Grapes, Blueberries, and the Ditto Master Part 1
By: LeaMarie F. Rocket
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Then only things I own when it comes to this story are Jon and the plot. Although I'm not sure, I even want to own that. J/k.
While walking down the path, Ash was very distracted. He couldn't get his mind off of one the coolest, prettiest trainer he'd ever met. All of a sudden, Misty appeared next to him. "Ash! I've been yelling at you for the last few minuets! Why didn't you answer me?" She demanded.
"I...um...er...was...um...a little distracted." He admitted blushing a bit.
"Oh, and may I ask what you were so distracted by?" Misty asked.
"It's none of your business." Ash said, looking more embarrassed. Misty shrugged her shoulders. If she decided later that she wanted to know, she'd ask Brock. He seemed to have the inside scoop on the entire group. Brock, who had been watching this entire scenario play out, felt a little sorry for Ash. He could tell that Ash was thinking about his crush again. Ash had told Brock how he felt about her. But Ash, not having the guts to tell her, was forced to only thinking about her.
***
Meanwhile, Team Rocket (our heroes) were watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. "Jessie, I'm hungry!" James whined.
"James, if you don't shut up, you'll be eating leaves." Meowth hissed. James sighed. Jessie looked over at James. He was so cute sitting there holding on to the tree limb. The only thing that she really disliked about him was that he whined all the time. But that was him. Ash and co. where a few feet away from them.
"Meowth, hit the music." Jessie ordered. Meowth pushed the play button on the tape player. "Prepare for trouble!"
"And make double!"
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unit all peoples with in our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"Extend our reaches to the stars above!"
"Jessie!" Jessie jumped out of the tree with a perfect flip.
"James!" James did the same thing.
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth that's right!" Meowth landed in between the two Rocket members.
"Hand over the Pikachu!" James ordered.
"Never!" Ash cried, clutching Pikachu to him. James produced a small remote control. On it, there was the inevitable red button. He pressed the button. A large net fell over the group. "Pikachu, thunder shook!" Ash ordered. Pikachu attempted shocking the net. The only thing he ended up shocking was the group. Brock then decided to try his Vulpix.
"Vulpix, fire spin." He ordered. The ropes got hotter and hotter.
"Ow!" Misty cried, "That's hot!" She then decided to try Starmie. But Psyduck as always came out first. "Well since you're out here you might as well try water gun." She sighed. Of course, the water gun was totally useless. Team Rocket stood by watching the entire thing. Nothing had worked of course. James's plan had worked perfectly. A first. Brock then remembered the small knife he carried with him. He pulled it out and cut the ropes. Team Rocket looked shocked.
"I didn't know he had a knife." James said looking at Jessie.
"Neither did I." She replied. As Brock climbed out of the net, his foot caught on the edge of it, tripping him. The knife that was in his hand went flying, towards Jessie. Jessie closed her eyes waiting for the pain to come. But a few seconds latter, she noticed there was no pain. She opened her eyes and saw Persian blue hair in front of her. James had jumped out in front of her. He collapsed to the ground. Jessie dropped to her knees. She scooped James's head into her lap. He was gasping for air. Jessie stroked his hair.
"Jessie." He whispered.
"I'm here." She replied. He smiled.
"Don't...blame...him...I...can...identify...with...clumsiness..." James gasped.
"Why?" Was all she could say.
"I...love...you..." He whispered. Jessie stared sobbing.
"I love you too, James." James closed his eyes for the last time.
***
Brock stood there in shock. I killed him. He thought to himself. I killed a man. Brock, along with the rest stood watching Jessie. Misty made the first move. She walked over to Jessie and gave her a hug. "It's ok." Misty said softly to her. Jessie said nothing. Brock thought something.
"Maybe he'll come back as a ghost and help you." He suggested.
"What!? A grape?! Why would he come back as a grape?" Ash asked, totally confused.
"Yes, Ash." Misty said irritably. "He's coming back as a big purple grape." Jessie looked thoughtful.
"No. He'll come back as green grape. Like the color of his eyes..." She started sobbing harder.
"Well all things considered it could be worse." Ash said.
"And how's that!" Misty yelled.
"He could come back as a blueberry." Misty and Brock fell over anime still.
"A Persian blue blueberry!" Jessie sobbed. Meowth sat by watching Jessie. Jessie, had always been the strong one in the group. Now he felt like it was his turn.
"Jessie, I called the ambulance." He said softly.
"It's too late for that." Jessie whimpered. Meowth went with his animal instincts. He got down on all fours and walked over to Jessie. He put his front paws on her arm. Jessie looked down at the feline pokemon. Meowth decided not to tell her that he had called the boss and told him what had happened.
