 | Chapter 3
"So, are you guys at all related?" Misty asked.
The girls were all tied up, back to back, in one of Giovanni's dungeons. James, Ash, Brock, and Butch were in another, to separate the people who didn't want to destroy each other, and Meowth was being forced to "play with Persian." Giovanni's intention was for them to destroy each other, and during an initial struggle to get free, it looked like they would. But after a few minutes, all 5 girls realized that they were stuck there for a while.
"No!" The other 4 answered a bit too quickly.
"Then how come you look so much alike? And why do you hate each other so much?" Misty asked.
"We hate you, too," Cassidy said, "And you don't look like us!"
"It's just a coincidence!" Cassandra said.
"Are you all on Team Rocket?" Misty asked.
"No! Only Jessie and Cassidy are," Jessibelle said.
"What did you mean when you said something about an evil twin in the pokemon center?" Misty asked.
"Shut up and mind your own business, twirp!" Jessie said.
"You're all being pretty sensitive about this!" Misty pointed out.
"I said shut up!" Jessie said, "Or I'll get Arbok to eat you! Hey, that's it! If I can just reach my Pokeball, Arbok could chew the ropes off and we'd be free!"
Arbok freed them, and then they reached through the bars and took the keys from the sleeping guard. Then, they freed the guys (except for Ash, who they unanimously voted should rot in the dungeon) and Arbok attacked Persian to free Meowth.
As soon as they were outside, Jessie started pulling James along the long road back to camp. She'd seen enough of her sisters and the twirps in the last 24 hours to last a lifetime, and she was sick of being questioned as to why she looked like Jessibelle. It had been the middle of the night when they left the base, but when they finally got back to camp, it was noon the next day.
All afternoon, Jessie tried to avoid James and Meowth, just until the Jessibelle thing blew over. But she went back to camp to eat dinner with them, at which time they heard shaking in the bushes. Jessie and James clung to each other as they always do when they're scared.
Jessibelle emerged from the bush and yelled, "I knew you were cheating on me!"
"I wasn't!" James yelled, letting go of Jessie, "You scared us... and... please don't hurt me!"
But Jessibelle started whipping him anyway, yelling, "How dare you run away from me! You don't even run properly! Now come back home, and we'll have our wedding!" James screamed each time she hit him.
"Stop it, Jessibelle!" Jessie said, "Maybe he doesn't want to marry you!"
"Of course he does!" Jessibelle said, "You love me, don't you, James?"
"Don't hurt me!" James said, because he hated her but knew she would whip him if he said so.
"Let's settle this with a pokemon battle!" Jessie suggested, "The loser has to leave and never see James again!"
"All right," Jessibelle agreed, "On the beach, and we each use one pokemon." They went down to the beach, but James stayed behind, afraid of what the outcome could be.
Jessie chose Arbok, and Jessibelle chose Vileplume. Each told their pokemon to poison the other pokemon, but the pokemon knew how much Jessie and Jessibelle hated each other. Trying to impress their masters, Arbok and Vileplume poisoned the other trainer instead of the other pokemon. The poison took effect immediately, and both Jessie and Jessibelle passed out in the sand.
Realizing what they had done, the two pokemon ran (or slithered) to get James. Meowth translated their pokemon languages so that James could understand that they wanted him to follow them. They led James and Meowth to the beach.
"Oh no! What happened?" James exclaimed.
Meowth translated, "They say that Arbok poisoned Jessibelle because it knew that Jessie hated her, and Vileplume poisoned Jessie because it knew Jessibelle hated her, and they didn't realize what they were doing!"
"Are they..." James was afraid to ask.
Meowth felt that they both had a pulse, then said, "No, but we have to move fast. I'll go look in the forest for the special leaves to fight the poison. You take them both back to camp."
(flashback) ********
"Where are Jessibelle and Cassandra?" 6-year-old Jessie asked her only remaining sister, "Everyone else is asleep." It was the middle of Team Rocket training, and they were in their cabin that they shared with the youngest of the female recruits, most of whom were twice their age.
"It's strange that the Boss hasn't sent them back here yet," Cassidy agreed, "We aren't allowed out of the cabins after dark, and we have more training tomorrow. I haven't seen them since this morning. They were with one of the Boss' henchmen."
"Do you think they're gone?"
"Maybe. Good riddance, though. They were getting annoying."
