|
|
Disclaimer: I do not own, or make any claim to own Jessie, James, Butch, Cassidy, Mondo, Meowth, or Giovanni. many of the other characters I made up myself, if you have a copyright problem, please just email me instead of having your lawyer do it :) Any Comments or suggestions are welcome, all Flames are ignored :)
"We've already checked all the channels a million times.." James responded restlessly as he looked down at the .38 caliber bullet he was twirling in his hand. The bullet was standard issue ammunition for a team rocket handgun.
Meowth dangled his feet off the arm of a large recliner. He was lying face-up on Cassidy's lap staring at the ceiling with no particular expression on his face. He spoke as tranquilly as Jesse and James had ever heard him, "Things sure have been quiet around here lately.."
No one responded.. there was nothing to respond to. They all felt the same, but they also knew that having nothing to do was a lot safer than some of the strange missions they had undertaken the past few months..
Missions to break into government laboratory facilities, stealing equipment and records; not just the normal pokemon poaching plans.. Butch even once remembers stealing some sort of genetic material from a sector34 lab and nearly being caught in a laser defense grid. Lucky for him, Cassidy had been able to shut it off from the control room, or he might not be here right now..
Butch continued to rub his chin contemplatively. No one could guess what he was thinking about, nor did they generally care, so no one paid attention as he quietly announced he was going for a walk. Mondo simply nodded to Butch as he rolled out of the way of the door. Butch was once again free..
He stopped to briefly look at the outside of their headquarters... The walls were coated with flaking white layer of paint, the tin roof made loud noises whenever an acorn fell off the majestic oak tree that stood next to the building.
Butch smiled as he turned and walked past the two seat bench swing that hung from the apple tree closest to the house and out into the orchard.
Many times he had walked down the path between the apple trees in back of the team rocket quarters, but most of those times Cassidy had been with him. They used to come out here when they needed to talk about something. However, Cassidy seemed different lately...
Ever since the laser grid incident in the sector34 lab she's seemed withdrawn.. Her and Butch didn't talk much anymore, and she never came with him on the long walks he took down the path through the apple grove.. She still performed her duties well, and she still was getting along with Jessie fine, but Butch still had to wonder what could be wrong.
He and Cassidy had never been as close as Jessie and James. Jess and James tried to play it off, especially Jessie, who would still occasionally hit James. He wasn't the smartest team rocket agent, but he was always a loyal partner. However, Butch could tell just by the looks in their eyes what they really meant to each other.
Butch sighed, even super agents get lonely, and with the way Cassidy's been during the last few months, it was hard for him not to feel a little forsaken.
He looked up at the darkness around himself, the outlines of the path barely visible in the faint light of a crescent moon, and realized he'd been walking at least thirty minutes. He knew the apple grove went on for acres, he also knew that he was pretty far from the base, and that he should probably turn around and start walking back. As Butch was thinking about this, he noticed a faint movement in the shadows to his right. He immediately grabbed for his gun and a quick feeling of panic shot through him as he realized he'd left it with Cassidy and the others.. However, his anxiety quickly turned to relief as he saw an armadillo slowly totter across the path in front of him. Butch wiped his brow with the back of his hand and turned back towards base.
The walk back passed as quickly as the walk out had, Butch mainly thinking about what a relief it would be to strap his gun back to his hip, as he still hadn't completely resigned the anxiety he felt out in the grove.. He was forced to put his emotions aside, however, when he approached the base and noticed several team rocket vehicles outside, as well as a large black Lincoln Continental that he couldn't identify.
Butch easily recognized most of the people in the team rocket vans, after all, he had worked with almost every one of the team rocket thugs himself at some point in the past. He approached the base and waved to a thug he recognized as Rick. Rick didn't wave back, neither did anyone else. Butch thought it was a little strange, but let it go and walked in the front door of the small farm house that comprised the team rocket hideout.
He realized quickly whose black Lincoln was outside.
As he joined his partners in the main room he noticed Giovanni sitting on a large dark blue reading chair, everyone else sitting on the floor in a makeshift semi-circle facing towards him. Jessie James and Mondo turned to Butch as he entered the room, and he nodded to them as he crouched and sat down cross-legged on the floor next to Cassidy.
Giovanni seemed to have a small smile on his face... no, make that a smirk..
Butch asked the boss if he could re-explain what he'd gone over while he was outside.
Giovanni responded, his smirk now slightly more pronounced, that they were simply needed to go after Ash's collection of rare pokemon.
Butch thought this more than a little strange, after all, Jessie and James had trailed off of that mission and on to what seemed more important things years ago. However, Giovanni was the boss..
Butch nodded and said, "don't worry, I'll blow his head clean off" as he gestured with his index finger like the barrel of a gun.
Giovanni simply grinned at what Butch said and announced he would be leaving now. The team was to start their mission first thing in the morning. Everyone nodded and watched silently as the boss turned and left. No one spoke immediately after he had walked outside, in fact, no one spoke until the sound of Giovanni's Lincoln and the team rocket vans trailed off into silence..
"Why would we be going after him again?? Team rocket already has plenty of pikachu that we got in robberies years ago.." Jessie asked, apparently matching Butch's suspicion.
"Maybe Ash's Pokemon are special." James suggested with a grin.
"Oh, I'll give you special!" said Jessie as she backhanded James in the face.
The whole time this was going on Butch had gotten a bad feeling, starting with when the rocket thugs had ignored him outside extending to Giovanni's strange smirk..
"Guys, there's definitely something wrong here," Butch calmly said. Then added, "Think about it... Giovanni coming here, to tell us that we need to go after pikachu? I've only met him in person two other times in my life..."
