Title: To Denounce the Evils of Truth and Love
Author: Shadowcat
NOTES: This is the third story in what I am officially calling my "Team
Rocket Motto" Series, because every story is based upon lines of the
Motto. It began with the story, "To Protect the World From
Devastation", which I never intended any sequels to. Then, some time
later I had ideas and wrote "To Unite All Peoples Within Our Nation".
This is the third installment in what has become kind of a saga, and I
am writing a fourth, which I plan to be the final piece in the Series.
This story proves just as strange as the others, a strange story
continually getting stranger. It is a MUST to read "To Protect the
World From Devastation" and "To Unite All Peoples Within Our Nation"
before reading this story, otherwise you WILL be totally lost, not
knowing what the heck is going on. This story HEAVILY hinges on the
other two.
DISCLAIMERS: None really this time, except for the standard "I don't
own 'Pokemon', yada, yada, yada..." and the violence, but that is
covered with the PG-13 rating. This one has no religious-type scenes
like the second story of the Series did, so I really don't even need to
put that kind of disclaimer here. Just remember that the entire saga
takes place in an alternate universe...
"It's the end of the world as we know it!
It's the end of the world as we know it!
It's the end of the world as we know it!
And I feel fine!"
_R.E.M.
Chapter 1 - Wounded Wanderer
The youth wrapped the tattered blanket around himself as a feeble
defense against the ravenous icy wind. He coughed violently as he
struggled to breathe. His had been a narrow escape, leaving him still
living, but in great pain. He continued struggling Eastward on his
arduous journey toward the city. He had to make it there, for it was
his only hope of survival.
He knew an old friend was there, she was whom he sought. The youth
trudged onward, watching the air freeze his short breaths. The ground
was bare of snow, for the air was dry and it was, in fact, too cold to
snow.
The young man collapsed. He staggered as he picked himself up. He
knew that he did not have long. A wild Arcanine howled in the night.
The youth noted the mournful song, for Arcanines had been becoming
increasingly rare.
The young man made a few more aching steps eastward before he fell
again, too weak to rise. He saw them in the distance, that which he
had wandered through the night seeking, the lights of Jamestown.
"Ohoooohooooo" came a low groan from the young man's lips as he found
himself, to his great astonishment, alive.
"He's waking up!" a youthful, male voice said and the wanderer quickly
felt the light sensation of fingers upon his forehead. Then he heard a
feminine voice whisper to him.
"Mondo? What on Earth happened to you?"
Mondo slowly opened his eyes only to find himself staring up into eyes
of deep sapphire, eyes that he recognized.
"Jessie?" he asked; "I've been...I've been...looking for you.
S-something important to..."
"Shhh..." Jessie hushed him; "You need to rest now. Whatever it is you
want to tell me needs to wait until you've regained some more of your
strength."
"I'm cold" Mondo whispered.
"Ash! Quick! Fetch him another blanket!" Jessie commanded.
Ash's pet Arcanine had found Mondo last night, unconscious and nearly
frozen to death just outside of the city where he, Jessie, Brock, and
several other people were staying. Ash had caught a wild Arcanine
shortly after he, Jessie, and a friend named Xavier were broken out of
the Rocket Survivors' prison in Magenta City by a band of courageous
souls led by the former Survivalista soldier Brock.
This was after Jessie had betrayed the Rocket Survivors by taking the
vaccine and the cure for "The R" to the people of the world. Jessie
lived with Brock's Band now, a group made up of "Barbarians" and some
people from "The Remnant of the Saved".
The Band lived in a city that was remote from all other "civilization",
the small city of Jamestown. The burg was originally named Jamestown
long before the disease known as "The R", invented by the higher
echelons of the old Team Rocket, had swept through human and pokemon
kind, laying waste to the world. The world's three main Factions of
survivors and the splintered bands of the two other minor Factions
usually re-named the old cities once they took possession of and
occupied them.
Former Magenta City, for example, became Rocket City once taken by the
Rocket Survivors. Brock's Band left Jamestown with its old name, upon
the insistence of Jessie, who had become the Band's co-leader. This
was in honor of her dear friend who had perished from "The R", James
Rochester, her partner from when she had been a member of the old Team
Rocket in the "Old Days".
Ash had captured a wild Arcanine a few months ago. It was celebrated
throughout Jamestown, as it was the rarest of events, for Arcanines
were almost extinct. Only a few dwindling strands of them remained in
the hills and mountains. Perhaps the only things more rare were the
sights of a Vaporeon or the powerful Persian that the Rocket Survivors
had, probably the very last of its kind in the world. Jessie had
captured and vaccinated the great cat, only to have it taken from her
by her former "friends".
