Chapter Text
He wished he could fall asleep and never wake up.
Opening his eyes was the last thing he wanted to do. Muffled voices in the background were white noise, beckoning him back to unconsciousness. His limbs lay straight, flat out on the ground, dead weight keeping him from moving.
He formed no coherent thoughts, only acknowledging input from his senses and immediately forgetting it moments later. Grass and dirt scratched his arms, but the forest floor was a luxurious bed to his tired self.
Sleep came ever closer to him, and his thoughts grew less coherent. Consciousness almost caused him to completely slip away.
Something stabbed inside his head. The worst of the pain was gone as soon as he registered it, but a dull ache remained, stealing away any hope of falling asleep. With great effort, he drew his hand to his forehead.
The voices began shifting from calm white noise to louder, unintelligible words, aggravating his headache. He heard two distinct voices, but he couldn’t make out any specific words.
The pain cleared some of the fog from his mind. While he wanted to go back to sleep, there was a task he needed to complete that day, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was.
He needed to get up, but the idea of opening his eyes felt almost as painful as his headache.
“Hey!”
The voices started to sound coherent.
The first voice he heard belonged to a woman. “If you don’t wake up soon, I’m leaving you here. I’m not risking jail because of your laziness.” The more he heard, the more agitated she sounded.
“You’re da one who got him knocked out!” The second voice was more indignant than angry, and had a distinct accent.
"That's not important right now,” the woman replied.
Were they talking about him? Who were these people? These voices felt distinct enough that, had he heard them before, he would have remembered them, but neither sounded familiar.
“James! If you don’t wake up right now I'll make you regret it!”
The tone registered before the words did. The woman intimidated him; he hoped he wasn’t the one she was yelling at, but the ‘wake up right now’ part suggested that his fear might be true. Uh oh.
The voice with the accent spoke again. “I think he moved?”
“He better have.” Something poked him hard in the shoulder, and he had a feeling it was the angry woman. “Open your eyes!”
At this point he was pretty sure these people were talking to and about him, and he should probably respond. These people were strangers, though. Could he trust them? He didn’t even know these people’s names; who knew what their intentions were?
Maybe he should listen to the woman and ‘wake up’, if only to get some information.
While opening his eyes was still very low on the list of things he wanted to do, he did it anyway. The light blinded him at first; it took a second for him to register what was in front of, or rather, above him.
Two faces gazed down at him: a woman, who the angry voice likely belonged to, and a Meowth. The other person he heard was nowhere in sight. Both of them wore the same expression of worry mixed with annoyance.
The woman made eye contact with him, then looked at the Meowth. “See, he’s fine. Let’s go back to the balloon.” She stood up and turned to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re goin’?” It was the other voice from earlier, but it came from the Meowth of all things. The woman paused.
Wait, what the hell?
The Meowth noticed his shocked expression, and more worry began to show on its face. “What’s the matter?”
The only thing he thought to say was the obvious. “You can talk?” His voice cracked a bit; he must not have used it in a while.
The Meowth just stared at him.
He had no idea how to respond to that, so he didn’t.
The forest floor finally began to feel uncomfortable to lie down on, so he pulled himself up to sit cross-legged, noticing but not fully processing that there was a mental conversation happening between the people in front of him.
The woman stepped back over to them and knelt on the ground again next to the Meowth. “Yeah, and? Meowth’s been able to talk since we met him.” She gave him a once over. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but we have work to do.”
She stood up again, and this time, Meowth didn’t stop her. Both he and the Pokemon watched as she walked away, clearly determined to do whatever ‘work’ she mentioned.
Meowth looked at him. “James? What’s goin’ on?”
He had heard them mention a ‘James’ before, but this time begged the question: “Is that my name?” It did feel familiar.
Meowth gave him another wide-eyed stare and muttered something unintelligible to himself. “Yeah…” He turned towards the direction the woman walked in, then back towards James, and then toward her again. He started shouting. “Jessie! Get back over here!”
They waited a moment. No response.
“Is Jessie the woman from earlier?” It was the only conclusion that made sense, but James wanted to make sure.
“Yeah.” Meowth sighed and placed a paw on his forehead. “Do ya not know who you, or we, are?”
James considered the question. He hadn’t done much thinking since he woke up, but when Meowth brought it up… “Uh, no, I guess not.” He thought about it some more. “I might have seen Jessie before, but I don’t know her. And I've definitely never met a talking Pokemon.”
He couldn’t remember anybody at all, actually. He had a feeling he knew what was going on, but he didn’t want to admit it to himself yet.
