“How are you feeling?”
Gloria stood by Errol’s bedside holding a plastic bag and examining the figure’s face as he brushed his hands tentatively down the sides of it.
“Pretty good, t’anks” he replied. “Besides bein a tad cold, o’ course. I gets da feelin da people upstairs have been cuttin’ short on a few necessities…heatin’ fer instance.”
“Actually that would be down to the fact that you’re no longer covered in fur,” Gloria explained with a smile. “And speaking of necessities, I brought you something that you’ll definitely need.”
Bringing the bag forward, Gloria opened it and laid the navy and cream garments from within upon the man’s lap. Errol’s eyes lit up with a childish excitement upon sight of them.
“Wow…my foist human clothes! It feels like my boithday already.”
“In a way that’s kinda true,” the woman giggled, making her way toward the door. “Why not try them on? I’ll wait outside until you’re finished, ok?”
Errol acknowledged the idea with a face-achingly wide grin.
“Gotcha!”
Once Gloria had left the room Errol placed the garments on the blanket beside him and swung his legs round energetically so they were dangling over the edge of the bed. Then picking up the pair of freshly laundered underwear the man slipped them on, stood upright to draw the material to waist height…
…and promptly fell flat on his face.
“Owgh…” he slurred, dragging himself onto all fours. “S’like trying to walk on stilts!”
“Are you ok?” came Gloria’s anxious inquiry from behind the door. “That sounded like a bad fall…have you hurt anything?”
“Jus’ my pride…” Errol groaned. There was an uncomfortable pause as Gloria pondered on entering the room and risking seriously embarrassing herself.
“It will take you some time to get used to walking again,” she explained without moving. “You’ve gained a good 4ft in height…it’ll make a difference.”
“So I noticed,” the man muttered, scrambling across the floor toward the bed to snatch up his trousers before pulling those on. “I’d appreciate if ya came back in an’ helped me ta stand now.”
“But…” Gloria began.
“Don’t worry,” Errol replied with a cheeky smirk at the image of the woman’s blushing face that had sprung to mind.
“I got myself covered.”
Gloria entered the room tentatively with her eyes half shut. Upon realising that the figure before her was indeed fully clothed she opened them again and held out her hand toward Errol.
“T’anks,” the man said gratefully as he struggled to his feet in a wobbly fashion. There he stayed, swaying back and forth slightly with an expression on his face that indicated he was too nervous to attempt moving for fear of toppling over once again. It wasn’t long before he did just that; landing clumsily on the bed and causing it to emit a nasty snap upon impact.
“I’ve become immobilised,” Errol commented somewhat sadly as he sat up.
“Only temporarily,” Gloria reminded him, with the best reassuring tone she could manage. But the man wasn’t convinced.
“How can youse be so sure that I’m eva going to walk again? It took me ages da foist time… and dat was on shorta legs. What if I can’t handle da longa ones?”
“Of course you’ll be able to,” Gloria replied softly and calmly. “It’s all there, in the back of your head. All we have to do is trigger the memory and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.” She brought out her hands. “Come on…maybe it’ll be better if I do it with you.”
“Uh…”
Errol’s face had turned bright red at this remark, but he also silently reached out his hands. As Gloria encased them in her own a gentle smile descended on her face and almost impulsively, Errol stood up in front of her. With an encouraging nod Gloria backed towards the opposite wall and held out her hands once more.
“Now…right foot forward…you can do this…”
For the first time since he had become human, Errol felt himself glide across the floor towards the young woman. It suddenly seemed so effortless, and as Gloria’s form drew closer a grin of triumph began to spread across Errol’s features.
“I can do it! I can walk again! Dis is fantastic!
I can…”
In his state of excitement the man averted his concentration ever so slightly, and as his right foot was lifted up into the air it caught upon his left ankle, sending Errol toppling into Gloria’s outstretched arms.
“Oh!” came the woman’s shocked exclamation as a redness spread across her face. Errol chuckled at this without moving, lifting his own arms slightly to slip them around Gloria’s waist.
