Inner Peace

By Mandy Owston

Racing madly through the halls of the Society building, Jessie, James, and Meowth desperately scanned the area for an exit door. Every potential hallway and promising corridor became another dead end as they sprinted through the evil complex.

Suddenly, James suddenly stopped at a small device set into the wall, motioning for his friends to stop running.

"I seem to remember seeing something like this at my Great-Uncle Morty's mansion when I was little more than a tot," he began, pressing several buttons on the device. "Great-Uncle was always the first to have the latest gadgets, even the ones that never quite made sense. If I remember correctly, all I have to do is push this button..."

Suddenly, a portion of the wall slid aside to reveal a video telephone. James smiled. "It's a secret telephone, highly impractical for anything but covert operations like this... which is why it never quite caught on, except in select circles."

"James, that's amazing," said Jessie, respect in her voice. "But I just have one question."

"Yes?" James asked, feeling quite pleased with himself.

"Who are you planning to call on this thing?"

"Um... I thought you might be able to handle that..." he stammered, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Well, we ain't callin' da Boss, dat's for sure," commented Meowth. "It's bad enough we ain't brought him any rare Pokemon, but ta call for backup for somethin' as messed up as dis..."

"Good point," said Jessie. "Let's see, if I was a twerp, and that's a very big if..." Suddenly struck with a burst of inspiration, Jessie grabbed the receiver of the phone and pushed a button. "Hello, operator? Yes, I need the number of the Mandarin Island Police Station."

"Jessie, are you insane?" cried James, wide-eyed. "We have enough trouble on our hands as it is!"

"Don't you remember?" the female Rocket asked impatiently as the number dialed. "There was the one time we actually assisted the police."

"How could I forget?" wailed James. "What a blow to our criminality!"

"Dis has gotta be a first!" laughed Meowth. "Team Rocket, callin' da police!"

Suddenly, the video screen lit up with a brightly-colored image of Officer Jenny. "Hello, Mandarin Island Police Department, this is Jenny."

"Um. hello." began Jessie.

"Team Rocket?" asked Jenny in disbelief. "Who- what are you. wait a minute, I remember you! Jessie, James, you're the ones who helped us out back when..."

"Yes, well..." began James.

"You have absolutely no idea how much we wanted to thank you two for all your help!" enthused Jenny.

"That's all well and good, but..." James tried again.

Jenny cut him off yet again. "We still have that special certificate we wanted to...."

"Look, Jen, we ain't got da time ta sit and gab!" interrupted Meowth. "We got an emergency situation here! Professor Ivy is gonna."

Suddenly the video screen went black. Team Rocket spun around to see the demented professor holding a shiny, razor-edged knife in her hand. Electricity sparked from the severed telephone wires as Ivy advanced on the helpless trio.

"The telephone is off-limits to trespassers," Ivy said flatly, running her fingers along the edge of her blade. Jessie and James edged away from the Society Mother, but quickly found themselves backed up against the wall. They slumped to the ground, futilely looking for a means of escape. Ivy casually fingered her knife as she steadily walked forward.

"I should have known you'd be nothing but trouble," she said, staring directly at her blade. Her eyes flashed over to Jessie and James. "But not for long."

From the opposite side of the hallway, Meowth readied himself to pounce. Tensing his muscles, the small cat flung himself at Ivy's back, claws outstretched. Suddenly Ivy whirled around and sharply kicked Meowth in the stomach.

The cat slid several yards down the hallway on his back, the wind totally knocked out of him. Placing his paws on the floor, Meowth painfully tried to struggle to his feet, but instead collapsed, face-first, on the ground. Jessie and James winced.

Spinning around again, Ivy advanced toward the two Team Rocket members, raising the knife high above her head. Jessie and James grabbed onto each other in fear, squeezing their eyes shut. The mad professor slowly leaned toward the Rockets and smiled. "Goodbye, Team Rocket..." Ivy said, as the knife descended.

