Chapter Thirty-Seven: Unholy Matrimony



Meowth's POV



I can't stop thinkin' of what that Celebi said to me. "Your loyalties will be tested. Your friends will be endangered. And your fate will intersect with that of many others. But what happens from this point onwards depends largely on what you choose."



She told me to choose wisely. But is that for my sake, or others?



Well, I know what this cat wants to do. All these twerp Pokemon are goin' straight to the boss, courtesy of Hitoshi and I.



We enter the police station an' head to one o' the back rooms. Jess and Jim are there, talkin' to the Boss over a video intercom. He sounds pretty upset.



"How do five children and a Skitty," the Boss says, "escape a pair of Mewtwo in a locked room?"



"Because it wasn't a Skitty at all!" Jessie exclaims. "It was a Mew in disguise, and it managed to teleport them out while one of the humans distracted the Mewtwo and caused them to quarrel. You gave us faulty Mewtwo!"



"If there is anything wrong with the pair of Mewtwo I gave you, you can always send them back for reprogramming," the Boss says. "But those children know too much. Hunt them down, and turn them in to Sabrina at Saffron City as soon as possible. Is that clear?"



"Yes boss!" Jessie and James say. In stereo.



"Um," James says a moment afterwards. "How can we catch them if they can teleport away?"



"Figure it out," Giovanni says. "That Mew is a wild card that we can't afford to let slip away. Find it, catch it, and keep it from teleporting. And for Arceus's sake, don't lose any more mechs when you do it."



James gulps, and I can smell his nervousness. "R-Right! Right, Jess?"



"Oh, don't you worry, we'll think of something," Jessie says, givin' James a look that says he will think of something, if he knows what's good for him. "You can count on us!"



"Excellent. Now, if you'll excuse us, Jessie, I'd like to have a word with James in private."



Jessie flinches. "What? What makes him so special? Anything you say to him, you can say to me!"



"I could, yes. I simply don't want to. Who's the boss around here, Jessie?"



Jessie sighs. "You are, Giovanni."



"Exactly. And right now, the boss wants to speak to James in private."



I gulp. Hitoshi and I have been sort of hanging out outside the room waiting for our turn, but now it looks like we'll be waitin' even longer.



Jessie storms out, so ticked off that she doesn't even notice us. Well, that's rude.



Hitoshi looks at me as if to ask what we're gonna do now. I put a claw to my mouth and motion for silence. "Ssh! Dis could be impoitant for Jimmy. I wanna see what da Boss says."



James stands in the room alone. "So... what's the occasion?"



"Funny you should put it that way." The boss looks through the papers on his desk and pulls out a photograph. "Are you familiar with a woman named Jessiebelle?"



James ain't facin' my way, but I can smell his fear. "What?! Who told you about her?"



"Come now, James. You know you weren't going to keep your family connections a secret forever. Marrying into her family would mean all the wealth you'd ever want, and a place of power in the Kanto region. Why wouldn't Team Rocket take interest in your affairs?"



"You're not serious," James says weakly. "You don't know her the way I do. That woman is a menace! She's colder than a winter Froslass! All she wants from me is my family fortune and someone to order around!"



"That may well be. Regardless, she has offered a princely sum of money to our organization in exchange for our help in securing her marriage to you, plus her assistance in the conquest of the Kanto region." He pauses. "Of course, if you don't wish to live under holy matrimony, we could always arrange for a convenient 'accident' to happen..."



I can hear Jimmy's stomach turn from all the way out here in the hall. "Just stop already! I ran away from wealth and fortune to escape that woman, and I'm not marrying her no matter how much money you offer me! Not even for a moment!"



"Come now, James. We're talking billions of dollars here. Enough money for us to do anything with. And it's not like you'd be forced to live with her. As I've said, we have ways around that."



Not if I know Jimmy, we don't. Of course he's not gonna say it to the Boss's face. But Jim ain't one for murder, even for someone as nasty as his ex-fiancee. I can see his twitch. It ain't gonna happen.



Hitoshi scoffs, stepping through the open doorway. "I say, marry the witch and take the money. She's not gonna need it where she's going. Now will ya move outta the way? I've got some Pokemon to wire over."



James gives Hitoshi a betrayed look, like he can't believe some dumb twerp kid just walked in on his crisis. But he backs away from the device an' lets Hitoshi speak.



"I've obtained a number of rare and valuable Pokemon for you, Boss," Hitoshi says proudly. "Be careful with them -- one of them is a Mythical with the power to create portals to anywhere. It could easily cause a mass escape."



"Dishonor on you!" a voice says from inside one of the Poke Balls. "Dishonor on your Tauros!"



"Excellent," Giovanni says. "Deposit them into the transfer machine and wire them to Saffron City. We have a... situation there that requires every Pokemon we can get."



"Situation?" James asks, curious.



"Remember that Rayquaza Attila and Hun captured? The one I let you borrow to search out the Jade Orb?"



James nods.



"Sabrina's received intelligence indicating that Lance Blackthorn of the Elite Four is going after it. That he has the Jade Orb, and he has a method of breaching our Light Screen shield."



"Well, that's not good," James says.



"Damn straight it's not. We need every agent available to protect Rayquaza's holding cell. Not you, James; we need you and Jessie to hold down the fort in Mintale. Hitoshi, I'll expect you and that Meowth to show up pronto in Saffron. Is that clear?"



"M-me?" Hitoshi asks, shocked. "I'm just a kid!"



"You weren't too kid to burn down that library and steal all those Pokemon," the Boss says. "This has the potential to be a Code Red emergency if the Elite Four show up. We don't have a choice here."



Hitoshi's clearly way over his head here. He doesn't want to show it, though. "R-right!" he says. "You're the boss, Boss!"



"Excellent. You and that cat head over to the teleportation pad in the next room and set it to Saffron's gym. We need you over there faster than two shakes of a Mincinno's tail."



"Why me-owth?" I ask. "Why can't I stick wi' Jimmy?"



"We need your help with a... special project of mine," the Boss says carefully. "Something classified."



Well, when he puts it that way... "Got it, Boss!"



Hitoshi looks down at me and scoffs. "Never seen a Pokemon excited to be part of Team Rocket's little 'special projects.' You're sure you know what you're getting into?"



"Can't be worse than what Jimbo gets," I mutter under my breath, glancing towards Jimmy. He looks pretty torn up inside.



"You're just going to leave me, Meowth?" James asks, eyes welling up with tears. The guy's so melodramatic, but this time, I ain't sure if he's jokin' or not. Not after what I've seen.



"Chillax, Jim," I say. "I'll be back before ya can say 'Meowth! Dat's roight!' Dis's gonna be easy!"



"'Easy' as a wild Rayquaza massacre," Hitoshi mutters. "We're going to be eaten alive."



Meowth, that's probably right.