***
Then next day Jessie and Meowth were called in to see the boss. They were let in right away. That surprised both Jessie and Meowth. Usually when they went to see the boss, it took hours to get in to see him. The room was dark as usual. "Jessie, I heard about your loss. I know it must be hard for you. I've assigned you a new partner."
"A...new...partner?" She asked in shock.
"I've found that it's more efficient to work in groups."
"Yes sir." Jessie relied sadly.
"Meet your new partner at the Pokemon Center."
"Yes sir."
"You may go now."
"Yes sir." Jessie and Meowth walked out of Team Rocket HQ. "You told the boss didn't you?" Jessie asked Meowth.
"Yes. I didn't know that he'd give you a new partner." Meowth said sadly. Jessie
didn't say anything.
***
"Brock, are you alright?" Misty asked him. "You've barely said a word
all day." Brock looked over at Misty.
"I'll be fine." He said quietly. "I just want to be alone for a while." Misty nodded her head and walked away.
"How is he?" Ash asked her.
"He says he's fine. But I don't think he's ok." She said. Ash looked over at Brock. He hadn't said anything since James's demise.
"I think he blames himself for what happened." Ash said.
"It wasn't his fault." Misty responded. Ash just nodded his head. He wished he could help his best friend. He'd been there when he needed cheering up. But this was different. Ash's problems had been with girls, not with killing someone.
***
When Jessie and Meowth arrived at the Pokemon Center, they saw the new guy. Meowth looked over at Jessie to see what she'd do. The guy walked over to the duo. "Are you Jessie?" He asked.
"Yes." She replied coldly.
"My name's Jon. I'm your new partner." He explained. She nodded.
"Did da boss tell ya what our assignment is?" Meowth asked.
"Yeah, he said we were to keep working on the same thing you were doing before." He said. Jessie sighed. Couldn't he even change the assignment? Every thing's going to be a reminder of him. Jessie thought to herself.
"Well then we'd better go see if we can catch up to the brats." Jessie said. Jon looked stunned. She's the leader of the team? Jon thought to himself. He decided that he'd ask Meowth about it later.
***
"It looks like this is as far as we're going to get tonight." Meowth announced. Jessie nodded and set her stuff on the ground.
"Who should cook?" Jon asked.
"You probably should." Meowth said. "I don't think you want fur in the food, and Jessie can't boil water to save her life." Meowth said, expecting to get hit by a fan or a mallet. Jessie was distracted. She started walking off towards the woods as if in a trance. "Jessie?" Meowth asked, more than a little worried. "I'm going for a walk." She said to no one in particular, and headed off towards the woods.
***
Jessie couldn't explain why she had to go into the woods. It was like something was calling her. After she had walked for a while, she sat down on a log. It was so peaceful. A soft wind blew a strand of hair out of her face. Jessie released the rest of the tears she'd been keeping in. "Don't cry." A soft voice said. Jessie looked around in a small panic. She felt a hand rest on her solder. She looked over to see who it was. She could barley make out his shape. But she knew it was James.
"James?" she asked.
"It's me in the flesh. Well not in the flesh." He said with a laugh. Jessie sat there. She didn't know what to say or do. "Don't worry." He whispered sitting down next to her. "You don't have to say a word if you don't want to." Jessie buried her head in his shoulder as she started to cry.
"James, why did you do that?" she demanded. "Why did you jump in front of me?" James looked down at her.
"I thought we talked about this earlier. I love you." Jessie raised her head.
"I love you too." James pulled her into a hug. They just sat there for a moment.
"You should head back. Meowth will be worried about you." James said gently.
"I don't want to leave you." She whispered.
"I'll always be with you." James said. Jessie nodded her head.
***
Brock was still shook. He could still see the knife flying out of his hand, And the look of horror and pain on Jessie's face. "Brock? Brock?" Brock snapped out of the trance.
"Did you say something?" He asked Ash, who had been trying to get his attention.
"Yeah, I said Misty and I are going for a walk. You want to come along?"
"No. That's ok. I think I'll just hang out here for awhile." Ash looked a little worried but said nothing.
"Pika chu pikachu pika." Ash looked down at the small pokemon.
"He wants to know if he can stay here with you." Ash said translating what Pikachu had said.
"Yeah sure that's fine." Brock said not really caring. Ash looked at Pikachu and shrugged. He turned towards Misty who was standing at the edge of the clearing.
"He said he just wanted to hang out here." He told her.
"I wish that there was a way for us to help him." Misty said softly.
"Yeah." Ash said not really paying attention to what she was saying. Instead, he was staring at her.
"Wow. She looks great tonight. Ash thought to himself. I wish I could tell her how I feel." Misty noticed that Ash was looking at her.
"Why is he looking at me!? Misty thought nearly freaking out. Is there something wrong with my hair!? Do I have something on my face!?" "Ash? What are you looking at?" Ash snapped out of the mini-trance.
