Uprising

Chapter 1

  It was an unusually hot day in the Alolan Islands; a day hotter than it had ever before the entire summer. However it appeared that the heatwave had very little effect on the performance of young Trial Captain Acerola and her Pokémon partner, Gengar. They appeared to be in the middle of a heated battle between Team Rocket's Jessie and her Mimikyu, and by the looks of it, it could be anyone's match. That is, if one of them didn't break their focus. But as the sun scorched the battlefield, both of the young women appeared unaffected by the uncomfortably high temperatures; besides, of course, the excretion of sweat off their skin; putting all of their concentration in the battle at hand. Both Acerola and Jessie commanded their Pokémon in battle with skill, elegance, and style, using their opponents moves as catalysts to quickly strengthen the impact of their own attacks- tactics commonly used only by human martial artists. Jessie's teammates, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet, were watching the battle closely from a safe distance, cheering her on.

"Your Mimikyu is putting up a good fight, Jessie!" Acerola shouted across the battlefield, wiping sweat from her forehead, "You seemed to have followed my advice from the last time we battled!""Thanks." The magenta-haired villainess, clad in civilian clothing replied with a playfully boastful grin, "But Mimikyu and I are just getting started!" She then redirected her full attention to the battling ghost-types in the center of the dirt field and narrowing her eyes commanded her Pokémon to use Shadow Ball. "Gengar!" The trial captain commanded, "Use your Shadow Ball too!" The ghostly Pokémon agreed and let out a Shadow Ball of its own, slamming into Mimikyu's before it could make impact. They aggressively collided with one another, fighting each other to determine which one was the strongest. Although Gengar's appeared to be stronger, Jessie saw this as the perfect advantage. She ordered Mimikyu to use an attack to knock the strongest of the two into Gengar as its attention still appeared to be divided. Mimikyu happily obeyed its trainer and did as it was told to, using a super-charged Wood Hammer to slam into the stronger Shadow Ball. However, much to Jessie's dismay, instead of producing the desired result, Acerola ordered Gengar to dodge Mimikyu's seemingly foolproof attack, and eventually sending another Shadow Ball out to attack a somewhat stupefied Mimikyu, sending it flying until it hit the ground near its trainer's feet. James and Meowth gasped in horror. "Oy Vey!" Meowth shrieked, holding his cream-colored paws up to his face in astonishment, "Dat was quite da hit!""I'll say!" James replied, biting his nails a bit, "and to think, Mimikyu's attack seemed like it couldn't have possibly failed and yet its opponent appears to be much stronger than I had expected!"Meowth turned around to look at his second human counterpart. "Why does dat sound da story of our lives?" he mumbled, slightly underwhelmed. Too fired up to notice Meowth's comment on the team's seemingly never-ending failing streak, James cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted and let out a cheer: "You can do it, Jessie! Show Acerola who's boss!" "WOOOOOOBBUFFET!" Jessie's over-enthusiastic Pokémon shouted, mimicking James' stance and expression. Upon Gengar's stubby clawed feet hitting the ground after an flawless dodging of Mimikyu's Wood Hammer/Shadow Ball combination, Acerola yelled out to her opponent once more: "Nice try, Jessie! But due to Mimikyu's performance, I can tell that both your and your Pokémon's concentration is wavering!" "As if!" Jessie growled competitively as Mimikyu jumped back to its 'feet', preparing itself to resume combat. She looked at her near exhausted Pokémon with compassion; it had taken quite the blow from Gengar's nasty Shadow Ball attack, however, it still looked like it had enough energy to do exactly what she had wanted it to do, and what indirectly, Acerola wanted it to do: use its newly-discovered Z Power. She looked at the costume-clad Pokémon once more, and recognizing its determination, she narrowed her eyes, and assumed the Mimikyunium Z stance, activating the Z ring on her wrist, and boosting Mimikyu's aura. James and Meowth gasped: "Could it be?!" they said, anxiously and in unison. "Mimikyu! Full power now!" She shouted, as she performed the pose flawlessly. As Jessie danced away from across the battlefield, Acerola smiled. Excellent, she thought, She's doing exactly what I had told her