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Jesse and James smiled and hugged, happy that they had finally gotten rid of the Twerps.
"Let's celebrate!" crowed James. "My treat." Jesse looked at him incredulously.
"You're going to treat us?"
"Yeah! The Boss is going to promote us!" And he went off into a little dance, leaving Jesse to limp off in the direction of the town. "Hey, James, wait up!" Jesse stopped at a tree and collapsed against it.
"James, can we wait here for now? I'm really, really tired!" Worried, James dropped down to her side.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you." He trailed off. "Here, let me get the stuff." He walked back to the clearing where they had stayed a couple of days before and picked up the sleeping bags. He carried them back to Jesse, who was already half-asleep, lying down at the foot of the tree she had been at before. "Here." He spread out her sleeping bag on the ground and gently eased her onto it. She murmured in protest, and curled up into a protective ball, trying almost unconsciously to get closer to the heat of James' body. He sighed and spread out his own sleeping bag, and lay down. He curled up next to Jesse and spent the night watching the stars, the sleeping Jesse in his arms.
The next morning, James got up earlier than usual, leaving Jesse to the warm cocoon of the blankets. He cooked some breakfast and put it on a plate for Jesse to find and went hunting for Meowth, who he hadn't seen since Jesse booted him.
"Meowth! Where are you?"
"Mrrrow! Mmmph humph mmrowph!!!" James ran over to the Weepinbell where Meowth had spent the night trying to get away from. He pried Meowth out and set him down, leaving the Weepinbell to glare angrily at him and growl. Just as James turned around, he tripped and wound up on his stomach, Meowth pounding on his head.
"Where'n hell did you two go?! I was wit dat damned Weepinbell all damned night!" Meowth continued to pound James' head and back. "First ya go off wit yer girlfriend and leave me here in dis godforsaken forest fer tree days and when I come back t'see ya, ya boot me into a damned Weepinbell!" He gave one last good scratch to James' face and stalked off to the camp.
"Owwwwwww!" said James. He picked himself up and trudged over to the camp where he found Meowth yelling at Jesse, yelling similar things to her that he did to James. Meowth wound up to give Jesse a good scratch in the face, and James catapulted forward.
"No!!!" he yelled, tackling Meowth and knocking him out of the way.
"Yeow! What in hell do ya think yer doin?!"
"Jesse was almost killed less than a week ago! We had to-"
"WAT?! Killed?! By who? Why, I oughta-" He pounded one paw into the other and started pacing macho-ishly.
"Meowth, it's taken care of. It was the Twerps, but they were blasted off."
"Well, DAS good. Hey Jesse, are ya okay? Sorry I was gonna scratch you." Jesse smiled weakly.
"It's okay," she said softly and collapsed back into the sleeping bag.
Meowth was confused.
"I don' get it. She's been electrocuted b'fore, smashed troo numerous sidewalks, nearly drowned and been blasted off more times dan I can count. Why's she so sick? It's just one stupid little rat-Pokemon." James shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe all the strain is catching up to her. Watch her while I go get the Meowth-balloon." Meowth nodded, and James strode off into the forest to get the balloon, which was how they got there before this entire thing happened. Meowth picked up the plate of food and brought it over to Jesse.
"Hey, d'ya wanna eat? Der's eggs, bacon and sausage! I know ya like dis stuff." Jesse smiled weakly at him.
"Thanks, Meowth. But I'm too tired."
'Ho, boy,' thought Meowth. 'She's really losin' it. She's polite! I mean, she's never dis nice!' Jesse went back to sleeping as a worried Meowth ate her refused breakfast.
A little less than an hour later, a hot air balloon in the shape of a giant Meowth sailed majestically down from the sky. "Meowth, could you help me? Get the gear while I get Jesse into the balloon." Meowth nodded as James weighted down the balloon and went over to Jesse.
He knelt by her side, shaking her very gently by the shoulder. "Jesse? Jesse, you have to get up. We need to go now." Jesse moaned slightly, the burns still not healed, and leaned into James' shoulder as he pulled her up. She staggered and fell to her knees. James looked down at Jesse and pulled her up again, and picked her up so she was cradled in his arms. She sighed and looped her arms around his neck, laying her head against his chest.
"You're getting stronger," she teased quietly, obviously trying to make him feel less bad and not doing a great job at it.
"Mayhap," he said equally quietly, and set her gently on her feet inside the balloon. "I'll be right back; I just need to help Meowth get the stuff."
Jesse nodded slightly, and slid down to lie down at the bottom of the basket.