“Guess I’m not quite there yet, eh?” he smiled. Gloria’s slightly panicked expression softened somewhat as she looked into the man’s eyes.
“Perfection of a technique, even if it was one you knew before, requires practise. You can’t rush such things.”
The figure's smile grew wider as he drew his arms across the woman's back.
"Well I'm willin' to practise if you are," he remarked. His next action was halted as a high-pitched beeping reverberated from Gloria's pocket. She moved away from the wall and gently detached herself from Errol's attempted embrace with a coy smile.
"Like I said" she reiterated, taking out a pager. "You can't rush such things, Errol."
The figure’s face fell but he tried his best to hide it.
“I guess not,” he murmured. “So what’s wit’ da beepin?”
Gloria looked up from the pager; her face taking on a similar appearance to Errol’s at this point.
“I’ve got some work to attend to at the lab,” she sighed, opening the door to leave.
“It should only take an hour or so, I’ll be back before you know it.”
Errol’s head had lowered; his expression bearing close resemblance to the face of a scolded Growlithe. Gloria’s eyes creased up at the corners with awkward sympathy.
“Aww...” she said. “Don’t look at me like that, please. You’re making this hard…I’m not going to be gone forever!”
The man raised his head slightly at this.
“Yeah, I know,” he murmured. “I guess it jus’ feels dat way cuz I’m all alone.”
“Well you don’t have to be” Gloria smiled, placing a hand to her neck. A moment later an undersized Pokeball was raised into view. “Here… I’m sure Kirlia would enjoy keeping you company while I’m gone.”
“Kirlia?” Errol echoed. “Ya mean…?”
“Yes,” the woman nodded. “The same one that helped me to rescue you.”
“Lia!” the Pokémon exclaimed happily upon its entrance. Errol smiled in its direction.
“T’anks a lot for gettin’ me outta dat fix earlier,” he remarked. “I owe ya.”
Kirlia nodded and returned the expression cheerfully.
“She definitely seems to have taken a liking to you,” Gloria pointed out.
“Guess so,” Errol commented, glancing back at his fractured sleeping area. With a giggle Gloria turned toward the door before sliding it open a notch.
“If you’re stuck for things to do, why not practise some more walking while I’m gone?”
Errol’s smile reappeared as quickly as it had vanished before.
“I sure will!”
The man waited until he could no longer hear Gloria’s footsteps, then turned his attentions to the Pokémon that was standing delicately beside him. Kirlia shook her head vigorously; she knew exactly what was running through Errol’s head and she didn’t like the idea in the slightest. At first Errol blinked in a rather confused manner, then recalling that Psychic Pokémon often had the advantage when it came to sensing motives he slipped his hand behind his head in a rather sheepish fashion.
“Aw, c’mon…” he insisted. “She did say practise walkin’ afta all, and how am I meant ta practise in dis stuffy little room? Besides… who’s gonna know, eh?”
The Pokémon pouted at this. It was clear that she was indeed quite fond of Errol and though wary of letting him roam she was reluctant to deny the privilege. Errol grinned upon sight of the expression.
“So it’s a deal,” he concluded, turning his head to look at the door. “We’ll be back before Gloria returns; she’ll never notice da difference.”
There was a sound of a crackle of energy which caused Errol to swing round in surprise. Poised behind him was a slender female figure clad in the same style Tatto grunt uniform, a cap balanced upon her head to keep her mint green hair arranged across part of her wide-eyed face. The man chuckled at this.
“Clever thinkin’ dere” he admitted. “I would expect dose guys would be out lookin’ fer a stray Kirlia, but as fer me….well…I’m as human as a Pokémon can get right now. Da morons’ll never guess. Shall we?”
The figure nodded, a little more relaxed from the sight of Errol’s confident expression. With that they carefully slipped out of the room. No sooner had they done so than Errol’s mouth dropped wide open. A slightly narrow passage joined the abandoned observation department with the main corridor; painted in a creamy yellow and carefully stencilled with the Team Rocket insignia. Below Errol’s feet lay a lavish red carpet decorated with a gold trim, and above his head silvery translucent Pokéball shaped lights suspended from the ceiling, each emitting an ambient glow.
