As the latest challenger returns her Vileplume and slumps out of the ring, Faris is ready to call it a day when suddenly almost all the lights in the stadium go out.
    “Prepare for trouble!”
    “Make it double!”
    “GUYS! I HARDLY THINK THE DAMN SPEECH IS APPROPRIATE FOR THIS SITUATION!” Starr roars at Jessie and James, who blush and step down off the judges’ desk.
    James quickly regains his composure and walks up to Faris. “Since you won’t talk to me, I’ll make you a deal. One battle. If I win, you have to go on a date with me!” he grins.
    “And if I win, you piss off and don’t bug me again,” Faris returns calmly.
    James almost crashes to the floor, but nods. “All right.”
    The bell rings to signal the start of the new match, and James and Faris square off at opposite ends of the ring. The referee announces, “One battle will decide whether the new champion breaks the all-time winning streak of Rio’s Battle Arena. The champion, Faris Greyweirs, has chosen Clefairy. The challenger, James, has chosen Weezing.”
    The bell rings again.
    “Go, Usa-chan!” Faris calls, throwing the Clefairy’s Pokéball out. A small, cute, pink Pokémon emerges. “Clefairy!!!!”
    “Go, Weezing!” James yells, throwing out his own Pokéball. The floating purple-gray Weezing wheezes, “Weeeezingggg…” and floats in mid-air in front of James.
    “I can’t watch,” Starr mutters, covering her eyes.
    “Usa-chan, Sing!” Faris encourages.
    “Clefairy…. Clefairy…. Clefairy….” Usa-chan warbles. Weezing begins to move back and forth slightly in the air in time to the rhythm of Usa-chan’s song, until….
    WHUNK.
    James’s mouth drops open as Weezing crashes to the mat, snoring away.
    For five seconds, there’s dead silence…
    …Then suddenly James begins to spaz. Growing two tiny fangs, he whips out a megaphone from the void and yells at Weezing, “WAKE UP! WHAT KIND OF POKÉMON ARE YOU ANYWAY?! WAKE UP! THIS MATCH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING! PLEASE WAKE UP! I HAVE TO WIN!!!!”
    Faris doesn’t seem to notice. “Pound it, Usa-chan!”
    Most of the audience members crack up at the sight of Weezing being pounded by the small pink Pokémon, but the death glare from Starr quickly shuts them up.
    The bell rings, signaling the end of the match. Weezing has officially been defeated.
    Jessie says quietly, “I thought for sure he’d win.”
    James blinks, holds out his Pokéball, and Weezing returns. Without waiting for the announcement of who’s won, any remark from Faris, or for Starr and Jessie to catch up, he wanders out of the arena.
    “Wait! James!!!” Jessie cries, leaping to her feet and running after him.
    Faris calls Usa-chan to return. Finally, James will stop annoying her…
    She knows she should feel great, but something seems off somehow…
    Looking up into the crowd, her gaze catches a pair of bright green eyes.
    It’s Starr.
    And she looks sadder that Faris has ever seen her look. This is a shock—usually Starr is cheery, or a walking sugar rush.
    Starr notices Faris looking at her and smiles a bit, then wanders off.

    “Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames! Where are you!?” Jessie wails. “Please come out!!!”
    “James, are you even still here?” Starr yells.
    “I wish I had the megaphone,” Jessie mumbles.
    “It wouldn’t work anyway, James bent it in half, remember?” Starr reminds Jessie.
    “Oh, right.” Jessie sweatdrops a little.
    Starr is drawing breath to yell again when she hears a faint sniffling noise coming from a shadowed hallway. Peeking around the corner, she sees a sad-looking figure hunched over and leaning against the wall.
    “James, that you?” she calls quietly.
    The only answer is another sniff. Starr goes closer and sees that it IS James. He’s been crying for a while.
    “Oh, no….” Starr puts a hand on his shoulder, then gives him a hug. James returns it, crying onto Starr’s shoulder and getting her soaking wet, but she doesn’t really care.
