*BANG BANG CLANG BANG BANG BANG BANG CLANG*

“Okay! That’s enough!” Ethan groaned loudly as he sat at the kitchen table and massaged his temples. Tinkatink paused, arm mid-air with her hammer raised to smack a pot she’d taken out of the kitchen.

He took a deep breath, and as he was midway through the release…

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

Jolting out of his seat, he hobbled over to where his little pink menace was slamming metal on metal, then scooped her up into his arms. Tinkatink garbled out a bunch of nonsense and wriggled in his grasp as he limped over to the door, exiting his house.

Once outside, wincing as he dropped down the front steps, Tinkatink stilled. Her head swiveled around, inspecting the ranch and the outside for the first time in her life. Seeing as she’d calmed down, now suitably distracted from bashing metal, he began to speak to her in a calm tone. “This is my home. Your home too.”

“Tinka!!!” Tinkatink mightily proclaimed, pointing off to the meadow with her small hammer. With nothing better to do, Ethan carried off his newest pokemon around the ranch, letting her lead the way as the sun crested above the canopy of the surrounding forest. Thankfully, the chilly air was warming by the minute.

Their first destination was Ursaring’s home. The tall and very out of place pillars of rock and stone were the most eye-catching thing around the meadow. So, obviously, that was Tinkatink’s first destination. As they approached, Tinkarink wriggled and writhed in his arms, wanting to be let down to explore, but Ethan wasn’t letting a several hour old baby pokemon wander off freely around an Ursaring’s home.

As she still squirmed, Ethan spoke into the cave. “Ursaring? You awake?”

Mama bear’s grunt of acknowledgement was enough to cause Tinkatink to still once again. The pink humanoid brought her hammer to her chest, holding it protectively as heavy footfalls came from within the darkened den.

Before Ursaring made it out into view, Ethan already began introductions. “Ursaring, the eggs hatched last night. This little Tinkatink… is a handful. She wanted to come see your cave.”

As Ursaring came into view, her gaze was already locked onto the pokemon within his grasp. Tinkatink tilted her head, looking Ursaring up and down with a slight amount of fear, given her faint trembling. Even a few hours old, it appeared that bluffing was in her skill set, as she glared defiantly at Ursaring and waved her rattl—Hammer threateningly towards Ethan’s strongest pokemon. Big mama snorted, then extended her hands in a ‘gimme’ gesture to Ethan. Trusting Ursaring to know how to deal with children, he passed the pink menace over and into Ursaring’s arms.

Ursaring held Tinkatink up by her sides at head height, squinting to get a good look at this foreign pokemon.

*Bonk!*

“Oh, Jesus…” Ethan murmured as he facepalmed. Ursaring blinked slowly, still mentally coming to terms about Tinkatink bonking her on the top of the head with her hammer. Tinkatink, for her part, screeched and wriggled.

“TIIIINK!! TIIIIIIIIINKKKK!”

Unceremoniously, Ursaring flipped the baby pokemon over, held upside down by a singular foot, then gently flicked her on the forehead as she dangled helplessly. “Urs.”

That stopped the tantrum, and without another word, Ursaring stuffed Tinkatink back into his chest. She looked between the tiny pink gremlin who was rubbing her forehead and Ethan who looked miserable, then snorted. With a rueful shake of her head, Ursaring went back into her cave, seemingly amused.

“Yeah… I know.” Ethan said weakly, knowing that this was just the beginning of the trouble to come. He looked down to Tinkatink, then sighed, before returning her to her pokeball. In her place, he brought out Skiddo. The small leafy goat floundered, but eventually righted herself up on her four legs. As she looked around, a smile broke out of her face, her eyes crinkled in joy, and she took slow careful steps around the grassy meadow. Ethan let her wander about, following along to keep an eye on her.

As he watched the little goat, he took her measure. She wasn’t very coordinated, which was expected given her age, but she was also very quiet. She observed things, sometimes for a solid ten seconds, before silently moving on to something new. The two new baby pokemon were polar opposites of one another. Skiddo was quiet, observing, and gentle, while Tinkatink was loud, headstrong, and rash.

The exploration around the ranch ended when Skiddo carefully plopped herself down and curled into a ball to sleep in the middle of the field, right next to the saplings of Oddish. Not wanting to walk back to his home on his injured foot, Ethan sat down in the grass next to his kiddo Skiddo, and waited for the professor to come out for his research.

Feeling a gentle shake to his shoulder, Ethan jolted awake. After blinking away the now bright sky, he caught the pull away from Professor Elm’s hand. “Falling asleep outside is a good way to get a cold.” He gently chided.

Ethan looked to his side, finding Skiddo still curled up and resting. He smiled at the sight, then turned to give the professor his full attention. “Well, it was either stay inside and let Tinkatink bang on pots and pans or take a walk…” After a second of indecision, Ethan asked for another favor. That seemed to be all he was good for these days. “Can you look over Skiddo? She’s… quiet. She has trouble getting up on her feet, but once she’s walking it seems to be okay. You said that she wouldn’t hatch for a week or so.”

Elm must have sensed some of his worry, as he knelt down to the sleeping Skiddo and ever so gently stretched her limbs outwards and felt along her muscles. Skiddo was still soundly asleep even as the professor went about his inspection. The little goat even rolled over to her side as she gently breathed, letting the professor have an easier time.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After a minute of silence, the professor stood up. “Everything seems fine to me. Judging egg hatch times isn’t a perfect science. Even I can be wrong.” He shrugged, nonplussed. “Having trouble controlling her limbs isn’t uncommon. Give her some time, she was born this morning.”

