Team Rocket47's Next Fanfic
Chapter 3: Desertion

It's peaceful for once, thought Dreana.

Dreana was relaxing in her favorite chair, while she calmly sipped tea from her second favorite
tea cup. Her favorite tea cup had been shattered six and a half years ago after she witnessed the
most unexpected event of her life. She had glued it back together, but it didn't hold tea very well
anymore. So it sat on a shelf in her room. The full story behind the teacup is best told at parties.

I can't believe it, her train of thought continued. Nothing has gone wrong since that whole
thing with Tac last Spring, which is incredibly surprising. I expected him to try something again
by now. Well, it saves me a lot of trouble. Ira should be able to walk by tomorrow, then he and
Jads can go and be tormented by Joey for awhile. It's all so nice. Times like these make me
happy to be the leader of a semi-evil organization. She sighed, then took a long sip of tea.
After a small pause, one thought drifted through her mind. It won't last.

As if on cue, Phido ran into the room, barking. She tried to halt, but skidded across the tile floor
instead and slammed into the bookshelf. After recovering, the flareon jumped up onto the chair
Dreana was sitting on.

"What's wrong?" Dreana asked, knowing what the answer would be.

Phido jumped around on the chair, shaking it. A worried look was on her face. "Disneyland!
Disney!"

Dreana shook her head and smiled. "I thought so. You know I can't understand you. But it's
important, isn't it?"

"Disneyland!" cried the flareon while nodding her head furiously. The shaking caused small
embers to fly everywhere.

"Ok then, we'd better find out what you're saying." Dreana patted Phido on the head, then
floated over to the phone that hung on the wall. She hit a number on the speed dial, then waited
as it rung.

After two rings, a voice on the other line said, "Myuutsuu's Highly Dangerous Weaponry, how
may I help you?"

"Hey Kat," Dreana said calmly. "It's Dreana. We've got a bit of a problem."

Kat quickly asked, "Is Joey ok?"

Dreana sighed quietly. "Yes, she's doing fine. Still shedding, so I've made her stay above
ground."

The mewtwo's voice laughed, then asked, "So what is it that you need then?"

"Well, I can't understand Phido, and she apparently has something important to say." The mew
looked at the flareon, who was sitting on the floor looking up at her. She still had the worried
look on her face. "Do you think you could give a translation, because you can somehow
understand what she says?"

"Sure thing! Just put her on the line."

Dreana floated down a few feet, then held the phone up to Phido. "Just tell her what you want to
tell me," she told the flareon.

"Disneyland!" Phido barked. "Disney isneyland! Disney!"

"So what did she say?" the mew asked as she held the phone up to her own ear again.

There was a bit of silence from the phone as Kat paused. "She says that there's a note stuck to a
tree with a knife up in the forest, and that there's a lot of blood and stuff. I think you should go
check it out."

A bit of cold fear crept down Dreana's spine. "Ok then, thanks for the help Kat."

"It was no problem," Kat replied, sounding worried herself. "Could you have Joey give me a call
the next time you see her?"

"Sure thing. Talk to you later." She waited for Kat to hang up first before hanging up herself.
Then She looked down at Phido. "Let's go check it out. Lead the way."

***

Joey woke up from her nap when she heard the creaky wooden door of the cabin open. Lazily she
rolled over from her comfortable position on her back and looked to see who had entered. When
she saw it was Dreana, followed by Phido, the houndour curiously asked, "What's up?"

Dreana sighed frustratedly, then held up a piece of paper that was stained with red all over.
"Phido found this in the forest. I've called a meeting for everyone, so it'll be explained then."

Joey gulped in fear, while staring at the note. "Is that... blood?" she asked with a high pitched
note in her voice.

"No," Dreana sighed. "It's ketchup."

The houndour sighed in relief. "That's a good thing." Phido jumped up onto the couch next to
her.

"What the note says isn't as good. That's why I called a meeting up here." With a tired sigh,
Dreana sat down in a large arm chair that was way too large for her small cat-like form.
"Everyone else should be here soon."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to have the meeting down at the base, since everyone's there already?"
Joey asked, while rolling over onto her back again.

Dreana gave a small smile, then replied, "I'm not letting you down there. You're still highly
dangerous to keeping the base clean." Joey gave a sigh as Dreana looked around at the black dog
hair that coated the cabin. "Anyway, Kat asked me to tell you to give her a call. You should do
that after the meeting."

"That's kool." Joey made herself a mental note, then wondered why Dreana had been talking to
Kat in the first place.

Before long, the rest of Team Rocket47 had gathered in the cabin. The sun was setting outside,
and it cast a golden glow throughout the wooden paneled room. Everyone was arranged in a
small circle surrounding a oddly patterned rug that they had found somewhere. Ira and Kenny sat
together on the small cushy sofa, with Michi in full raichu form squooshed between them. Joey
and Phido took up one half of the large couch, while Jads took up the other half. Aly sat on the
floor directly opposite of Dreana's large chair. Magick had perched herself atop the back of the
armchair. Pelican stood slightly outside the circle, leaning on one of the walls.