“Well, Koilia…” he murmured. “We certainly ain’t in da Intermediate Quartas any more.”
Errol’s movement soon brought him to the passage mouth where his eyes beheld an array of meticulously crafted statuettes neatly placed along the edges of the lobby. He approached one, tilting his head to one side to give the object further scrutiny. It appeared to be a miniature representation of the head of Team Rocket, Giovanni, standing proudly with a hand propping up the left side of his jacket. By his feet sat an equally proud looking representation of the man’s feline Pokémon, Persian. Errol’s lip curled in slight disgust upon sight of this.
Meh… ta t’ink I used da almost worship dis guy, Errol thought in disbelief as his female accomplice looked on in puzzlement. I’ll be leavin’ da job ta dat lousy Poision of his from now on. When Gio gets bored wit’ it he’ll prob’ly make it into a cat suit or somet’ing. Ugh..
“What are you two lowlifes doing up here?”
Errol and Kirlia swung round in unison. The snappy enquiry had been uttered from a woman with brown eyes and curvaceous emerald green hair that was perched neatly behind a desk not too far away.
Lowlife? Errol muttered in his mind. Dat’s somet’ing comin’ from a secretarial bootlick.
“Well?” the woman reiterated, studying the faces of those who stood before her gaze. “What have you two got to say for yourselves? You know full well drone rankers are unauthorized to access the executive floor unless summoned by the Boss.” She leaned forward on her chair, the expression in her eyes taking on quite menacing tones at this point. “And I would know if he had wished to speak to anyone today.”
Kirlia held her hands firmly behind her back and stirred nervously but Errol was not fazed in the slightest. He simply turned around as if to leave.
“Well if dat’s how ya put it” he began. “I guess ya won’t be wantin’ da coffee we bought yas, eh?”
The woman sat back down rapidly and went to prodding a name plate that read ‘Wendy’ across her desktop.
“Since you put it that way…” she muttered. “I’ll let you off this time around. But only because I’ve been dying for a drink all morning. Now give it here and scram before anyone else sees you and I get the blame for your appearance.”
The Pokémon exchanged frightened looks with her human companion at this point. It was clear from the look in her eyes that she was starting to think Errol was utterly crazy; they didn’t even have any coffee to give Wendy after all. But Errol’s scheming hadn’t finished yet.
C’mon, Kirlia, he spoke mentally. T’ink hard. Dere must be a coffee somewhere youse can bring here ta give ta dis lady so we’s can make a getaway.
She pondered for a moment, then her eyes lit up with realisation. As the figure continued to keep her hands behind her back a bluish glow arose from them, rapidly forming into the shape of a navy blue mug with silver trim. Errol took it from her and promptly placed it upon the desk.
“One coffee,” came the statement. Wendy eyed it up with a slight smile, before taking a swig of the contents.
“Hm…” she remarked, warming her hands on the mug. “Could use a little more sugar.”
Errol turned his head slightly so Wendy wasn’t able to see that he was rolling his eyes at this comment, while the women stirred the beverage with the end of her metallic pen.
“I commend you on coming all this way with the risks placed on your low-ranked little heads just to bring me a drink,” she smirked. “But believe me; you’ll have to do a lot more than attempt to bribe the Boss’ PA to get a status raise. Still, you get extra marks for effort.”
Her expression altered alarmingly at this point.
“Now, beat it.”
And the figures did without hesitation, Errol just managing to hold in his amusement until he and Kirlia had dashed out of earshot.
“What a thrill!” he chuckled, taking to the stairs. “I haven’t felt dis invigorated since I was out chasin’ dat yellow rat around. An’ excellent use of quick t’inkin’, if I do say so myself.”
Kirlia smiled in agreement as she moved alongside him, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground. After a few moments of silence, Errol raised a question.
“Come ta t’ink of it…where did ya get dat coffee from anyway?”
The female figure shrugged. She didn’t know the location of the drink she had dematerialized either; all she had been concentrating upon was locating one and bringing it to her hands as swiftly as possible. Errol chuckled some more.
“Well whoeva it was..” he began in amused tones. “I bet dey must be pretty peeved right about now."
Wendy took another sip of the coffee and quietly took to running her finger along the edge of the majestic Articuno that was delicately sculpted upon the handle of the receptacle. Then she paused, her hand shaking in mid-air like she had somehow been encased in ice.
“This…” she murmured worriedly. “This mug looks awfully familiar…”
She turned it around slowly to examine the front, only to discover something else that happened to be engraved upon the object’s surface.
“Gi...o...van….
…oh no…”
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
The grin across Errol’s face was more than apparent as he strode into the Grunt Mess Hall. Having picked up the handling of his new form surprisingly swiftly the man’s steps, accompanied by his new sense of pride, made his movements a lot more confident. Carefully his Pokémon companion in human guise kept alongside him, watching Errol’s expression as it brightened with every passing moment. Amongst the sea of miserable countenances situated at benches, prodding unenthusiastically at their food his cheerful demeanour looked most bizarre.
I’m a man, Errol beamed. I’m all man. No more grey areas.
Time ta show ‘em da real guy once hidden under dat fur coat.
Through the babble of many voices Errol’s sensitive hearing picked out a particularly interesting conversation from over the far side of the hall. He turned his enhanced gaze in the direction of the conversation to see the three male operatives that were engaged in it. One bore spiky sapphire tinted hair, another sported black hair and a curiously fashioned beard and the last, golden hair that partially covered his face. They were all in their early twenties, casually draped around a corner scribbling detailed diagrams onto a napkin and watched avidly by two female operatives who were perched nearby.
“…and that’s when I regained consciousness” the golden-haired figure concluded, a smirk present in his tone. A gasp was uttered from one of the women.
“I can’t believe you managed to survive that,” she exclaimed. “Falling from the top of a Gyarados; that must have hurt bad”
The lithe figure put on a particularly dashing smile and winked at his audience, causing them to giggle.
“I'm made o' steel,” he commented. Next to him, the black-haired operative was pulling a face like he’d just stepped in something nasty.
“Pah! You call that an incredible feat, Orwell? I’ve overcome worse circumstances than simply falling down”
“It wasn’t just falling down, Penn!” Orwell snapped, shoving his accomplice out of the way. “I hit rocks from a height of 21 foot!”
“Well I was tossed into the air and then trampled upon by several Tauros during a stampede,” Penn remarked smugly. “You should have seen the puncture wounds I received from that little escapade. I couldn’t move for weeks.”
The womens’ attentions were firmly redirected now; Orwell folded his arms enviously as they began to question over Penn’s experiences. Kirlia raised an eyebrow at what she considered to be most unorthodox behaviour while Errol gave an amused chuckle.
“Maybe…” he began, strolling toward the group.
“It’s time ta put da amateurs in deir place, hm?”
From the far side, the burlier spiky-haired member of the trio took to clearing his throat in an obviously attention-seeking manner.
“The circumstances I endured…” he began. “…were far more horrific than anything you could ever imagine.”
His pontificating was rapidly smothered by squeals of astonishment courtesy of the women as they took in the tall, platinum blonde-haired figure standing expectantly in plain sight.
“How on earth…” one of them stammered. “Did you get those scars across your face like that?”
Errol attempted to look in the direction the woman was pointing but quickly refrained from it after realising how much of an idiot it was making him look.
“Oh, dose?” he murmured, quickly searching his mind for a more comprehendible reply than ‘they were the result of removing my whiskers with a surgical laser tool’ “Dey’re jus’ battle scars”
“Battle scars?” both females echoed excitedly.
“Yep” Errol grinned once more. “I got ‘em as I battled wit’ a savage wild Typhlosion, one on one.”
“Wow…” the second woman piped up. “Were you burned?”
