"Some," Jessie said softly, shushing the recruit. She pointed, looking through her binoculars. "There is he is. Just left of the main entrance."
"I still can't help but wonder how the hair doesn't give him away," Seleca said quietly. The wind stirred the bushes around them. Both girls froze until the wind died down.
"And did ya?"
"Of course! She was cross-eyed for a week afterwards."
The two guards exchanged a laugh.
"What was her name again?" the first asked.
"Lula, Zeke, it was Lula."
"What a name," Zeke said.
"Yeah, and what a-" Jason's words were cut off suddenly.
"Excuse me," a low female voice said. She sounded hysterical. "You have to help me!"
"Hey, slow down there miss," Zeke said, taking the woman by the arm.
"Yes, miss, what seems to be the problem?" Jason said.
"I…" the girl looked behind her quickly, causing her blue hair to fan out behind her. She was wearing a short skirt and top that match the color of her green eyes. It clung to her in the appropriate areas, and the men couldn't help but stare. The girl turned back. "There's a Meowth…"
"A Meowth?" Zeka said doubtfully.
"It's chasing me," she nodded. The men looked at each other and tried not to laugh. "Please, there's something wrong with it."
"Alright, alright, miss," Jason said. "We'll help you. Now, where is this terrible Meowth?"
"MEEEEOWWWWTH!!!" came a scream from down the road. The girl swallowed.
"There," she said.
From down the road came a creamy-white blur. It let out a terrible feline scream and came to a panting halt in front of the guards.
"Meowwwth," the Meowth said. The guards looked at each other.
"What's wrong with it?" Jason asked.
"I don't know!" the girl cried. The Meowth drooled, foaming at the mouth and twitching.
"I think it's rabid," Zeke said.
"MEOW!!!"
"Well do something about it!" the blue haired girl shrieked.
"Alright, I will," Zeke said. He was looking for his gun. So was Jason. They both looked up in surprise to find them missing.
"Meowth, dat's right!" the Meowth said, grinning. He wiped the spittle off of his mouth and bounced away. The guards looked at the girl. She was holding both of their guns.
"Nighty night, morons," she said in a very male voice. The 'girl' smacked both Zeke and Jason on the back of their heads with the guns. As they slumped down two other women came running up.
"Thank god for body suits," Jessie said.
"Help me out of this thing," James said, wiping the lipstick from his lips. Seleca held up the black make-up bag with a grin and started going through it. James pulled up the shirt with his back turned to Jessie and allowed her to undo the straps. He tugged the shirt back down and took the boots from Seleca. She stuffed the body suit into the bag, which she handed off to Meowth. He came back after hiding their things.
"I love Pop Rocks!" Meowth said, tossing more of the candy into his mouth. "Burrrr MEOWTH!" The Pokemon giggled as it foamed at the mouth again. "Yum!"
"Meowth, stop that," James said. "We have a mission to do."
"Aw, stuff it, Wonderbra," Meowth spat. James snorted, pulling a set of keys off one of the guards.
"I have to admit, that was even weirder than my damsel in distress routine," Seleca said as they crept around to the side entrance of the large warehouse.
"Just as effective," James whispered. They reached the side entrance. All four sighed. There were no guards here, but the door was crossed by a heavy bar with several locks.
"Damn," Jessie muttered. James flipped through the keys. He undid the top two locks, and stopped at the third.
"What's wrong?" Seleca whispered.
"Nothing, I just thought I heard something," James said. He put in the third key and turned it slowly. There was a pause, and then the metal bar slid back to reveal a keypad. James tilted his head, looking puzzled. "Your turn."
"Right," Jessie nodded. She leaned in, looking critically at the keypad. It was made of four round red buttons. "Damned electronic locks." She hit the middle key three times. There was another pause, and then a beep. They heard the door unlock.
"Lucky guess," Meowth said. Jessie smirked. James pulled the door open and slipped inside. The other three waited until they saw him wave from within the shadows.
"It's clear," he whispered. Jessie pulled out a small map.
"I think we go down this hall," she said, pointing.
"Are you sure?"
"There's one way to find out," Seleca said. Crouching low to the floor, she pulled out a pokeball. Seleca rolled it down the hallway. When it reached the end of the corridor the ball hit the wall and activated. Popping open, it gave a splay of light, and then snapped shut. The ball rolled back to its master. Seleca picked it up.
"We turn left, not right," Jessie said.
"Der was a sign at the end of the hallway," Meowth said. "Two arrows pointing to the left and three to the right."
"So it is to the right?"
"No, to the left," Meowth said.
"Right."
"No, left."
"Yeah…." James looked mildly confused, but shook it off. They crept down the hall. Where the hall split into two Jessie held Seleca back.
"Stay here," she whispered.
"Why?"