    “I thought for sure I’d win! I should have listened to you, Starr…now I can never ever talk to Faris agaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!!!!” James sobs.
    “It’s okay…we’ll figure something out…” Starr soothes.
    “Yeah, like tearing Faris limb from limb!!!” Jessie snarls, flames dancing behind her.
    Starr scowls. “Usually I’d be on her side, but that was the cheapest shot I’ve ever seen! Weezing was out of the match as soon as he fell asleep; she didn’t have to beat him up, too.” She gently detaches James and says, “Stay here. I’ve got to talk to Faris.”
    “Eeef….” James responds. Starr doesn’t know what Eeef means, so she and Jessie look at each other, nod, and head off to find Faris and talk to her about hurting James.

    Faris is roaming around the back hallways in search of a pop machine that works when she hears a faint, weird sound coming from someplace. Peeking around a doorframe, she sees a familiar light-blue-haired guy sitting slumped against the wall. Floating next to him is a Weezing with three Band-Aids plastered on its heads.
    “Weeeezingggg,” it says sadly.
    James sniffles. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t know Clefairy could sing that well.”
    “Weeeeeez.”
    “It’s all right,” James repeats, sighing. “I guess I just wasn’t meant to ever be with her…”
    “Weeeezzzzzzing.”
    Faris can’t help but feel sorry for James. Even if he did go behind her back, he doesn’t deserve this kind of sadness. She walks out of the doorframe, stands next to James, and asks, “This seat taken?”
    James looks up and blinks in surprise, then shakes his head, “No….”
    Weezing politely moves out of the way so Faris can sit down.
    Faris sighs, “James… This is hard for me to say, but… I’m sorry about acting so cold back there. I should have just left it after Weezing fell asleep. I’d won then, and it was really heartless to beat Weezing up like that. But…I couldn’t see any other way…. I thought if I acted heartless, you’d see I wasn’t worth going after and give up. As I said before, I don’t want to fall in love…. It isn’t because of you….”
    James listens patiently, and she continues. “When I was about 13 or so, I met someone over the Internet. Let me state beforehand that even though all my previous relationships were over the Internet, they still affected my emotions like I’d met and loved them face to face. Anyway, at first I didn’t like him much—actually, that’s putting it mildly, I despised him and I enjoyed nothing more than annoying the crap out of him—but lots of different things happened between us and I ended up falling for him.” She smiles reminiscently. “ ‘You idiot! I’m a girl!’ ” Faris giggles at the memory. “That’s what I told him when I told him I loved him, and he pointed out that I was a guy. He thought I was a guy, since my regular handle for a long time before then was Prince Demando, after someone in Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon, and that’s what he knew me as,” she explains. “And his exact response was, ‘OH.’” She giggles again. “I still think that was exceedingly funny.”
    “So what happened?” James queries.
    Faris leans against the wall. “Well, eventually, we hooked up, although we did have our ups and downs in our relationship. I don’t remember how long it lasted—I’ve never been much of one for remembering anniversaries—but we were really close. We almost got married a couple times, but we never really officially got around to it.”
    James’ eyes go very wide, and he nods mutely.
    “But…” she sighs. “Eventually, school started up, and he never had any time for me anymore. Needless to say, I started missing him almost immediately.” She leans forward. “Now, someone else comes into play… I met this second guy, Mercurius, a little after Malachite—that’s my first boyfriend’s regular chat handle—and I fell in love. At first, I thought he was a girl, so I didn’t think much of the hugs he gave me until Malachite got jealous and told him hugging me was his job.” She smiles at the memory, but it fades away before long. “Anyway. Mercurius apologized, then left, and some other people in the chatroom we were in at the time told us he was a guy. I had previously thought he was a girl, so Malachite’s jealousy made me wonder if there really was something there.
    “Mercurius and I became very good friends, and he came to call me his Singing Princess, as I liked to sing a lot back in those days. There’s a lot to talk of about those days… lots of memories…” Her eyes soften. “But those memories are for me alone, so I’ll get straight to the point. When school started, Malachite got caught up in homework and almost never had time for me anymore. As can be expected, I started missing him almost immediately. I told Mercurius this once when we were alone, and then I asked him something that had been bugging me since Malachite had been jealous: if he loved me. He asked me if I wanted the truth, and I said yes.
