Misty stared at the pokeball that she had in her hands. She’d been stuck looking at it for the last few days or so. She still couldn’t believe that she, Misty from Cerulean, had gotten herself a Squirtle!

“Misty! Come on! Let’s have them fight; I want to see who’s stronger!” said Ash plaintively.

“Ash! Calm down! Misty still has to get used to her pokemon!” barked Forrest, glancing at Misty worriedly. Misty wasn’t sure if she should be pleased he was standing up for her, or annoyed that he thought she couldn’t stand up for herself.

"Yeah, which is why we should make them fight!” Ash said.

Misty pursed her lips. That… was somewhat logical. The sad part was that she knew without a doubt that her Squirtle would lose… Ash’s Squirtle had been the leader of the troupe that they’d encountered. And that hadn’t been due to chance. Ash’s Squirtle was larger and had a harder shell. Also, he had the stronger Water Gun. Something that she knew played a huge part in a bale of turtle pokemon.

Her Squirtle on the other hand… was probably the runt. She couldn’t believe she’d ignored the chance to get herself one of the most known water types around! She gave Forrest a smile. He’d been the one to point out that a squirtle would be a great addition to her team after all.

"Thanks, Forrest, I can stand up for myself,” she said gently.

He nodded and glanced away, a slight blush on his cheeks. She giggled. He was a bit too easy to set off sometimes. Instead of continuing to tease Forrest —something that was a new and oddly enjoyable experience— she turned her attention to Ash, who was looking hopeful.

She’d be at a disadvantage… but didn’t that only account for the pokemon? She was more knowledgeable with Water types. As long as she could get her pokemon to listen to her, she should be able to beat Ash.

“Alright Ash,” she said, accepting the challenge and causing Ash to woop with joy.

They both released their Squirtles and Misty’s shot her a worried look when it saw who its opponent was. Misty knelt next to it. “Hey, don’t worry, this is just a friendly match. We’re just getting familiar with you both.”

She leaned in closer. “Also, I’m a better trainer than Ash!” she said giving Squirtle a wink. “I need you to follow what I tell you to do in the coming match, alright? Do that and we’ll win!”

Squirtle nodded dubiously, eying its former leader, who had donned some sunglasses to style on its friend.

Misty’s Squirtle gulped and Misty patted his shell. “Just remember this is about teamwork more than anything!” she said, standing and locking eyes with Ash.

“Alright! We’re ready!”

Forrest raised his hands. “The Squirtle showdown begins… now!”

“Water Gun!” Ash said predictably.

“Use Withdraw into Rapid Spin!” Misty ordered causing the Water Gun to wash harmlessly over her Squirtle as it retracted into the shell and spun into Ash’s squirtle. Ash’s pokemon went flying and Misty punched forward. “That’s the spirit Squirtle!”

“Uhhh! Squirtle use Tail Whip!” the curly tail whipped around and slapped into Misty’s pokemon causing it to pop out of its shell in surprise. “Good, now Tackle!”

Misty blanched. “Use Hydro Pump!” she ordered only for her Squirtle to shoot her a confused look. Shoot! Of course! It was too weak to know that move! She should have borrowed Ash’s pokedex before the match!

Both pokemon traded blows with Misty’s Rapid spin meeting Ash’s uses of Water gun on the ground before charging back in with Tackle. Eventually, both pokemon stumbled away from each other before going belly’s up as they fell unconscious.

Forrest inspected them both and raised his hands. “Both Squirtles are unable to battle! It’s a tie!”

Misty facepalmed. She really needed to learn what moves her pokemon had! Ash likewise seemed stunned to have drawn with Misty.

“What! No way! My pokemon was still up for half a second longer!”

Forrest shook his head. “It wasn’t and that wouldn’t count anyway. Official rules are that a pokemon has to stay up for the count of five for it to be a clean win.”

Ash threw up his hands in annoyance. “Well, nice fight, Misty!”

“You too Ash,” Misty replied.

Forrest offered them both some potions and they sprayed their pokemon over before continuing to walk. Ash had his head tucked in. “I can’t believe I lost to a trainer with less badges than me!”

Misty felt her eyebrow twitch. “I won’t have less badges than you for long!”

Ash shook his head. “That won’t be the case at all; see, I’m one ahead, and as we move around, I’m going to stay one ahead.”

