Cassidy stared blankly at the wall opposite her, the dirty grey wall of the jail cell that she had been stuck in for days now. A few days ago, she and Butch had been on a Team Rocket mission, they were supposed to rob a pokecenter at night, steal any pokemon that would be valuable to Giovanni. It was a simple mission, they had done it many times before and it had been running smoothly, until that stupid officer Jenny appeared out of practically nowhere and arrested them. Cassidy didn’t know what the boss would have to say about this. Cassidy and Butch had been failing missions a lot recently and this was obviously something Giovanni wouldn’t be happy about. Butch glanced across at his partner. Butch was worried about her slightly, she was just sat there staring and saying nothing. Butch knew Cassidy always got upset when they failed a mission, especially when they got thrown into jail. But usually she wouldn’t be sat staring into space looking depressed, she’d usually be talking away angrily about how much she hated those officer Jenny’s, insulting everyone and everyone, usually taking her anger out on Butch. But now she was silent. “You’re quiet.” Butch acknowledged, breaking that uncomfortable silence. Cassidy only carried on staring at the wall, sighing irritably before speaking up “Yeah, well, there’s nothing to say.” She muttered moodily. Butch raised his eyebrows a little and shrugged, turning away from her. No point trying to talk to her when she was in one of these moods. Butch hoped Giovanni would be here soon to bail them out, as he always did. It was so boring in jail, time seemed to just stop and everything felt like it was taking forever. Not only that, but the cells weren’t exactly appealing. They were cold, dirty, small. The floors and walls were concrete and there was only ever one filthy sink in the corner, and one uncomfortable bed with used bed sheets. It was not a nice place to be in. Suddenly, as if on cue, the cell door was opened and a Jenny gestured the two prisoners to follow her “You two are free to leave now. Mr Giovanni has bailed you out.” She explained “Again.” She added under her breath. Butch quickly jumped up and shoved past the officer jenny, it felt good to be out of that nasty little cell. Cassidy was right behind him, walking a little slower because she was now anxious about having to face Giovanni. Sure enough, Giovanni himself was waiting in the front entrance of the jail for his two agents. He certainly didn’t look happy. He had a frown on his face as usual and his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket. Any officer Jenny’s walking past appeared nervous in his presence, scuttling past quickly and avoiding eye contact. The boss sneered as Cassidy and Butch approached him. “It’s the third time this month I have had to do this.” He snapped, glaring at his agents with annoyance. Neither replied, they only looked down guiltily and Cassidy muttered the word sorry. Giovanni snarled and shook his head almost disgustedly; sorry didn’t mean anything to him. Giovanni’s black limousine was waiting outside; he had a personal driver of course so he sat in the back. Unfortunately for Cassidy and Butch who had to sit either side of their angry boss. The atmosphere couldn’t be any tenser. Every single time Giovanni bailed those two out it was the same routine. He hands over the large sum of money to the head police officer to bail his ‘best’ agents out, then waits for them to come and meet him at the front entrance, they always looked guilty and afraid of him. Then there was the drive back to Team Rocket Headquarters. That was the worst part for Cassidy and Butch, because they had to sit right next to their boss in the back of his car, and he would never say anything. He would keep them waiting until they were back at headquarters, that was when he would lash out. Eventually they were back at headquarters. Giovanni led his two agents through his own private entrance to the building, walking a step ahead of them the whole time. Cassidy’s heart was beating fast and she felt sick, they were going to be punished, that was for sure. She almost didn’t blame Giovanni for being disappointed in them. They were letting him down, Cassidy felt like she was letting herself down. Although that mission fail hadn’t been her fault at all. It hadn’t been anyone’s fault. They finally got up to Giovanni’s office on the top floor, the doors slid open as soon as Giovanni approached them, as if they were programmed to open for him only. Cassidy and Butch quickly followed their boss into the room and stopped at a reasonable distance from the man, both standing to attention as they were supposed to in front of