It was dark out and after a tour of the, I guess you could call it a sanctuary, they all went for lunch, Ash took a plate and excused himself, and Jessie and Meowth were eating like there was no tomorrow.
But James seemed to be lost in thought the whole time, he even lost his appetite and excused himself, much to Nanny and Pop-Pop's worry.
James walked out to the balcony to think about what they told him, about Growlie, when he left he told Growlie to stay so that he could stay safe, but now he isn't sure.
As he walked out he finally noticed that Ash was already sitting in a chair and was feeding his Meowth, and when he opened the door they both looked at him.
"O-oh sorry I was just looking for a place to clear my head," James explained as he wanted to turn back.
"Well, you're free to stay here, after all this is more your place than mine," Ash said as he pointed to a chair next to the one he was in.
"R-right," James said as he took a seat, "Thanks."
For a bit, they all stayed in silence for a while until Ash broke it, "Something on your mind?"
James looked down and sighed, "I guess," then he looked up, "As a child, I had a Growlithe named Growlie, and my parents were overbearing trying to mold me into the perfect tool to carry on whatever gets them the most money. And that included a forced marriage, but you should know they never intended to let me inherit anything."
"And Growlie was there for me every step of the way, he was my only friend during those years, but then the stress became too much, and I ran away. I wanted to bring Growlie with me but I was afraid after all I didn't even know what I was going to do,"
James rubbed the temple of his head as he looked into the sky, "Well since then I met Jessie and Meowth, and though things aren't perfect at least I can have fun, but I just found out how bad Growlie has it back home and I just don't know what to do,"
James put both of his hands on his face as he sighed helplessly, "If I tell Nanny and Pop-Pop then they'll find out I'm a part of Team Rocket, and if I tell Jessie and Meowth they'll just say we should go and take Growlie then rob the place anyway."
Ash stayed silent for a moment acting like he was in thought as James fixed himself, "Sorry I-"
"Tell me something, do you even like your parents?" Ash cut in
James took a moment to think, "I don't like them, but I don't hate them."
"Then what's the problem with that, if you don't have any feelings then you should just break in, with how you described them it seems like they'll just laugh it off."
"B-but I- they are still my parents, and even then what if Nanny and Pop-Pop find out what if-" James was cut off when a Meowth jumped on his head.
Ash looked at him, "Say what you feel, it's not rude it's called being real."
James took Meowth off his head and clenched his fists, "Fine, you want to know what I really feel, I hate it, I hate my parents, I hate what they put me through, and I hate my 'fiancée', and I think I hate myself for leaving Growlie there in the first place."
"So, what do you want to do now?" Ash asked.
James looked up, "You know what, yeah I don't care anymore, I WILL get my best friend back, even if I need to fight my parents and that She-devil they want me to marry."
James got up and shouted off the balcony, "YOU HEAR THAT GROWLIE, I'M COMING BACK FOR YOU!"
When he screamed a certain small clown who was looking down at him secretly, she lost her hold and slipped, falling from her hiding spot, and falling on the unsuspecting James on the head.
James almost fell over with the sudden shift on his head but he stayed up and managed to catch the little thing before it fell, revealing a Mime Jr.
Mime Jr. looked at James and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head as James, "Mime Mime~"
James looked confused and looked up, "Where did you come from little one?"
At that moment the screen door opened as Nanny walked over, "Sorry to interrupt but I thought I heard screaming is everything alright?"
James sheepishly turned towards Nanny, "Oh no it's nothing I was just meeting this cute little one."
James held Mime Jr. in front of him as she mimicked his movements, "Mime!"
Nanny smiled, "Oh it's good to see that you two met each other, well I wanted to say that dessert is ready if you would like some, your secretary sure seems to enjoy it."
"Secr- Oh yeah, of course, I'll go in a moment," James said with a smile
Nanny saw this and smiled seeing that James seemed to be doing alright again, so she turned to go back inside leaving them on the balcony.
–
{Next morning}
Everyone was already preparing to leave, Jessie and Meowth were already in the balloon Ash was waiting outside for James.
James was inside thanking Nanny and Pop-Pop for everything.
Pop-Pop chuckled, "Now James there is no need for that you'll always be welcome here, just as long as you promise not to turn out like your parents." he said jokingly.
James nodded, "Of course, and I promise I'll come visit again, but I have some things I need to take care of."
Just as James was talking Mime Jr. peaked out holding something behind her back as she ran to James, getting everyone's attention.
"Oh, hello there, yeah sorry but I need to leave but it was nice to meet you," James said as he knelt down.
Mime Jr. pulled out the thing behind her back, it was a shrunken Pokeball that she handed to James.
"A Pokeball," James said as he took it and it grew in his hand, Mime Jr. didn't waste a moment as she jumped up and high-fived the button and went inside, 1 Roll, 2 Roll, 3 Roll, *Ding*.
James held Mime Jr.'s Pokeball as Nanny and Pop-Pop chuckled, "Seems to me like you found yourself a good buddy in Mime Jr."
"Yeah it seems to me like Mime Jr. saw that you were a good person so she wanted to go with you," Nanny said.
