After Jenny came back round, she healed her Pokemon and gave both Sonic and Meowth two large baskets brimming with delicious food.
"I know Team Rocket don't always get as much food as they should sometimes, since I've caught enough of them to become aware of these things, so here. Thank you. You can take all of them, even the salamence." The shadows had lifted from her face and she'd neatened her uniform, as if she was about to make a fresh start. "And here, Meowth, the keys to their cell. The bagon shouldn't be able to escape from the net for more than two days, so I'd hurry if I were you."
"Two days?" Meowth repeated incrediously and gaped "We'll never make it in two days, unless we had a fast wind on our side." He looked crestfallen "I knew we wouldn't be able to do this..."
"Chill out, Meowth." Sonic took the cats food basket "I'll get us there before you know it. Go let them out and I'll take care of the food." He dashed away, arriving at the balloon in seconds. The hedgehog carefully placed the food inside before running back and dragging the bagon in their net, who cursed at him and tried to stop him, but he ignored them. Soon, Team Rocket were helping him and they expertly tied the net to their transport before setting up to leave.
"So, how are you getting us there, exactly?" Meowth muttered to Sonic, who had tied an extravagantly long bit of rope around himself and the basket of the hot air balloon.
"I'll run." He replied, checking over the knots.
"Oh, so you know which way it is?" Meowth raised an eyebrow as Sonic froze, before slowly turning to flash a sheepish smile.
"Not exactly." The hedgehog made a thoughtful noise "Can you hold out a flag or something to direct me?" The cat looked ready to protest, but then he smiled.
"That's not a bad idea, Sonic. Alright, we're going up!" Meowth leapt up to the balloon's fire and turned up the heat so that they began to rise, taking the Pokemon with them. Sonic waited until a makeshift flag appeared, pointing him North, and then he ran.
The wind, the quick blur of the places he soared by, processing them seconds later in an absent minded sort of way. It was just him and speed. He'd missed running, he hadn't done it in days, but it felt good. He felt like he could have gone on forever, he knew that he couldn't. He couldn't even go top speed in case he put too much pressure on the hot air balloon, which was the last thing he needed. He needed to get the bagon to Team Rocket's boss, so that Meowth told him his plan to get him out of there and back to Eggman. He couldn't wait to smash that egghead back down to loser ville, if it wasn't too late for him to do it.
"SONIC!" Meowth called and he looked up "LEFT!" Sonic sighed and slowly changed direction to the left. If he was too sudden, he could break the ties to him and the casket, but he needed Meowth. He couldn't lose that cat, even if he was a criminal and a thief. Sonic wasn't used to getting mixed up with genuinely bad people like this. He could do bad things to do good, like defeating salamence and moving the bagon away from the little town so that no one else was hurt, but actual bad things, that you did for the sake of it, or for your own personal gain, he couldn't do that.
Soon it was dark, but Sonic kept running until Meowth called down to him again and they touched ground gently. The bagon were all too tired to fight them and soon fell asleep. Team Rocket ate and laughed heartily together, thinking of the rewards that they would get when they got to their boss's mansion, but soon they got tired too, and brought out their sleeping bags to rest by the fire.
"You should have seen the fight with that Salamence, Jessie, I was fighting with an arbok, just like the one you had once!" Meowth was purring by the crackling flames as the woman stiffened, as if he'd touched a nerve "He knew ice fang, which must have been super effective-"
"Meowth." James snapped suddenly, tiredly, and the cat looked over in surprise, but Jessie blushed.
"No, I'm fine, really! That was ages ago and it was the right thing to do and everything so there, good night wake me when it's dawn." The words tumbled from her so quickly that Meowth had to blink to overcome his shock. Jessie had covered herself with her sleeping bag, pretending to sleep, so Meowth looked to James, but he just gave a shrug and flopped down into sleep.
"What was that?" Sonic murmured, arching a quizzical eyebrow at Meowth, who gave a small smile.
"Jessie and James started off with an ekans and koffing, but they evolved to arbok and weezing when Jessie and James begged them to. They were with us for ages, but then one day, we had to let them go." The cat closed his eyes tiredly and folded his arms "A Pokemon poacher wanted them and we weren't strong enough to stop him from taking them from us, but we held them back while they escaped with a group of ekans and koffing." He sighed sleepily "That was a hard day..."
