1.

"A wanted poster. How… flattering."

"Flattering?! That picture makes me look terrible!"

"Then you should be glad the photographer captured the real you."

"Exactly."

"We'll show those bumpkins."

"The people of Viridian City will be sorry they ever saw this face."

Meowth, the try-hard machismo making him cry inside, muttered "We're all sorry ta see your face… We're here to capture rare and unusual Pokemon, don't forget that."

Jessie sighed. "We know!"

"And just remember who the top cat is, me-owth!"

"If you make that pun one more time, I'm putting in an official request to join another team," said James. "Preferably one in Siberia."

"Fascinating though this conversation is, and by that I mean not at all you boring losers," said Jessie, "the longer we wait the more likely it is the police will work out we're using the balloon. Let's hit the Pokemon Centre and be done with it."

This was what the trio had been building up for. The few grab-and-run jobs they'd done over the past two days were alright as a warm-up, but after their record in training they had a rep to live up to. They'd been in on a few good jobs before now – moderate-scale abductions of wild Pokemon, the cleaning out of a Pokemon pet store – but they needed more, hungered for it. They were young, keen and desperate to keep making their mark, and nobody on their level had ever hit a Pokemon Centre before. Even if they failed, their reps would be assured.

They'd planned it out in detail – get in from the roof, take out the power, grab as many of the stored Pokemon as possible, escape back to the balloon. They knew what to do, how to do it, and how long it would take. It was simple.

And yet something nagged at James.

"That officer down there was heading for the Centre," he pointed out. "She might still be there when we-"

"Eh, da Jennies are about as useful as a Snorlax guarding a pie factory. Who cares?"

"Well, this one may be a Snorlax on a… er… OK, trying to continue the simile was a futile effort but my point still stands-"

"Oh for-" Jessie fought the urge to use violence and reached for her pockets. "We'll toss a coin, heads we go in anyway, tails we leave off until tomorrow. Happy?"

"Like that proverbial Snorlax in the pie factory!"

"Stealin' someone's similes is fightin' talk, Jimmy."

"James, Meowth: shut up or I'll kill you. It's not like the entire direction of our lives is going to be altered, either to success or to endless failures week after week, just because of this coin toss now is it?"

The coin came down tails. The trio came back the day after Ash and Pikachu had left.

They'd never know how lucky they'd been.

Pokemon Technical, two months later. The greatest and best school in Kanto, attended by the elite. Despite this, it had been an hour now and still nobody in the school canteen had noticed one of the two new schoolgirls was a guy in drag.

"I think my butt is being checked out," said James.

"Well, that was something I never wanted to know, thanks for that." Jessie checked her watch. "Almost time. Done your bit?"

"Planted over there," he said, pointing to a non-descript bag hidden under one of the canteen tables. "All up to Meowth now."

Meowth, for his sins, was clambering through the air vents and wondering just when Jessie had taken control of the trio. Clutched in his paws was a sack containing small explosive devices, which were to be placed at strategic places in the vents for maximum impact. Already Jessie and James had planted their share, but of course those bastards didn't have to clamber around in this Hell for claustrophobics.

Back out of the vents, Jessie checked her watch again. "Fifteen seconds."

The two of them reached into their school backpacks and removed & donned their gas masks. The other students had just a few seconds to notice this before the Sleep Powder bombs detonated, blanketing half the building and knocking out everyone between the canteen and the Pokemon storage room.

"James, there's one thing that's bothering me," said Jessie as the two of them waded through the sleeping students. "Why did you pre-own a schoolgirl's uniform?"

"I think it's best for both our sakes you don't know."

As planned, they reached the storage room, removed their gas masks and headed in to rendezvous with Meowth and grab as many Pokeballs as possible before anyone arrived to stop them.

What they found was Meowth lying unconscious on the ground. The room had been occupied, and now Giselle stood defiantly next to a Cubone.

"Oh fiddlesticks," said James.

"I don't know who you losers think you are but you're going to regret attacking this school!" snarled Giselle, nodding to Cubone to attack. "Cubone! Bone-"

"Myself, I choose you!" roared Jessie. "Use your Explosive-Grenade-Of-Death attack!"

Both Pokemon and schoolgirl dived to the floor as the offending weapon came hurtling at them, and they had just enough time to realise that the grenade was actually a Pokeball before Ekans emerged from it. Cubone was immediately pinned down in a Wrap attack. Giselle stood up and started to give battle tactics, but Jessie punched her out.

"I love that trick."

Koffing joined in the fracas, merrily launching a repeated Tackle into the immobilised Cubone's face. It was the standard Rocket tactic: gang up on the enemy Pokemon, make them unable to fight back, and steal everything you can when they're down. They had it honed to a fine art.

Giselle got back up and tried to reach the nearest Pokeball; moving fast, Ekans hurled Cubone across the room and into the girl's face.

James winced. "Do you think our level of violence is unnecessarily high, Jess?"

"We're more violent than a pissed-off Primeape on PCP, this is true, but I don't hear Giselle there complaining!"

"She's unconscious."

"Still not complaining though."

Their backpacks full, Jessie and James retrieved their Pokemon, picked Meowth off the floor and made a break for it out the window. They could've easily chosen another route but that just lacked style. It also, as it turned out, led them right into the middle of several advanced students who had been outside the Sleep Powder radius. Very big students who were carrying Pokemon.

Jessie and James came to a stop, sized up the aggressive students, and smiled to each other.

"And here was me thinking we wouldn't get a chance to do the motto," said James.

They were in Vermillion City by nightfall and made it to the local Team Rocket base to hand in the haul.

"The language of some of those students was atrocious!" exclaimed James. "The standards for creative swearing have dropped since our day at the Tech."

"I don't see what they were so angry about, we hadn't stolen their Pokemon. Well, not until we had Koffing sludge them into submission and then grabbed them, but that's their own fault."

Meowth just grunted. It had been embarrassing, Giselle getting the drop on him – and insult to injury, Jessie had used him as a bludgeon against the other students.

This was their fifteenth successful mission over the past two months, and it seemed like nothing could stop them. Already, several of their missions were passing into Rocket legend – the Viridian City Pokemon Centre raid, stealing a gigantic Moon Stone from the mountains – and there were rumours of promotion to Class A status. Everything they'd dreamt of during training, everything they'd fought for all their lives, it was all in their grasp.

Nothing could stop them.

The Boss himself was on the line.

The assignment was for the St Anne.