Giovanni. Giovanni had his back to them and was looking out of the large windows in front of him. The windows were definitely huge, they were the length and width of the entire back wall of his office and the view was amazing since the office was on the very top floor. Giovanni often did this before yelling at any failures, turned away from them and kept them guessing at how he was going to react. He actually enjoyed the fact that everyone feared him. After waiting a few minuits, making sure to build up some tension, Giovanni whipped round with a furious look on his face, it was almost as if there was fire in his eyes and he had that evil sneer on his face. “So, it’s the third time this month that I’ve had to come down to that jail and bail you two out. What was it this time hm? Wait, don’t tell me, I suppose as usual it ‘wasn’t your fault’ and it was ‘an accident’.” Giovanni said sharply, glaring at Cassidy and Butch. Before either could speak, Giovanni carried on talking “I am sick of having to bail the pair of you out. I’m wasting my money on two people who cannot seem to do anything right anymore!” his voice raised slowly and he was yelling by the end of his sentence. Giovanni muttered something under his breath angrily before sitting at his desk. He leaned back in his black leather executive chair, pinching the bridge of his nose and holding it there for a moment, he was clearly aggravated. “WELL?!” he suddenly boomed, making both Cassidy and Butch jerk. “Well…everything was going fine until that cop showed up.” Butch mumbled, not able to look his boss in the eye. Giovanni snorted; clearly he wasn’t accepting this excuse at all “ONE police officer! Just one! You two could have easily gotten rid of her! But instead you chose to back down? Just let her arrest you and chuck you in jail? Do you not know how to put up a fight?!” the man hissed furiously. Cassidy flinched at Giovanni’s voice, it went through her almost. She too couldn’t bring herself to look the boss in the eye. He was just too intimidating. And even though he was sat down and they were stood up, he still seemed like he was towering over them. Giovanni towered above everyone, he was in control and if you upset him… “I have HAD IT with you two!” Giovanni yelled, slamming his hands down on his desk at the same time “You used to be one of my best teams! And I thought you’d get even better, but it appears that you’ve done the opposite! I think you two are losing your touch. You’re not as good as you used to be. I don’t think you try anymore, do you?” “We always try, boss. Its other people’s faults, they interfere and ruin everything.” Butch replied, trying best to sound confident. “Well perhaps you should try harder! Don’t let those imbecile inbred officer Jenny’s interfere with your jobs! For crying out loud, I have lower ranking teams that deal with cops better than you two!” Giovanni shouted “I hope the pair of you realise that this was the very last time I’ve bailed you out. If you are incompetent enough to get yourselves thrown in jail again then I shall leave you there to rot without a second thought! I don’t need failures working for me!” This was like a slap in the face to Cassidy. The man wasn’t being fair! He was cruel and insensitive, the least understanding man on the planet. Cassidy always, always tried her best during missions. This job was the world to her and she had worked hard to get where she was now; a class A agent. She didn’t want the boss to be so disappointed in her, it hurt. “It wasn’t my fault though, sir.” She suddenly blurted out, before she could stop herself. “No, it never is, is it?” Giovanni snapped. “I- I mean it was all Butch’s fault.” Cassidy said, closing her eyes quickly after she said it. She regretted it straight away, but she had to do something. She wanted Giovanni to trust her. As soon as those words came out of Cassidy’s mouth, Butch frowned. She was lying, it hadn’t been his fault at all. Was she trying to get him in trouble or something? Giovanni looked at Butch with annoyance “Explain!” he snapped. Butch looked up nervously “Well I-” “I meant Cassidy!” Giovanni boomed “I want Cassidy to explain to me, and you keep your mouth shut!” Cassidy swallowed before speaking, wishing she hadn’t started this lie “Well…um…” she mumbled and stared down at her shoes “He got us caught because…” Giovanni waited and slammed a fist down on his desk again, irritated at Cassidy’s sudden silence “Because?!” Cassidy panicked a little, desperately trying to come up with a decent lie “Because well, I went to steal the pokeballs and I told Butch to keep lookout but he got distracted and then nurse joy found me and then she called the cops and that’s why, I