Dreana cleared her throat. "You're probably all clueless as to why I called this meeting." She
looked around as most of the members nodded. Then she held up the note. "Before you ask, it's
ketchup. I don't know why, but it is."

Aly giggled, "How did you find out it was ketchup?"

"It smelled of tomatoes," Dreana replied with a small sweatdrop falling down her forehead.
"Anyway, the point is what's written on the note. It seems that we're in a bit of trouble." She
passed the ketchup covered note to everyone so they could also read what it said. The note was
written in a precise handwriting, and it read:

Dear Team Rocket47,

As you may or may not know, the police have put a large bounty on all of your heads. I have
taken on the task of collecting that bounty. In short, you will all die. Be sure to enjoy your last
few days on this planet.

- Pheonix Makurayami

After the note had been passed around, Kenny remarked, "The guy sounds like he's all talk to
me."

"It's possible," Dreana replied, sounding worried. "But I've heard about this Pheonix guy before.
He's supposedly one of the best bounty hunters out there. Also, he supposedly only goes after the
highest paying bounties. I'm guessing the police really want us badly if the bounty over our heads
is high enough to interest someone like him."

Magick sighed softly. "So that probably means that he won't be the only one after us."

"Yeah, but he's the only one goofy enough to leave a ketchup covered note for us to find," Joey
said while laughing. Her comments brought laughter from everyone else, including Dreana.

After calming down from her fit of laughter, Dreana announced, "This is still pretty serious. I'm
going to have to make some new rules to make sure everyone's safe."

Aly and Kenny both groaned, knowing what happened the last time they had a bounty hunter
problem. "Are we going to have to stay underground unless we get your permission?" Aly asked
with a tone that sounded like she knew something that would make the next few months very
annoying was coming.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I had in mind," Dreana replied, causing Aly and Kenny to groan
again. The mew seemed discouraged by their reactions and added, "It's just a safety precaution."

"So what exactly does this mean?" Pelican asked, while still standing apart from everyone.

Dreana sighed. "It means that everyone will have to stay down in the underground base unless
they're on watch duty, going out on a mission, or unless they ask my permission first. Bounty
hunters are a mean sort, and I don't think they'd hesitate to kill one of us if they got the chance."
Pelican sweatdropped, but Dreana continued. "I figure that by staying down in the base, they'll
have less opportunities to kill us, so they might go away after awhile. It's worked in the past."

"But it gets incredibly boring," Kenny added.

"I always thought that a little boredom was better then getting killed," Dreana answered in a
commanding tone. "And anyway, I don't want this to turn into an argument. I want everyone to
stay down in the base, and that's final."

Joey yawned and rolled over so she was facing the pink mew. "Does this mean that I don't have
to train Ira and Jads?" she asked hopefully.

Dreana glared at her. "That's another story. The place I told you to take them should be far
enough away so that the bounty hunters shouldn't bother you. Not to mention it's hidden."

"Aw man..." Joey sighed, then rolled over into a comfortable position again.

Dreana glared at her back. "I want you to leave after the meeting's over with. You are ready,
right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"It's good that we finally get to do something," Jads mused to herself. Ira nodded in agreement.

Dreana looked around, and then folded up the ketchup covered note. "I think that's everything I
wanted to say in this meeting," she said. "We can all go back to the nice air conditioned base
now, except for Joey, Ira, and Jads."

Outside the stars were already beginning to show in the twilit sky. Joey stayed inside the cabin
with Jads and Ira, while everyone else made their way to the large tree that they had put over the
entrance to the underground base. Pelican, however, stood outside the cabin.

"Dreana, could you hold on a second," he asked the mew who was floating after the others.

She stopped and turned to look at him. "What is it?"

"I don't want to do this anymore," he said abruptly. Dreana looked a little shocked, then smiled
softly. "I didn't know that being a member of Team Rocket47 could be this dangerous," he
continued. "I mean, I knew it would be dangerous, but I never thought that my life would be at
stake. Do you think I could quit?"

The mew continued to smile softly. "If you want to leave, that's fine by me. But you can't tell
anyone anything about the underground base or anything like that."

"Oh I won't," Pelican replied, sounding surprised. "I wouldn't do that to you guys. Plus I plan on
going back to being a pokemon trainer, so if I were to tell anyone I'd be in trouble too. I'll keep it
a secret, don't worry."

"Good," Dreana said. "Because if you were to tell anyone, you'd be in a lot of trouble with us as
well." She sighed. "It's been nice having you as a member, even though you haven't done all that
much. Thanks for the help anyway."