“Oh, terribly” Errol nodded. “But still, it ain’t nuthin’ I’m not used to. I been boined many a time, so I guess my skin’s become pretty resilient to it ova da years.”
Orwell’s mouth dropped open a little way upon hearing this.
“You don’t say…”
“Besides dat, I been frozen a lot too. An’ vine-whipped, sand-blasted, psychically bombarded, tossed against walls, squished by various heavy objects, propelled into the air a good few miles before landing in very painful places…”
“Electrocuted?” Penn suggested. Errol rolled his eyes at this.
“Oh don’t get me started on da electrocution. A day on Active Duty didn’t seem ta go by wit’out bein’ pumped full-a several thousand volts o’ dat stuff. I began ta t’ink I was a livin’ lightbulb!”
The second woman’s face was now draped in a deeply dreamy expression.
“You sure are an amazing guy, coming through all that with barely a scratch” she cooed, coyly brushing her violet tresses behind her ear. “What’s your name?”
You could practically see the man’s chest swell with delight as he uttered his next sentence.
“It’s Errol” he replied cheerily.
“I’m Celina” came the introduction in return. “And if you ever find yourself bored and lonely with nothing to do…”
He could see where this was going, and Errol was quick to put a halt to it. He quickly turned on his heels.
“Dat’s a really nice gesture an ‘ all, Celina” he stuttered in the politest tone possible. “I’ll consider it. An’ whoa, look at da time…
…I gots an appointment!”
With that he disappeared into the throng, Kirlia quickly following close behind. Celina sighed in deepest happiness as her friend looked on with partial admiration, partial jealousy.
“Didn’t he just have the best accent?” she commented. Penn turned back to his spiky-haired companion across the table.
“What were you saying, Matt? Before you got interrupted. Something about enduring horrific circumstances?”
The figure coughed embarrassedly as he pondered over the multitudes of exceedingly painful and precarious events Errol had described just moments earlier.
“Actually, they weren’t all that bad, now I think of it”
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
After a week and a half of anxious existence James had become a barely recognizable shadow of his former self. Sprawled across a large portion of his unmade bed with lavender hair scattered over his face, the man barely moved, not even to breathe. Jessie looked on with deepest concern; she knew James was pining for an absent friend who had not returned. So was she, but her partner seemed to be taking it a lot harder.
“James…”
“What?” moped the young man in tones of desperate misery. Jessie choked slightly upon full sight of his deeply forlorn expression but attempted to compose herself before continuing.
“Slumping about on your bed like that isn’t going to bring Meowth back. I...miss him too, you know.”
“I don’t understand…” James murmured. “Why did he leave? What did I do? Was it something I said?”
“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” Jessie remarked with unnatural calmness. It was as if the loss of one of her partners had injected an ominous acceptance into her. “Maybe Meowth had something he needed to think through…”
“For ten days?”
“Maybe it was a big thing.”
James brushed some of the hair out of his watery eyes as he attempted to sit up.
“Seven years…” he stated. “Seven years we’ve been through thick and thin as a team, and then Meowth suddenly vanishes. Just like that. What if he’s dead? What if he’s never coming back? I couldn’t live without seeing his furry face again!
I never got to say goodbye…”
Jessie sighed, as for the umpteenth time in the past few days James collapsed into fits of sobbing. She placed an arm round him in a semi-comforting manner.
“Tell you what, James. Let’s go to the ICR to take our minds off things for a while.”
“No!” James tore himself away from Jessie and disappeared under the covers of his bed. “That won’t take my mind off anything! The ICR was the last place I ever saw Meowth; it’ll just bring back bad memories…”
The woman paused.
“I guess that’s understandable,” she remarked. “Would you rather go and fetch something for dinner? Maybe a bit of food will cheer you up”
“I can’t see the point in eating,” James muttered in muffled tones. Jessie pulled a face.
“Maybe because it’s what people do to live.”
“And what if I don’t want to live, huh?”
It was at that point Jessie’s patience fell short. She stood up menacingly, pulled back the covers and slapped her companion across the face.