Ethan nodded. The little seed of doubt that had rooted itself into his chest faded away. The unknown stress only recognised after he felt lighter. Elm held out a helping hand, and Ethan grasped it. With a tug, the professor helped Ethan up. Forgetting about his injured foot, he winced as he put a little too much pressure on it, and the professor noticed. “Hurt yourself?”

“Tinkatink slammed my foot with her hammer while she was asleep.” Seeing the worry in the professor's face, Ethan waved it away. “It’s nothing too bad. Nothing broken, from what I can tell. It’s going to leave a nasty bruise, that’s for sure.”

“Hmm…” The professor narrowed his eyes as he inspected Ethan, then smiled. “You know your body best. After today, we should have enough data about the Oddish to sort through to last us a month. As much as I’d like to stay until they fully sprout, I have other business to take care of back in Johto. We’ll be out of your hair tomorrow.”

“Oh… Okay.” It was confusing, but Ethan was a little sad to see them leave his ranch so early. They’ve barely gotten to know one another, and he had thought that they’d stay for at least a few days longer. “Well, I’ll leave you to do your research and take a rest day.” He pointed at his foot. “If you need anything, just come on by the house or ask one of my pokemon to fetch me.” He recalled the sleeping Skiddo, as he began limping away.

“Sounds like a solid plan, Ethan.” The professor gave him an understanding smile, then began setting up his machines from the day before.

Shuckle was more than enough to take care of the berry fields for the day, and his new veggies and fruits wouldn’t need much care as they were still growing. A day off wouldn’t be an issue, and he could always spend the day working with his pokemon inside and making some much needed plans for the days to come.

—----------------------------------

Perhaps for the first time in her life, Jessie had an inkling of true terror coursing through her mind. Not once in all of her and James’ years as Advanced Agents of Team Rocket had they ever been caught. Oh sure, the little twerp had caught them a few times, but the Pokemon League?

If you got caught by the league, then you were done.

She was in a dark room, handcuffed to a metal table which was bolted to the floor, just like her chair. There was no escape.

As she blew her dark magenta bangs out of her face, the door, the only entrance and exit to the room, opened, and an older gentleman in a dark brown trench coat entered with a clipboard in hand. He looked stern, but was too focused on his notes to pay her any mind. He sat down in the chair across from her, not speaking for a solid two minutes as he read over his notes.

Then, when he did finally speak, it was casual. “Jessie, I presume?”

Jessie thinned her lips. She wasn’t going to answer any of their questions.

The man looked up from his notes at her silence, then gave her a knowing head tilt and a slight grin. “My apologies, Miss Musashi…” Hearing her last name for the first time in years caused her eyes to widen, and the man’s grin widened in turn. “... I am Agent Looker, of the International Police. I’ve come to know a lot about you and the organization you represent in these last few months… One Team Rocket.”

“Oh shit. Ooooh shit….” Jessie thought that perhaps there was some miniscule chance that they had been picked up at random, but now all hope was out the window. The Meowth was out of the bag.

“Jessie Musashi, daughter of Miyamoto Musashi, former Elite Officer of Team Rocket. Partner of James Kojirō, and one Meowth… who can evidently talk. You’ve wormed your way through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and now Sinnoh, following along the path of one Ash Ketchum. You’ve done numerous missions, excuse me, poor attempts to capture the man’s Pikachu. Please, stop me when I am wrong.”

“OH FUCK! OOOOOH SHIT!” Jessie thought, her face paling at every new reveal. They knew who they were. Like, really knew.

“Twenty seven years old, nearly 28.” The man paused, giving her an insincere smile. “Happy early birthday.”

The man placed his clipboard down, and Jessie stole a glance at it, seeing paragraphs of dense notes stacked neatly on the page, all handwritten. There had to be ten or twenty pages stacked on top of one another, and if they were like the first, they had everything. “Believe it or not, you’re not in as much trouble as you probably think you are.”

She brought her eyes back to the Agent, who looked unhappy about what he had just said. For the first time, she spoke. Her voice echoing out in the… interrogation room. “And why is that?”

Agent Looker stared unflinchingly at her, his gaze was unnerving and he was in complete control. “One of our informants has spoken on your little team's behalf. While you’ve personally done bad things, they pale in comparison to the… the atrocious things Team Rocket has done. Theft and attempted theft, property damage and vandalism, fraud and identity theft, kidnapping and abduction, assault and battery, pokemon poaching and environmental crimes, breaking and entering, smuggling, interfering with official Pokemon League events… pokemon cruelty.”

Jessie jolted forward in her chair, her handcuffs growing taut as he lunged forward. “I do not abuse my pokemon!”

Looker lazily raised an eyebrow, unmoved by her actions. “I never said you did, but you have caged and kidnapped pokemon before? Or are you saying I am wrong?” He tapped the stack of papers on his clipboard, daring her to challenge his claim.

She sat back down with a huff and looked away. Looker actually gave her a nod of respect as he read off more of his papers. “Tell me, how did you feel when you and James released your Arbok and Weezing? I believe you both did so in an attempt to protect a group of wild Koffing and Ekans from a poacher?”

Slowly, she slid her gaze back towards the interpol agent, her mind running at a thousand miles an hour. How did he know that? NOBODY should know that! That was impossible information to get a hold of. Did James or Meowth squeal? If so, why would that be the information they let loose?

“What do you want?” She asked, voice flinty.

“I want us to come to an understanding. Maybe a mutually beneficial one? After all, getting rid of Giovanni is going to be a team effort. Is it not?”

Jessie’s mind blanked at the name drop of the boss.

They were fucked.