If one happened to be crossing the rocky bank somewhere south east of Mahogany Town, Johto during the eleventh hour of the morning, they would have witnessed a most extraordinary vision. From behind a nearby cloud a tiny pinpoint of light signalled the approach of three airborne figures who by this time had ceased their yelling and were simply preparing themselves as best they could for a rough landing. Moments later a tall man adorned with green eyes and chin length lavender-blue hair staggered blearily from a nearby thorn bush, picking the debris from his previously immaculate white uniform.
"Thunderbolt" he muttered miserably. "Why is it always the Thunderbolt?"
"I gots spikes in places I didn't even I know I had," his feline Pokemon companion groaned, crumpling to the dirt beside the man's feet. The latter uttered a dramatic sigh before plucking a thorn from his chin like a rogue hair and wincing a little as he did so. "Who knows how many air miles we've picked up by now..."
"I hate ta break it t'ya, James" the Pokemon remarked in a matter-of-fact way. "But we'd need to have been sittin' in a plane at da time fer dat sorta t'ing"
"Drat" came the bemused reply.
"And I was so hoping I could visit Lilycove this year..."
James' musing was rapidly shattered as his partner, a magenta-haired woman by the name of Jessie, uttered a furious angry yell.
"I can't believe the twerp beat us again!" she fumed. "That insolent brat! I'm going to make him wish he'd never crossed paths with...
...me..."
The sentence trailed off as Jessie's legs gave way beneath her and she collapsed into a kneeling position upon the dusty ground.
"I just feel too tired... to get angry" she panted. The Pokemon gave out a frightened gasp.
"Dis is serious" it stammered. "Nuthin's ever stopped Jessie from rantin' before"
"We've been overworked, Meowth" James commented, casting the furry figure a withering look. "Overworked and underpaid. Too little to eat and too much 'blasting off'"
"So how come I ain't all exhausted like dat, eh?" Meowth inquired, seeming more than a little unconvinced.
"You're a Pokemon" came the reply. "Human bodies don't take repeated injury as well. Take Jessie's skin, for instance. Stress has caused it to become wrinkled over time"
"It HAS?" the woman shrieked, stumbling to her feet and placing one gloved hand to the side of her face while the other held out a compact. "This cannot be happening... this cannot be happening! I'm only twenty; I'm too young to have wrinkles!"
At this point Jessie released the intense grip she had on the side of her head with her right hand, only to discover a clump of hair had fallen into her palm.
"Science has proven one is never too young to have wrinkles" James stated loftily, before receiving a sharp blow to the side of the head from the frying pan his companion kept concealed in her phasepack. "Yeow! Calm down, Jessie!"
"Calm DOWN?" the woman bellowed, waving her implement of injury around in the air. "I am going to pieces here!"
"And more stress isn't going to help" James grumbled, rubbing the sore spot on his face. Jessie paused to think about this before putting the frying pan away and letting her head fall back so that her azure tinted eyes were gazing up into the equally blue expanse above.
"You're right" she sighed. “I have been tossed about these past few years more often than a pancake and my poor body has come out the worse for wear. I need to unwind. To give my bones some rest, and get my vigour back”
“I’ll join you on that” James nodded enthusiastically.
“But did you have anything in mind?”“What about a nice long soak in a hot spring?” Meowth piped up. The others looked at him; their faces alight with smiles.
“That has to be the best idea I've heard from you in a long while!" Jessie exclaimed. "What made you think of it?”
“Well..." Meowth began, waving his paw in a rightward direction.
"I saw dat hot spring over dere…”
The Pokemon hadn't even finished his sentence and Jessie and James were already in their swimming outfits and running toward the inviting steaming water, towels tucked under arms.
"Hey!" Meowth yelled out, causing the pair to screech to a halt. "I didn't mean use dat spring!"
Jessie looked at him with annoyance.
“Why not?” she inquired with a frown. “This spring’s as good as any other”
“I wouldn't bet on dat” Meowth murmured, pointing to a signpost buried between the rocks and fencing that surrounded the pool. "Looks ta me dey gots some sorta warnin' goin' on dere"
"Well what do you know..." James remarked, stepping over to the sign and peering at it. "The furball's right"
"Let me look at that!" Jessie snapped, pushing her companion aside so as to get a better view of the notice. "'Due to a culmination of rare minerals beneath Jyngu Spring, visitors are advised not to bathe in the water under any circumstances.'"
“Sounds like it's a sacred spot” James commented after a short silence. Jessie gave a snort.
"Pfah. Just like the locals to use some cheap tactics to keep all the precious mineral-enriched water to themselves."
"How inconsiderate" James spluttered.
"There are others who need rejuvenating too. Others like us!"“I say we take a piece of what's rightfully ours!” Jessie stated firmly, placing her bare foot upon one of the rocks.
"Yeah!" James grinned. Then his face altered. "Uh, Jess? How does one take a piece of water?"
"Just get in the pool, dimwit" the woman groaned, taking her foot from the rock and using it to shove James backward across the wire and wooden peg fence. He toppled into the water with a 'kabloosh!'"
“Hey! Watch it!” Meowth hissed, as the spray barely missed him.
“Ya know I hates gettin' wet!”
Neither of his human companions happened to be listening. Their faces were overcome with expressions of utter bliss as they sank deeper and deeper into the water. The Pokemon opened his mouth to protest but shut it again after figuring that any utterance at all would be a waste of breath.