Misty raised a finger before she realised he was right. She felt a horrible jolt run through her, like Pikachu had just shocked her. Ash… was right? She shuddered but shut her mouth. Forrest chuckled. “Well there will be other Gym’s to fight along the way, like the minor ones, if you want to get more badges.”

Ash rubbed his chin at that before nodding. “That sounds good! Where are they?”

Forrest babbled away for a bit and Misty let her attention shift thinking over the match. Had there been other ways to win that she hadn’t used? Most likely. She sighed. “I think I need to spend some more time training my pokemon.”

Forrest huffed in amusement. “Well you’ll both get the chance to work on your pokemon soon. We’re coming up to the next town for a training break.”

“I still say we could have kept fighting all those trainers around Vermillion Gym!” Ash said angrily.

“We fought enough of them,” Forrest said only for Ash to continue grumbling.

Forrest sighed. “Ash you were starting to lose more matches than you were winning.” He indicated the town. “We’re only a day’s walk away from Vermillion. We’ll boot camp it and then come back for your third badge and our second.” Forrest glanced at Misty. “Are you going to … want a training buddy?” he said somewhat hopefully.

Misty shook her head firmly, her conviction firming up.”No I’ll do some training on my own!” she said. She was feeling better about herself these days. More confident. She couldn’t lean on Ash or Forrest all the time!

She hadn’t challenged Pewter for their Gym badge, but she had stood up against her sisters and beaten them to claim her first badge alongside Forrest. Ash got his second, which annoyingly let him lord it over her and Forrest… for the moment. She knew he’d get his wake up call soon enough, though.

For now, she needed to get as strong as she possibly could for fighting something that was specifically one of her chosen type’s greatest weaknesses. An Electric specialist.

She had Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen, and now Squirtle. She had the makings of a good team, but she needed to spend a good deal of time working on her last three pokemon. Starmie was currently her most powerful, but she couldn’t just rely on him to make it through the challenge she’d chosen.

She was going to do this the right way. This time she was going for the Gauntlet Challenge instead of a straight one on one.

“So where are we going to set up to train?” Misty asked.

Forrest consulted a booklet. “The Vermillion Gym uses a rubberised matting for its Gym surface during badge challenges. This makes it easy for certain pokemon to move about and for electricity to only impact the pokemon it is aimed at. With no raised terrain, it is going to be tougher to dodge electric attacks as most pokemon will be the tallest point for lighting to reach.”

“Hmmm, does that stop moves like dig?” Ash said, showing the strange insight that he occasionally exhibited. Forrest grunted in annoyance at that, and they all traded thoughts on tactics that might or might not work only for Ash to gasp suddenly.

“Woah! Hang on! What’s that!” Ash said pointing out to sea where there was a shimmering sparkle that was dancing about in the air.

Misty squinted, having to shade her eyes to see that they weren’t just shapes but pokemon. “Are those… Butterfree?” Misty said incredulously.

Forrest began flicking through screens on his transceiver. After a few moments, he coughed. “The local area appears to overlook some cliffs that run out into the sea. At certain times of each year, bug trainers gather with their Butterfree and release them to allow them to find a mate.”

“Oh Wow! We should go!” Ash said.

Forrest grimaced. “I… wouldn’t suggest that Ash.”

“Why not?”

“Because then you’d lose your Butterfree as he’d have to go off and mate. Most of the time the Butterfree don’t come back, as while they’re mating, they become sitting farfetch’d to certain bird pokemon. They have to do it in huge swarms to have the best chances but the swarm we’re looking at is actually the last day’s grouping. These are mostly the last, desperate Butterfree. Most of them will give up if they don’t find a mate and return.”

Ash worked his jaw. “I… don’t want to give up my butterfree but… I feel like he should take part…”

Forrest clapped him on the shoulder. “There’s always next year. Most Butterfree live for three or four years… most of the time.”

“That short?!” Ash and Misty said in surprise. That was tragically short as far as pokemon went! Most pokemon averaged at least twenty!

Forrest merely shrugged. “You’ve never spent any time with a dedicated bug-type specialist, have you?” Ash and Misty shook their heads. "Well, it takes a special sort to stay one. Usually they make sure to only get certain longer-lived types like Heracross, Scyther, or Forretress, as otherwise, within four years they have to replace their entire main roster of pokemon. It can take its toll on them. But they can also be the most… nice people you’ve ever met. They learn to live more in the moment.” Forrest stared off at the swarm of Butterfree for a long while.

