Pokemon

Dead and Alive Redux

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters from the show aren't mine. Bonnie and Clyde and the story are mine! Many years ago, I wrote a story called Dead and Alive. People still like it and see the good in it despite its simplicity and how badly written it is, for which I am touched and honored. But I would like to tell the story again, and tell it better than before. So while I'm leaving the old version up for those who enjoy it, I will present this newer, better-written version as well. Some things are quite a bit different, while others are similar. The setting is Classic Era, as are all my stories. But since it's an updated version of a very old story, I'm going to say it takes place before most of my more recently written stories.

Chapter One

It had been a long and active day of traveling through a large and mysterious forest, for both Ash and his friends and Team Rocket. Now, as night drew nigh, the younger kids ate dinner and prepared to settle down for a hopefully restful sleep. Misty, however, seemed jumpy.

"What was that?!" she exclaimed.

Ash turned from where he was unrolling his sleeping bag. "What was what?"

"I know I just saw something," Misty frowned. Her hands went to her hips. "It was some kind of movement over there." She pointed up the mountain to a large white dam.

"Probably just a nocturnal Pokemon," Brock said. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

"It looked like a human shadow," Misty retorted. "It could be Team Rocket."

Ash sighed. "Well, if it is, I'm sure we'll know all about it soon enough."

"Pika-Pika," Pikachu agreed.

"What if they try to do something really stupid, like break the dam to flood us out?" Misty worried.

"I don't think even Team Rocket would do something like that," Ash said.

Brock nodded. "That could destroy the entire forest and any Pokemon they might hope to catch." He sat down by the fire. "Still, maybe someone should stand guard for a while. I'll take the first watch."

Misty turned to look at him. "Are you sure, Brock?"

Brock was. "You and Ash get some sleep," he encouraged.

Ash yawned. "Okay. Night, