A few hours later Ash, Misty, Brock, Jesse, James, Meowth and Harriet waited anxiously outside the door of the operating room, praying that Butch and Cassidy were all right.
It had been a rough journey from the forest to the hospital. They got held up by a colony of Primeape and only just managed to escape (with Brock nearly falling down the edge of a cliff due to the Primape’s raging).
"Do you reckon Butch is alright?" asked Jesse.
"Butch is a tough kid," said Meowth. "He knows what he’s doing, so yeah, he should be okay."
"But that was a really hard blow," said Brock anxiously. "A Drain Punch and a Solar Beam! I hate those girls more than ever now."
"Who are Team Magma, anyway?" inquired Misty.
Jesse, James and Meowth exchanged dark looks.
"They’re our rivals," said James. "You don’t want to get on the wrong side of them."
"Their ultimate goal is to resurrect the Pokemon Groudon, which is extremely powerful and is rumoured to have amazing powers," said Jesse.
"Call me a sceptic, but aren’t you guys aiming for kind of the same sort of thing? World domination and all that?"
"No!" said Meowth, looking offended. "We do things properly, and Team Magma mess around with fossils and genes and all of that rubbish. They haven’t got anywhere in the past seven years."
A doctor came out of a side door next to the operating room.

"Are they okay?" asked Harriet.
"Well, Cassidy’s leg isn’t going to heal very quickly, but we can give her crutches for the time being. As for Butch, he is making a speedy recovery. I’ve never had a case like this, but he really is a fighter."
Meowth nodded triumphantly.
"Told ya," he said.
The double-doors of the operating room swung open and Cassidy came limping out, holding two crutches.
"Thanks for the help, Doc," she said gratefully.
"No problem. How did it happen, actually?" he asked curiously.
Cassidy glanced at the others, and began to tell the doctor the full story, from the day they met Holly and Lily to the part where the escaped. The doctor stood still, hardly able to believe it.
"Lily did this?" he asked hoarsely.
"Yep. Why?" asked Cassidy.
The doctor shook his head slowly.
"You are lucky to be alive, young lady. So is your partner. Those two are the two best agents in Team Magma’s whole community. Murderers, too."
Misty’s eyes filled with tears.
"They killed my Chansey," she said softly.
"Oh. I’m sorry," said the doctor awkwardly.
Misty’s expression switched rapidly from sorrow to anger.
"Feeling sorry for ourselves won’t get us anywhere. We’re going to go to the Team Magma Headquarters, and I’m going to kill them. They murdered my Chansey, nearly killed Butch and broke Cassidy’s leg. How would they like it?!"
Ash put his hand on her shoulder. Fire burned in his eyes.
"Let’s do it!" he cried.
"Woah there, slow down, kid!" said Meowth. He pushed Ash back onto his seat. "Team Magma aren’t the sort of people who are easily fooled!"
Cassidy hobbled over to Misty, adjusting the crutches.
"I’m with you, Mist," she said quietly. "They nearly killed Buffy. I’ll take Lily. You take Holly."
"For God’s sake, it’s Butch!" said a gravely voice from behind them.
Cassidy turned around and nearly fell over.
"Butch! H-how…" she stuttered.
Butch grinned.
"That was child’s play. Let’s go kick Team Magma’s butt!"
"We’re with you!" said Jesse.
"Yeah!" said James, Meowth and Harriet.
"Us too!" said Ash, Misty and Cassidy.
The doctor smiled at all of them.
"Do me a favour and go and show Team Magma what you’re made of. I can’t stand those stuck-up agents. I’d love to see them hanging their head for once," he said.
"Don’t worry. They’ll be sorry they ever messed with us!" said Meowth proudly.
They set back off into the woods. Harriet looked at her compass.
"Cassidy, which direction is it in?" she asked.
"Hold on," said Cassidy. She pulled a map and a pen out of her pocket. She unrolled the map and made some markings on it, then handed it to Harriet.
"There you go," she said.
Harriet veered off the forest path and strayed into the trees. Everyone else followed, careful to look out for landmarks so they could find their way back.
Jesse suddenly laughed.
"What’s up?" asked Ash.