mean, that’s what happened.” She was stumbling over her own words and figured that it was pretty obvious she was lying. “That didn’t happen!” Butch exclaimed angrily. He was hurt that she would do this to him, what a backstabber. “I told you to keep your mouth shut!” Giovanni snapped “Cassidy, go. Butch, stay here.” He gestured at Cassidy to shoo and she quickly left the room, not giving Butch a second glance because she couldn’t bear to. Giovanni waited until Cassidy had left until he spoke, his glaring eyes staring right at Butch “So, this was all your foolish mistake was it?” “No!” Butch said defiantly. “So Cassidy has lied to me? Well, we can’t have that now can we? Nobody lies to me. I suppose I’ll have to teach her a lesson, teach her to never lie to me again. Unless, she isn’t lying?” Giovanni smiled slightly, oh what fun it was to scare people. Butch thought about it for a second. If he told the truth, Cassidy would get punished for lying. Giovanni was an evil man; he could pretty much do whatever he wanted to Cassidy, to anyone for that matter. Giovanni had beaten people up in the past; there were even rumours that he had killed people. And he had certainly done some sick things to his female rocket agents when he felt the need to punish them. Their punishment was his pleasure. Butch didn’t want any of that to happen to Cassidy. But she lied. She betrayed Butch. He wasn’t showing it, but he was upset. Besides, he didn’t want to get punished either. “She told the truth, boss. It was my fault. I messed up.” Butch said huffily “I’m very sorry, boss.” He added, quickly changing his tone to a sincere one. “Sorry means absolutely nothing to me. The word has no meaning.” Giovanni growled “Your punishment will be a demotion. You’ll no longer be working with Cassidy as an agent.” He decided after a short pause. Well, that came down on Butch like a tonne of bricks. He was getting demoted. Just like that. He didn’t know what to say, he wanted to beg Giovanni to come up with another punishment, not split him up with Cassidy. But he couldn’t. Giovanni cleared his throat before continuing speaking “You won’t be doing major Rocket assignments anymore, you can clean every single corridor in headquarters until they are spotless. You can also help out some lower rank agents, but don’t you dare even think about taking charge. No, they will be in charge of you.” He smiled evilly, coming up with punishments was just the best. Butch sneered at this. This was going to be so degrading. And it wasn’t fair, he hadn’t done anything wrong. “This will be a temporary demotion. I will allow you to return to your normal job, as soon as you prove to me that you are not a complete good for nothing waste of my time.” Giovanni enjoyed punishing, sure, but he knew Butch had potential; he wasn’t usually idiotic enough to make such stupid mistakes during missions. He and Cassidy worked perfectly together a lot of the time. Giovanni knew this, and even after today, he still believed in them. “Ok, boss. Understood.” Butch said eagerly. It was only temporary at least. That wasn’t too bad. “You can go now. I have no assignments for you at the minuit, but you will be on guard of the weaponry supplies room at night. That means you have to be there from nine pm till six am and you have to be awake the whole time, strictly nobody is allowed in there without my permission. This is the type of job that grunts usually do, but you’re just as low as them now, aren’t you?” Giovanni smirked slightly, much to Butch’s annoyance “So, if you’re clear on what’s to be done, you can leave now.” Cassidy was lying on her bed, flicking through a fashion magazine. Trying to take her mind off the fact that she had shamelessly placed blame on Butch for something he didn’t do. Yes, she felt awful. She should have held her tongue. But she couldn’t stand the thought of Giovanni being disappointed in her, couldn’t stand the thought of perhaps being fired from this precious job. She was almost certain that Butch would understand this. He couldn’t be mad with her. Cassidy sighed breezily as she scanned down the horoscopes page of her magazine until she found hers. ‘Libra: You may do something you regret today, perhaps you will betray a close friend or someone you love. You may have to lie your way out of a difficult or awkward situation; but remember, you should always be honest, lying may seem like the easiest option at the time, but in the longrun it will make things worse. Soon you will realise feelings for someone who is very important to you.’ Cassidy stared at the page for a moment and then snorted “These things are never right…” she muttered to herself as she quickly turned to the next page.