The Exile Special Edition

Chapter
One

Jessie
glared at her mutually incompetent compatriots angrily. “If you
two would get your act together, we wouldn't be in this mess!”
she yelled. James had the decency to look abashed. Meowth, being a
pokémon, couldn't
be either abashed nor embarrassed, but simply shrugged.

“It
was you what wanted to snatch that Pikachu for the boss. How was we
supposed to know that there was an unconscious Mew right
nearby?”
“Yes, but... but... OH, YOU!” And with
that meticulously articulated phrase, Jessie slammed both her
teammates in the head with her ever-present fan. Meowth wouldn't
stand for that, of course, and promptly launched an attack on Jessie.
A few moments later, there was a full-blown Team-Rocket specialty
scuffle.
None of the three was ever quite sure whether it was just
misfortune that Giovanni walked in at that moment, or whether he had
in fact been waiting in the foyer listening for a fight to start, but
in he came, and promptly separated the combatants.

“You
insolent fools,” he snarled. He pointed at his office, now in
shambles from the brawl. “You are all a disgrace to Team
Rocket.” He turned his desk upright as the other three watched,
chagrined. “I was going to settle for reducing your salary. But
now...” he looked at a few reports scattered around his office.
“Now,” he said, smiling sadistically, “I think we
shall do things a bit differently. You!” and here he pointed at
James, “are hired as my secretary. Wait outside until this is
through.”
James saluted with overly-dramatic flair.
“Aye-aye, sir!”
Giovanni turned his baleful eyes on
Jessie and Meowth. “Meowth, you know what this means for you,”
he said, darkly.
“Meowth! A promotion?” came the
hesitantly hopeful response.
“No,” Giovanni said,
turning to a shelf lined with PokéBalls.
He held one up, emblazoned with the black and red “R”
logo of Team Rocket. “Meowth, Return!” he
shouted.
“MEOWTH!!!!! NO!!!!” The cat pokémon
clawed at the desk as the red light overtook him, until finally he
was sucked into the ball. Jessie looked fearfully at Giovanni.
Somehow, she suspected, this was not going to go exactly as her
comrades had planned it to go.
“You, my dear,”
Giovanni said, sitting down on the desk, “I have saved the most
painful punishment for.” Jessie stared.
“What's
that?”
“Banishment.”
Jessie stared again,
then let out a wail of horror as the implications sank in. Leave Team
Rocket? Forever?!
“Go now.”
Still stunned, Jessie
walked out. Cassidy stood in front of the door, grinning. “Aren't
you forgetting something?”
“What... what's that?”
“All
pokémon belong to
Team Rocket. Hand over the snake and the blob.”
Butch
stepped forward as well, holding his hands for for the balls. Jessie
shrank back. “They're mine!” she protested.
“Not
anymore.”
With a laugh, Butch began to hit Jessie, until she
sank into blissful unconsciousness.