"This is so strange," she giggled. "We’re co-operating with you, and me and Cassidy are practically the best of friends. A few months ago, this would never have happened."
Ash thought about it. She was right, this would never usually happen.
"Plus, usually Misty would never dream of hurting anyone," continued Jesse.
"I honestly don’t care if I hurt them. They deserve it. Let God damn them to hell!" said Misty furiously.
"Calm down!" said James. "Believe me, they have evil deep in their souls, God won’t need that much persuading to send them to hell."
"You haven’t heard half of it, Jim," said Meowth. "Ya know when I was searching them up in da helicopter? I found their record of how many people and Pokemon they killed."
"How many?" asked James and Misty.
"Holly has killed thirty-seven people, and twenty-six Pokemon. Lily has killed thirty-four people and twenty-nine Pokemon."
They stood still, gob smacked.
"HOW COULD THEY DO THAT?!" shrieked Misty.
Meowth shrugged.
"Don’t worry, we outsmarted them once, we can do it again," assured Jesse.
They carried on walking for the next ten minuets in silence. Suddenly a large building loomed out of the trees.
"That’s it," said Cassidy shakily, "That’s the Team Magma Headquarters."
The building was even bigger than the Team Rocket Headquarters, and entirely made of steel. The windows had bars on them, and the stainless-steel gates were heavily padlocked. It looked more like a prison than anything else.
"Hey, what’s that?" asked Misty, pointing to the roof of the Headquarters.
Standing on top of the roof, was a large, blood red crescent moon. It glinted eerily in the moonlight, the reflection of the moon rippling in the lake beside the Headquarters.
"The insignia of Team Magma," said Cassidy. She shuddered.
"Why is it a red moon?" said Ash.
"Well, the Team’s leader, Magnus, decided on the moon because he once had a close encounter with the Pokemon Cresselia. Most people believe that the moon is connected with Cresselia, and that the moon’s rays actually give it its strength."
"Team Magma has focused on the same two Pokemon for years. Groudon and Cresselia," sighed Butch.
"I thought Cresselia was common?" asked Misty.
"They’re only after one Cresselia," said Cassidy glumly. "The one Magnus encountered was far stronger than any other. Its powers were so strong, he’s lucky he is alive."
"But the chances of him meeting the same one isn’t very high, so at the moment they’re focusing on Groudon," said Butch.
The continued walking until they reached the gates.
"How da hell are we gonna get through those locks?!" said Meowth anxiously.
"Don’t worry. Cyndaquil, Totodile, go!" shouted Ash, hurling his Pokeballs.
Both of the Pokemon materialised simultaneously.
"Cynda!"
"Totodile!"
"Right, Cyndaquil, use Flame Thrower on the lock!"
"Cynda…" Cyndaquil drew in its breath, "Quil!"
The lock was engulfed with the flames that had come from Cyndaquil’s mouth. The lock dropped to the ground, charred to cinders. Ash looked at the lock, surprised.
"I was going to use Totodile’s Water Gun to cool down the lock again to make it weak, but I guess I didn’t need to," grinned Ash, returning Cyndaquil and Totodile to their Pokeballs.
"That’ll come in handy later. Team Magma aren’t just going to use one puny lock to keep the entire building safe," said Harriet gravely.
They started walking through the courtyard until they reached the main doors. There was a security panel on the left-hand side of the door, and one of those devices that reads fingerprints.
"Oh, no," groaned Harriet.
Misty looked up to the top of the building, and back down to the ground. She turned around to Ash and Brock.
"We didn’t use a finger-print device and a security panel to get into the Team Rocket Headquarters, did we?" she said.
"Y-you want us to climb up there?" stuttered Brock.
Misty fixed him with a penetrating stare.
"If you won’t, I will."
"Hold it! Mist, we know you were a rock-climber back in the day, but you could easily be caught!" said Ash, a note of panic in his voice.
"Exactly. If I am caught, it’ll give people a distraction to get through and murder those girls. Even if I don’t escape, I shall die happy if you do that."
"Misty, I’m coming with you," said Jesse. "In honour of Cassidy."
"Thanks, Jess," said Cassidy and Misty.