Meowth spoke again. “Do ya remember what you were doin’ before you got knocked out?” James shook his head, and Meowth sighed again and spoke slowly. “So ya have amnesia. Great! Wonderful.” He looked back in the direction Jessie had left and called her name again.
James didn’t know how to feel about this. As of then, he knew nothing about his life or memories, so he didn’t exactly miss them, but he almost felt, for lack of a better term, empty. He had no family or friends that he knew of. He wouldn’t know them anymore.
After a moment, Jessie returned in view, stalking over to them with her arms crossed. Nobody said anything until she came over to them.
She shot Meowth a glare. “What?”
“Don’t give me attitude, you caused this,” Meowth replied. “Look what you did to poor Jimmy.”
This was her fault?
She turned her glare to James, who had to keep himself from flinching. “Caused what? He looks fine.”
“Yeah, but he don’t remember nothin’. Your blastoff gave him amnesia.”
“My blast-” She cut herself off, looking from James to Meowth. “Amnesia?”
“Yep.”
Jessie looked back to James, almost studying him. He held her gaze for a moment, then looked away. She paced in circles, not saying anything.
James turned to Meowth, speaking quietly. “What’s a blastoff?”
Meowth shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
“You remember nothing?” Jessie stopped pacing and got on one knee to be on James’ eye level. “There’s not one single thing or person you can think of?”
James didn’t look away this time. “Well, I already told Meowth you look familiar.” She frowned at that. “But that’s it.”
“Hm.” Meowth side-eyed Jessie. “Maybe if somebody hadn’t pushed him into the path of that psybeam, ‘dis wouldn't have happened.”
“Hey! It could have been the blastoff,” Jessie countered. “Maybe he landed on his head.”
“That was your fault too…” Meowth trailed off, giving up the argument.
James wondered what brought about his memory loss. Meowth seemed intent on blaming Jessie, but she also felt very trustworthy. Sure, she was pretty intense, but she was the only person he had any fragment of a memory of. Even if she did cause his amnesia, he already found himself forgiving her.
“I have an idea.” Jessie shot to her feet and grabbed a Pokeball from her belt. “Come out, Dustox!”
Meowth watched as Dustox flew in circles above the three of them, then narrowed his eyes at Jessie. "What exactly is your plan here?"
"Well," Jessie backed away from them as she spoke, "If the psybeam caused his amnesia, maybe another one can trigger his memories."
While he didn't remember what a psybeam was, Jessie's logic seemed sound to James. He just hoped it wouldn't hurt.
Meowth spoke again. "Jessie, that's gotta be the worst idea you've had in a while-"
"Dustox!" Jessie ignored Meowth, pointing her finger towards James. "Use psybeam on James!"
James did not register what was going on at first, but luckily for him, Meowth stood between James and Dustox before the moth could make a move. Not that his small body would protect James very well, but it got the message across.
“Are ya out of your mind?!” Meowth shouted. “In what world is that a good idea?!” He walked over to Jessie and snatched the Pokeball out of her hand. Jessie glared at him, and in response, Meowth hissed something back, but he was too quiet for James to make out the words.
“‘Tox?” Dustox sounded confused.
Meowth sighed. “Yeah, no, don’t attack James. I'll explain all this later." Dustox returned to its ball. Meowth reluctantly handed it back to Jessie. "That was dumb, even for you.”
Jessie scoffed and clipped Dustox’s Pokeball back on her belt. “I don’t see why that reaction was necessary. If it was a psybeam that took his memories, it only makes sense that another one would give them back.”
“You of all people should know that's not how that works."
“Fine. Let’s just go back to the balloon.” Jessie started to head off, this time waiting for James and Meowth to follow.
Meowth sighed as she walked away, shaking his head.
“The balloon?” James asked Meowth. He had other questions after that whole fiasco, but this was probably the most likely to be answered.
“You'll see," answered Meowth. He started walking towards Jessie, beckoning for James to follow. "It’s a work of art if ya ask me.”
They walked in silence for a while, to the point where James was convinced Jessie was lost and just bluffing when she said she knew where she was going. He was proven wrong, though, because they eventually arrived in a small clearing, and in the middle sat a hot air balloon shaped like a Meowth’s head.
James paused at the edge of the clearing to get a good look at the balloon. Jessie kept walking towards it, but Meowth waited for James to process his situation.
Meowth stood in front of James and motioned toward the balloon. “Welcome to our humble abode.”
“Abode?” James looked from the balloon to Meowth, then back to the balloon with renewed interest and confusion. “You live here?”
“We live here.” Meowth headed for the balloon, and James followed. “We’re too broke for anything permanent.”