Pelican blushed slightly. "It's no problem. I had fun while it lasted." There was an awkward
silence as his words trailed off. "Um... I guess I should go get my stuff now."

***

"This stuff is heavy," Jads complained as she walked up the steadily sloping ground with a large
back pack slung on her back. "Why couldn't you have carried this stuff up before?"

Joey stifled an annoyed growl. "Because it's heavy and no one offered to help me before. I
already carried all the rest of the stuff up here on my own, and you didn't see me complaining,"
she said in human language so they could understand her. She was in full houndour form,
padding in front of both Jads and Ira on the narrow path. She had her nose to the ground, sniffing
to make sure that they didn't lose the trail in the dark

The blonde girl glared at Joey's back. "So why doesn't Ira have to carry the big backpack?"

"You should know that already," she replied. "He's having a hard enough time walking as it is."

"Why are you both talking about me like I'm not here?" Ira asked, sounding somewhat offended.

Jads laughed softly. "Because you're a guy, and we can." She shifted the backpack in attempt to
lighten it. "How much farther?"

Joey didn't reply. She had stopped walking and stood up from her crouch, and was staring off
into the forest with her ears upright. Jads and Ira both stopped behind her, looking worried. They
looked in the direction Joey was staring, but could only see the trees fade into a shadowy gloom
in the night.

"What's wrong Joey?" Ira asked worriedly, but before the houndour could reply, she darted off
into the forest, barking loudly. Jads looked at Ira with the same worried expression, then dropped
the backpack on the ground and ran after Joey. Ira was left to stand on the path, alone.

By the time Jads reached where Joey had stopped, the pokemon already had her front paws up
against a large tree, and was barking at something up in the branches. Jads looked up, but only
saw a hint of cream and tan fur before it moved to hide itself even more. Then a glint of light,
like something shiny reflecting of the moonlight, shone down through the branches.

Jads cautiously put her hand on Joey's shoulder, and to her surprise she stopped barking. Though
the houndour still stared up into the tree, growling. "Um, hello?" Jads called up into the tree.
"Are you ok up there?"

"Nyaaah," was the only reply she received from the creature up in the tree.

The blonde girl looked concerned. "Are you hurt at all?"

There was a small coughing sound from up the tree, followed by, "Other then having the living
daylights scared out of me, I'm fine."

"You can talk?" Joey asked, still glaring up into the tree menacingly.

"Of course I can talk! You can talk, right?" The voice replied. "Hey, is that houndour going to eat
me if I come down?"

Joey dropped down onto all fours from her position against the tree, "No, you're fine."

There was a small pause, and then the creature from the tree dropped down from the branches,
easily landing on it's feet. In the moonlight, Jads and Joey could see that it was a meowth who
walked on all four legs, but had a handkerchief being used as a bag tied around his neck, with the
full end resting against his back. On his charm was a strange M like character that shone in black
against the gold.

The meowth gave a glance to Joey, then said, "I'm looking for Team Rocket47. I didn't expect to
be chased up a tree."

"I didn't expect to chase anyone up a tree," Joey grinned. "Why are you looking for Team
Rocket47?"

"I'm looking to join them. Are you guys members?" he asked calmly.

Jads nodded. "Yeah. You're not a bounty hunter meowth are you?"

The meowth coughed again. "Of course not. Well it's good to meet you all. Would you think it
would be ok if I joined up with you guys?"

Joey thought for a second, then replied, "You'll have to talk it over with the boss." She nodded
toward the direction of the base. "Head that way for awhile, and you should find someone else
who could take you to the base. We're kind of on a mission right now."

"Okay then," the meowth said, looking off into the direction Joey nodded. "It was nice meeting
you two." He glanced at Joey with the same odd look again. Then he gave a short bow, and began
padding off toward the base.

"So why did you chase him up a tree again?" Jads asked as her and Joey began walking back
toward the trail.

Joey laughed softly. "I had to. He's a cat."

They eventually found the trail again, where Ira had sat down on top of the large backpack.
"What was up?" He asked curiously while standing up.

"Joey had to chase a meowth up a tree," Jads replied in a light tone. Ira only stared at her in
confusion, and he stayed confused the entire rest of the way to the cabin. Both girls refused to tell
him what had happened, simply because he was annoyed by the fact that he didn't know.

Finally after much climbing up sloping terrain, they made their way to a small ravine between
two of the mountains that bordered the north and east sides of the forest. They followed the small
path until they reached where it suddenly slanted downward into a small valley. The
mountainsides surrounding it were filled with tall trees, but down at the bottom it turned into a
grassy field that was dotted with a few trees here and there. A small, calmly trickling stream cut
the grassy meadow in half, but a small wooden bridge crossed over it. At the far end was a cosy
looking wooden cabin that fit in with the surroundings in a very peaceful way.