"But please be careful up there. You two are risking your lives here," said James. He sounded even more worried than Ash.
"James. We’ll be okay. Trust me."
"Whenever you tell me not to worry is when I worry the most!" grinned James.
Misty pulled the plunger-type objects out of her pockets, and Ash gave Jesse his.
"Do you know how to do this?" Misty asked Jesse.
"What, this? Child’s play," smiled Jesse.
They harnessed themselves into the ropes that Harriet had given them, and Butch fastened them to one of the tallest trees he could find (and the only one that wasn’t inhabited by Beedrill).
"See you later-hopefully!" called Misty.
"Mist!" exclaimed Brock and Ash.
They started to make their way up the steel wall of the mighty Headquarters.
"Oh damn!" shouted Butch suddenly.
"What?" asked James.
"Security cameras," said Butch, pointing. Sure enough, there were cameras all over the place, though barely visible even in the strong light of the moon.
"No problem," said Harriet. "Go, Willow!"
She tossed her Pokeball, and a Swellow materialised in the air, squawking.
"Willow, use Steel Wing on as many of the cameras as you can find!" said Harriet.
The Swellow nodded and swooped up to the top of the building.
"There’s one there, a bit to the east!" yelled Butch.
The Swellow’s wing lit up with a blinding white light. It drew back the wing and knocked the camera to the ground.
"Nice job, Willow!" shouted Misty. She and Jesse had almost reached the topmost window.
"Keep it up!" called Jesse.
The Swellow continued darting around the building and knocking off the cameras to the ground. Eventually it reached the last one and fluttered to the ground, exhausted.
"Thanks, Willow. You take a nice long rest," said Harriet, returning Willow to her Pokeball.
"Wow. I’ve never seen a Steel Wing as strong as that!" gasped Brock.
Harriet smiled, and raised her eyes to the top of the Headquarters.
"They made it!" cried Harriet gleefully.
Up at the top of the Headquarters, Misty and Jesse had indeed reached the topmost window of the grand steel building.

"It’s a good thing we don’t get vertigo," said Misty, pulling a penknife out of her pocket.
She stuck one of her plungers on the glass and drew a circle around it. Then she pulled out the glass and let it drop to the ground.
"I actually learned something from those idiots," said Misty, surprised it actually worked.
"Let’s be honest, they’re not exactly the best example, are they?" said Jesse.
Jesse leaned as far over as she dared and called to the others.
"We’re going in!"
Brock suddenly slapped a hand to his forehead.
"Why didn’t I think of it earlier? Onix, go!"
He threw his Pokeball and the gargantuan form of Onix slowly came into view.
"Onix, connect to the window up there! Stretch your body as far as you can go!"
Onix roared and started to stretch it’s rugged body up to the window where Jesse and Misty where clinging.
"Come on guys!" called Brock. He began climbing up Onix’s back, holding onto it for dear life. It’s body was so stretched out it was practically vertical.
Everyone else followed. Butch pulled Cassidy up with incredible ease, and Meowth hitched a ride on James’s head. His claws wouldn’t be able to stay in place for very long on Onix’s back.
Butch pulled a knife from his belt and cut the ropes from the tree. He grabbed the roped before they fell back down and tied them to a small satellite dish that was sticking out of the building like some strange, metal mushroom.
Cassidy peered into the window that Jesse and Misty would be going into.
"It- it’s just one huge, vertical drop!" she exclaimed.
"Nah, that’s just da reflection of da darkness," said Meowth, whose special magnified vision could see things most humans or Pokemon couldn’t normally see.
"Shh!" said Misty urgently, "There’s two guards down the bottom of there! They nearly heard me and Jesse before!"
Cassidy looked back through the hole in the window.
"Oh, great. Just great," she said sarcastically.
"What?" asked Misty.
"It’s the two guards that resigned from Team Rocket about a month ago. The brains of an uneducated monkey and fists that could smash through an Onix."
Onix made a strange growling noise that in Pokemon terms would have been described as a whimper.
"Onix, return," said Brock. Onix looked quite relieved as Brock returned him to his Pokeball.