Ash had let his Arcanine run free the previous evening for some
much-needed exercise. The great fire-dog had returned with a severely
beaten and half-frozen young man on his back, Mondo, who lay in a bed
before Jessie now.
Chapter 2 - A Grim Message
Over the next three days Mondo began to recover. He told Jessie his
story.
"A-After you left, Jess, I decided to leave, too. Your actions got a
lot of us thinking, thinking about what the Rocket Survivors were
really about. I gained the courage to leave after the prison-break."
He continued; "I found that you were living in old Jamestown and I set
out to find you. On the way a few of my 'comrades' found me, they-they
called out their pokemon on me, I barely got away. Th-they took my
Ditto from me."
"You're safe now;" Jessie soothed; "With me."
"I have urgent news;" Mondo coughed; "A new strain-a new strain of
'The R' has been discovered. A mutated version of thof the virus. A few
have gotten sick from it and some have died. The Rocket Survivors-have
made a cure for the new strain. They p-plan to let the new virus run
its course, and some have even been working to spread it, and keep the
cure under their control like with the original strain. We-we've got
to stop them!"
Jessie's face went pale from the shock; "This is...true?"
Mondo slipped into unconsciousness. He was still very much weak from
the rigors of his journey. Jessie pulled his wool blanket up against
his chin and slowly stepped out of the small house that was her home.
She stood at the edge of the rise that composed the little domicile's
front yard and looked out upon the wild, largely barren plain beyond.
She pulled her denim jacket tight around her as the wind whipped at her
loose hair. A few scant snowflakes wafted upon the sharp breeze.
Jamestown was in a cold land, a cold, barren land. Winter was in its
depth. Sometimes snow would fallall, usually the air was too dry.
*Perhaps it will snow today;* Jessie thought. She celebrated the
event of a snowfall, it brought back memories of slightly kinder times.
Chapter 3 - The Persistence of Memory
Brock strode up beside Jessie and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
He and Jessie pulled each other into a tender kiss.
"Brock, I've got news;" Jessie began.
After Brock had freed Jessie from the Rocket Survivors' prison and
they continued the mission that Jessie had started to spread the cure
for "The R" to the remains of the world, the one time Pokemon Gym
Leader and the red-haired former Rocket had begun a romantic
relationship.
For a long time, Jessie refused Brock's advances toward a
deeper-than-friends relationship. She held on to the memory of the one
with whom she had shared the deepest of friendships with, fearing that
she would somehow betray his memory by loving Brock upon such a level.
Jessie reminded herself that James was dead. He was in another place
now, and at peace. She had not had any mystical visitations from him
since that one at the prison moments prior to her rescue from it.
Jessie missed her old friend sorely, but she had to move on with her
life. Brock told Jessie that he had always found her attractive, but
that he had never had any feelings for her until recently. This was
because of how she used to act, snotty, superior, selfish, and cruel.
Her life had drastically changed in the past year-it was a year ago
that Jessie had taken the recipe for the cure from the Rocket Survivors
and set out cure the world of the dread disease. She had changed.
Brock himself went through many fundamental changes in the last nearly
four years since "The R" had been accidentally unleashed upon the
earth. He once journeyed, learning to become a Pokemon Breeder. After
people began dying of "The R" he had joined the Faction known as the
Survivalistas and had become a ruthless soldier for them, vengeful
against any that had once belonged to Team Rocket and filled with hate.
Then Jessie met him in an old Pokemon Center when he had finally
caught "The R" himself and was dying. She had saved his life, and he,
in turn saved hers from the Magenta City prison and her execution that
her former comrades had planned.
"That young man that Ash's Arcanine found last night;" Jessie told
Brock; "Is an old friend of mine, from Team Rocket, Mondo. He says
that...the Rocket Survivors have discovered a new strain of 'The R' and
are speeding its spread! He says that they have a cure...it will
be...it will be like the original 'R' again unless we stop them!"
"Can you trust Mondo? Him being from Team Rocket?" Brock replied.
"Mondo was always our kindest member. Very innocent. Many of us back
in the 'Old Days' wondered why he had joined. He claims to have left
because of me...and his wounds are because he was attacked by some of
the Rocket Survivors and escaped. I believe him. His condition speaks
for itself."