    “He told me, yes, he did love me, and had loved me since we first met, when I had sang for him to cheer him up.”
    “…” James replies to this. “Go on.”
    Faris closes her eyes. “I was surprised by this, but I told him that maybe I could love him too. So, Mercurius and I started seeing each other privately.
    “Oh yes, a detail I forgot: Mercurius already had a girlfriend at this time, and I was well aware of this.”
    James winces. “Ouch.”
    “Ouch, indeed,” Faris says dryly. “We spent a lot of time together afterwards, and I think in the end, we were far closer than I was with Malachite. However, I felt guilty for going behind Malachite’s back, because Malachite took love very seriously, and didn’t even want to kiss anyone he didn’t really love. He wanted his first kiss to come from the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with. We kissed several times, as did Mercurius and I.
    “Eventually, I told Malachite about us, and Mercurius’ girlfriend about us, because I was selfish and wanted to alleviate myself of my guilt.”
    Faris and James are quiet for a moment. Unnoticed by the two, they’re being watched by two figures in the doorway.
    “Mercurius and I broke up, and he couldn’t return to his old girlfriend because she knew about us. So, he was alone. As for Malachite… I’d betrayed his trust, so we didn’t really talk after that; as a result, it was just like before, except now I wasn’t pining for him. I’m not sure what ever happened to Malachite, but I do know that I ruined Mercurius’ life.” Her eyes shimmer at the memory. “He spent the next few months of his life crying most of the time… and later, even though I’m still not sure if it’s true or not, I heard he’d gone insane.” She stares down at her feet. “It probably isn’t all my fault, but I dealt a major hand in it. That still hurts me even now, because Mercurius was a good man, and because of me, he became a broken man. All three of us went through a lot of pain; not only do I not want to experience that pain, I don’t want to bring that pain on someone else again. This was a strictly online relationship, and it ended this bitterly; how horrible would the dissolution of an offline relationship be? I don’t want another man’s ruined life hanging over my head for the rest of my life, even if it’s yours, James.”
    James is silent. He can now understand why she fears falling in love, but doesn’t feel any better.
    She sighs. “I still don’t want to fall in love, but… James, you seem to be a nice guy, even if you are for the most part largely clueless. Being just friends is fine with me. Would you like that?”
    James crashes to the floor, as does Weezing.
    Faris grins. “That’s a yes, right?”
    James nods and grins, sitting up and wiping away his tears.
    “But you have to promise one thing…don’t touch me, all right? No hugs or anything…it—”
    “You don’t have to explain. I get it,” James says. “Um….we can shake on it, right?”
    Faris smirks. “Bakame! Of course.”
    The two of them shake hands.
    *Piku*
    “What was that noise?” James asks.
    CRASH!
    Faris and James whip around to see Jessie and Starr lying on the floor and twitching. Both look kind of stoned.
    Faris pokes Starr’s foot. “You should really cut down on the Skittles. This can’t be healthy.”
    “I can’t believe this,” Jessie says.
    “You are not alone,” Starr mutters. “Yaiya.”
    Suddenly there’s a buzzing noise and James falls on the floor giggling hysterically.
    “What exactly is your problem?” Faris asks.
    “It’s—EEEEHEHEHEHEHE!—my pager! I have it—HEHEHEHEHEEEEE!—on vibrate so it won’t disturb anyone! HEEEEEHEHEHE!”
    Jessie and Starr exchange a look as James retrieves the buzzing pager, then they collapse on the floor giggling hysterically.
    Faris stares at them sideways, then questions, “Who’s the message from?”
    James presses a button, then reads, “It’s from the Boss! We’ve all been assigned a new mission and we’re to report to back to him for details right away!”
    Faris raises an eyebrow, but says nothing and shrugs. “Let’s go.”