Forrest almost seemed older as he looked at the swarm. “I… never really considered what that meant for some of the local kids when Brock mentioned it but having my own pokemon now I… don’t think I could ever do that.”

What Forrest was mentioning… it wasn’t something she considered all that often. She hadn’t spent any time with kids that liked bug pokemon in Cerulean growing up. “Did you know a few people like that?” Misty said.

“ Yeah, I did… at least I did until I became friends with…” He made a tossing gesture and sighed. “I really was a brat back then…”

"Well, you’re really growing up and maturing these days!’ said Ash with a nod that he must have thought made him look wise and all-knowing.

Misty shot him an annoyed look. She glanced at Forrest and caught him looking at her. His eyes twitched a little, and she shot him a smile. Maybe he’d rolled his eyes? It was tough to judge with how narrow his eyes were. Still, it seemed the right response, as he smiled before leaning over and punching Ash in the shoulder.

“I’m not too mature to not beat you in a race to town! Come on! Last one there buys lunch!”

“Hey! Wait a—” Ash called only to suddenly eat dust as Misty took off. She’d been expecting that, and she was quick to catch up and beat Forrest into town, leaving Ash as the one to buy their lunch.

“Pikachu!” cried Pikachu at her heels, more than happy to ditch Ash and come with her.

She slapped the sign that welcomed them into the town of Porta Vista.

_______________________________

Misty couldn’t place her finger on why, but she didn’t much like Porta Vista. She should, by all rights, greatly enjoy it. It was a seaside town.

That alone made it hands down better than a large number of other places. She could see a number of water types happily frolicking around on the beach and out in the ocean. In more than a few places, trainers were even gearing up to swim out and catch themselves a water type.

Perhaps that was the issue?

With the surge, there were a large number of tourists, and the town seemed to have converted itself to cater to the temporary source of income. Tacky stalls with ‘handcrafted’ goods were almost on every corner, and a lot of produce was being sold in markets for trainers, at what were really higher fees than normal.

It felt like the town had sold out, but having not grown up here, she couldn’t really judge if that was true or not.

She didn’t like the number of watercraft roaring to life up and down the main port, however. Not a one of them had the traditional sail that was more gentle on the water and the pokemon within; instead, outboard motors that roared through the water and often injured or even maimed water types, were in use. It made for a chaotic scene in what should have been the heart of the town.

With all the engine noise and the hustle and bustle, it seemed like everyone was in a rush.

Ash, of course, jumped straight into a pokemon battle with some trainers while Forrest officiated. Misty… had had enough of pokemon battles for a while. She knew she had a serious battle in Surge coming up, but that didn’t mean she needed to fight. She needed to consolidate.

So instead of sticking with her travelling partners, she instead walked around the town and then away from it. She didn’t want noise and clamouring locals, she wanted to find a quiet beach.

She walked along the coast and instead of a calm serenity coming over her by being closer to her favourite place, she got mad.

The beaches she passed were the sites of parties, battles, and general pollution.

In the end, she’d gotten into a screaming match with a group over how they’d been partying only to throw their trash into the water! Honestly, the nerve of people to just dump their trash like that! Did they want a buildup of Grimer and Muk in the area? Then no one would get to enjoy the beaches!

She’d gotten them to pick up after themselves, but they’d still left a lot of other junk around.

“That’s not ours!” They sneered as they marched off.

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“Yeah, clean it yourself if you care that much!” shouted another of the group.

Misty glowed after them. “People like you deserve to live in a junkyard!” she called after their backs. She’d then glared at the junk they’d left behind. There was plastic, and beachballs, and empty broken coolers… and ugh! Cigarette butts!

She looked around at the trees and the shoreline. It didn’t look like much had gone out to the ocean yet… she thought she heard a splash out in the water but when she looked she couldn’t see anything. She turned back to the rubbish with a troubled expression.

She huffed and released her team. “Alright team! Training for today is going to be on hold until we clean up this beach!”

“Squirtle?” said her latest pokemon. Misty smiled at it genially. “This isn’t something I usually do but I used to do with my sisters before they became…” She glanced around for anyone to overhear her. “Stuck up bitches!” she said with a whisper.