“Listen to yourself! This is no way for a Team Rocket member to behave!”
The figure felt his face with a gaze of silent shock as Jessie continued to pour her heart out to him.
“I’ve tried to give you space, I’ve tried to be understanding but you haven’t given me an inch! You’ve sat there moping in your own selfish little bubble, not even with a thought as to how I might be feeling about all this. I’m worried about Meowth too!
If you cared about me enough, James, you’d have realised that seeing you slowly tearing yourself apart is not going to make me feel any better..”
He ran this through the back of his mind, over and over. After a few minutes James sighed deeply and hung his head.
“I…I’m sorry Jessie” he said. “You’re right - I have been acting irrationally. Meowth is probably fine.”
The tone of his voice indicated that he was less than convinced about this statement. Jessie tilted her head slightly to one side; she admired James’ persistence, even though his usually positive nature had been numbed somewhat by the current situation. With a shifting of the shoulders the male figure hoisted himself into a standing position and moved toward the door without a single word. Before Jessie could utter any of her own, he was gone.
Meowth hasn’t left us, Jessie shook her head, resigning herself to silent contemplation.
I’m certain of it.
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
“Here we are” Errol uttered in satisfied tones as he stepped through a pair of double doors into a fairly well-lit setting. “Intermediate quarters, level B-1.” He gave a mischievous snicker as he continued wandering down the hallway. “Dose guys are goin’ ta be so surprised ta see me, eh Koilia?
….Koilia?”
The man turned around to see that his disguised Pokémon companion had stopped moving just beyond the doors and seemed to have frozen in her tracks, wide terrified eyes staring past Errol and beyond.
“What’s da problem?” he inquired in puzzlement. “You scared ta meet Jess an’ Jimmy? Don’t worry about it; I know dey’re in Team Rocket but seriously, dey’re real nice guys. Any friend o’ mine is a friend o’ theirs.”
Kirlia looked up and shook her head furiously before backing away into the nearest corner. There seemed to be something else bothering her besides the notion of encountering strangers, but Errol hadn’t picked up on this. He was too eager to return and announce his presence to Jessie and James once more.
“Fair enough” he shrugged. “Youse can stay out here if ya really don’t wanna come with. But be careful, ‘kay?”
With that Errol vanished around the next corner. The Pokémon gazed wistfully at the spot where he had previously been standing and let out a deflated sigh…
…then a large hand was slammed heavily upon its narrow shoulder.
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
Jessie had taken to sobbing quietly in the middle of the floor with her head in her hands. She had grown somewhat guilty over her irritable reaction toward James; worry over her Pokémon companion’s disappearance was hard-wearing enough but now there was the aspect of another’s hurting heart resting heavily on her conscience.
It had become all too much.
There was a slight creak as the door reopened a fraction. Jessie opened her mouth she prepared to utter an apology but her words never even had the chance to escape as the figure’s quickened breathing erupted into a puzzled inquiry.
“Where’s Jimmy?”
The woman shuddered at the tones of the figure’s voice, but didn’t lift her head.
“He’s gone out,” she replied with utmost coldness. “Do you realise what your unforeseen disappearance did to him? To me? We’ve been worried sick!”
It seemed that Errol had indeed not thought over the consequences of vanishing for a few days. He let out a sigh of shame.
“I…I’m sorry, Jess. I guess I didn’t t’ink dat part out.”
“Damn right you didn’t!” she snapped. “Where exactly did you need to go that didn’t require not informing us, huh?”
“I hadn’t intended to leave for dat long!” Errol exclaimed. “All I wanted ta do was have a few moments to think t’ings ova. But…”
“But what?”
The man took a deep breath before uttering the next sentence.
“Dey handed me a proposition. Somet’ing dat I felt was too good ta pass up. The excitement blocked everyt’ing else from my head. By da time I realised what was happening, it was already over.”
At this point Jessie growled, clenched her fists in her frustration and swung round to face the figure in the doorway.