"Uh, Meowth?" Sonic called softly, but the cat had gone to sleep, his snores were like satisfied purrs as he curled up against a small chill in the air and Sonic gently put his sleeping bag over him. He relaxed and Sonic watched Team Rocket sleep thoughtfully.
Maybe not this gang in particular. Jenny had said They look weak to me. The hedgehog narrowed his eyes as he leaned against a tree. They weren't weak, they were strong, but they were unorganized and didn't plan for if the plan went wrong. If they just looked after Pokemon then they'd be amazing at it! It reminded him of a quote he'd heard once: You can't judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, or it would spend its whole life believing that it's stupid. With these thoughts whizzing in his head, he too, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
"We're nearly there!" Meowth called to Sonic "We need to go higher, Sonic! Come up here!" Reluctantly, the hedgehog ran up the rope and flipped into the basket.
"Here, have a sandwich." James beamed at him and Sonic took it, slightly dumbfounded, but then he beamed back.
"Thanks." He gobbled it and moved over to Meowth "Where is it exactly?" The hedgehog asked curiously and the cat pointed at a forest. For a moment, Sonic watched patiently, but when nothing turned up he looked back to ask what he was looking at, when he saw it out of the corner of his eye; A massive bleach white mansion. He'd never seen one that was as big as his and could only gape as they lowered into the trees and landed.
"Sonic, help us with the bagon!" Jessie ordered and he ran over, quickening the speed of Team Rocket as they dragged the resistant Pokemon up to the guarded mansion doors, that opened soundlessly for them. A truck was waiting there and some men came to haul the Pokemon into it for them, while one turned to Jessie and James.
"The boss is waiting for you in his study." He informed them briefly, before going to help the rest of his crew.
"I wonder if there'll be any food." James mused as they moved up the path to the open front door.
"Oh really!" Jessie scolded when they began down a long, blindingly white corridor "You just ate, James."
"You ate most of it, too." Meowth put in bitterly "Is it left or right here? I forgot."
"Left, left and right." James reminded him cheerfully "Tada! It was Boss in the study with the persian." He put on a detective-like voice as they arrived at a large oak door, with a small golden plate with 'Study' engraved into it.
"Come in, you three." A deep voice called them, but Meowth stopped James from going in as he popped his head in.
"There are four of us, sir." He warned.
"Four?" The voice seemed mildly surprised and slightly suspicious "Who's the fourth?" At this, Team Rocket came in, pushing Sonic gently in front of them as they entered a high tec and slightly chilly room. It had wooden panels, their shine occasionally hidden by large flatscreen computers that were used for communicating with his few members of Team Rocket that were out to do his bidding.
"This is a newly discovered Pokemon, sir." Jessie bragged proudly.
"His name is Sonic." Meowth added with a purr.
"He can talk and claims he's the fastest thing alive!" James flung his arms out dramatically and Sonic looked over at the man. He looked quite old, but fit and fashionable, with well tailored dark suits and styled hair that was almost a chestnut brown. His jaw bone made him look strong, his dark eyes giving him a ruthless edge and a constant shadow lingered on his cheeks as if they never got used in a smile.
"Claims?" Sonic repeated quietly and made a small but quick movement so that he stood right next to the man, who moved back slightly as if the blue creature was a slight annoyance to him, but there was a slight sparkle to his eyes as they landed on him. A slight warning growl made Sonic turn, where he noticed a large cream coloured cat glaring at him. A persian.
"Where did you find him?" The Boss asked curiously, and Jessie spoke up again.
"We stole him from Professor Oak and used him to get a herd of bagon, some shelgon and a salamence." Jessie held up the dragons pokeball as proof.
"Amazing. I'm impressed, you three, you've finally managed to do something useful." The man chuckled and leaned back in his chair "Will you three give me a minute to consider how I can reward you?" He asked and Sonic saw their eyes light up.
"Yes sir, Giovanni!" They chorused and then the room was empty, with just Sonic, the persian, and the boss.