This raised even more questions, but before he could ask any of them, Jessie threw a bundle at him. It startled James, but he was able to catch it. Upon quick closer inspection, he found it was a sleeping bag.
“You better get used to it,” she said, grabbing another bundle from inside the balloon’s basket. “I’m going to bed. We’ll try to steal Pikachu again tomorrow.”
James looked up from his sleeping bag. “We’ll steal what?”
“I’ll explain it later,” replied Meowth. He turned to Jessie. “We are not stealing Pikachu tomorrow. I think this warrants a day off.”
“Since when do we take days off?” Jessie unrolled her sleeping bag in a dramatic flourish, laying it right beside the wall of the balloon’s basket. “Amnesia is temporary, and the Boss has been expecting Pikachu for years. We can't slack off just because James hit his head.”
“James doesn’t even know who da Boss is!” snapped Meowth, crossing his arms. “How will he have any purpose? We at least need to catch 'em up to speed.”
James watched the exchange in silence. Since he had woken up, he had tried to pick up on any clues as to who he was, what his life was like, and who Jessie and Meowth were to him, but apparently he was not the best at critical thinking. All he knew then was that he lived in a hot air balloon with these people and they were trying to steal something.
At least they were nice enough, as long as he discounted the Dustox incident.
Jessie knelt beside her sleeping bag and held her head in her hands, exasperated. “Fine. We won’t work tomorrow, but we at least need to follow the twerps.”
“Deal.” Meowth’s response earned a nod from Jessie. “Good night, Jess.”
Jessie responded with a wave, not looking up from the bag she was rummaging in. Meowth climbed into the balloon out of James’ view. James wondered what food they had in there; he was starting to get hungry.
“Are you not going to eat anything?” A moment of silence passed before Jessie realized James was talking to her and looked up. “For dinner?” he clarified.
“Ha! I wish.” She went back to rummaging in her bag. “We can’t afford it right now. We’ll steal something when we get into town, don’t worry.”
Oh. That was not the response he wanted. James would have to ignore his hunger for the night. Also, again with the stealing? Not that he found any problem with it, even if he should, but it did make him more curious about his life.
Reluctantly, James unrolled and lay inside his sleeping bag on the opposite side of the balloon as Jessie. He wasn’t looking forward to sleeping here, but this was the norm for him. Jessie was right; he needed to get used to this fast.
Meowth peeked over the side of the basket. “Ya good down there?” He gave a thumbs up when James told him yes and dropped down into the basket again.
James debated saying goodnight to Jessie and Meowth. It was probably the polite thing to do, but the conversation had already ended, he didn’t really know them, and he didn’t want to be awkward. He decided to keep his mouth shut, drifting off to sleep to the sound of wild forest Pokemon.
James knelt on the ground and began to roll up his sleeping bag for the day. Hunger pains had woken him up earlier, and though he really, really wanted to complain, he kept his mouth shut. He had been making small talk with Meowth all morning, but he wanted to shift the conversation to something other than the newest cheap pizza chain and ask more questions about his life. One question in particular had been nagging at him since he woke up.
“What’s with the outfits?” While he had noticed the giant ‘R’ on his and Jessie's shirts the day before, it didn’t register how odd it was until then. Plus, he was ready to change into something else after sleeping in these clothes.
Meowth sat cross legged in front of James, leaning back on his arms. “They’re Team Rocket uniforms. They look like Halloween costumes to me, but you two seem to like 'em."
"Team Rocket?" Once again, Meowth's explanations only raised more questions than they answered.
Meowth sighed and looked up at the sky. "You have no idea how weird this is. You not knowin' about Team Rocket is like me not talkin'. It's a core part of who ya are."
James listened as Meowth explained what Team Rocket and their role in it was. According to him, they were a trio of criminals within the organization, and someday they would become rich. He liked the sound of that. Meowth seemed very passionate about impressing their 'Boss', which James could do without, but everything else sounded pretty great.
"So we just travel around stealing stuff?" asked James. It sounded too good to be true.
His enthusiasm must have shown on his face, because Meowth stifled a chuckle. "Well, we have been chasin' 'dis Pikachu for a while. That's our main gig. But we steal other stuff too."
James nodded. "Why the Pikachu? Is it special?"
"Absolutely." Meowth sat up straight and rubbed his paws together, as if he was planning a crime right then. "Listen: 'da three of us are expert criminals." James leaned forward, intrigued. "Nothin' gets past us. Except for that Pikachu. It's the one Pokemon that has beaten us in every single battle we've fought with it."