“For goodness sake! Stop talking in riddles, Meowth and tell it to me straight! What ha…
…ppened?”
The woman’s words diminished into silence as her gaze alighted on the figure that had now completely opened the door and was casually leaning against the frame, shaking his head slowly.
“Jessie, Jessie, Jessie…” he remarked. “So quick ta respond. If ya jus’ let’cha temper up for a few minutes, I’ll happily explain.”
Jessie’s lower lip trembled as she struggled to regain her voice. She had become almost immobile in her mixture of horrified alarm; a large part of her refusing to accept that the man standing in the doorway was once the Pokémon she had known for so long but another part longing to receive some form of acknowledgement.
“Muh…Meowth?”
There was a lengthy pause; the man watched Jessie’s shaking form for a moment with some perplexity before reaching out a hand in a motion of attempted comfort.
“Well nowadays I tend ta go by da name ‘Errol’,” he corrected. Jessie shrunk away from the hand with a look of pure disgust.
“If this is your idea of a joke just to mess with my mind then you’re as sick and twisted as the rest of them!” she exclaimed icily. Errol retracted his hand and put on a visibly upset expression.
“Buh-but I’m not messin’ wit’cha head…I’m tellin’ da truth!”
There was that note of sincerity in the guy’s statement that drove Jessie to take a second glance at the human countenance before her. The glance deepened as she stared long and hard into Errol’s eyes, then down his scarred cheeks at his slightly open mouth.
“You…” she murmured distantly. “You look so…familiar…and yet…
…ugh! This isn’t fair!”
Errol pulled a face as Jessie turned her head away again in her attempts to try and make sense of something she considered to be utterly farfetched.
“What isn’t fair?” he exclaimed.
“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” the woman yelled back, causing Errol to wince at the sudden harsh alteration in her voice. “Have you even taken into account the full significance of what they have done to you?”
“I have, as a matta o’ fact” the man replied, his tone taking on a whole new seriousness. “Humanity is somet’ing dat I had been searchin’ for, for a long time. You should be happy for me; now I can experience a normal existence from now on.”
“Normal existence?” Jessie spluttered, a slightly manic look in her eye. “A normal existence doesn’t even enter the equation! You can never hope to lead a normal existence; you’ve practically mutated yourself beyond recognition! I don’t even know who you are any more!”
“Dere’s no reason ta go all hostile on me” Errol spoke, clenching his fists. “I’m still da guy you’ve always known! I may look human now, but I ain’t any different in da head.”
“You’re delusional” Jessie replied in dangerous monotone. “Whatever twisted experiments they did to you in there must have screwed with your mind. The Meowth I knew wasn’t concerned with his appearance.”
In the darkness, Jessie could not see her friend’s solitary tears as they ran down the sides of his scarred face.
“You don’t understand how it feels ta be an outcast” he murmured bitterly. “Humanity and acceptance were t’ings I constantly longed for. Youse two were aware o’ dat, but dere was one t’ing I neva intended to admit.
I was pining for love also. Day in, day out, I watched you and Jimmy. Da way youse two looked into eachothers eyes - I felt crushed in knowin dere wasn’t someone dat would do da same for me. Den I met her.”
Jessie didn’t wait to hear any more, she stormed forward and grasped Errol by the front of his jacket.
“So it was a woman that drove you into this?” she screeched. “You selfish animal! You didn’t give a moment of thought about us!”
“It doesn’t affect you!” Errol spat furiously. Jessie released him from her grip before falling back.
“Oh yes it does!” Jessie retorted. “You’re not the Pokémon I knew anymore.”
She hung her head.
“You’re not the friend I knew anymore...”
Errol withdraw a sharp breath of hurt disbelief.
“Jessie…you don’t know what you’re sayin’…”
“Yes I do!” Jessie spat. “My friend Meowth would have taken my feelings into account!"
There was a bitter silence.
“But…Jessie…”
“Just go…”
“…I haven’t talked to James”
“I don’t care! James doesn’t deserve to see the freak that you've become.
Now leave.”