Squirtle giggled with her, and she looked at Starmie and Staryu. “You two have done this before, so I want you to show Goldeen and Squirtle what needs doing, alright?”

Her starfish pokemon bowed and got to work. Misty opened her carry bag and pulled out some garbage bags before reaching for the first bit of trash.

“You should use a stick to pick up the rubbish,” said a voice, causing Misty to flinch and almost cut herself. She turned and found an older woman standing behind her. She had red hair that was done up in a bun at the top of her head. She wore a sarong with her bikini top so casually Misty wanted to hate her just for existing.

She was… rather pretty in that oh-so-casual way that Misty just knew meant this woman had never not been beautiful. She’d never had to work for it. Never tried on dresses only to be jeered at by older girls.

She also looked very familiar. “Don’t I know you?” Misty said.

A flicker of fear swept over the woman’s face before she coughed. “I think we’ve met before?” she said. Misty eyed the red hair.

“Oh! I know you!” Misty said with a snap of her fingers. She smiled happily as the woman slid her hand down to her sarong. “Weren’t you that woman selling berries in Pewter city!”

The woman stopped, and Misty got the feeling she was blinking. Then she straightened up. “Yes! That’s me! You remember that?”

Misy nodded. “My pokemon were glowing with energy for the next week after those juices!”

"Oh, good,” said the woman with a lame nod. She fidgeted and then coughed. “You should use a stick to pick up trash, by the way. There is a risk of infection from picking it up by hand. You might cut yourself.”

Misty laughed sheepishly. "Oh, thanks; I don’t have a trash stick, though?”

The woman huffed and marched over to a tree. She eyed the tree for a moment before releasing a pokemon. It was a Zubat. “Zubat, I need two sticks. Use Wing Attack on that branch.” She then proceeded to cut down a branch and make up two sticks without any issue. She even made a sharp tri-prong on the ends She handed one stick over to Misty.

“Thanks! I’m Misty by the way!”

“I… knew that,” said the woman, causing Misty to blush.

“Oh right, I probably introduced myself back then, didn’t I?” Misty scratched the back of her head. “I… forgot your name though.”

The woman stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged and stabbed a pile of trash. “Jessadia.”

Misty nodded and started working with her team and Jessadia’s pokemon, an Ekans and her Zubat, to clean up the beach. Between them all, they had the beach cleaned up in a half an hour.

Misty clapped her hands together. “And there we go! That’s all the things on the beach done with!”

“Goldeen!” called out her Goldeen as it tugged in another bag of trash. Misty smiled and waded out to collect the netting and other bits of trash.

“And that takes care of the stuff nearby in the ocean.” She piled it up next to the beach trash. Jessadia blinked at it.

“That’s… more than we picked up.” she said, pointing out the difference in sizes and how there was far more trash in the pile Goldeen had brought in.

Misty sat and sighed. “There’s a lot more out there as well. People don’t realise how much of the rubbish they throw away ends up in the ocean. It comes from the storm drains into the rivers and from the rivers into the oceans… Despite the Rangers doing a great job at policing it, there are still so many people out there doing the wrong things.”

“Huh,” said Jessadia, moving to sit next to Misty. “I never thought of the ocean like that.”

Misty sighed. “Yeah, it’s a shame too, cause if we look after it, it can be really beautiful.”

She glanced around at the much cleaner beach and waterline. Jessadia nodded slowly as her Ekans moved up and rubbed its head against her while her Zubat spoke with Staryu.

Misty turned her attention to the other woman. “What brought you out here anyway?”

Jessadia opened and shut her mouth a bit. She didn’t seem sure what to say. Misty was almost worried for a second, before a sad cry had her looking out to the water where she spotted a water type.

“Hor-sea!” cried out a tiny, Horsea.

“Horsea?” Misty said back, standing and walking up only for the little seahorse pokemon to swim back. “Oh, sorry.” Misty kept her distance and knelt down to help let Horsea feel safer. Misty raised a hand to Jessadia who’d stood to join her. “Just stay still, please. This Horsea is injured and I need to let it get comfortable with me if I want to help it.”

Jessadia started to rise as if to ignore Misty, only to pause and sit back down. “Alright,” she replied simply.