to do. Her student and her Pokémon seemed in just about perfect sync with one another, and had come a long way since their first training session together. Acerola was very much looking forward to seeing how this would play out. As soon as the pose was complete, Jessie shouted out to Mimikyu, commanding it to use its Z-Move. "Mimikyu!" She shouted, "Use Let's Snuggle Forever!"As soon as it heard the command, Mimikyu leaped into action. The lower half of its Pikachu disguise opened up and expanded, engulfing Gengar and surrounding it in complete darkness. Once inside, Mimikyu released a move similar to that of Play Rough but longer and more aggressive, until every inch of energy was sapped from its opponent's body. It then released Gengar and returned happily back to its trainer. Surprisingly enough, Gengar seemed like it hadn't been affected by the attack in any way; as soon as it was released, it stood there in a fighting stance, readying itself to attack once more. "What?!" James shrieked, "I thought for sure that was a direct hit!" Drat. Jessie hissed, We're not strong enough yet. She then turned to Mimikyu and replied: "Don't let your guard down just yet, Mimikyu- it's weak, but that still doesn't mean it won't attack." Still shocked that Mimikyu's Z Move appeared to have little effect on the opposing Gengar, Meowth squinted his almond-shaped eyes and took a better look at the Pokémon at the opposite side of the battlefield. Upon a closer inspection, Gengar wasn't as strong as he had thought- he noticed that it was beginning to pant, and its confident stance was beginning to falter. Hold on... he thought, Jess still could have da uppah hand in dis... For the next ten seconds, Jessie and Acerola and their respective Pokémon stared at one another, wondering who would make the next move. Just like before they had started, it appeared to be anyone's game. But just when both trainers thought that this defensive battle would never end, Gengar began to tremble and eventually collapsed in exhaustion. Jessie couldn't believe her eyes. W-We did it! She thought as an ecstatic smile ran across her face. James, who had now assumed the role of referee, raised his right hand and enthusiastically shouted: "Gengar is unable to battle! Mimikyu wins!" He could barely contain his excitement- he sounded more like a giggling schoolgirl than an impartial Pokémon battle referee. Jessie let out an adorably enthusiastic squeal and jumped into the air with joy, raising her own right hand and using her fingers to make the letter V for 'victory'. "Yay!" She shouted with joy, picking up Mimikyu and spinning it around giddily, "We did it, Mimikyu! We finally learned how to use our Z Move!"James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet, ran over to their beloved partner and her Pokémon with tears in their eyes. They were so overjoyed they could have practically skipped over to her. As soon as they had gotten within a few feet of her, they all jumped on top of her, wrapping her in their arms in a congratulatory group hug. "OH JESSIE, I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" James sobbed, smushing his blushing cheeks against her own. "YEAH!" Meowth shouted tearfully, "You and Mimikyu really rocked dis battle!" Acerola withdrew her fainted Pokémon and placed it in its Pokeball for a nice rest, and then proceeded to walk over to her battling partner, clapping her hands in excitement and pride. "Congratulations, Jessie!" she replied, joining in on their group hug, "Your very first successful Z Move!" Jessie blushed pridefully and smiled, "Thank you! What I can't believe is that we finally mastered it! And to think, this was just the first one!" "You and Mimikyu have come a long way since the day we first started training together, and I'm just so glad that all of our hard work paid off!" She replied, briefly breaking away from the embrace. James and the others followed her lead a second after. "Well, it kinda helps that we had the best teacher in all of Alola teaching us the ins and outs of using Z Moves, am I right?" She winked at the purple-haired preteen. Acerola squealed and blushed, "Oh Jessie! You flatter me!" She squeaked, dismissing Jessie's comment with a simple swat of her hand, "But in truth, it was all you and Mimikyu! You and Mimikyu were in such perfect sync with one another, I could feel your hearts practically becoming one while watching you battle!""Well duh!" Jessie snickered, "It's not like I didn't know that already! I was just trying to throw you a bone with that last compliment." She