    The three other Team Rocket members get off of the floor, and they all head to the Viridian City Gym.

    Dressed in their usual Team Rocket uniforms, Faris, Starr, Jessie, James, Meowth, Batts, and Raichu crowd around the video screen in the Viridian briefing room.
    “So what’s the deal, Boss?” Faris queries coolly. “What’s our job?”
    -You’re to go to Cinnabar Island immediately. The annual Summer’s Festival will be beginning soon, and many trainers attend it. You are to collect as many rare Pokémon as possible, which is why I’m sending all four of you.-
    “We won’t let you down, Boss!” Meowth says eagerly, hanging from Jessie’s shoulder.
    -I’m sure you won’t,- Giovanni replies with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. However, Meowth doesn’t seem to notice. –Anyway, Sami, I’m placing you in charge of leading this mission.-
    Faris nods. “Understood.” She turns to the others. “All right, you heard the Boss. Let’s go.” Faris starts to hang up the connection.
    -Wait, Sami,- Giovanni says before she can. –I want to speak with you privately for a moment.-
    “About what?”
    -When I say ‘privately’, Sami, I mean not even a hint of it is to be uttered before the others’ ears.-
    She shrugs. “Whatever. Anyway, you guys beat it and get the helicopter ready. I’ll catch up.”
    The group of Team Rocket members and Pokémon head out the door. Faris turns back to the Boss. “So what is it you wanted to tell me that you couldn’t tell the others?”
    Giovanni leans forward in his chair. –The assignment I gave you was a lie.-
    Faris raises an eyebrow. “Come again?”
    -You are still to go to Cinnabar Island, but that story about the Summer’s Festival was a lie. I couldn’t care less about that. What I want you to do, Sami, is to contact the Cinnabar Island scientists. Some of them are in league with us, and they’ve given me word that the Mewtwo Project is nearing completion. I want you to steal Mewtwo, Sami, and you alone. Only Team Rocket will have that Pokémon, and you’re the only one I trust with such a monumental task.-
    Her eyes narrow slightly. “Mew… two…” she murmurs. In a louder voice, she queries, “What’s the deal with this Pokémon?”
    -It is a genetically engineered Pokémon, designed by Cinnabar’s scientists to be stronger than any other Pokémon. It is a psychic-type, and exceedingly powerful and dangerous; that’s all I can tell you.-
    “And you want this Mewtwo for the betterment of Team Rocket, hmmm?”
    -Yes. If we have control of Mewtwo, nothing could stand in our way,- Giovanni replies. –Do not tell the others of Mewtwo; they must not suspect anything about it. The Mewtwo Project is top secret.-
    Faris notes the intense level of seriousness in his voice and nods. “I won’t tell them a thing about it, Boss. By the way, what’s this Mewtwo look like?”
    An image flashes up on the side of the screen, revealing a large, threatening-looking white-and-purple Pokémon. Its eyes seem to radiate hostility, and the demeanor surrounding even its picture makes it seem powerful and deadly.
    “Cute,” she remarks dryly. “This is going to be a lot of fun, I can tell.”
    Giovanni ignores her comment and orders, -Sami. You are in charge. Make sure none of the others even suspect what we’re after is Mewtwo, and remain as inconspicuous as possible on the trip to and your arrival and stay at Cinnabar. Once Mewtwo is in your possession, quickly and quietly make your exit. Mewtwo’s disappearance will stir up a lot of trouble, and it’s best that you don’t stay any longer than you have to. If possible, find someone uninvolved to accompany you for an alibi so no one suspects.- He leans back into his chair. –I expect the best of results from you. You are the best member of Team Rocket, and that is the truth.-
    Faris smirks. “Hai, hai. If this Mewtwo is as valuable and dangerous as you say, I can’t guarantee 100% success, but I’ll do my best.”
    Giovanni smirks back and nods; then the screen goes black.
    She sighs in the darkness, running a hand through her bangs. “Mewtwo…” she mutters to herself. Then she walks out of the briefing room to join the rest of her teammates.