Moving Along
Dat princess lady betta be right, Meowth thought, as he crept through the bowels of Team Flare’s secret lair.
It was exhausting, nervous work sticking to corners and shadows, freezing up whenever any humans were in sight. Walking on four legs only made it worse, much has he would never had admitted it to anyone he was out of practice. Miming human gait for so many years made it feel difficult and unnatural to have to walk on four again. And it was hot enough down here even with the overtaxed air conditioning.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that the cat Pokémon was sweating bullets as he crouched under a table while two Team Flare grunts walked by, chatting obliviously with one another.
“-and she’s always been a real sweetheart to me is all I’m saying,” one man said. “But’s no way a food truck worker would ever be able to work up the cash to join the team even if she understood the cause-”
“So forget about her,” the other man cut him off. “If she’s not with us, then she won’t be around in the new world. You know that. You’ve known that for months.”
“Well… yeah I know…” the first man hesitated. “But is it, you know… right? I mean they say that only Team Flare deserves to enjoy eternal beauty but…”
What are dese clowns on about? Meowth wondered.
“Are you having second thoughts about joining?” his partner asked a moment later, then continued before the other could answer. “Well if you are you’d better suck it up. The boss isn’t accepting resignations anymore, we’re too far in for that. You want out, there’s only one way.”
The first man swallowed audibly.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything this time,” the second man went on as they walked right past Meowth. “But for your sake you’d better not bring it up again, with anyone. Remember that the walls have ears.”
“R-Right,” he stuttered, as the two men rounded the corner and vanished from Meowth’s vision.
The cat waited a moment to make sure that they were gone, then scampered down the hallway the same direction that they had come from. He’d been wandering the base for more than an hour at this point, and it seemed like the more ground he covered the more there was to check. He hadn’t seen heads or tails of Aliana, and more than once had found himself lost amidst the huge network of corridors. How they’d dug this place out without anyone being the wise was beyond him.
Meowth wandered this way and that throughout the base, ducking into corners and behind furniture whenever he heard movement, but all the same never quite feeling safe. After all, he knew perfectly well there were security cameras everywhere, microphones hidden behind every wall. There was no telling who could be watching anywhere, at any time. Someone might have seen him the moment he parted from Jessie and James. They might have watched him the whole time. They might have figured out what he was up to a long time ago! Maybe the creepy lady had spotted him and caught on right away! Maybe she was sitting behind a sealed door right now, laughing as she toyed with his feeble hopes. Sweat poured down Meowth’s face as he imagined her ordering him seized at her leisure, dragged off by faceless goons into a dark room from which no one ever returned, there to-
“Hey, watch it!”
Meowth jumped at the familiar voice, blinking as he suddenly realized that there was a boot directly in front of his face. Shaking not a little, he very slowly craned his neck upwards to look directly at the visor-ed face of Aliana. The Team Flare Scientist was looking right back down at him with a curled lip and a Holo Caster in one hand.
“What’s a scruffy little thing like you doing wandering the base unattended?” she said as she looked down at the shivering, sweat cat Pokémon. “All Pokémon are to accompany their trainers at all – wait…” she snapped her fingers. “I know you!”
Meowth’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and all his terrified brain could think to do was shudder harder.
“You’re that stray those two worthless stooges brought in!” Aliana put her hands on her hips. “I told them to capture you and they let you wander around like a walking biohazard instead? Typical.” She snorted. “Well you can go right back the way you came and tell them that if I see you tramping around again, I’ll feed you to my Druddigon. We have delicate experiments ongoing and I won’t have them contaminated by some alley cat. Understand?!”
Frantically, Meowth nodded his head as hard as it would go.
“Good,” she pointed. “Now get going!” When the cat Pokémon didn’t immediately move, her lips curled. “Are you as stupid as your masters? I said beat it!”
Her boot lashed out, catching Meowth in the face. He went flying and smacked head first into a nearby wall, then fell into a heap on the floor below. Aliana loomed over his crumpled form, hands on her hips.
“Now are you going to spend what’s left your time with your masters, or I am going to have to-”
There was a twitch of the Pokémon’s ears, a flick of his tail, and then all of a sudden Meowth scampered away as fast as his four legs could take him. The Team Flare woman gave a slight satisfied humph as he disappeared from her sight. She turned and, without another thought, continued the way she had been going. As she did, Aliana remained totally oblivious to the small, black bug now affixed to her boot.
“I’m sorry,” said a plain-looking woman in proper business attire. “But Mr. Lysandre is a busy man and his schedule is not a matter for public discussion. If you want an interview you will simply have to schedule an appointment like anyone else.”