"Um...I was just looking at your hair. It looks different. Did you do something different with it?" He asked nervously.
"I'm using a different conditioner." She suggested, looking a little nervous.
"It looks nice." He said. Misty smiled. Neither of them noticed that they were getting off the subject of why they had wanted to go for a walk. As they continued down the path, Misty stepped into a small hole. She tripped and fell to the ground. "Are you ok?" Ash asked as he went to help her up.
"I think so." She suddenly gasped and dropped to the ground. "My ankle, I think I twisted it." She admitted. Ash stood there for a moment.
"You probably shouldn't walk on it." He said. Misty was seriously thinking about saying 'well duh.' But, refrained from doing so. He reached down and picked her up. Misty put her arms around his neck, and sighed. She had wanted him to do this for a long time. Ash couldn't believe that she hadn't hit him. He had wanted to hold her in his arms for a long time. About half way back, Ash got too tired to walk much further with out fear of dropping Misty. He sat her down on the ground and sighed. "I need to take a break." He admitted, as he took a seat next to her.
"That's ok. I'm in no hurry." She replied, smiling at Ash. Ash looked every where but at Misty in fear of blushing. Ash suddenly knew that he had to tell her how he felt, even if she didn't feel the same way.
"Misty?" He asked not looking at her.
"Yes?" She suddenly felt nervous.
"Misty...I...um...well..." He stopped looking around. "Misty I love you!" he exclaimed. Misty looked totally stunned.
"You...you...love me?" She asked. Ash nodded his head. Misty looked into Ash's eyes. "Ash, I love you too." She said. Ash wrapped his arms around her. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. When they broke the kiss Misty whispered to Ash. "I've wanted that to happen for a long time."
"Me too." ***
"Meowth, who's suppose to be the leader?" Jon asked.
"You mean are you suppose to lead or is Jessie?"
"Yeah."
"Jessie's always been the leader. Why?" Meowth asked suddenly getting suspicion.
"I always thought the guy was suppose to lead. That's the way it is with Cassidy and Butch." Jon said.
"That's another thing. You don't want to mention them around Jessie. I don't really know what happened between Cassidy and Jessie, but Jessie hates her guts." Meowth said. Jon nodded his head and continued cooking.
"I just want to get these things straight. Who did the cooking?"
"James did." "Who did the dishes?"
"James."
"It sounds like James did everything around here." He said out load.
"No, Jessie and I set up camp, got the maps out, keep track of the money and got the food." Meowth explained. Jon nodded his head and continued cooking.
"I guess it's a good thing I took cooking classes." He said. A few minutes later Jessie walked into camp. She looked like she'd been crying, but she looked like she felt better.
"Is dinner ready?" She asked.
"Yep." Jon answered.
"You look like you feel better." Meowth replied. She almost told him what happened but she changed her mind when she saw the new guy looking at her.
"Yeah, I do feel a little better." She admitted. She decided that if she told they'd think that she'd gone crazy. They ate their dinner in silence. They climbed into there sleeping bags and went to sleep. Jessie dreamed of James.
***
Brock sighed once again. He couldn't relax. He still felt horrible about James. He wished he could do that over again. But since he couldn't turn back time, he'd have to find some other way to make it up to Jessie. If there was a way to make it up to her. Pikachu sat next to him silently. "I
wish there was a way to make it up to Jessie." Brock said out load. Pikachu sat there listing to him. "How could I have been so clumsy? I haven't tripped over anything since I was little!" Brock sighed softly. Pikachu hopped softly up onto his lap.
"Pika." Was all the little mouse said. Brock smiled at him.
"You know I can't understand you." Pikachu nodded his head. Ash and Misty walked into the camp. They were holding hands. Brock sighed. They finally admitted their love for each other. Jessie and James did too. Just before... He couldn't let himself finish the thought. He looked at Ash and raised one eyebrow. Ash smiled and gave him thumbs up. Brock smiled and nodded. They
got ready for bed. Brock curled up into a small ball in his sleeping bag.
***
"Brock!" Brock looked around curiously. James stood before him.
"What are you doing here!? You're dead!" Brock cried.
"Yeah, I'm dead. What of it?" James said. "I just came to tell you that there may be a way to make up for what you did."
"What is it?" Brock asked nervously.
"At Cinnabar Island, there's a device, that can bring things back to life. It's brought back some extinct pokemon. It might do the same thing for me." James explained.
"What do I have to do?" Brock asked.
"Just tell Jessie. She'll do the rest. She's a lot smarter than you'd think." James said smiling. Brock nodded his head. "I have some stuff I have to do. Remember all you have to do is tell Jessie." James said slowly fading.
***
Brock snapped awake. He remembered the dream. Dream? It didn't seem like a dream. It was just a dream wasn't it?
