Go Over The Background

"James, Jessica, glad to see you, how you two been?" Ai Rohata, one of Boss Giovanni's direct lieutenants had asked them over drinks in a Port Hoagland bar.

"Oh, you know, still hanging in there..." Jessy had replied, with a nervous laugh. A visit from one of the Boss's Lieutenants was never a good sign. Once upon a time Jessy and James had been being considered to be given that status themselves, but then, about three years ago, they ran into this ten-year-old whippersnapper named Ash Ketchum and his unnaturally powerful and resilient Pikachu, and ever since they'd become the laughing stock of Team Rocket. Only the fact that they were two of the youngest 'made' members of the of the gang in its entire history had kept the Boss from having them whacked a dozen different times...

"Still chasing the kid and his Pikachu?" Ai asked, sipping her rum-and-coke.

"Just bought our tickets for Aloha ****-" James began before Ai cut him off.

"Return them." She said with a note of unquestionable finality that made Jessy **** on her margarita.

After the coughing fit passed Jessy and James looked at Ai and asked the same question in unison: "Explain Please?"

Ai shrugged but decided if she phrased things carefully it should be safe enough here, they were all in a back booth and the bar was owned and operated by the team...

"You were two of our BEST, fourth and fifth youngest people to be 'Made' in the history of the team, headed straight for the top, the Boss was considering making you his daughter's godparents, then, the SAME DAY that Ash Ketchum and that Pikachu enter the picture, EVERYTHING starts going wrong. You've been up to your eyeballs in debt with the team basically ever since, you can't seem to pull off one good score, and you've been screwing things up for everyone around you too. Now to the rest of the team you two are damaged goods, but the Boss is the Boss because he can see patterns everyone else CAN'T and what he sees is that every time things go wrong for you two it's been related to that brat and his Pokemon." Ai took another sip of her drink while Jessy and James thought about it, and realized she was right...

"You see it now too, don't you?" Ai asked.

"Yea, everything DID start going wrong when we ran into the brat and his friends..." James said, running a hand over his chin thoughtfully.

"Right, so, new orders, straight from the top: leave the brat and that Pikachu ALONE. They've screwed up things for us so often that any DISTRICT their in is now considered a 'no-go' zone." Ai took another sip and pulled a packet out of her briefcase.

"You've got new marching orders. A spy in Team Magma says they've developed a Pokeball which can capture HUMANS. The boss wants you two to use your legendary talent for disguise and infiltration to get in there and steal one of the prototypes for us to copy, pull that off and we'll discuss what's next at one of our safe-houses." Ai had told them, then drained the rest of the rum-and-coke in one swallow and left without another word.