Brock left Jessie to call an emergency meeting of some of the best
fighters in his Band. Jessie went back into the house to watch over
Mondo. The brown-haired youth slept peacefully. Jessie stared down at
him. She remembered how he had assisted her, James, and Meowth when
they had been chasing Ash, Brock, and Misty around trying to steal
Ash's Pikachu so long ago.
Ash and his friends never knew about Mondo, for he never did the part
of showing off that Jessie and James did. He often helped Jessie,
James, and Meowth out of scrapes and tended to their injuries after
they had experienced a difficult landing after "blasting off" as they
often did. Mondo also frequently fixed the team of three's meals and
secured hotel reservations in the cities that they followed Ash to.
Mondo was always a sweet kid, a very sweet kid.
Jessie smiled softly as she remembered the huge crush that the awkward
youth used to have on her. Jessie remembered the pain that she had
felt at seeing his joyful, youthful innocence shattered when "The R"
hit the world in its force. She recalled the old Rochester Estate, the
first base of the Rocket Survivors, how horrible it was for both of
them watching many friends die. Mondo took upon himself the sorrowful
task of chiseling the names of those who perished into a stone
memorial.
The last name to be etched into that stone before some of the
Survivalistas had raided and burned the Estate, forcing the Rocket
Survivors to leave it, was that of James Rochester.
Mondo eventually erected another stone, in Magenta City. Jessie
sighed. Mondo had gone through so much for being as young as he was.
She too.
Chapter 4 - Unlikey Ally
That afternoon, Brock came in to see Mondo. Ash and his Arcanine also
came. Mondo had awakened and, after Jessie had explained Brock's Band
to him, was ready to talk to their other leader.
Mondo related the story of how Oakley, leader of the Rocket Survivors,
had discovered a new strain of "The R" among his ranks. He had his
Head Scientists worked upon an effective cure and vaccine for it. This
new strain was found to be spreading through some of the Barbarian
bands near Old Magenta City and Oakley had sent out some of his Rocket
agents to spread it further.
"Which leaves us right where we were before...where I was before, when
I was with the Rocket Survivors;" Jessie heaved a powerful sigh.
"Oakley still strongly believes in The Dream;" Mondo said.
"To Denounce the Evils of Truth and Love...to create that new world
order..." Jessie added.
"With him as its head;" Mondo continued; "He really thinks that the
world will be better once CLEANSED of those who will not accept the old
Rocket ideals. He does not care how he accomplishes the goal, he is as
ruthless as Giovanni was."
Mondo told Jessie, Brock, and Ash that he knew where Oakley kept the
cure, in Magenta City's old Poke National Bank Tower. Jessie
remembered its layout well, but Mondo drew a map for Brock. He did not
know which room the cure and the samples of the new disease were kept,
just that it was somewhere on the Eighth Floor.
With the information that Mondo gave him, Brock gathered some of his
top people and formed a plan to raid the old Poke National Bank the
following night. Mondo wanted to join the raid, but was told that he
needed to stay in bed and recovered...under the care of the Head Nurse
of Brock's Band, Joy Happenstance.
The next morning, Brock, Ash, a young man named Jonathan and a young
woman named Mia piled into a jeep with Jessie at the wheel. It would
take about a day to reach their destination and they would arrive by
starlight. As Jessie started the ignition, she popped an ancient tape
into the tape player. She sped the vehicle as the strains of music
played.
"That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes an
aeroplane..."
Ash pulled up his jacket close to his ears in the back, a guard
against the sharp wind. The music blared on.
"It's the end of the world as we know it! It's the end of the world
as we know it! It's the end of the world as we know it! And I feel
fine!"
After two hours of driving through the wild desert plain, trees began
to appear. Jessie stopped to rest for a small stretch. Everyone got
out of the jeep to stretch their legs and Ash went into the woods to
release his Arcanine from its pokeball for a short training session.
"Meeeeoooooowwwthhhhhhh...." Jessie heard coming from behind a rock.
"Meeeeooooooowwwthhhhhh...." She heard it again. She looked behind
the large gray boulder to find a hurt cat-pokemon!
"Brock! Come quickly! I just found a sick pokemon over here!" she
cried.
She bent down and gently lifted the weary Meowth into her arms.
"Me-owth?" it looked up at her for a brief moment; "J-Jess?"
"Huh?!" Jessie looked at the cat in surprise; "Meowth? Meowth of Team
Rocket?"
"Jessie?"
"What happened to you, Meowth?"
Jessie put the cat down and backed away a few feet, for the last time
they had met, Meowth had helped Charley and Rosa capture her when she
had abandoned the Rocket Survivors. Her former friend, she did not
trust anymore.