"Wow." James moved from kneeling to sitting cross-legged like Meowth was. "What do we plan to do with it?"
"We'll give it to the Boss and get filthy rich." Jessie's voice startled James. She must have just entered the clearing while he was engrossed in his conversation with Meowth because she now stood right beside them with her Wobbuffet. "But that won't happen until we actually succeed in stealing the rat, so," she turned to Meowth, crossing her arms, "We need to get to work."
Meowth stood up to face Jessie. "We gotta figure out what happened to James first. He's not ready for a fight, and he's definitely not ready for a blast-off."
Wobbuffet turned to Jessie and enthusiastically shouted its name. James couldn't tell whether it was agreeing with her or Meowth.
Jessie glared at Meowth. "I don't-"
"Quit arguin' with me on this, you know I'm right!" Meowth cut her off.
Jessie raised her eyebrows, still glaring at him. "I was going to say that I don't like how you just assume we're going to blast off." She looked at James. "We can take a day off if you need it."
Honestly, James wanted nothing more to go on a Pikachu heist. While he didn't know much about himself, he had a feeling he loved his job. Meowth did have a point, though; it would probably be better to wait until his memories came back. Meowth said that they were master criminals, but James didn't feel like a professional in his current state.
"That might be for the best," he told Jessie.
"Where were you, anyway?" asked Meowth.
"Wobbuffet had an urgent matter to discuss," she replied curtly. Wobbuffet happily said its name as confirmation. "If we're not going to spend the day doing our jobs, we should at least spend the day fixing James. If his amnesia doesn't get resolved soon we're going to have some issues."
Meowth nodded. "We should take him to a doctor and get his head checked." He looked at James. "He probably needed that before the amnesia."
"Are you insane?" snapped Jessie. "Do you want us to get arrested?"
"We're not-" Meowth cut himself off and put a paw on his forehead. "We've been to the hospitals multiple times and never got arrested, why would that happen now?"
"We've had close calls, and there's always a Jenny nearby in the hospital. There's a better way to fix this." Jessie put a hand on her chin and thought for a moment. "Aha!" She pointed her finger in the air. "Get Chimecho to use its heal bell on James."
"Fine." Meowth shrugged. "It's better than usin' psybeam on him."
Jessie and Meowth turned to face him expectantly. James stared back. After a moment, he realized they probably wanted him to do something.
Meowth spoke again before James could. "Chimecho's your Pokemon."
"Oh." He had a Pokemon? James' hand reached for his belt and felt two Pokeballs clipped on it. Not sure which ball held Chimecho, he just picked one randomly and released the Pokemon inside.
Luckily his guess was correct, and after a flash of red, a Chimecho floated in front of James' face.
This might just be the cutest thing he had ever seen.
It happily chirped its name and flew right up to his face. Before James could say anything, Chimecho wrapped its tail in front of his eyes, blinding him.
James flinched at first, he wasn't too startled. After all, how could this cute little Chimecho mean him any harm?
"Hey Chimecho," said Meowth, pulling James out of his thoughts, "Use your heal bell, would ya? It's for James."
Chimecho pulled away from James' face, allowing him to see again, and wore a look of concentration. A moment later, it called its Heal Bell attack; it was the most beautiful sound James had ever heard.
The whole team took a moment to appreciate the chime, but Jessie was quickly back to business. "So? Did it help?"
James looked at her considered the question, but he still remembered nothing. "I don't think so." He looked back at Chimecho, who seemed confused about the whole situation. "Are you my Pokemon?"
Chimecho's eyes widened, and it said its name with hurt in its voice.
James felt a pit in his stomach. This was his Pokemon; he should recognize it. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't remember anything right now."
Chimecho looked to Meowth, who nodded in confirmation. While it was still clearly upset, Chimecho seemed to understand the situation at least.
"Try bringin' out Cacnea," suggested Meowth. "That's your other Pokemon."
Jessie side-eyed him. "What makes you think that would help? Cacnea doesn't even have a healing move."
"I don't know." Meowth sighed. "Maybe it'll trigger some memories. It's worth a shot."
James grabbed the other Pokeball from his belt and threw it up, releasing his Cacnea. Not a moment after the flash of light disappeared and Cacnea was out of its ball, the Pokemon leaped towards him.
Spines and needles stabbed into James' torso as Cacnea wrapped its tiny but strong arms around him. He let out a yelp and tried to shove it off of him, but that only pushed needles into his hands and caused more pain.
"Get off!" His voice had more bite to it than he intended. Cacnea must have picked up on this because it immediately let go of James and dropped to the ground. Before he could apologize, it took off running into the forest.