Suddenly, a bright orange something flashed past Ivy, breaking her concentration. Another motion by the orange blur, and the knife clattered to the floor. Rubbing her wrist where the orange thing had struck her, Ivy angrily spun around to see Brock defiantly staring at her, his arms folded across his chest. The orange blur dashed to his side.

"Good job, Vulpix," Brock said flatly, never taking his attention off the mad professor. "Your Tail Whip attack is getting much stronger."

"Vul!" Vulpix squealed happily.

"Well, look who it is," smiled Ivy wickedly. "Vileplume Experiment Failure Number One."

"The game is up, Ivy," said Brock coldly. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh no?" she purred mockingly in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Weren't you the one who ran away like a frightened Clefairy just moments ago? And I recall you fleeing in terror from Valencia Island as well..."

"What you're doing is wrong," Brock continued. "I'm not running anywhere... and neither are you."

"Sounds like somebody's trying to be a Mr. Tough Guy," sneered Ivy.

"If you don't stop what you're doing here, I'll... I'll blow up this entire building with my Pineco," growled Brock, clenching his fists. "You'll never get away with this."

"Big words for a boy without a backbone."

Suddenly, the sound of running footsteps approached. Ivy calmly turned to see Ash and Misty, both out of breath, glaring at her. Ash cradled the fainted Pikachu in his arms, tears of anger and frustration in his eyes. Misty was ready to explode with rage.

"How could you do this?" demanded Misty, shaking with fury. "You call yourself a Pokemon researcher?"

"No real professor would use a Pokemon's attacks on people!" added Ash. "What have you done to Pikachu? And Prima?"

"I don't need this from you worthless upstarts," said Ivy, irritation rising in her voice. "I have a peaceful, utopian Society to create... and your presence here is anything but peaceful." Getting a twisted glint in her eye, Ivy reached into the sleeve of her robe and pulled out a black gun, pointing it at Ash, Misty, and Brock. "Against the wall, all of you."

As the young trainers hastily complied with the professor's wishes, Ivy sighed, looking reflectively at her weapon. "I suppose I only have myself to blame," she said calmly. "When I learned that you brats had a reputation for causing trouble, my first thought was simply to eliminate you. But instead I foolishly tried to be nice. I tried to get you out of my way, send you off on a whirlwind tour of the Orange Archipelago."

Ivy looked up, fixing the young trainers with a harsh stare. "But you wouldn't cooperate. You insisted on being a nuisance to me and my research. Well, this should take care of that."

She raised her gun at the group huddled against the wall as her three assistants came running into the hallway, terrified looks on their faces.

"Professor!" gasped Millie.

"What are you doing?" added Lillie.

"You said you wanted a peaceful world!" continued Tillie.

"Be quiet," snapped Ivy, never turning her gaze. "I know what I'm doing. Girls, take a lesson: there are times you must wage a war to first create true peace. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to take care of."

Ivy's trio of assistants nervously looked at each other for a few seconds, then fled back down the hall. Ivy's face twisted into a deranged smile. They'd be dealt with later.

"Now... I wonder how many bullets I have in here," Ivy idly mused, looking back down at her weapon. "Surely I can take a few of you down right now. But I wonder... who's going to be first? Will it be you," she asked, pointing the gun at Brock, "the spineless coward who almost revealed my plan to the world before it was time?" Brock gulped.

"Or perhaps you," she turned to face Ash, "the would-be Pokemon master, always skipping through life without a care in the world, winning everything easily, without any hard work?" Ash blinked back tears as Ivy glared at him.

"Or you two," she aimed at Team Rocket, "the world's most miserable excuse for criminals, who disrupted my peaceful Society moments ago?"

Ash's eyes grew wide as Ivy cocked the trigger and aimed her gun at Team Rocket. Brock turned away and put his head down, unable to watch. Even Misty began sniffing, burying her head on Ash's shoulder. Jessie and James held onto each other, paralyzed with fear, as Ivy stared at them.

Then the professor smiled calmly. "Yes, perhaps you two should be the first..."

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