Misty nodded and then raised an imploring hand to the little pokemon. “Hey there, Horsea, there’s no need to be scared. We’re not scary people. Jessadia and I are good guys,” she said, ignoring a slight cough from Jessadia. Bad timing that.

Horsea slowly approached, and Misty tried to exude the idea that she was safe. That she meant no harm to Horsea, or indeed anyone. Horsea relaxed and came in to nudge at Misty’s hand. Misty smiled warmly and grabbed a potion bottle. “Here, let me help you out.”

“Use a light dabbing motion for any scratches.” Jessadia called from the shoreline. “Then use light squirts of the potion into the wounds for the best result. If you can, keep Horsea from going underwater as well for a minute or two to let the potion work.”

Misty nodded. She knew all of this as a water specialist, but it was good to hear Jessadia knew how to look after pokemon. Horsea was soon chirping contentedly and much more energetic. Misty beamed as Horsea sped around the beach and even played with Goldeen and Ekans as the trio swam through the water.

“That got her in better spirits!”

Jessadia nodded. “It does beg the question of how she got like that though.” She looked out at the ocean. “There doesn’t seem to be any other humans around, and with her timid nature, I doubt she’s reckless. Which can only leave other pokemon…”

Misty hummed, turning back to the happy trio. “Horsea? Can I ask you something?”

“Sea?” said the little pokemon as it swam up to her.

Misty beamed at it. “Your injuries. How did you get them?”

Horsea tucked into itself and became small, only to eye Misty and Jessadia before nodding. It then turned and began to fire off bursts of ink into the water. Misty frowned as more and more shapes began to take form. “That’s… a lot of Tentacool…” she said hesitantly.

“Is Horsea trying to warn us there is a group of Tentacool out there?” Jessadia said with frown.

“Horsea!” said the Horsea nodding its head quickly. It then made large motions with its little fins. Jessadia blinked and Misty tilted her head in surprise.

“A big group?” Horsea nodded and began to continue sweeping its fins out wider and wider. “A very, very big group?”

“Seeeeeeeeea!” Horsea shouted while stretching as wide as it could go.

“Tenta!” cried out a pair of Tentacool that suddenly popped up out of the water.

Misty and Jessadia shrieked in surprise only to relax. “Oh, its just two of them!” Jessadia said. When the Tentacool rose up aggressively, Jessadia sniffed. “Ekans! Go and use Bite!”

Misty almost told her goldeen to commit to the attack as well, only to notice how beaten up the Tentacool were! “Stop!” Misty shouted, causing Ekans to lurch to the side and the Tentacool to stiffen.

Jessadia stood on the beach. “Misty! Those pokemon might attack you!”

“No! they’re just injured! I think a boat ran them over!” She once more offered her hand out. “Please don’t fight! If you’re hurt I… I mean, we can help you!” Misty said.

The Tentacool glanced at each other, and Misty saw a glow forming around their eyes. Her pokemon team closed in around her but Misty continued to lock eyes with the Tentacool. “Please don’t fight,” she said trying to once more be a calming presence. It had worked for Horsea…

Slowly, the Tentacools’ eyes stopped glowing, and one of them approached her. Up close, she could see a lot more scratches and injuries. “Oh you poor thing,” she said, offering her hand to softly rub that jewel of the Tentacool closest to her. It relaxed at her touch and whimpered.

“Do you have any more potion, Jessadia?” she caleld to her friend.

“Yeah… I do,” Jessadia said. “How are you doing that? Those pokemon were ready to attack a moment ago?”

Misty shrugged. “I just spoke with them.”Jessadia looked unconvinced, but she slowly waded up, her Ekans and Zubat following her closely.

Once again Misty helped the water pokemon, this time with Jessadia’s help. Both pokemon brightened up considerably and had an almost cheeky nature with how they danced and poked their tentacles into the other pokemon along with Misty and Jessadia. Misty giggled and turned it into a game of tag which caused her and her new friends to dash throug the water until they were all breathless.

It was only then that she noticed one of her new friends was missing. “Oh! Where’s the Horsea go? Damn! I was hoping she’d join me!” Misty sat up. “Horsea! It’s alright! The Tentacool are friendly now! You’re safe!” Misty called only for Horsea to not come back.

The Tentacool looked chagrinned. One approached and waved a tentacle at itself. “Tenta!” It then waved limb at the clean beach. “Cool!” it said happily. Misty blinked. “Oh! You think we’re good people because we cleaned the beach and want to join us?” she said. Tentacool nodded and Misty happily held out a pokeball that it tapped, allowing itself to be absorbed.

