Part 3

For the next part we needed a costume change. I was dressed as an Officer Jenny. I thought of having James dress as one too, it was one of his better looks. But the twerps might have noticed that we don’t look as alike as the Jennys do. So James put on a male police uniform instead. It was really quite charming; when I see him like that I don’t miss the Team Rocket uniform as much as I thought I would.

We got into a look-alike police car and drove around until we saw the twerps. “You’ll need to come to headquarters,” James told them. “We have information about your stolen Pikachu.”

We knew we’d never get Ash by himself again, but all three kids dutifully got into the car. They didn’t give us a suspicious look. In my more unkind moments I’ve called James dumb but these kids have him beat.

We drove them to an office building and led them into a small office. When we got in I had an almost irresistible urge to recite a motto, but I restrained myself. Instead I turned to Misty and put handcuffs on her. James trapped Ash and Brock behind a desk and called out Koffing to do a sludge attack in their eyes. While they were immobilized, I went around collecting Pokeballs.

They were screaming various remarks along the lines of “Team Rocket scum!” so there was not point in trying to explain that I didn’t want to steal their Pokemon, just keep them from fighting us until we had the gyarados. Anyway they were hardly likely to believe that we had turned into “good guys”. And in fact we hadn’t, quite.

Naturally Ash Ketchum managed to wriggle out from behind the desk. I turned to him and yelled, “Just give us that Gyarados!”

He shouted, “You want it, well here it is!” and threw a pokeball.

Then I almost panicked. That gyarados was barely going to fit inside this office. James retained some presence of mind and dragged me to crouch under the desk as the huge Pokemon came out of the pokeball and began thrashing around.

I could hear Ash, Misty and Brock yelling and running down the hall. Ash had evidently realized how unwise letting a gyarados loose indoors had been. He still had his other Pokemon, I hadn’t taken any, but evidently he didn’t think he had anything to battle the gyarados. I could hear the sounds of destruction, both here and far off in the building. Evidently the gyarados was using its psychic powers as well.

Finally we heard silence. We got out from under the desk and hoped we would be able to leave the building. The hallway was intact and we were able to run out the front door. We could see the gyarados heading toward the beach with Ash, Misty, and Brock following it. Ash was attempting to call it back into its pokeball but it wasn’t listening.

Finally we reached the beach. I was remembering what Sabrina had said about tidal waves. We had almost reached the beach, and I was about to suggest to James that we run the other way instead.

Suddenly the gyarados turned and stopped. I felt a tingling in my mind as if it were trying to communicate with me psychically. Judging by the weird expressions on the twerps’ faces they were feeling the same thing. But I was shocked when James walked forward and stood in front of the gyarados.

He stood there for about ten minutes, silent and still. Finally the gyarados turned and headed for the ocean, and James began walking back. The twerps surrounded him with questions and accusations but he just shook his head. I came forward and raised an eyebrow. “No tidal wave?” I asked.

“No tidal wave,” he replied. “But it doesn’t want to live with people.”

“So why’d it talk to you?” asked Ash belligerently.

“Maybe his head was the emptiest,” said Misty.

I wanted to hit Misty in the head for that one, but I didn’t bother.

James just shrugged. “I have hidden depths,” he muttered.

He looked up at me again. “We destroyed an office building. We might as well be back with Team Rocket.” Then he started giggling.

I started giggling too, but then the twerps started yelling at us about their Pokemon. Ash said he was going to go to the Jennys about Pikachu. Finally I argued them into a truce. They would get all their Pokemon back and not blame us about the gyarados, which clearly hadn’t ever belonged with Ash. (I left out any mention of our employer or how we had known about it in the first place.) We didn’t have any legal right to any of their pokemon of course, but all we were asking in exchange was that we not be attacked. I felt very strange about giving them back their Pokemon, but our days in Team Rocket were finished after all.

We took them back to the motel room, where Pikachu cheerfully jumped up on Ash’s shoulder. The twerps glared at us and left and the worst part was over.

Then we called Sabrina. She wasn’t angry over the gyarados escaping rather than being hers. When she said the important thing was to get it away from Ash she had meant it. She was a bit perturbed about the office building, but no people had been hurt and it hadn’t been us who had released the gyarados. She declared the job a success.

Then James and I sat with Meowth and Meo. “So,” said Meowth, “you finally beat the twerps!” We all started giggling.

“How should we celebrate?” asked James.

Meowth lifted up a bottle of ketchup. “We could order hamburgers!”

“What happened to the other two bottles?” I asked.

“Don’t ask,” said Meowth. “That rat has a real thing for ketchup. I mean, I like ketchup too, but straight out of the bottle?”

I shuddered.

The next morning Meowth and Meo went back to the apartment. James and I were married in front of a judge that afternoon. James hid his disappointment at the simplicity of the wedding, but I did wear my best dress and he had a very nice suit.

We considered an elaborate hotel suite but in the end we went back to the same motel room. James took me in his arms and kissed me, and I whispered, “You know something, I’m terrified of this wedding night.”

He looked at me and smiled. “Me too. But it’s easier for me to admit stuff like that. But you know, maybe it’s time you starting believing that everything’s going to be all right.”

And he was right.