"I'ms not wit da Rocket Survivors anymores, Jessie. Is left dem and
took to da wild. A wild Growlithe found me. Dat's why yous found me
like dis!"
"Why did you leave?" Jessie asked, after signaling to Mia to get the
First-Aid kit out of the jeep.
"Deys got dat Persian now, the one dat Charley took from ya. Turned
out dat she was female. Dey wanted to make me evolve sos I could breed
wit her, 'cause she's da las's da last Persian on Earth. She would have
Meowths, a' course, but then dey planned to evolve dem too! Da Rocket
Survivors want powerful pokemon. Persians are powerful. Dey've been
trainin' her ta be mean-a killer! Is didn't want ta evolve an' I
didn't want ta breed wit her! Dat's why I left!"
Mia came swiftly with the First-Aid kit and treated Meowth for his
injuries and his exhaustion. Jessie noted the dreamy look upon his
face as he was being cared for-it was similar to that time when the cat
had met a Pokemon Healer named Cassandra.
Ash and Arcanine came back from the forest and everyone once again
piled into the old tan jeep to continue the trip to Old Magenta.
Brock took the wheel for a stretch to allow Jessie a break from
driving. She sat next to him in the front, cradling Meowth in her
arms. He told her what he knew of the plans of the Rocket Survivors,
which was unfortunately no more information than what Mondo had known.
Then, he spent most of of the journey in sleeping.
Chapter 5 - The Raid
It was 12:30 in the morning when Jessie, Brock, Ash, Mia, Jonathan,
and Meowth arrived in the outskirts of Magenta City. The entire
metropolis was dark, as the people of the cities used their electric
generators only when deemed necessary. The majority of
Faction-controlled cities shut off the power at 10:00pm. The remains
of what once the Faction known as the Survivalistas often had their
Chartreuse City lighted all night, due to the fact that they owned a
large number of electric-type pokemon.
A great billboard posted at the city entrance read "Welcome to
Beautiful Magenta City: The Place Where Everything's Rosy!" "Magenta
City" was crossed out with a great swath of blood red spray paint, the
words "Rocket City" replacing it. The "Where Everything's Rosy!"
phrase was replaced with "Welcome to the New Order."
Mia, who was driving the jeep at this point (having switched places
with Brock at the last rest-stop), pulled the jeep into a deserted lot
two blocks away from the Poke National Bank building. They slowly
trekked toward the dark tower rising ominously in the dark winter sky.
Jessie led all to the building's most inconspicuous entrance. The
little group approached like a pack of wolves or a pride of lions on
the hunt, with much stealth.
"Quiet as a mouse...;" Meowth whispered as they entered the wide
corridor on the former bank's first level. The poke-cat insisted upon
the joining the mission, rather than staying back with the jeep,
despite the fact that he had to limp a little from his still fresh
wounds.
"Mondo said the cure and the virus were somewhere on the Eighth
Floor;" Jessie whispered; "We should split up to look for the lab.
Ash, you and Brock take the North stairwell. Jon and Mia, take the
East one. I'll take the West with Meowth."
Brock and Ash quickly began ascending the he stairway on their North
side. Up to Floor 2, then to Floor 3, and onward, a long, long climb.
"I can't get over it;" Ash whispered; "How strange it all is."
"Me neither;" said Brock; "These last couple of years...our
dreams...gone. I, in love with Jessie of Team Rocket. Us fighting for
a cure to a plague...twice!"
"I miss Misty;" sighed Ash; "If she were here...what would she think
of all that's happened? All that time on our Pokemon
Journey...she...never knew how I felt about
her...not...until...un-until...the End." Ash let out a soft sob.
"Here we are;" Brock said under his breath, labored from the swift
climb; "The Eighth Floor."
Meanwhile, Jessie and Meowth squinted in the pale moonlight that was
filtering through the windows in the West section of the Eighth Floor.
None of the five humans had brought flashlights, for they could draw
the attentions of any Rocket Survivors keeping guard in the bank tower.
Jessie found a room among several with signs above the doors that read
"Lab". She cautiously opened the door and stepped inside.
Inside, she and Meowth found things that were standard to a makeshift
laboratory, steel tables, microscopes lined upon counters, and other
such things. What caught Jessie's eye was the wall of cages. Most of
them were empty. In one of the bottommost cages was curled a tiny
Ekans.
"You poor ting..." Meowth whispered upon seeing the snake; "Is never
been in dis room before, but Is know dat dey've been doin' things to
pokemon. Is never knew exactly what, but it's bad!"