Brock hung tightly onto the third rope that Butch had tied on to the mushroom-type satellite.
"Once this is over, you guys are gonna get it!" he yelled at Cassidy, Butch, Jesse, James and Meowth.
Cassidy laughed scornfully.
"What you gonna do, Squinty?" she mocked. "Throw a couple of badges at us?"
"Hey, hey, break it up!" said Butch. He was exactly comfortable with watching his Team Rocket partner and his good friend (even if he was a twerp) fight.
"We’re just fooling around, Butch," grinned Cassidy.
"No you were not!" said Brock. "You were-," Brock got cut off by Butch grabbing him around the throat and hissing in his ear "Believe me, later you’ll thank me for this."
"I…can’t…breathe…" gasped Brock.
Butch reluctantly let go, and Brock’s face turned back from blue to brown again.
"Hey!" said Ash. He pointed upwards. "There’s a big ledge up the top. Do you reckon we can get up there?"
"’Course," said Meowth. He produced a small metal box and held it up triumphantly.
"One of those devices Holly and Lily had on their shoes!" said Ash. "How did you get it?"
"Stole it when the girls went away. Did you not see that Holly had one missing? That’s why she was flying at a slightly lesser pace than Lily."
"Do we have to use their names?" groaned Misty. "I hate them so much I’d like to throw them in a lake full of rampaging Gyarados."
"We’d all like to do that, Mist," said Jesse.
"Come on, let’s get this over with," said Brock, who had managed to recover from Butch’s iron-grasp.
James took Jesse’s rope and Ash took Misty’s rope. They both began to lower them down into the dark depths of the Headquarters.
"I’ve had to do this before," Jesse whispered to Misty. "Right before I met James. My partner nearly died, and even though he didn’t, his ribcage was shattered and he had to undergo seven or eight operations. I know this sounds mean, but I’m glad he did otherwise I would never have met James and Meowth."
Misty shuddered.
One of the guards suddenly looked upwards.
"INTRUDERS!" he yelled. He pointed his gun upwards and shot Misty right into the shoulder blade. Misty fell forward, her body limp. Jesse screamed, even though she knew they were tranquillisers and not bullets.
"You next," said the other guard, but he could barely be heard by Ash’s yelling.
"No!" screamed James. Then he did something extremely heroic but incredibly stupid. He jumped down from the window and landed right on top of the guard with the gun. He kicked the gun out of the other guard’s hand, but the guard wasn’t put off that easily. He grabbed James by his hair and slammed him against the wall. James slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"James!" yelled Jesse. She untangled herself from the harness and jumped down like a cat.
"Dear goodness," said a silky voice from a dark corner of the room, "Hardly the best display ever."
Jesse whipped around. Holly and Lily came striding out of the darkness.

"Raymond, there was really no need for that. We shall discipline you later," said Holly. She acted as if he was a four-year old who had done some tiny little thing wrong, not a fully-grown man who had shot a girl in the shoulder and knocked a man unconscious by slamming him into a wall.
Jesse was breathing very heavily, her eyes full of malice.
"Is something wrong?" asked Holly sweetly.
"Yes there is!" shrieked Jesse. She threw herself at Holly, attempted to scratch her face, but before she got within three feet of her she was thrown backwards by some strange force.
"You don’t have a very long memory, do you?" asked Holly.
"Magnetic force field," said Lily, pointing at the petals on her lily.
"I bet you don’t have the guts to face us in a real fight!" called a deep, rough voice. A second later there was a soft thud as Butch landed beside Jesse.
"Have to have your precious flowers to protect you!" said another voice, younger and higher-pitched. Ash jumped down and landed on Jesse’s other side, with Pikachu growling on his shoulder.
"You are not requesting a real fight, are you?" asked Lily, her eyebrows raised.
"That sort of thing is so uncouth," said Holly curtly. "We are not idiots, as much as you may be."
"That’s strange news, since you have about as much brains as a Magikarp has strength," said Butch.
"Oh, very amusing," said Lily sarcastically. "Is that any better than someone who sounds like a hyena that’s swallowed several glass bottles and scraped his teeth along a gravel road?"
Butch clenched his fists, trying to keep calm.
