Prism Town was one of Johto's lesser-known locations. Tucked away carefully amongst the mountainside it was easy to overlook, bearing only a cluster of residences to warrant its name. Regardless of this, Prism was by no means deserted. Its streets throbbed with the cheerful day to day living of the local community.
Away from
the activity, a stunted creamy-coloured figure carefully navigated the back fence of a nearby house. Bright sunny days meant perfect drying weather, and as such the line in the garden was neatly decorated with various garments. The smaller ones waved tantalizingly in the breeze like carnival flags and the figure took a few steps forward, paw outstretched and a crafty grin emerging upon its face. Then he heard something unsettling.A few seconds later Meowth practically flew screaming over the fence in a trail of fur, his arms full of tiny clothes as the savage utterances of the family Mightyena echoed into the air after him. Hitting the ground the Pokemon didn't waste a moment, his back legs propelling him forward and back toward the outskirts, away from the gnashing teeth that had so unforgivingly sank into his backside.
“Is this the best you could get Meowth?” exclaimed Jessie in disgust, looking down at the lavender coloured t-shirt and skirt she was now wearing. James grinned as he admired his own smart green shirt and shorts.
“Yeah, dat was da foist ting I came across” Meowth snapped, rubbing at his sore spot.
“An’ I ain't goin' trekkin' about gettin' attacked by rabid mutts jus’ because you don’t tink it looks good on you”James gave a satisfied grin.
“Reminds me of the clothes I used to wear back at the mansion…only not as classy. So…now what?”
“We're finding a way to reverse this as soon as possible!” Jessie snapped, her face red with anger as she strode purposefully toward Prism Town. “I want to get out of this ridiculous outfit!”
James and Meowth exchanged rather withering expressions over this.
“Huh. It’s easy ta see where her priorities lie…” the latter muttered. James scampered ahead a few paces before administering one of his typical whines.
"But Jessie... think of the implications...."
"There are no implications, James" Jessie muttered. "We're kids. Our privileges have just been severely limited."
"On the contrary" came the lofty reply. "We've been handed access to one of the most devious tricks in the book. Manipulation by feigned innocence. Remember what happened to Meowth? Just think of all the things we could obtain with that repertoire besides our cure!"
A mischievous smile was already present upon Jessie's face as she rubbed her little hands together.
"Indeed..." she chuckled. "Jewellery, make up-"
"Lunch?" James cut in hopefully. Jessie rolled her eyes.
"Naturally" she muttered.
"Now prepare your best persuasive look...
...we've got a lotta adults to exploit."
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
Many families were out taking advantage of the beautiful weekend weather, basking in the shade of the trees or playing games in the nearby greenery of the miniature park. There were many excited, happy children to be seen in Prism Town that day. James wasn’t one of them. The more the sun shone the more miserable he looked. Despite having removed his t-shirt beads of sweat were still pouring from his forehead and off his nose. He looked a right state.
Slumping upon one of the empty benches
James took a few moments to look around him at the scene. It seemed that everywhere his gaze travelled there were iced drinks stalls and places selling electric fans and all of them needed money. And the only thing he had was a case of dehydration. It hurt. It hurt the inside of his mouth and his head, and the dry, tickly feeling was getting worse. His plans for persuasion hadn't exactly passed off all that smoothly either. For every one of the shops he tried, the same responses were given :"I'm sorry little guy, I can't just give you that for free."
"If I did that to every kid with a doleful expression who came in here I'd go broke! I've got a business to keep, you know."
"How about asking your mother to spare you a little extra pocket money this week, huh?"
James snorted. Even if his mother was in the vicinity, he seriously doubted she would have let him out of his sight let alone buy anything from such places. Grumbling to himself over the matter, James put his head in his hands, glared down and wondered if Jessie and Meowth were having any more luck than him. Then the sound of rushing water caught his attention. Across the town square an area of concrete played host to an array of small fountains built into the ground. Many figures were already dancing around in the intermittent spray and James was more than willing to go and join them.
His tiny feet resonating across the cobblestones James kept his eyes firmly upon the target. So firmly, in fact, that he didn't even notice the tall legs of a nearby adult that he happened to be dashing towards.
"Oof!"
“Watch where yer walkin’, brat!” the man snapped as he swung round angrily, causing a pair of binoculars to fly round as he did so. James' eyes widened and he took a gulp of air as he immediately recognised whom the gravely voice had belonged to.
It was Butch, currently adorned with a rather frighteningly bright red and purple patterned shirt and luminous orange shorts. James probably would have burst out laughing at the sight of his Elite rival looking like a tourist reject if he hadn't been so petrified over Butch's reaction to his current state. But the recognition had not been mutual, which wasn't surprising since James was now at least three or four foot shorter than his male Rocket counterpart.
Butch growled irritably and stormed off in the other direction, muttering something about ‘pesky kids’. James watched him leave, first breathing a sigh of relief then moving his thoughts to more important matters.
“I wonder why Buhtch is hanging around this place,” he murmured quietly, scratching his chin. "It surely can't be to take in the sights. That guy's never on vacation"
Then something hit him. With a tiny yelp James darted back to the spot where he had promised to meet Jessie and Meowth. There they were, sitting on the bench in exactly the same fashion as James had done previously. It seemed their attempts had also been futile.