Jessadia blinked when the other Tentacool approached her. “Eh!? You think I’m good too?” she said. Tentacool nodded firmly and Jessadia got a conflicted look on her face. “What if I’m not?” Tentacool shook its head and offered up its limb. Jessadia drew out a pokeball and tapped it, causing Misty to giggle with how worried Jessadia was. She really was overthinking it.

She then looked around hopefully for the Horsea. When it didn’t appear, she sighed. “Oh well. Maybe if I stick around and train, she’ll come back?”

Jessadia pocketed her pokeball and shot Misty a smile. “Mind if I join in?”

Misty grinned at her new friend and fellow Tentcool trainer. “Sure thing!”

They then spent the rest of the afternoon training their pokemon and brainstorming methods to beat Surge.

“— going to have it a lot easier than I will with your Ekans. Zubat and Tentacool will have a tough time of it,” Misty said as they continued to walk back to Porta Vista.

Jessadia hummed. “I also have… another option but he’s… sometimes unreliable…”

“You have another pokemon?” Misty asked.

“... yeeeeeeees?” said Jessadia. “He’s able to punch far above his weight class, but he’s not motivated to fight unless I really need it.”

“Hmmmm sounds like he needs more training then,” Misty said with a firm nod. “My grandpa had a Gyarados that he said we could train with but my sisters always got worried when I spent time with him. Which is silly cause he never had any problems following my orders…” Misty paused as she remembered all the silly games of princess and the dragon she’d played growing up with her Grampy’s Gyarados.

Jessadia snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think that will go over well with him. But anyway I couldn’t do that to him. He’s my friend for all that he’s a snarky little S oh B.”

Misty giggled before shrugging, "Well, we’re still left with the issue of being at a disadvantage.”

Jessadia shrugged, causing her chest to bounce and Misty’s eyes to dip to the woman’s assets. "Well, I think I can teach Zubat Steel Wing, which I’ve seen used to great effect, to mitigate a lot of damage. Otherwise, I will rely on Ekans, I think.”

“Urgh some people have all the luck,” Misty muttered, staring straight at Jessadia’s chest enviously.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something for your team of water pokemon. Your Squirtle looked good out there.” She then caught Misty glaring at her chest and cocked an eyebrow. Misty shot her head in another direction, mortified that she’d been caught like that, especially with her new friend. The older woman had been nothing but kind to her.

“Misty… no one makes you feel bad about yourself, do they?”

Misty shifted. And Jessadia got closer. “You mentioned travelling with some boys. They don’t tease you, do they?” There was an intensity to the look Jessadia was giving her, as though she was promising something sinister to the boys if they had done anything untoward.

Misty shook her head. “No! Ash and Forrest are fine! Forrest is a gentleman even! It’s… urgh, my sisters! Those! Those … cows never had a bad hair day, let alone an awkward phase in their lives! I’m just growing into myself! That’s all!”

She kicked a rock angrily into a tree. “At least… that’s what my mother used to say…”

“Ah,” Jessadia said as they walked into Porta Vista. “She was wrong to tell you that.”

Misty rounded on Jessadia ready to spit venom at her for daring to besmirch her mother’s words, only for what Jessadia said next to floor her, “She should have just told you you’re beautiful the way you are.”

Misty gaped. “That!” She glanced away. “She did say that as well,” she said quietly, somehow that didn’t seem as important as the offer of at least hope that she’d be pretty.

“Good. I hope she also told you to stop listening to other people about how you should or shouldn’t look. Just do what makes you happy.” Jessadia looked off into the distance. “If you let others tell you how to live your life, you’ll never enjoy anything about yourself. Don’t let what they say stop you. Do what you want! Even if it’s to be a nurse in a pokemon school for example!”

“A nurse in a pokemon school?” Misty said with a tilt of her head.

Jessadia coughed and flapped her hand back and forth. “Just an example!” she said hurriedly.

“The point is, have a think about who Misty is. What’s important to Misty? Keep those things, and then build from there. It’ll make you… more you, if that makes sense?”

Misty tilted her head and stared at Jessadia. “...Yeah. Yeah, I think it does. Thanks!”