"You girls are all talk," said Jesse.
"Aren’t girls supposed to be like that?" asked Ash semi-seriously.
Jesse pulled her trusty fan out of her pocket and whacked Ash on the back of his head with it.
James gave a faint murmur. Jesse walked over to him and dropped to her knees.
"This is even worse than with Jezebel," he muttered.
"James, nothing is worse than that, believe me. That woman was deranged. I mean, what girl carries around a whip and lectures you on how to do everything?!"
James gave a weak smile.
"I’ll try and help you in any way I can, but for now, I’m dealing with these two," said Jesse.
"You go get them, Jess," grinned James.
This gave Jesse courage. She stood back up and faced Holly and Lily.
"Just like Ash here said, you don’t have the guts to take us on single-handed, do you?" she said.
"Petty insults aren’t going to get you any where," said Holly smoothly.
"Exactly. You may know all of these upper-vocabulary words, but you’re acting your shoe-size, not your age."
"Compared to the girl who just said we were ‘all talk’?" Lily laughed. "So childish."
"Shooting a girl in the shoulder and smashing someone’s skull in isn’t something to be proud of!" yelled Ash.
"That’s it. I’m coming down!" called Cassidy. She sprang from the ledge and down to the ground. Butch caught her in case she injured her broken leg even more.
"I’m coming too!" shouted Harriet. She leapt down and stood on her own two feet, unscathed. It was a mystery how she managed to do that, especially as she was wearing high-heels.
"Wait for Meowth!" Meowth called. He jumped down, but misjudged the jump completely and ended up lying on his back. The phrase "a cat always lands on its feet" isn’t always correct.
Cassidy gave Holly and Lily a look of uttermost loathing.
"You two think you know everything, but you are a disgrace to the entire human civilisation," she said angrily.
"Still feeling a bit upset about Politoed-Throat here?" asked Holly mockingly.
"Don’t try it," said Cassidy, her voice dangerously low.
"You’re not going to fool us this time, girl!" said Lily.
"The name is Cassidy, and don’t forget it."
"Oh, we’ll never forget you! I mean, you will be the thirty-fifth human on my list. Actually, thirty-sixth. I’d like to get rid of James first. I have to give him a bit of honour before he dies."
"COULD YOU TWO BE ANY CRAZIER?!" screeched Ash.
"We may be crazy, but reality needs a touch of madness now and again," said Holly, her voice unnaturally calm and her face expressionless.
Lily bent down and took the rose out of James’s hand.
"The scent of death," she said. "One of the things that connects nature with the worlds’ forces. Life is delicate, like a rose. It is unpredictable of the results. Life is too short and too fragile."
She dropped the rose to the ground.
Tears formed in Jesse’s eyes. So many emotions were building up inside her. Anger, hate, worry, and her love for her dear partner. If he died, she wouldn’t be able to live anymore.
Cassidy noticed Jesse’s eyes nearly spilling over with tears.
"Jess," she said, but she couldn’t say anything comforting.
Cassidy beckoned to Ash, and gave him some quick sign language. Ash understood, and looked at Jesse. Tears were spilling down her cheeks, which surprised Ash, Jesse didn’t usually show an emotional side, she was too bold for that.
"Do you surrender?" asked Holly.
"On your life!" shouted a voice. Someone jumped down from the window ledge. Judging by her voice, she was female, but the hood of a cloak covered her face. In her hand she held a tulip with black petals.
"Domino?" gasped Jesse, Butch, Cassidy and Meowth.
"You know me as ‘The Black Tulip’" said the girl. She swept the cloak off dramatically.
The girl was around eighteen and wore a short black dress similar to Cassidy’s, with the large red "R" on the front. She wore white elbow-length gloves, white knee-length boots, and a cap. Her hair was blonde and was extremely curly. Her unusual hair went against all the rules of hairstyling.
Holly stopped dead.
"Agent 009," said Lily. "Haven’t seen you in a while. We thought you were dead."
"You thought wrong there, didn’t you? Because I’m standing here, plainly alive," said Domino, surveying the scene with interest.
"Not for long," said Lily. "Come on, let’s fight!"
