It was bright and sunny as we traipsed back to the Olivine Pokémon Centre. It had taken virtually no time at all to get back to the mainland, compared to the days we had spent crossing the ocean before. And Gary was still impatient to get back to the Gym for a new badge.

‘Do you think the Olivine Gym will be open by now?’ I asked Gary as we walked.

‘I sure hope so,’ he replied. ‘We really need the badges so we can get a head start on Ash. And a Pokémon Gym can’t afford to be closed for too long.’

I looked up to try and spot the Gym on the horizon, but instead, I spotted someone else. Somebody I remembered.

‘Hey!’ I ran forward with a smile, trying to catch the newcomer’s attention. ‘Hey, Kenta!’

The boy I was addressing looked over at us as I caught up with him. It was great to see him again, with his same bulk of hair poking through his treasured league cap.

The boy blinked. ‘Holly? Is that you?’

‘Yep,’ I said, smiling broadly, ‘It’s been a while, Kenta. Where’ve you been?’

‘Well, I…’ Kenta looked like he was ready to enter brag mode, but suddenly stopped. ‘Tell you what, I’m starving. Why don’t we all go for lunch at the Pokémon Centre and do our catching up there?’

‘Great idea!’

I grabbed Gary and we trooped off the find the Centre. After leaving our Pokémon with the nurse we all entered the cafeteria to order some food.

‘So, how many badges do you have now?’ I asked as we sat down in a booth.

‘I have five,’ he replied with a grin. I just got back from Mahogany Town after getting my latest one. Now we’re going to challenge the Olivine Gym.’

‘Us too! Gary and I only just got back from the Whirl Islands. We even entered the Whirl Cup.’

‘Oh yeah? I think I caught some of that on the television…’

We went on chatting over our meal, although Gary stayed quiet. When we’d finished and were ready to leave, our conversation had turned to strategies against the Gym Leader.

‘I’ve heard stories that the Gym Leader’s pokémon is really huge,’ Kenta said as we wandered back to the lobby, ‘so I was going to try a small, fast pokémon against it as a strategy.’

‘That sounds like a good idea. I don’t have any strategies in mind… I don’t even know if I’m ready to challenge this Gym…’

‘Hey, I’m sure you’ll do fine,’ Kenta reassured me. ‘New Bark Town hasn’t turned out any bad trainers yet.’

I didn’t look too hopeful.

‘Do you remember Jackson? I called him on my Pokégear just the other day. I think he’s already made it to the Blackthorn City area.’

‘Jackson?’ I vaguely remembered the boy. ‘He’s a trainer too?’

‘Yep. He left with Elm’s Chikorita. And I took Cyndaquil at about the same time.’

‘And Totodile?’

‘Went with Marina.’

‘Argh,’ I groaned. ‘Not her. I couldn’t stand all her talk about Lance and those other people she so desperately wanted to meet. I didn’t think she’d even have it in her to take up training.’

Kenta laughed. ‘I’m not sure how far she’s come now, but you managed to leave town before all of us. I bet you’re at least as good as I am.’

‘I dunno…’ I said with a sigh. ‘Most of the badges I’ve won seemed to come from exploiting a Gym Leader’s weaknesses or relying on type match-ups. If this Gym has a reputation for high-level, gigantic pokémon, I might not be able to think of a way to scrape a win.’

‘Hey, here’s an idea,’ Kenta gestured to the pokémon centre doors. ‘Let’s get our pokémon back and have a quick sparring match. I’m sure that’ll boost your confidence.’

Nurse Joy happily returned our pokémon and Kenta and I went back outside to find a suitable spot, somewhere out of the way in a clear area. We saw somewhere that looked all right around the corner from the Centre. Gary stepped up to act as the referee, but only for finalising a knockout.

‘Right, let’s get started!’ Kenta tossed out a pokéball. ‘Typhlosion, I choose you!’

The white energy that spilled onto the ground took the form or a huge, long beast, crouched and ready to attack. With a growl, a mane of fire lit up around its neck.

I was taken aback. ‘Kenta, your starter is in its final form?! This fast?’

‘I don’t have too many pokémon,’ said Kenta with a shrug, ‘but every one of mine is a powerhouse!’

I paused to think. What would fare best against a high-level fire pokémon?

‘Hey, since I’m using the starter I got from Professor Elm,’ Kenta interrupted, ‘Why don’t you use your starter too? Then we’ll be almost even.’

