said. The humans nodded, turning and fleeing away from the scene as fast as they could, Wobbuffet trailing behind.

After tripping over a root on the ground and meeting the receiving end of Golem's Rock Throw attack, the trio were bruised, beaten, and depressed. Jessie had finally recalled Wobbuffet to its Poke Ball when she just couldn't stand any more of its noise. James fell to the ground, landing flat on his face.

"I can't do this anymore! It's not worth the pain!" He groaned. Meowth sighed, patting him on the back.

"Don't be dat way! We'll get Pikachu next time!" He said, smiling. "We'll do it eventually! ... I mean, six-hundredth time's the charm, right?" He sighed, sitting down on the grass. "Who am I kiddin', ya probably right."

"You idiots!" Jessie yelled, punching both of them in the head and causing rather large swelled bumps. "If you keep talking down about yourselves, we'll never do anything right! We didn't graduate from the academy to sit around and complain!" James and Meowth turned to her, nodding. The two didn't speak as the thieves continued to walk forward. "Now then ... Where did we park the balloon?"

"We didn't. Piplup's Bubblebeam popped it." James said. "It's probably somewhere over Saffron by now."

"That just means we call for the back-up!" Jessie said, digging around in her skirt pocket and grabbing a remote control, pressing a large red button. Moments later, a huge Meowth-head balloon appeared in the distance, landing in front of them. "Come on, we have to track down those kids again before we lose 'em!"

"Yeah, whateva ..." Meowth said, he and James walking into the balloon basket while Jessie closed it behind them. "I'm too beat-up to care right now." Jessie sighed, crossing her arms and watching her two depressed teammates. They were always like this after a big defeat. Maybe they were right--Maybe this was the time when they should finally give up on Pikachu. Besides that huge power, it's not like that kid has anything different from something you'd find in a forest ... "Wait, that's it!"

"What's it?" James asked, looking up from leaning against the basket. "We can't afford another robot this time." He sighed. Jessie smacked him with a fan from nowhere, a huge red print on James's cheek. "What was that for?"

"For being a major idiot!" Jessie yelled. "Now listen to me! The Boss wants that kid's Pikachu because it's so powerful, right?"

"Powerful enough to get the kid through Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn." Meowth replied. "It's somethin' special, all right."

"Exactly." Jessie said. "It's just a Pikachu that's more powerful than the rest of them. But if we catch a Pikachu and just train it a bit ..."

"The Boss won't know the difference!" James finished her sentence, smiling. "Jessie, that's genius!" Jessie nodded, and the two hugged. "We'll finally be done with those kids and can get back to what's really important in life!"

"Ya mean failin' at stuff besides catchin' Pikachu?" Meowth asked, getting a stomp in the face from Jessie as a response. "I mean ... Woo hoo, improv ..."

"We just have to find out where Pikachu roam in Sinnoh." Jessie said, grabbing a huge map and spreading it out. Her finger trailed around, as if she knew exactly what she was looking for. "... Where do Pikachu hang out around here?"

"We can check my flash cards." James said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a deck of cards--something like a PokeDex for the team. "It says here that we'll find wild Pikachu somewhere around ... Here." He said, pointing at a spot on the map.

"Then let's go!" Jessie exclaimed, pointing forward. "It's Pikachu or bust!"