"I was getting sick of being called Jessibelle! What a stupid name!"
"Maybe he got rid of them because we're so much smarter!"
"Maybe," Jessie felt proud of being part of the better half of the quadruplets, "They did suck at training."
"Shhh!!!" One of their cabinmates hissed, throwing her pillow at them, "Some of us want to sleep!"
"I guess we should go to sleep," Cassidy said, "I heard that training will be hard tomorrow, and the Boss comes around every night to whip people who don't go to sleep."
"Good night, Cassidy."
"Good night, Jessie."
***********
"Is this going to take long?" Jessie asked the henchman, "I have work to do today!"
"Where are we going anyway?" Cassidy asked.
"We're going to see some old friends," the henchman told the 12-year-old newest members of Team Rocket, "And here we are! Do you remember Cassandra and Jessibelle? Cassandra is waiting for us already!"
"One Cassidy was enough!" Jessie told the henchman as they got out of the car, "I don't need another!" Jessie and Cassidy were competing to steal the most pokemon for the Boss. They weren't friends any more, just each other's rival.
Just then, a huge stretch limo pulled up, and out stepped Jessibelle. The henchman reintroduced the sisters, but from the minute they lay eyes on each other, they hated each other. Jessie and Jessiebelle and Cassidy and Cassandra immediately didn't like each other because they were identical. One thought of the other as their evil twin, and the other thought of her as a wimp who couldn't take Team Rocket training camp. Jessie didn't like Cassandra because she was "another Cassidy," who would stand in her way, and vice-versa with Cassidy and Jessibelle. Jessibelle, who had been adopted by a rich family and was engaged to their son, looked down on her sisters, and they thought of her as a snob.
The henchman took them to a restaurant, but Jessibelle wouldn't stop complaining that it was dirty and cheap, and then Cassidy tried to steal her sisters' pokemon. A giant food fight broke out. The henchman called Cassandra's parents and Jessibelle's limo driver to take them home. Then he took Jessie and Cassidy, who were blaming each other, back to the base and tried to forget that there even were two other quadruplets.
*********
"Where is that Pikachu, Jessie?" the Boss demanded.
"With the kid," Jessie said, trying to confuse the Boss so he wouldn't know she'd failed.
"Team Rocket steals pokemon, not children!" The Boss yelled, "What will I do with a kid, especially a dumb one like him?"
"We didn't catch a kid!" James said, blowing their cover.
"You mean you didn't catch that Pikachu?" The Boss bellowed, "You morons! You've worked for me for 5 years, and you can't steal a Pikachu from an imbecile child!"
"But Boss, it's a very powerful Pikachu!" Jessie defended, "It blew up a whole pokemon center!"
"We just happened to be inside of it," James added.
"You idiots! You know what the punishment is for failure!" The Boss yelled.
"Anything but that! The twirps beat us up enough!" James pleaded.
But the Boss didn't listen. He put Jessie and James into separate rooms. Jessie could hear James screaming and yelling, "You're worse than Jessibelle!" As a henchman hit him with a whip.
"Speaking of Jessibelle, perhaps we have the wrong twin," the Boss said, "Is that it?" He raised his whip. He always kept the rare pleasure of hitting the two he'd raised himself to himself.
"No." Jessie said. She wouldn't pretend to be Jessibelle no matter what. The Boss wouldn't show her mercy anyway.
The whip came down hard on her back as he told her what a failure she was, "Why can't you be more like your sisters? Cassidy could steal from that kid easily, Cassandra is on TV, and Jessibelle is going to marry a millionaire's son (who he didn't realize was James). But you're good for absolutely nothing!"
Jessie and James never talked about what happened that day at the base, but they decided not to go back until theyd stolen Pikachu. But the Boss still called them, and at every opportunity, he reminded Jessie that she was nothing but Jessibelle's failure of an evil twin.
Chapter 4
"Jessie?" James was leaning over her as she woke up, "Are you okay? Did the potion work? I think you were having a bad dream!"
"A very bad dream!" Jessie said, shuddering because of all the memories she couldn't forget, "But what happened?"
"You had a pokemon battle with Jessibelle, but your pokemon attacked the other trainer instead of each other." James explained, then he yelled to Meowth, "Your leaf potion worked! Jessie's awake!"
At that moment, Jessibelle woke up, and said, "Oh, James, that evil snake almost killed me!"
