Love in the Time of Tropics

Chapter 16: An Egg

Yay for belated birthday presents! On another note, no, guys, Anabel will not appear in the story. Would muddle up the plot for ultimately pointless drama and make little sense given the Anabel we know from the anime. But enough of that, Chapter 16 time!

Chapter 16

An Egg

Jessie was in a bad mood. Not that she wasn't always, but it was showing particularly well today, James thought.

"Ugh, let's just steal the twerp's Pikachu and be done with it!" she had snapped at one point, their entire group floating along carelessly in their balloon. James would have placed his sandwich down, but knew what could happen to it if he did, so he finished eating it.

"Yeah, dat's worked so well for us in da past..." Meowth said sardonically, cutting his own sandwich into bite sized pieces before swallowing. Wobbuffet nodded his head, portioning out more sandwiches to Inkay, Gourgeist and Crabrawler, the latter easily gorging himself on two at a time. James patted the boisterous crab on its head before looking to Jessie, who looked ready to tear Meowth's whiskers out.

"Are you challenging my authority, Meowth? !" she screeched. James would have covered his ears, but he was used to Jessie throwing her daily fits of rage. Any time she wasn't allowed to supposedly display her beauty on the stage was a time wasted. Well, if they weren't going after Pikachu. Granted, there was a major dearth of that since they'd entered Alola. Truth be told, they'd barely gone after the twerps at all, something that the whole group took initiative to change once they hit Akala.

"I'm not challengin' your authority, Jess, but I ain't lookin' forward to gettin' blasted off again cuz of your poor plannin'," Meowth shot back. James' two companions quickly got in each other's faces, causing the blue haired man to heave a sigh. Neither appeared to notice that he did so, and he stood and stretched as a result. Inkay floated up near him, cuddling against his face, while Crabrawler clambered up the basket, clicking his claws.

James heaved yet another sigh as Jessie and Meowth seemed to dive right at each other this time, Wobbuffet being a very poor mediator in the center of their little mess, clattering their lunch table to the floor of the balloon. With the both of them occupied, James turned his attention to the road below. They were currently hovering in place over a patch of trees, obscured from view (something James had learned from the science twerp during their battle against DARC all those months ago).

"Braixen, use Fire Spin one more time!" the twerpette's voice called from a clearing in the forest below. Well, less a forest and turning more jungle-esque in James' opinion. Her voice calling out didn't seem to stop Jessie and Meowth from fighting, but it did make James take out his binoculars. As he adjusted them, patting Crabrawler absentmindedly, his mind slowly fluttered back to their whirlwind of an adventure through Alola, specifically the island they were now busy stalk...er, pursuing the twerps on.

It hadn't been easy, blasted off by that Skull girl and being forced to scramble and make it back to Iki Town in order to spy on the twerps and learn their next location, all just so they could take the ferry from Hau'oli City. Then there was the lunchbox man, Looker. He was a wrench they certainly didn't expect in their plans, something which Jessie made a comment on when they watched him interact with the twerps. Well...less comment and more complaint.

"Not the lunchbox guy again!" she moaned out as James and Meowth pulled her back out of sight so she wouldn't be seen. "With him around, we can't just go capture Pikachu and expose ourselves and Team Rocket."

"Yeah, cuz we were makin' so much progress," Meowth commented sardonically. That seemed to set off the spark of argument between the two that hadn't stopped since. Even arriving in Heahea City and learning about the Ceremony that would take place there hadn't dulled their fighting instinct.