“But this is the third day in row that you’ve said that!” Clemont protested through the video phone. “Can’t you at least tell us when he’d be able to take a call?”
“I repeat,” the secretary answered in a stern tone. “Mr. Lysandre’s schedule is not a matter for public discussion. I will not disclose anything about it to you, and if you continue to pester me about it will be blocked from further contact.”
“But-”
“Good day,” she said, and then the screen went blank.
Clemont sighed wearily, then rose from the booth where he’d sat. With a dejected look on his face, he returned to the Pokemon Center’s lobby where the remainder of their group was huddled. Twilight in particular was pacing the floor with a worried look on her face that had only intensified as the days had gone by.
“Anything?” Serena asked.
“No,” Clemont shook his head glumly as he took a seat. “They won’t even say if he’s in or when he could take a call, much less try and forward me to him.”
The group gave a collective groan.
“Light?!” the purple princess-Pokémon sounded scared. “Twilight light twi twi twilight!”
“Pikachu! Pika pika chu!” Pikachu waved his tiny hands at her.
“Light light?” she sounded on the verge of tears. “Twilight!”
“This isn’t working,” Ash gritted his teeth. “And Team Rocket hasn’t shown themselves since the Poke Ball Factory.” He pounded his fists onto the armrests of the chair. “This isn’t right. We can’t just sit back when a friend is in trouble!”
“But what can we do?” Clemont asked. “We have no idea where Team Rocket could have gone. The police didn’t have any leads, and we can’t even speak to the only one who might know.”
“Twi twi twi twi light!” Twilight interjected, eyes now blurry.
“If Lysandre isn’t answering his phone then we’ll just have to go see him in person!” Ash declared. “It’s better than just sitting around doing nothing and waiting for Team Rocket to show up.”
“And why would they even let us in the front door, even assuming he’s in?” Clemont asked. “Can you see them buying ‘hey this funny-looking Pokémon is actually an alien princess from another dimension who’s missing her friend and that’s why we need to walk in to see the head of a multinational cooperation completely unscheduled’?”
“There has to be something…” Ash muttered.
“Maybe there is?” Serena had a hand on her chin. “Hey Clemont, didn’t Lysandre offer to hire you?”
The Gym Leader blinked. “Yeah, now that you mention it, a couple of times.”
“Well I was just thinking, what if we showed up at Lysandre Labs and say that you’d been reconsidering his offer but wanted to ask a few questions first?” Serena winced a little. “I mean, it’s not entirely honest but if he’s that eager to have you then-”
“-he’s probably left instructions to let me in case I decided to take him up on it,” Clemont finished for her.
“Serena, that’s genius!” Ash declared.
She blushed a little, but said nothing.
“I don’t know for sure if he’s in, or if he’d see me, but it’s better than doing nothing.”
“You got that right,” Ash agreed with a clenched fist. “Pikachu, Twilight, you up for a road trip?”
“Chu!”
“Light!”
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as he crept through the bowls of Team Flare’s secret lair
1. Yes Meowth, crawl through the dirty dishes of Team Flare and sooner or later you will dish out supreme ass whooping to those that dared to waste hard earned food when you had to forage for berries in the wild back then or having had to suffer Jesse's cooking when there was nothing else to eat! ... Or it could be Bowels, that works too.
Welp, seems Meowth has booted up their plan to track that leader. Maybe he'll also get to vent his frustrations from hearing about that will that had him get a boot to the head... Wait, wrong scenario.
Twi twi light lightwi! (Great chapter again!)
8990782
This has been an habit for Snake Staff for a while.
yay another great update! Keep em coming!
Well the first phase of the plan is accomplish even if Meowth get himself kick.
And oh boy, something tells me that job applicant is going to turn south.
Hearing Twilight repeat her name ad infinitum is adorable I can just let my imagination fill in her rants.
Oh Clement, welcome to the underground.
You guys are going to find yourselves neck deep in something you are not prepared for.
I envy your newly found update pace.
Meowth was pretty slick there.
Keep up the good work.
Nice work.
These chapters are coming out of the woodwork fast. Not that I'm complaining about it. Though I still hope for a Keldeo appearance for reaction from the ponies and for them to learn Sacred Sword.
i bet eventually Ash and Team Rocket are gonna face each other and send out Twi and Tia to fight each other! imagine their surprise as they hug each other!
Uh oh. Be careful, Clemont!
8991592
This pattern of updates every day (or 2 days) and long hiatuses has been Snake Staff's way for several years.
Congrats on 1000 likes for the story!
8992486
Just look at this story's previous updates.