"Uh oh." Meowth turned towards where Cacnea ran off to. "I'll handle this." He followed Cacnea with a brisk walk.
Wobbuffet shouted its name for some unknown reason, causing Jessie to knock it on the head. "Don't make me put you back in your ball." It kept its mouth shut after that.
James didn't know what to say. His Chimecho hovered by his shoulder, but unlike before, it kept out of his personal space, and poor Cacnea was clearly distraught at his reaction, who knows how it will feel about his amnesia?
Weren't they supposed to be hardened criminals? Not that he wanted to think badly about his Pokemon—he had only known them for a few minutes and already loved them dearly—but they did seem a bit soft.
It was nice to know that he had Pokemon who loved him, though. He had Jessie and Meowth, and friendship was great, but few things compared to the bond between a trainer and his Pokemon.
Some time passed since Meowth went after Cacnea. Nobody had said anything, leaving an awkward silence that James was desperate to fill.
Luckily, Jessie did it for him. "I suppose you still don't remember anything?"
James looked at her, considering his answer. He could swear that he knew her face, and her temper almost felt familiar as well, but he didn't want to come across as creepy by mentioning that for the third time.
"I'm afraid not."
Jessie crossed her arms and gazed into the distance, scowling at nothing in particular. She heard James' answer but didn't say anything more. They waited in silence again until Meowth returned with Cacnea.
James spotted them first; Meowth's fur and Cacnea's crown stood out against the forest backdrop. He strode over to them, intent on apologizing to Cacnea.
Meowth held up his paw. "I explained it all to Cacnea. It's not mad at ya, just sad."
Cacnea looked up at James with wide eyes. He knelt down to be at its eye-level and gave it a soft pat on the head. "I'm sorry, Cacnea. I'm sure we're great friends; you just startled me earlier."
Cacnea said its name, clearly happy, and held out its arms for a hug. James shook his head and held up his hand. "Maybe another time. I'm still recovering from earlier." Cacnea's arms fell to its sides, momentarily disappointed, but it didn't seem to last long. It said its name again and returned to its ball.
Meowth watched the interaction, raising an eyebrow at some of his comments.
"What?" James asked him. "Did I do something wrong?"
Meowth shook his head. "No, no, it's just odd to see ya like this. Don't mind me."
That was fair, he supposed. It was odd for James too.
He stood up from his kneeling position and walked back over to the balloon with Meowth following close behind. Jessie stood leaning her back against the wall of the balloon with her arms crossed, looking up at the afternoon sky. James wondered what she was thinking about.
"We should go after the twerps tomorrow," she said when James and Meowth got to the basket. "James will be fine."
Meowth crossed his arms, copying Jessie's pose. "Ya sure about that? He don't even know his own Pokemon, how's he gonna fight?"
James wasn't sure how he felt about Jessie and Meowth talking about him like he wasn't there. Though, to be fair, 'James' was nowhere in sight. The real James had memories and loved ones, knew these people like the back of his hand, and apparently stole rare Pokemon. He wasn't here.
Thinking about that made his head hurt, though, so James just listened to his friends' banter.
"I'll do the fighting. My Pokemon are stronger than his anyway." Jessie stopped leaning against the balloon and stood up straight. "If the Boss hears that we're slacking off, we'll be fired. We're catching Pikachu tomorrow, end of discussion."
Meowth sighed and paused before he spoke. "Fine. But if there's any chance of a blast-off, we get outta there."
"Deal. Let's go." Jessie hopped into the balloon and started fiddling with the engine.
"Hey!" Meowth leaped in after her and shut off the engine before the flame was lit. "Ya just said we would go tomorrow!"
Jessie leaned against the basket wall again. "Well, we should do prep work today. Besides, we have the whole afternoon, and I don't want to spend it lazing around here." She looked at James, whose look of confusion must have been obvious. "Come on, James. It'll come back to you once we get going. We've done this hundreds of times."
James was hesitant to get into the balloon, of course. How do they even steer that thing? He carefully entered the balloon with much less haste than Jessie or Meowth, who were already bickering again in whispers.
He didn't know how to feel when they left the ground. This seemed to be mundane for the other two, but James found himself fascinated by the swaths of land and forest he could see from that height.
He turned around to look at his friends. Meowth stood on his toes, manning the balloon, and Jessie seemed to be doing the same thing he was just then: looking out at the land.
He didn't know what to expect. They were about to commit a crime, or at least attempt to. James hoped they wouldn't get caught, but that only added to the excitement. Who knew what a life of crime meant for him?
He would figure that out tomorrow.