I didn’t move. I didn’t answer.

‘Oh, come on,’ he pushed for a response, ‘why not give it a try? Besides, I’ve been wondering what you chose to start your journey with.’

I finally managed to say something. ‘I don’t have it any more,’ I said quietly, facing the floor.

‘Really?’ said Kenta cautiously. ‘…What happened?’

‘Ah… could I just pick someone else?’

‘Oh. Sure, I guess…’ Kenta seemed a bit put out. I didn’t want him to think it was his fault.

‘All right… let’s go, Mystik!’ I dragged my thoughts back to our battle and threw out my pokéball. Mystik, my Trapinch, appeared on the field.

‘Huh?’ Kenta looked astounded. ‘Where’d you get that pokémon from? I’ve never even seen it before.’

‘I just picked it up somewhere…’ I was starting to rethink my choice. Did I pick Trapinch based on battle ability, or to show off?

‘Well, let’s get this battle started! Typhlosion, use flame wheel!’

Before I could even react, Kenta’s Typhlosion bounded across the field and curled its body into a rolling ball. As it neared its target, the ball burst into hot flames, and hit Mystik square on before he managed to dodge.

‘Yeah!’ cheered Kenta. ‘You need to do better than that!’

I scowled back at him. ‘Mystik, bite attack!’

The Trapinch did his best to clamp his jaws on Typhlosion, but he jumped out of the way and landed facing his opponent. Kenta then called for a smokescreen attack, and the air was thick with blinding smoke from Typhlosion’s mouth.

‘Typhlosion, swift attack!’

‘Mystik, use dig!’

Mystic used his powerful jaws to burrow underground, but I couldn’t see Typhlosion. Suddenly the huge pokémon appeared through the smoke, diving for Trapinch, but his adversary was nowhere to be seen. Typhlosion glanced around for his foe to no avail, until Mystik decided to show himself. He burst through the ground just underneath Typhlosion and pummelled his torso on the way out.

‘Hah! Good move!’ Kenta said with a grin as the smoke cleared.

‘You’re not so bad either!’ I replied cheerfully.

All of a sudden we were interrupted by a voice from above. It was a voice I knew and had come to dread.

‘All set! Fire the rocket, James!’

‘Right-o!’

I heard an explosion and in a flash, our pokémon had disappeared. I looked up to see that familiar Meowth-shaped balloon, and hanging from it, a net with both Trapinch and Typhlosion inside.

‘Haha! Prepare for trouble!’

‘Make it double!’

‘Oh no!’ I yelled. ‘Not you guys again?!’

‘Hey!’ Kenta cried upwards. ‘Give our pokémon back!’

I could see Jessie, the woman with the long red hair, leaning over the balloon basket. ‘Don’t you worry, we’ll gladly give them back. But we’re going to need something in exchange…’

James chimed in. ‘All you have to do is return Meowth to us, and your pokémon will go free!’

‘As if I’d even believe that!’ I called back heatedly. ‘Even if you got what you wanted, you’d probably take our pokémon anyway!’

Jessie gave an annoyingly sweet smile. ‘However did you guess?’

I just stood there fuming.

‘Well, it looks like you’d rather be rid of us,’ James sounded hurt, but his sarcasm couldn’t be missed. ‘So why don’t you hand Meowth over, and we can be on our way.’

‘I… don’t have him any more!’ I yelled with as much anger as I could.

‘Wait…’ Kenta looked at me, ‘that Meowth you used to have… that was your starter?’ I nodded weakly.

‘What…’ the smile had vanished from Jessie’s face. ‘What do you mean, you don’t have him? You’re just hiding him, right?’

Kenta took advantage of the distraction and threw a pokéball into the air. ‘I choose you, Beedrill! Cut open that net!’

A Beedrill formed and quickly climbed in the air towards Team Rocket’s balloon. When it reached the net holding our pokémon it extended a needle and slashed through the wire, freeing the occupants. Typhlosion could handle the small fall and landed on four feet, while Trapinch landed on to of Typhlosion and bounced off.

Seeing this, Jessie and James didn’t get mad, they just lowered their balloon to the ground and jumped out.

‘What do you mean, you don’t have him?’ Jessie did sound genuinely concerned. ‘Did something… happen?’

‘Why do you care?’ I retorted. ‘Don’t you just want to get him back for your Boss?’