stuck out her tongue playfully to signify that she was joking. Acerola and the others laughed. "Well! What are we just standing around here for?" Jessie asked, still chucking, "This calls for a celebration!" "Absolutely!" James replied, "Three cheers for the victor! Hip hip!" "Hooray!" "Hip hip!""Hooray!" "Hip Hip!""Hooray!" "Foooooor she's a jolly good trainer, for she's a jolly good trainer! For she's a jolly good traineeeeeeeeer!..." "Whiiiiiiich nobody can deny!" A familiar sixth voice sang exclusively on its own. It was Nanu. "Uncle Nanu!" Acerola shouted, waving to her uncle, "Jessie used her first EVER Z Move today!" "I saw!" Nanu said as enthusiastically as he possibly could, "She did an excellent job today. In fact, I could hardly believe that it was her first time. You've done a great job with her and her Mimikyu, I'll say." he smiled a little. "Thank you, Uncle!" "Yes, thank you kahuna Nanu." Jessie replied, bowing as a sign of her respect and gratitude. "Don't sweat it, kids." Nanu replied, smirking."Uncle Nanu!" Acerola replied, tugging on her uncle's hand slightly, "I was just about to suggest to Jessie and James that we should all go out and get celebratory malasadas to treat Jessie and Mimikyu for using their first Z Move together..." The Rocket foursome's eyes immediately lit up: "Oooh!" They all exclaimed, immediately liking the sound of the trial captain's plan. "Yes!" Jessie shouted, raising her hand high in the air, "I second that!" "Me too!" Meowth replied, enthusiastically. "You have my vote!" James cheered. "WOOOOOOBUFFET!" Acerola chuckled, "O-okay, looks like we're not PLANNING on getting malasadas anymore. Anyways, uncle, I thought you would like to come with us! You love malasadas! And judging by the time, the local bakery just baked a fresh batch! If we get there now, they'll be plenty left!"Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet began to grow antsy. They were gigging madly, and were beginning to salivate; they wanted those malasadas and they wanted them BADLY. Nanu froze at his niece's request and began to sweat harder than he was already been sweating. I'm supposed to be preparing for my emergency trip to Kanto to meet with Giovanni, I can't possibly do this right now! I mean, I don't want to disappoint her or anything but this task is much more important. She know that I'm a busy man with lots of other things to do other than... "Uncle, are you okay?" Acerola asked, interrupting his thoughts. "U-uh, I'm just fine, sweetie." He replied, a little nervously, trying desperately to come up with a good reason as to why he couldn't go on their malasada run, "I-I-I just have a lot of things on my mind right now, that's all. I've got a rather important errand to run right now, so I'm afraid I can't make it." "Oh. Okay then." Acerola replied, her tone changing dramatically from enthusiastic to dejected. Nanu sighed, "Look, Acerola, I'd love to come, but I have quite a few things to do right now and I'm not sure how I'm going to get them all done on time, especially before I go out of town for my business trip.""Yeah, I understand." She replied, still sounding a little downtrodden, "Like you always say, 'business before pleasure'.""Yeah... Well, I'm off. Have a great time with your friends, kiddo. Speaking of which, they're looking a little on the peckish side, don't you think? I'd better rush them to the malasada bakery right now if I were you. That is, if you don't want them to drown in a pool of their own spittle." Acerola looked at the team- they were practically covered up to their eyeballs in drool. "Oh, yeah, you're right." She replied, laughing at how hilarious but disgusting the current scene in front of her was. "Um, well, uh, good bye, Uncle! See you back at home! Uh, let's go guys! The malasadas are waiting!" "I thought you'd never say that!" They cheered, "Malasadas, here we come!"They began to sprint down the road happily, leaving Acerola in the dust by accident. Acerola laughed. Leave it to Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet to run after food. She thought, but as she looked back at the road behind her, a sad and somewhat suspicious feeling began to overwhelm her once more. Why was Uncle in such a hurry though? He'd never miss a chance to go out to get malasadas with us! What's gotten into him lately? She sighed, Oh well. Better catch up with the others before they steamroll over everything in their path to the bakery. She hesitated for a second, but then began walking forward, lost in deep thought the entire way to the bakery.