"Selfish shop owners..." Jessie muttered. "Can't even spare one lipstick or mascara"
"Yeah... or even a bagel" Meowth sighed, before lifting his head. His sensitive hearing had caught wind of the rapid pants of a young figure as it approached.
“You’ll never guess who I saw!” James exclaimed breathlessly. Jessie gave him a withering look.
"Unless it was someone giving out directions to where we can get the antidote to this dumb spring water, then I'm not interested"
James frowned and opened his mouth to speak but faltered as the sounds of two more familiar voices drifted through the air.
"If I’m not mistaken, this road leads to the Pokémon Center” one of them announced rather too confidently. Jessie, James and Meowth turned their gazes in the direction of the noise and discovered it to be the teenagers Ash and Misty, pondering over a large white sheet of paper.
“If I’m not mistaken…” Misty sniffed.
“That sounds like a familiar statement. You said that ten minutes ago!”“But I’m sure of it this time” Ash protested, struggling to find a point upon the map he was reading. Misty snatched it from his gloved hand.
“I can’t believe we let you lead us again…” she sighed to herself, scrutinizing the paper for a few seconds. Then her eyes narrowed. “You IDIOT!” she yelled into Ash’s face. “You’ve been reading this thing upside down the whole time!”
“It’s a simple mistake…” Ash trailed off, realising he was just making himself sound sillier.
“This is not Mahogany Town!” Misty cried, throwing her arms into the air. “Ooooh! I knew we should have given the map to Brock!”
Ash turned his gaze to where his older companion happened to be standing. His narrow eyes were fixated upon a troupe of young, fashionably dressed women who were enjoying the mid-morning sun.
“Blehhhhh” he drooled.
“You sure that would have been a good idea?” Ash remarked casually, turning back to Misty.
“I guess not…” she sweatdropped.
“Pikaaa” Pikachu agreed from the top of Ash’s hat. It leapt off in surprise as Brock appeared from nowhere and grabbed Ash by the shoulders in excitement.
“Thankyou Ash! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” he cried in almost one breath. “We should let you read the map more often! You've led me straight to a shining treasure trove of blissful beauties and I couldn't be more grateful!”
Misty and Ash shared expressions of uneasiness as Brock cantered toward the group, causing them to start in wide-eyed alarm. They didn't follow; they were all too aware of the usual tactics their overly amorous companion would employ, not to mention the inevitable results. Yet again, their assumptions were absolutely correct.
The group of women muttered nervously between themselves, their eyes darting this way and that. Anywhere was a better place to look, as long as it wasn’t at the somewhat desperate figure standing before them flashing his best 'knight in shining armour' expression. Then their faces communally took on an expression of excitement and adoration as they spotted something in the distance.
“Ooooh! Look at that little boy!” one lady with bleached blonde hair squealed.
“With such a sweet face!” another added in honeyed tones.
“And the cutest hairstyle” someone else pointed out happily.
The entire group disappeared in a frantic dash toward their target. Brock’s expression of shock soon turned to helplessness. He gave chase to the diminishing trio, waving his arms as he did so.
“Hey wait! I can do cute and adorable! I can, I caaaan!” he yelled. Misty groaned as she watched him leave.
“There he goes again…demeaning himself. I can't believe I put up with this.”
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
“Oh great!” Jessie muttered in sarcastic annoyance.
“The twerps. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse”"They can," James spluttered. "I just saw Buhtch a minute ago..."
"WHAT?" Jessie yelled, her face suddenly overcome with terror. “I can’t let Cassidy see me like this! I’ll never live it down!”
“Who cares about that?” James snapped. “I'm more concerned with what they're up to. What if they're after stealing all the Jyngu spring water?”
"It'd be a pointless escapade, and they're welcome to it" Jessie sniffed, folding her arms.
"But we might need it as an ingredient for the antidote!" James insisted. Jessie looked at him, slightly worried.
"You have a point there" she murmured. "I guess we'd better track those two down before somethi...
ih-ih-ih-ih..."
“What’s wrong with you?” James asked confusedly, as Jessie's wide-eyes stared straight past his face and at a point behind him. Swivelling round, James realised there was a rapidly expanding cloud of figures moving toward them, waving their arms and screaming in excitement. By the time he'd figured where the sights of the women happened to be fixed, it was too late. He gave out a terrible scream as they leapt at him in a shower of cooing and baby talk. There were just too many arms holding him down, making it impossible to escape.
“Oh, so huggable!” one giggled.
“Got the cutest widdle cheeks!” another gushed, pulling at James’ face.
“Owie!” he yelled, struggling wildly in an attempt to break free.
"Jessie! Meowth! Heeeelp!"
But he wasn't going to get any. The young girl and her feline Pokemon counterpart were too occupied with their fits of hysterics as they watched the ridiculous scene unfold in front of them..
“This is not funny!” James yelled angrily, only to get his head pushed nastily close to one of the women’s bosoms. Brock arrived just in time to witness the palaver. His eyes narrowed as he watched the attentions of the ones he had tried so hard to please being handed to someone at least half his age, who definitely wasn’t appreciating it as much as he would have done.
“How dare they choose that little undeveloped kid over me…” he grumbled as he approached. The women looked up in surprise as Brock walked sternly toward them. It was at this moment, while their attentions were diverted, that James picked his chance to break free of their grasp and make a break for it down the street. The women were quick to leap up in pursuit.
“COME BACK!” Brock shouted, running after the women yet again.
“Surely you'd much rather chase me all afternoon!”