A White Tomorrow [A Team Rocket Fanfiction]

Chapter 23

The first half minute of Jessie's entrance was the best she had felt all day, courtesy of the wonderful adrenaline that got her going. After that it started to go downhill, progressively getting less energized until it finished, and if there was anything that told her that she wasn't up to par it was the shaky smile James gave her from his seat.

In the end, it didn't even matter because soon enough she found herself making it to the next round. Thankfully her last name now ended with the letter 'M', so she wasn't first and she wasn't last so she had a little time to recharge before going back out. Only three more battles and then she was done.

Despite her little break she still didn't feel ready enough to go back out once it was her turn, and she found herself standing across the contest field facing someone who looked half her age. She hoped this guy was a noobie, which she couldn't exactly make a judgment on when he sent out his first pokémon. It was a Dustox. Jessie stared at it, immediately thinking about her own Dustox she had released a while back. She wondered how it was doing now. Did it still remember her? How would it feel if it ever saw her again? Did it still appreciate all the skills she had helped it work on in Hoenn? That was back when she would have to use James' Pokemon because she didn't have any others to use. She laughed to herself. That wasn't the case anymore-

The announcer's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she jumped. "Jessimina? Are you going to send out your Pokémon?"

Jessie gave an almost invisible nod and she scrambled for Gourgeist's pokeball. Her mind felt numb from the embarrassment as she sent it out in front of her, how long had she been blankly standing there?

"Are the contestants ready?"

No.

"Battle begin!"

Chivalry was dead. Jessie's opponent decided that he would have the first move. "Okay Dustox, use Whirlwind!"

"Goirgeist! Stand your ground-" Jessie cut herself off. She hadn't sent out Goirgeist, she accidentally sent out Seviper instead! "I- I mean Seviper-" but it was too late for her to correct herself. Seviper looked back at her with a 'what's going on??' look before it was lost in the Whirlwind attack.

Jessie felt her hair and dress get pushed back by the strong wind but her concern for her pokemon was stronger. Seviper was caught in the tunneling tornado before hitting the ground, softer than Jessie expected it to. Her horror faded as Seviper easily pulled itself up and looked back at her again with a confused hiss.

"Um- um," Jessie grabbed her pigtails as she tried to think of something. She felt bad- horrible, out of all her pokemon Seviper had been the most anxious lately with her performance and here it was getting tossed around because of her. She wished she had grabbed the right pokemon, but she was going to use Seviper anyways later on so couldn't she just use the same routine now?

"Throw a Physic Attack on them Dustox!"

"No! Seviper, Poison Tail! Quick and make it count!" Jessie improvised, and to her luck it worked. Seviper stung Dustox before it fully formed the attack, knocking it to the ground. "Another one!" Jessie called out, and Seviper slammed another Poison Tail onto the opposing pokemon.

Jessie's opponent gritted their teeth together and scowled at the black Pokémon in front of them. Jessie took this short moment to glance at her group in the crowd. James quickly gave her a thumbs up with the same uneasy smile on his face before he called out to her. "YOU GOT THIS, JESS!"

"Dustox, another Whirlwind!"

Seviper looked back at her, desperately waiting for the command Jessie didn't have. "That's not going to work on me this time! Seviper, U-use... wrap!"