"And your evil Vileplume almost killed me!" Jessie said.
"But you're both okay now!" James said, "Meowth made a leaf potion to fight the poison." He really didn't want them to fight again. The results last time had almost been disastrous!
There was another shaking in the in the bushes, and everyone froze. Two servants that James recognized from his old house appeared, so he dove into another bush to hide.
"Jessibelle! We've finally found you! Everyone was so worried!" One servant said.
"You look a fright," The other said. Her hair was messy and uncurled, she was still pale from the poison, and her dress was torn. "Are you all right?"
"I got poisoned by a snake!" Jessibelle wailed, "But then a Meowth saved me! James was here, but he's disappeared."
"Oh, dear, we'd better get you home!" The first servant said.
"But where's James? I thought I saw him dive into a bush!" The second said.
"No," James said in a squeaky voice, coming out of the bush in a crossdresser disguise, "It's just me, Jamie. I'm a friend of the Meowth. You must be delirious from the
poison!"
"Well, thank you, Miss. Come along, Jessibelle, this place is filthy!" The servants led Jessibelle back through the bushes.
"You look stupid, James!" Meowth said.
"Awww!!! I thought I made the coolest girl!" James moped.
"Oh, yeah, and I make a good dog," Meowth said, "Now, Jessie, James may not notice the resemblance between you and Jessibelle, but I do. And after all the trouble we've been through, I think you owe us an explanation."
"There's nothing to explain," Jessie said, "I just hate her because she's so mean to James."
"Yeah, right, and James, don't tell me you don't see the resemblance."
James had noticed it while Jessie and Jessibelle were sleeping from the poison. Because their hair had been messed up in the lake and he'd put blankets over them and
couldn't see what they were wearing, he'd had to look twice before being sure of who was who, "Maybe a little."
"Well, it's just a coincidence," Jessie said, glad that they hadn't heard Cassandra use the same excuse, "Now I'm going to change my clothes. As you can see, my sleeve was ripped off by one of my sss... enemies!" Jessie grabbed her clothes and disappeared into the bushes, wanting to slap herself for almost revealing her secret.
"Meowth, they say that everyone has a twin somewhere," James said feeling that he owed it to Jessie for standing up to Jessibelle to tell Meowth to lay off.
"Yeah, and hers is Jessibelle!" Meowth said, "I wouldn't be surprised if they were real twins, with the same birthday, and the same parents, and even the same DNA!"
"Don't tell them that theory!"
"You know, James, when I was a little kitten, the Boss brought these little quadruplets to the base, and they were all girls, but not all identical. And I was snooping through the Team Rocket records, and Jessie and Cassidy have the same birthday!"
"So? Lots of people have the same birthday!"
"But Jessie is identical to Jessibelle, and Cassidy is identical to Cassandra the reporter, and that makes 4!"
"You're crazy, Meowth!" James said, "But I feel sorry for the quadruplets, even though I'm sure we don't know them. Growing up in the base would be like having the Boss for the world's most abusive dad!"
"James, Jessie and Jessibelle could switch places, they're so identical!"
"They wouldn't. they hate each other too much!"
Meowth went into the bushes to look for Jessie. He knew James wouldn't take him seriously. When Jessie saw him, she jumped behind a tree.
"Meowth, you perverted cat! Get lost! I'm changing!"
"I just wanted to say that I know there's something you aren't telling us. You look way too much like Jessibelle to not be related to her somehow. I'm not even sure that you are Jessie, since you could easily trade places. Now is there something you want to say?"
"I want to say that you're insane! Go away!"
Jessie stayed in the bushes for a while, wondering what to say to her friends. There was nothing to say, she realized, that wouldn't catch her in a lie except the truth. There was no way she was telling them the truth. She slowly got up and walked back to camp.
James was making a feast, "It's to celebrate my evil fiancee Jessibelle leaving."
"If you hated her that much, you would have let her die when Arbok poisoned her!" Meowth said.
"Meowth! Then we would be murdering her! We may be thieves, but we're not murderers. We're not that evil!" James said.
Jessie realized something- James had called Jessibelle evil, and not for the first time. She really was, beating James with that whip. Jessie and James did steal, but they never directly hurt anyone, except themselves when they blasted off. Maybe there were two evil twins, and maybe she wasn't the most evil after all.
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