"We need you here in case the guards wake up," James said. He handed his gun to her. "Here, you might need this." Seleca looked at the weapon in surprise, and then nodded. James looked at Meowth. "Stay in this section of the hall." The Pokemon nodded, following Jessie and James down the hall a bit more before stopping. He waited, his tail twitching nervously. Seleca crouched at the intersection, watching Jessie and James disappear into the shadows.
"Clear," Jessie whispered. James crept in, Jessie tailing him. They reached a computer console that was hooked up to something that looked like it better belonged in a science fiction movie. This is where the pair went. There were two switches--James pushed down one and Jessie the other. There was a soft electronic whir, and a small panel slid away. It revealed, within a blue glow, another disk that looked just like the one Jessie held. As James held the panel open, Jessie quickly switched the disks.
The panel snapped back. There was a quiet pause. Jessie and James gave each other a little high five.
Then the sound of a gunshot echoed down the corridor. They looked at each other in shock.
"Seleca!"
Jessie carefully pocketed the disk as they bolted out the door. Meowth was already down the hall.
Seleca lay on the ground, pale. A few feet away lay James' gun. A guard, visibly being Jason, lay near Seleca's feet. Seleca trembled as Meowth nosed her carefully.
"Seleca, are you hurt?" Jessie asked as James picked up his gun.
"No," Seleca whispered.
"We have to get out of here," Jessie said, pulling Seleca up. James helped after putting his gun away. They hoisted their partner up and made their way quickly down the hall.
"What about the guard?" Seleca asked groggily as James pulled the door open again.
"He's dead," Meowth said. "You've got good aim." Seleca let out a pained moan.
"I thought you said you weren't hurt," Jessie said.
"He hit me in the head," Seleca said. "But not very hard…" Her words faded off as the group made their escape.
"Ooooh," Seleca said, rubbing the back of her head.
"You'll be okay," James said evenly. "Apparently the guard didn't get a good enough chance to hit you."
"No," Seleca said, shaking her head but stopping. James pulled the chamber of the gun open and let the unused bullets fall out. There were four.
"Where's the other bullet?" James asked evenly, not looking up from the weapon but clearly addressing Seleca. Jessie tilted the disk, and the moonlight glinted faintly off of it.
"What other bullet?" Seleca asked groggily.
"We only heard one shot," Jessie said.
"That's right."
"And this gun was fully loaded when I gave it to you. But there's an extra bullet missing," James said, reloading the gun.
"I don't know," Seleca said. "Maybe I fired twice and you didn't hear."
"How many times did you fire, Seleca," James said. Seleca squinted.
"Once." James sighed.
"Maybe you misloaded it," Meowth suggested. James gave him a dirty look. The Pokemon's tail drooped for a moment. "Maybe not…."
James looked bothered as he clicked the safety on and put the gun away.
She had been facing the wall when struck from behind. Lurching forward, she had spun around to discover the guard. A quick look to her side showed no signs of Meowth. She had fired once. The guard had staggered back, hitting the wall and falling down. The pain from where she had been struck grew too great and Seleca had crumpled to the floor. She hadn't lost consciousness, but was so groggy that she was barely aware of her surroundings.
Then Meowth had come, looking over her. Then Jessie and James. And now there was a bullet missing. Seleca sighed, hoping that James had simply miscounted somewhere.
After some time passed, a faint shadow appeared from the sleeping room. Seleca recognized it as being Jessie. The woman, in her pink pajamas, padded over to where Seleca rested. Jessie sat on the floor next to the hammock. Seleca looked over the side of the swing, watching the darkness in Jessie's eyes.
"The hair thing," Jessie whispered. "I suppose you should know about it if you're going to work with us." She shifted and sighed.
"James is sensitive when it comes to guns lately. It happened a little over a year ago, before things started going wrong."
"The accident?"
"Yes," Jessie nodded slowly. "We were on a mission in Viridian City. Stealing some equipment, fairly routine stuff. But we missed the information just before going in that the building had a new security staff. We went in, and were just getting to where the equipment was when we got caught. We were trapped." Jessie bit her lip. "At the time the Boss's orders were to any team members that if we got caught, we were do whatever it took to keep team secrets from our enemies."
"Which involved shooting yourself, I'd assume?"
"Yeah." Jessie looked pale in the moonlight. "But what James didn't know was that someone had messed with our guns before we went in. So instead of bullets…"
"Blanks."
"Blanks," Jessie echoed. "It took a good few inches of hair off the side of his head. Took a long time to grow back. Is still a bit shorter if you look close. So we were trapped with no means of defense. James was bleeding from the blank burns…" Jessie sighed.
"How did you get out?" Seleca asked softly. Jessie shook her head.
"We didn't. I got sent to jail, and after being booked James was sent to the hospital. The Boss bailed us out, but that was pretty much the end of our glory days."
