Inner Peace

By Mandy Owston

"STOP!" cried a female voice from the back of the chamber. Ivy spun around to see a tall young woman framed in the doorway, her dark burgundy hair swept carelessly into a ponytail. Sunlight glinted off her glasses as she advanced toward the professor, absently tossing a Poke ball into the air and deftly catching it. Ivy instinctively backed away as the other woman approached confidently, high heels clicking on the floor tiles of the now-silent room.

"Is that... PRIMA?" gasped Jessie, James, and Meowth.

"You!" breathed Ivy in a dry whisper, as the syringe dropped from her limp hands and clattered across the floor. "Of all the people who might stop me, I never dreamed it could be you."

"Why, didn't you think I was smart enough to figure it out?" replied Lorelei angrily, her eyes flaring. "The sudden disappearance of trainers... skilled trainers... from all over the Orange Islands? I heard that only one boy won the Orange League Trophy this year... quite a far cry from the dozens who usually win every year, wouldn't you say?"

"Well, he was a skilled trainer..." began Ivy, starting to panic.

"He did have potential, but you can't tell me that he was the best trainer... the ONLY GOOD trainer in the Orange Islands! And it just so happens that he was traveling with your simpleminded nephew... Coincidence? I think not."

Lorelei paced the chamber, gracefully stepping over the collapsed Society members. "And funny how all these people are here," she added, gesturing to the figures on the floor. "Funny how I recognize most of them from my training demonstrations... I even battled some of them in the past. And now they're all here with you... funny, isn't it?" Lorelei paused, sniffing the air lightly. "Is that Stun Spore I smell?"

"Wow," Meowth whispered to his friends, "she's good."

"I guess she's not one of the Elite Four for nothing," answered Jessie.

"Ah, an- an- an experiment... with the Vileplume..." stammered Ivy.

"It doesn't make sense," Lorelei continued, staring hard at Ivy. "What made you do it, Mama?"

"Mama???" gasped Jessie, James, and Meowth.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Lorie," stammered Ivy, desperately hoping her trio of assistants would come looking for her. "I'm making the world a better place."

"I saw what you were about to do to that Meowth," retorted Lorelei. "If that's your idea of making the world better, I'd hate to see what would make it worse."

"Dat's right!" yelled Meowth indignantly.

Lorelei stared at Meowth for a moment, a bit surprised by his gift of speech, then smiled. "Well, Mother, this should help straighten things out a bit," she said. "This Meowth should be able to tell us everything you've been doing here in your... new laboratory."

Meowth eyed the Elite Four trainer suspiciously, expecting some sort of trap. "You want me ta tell MY side of da story?" Lorelei nodded.

"You'll do nothing of the kind!" shrieked Ivy, uncorking a vial of pink, bubbling liquid.

Suddenly, Jessie and James kicked Ivy in the back of her knees. She stumbled forward, dropping the vial and splashing its contents on the floor. The pink liquid fizzled for a moment before burning a hole through the tile. Meowth shuddered.

Ivy muttered something evil under her breath and pulled a shiny Poke ball from her robe. "You'll never get away with this, Lorie," she said through clenched teeth. "Go Vileplume!" The huge, orange-petaled flower materialized in a flash of light.

James gasped, recalling some of his own unfortunate experiences with Vileplume. "Let's get out of here right now!" he whispered to his friends. Jessie and Meowth nodded hastily and dashed for the doorway.

"And I choose you, Cloyster!" cried Lorelei, throwing her Poke ball into the air.

Team Rocket fled down the now-deserted corridors of Ivy's secret headquarters, running from the faint sounds of the Pokemon battle raging behind them.

"What are we going to do?" Jessie asked as they ran. "We don't even know where we are, and this place is like a maze."

"Even if we do find the way out, those stoned-out weirdos are going to find us again and just drag us back in there! I don't wanna be a zombie!" whined James.

Meowth desperately looked around as he ran. "There's gotta be some way out... we've just GOTTA escape somehow..."

Rounding a corner, Team Rocket came upon an unmarked door, propped open by a few research journals. Without a second thought, they raced inside and slammed the door shut.

The room was dimly lit by a small, rectangular window set high on the opposite wall. Outside, they could see the gray clouds of an overcast sky and a few treetops shaking in a strong breeze. An immense laboratory table occupied the majority of the room, covered with an assortment of test tubes filled with rainbow-colored chemicals. A desk sat in one corner, barely visible in the dim light. Vileplume petals and pages of hastily scribbled notes littered the floor.

Jessie leaned against the laboratory table, casually looking around the room. "I guess this is that professor's research area," she mused, absently glancing at the test tubes filled with brightly colored liquids.

"She won't be back until dat battle's over," remarked Meowth, pacing the room. "We should be safe here for awhile."

"What's going to happen after that?" wondered James, staring out the window. "Even if Prima wins, how does that help us get out of here?"

Suddenly, the loud noise of approaching footsteps was heard from the hallway. Jessie and James panicked and leapt into each other's arms. Meowth crouched, ready to spring at anyone who opened the door.

But the footsteps continued down the hall, past Ivy's research area, toward the main room where the battle was taking place. Putting their ears to the door, Team Rocket faintly heard Ash's voice echoing down the hall.

"See, I told you guys we'd get through that forest!" Ash's voice said.

"Yeah, no thanks to you!" retorted Misty's voice.

"Would you two calm down?" answered Brock's voice. "We're not even sure if this is the gym..."

Team Rocket backed away from the door and stared at each other in shock.

"The twerps?" they asked simultaneously.

"I've just GOTTA see this!" cried Meowth, racing for the door.

"Wait," called Jessie, running back to the lab table and grabbing a handful of corked test tubes. "There might be something we can do to beat that new-age nutcase."

"Good idea, Jess," said James, grabbing as many test tubes as he could carry. "And if things get too rough, we can always mix all the chemicals together and blast ourselves out of this place!"

Meowth smacked James upside the head. "I wouldn't try it, Team Rocket Scientist."

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