Love so Legendary (A Team Rocket Story)

Chapter eight

James looked around, trying to preoccupy himself and ignore the insanely tense atmosphere. The heroes and James had gotten up at dawn, and proceeded along the path towards Snowbelle city. As it would take at least two days to get to Snowbelle, they planned on getting up at dawn and going to bed at dusk, to get the most ground covered as possible. It took a long time to get places on foot; it was times like these that James missed the team rocket balloon.

Dedenne chattered to Bonnie tiredly, almost falling asleep in her bag. To keep itself from falling asleep, it rubbed its cheeks to create a bit of electricity. When that didn't work, it just jumped out of Bonnie's bag and up onto her shoulder. "Guys," Bonnie began, "When are we gonna have breakfast? I'm hungry..."

"We've only been up for about an hour, Bonnie." Clemont replied. "Serena ran out of ingredients to make anything, we'll have to keep our meals to a bit of a minimum with what we have left until we reach the next city. We also have to take into account that with James with us, we'll have another mouth to feed, so we'll have to watch what we eat and make sure we don't run out of food."

"But you're always saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I'm hungry now!" Bonnie added, causing James to smile. Why did that sound like something Ellie would say?

"How about this," James began, speaking for the first time since the night prior. "The next wild Pokémon we see, we'll do what we will, run away or catch it. Once we're done with that, we'll have breakfast. I'm not that hungry this morning, so Bonnie can have my share."

Bonnie's eyes lit up, practically sparkling. "You mean it? Wow, thanks James!!! You're really nice when you're not trying to steal other people's Pokémon!!"

Clemont looked over at James with a bit of concern, but didn't object to his idea. The group continued on in silence as James found his thoughts wandering elsewhere, to that day when he and meowth had thought that Jessie was going to leave the team for good. Of course, Jessie had no idea where he and meowth were at the time. She had told them afterward that she figured since the guy she met was a doctor,  maybe he could have helped her find them. But when she saw he was married, something about the girl put a bad taste in her mouth, so she just went off to look for the two by herself.

Jessie had never once betrayed team rocket other than when she and James were together, because team rocket was what kept them safe. He hoped that she was safe, now. They'd had no update from Korinna since the day before.

Hearing a rustling in the bushes, James was pulled from his thoughts once again. Bonnie's eyes lit up. "Another Pokémon already? We can eat soon!!!" She cheered, Dedenne sharing her enthusiasm. But Clemont, Ash, Serena, and James looked at the bushes with uneasy expressions. That Pokémon, whatever it was, sounded big. Clemont and James shared a glance, as if both were thinking the same thing: run.

Emerging from the bushes was a Rhydon, towering above them. The heroes shook with uneasiness.

"Serena," Ash began, "you're like a rhyhorn whisperer, right? Can you help us out, here?"

"Rhyhorn, yes." Serena replied. "But Rhydons aren't used for races, so I've never really been around one. Plus, I'm only really good with the ones from my mom's ranch. This Rhydon most likely won't listen to me."

"So, run then?" James asked, and the other four exchanged glances and nodded. They all slowly began to back away, trying their best to not make the Rhydon angry.

All of a sudden, Clemont's chespin broke out of its pokeball, taking a fighting stance and catching the Rhydon off guard.

"Chespin, no!!!" Clemont exclaimed. "Now is not the time to pick fights!!!"

Evidently, Chespin took that as a 'Chespin, use pin missile', because that's exactly what it did. The Rhydon roared of rage, and the color drained from Chespin's face as it ran back to Clemont in an apologizing mess.

The Rhydon began stomping around, and Clemont's eyes grew even wider.

"It's using earthquake!!!" He exclaimed.

The ground broke beneath Serena, Ash jumping in an attempt to grab her and consequently falling through the ground as well. Clemont shot out his aipom arm to grab the both of them, but the ground beneath him thrust up, sending him flying into the deeper forest. The ground beneath Bonnie gave way as well, but James grabbed her and pulled her close before she could fall through. Then, the ground thrust the both of them and Dedenne up into the air, high above the trees. Bonnie screamed, grabbing James as Ellie would when she was scared. He held her back, praying that they'd land safely and find the others.

And the ground careened towards the two, Dedenne began freaking out, crawling all over James's face and making it hard to see. Eventually, it laid on his shoulder, rolling into a little ball.

They landed conveniently on a patch of spare leaves, startling a few spearow, who flew up into the air, cawing. James and Bonnie sat up, James rubbing his head and Bonnie her knee, which was scraped up a bit from the impact.

But those were the least of their troubles. Looking around, they heard the faint noise of buzzing.

They found themselves surrounded by a pack of angry beedrills, with Dedenne as their only defense.