“Hey! Misty!” shouted Ash waving and grinning like the idiot he was. At his side, Forrest shot her a smaller but more heartfelt smile. Ash jumped up and down. “Misty I won a ton of pokemon battles today! Come get dinner! My treat!”

Misty giggled. “I’ll be right with you!” She then turned back to Jessadia. “Thanks for today! I really enjoyed spending time with you! And also… thanks for the talk. Good luck with your own prep for Surge! I’ll be cheering for you if I see you!” Misty then turned and ran up to Ash and Forrest.

“Hey guess what I did today!” she said, excited to tell her friends what she’d been up to.

Jessadia waved and watched her go, a small smile on her face.

----------------------------------------

Jessie opened the door to the hotel room to find James and Meowth watching television. James had a facemask on, while Meowth had a number of small rollers throughout his fur. A bowl of chips sat between them as they watched a movie.

They both grinned at Jessie’s arrival. “Hey! Long time no see! What happened to scoping out the twerp that you saw off on her lonesome?” Meowth said.

Jessie opened and shut her mouth before shaking her head. “I… nevermind that, it ended up being a dead end,” Jessie claimed a chair and leaned back.

Meowth and James shared a look. “You alright, Jessie?” James asked, carefully testing the waters.

Jessie nodded but didn’t say anything. James and Meowth shared another look. Then they played a fast game of fire-water-grass type. Meowth won with fire against James’ grass.

James coughed and turned back to Jessie, who was ignoring their antics, to catch up on the movie. So what if she’d seen this one fifty times with them already? It was the team’s favourite.

“Jessie, things have been going well. Meowth and I were surprised when you decided to go after one of the twerps like that. We’re following the boss' orders by blending in.”

“Yeah, and we’re good at it!” Meowth chimed in.

James nodded. “Indeed. Why risk it with something like that?”

Jessie shifted. “Just wanted some insurance, alright?”James and Meowth shot her unimpressed looks.

Jessie didn’t meet their gazes. "Alright, I’m just worried about us getting caught out and needing to go back on skills we’re not practicing! So I checked out Misty and saw how she was going. She has rare pokemon as well but…”

“Misty huh?” Meowth said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh! Shut up!” Jessie said.

“We don’t need insurance, Jessie. We’ve got that and more with your recent wins.”

“I’m just…” Jessie ran her hand over her new pokeball that housed the Tentacool that thought she was… Jessie slumped. "What if I mess this up?”

Meowth and James once more shared a look. This time sitting up and paying her much more serious attention.

“You’re not going to mess up Jessie.” Meowth said with a thumbs up. “I’ll have your back if you need a professional ring in, don’t worry!” Jessie smothered a smile as James nodded along.

“Also? Who cares if you fail? We’ve come back from worse than nothing before! We’re team Rocket! We blast off!” James announced, miming a rocket ship.

“Master’s of improv!” Meowth announced.

Jessie smiled. Oh, these pair of idiots.

James grinned at her and stood. “Been a while since we said it you know?” He waggled his eyebrows. “You want to do the honours?”

Jessie huffed and rubbed her nose. Then she stood and clenched her fist like they’d practised so many years ago.

“Prepare for trouble!” she said as James stood to join her, facemask and all, and not a hint of shame to be found between them.

“And make it double!” said James, matching her.

“To protect the world from devastation!” Jessie remembered how she’d cleaned the beach with Misty today.

“To unite all peoples within our nation!”

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!” She’d done that with Misty as well, she thought as her grin grew wider.

James responded with a more hyped up sweep of his arms and a gleam in his eyes. “To extend our reach to the stars above!”

“Jessie!”

“James!”

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”

“Meowth! That’s right!” shouted Meowth as he joined them.

They held the pose for a little bit. Then they shared a smile and sat down to watch the rest of the movie together. Meowth offered Jessie the chips, and she relaxed back. Everything seemed to be going well.

She nodded. Yeah, she wasn’t sure why she was bothered. She could handle anything the world threw at her. She gave Meowth and James a small look of gratitude.

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” she asked when the movie ended.

Meowth stretched. "James and I found out about some rich bigwig is going to hold a town meeting tomorrow. She’s gonna set up a bounty or something. I say we attend and make some money yeah?”

Jessie considered it. It sounded like free money. She nodded, liking the sound of that. Yeah, what could go wrong?