Jessie found an empty pokeball in her jacket. She carried them in
case she was to ever find any wild pokemon. Old empty pokeballs were
remarkably easy to find, left behind in houses and businesses when
their owners had met their fate at "The R's" terrible hand.
The young woman placed the ball near the wihe wire mesh of the cage, close
enough so that its internal sensors picked up the presence of the
pokemon and the weak little Ekans was drawn inside in a beam of hot red
energy. Meowth stared at something above his kneeling friend and
gasped.
"Jessie, look!"
Jessie's eyes trailed up to the hall of cages, she too, stared
stunned.
"Wheezing?"
James' old pokemon looked in a dire condition. Its two faces looked
even more woeful than they had normally always been. Jessie recognized
it as her old friend from a few distinctive markings, including a few
old battle scars. It was a bittersweet reunion. Jessie was glad to
see Wheezing, yet appalled at how weak he was, that the Rocket
Survivors had been doing tragic things to him.
She repeated the act she had preformed with the Ekans, with another
empty pokeball. Both creatures could be properly cared for back in
Jamestown.
Chapter 6 - The Escape
Suddenly, Jessie and Meowth heard a gunshot! It was coming from the
North!
"Brock! Ash!" Jessie gasped as she and Meowth ran out into the
corridor! Just then, Mia and Jonathan ran from a hallway to the East
and Ash and Brock came running from the North! An orange glow emanated
from the North, it was Ash's Arcanine fending off some Rocket members!
"Run!" Ash shouted; "We've been found out! And they've got guns!"
"Mia?! What happened?!" Jessie cried, seeing a great open gash down
her left cheek traveling down to her neck and her shirt soaked in
blood!
"Delilah!" she said.
"Da Persian!" Meowth exclaimed as he recognized the name that Oakley
called his vicious pet.
Arcanine came bounding down the hall, the cue that he could hold off
those approaching no longer! The group of six flew down the corridor,
which was ever filling from smoke from the carpet that Ash's pet had
ignited! They rushed down stairs, desperately hoping to reach the
first floor beoor before their assailants caught up to them!
"Jessssssieeee...." A voice out of the obscurity hissed; "the
traitor!"
The six of Brock's Band had just descended the first-floor flight of
stairs and were racing toward the entrance from whence they had come.
Another gunshot rang as they heard footsteps of their pursuers fast
approaching! Jessie felt a white-hot pain and a warm wetness in her
left shoulder, she continued running but her legs failed her. Brock's
well-muscled arms caught her before she hit the floor.
Jessie glanced at her side to see a dark substance soaking her clothes
and dripping onto the floor in little splatters.
"She's been shot!" Brock shouted.
"We've got to get out of here!" Jessie croaked, already feeling
lightheaded from the blood loss.
Ash grabbed her by the legs and he, with Brock hauled her quickly down
the corridor and outside into the moonlight.
"Oh no! She's bleedin' bad!" said Jonaid Jonathan.
The world before Jessie's eyes blurred. The voices of her friends
became incoherent and everything that she saw became bleary. She was
inwardly struck by how the sky reminded her of the famous Van Goth
painting, "The Starry Night".
Then she felt a sudden fall in elevation and pressure upon her wounded
shoulder. The group had reached the jeep. Brock and Ash laid Jessie
down in the back and Ash sat down next to her, putting pressure on her
shoulder with both his hands to stop the river of blood that was slowly
emanating from it.
Mia crouched down beside Jessie, across from Ash, assessing her
condition. Jonathan sat up front next to Brock, who was at the wheel.
Ash had called Meowth as well as Arcanine into pokeballs, convincing
the cat that they needed to free up room for Jessie. For the first
time in his life, the freedom-loving feline willingly consented to
going inside one of the red-and-white orbs.
Jessie felt it becoming much difficult ult to breathe. She could hear her
rasps among the garbled conversation of her companions. Jessie's
vision began to get darker. One more painful struggle for a breath.
*At least I'll see James again* entered her mind.
*No!* her soul screamed; *Not now! I...have
to...complete...the...mission* Impressions ran through Jessie's mind
in rapid, incoherent succession; *I...must...stay...hang on to
stop...the virus!*
The darkness grew steadily around Jessie as she slowly surrendered to
it.
THE END...for now.
Author's Endnotes: This ain't over yet! Stay tuned for "To Extend Our Reach to the Stars
Above"! I have many strange and wonderful things planned for it!
*Devious smile*
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