‘But… but…’ James seemed to be trying to find the right words. ‘Meowth wasn’t just our team-mate. Most of the time, he was our friend. We wanted him to come back to the team so we could try and catch Pikachu from the Twerps again. Like old times.’

I walked over to the two supposed pokémon thieves. I wasn’t going to be afraid of them. I just looked them straight in the eyes.

‘But… Meowth said that it was your Boss who wanted you to capture him. I thought Meowth wasn’t allowed to leave Team Rocket because he knew too much about your inner workings…’

The two Team Rocket lackeys looked completely confused.

‘We thought we were just going to get our friend back,’ said Jessie sadly.

Somehow, through the ability to understand pokémon speech, I was reading her face and voice tones. I didn’t understand it exactly, but I could tell that this time, they hadn’t been completing a mission. They had been working to rescue their friend. So I figured it would be okay to trust them.

‘Why did you think the Boss was the one who wanted Meowth back?’ James asked in a bemused tone.

‘Well… you’re not exactly the only members who’ve come looking for him. We’ve been hounded by Cassidy and Butch, too.’

At first they looked surprised, then Jessie became angry. ‘So! Doesn’t think we can do our own jobs, does he…?’

I tried to reason with them. ‘Look, why don’t you just take the word back to your Boss or whatever that you won’t be able to get Meowth back. He lives somewhere else now, somewhere he can be happy without worrying about Rockets coming after him.

‘And… where might that be?’ Jessie inquired, not doing a very good job of being subtle.

I cocked an eyebrow at them. ‘Couldn’t tell you if I wanted to. We don’t even know its location.’

‘So you’re saying…’ James sounded almost teary, ‘we’re never going to get to see Meowth again?’

‘I’m afraid so…’ I confirmed, wondering if they would miss him as much as I did. ‘He’s really gone… and trust me, you’ll never be able to find him.’

The two troublemakers didn’t say anything, they just seemed to be having a hard time taking it in.

‘Well, look, even if you did what your Boss ordered and got Meowth back, do you think you’d be allowed to keep him? You’re not going to team up again and have things be "just like old times". I don’t know how Team Rocket deals with traitors, but I’m willing to bet it isn’t pretty.’

After a short silence, Jessie spoke.

‘I guess… I guess you’re right. If Meowth would be harmed… then… I suppose it’s better if he’s in hiding…’

‘But Jessie!’ James whined. ‘What are we going to do without him! We haven’t been able to come up with any decent plans for months now. Without Meowth, this team is a shadow of its former self!’

James definitely had a talent for being overly dramatic.

‘If we actually agree on this (as strange as that sounds),’ I said, ‘why don’t you just head back to your headquarters and get a new assignment or something.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jessie sounded worried, ‘the Boss doesn’t just dismiss a failure…’

‘Maybe since we’ve failed so many times,’ said James hopefully, ‘he might not notice.’

‘If you’re so worried about it,’ said Kenta, ‘why don’t you just quit Team Rocket and not go back? You wouldn’t have to answer to your Boss any more.’

Suddenly it seemed that the truce was over. ‘Sorry kid, but it doesn’t work that way,’ Jessie said icily.

James also defended his team. ‘Being evil isn’t something you can just give up, you know.’

Looking mournful, the pair turned and climbed back into their balloon basket.

‘Well, if we can’t convince you…’ I turned to Kenta. ‘Would you do the honours?’

‘Gladly!’ he replied, pointing a finger at their balloon. ‘Go Typhlosion! Flamethrower!’

Typhlosion reared up, giving a great roar, and shot a jet of flame from his mouth. As the Rocket’s balloon rose up, the fire collided with it and ignited the gas inside. A moment later there was a shuddering explosion, and then there was nothing left to be seen of Team Rocket but a dot in the sky.

Kenta was the first to speak. ‘Wow, look at you, reasoning with the enemy! I never knew you had to give up your pokémon like that. I’m impressed!’

‘That’s not as great as your fully evolved starter!’ I complemented him back. ‘It’s incredibly powerful!’

‘Okay you two, that’s enough,’ Gary intervened with a stern expression. He put his hand on my shoulder and pointed back towards the town. ‘Aren’t we supposed to be going for a Gym Match?’

‘Oh, right…’ I pulled Kenta forward and marched in the direction of the Gym. ‘We should let Kenta go first! I want to see his Typhlosion fight the Gym Leader’s pokémon! That’s going to be so awesome!’

Gary paused for a moment with an indecipherable look on his face before following us.