James trotted over to Meowth who was valiantly trying to carry all the stuff back to the balloon. James picked up the sleeping bags, leaving Meowth to the clothes, which, of course, was still a considerable feat, and rolled the sleeping bags into even tighter balls to save space. He put them in compartments in the balloon, picked up the clothes from a staggering Meowth and put them in their own places as well. Meowth leapt up into the balloon and James jumped in and threw over the weights. He pulled the chain and they were off to Giovanni to get a much-deserved promotion and bonus.
"Well," said Giovanni, idly scratching Persian's head. "Explain yourselves. You haven't called in for almost a week, I get billed from some medical treatment from some Pokemon training center and now you're here and are asking for a promotion. I find this to be almost amusing. If you get a good enough excuse, maybe I'll consider not kicking you three out of Team Rocket."
Jesse, James and Meowth cowered from their formidable boss, his face cloaked in shadow. There was only one chair: Jesse sat in it, still recuperating from the burns with Meowth in her lap. James stood behind the chair, his hands on Jesse's shoulders for confidence.
"Boss, der's a perfectly good reason we were gone fer so long," Meowth informed Giovanni and crawled out of Jesse's lap and walking over to James. "James here has lots of good Pokemon that you just might want to look at."
"Really?" asked Giovanni in a bored tone. "Very well then, James, show me these wondrous Pokeballs of yours." James gulped and dumped out all the Pokeballs from his backpack. Giovanni, interested, leaned forward to look them over. "Hmmm. Well, the number if impressive, but are the Pokemon? Show me," he commanded. James picked a random Pokeball and tossed it. "Togepi?" squeaked a high voice. James looked down to see Misty's Togepi looking balefully up at him.
It looked around for Misty, and, not finding her, started to wail. "Piiiiii!" It bawled in a high-pitched, defenseless voice. It ran around in aimless circles and then sat down, blubbering its little eyes out. A large puddle formed around it. "Piiiiiiiiii!!" James looked, uncertain, at Giovanni, his face shrouded in shadows as usual. James nervously said, "Togepi, return." Togepi disappeared in a flash.
"Next for your viewing pleasure!" He tossed another. Psyduck appeared.
"Psy? Psy-yi-yi!" it moaned, holding its aching head. Giovanni looked at James, bored.
"If all your Pokemon are like those pathetic two, you can forget about the promotion," he warned. James nodded, panicky, and returned Psyduck.
Giovanni sighed. "This is getting boring. Very well. Show me a truly rare Pokemon, and you will have your promotion," he offered generously. James looked nervously to Jesse. The Pokemon the Twerps had were effective, but not really rare. He chose random Pokeballs, looking for something worth the Boss's while. He went through Vulpix, Bulbasaur, Starmie and Zubat before coming to Onix. It growled, incredably cramped in Giovanni's relatively small office. Two of the walls were straining; bits of plaster rained down from the ceiling. James quickly returned it before it struggled and killed them all.
"How's this? An Onix, very well trained, I might add." Giovanni considered.
"Well, Onixes are powerful Pokemon, but they're not very rare creatures. Plus, it destroyed my office," he decided. "Worth a bonus, perhaps, but not a promotion." James swallowed. What more did they have? His shoulders slumped. He had been so sure they would get a promotion. He sighed and absently tossed the last Pokeball over his shoulder in defeat.
"Come one, Jesse, let's go," he said quietly, and went for the door. A deep growl filled the room. James slowly turned around to see a Charizard glaring at him, small puffs of smoke slowly steaming from its nostrils. It roared, nearly knocking James over and throwing Meowth against the back wall.
James' eyes went wide in absolute terror. Even more plaster rained down, partially melted, from Charizard's intense heat. Giovanni, his face expressionless, watched from his seat. Charizard spread open his wings as wide as the cramped space would let him, and sucked in his breath to toast James.
"Charizard, return!" yelled James, holding up the Pokeball. Charizard gave a disappointed growl and disappeared.
"Well," Giovanni said. "You have fulfilled your promise. You shall be given a promotion. That is all." He swiveled around in his chair to face the opposite direction again.
"Did you hear that, James? We're off the loser list and on the winner's list!" shouted Jesse, leaping up to hug him. He looked deep into her eyes and kissed her on the mouth. She twined her arms around his neck as they kissed, lucky to have truly found one another.
The E-
"Hey! Whatta 'bout me?!"
"What about you, Meowth?"
"Ya had Jesse and James in some sorta stupid romance thing. No one cares about them. What happens to me?"
"Fine, fine. Here's Meowth again."
Meowth sauntered over to Giovanni and booted the spitting Persian off his lap. "Ain't'cha glad I'm home?" Giovanni sighed.
"Yes, of course. Ecstatic." Meowth lay down in Giovanni's lap, ignoring the insulted Persian who stalked off.
"Meowth! Dat's right. Top cat."