***
The next morning when Jessie woke up, she noticed everything was ready to go. "I thought I'd get everything ready so you could just eat and then we could go after the Pikachu. I really don't see why we're after it. I mean Pikachu's aren't rare." Jon said.
"You've never seen this pikachu in action." Meowth remarked.
"What do you mean?" Jon asked.
"This pikachu has the electric attack of a Raichu." Jessie said.
***
"Hurry up you two. The kids will be coming any second." Meowth howled. And almost on cue, the kids were walking up the hill. Ash and Misty in the lead holding hands. Pikachu as usually was on Ash's hat.
"Get ready." Jon said.
"Prepare for trouble." Jessie said sadly when the kids came close enough.
"And make it double!" Jon hollowed.
"Who's the new guy?" Ash asked the others. They just shrugged.
"To protect the world from devastation." Jessie sad so softly that if they didn't know the motto by heart they wouldn't have understood what she had said.
"To unite all peoples with in our nation."
"To de... Oh I can't do this!" Jessie yelled running off. Everyone looked after her in shook. Brock slowly started walking towards were Jessie went.
"I'm going after her." He said. No one made a move to follow.
***
Jessie stopped running when she got to a small clearing. She sat on the ground crying hard. She was crying so hard that she didn't hear Brock walk up behind her. "I have to tell you something." He said. Jessie looked up at Brock. "I had a dream last night, that James told me to tell you to go to Cinnabar Island. He said something about a device that can bring back pokemon to life, or something like that." Jessie looked at him.
"Cinnabar Island?" She asked. Brock nodded his head. Jessie stood up. "Thank you." She said as she walked away. If James had said Cinnabar than she was going to Cinnabar. Jessie walked towards were she'd left Meowth. She had a feeling she was going to need help. She saw Meowth yelling at Jon. It was obvious that they were losing, a battle against Ash and Misty. Their pokemon were working together, something Jon's pokemon had no intention of doing. They couldn't even attack at the same time. Meowth looked like he was about to throw a fit. Jon looked totally confused. He couldn't figure out why his Ivysaur couldn't beat Ash's Bulbasuar, or why his Seaking couldn't beat Misty's Goldeen. She sighed. She knew she'd have to battle. She looked down at the four pokeballs on her belt. She wondered if Wheezing would obey her. It wasn't her pokemon but it had obeyed her before. She'd need his help getting away with the plan that was beginning to form in her head. She yelled to Jon and Meowth. "Come on you two! We have better things to do than hang around here!" Meowth looked shocked. Jessie was looking happier. And she was taking charged, once again. Meowth ran up to her, Followed by Jon.
***
Misty and Ash couldn't believe that they were giving up that easily. "They must be up to something." Ash said. Misty nodded her head. They called their pokemon back. Pikachu came out from under Ash's hat.
"Pika?" He asked the couple.
"I don't know. They just left." Ash said.
"I wonder were Brock is." Misty said.
"I hope Jessie didn't hurt him." Ash told her. Misty nodded her head. "We should wait for him." Ash said. Misty looked at Ash. He looked worried.
"Don't worry. I'm sure he fine." Misty said taking his hand. Pikachu and Togepi started laughing. They didn't know that they had finally admitted their feelings for each other. Misty saw that they didn't know and decided to take the opportunity to shock them. She leaned forward and kissed Ash on the cheek. Pikachu and Togepi mouths opened in surprise. Ash looked at Misty and smiled. "What was that for?"
"You look like you need it." She said, not telling the whole truth.
"Pika chu pikachu chu pika." Pikachu said softly, to Togepi. Togepi nodded his head. Misty was his mother by imprinting, but Ash was the first guy it'd seen. And he saw how they looked at each other. He knew when they fought that it was just lover's spats, but still to see them kiss...
"Misty, I think you surprised them." Ash said looking at the two still very surprised pokemon.
"I think your right." Misty said. Just then, Brock walked into view.
"What did I miss?" He yelled to them.
"A small battle. Nothing big." Ash yelled back.
"We should get going." Misty said.
"Yeah." Ash said. The three-pokemon trainers and two pokemon headed out.
***
Jon couldn't believe that this was the same person he'd met yesterday. She seemed to ok. And she also seemed to be on a mission. He'd gotten into her way once already, and he'd learned the hard way, not to get into her way. Meowth never seemed to get in her way. He jumped and dodged out of her path as thought his life depend on it. It probably did the way she acted.
(Tiki's comment about the hole: "Oh for God's sakes holes just pop up every were don't they?!"
My comment about small clearings: Theses things are just everywhere aren't they?
My comment about the woods scene: Feel free to start gagging at any time.)
Special thanks to Phantom for pointing out a lot of my mistakes.