Holly was still not moving a muscle.
"I can’t," she whispered.
"What do you mean? Come on!" snapped Lily. She threw her lily to the ground and wrenched Holly’s tulip out of her iron-grasp.
"That’s my sister," said Holly hoarsely. Her voice was barely audible.
Everyone gasped.
"Never stopped you before, has it, Little Red?" asked Domino.
"It’s Holly," said Holly indignantly, a bit of her confidence coming back.
"Must have a bad long-term memory, then. If I am correct, the last time I saw you was when we were at the Pokemon Tech with these guys."
Jesse looked closer at Holly and Lily. She nearly fell over as the recognition came back.
"You- you two were at the Pokemon Tech!" she exclaimed. "I remember you two- all too well…always bullying everyone."
"Including James," added Cassidy. She knew Jesse’s temper was undergoing some serious strain.
Butch cracked his knuckles and took a step forward.
"Shall we finish them off, Dom- I mean, ‘The Black Tulip’?" asked Butch.
"Might as well," said Domino, making a couldn’t-care-less gesture.
"You-you wouldn’t!" said Holly, the fear obvious in her voice. "Not your own sister and her best friend!"
"I think you’ll find I would. But maybe killing you isn’t good enough. We’ll simply put you in jail."
"Aw, can’t we torture them first?" whined Ash.
"As much as I’d love too, young man, we can’t, unless you want to be put in jail too," said Domino.
Ash sighed and looked up at the dangling form of Misty.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING! MISTY COULD BE DEAD BY NOW!" he yelled.
"Hey, hey, calm down!" said Jesse, although she knew how he felt. "Tranquillisers last about an hour or two, so we are just going to have to wait for her to wake up. But it might be best to get her down first."
"Leave it to me," said Domino. She threw her tulip at the rope that was harnessing Misty. The tulip cut right through and Misty dropped to the ground. It was lucky Ash was right beneath her.
Domino caught her tulip one-handed, and turned to face the girls, who were quivering with fear.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight," said Domino, raising her eyebrows.
"Never!" shrieked Lily. She threw her lily in Cassidy’s direction, but before it could hit her Domino threw her tulip at the lily. The two flowers collided, and there was a loud BANG.
Smoke engulfed the room, as thick as a Weezing’s Smokescreen.
"We have to…get out of here…" gasped Ash.
Jesse picked up James, who was out cold. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past ten minuets.
"Onix, make a staircase!" yelled Brock. "Be quick!"
Onix didn’t need telling twice. It was still scared out of its wits at the phrase ‘fists that could smash through an Onix’.
Everyone ran up Onix as fast as they could.
"Adios, amigos!" yelled Domino.
When they reached the ledge Brock returned Onix then hurled the Pokeball again, so Onix materialised on the opposite side. Everyone ran down it and collapsed onto the ground, coughing and spluttering.
"I…hope they’re…dead…," spluttered Ash.
"If they are, we’ll throw a party," said Cassidy.
"Everyone okay?" asked Brock.

"I’m still alive," said Ash. "Not sure about Misty though."
"I told you before, she’ll only be out about an hour or so. Think of it as being Thunderbolted a hundred times."
"We know the feeling," said Jesse and Meowth simultaneously. Everyone laughed.
"Hey, James is waking up!" said Cassidy.
She was right. James sat up slowly.
"Did you get them?" he asked Jesse quietly.
"Definitely. Double trouble has a new meaning," said Jesse.
She clasped James’s hand.
"We’ll be best friends forever, right?" she asked.
"This isn’t exactly the best time for a sentimental moment, Jesse," said Meowth.
Jesse glared at Meowth.
"Has that ever stopped us?" grinned James. "Yep, Jess, of course we will!"
Jesse turned back to Cassidy.
"Are we mortal enemies or friends?" she asked uncertainly.
"Either way, it doesn’t matter," said Cassidy.
James pulled another rose put of his pocket and gave it to Jesse. She smiled at it.
"The scent of death," she said. "This isn’t over, and it never will be, but next time, we’ll be prepared."
It just goes to show that life is delicate, it can hurt you, but all in all, it is a beautiful thing. Just like a rose.