"Mime Jr…" James said as he smiled and looked back at the two, "Alright I promise I'll take good care of her."
"I don't doubt it," Pop-Pop said
James and Ash hopped onto the balloon and started flying away as they waved goodbye, and when they were a few feet in the sky James turned around but heard something.
"Be sure to take care of Growlie!" Nanny's soft voice rang out.
James felt shocked for a moment but shook it off, concluding that he was just hearing things, when suddenly a voice he couldn't imagine talked to him.
"Alright so where to to get back to base," Jessie said looking at the map.
James quickly took it and smiled, "Don't worry about it I'll drive well get their lickety-split." as Mime Jr. jumped on his shoulder and copied him.
As the balloon flew away Nanny and Pop-Pop watched it fly, "I still think we should have told him we knew,"
Nanny chuckled at her husband, "And where's the fun in that, besides as long as James is happy, it doesn't matter if he is a CEO or part of Team Rocket."
"True, I guess we just need to wait and see,"
—
{Meanwhile with OG}
Ash was sleeping peacefully after coming back, he didn't even bother putting Venusaur back in his ball so they were both sleeping in the room.
Meanwhile, in his pocket the Keystone was still slightly wet from the liquid he found in that cave, when the Keystone became dry it began glowing softly in the dark, but no no one was around to see it as it dimed down.
But after it began slightly pulsating, as some of the cracks began to close.
–
{Location: Cerulean Cave secret lab}
The cave was almost unrecognizable, Mewtwo's power was destroying the cave and Articuno and Moltres were managing to suppress Mewtwo with their combined effort but even that wasn't protecting the cave itself.
"Now Beedrill [Pin Missile] over and over again!" Giovanni commanded, he needed this battle to end quickly before the cave collapsed.
Beedrill or rather Mega-Beedrill directed all 5 of his needles toward Mewtwo as he was zipping around, then he began shooting out small needles from each needle on his body making it look like machine gun fire.
Mewtwo saw this coming and raised its arm to block the needles from getting to its face, but that didn't protect the body as the needles turned it into a pin cushion, then Mewtwo waved its hand as a wave of Psychic energy flowed out using [Psycho Cut].
As the blade of Psychic energy approached Beedrill Sierra called out, "Houndoom!"
Houndoom jumped in the way of the blade, and although the Psychic energy didn't hurt him the recoil did as he got launched back, Mewtwo was about to continue his assault when suddenly Cliff and Arlo called out.
"Moltres [Heat Wave]"
"Articuno [Blizzard]"
Moltres and Articuno appeared behind Mewtwo as they flapped their wings releasing a wave of two different extreme temperatures at Mewtwo, who put its arms up to defend itself.
If it was one at a time Mewtwo could tank it but due to them hitting it at the same time, Mewtwo experienced a painful Thermal shock as it had to fall to its knee and hold back a painful scream.
Sierra took the chance, "Houndoom [Dark Pulse]!"
Houndoom raised his jaw and charged a dark orb as then he shot a beam towards Mewtwo who couldn't defend itself.
Although Houndoom was probably the least threatening out of the 4 Pokemon battling Mewtwo, but [Dark Pulse] and all the other attacks beforehand have begun to show signs of slowing Mewtwo down.
Without its legendary resistance, it was quite literally death by a thousand papercuts as he defended from the real threats. And that wasn't even mentioning that half of its current power was being suppressed.
Mewtwo clenched its teeth as it slammed its foot on the ground using a [Earth Power] at Houndoom causing a pillar of earth to slam into his stomach and stop the [Dark Pulse] giving Mewtwo room to breathe.
Mewtwo counted back from the attacks from Moltres and Articuno and sent a [Hurricane] to counter the combined attack from the two, although it couldn't overpower it it did give Mewtwo time to charge up.
Mewtwo clenched its hands together and charged a dark purple ball, then it started to expand and became the largest they had ever seen it was at least twice as tall as Mewtwo itself, then with the intent of throwing it at the two legendaries Mewtwo flexed his wrist and…nothing.
Mewtwo felt its body grow weak as the Shadow Ball diapered into nothing and behind it was Mega-Beedrill with his stingers glowing purple.
Mewtwo fell face first as Giovanni's footsteps ran through the cave, "You left yourself wide open and weakened with that last attack."
He then got in front of Mewtwo with Beedrill flying down next to him, "That toxin is something special Beedrill prepared, it's strong enough to even poison a champion rank Steel type, but with you, I think you'll only be paralyzed for a few hours."
Then out of his Pocket Giovanni pulled out a familiar Purple Pokeball, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Then he dropped it onto Mewtwo dragging it inside.
Inside the ball, Mewtwo looked around at the empty space with nothing but his memories with him, but then his vision began turning dark and he felt something crawling on him, Mewtwo's memories began to darken.
Mewtwo in a panic tried to extend its hand out but it couldn't, whether because of the poison or the darkness on its body, its vision felt like it was being corrupted as his memories began to be suppressed including those with Amber.
Then everything went dark.
-
The Pokeball clasped shut as Giovanni picked it up and held it, "Good work everyone, but this is just phase one of this plan, as for you 3, go back to Cinnabar Island, your rewards will be waiting for you there, and good luck."