"It's so warm... so soothing..." Jessie cooed as Meowth resigned himself to moping on the other side of the rocks near the spring. "No wonder the townspeople were intent on keeping this to themselves. I can already feel myself being invigorated; it's like pure energy is flowing from the water straight into my body"
"I feel so light and carefree," James sighed happily. "Almost like a kid again..."
Meowth continued to spectate, but he no longer wore the disgruntled pout he had been exhibiting previously. Now his furry features were contorted into a picture of something resembling a figure quite spooked.
"Err... guys?"
"What's your problem now?" Jessie snapped, opening her eyes and glowering at the Pokemon. "You know its really hard to do any sort of relaxing with you nagging in the background all the time"
"Ya won't be relaxin' at all if youse start drownin!" Meowth exclaimed. At this point James looked up and pulled a face.
"I think someone's been out in the sun too long" he remarked, before clamping his lips together in alarm. The pitch of the voice that had escaped his lips was vastly higher to the one he recalled owning. Jessie looked down just in time to see the spring water reaching up to her chin.
“What’s going on?” James shrieked.
“Just gettout da water!” Meowth yelled at his regressed companions, who scrambled out of the spring as quickly as they could manage, regardless of the sharp-edged rocks cutting into the soles of their bare feet.
“Well dat was ta be expected,” the Pokemon murmured, scratching his head as he looked over the considerably youthful countenances of Jessie and James. Neither of them said a word as they lay crumpled upon the dirt, their small bodies heaving with sharp intakes of breath and their eyes wide with fear. "I means da townspeople did try ta warn youse two wit' dat sign. But ya just had ta get all high an' mighty over it"
Meowth gulped as Jessie’s acidic glare hit him. Even upon this childlike face it still appeared most threatening.
"They could have been more specific!" she snapped, walking back toward the spring while keeping her bikini briefs tightly hoisted up. James swiftly followed, and as the duo leaned over the rocks to peer at their reflections their mouths dropped open in shock when upon taking in the sight.
“AUGH!" Jessie screeched. "I said I wanted to feel younger not be younger!”
James didn't seem all that perturbed once his initial astonishment had worn off.
“I have to say for the little drawback I do feel miles better…” he grinned, then yelped and cowered as a rock narrowly missed his ear.
“LITTLE DRAWBACK?” Jessie yelled. “This is not a little drawback! Have you looked at yourself lately? You’re at kid! You can’t drink, you can’t drive, and worst of all…” She looked miserably at their crumpled piles of uniforms upon the ground where they had been tossed previously. “We don’t have any clothes that fit…”
The realisation finally sunk in. James lifted his hands and grasped his face in an upset, his lip quivering.
“I’m scared, Meowth! What are we gonna do? I can’t be like this!”
“Yeah…you’ll have ta go trou puberty again…” Meowth replied in a matter-of-fact way. James squealed and grasped the feline tightly, making him choke from the suddenness of his fearhug.
"Urk!" the Pokemon spluttered. "Loosen up, Jimmy! I won't be able ta offer advice to yas all suffocated will I?"
"Sorry..." the boy mumbled, letting go. Meowth rubbed at his neck and winced a little.
"Now listen here," he began. "If da townspeople did put up dat sign den its da townspeople wes gotta go talk to in regards ta gettin' youse a cure fer ya anti-ageing bath."
"No way" Jessie folded her arms. "I am not humiliating myself by walking into town and asking for a cure to a spring I technically shouldn't have been soaking in in the first place."
"So you'd rather be humiliated by livin' out'cha childhood again with an adult mind ta boot?" Meowth inquired loftily. Jessie growled.
"We can't, Jess" James tried to sound his most persuasive. "Think of the growing pains, the loose teeth... the mood swings!"
“Oh fine," the girl muttered with a pout. "But I'm still not moving from this spot until I have something to wear. Something fitting, and fashionable”
“Me neither” James remarked in agreement. Meowth rolled his eyes.
“Ya may look like kids but ya don’t hafta act like em…”
They glared at him in unison.
“Hey! Youse two got yaselves inta dis mess, youse two can get yaselves outta it”
James began to mope, then his expression altered into something much more devious. He took a deep breath.
“Pleeeeeease?”
Meowth bit his lip. He could cope with bad feeling and sulky faces but what sat before him was no longer a picture of moody defiance but a large-eyed visage graced with a smile so innocent and hopeful that he couldn't even bring himself to look away. Jessie watched James' shameless display in a mixture of disturbance and admiration. Guilt was clearly starting to play upon Meowth's features.
Ok, Jess. she told herself.
Just swallow your pride for the moment and-
“Go on, Meowthy wouthy…we really need some clothes that fit us!”
Jessie almost spluttered in surprise at hearing herself stooping to such a level but it had already had its required effect. The Pokemon stamped his foot.
“Dat’s not fair! Youse two could nevah pull a stunt like dat normally!”
The expressions upon the two children didn't alter an inch. Meowth gave an exasperated groan.
"Grrmff…oh fine! I'll get youse some kid clothes! But I ain't fallin' fer dose cutesy looks again"
As the Pokémon stormed away from the scene Jessie and James glanced at eachother and dark grins descended upon their faces.
"See? Acting all pathetic and helpless can get you somewhere" James smirked.
“You'd know a lot about that," Jessie remarked, smoothing back her hair.
"At least we won't have a problem charming the antidote to this spring water out of the townspeople. Meowth better get back with those outfits real soon...
...I don't know why, but I feel like we're being watched"