The others though about this for a minute as their expressions darkened slightly. Butch was right, meeting Giovanni in person was like meeting Eddie Vedder, it just doesn't happen..
Butch went over to the chair that Giovanni had been sitting in and felt around under the bottom of it, suddenly he tensed up like a statue, and a cold chill went down everyone in the room's spine..
Butch stood up, the expression on his face was very serious. He held a small device marked by a blinking LED on the end of his finger. As he brought it up to his face he could make out a counting down timer...
7..
6..
5..
"GET OUT!!!" was all Butch Yelled as he dropped the device and dashed towards the door..
Almost everything he owned was in there..
However, he quickly forgot about his possessions, his mind turning to thoughts of his friends..
Butch turned around in a circle screaming out their names. All he heard in reply was silence..
Then Butch saw something moving on the ground about 10 yards to his left and slightly behind him. It was James. Butch ran over and extended a hand to help James up and noticed that he was shaking as he stood.
"You ok?"
Butch heard Jessie exclaim, "help me up!"
"I'm all right" James said as he helped Jessie get to her feet
"You look a little shaky there.." said Butch as he looked at the black marks on the back of James' team rocket jacket..
"I'll be fine" James said and turned to Jessie.
With James and Jessie seemingly all right, Butch turned his thoughts to Cassidy.
"Looking for me?"
Butch smiled as he turned around and saw her standing behind him.
"Heh, I'm glad to see you're still alive, Cassidy," Butch said and gave her a small hug
"Hah" Cassidy said as she shoved him away, "you didn't really think you'd outlive me, did you?" Butch just laughed a little.
Meowth and Mondo soon joined the group as well.
"What do we do now, all of my things are gone.." Jessie said with a sad look on her face.
"Well, the first thing I think we better do is get out of here.. I don't know why Giovanni did that.. However, I do know that I don't want to be around when his clean-up crew arrives.."
Everyone agreed and they walked over to the white team rocket mini van that had carried them so many times..
"You know what's going on with her?" Butch was a little surprised, he hadn't realized that Mondo was still awake.
"Nah.."
"It's strange you know.. you guys used to seem a lot like Jessie and James to me."
This made Butch think for a second.. Everyone thought of Jessie and James as lovers, even though they didn't show much affection in public. Butch had never thought of him and Cassidy as anything more than good friends and partners.
"Maybe that's the problem" Mondo seemed to answer Butch's own thoughts.
Butch didn't reply, Mondo was wrong most of the time. Butch still knew anything was possible though..
"Where are we going James?" Butch asked from the back seat.
"I'm heading to the nearest friendly place I know," replied James.
"Friendly to team rocket?"
"No.. friendly to me... I don't think we can say we're even team rocket anymore.."
James' words rang deep in Butch's ear.. "not even team rocket anymore" He knew James was right of course..
"Maybe we better stop before we get there James, make sure we don't have any tag-alongs."
James nodded at Butch's suggestion and pulled into the next rest area they came to. Butch Got out and scanned the wheel basins of the van first... nothing there.. he opened the engine compartment and was checking when he noticed someone walking up out of the shadows in a black cloak.
Butch moved his hand to the handle of his gun as the large figure approached, but he didn't draw it.. The figure finally was close enough that Butch could see it was Billy, another team rocket agent.. Billy wasn't wearing his team rocket uniform, instead he was dressed in all black.. Billy greeted Butch quietly as he approached, but Butch kept his right hand on the handle of his pistol...
"I know what's been happening to you tonight Butch..." Billy said.
Butch just replied with a stare.
"I've come to try to help you..." billy continued on, "you must realize there's a tracker hidden in your van by now, or I couldn't have found you so easily..."
Butch just continues to stare and noticed James covering him from under the van.. "Why would you want to help us?" Butch finally said to Billy.
"Because there's something evil going on at team rocket labs.. and I know you guys may be the only ones that can stop them.. that's why Giovanni needed you out of the way."
Butch thought about it for a few moments and decided it certainly couldn't hurt to let Billy tell him where the tracking device is.. "Ok, where's the tracking device?"
Billy smiled and grabbed a screwdriver, "it's in here.." he opened the front driver side door of the van, unscrewed a speaker cover, and unhooked the speaker.
"What are you taking it out for?" Butch asked looking at Billy incredulously.
Billy just grinned wryly, "it's the speaker itself.. it gets it's power to transmit your location from the wires going to it."
Butch was dumbfounded, he knew he wouldn't have found it...
"Now that you're not going to have Giovanni tracking your van, you can relax a little. However, don't fall out of pace; death is just a half step behind you.." Billy said. "Oh yeah.. and to find the answers to what's going on, you'll need to do some searching."
"Where?" James asked as he'd gotten out from under the van.
"Go back to the labs you broke into, find out what it was you stole.. it'll clue you in."
Butch just nodded.
"It's all in your hands now.. we won't meet again," Billy said as he began to turn away.
"Why not?" asked Butch.
"Because, I'm already dead.." Billy said as he walked away.
"What do you mean? Is Giovanni after you too? You can get away like we are.. You know where the transmitters are!"
"I can't run." Billy replied, and added turning to pace backwards and face them as he walked away, "They already know I helped you, so you'd better start moving now."
"Hey, you could come with us," James suggested
Billy smirked slightly at the suggestion, "There's a transmitter embedded in my brain... like I said I'm dead already.. you must go, I don't know of anyone else with a shot to win.." and with this Billy turned and disappeared into the darkness.