Of course neither Ira or Jads could see the beautiful scenery because it was the middle of the
night. Joey already knew what it looked like, but she was still comforted by what she could see
with her night vision.

The houndour led them across the meadow to the cabin. She transformed into her human from
when they reached the front door. After looking around the porch for the key she had hidden, she
unlocked the door and lead her two companions in. "Welcome to the dusty, unused cabin of
Team Rocket47," she said while turning on the lights so they could see just how dusty it really
was.

"This place really is a mess," Ira remarked after looking around for a few minutes. The entire
cabin was coated in a thin layer of dust, with fur and feathers scattered around. There were a few
paths of clean floor that indicated that Joey really had been here before. Jads hadn't really
believed her before, judging by the size of the backpack she had to carry.

Joey yawned. "We've been walking awhile, so I think sleep would be good." Both Jads and Ira
nodded sleepily. "Our first training exercise will be cleaning this place up. But it'll wait 'til
tomorrow morning. Follow me, I'll show you to the bedroom."

***

Dreana was laying down on the couch, staring up at the piece of apple pie that she held above her
head with her psychic powers. There wasn't much else to do, and she had already eaten another
slice of pie. Boredom had taken over. So she resorted to floating pieces of pie over her head.

Pelican was gone now. She had walked with him til the edge of the forest, then let him go on his
own way. It really wasn't that big a deal. She trusted that he wouldn't go and reveal any secrets
about Tr47, because he didn't know many secrets anyway. Him leaving now was probably better
then him failing when he might actually be needed. And Ira would be happy to find that he didn't
have to share a room anymore, when he got back in two weeks. Everything was once again, calm
for a brief time.

She heard the sliding glass door open and close behind her. The mew calmly sat up and turned
around to see who had entered. She made sure to keep the pie from falling. Michi had entered,
she saw, and along with her was a meowth.

"Hey Boss-mew," The raichu-morph said with a wave. "What's with the pie?"

Dreana sighed at being called Boss-mew, it was a name only Michi used, and it got on her
nerves. "I was just bored. Who's the meowth you brought?"

"My name's Majin, and I want to be a member of Team Rocket47!" The cat pokemon replied
enthusiastically.

"You can talk?" Dreana asked curiously?

Majin rolled his eyes. "Is it that uncommon for pokemon to speak human?"

"I always thought it was," Dreana replied with a look of slight surprise. Then the mew glanced to
Michi. "Why did you bring him down here?"

Michi sweatdropped. "Umm... was I not supposed to?"

"I would have preferred it if you had just called me," Dreana replied with a sigh. "Didn't I show
you the tree signals?"

Michi sweatdropped again. "Well... umm... I forgot where they were. And I didn't think it would
be so bad just to bring him down here."

Dreana gave a half smile, then turned her attention to the meowth, who was looking a bit
annoyed. "Sorry about that,' she said quickly. "Well now you know where the secret
underground base is." She left a particular emphasis on secret, to let Michi know she wasn't too
happy, then continued, "So why do you want to be a member?"

"Well," the meowth said, "I don't really have anywhere else to go. I ran away from Team Rocket
and then heard of you guys. I thought that maybe I could help you guys fight them."

Dreana looked at him thoughtfully. His story sounded honest enough, and nothing from her
psychic power sensed a lie. She normally didn't use her power to see if people were lying, but
ever since she made a second mistake by letting Tac in, she was going to be more careful about
accepting new members.

"I think we should let him in," Michi added after a few minutes of silence while Dreana thought
it over. "He seems nice enough, and he's cute too!" Majin blushed slightly.

After considering for a few more moments, Dreana replied, "Alright then. He can join. There
would be an absence of males in the base if we didn't."

Majin smiled broadly, then ran over to Dreana and suddenly shook her paw. The mew was so
distracted by this, that the pie that she was still floating over her head came crashing down and
splattering all over her head. Michi burst out laughing at this point, while Majin stood in a state
of shock. Dreana stood still as well as the gooey pie filling dripped down her face.

Eventually Majin broke the moment by saying, "Um.. I'm sorry... I didn't expect you to drop
it..."

"Neither did I," Dreana replied, breaking into a grin and laughing herself. Majin joined in with
her, because some of the pie had splattered onto him as well.

After their merriment had subsided slightly, Majin asked, "So is there an initiation ceremony or
something?"

"An idea popped into Dreana's mind, and she grinned evilly.

***
Author's Notes: Wow this took awhile to finish. Sorry about that guys, I had a bad case of writers
block. I didn't know what to write in this chapter or anything. But I'm over it now, thanks to a lot
of people. I'd first like to thank my wonderful Beta-reader Phido for beta reading and helping me
organize my thoughts. That lawn chair she owns is quite inspiring. I'd also like to give much
thanks to everyone on the I/S for bugging the hell out of me until I wrote it. I owe you guys.

© Joey Oak             June 16, 2003

Chapter 4
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