"I'm sorry," Seleca said. Jessie shook her head again.
"It's okay. It was over a year ago… maybe having you on our team for a little while will help our luck."
Seleca smiled gently. "Well I do have my lucky Chansey." They both laughed quietly. Jessie pursed her lips.
"James may be stupid sometimes, but he's very careful with the guns. He doesn't want to take the chance that it won't be a blank next time."
There was a pause, and then Seleca asked. "Would you have done it?"
"Done it?"
"Killed yourself if he did."
Jessie sighed. "Then I probably would have. But now I wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"I'm not the same person I was then," she said, frowning slightly. "But you would be surprised… as to the things one would do for love."
Seleca leaned over the side again. "Do you love him?"
"Of course I do," Jessie said after a pause. "But I can't do anything about it."
"Why not?"
"Company policy. Partners can't be… partners. Jax and Ace wanted to get married, and then Jax got reassigned. Ace disappeared."
"I see."
A heavy pause followed. Jessie sniffed lightly.
"The missing bullet wasn't a bullet," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"James didn't load his gun before we left, I did," Jessie said. "I looked through our ammo container when we got back tonight. There were blanks mixed in with the bullets. The ones we use make it hard to tell them apart. It was an accident. For some reason the blank discharged when you fired the gun."
"Does James know?"
Jessie nodded. "I told him. He understands, I think. Was a little groggy. But he won't bring it up again." She pressed her fingers together. "But I wanted you to know."
Seleca nodded slowly. After a moment she asked: "Do you think that this will keep me from getting a partner?"
Jessie laughed lightly. "Nah." She looked at Seleca. "Oh, you mean killing the guard."
"Yeah."
"Well… I don't think it will. It's part of the job," Jessie said. "Just another one of the risks. Unless the police find out that it was us there, there shouldn't be any problems."
"Are you sure?" Seleca frowned.
"Sure I am," Jessie nodded. "If there was trouble we'd know already."
"Okay," she rolled back in the hammock. "I feel kinda bad about doing it though."
"I know," Jessie said. "It passes. You get more used to it, I think."
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
Jessie nodded stilly. "I knew that the guards would find us once they woke up. I'm pretty sure James knew too, that's why he gave you the gun." She smiled faintly. "Neither of us thought you'd fire it though."
"Neither did I," Seleca admitted. "He was just… a whole lot bigger than me, it seemed."
Jessie gave another light laugh. "Self defense for breaking and entering. And robbery… We could probably get off, the way things are today."
"So the Boss won't mind?"
"Nah. He'll just add it to the body count."
"What a nice guy," Seleca said drily.
"If it gets the job done…" Jessie trailed off. Seleca looked thoughtful as she stared up at the ceiling.
"What was on the disk we stole?"
"Information for a genetic sequencing project. The DVLN experiments that the Boss has been trying to get his hands on."
"Mm. And the disk you had?"
Jessie grinned. "You really don't want to know."
"That bad?"
"Dirty enough," Jessie laughed. Seleca grinned, leaning over the side of the hammock again.
"Interesting ways of doing things," she said.
"You'd be surprised."
"You've said that before," Seleca said.
"I still mean it."
"Mmhmm."
Jessie scrunched up her face with a yawn for a moment. "Well, I hope you've been surprised."
"Constantly."
"Well, that's good," Jessie said, stifling another yawn. "I'm going to bed now. Keep what I said about James in mind."
"I will."
"See you in the morning," Jessie said. She got to her feet and went back to the sleeping area. "Watch out for Meowth, he'll be cranky in the morning."
"Cranky?"
"It's a Tuesday… he's always cranky on Tuesday mornings."
The Boss finished his conversation on the telephone. The Persian was nowhere in sight. He set the phone in its cradle, hitting the "Off" button carefully. He looked up at the trio.
"You mission was successful, I presume," he said evenly.
"Yes sir," Jessie said, holding up the disk. "Very." She put the disk on the desk, and the Boss picked it up. He slid it into a console off to his right. Information popped up on a computer screen. They could see light glint off the Boss' teeth as he smiled.
"Excellent." He hit a button and the screen darkened. The Boss looked at Seleca. "So you had your first gun handling experience?"
"Yes, sir," Seleca said quietly. "I hope it wasn't a problem."
"Not at all. A small price to pay for the information you all acquired."
"Does this mean, sir…"
"That you'll be getting a partner?" the Boss said. "Yes, I suppose so. Not immediately though."
"Why not?" James asked.
"We're having some problems with the gentleman that is to be your partner," the Boss said.
"Oh," Seleca said, her shoulders slumping slightly.
"It shouldn't be too long," the Boss assured her. "But I'm afraid we have bigger problems to deal with right now."
"Oh?" they leaned forward some with interest.
"One of our agents was murdered last night."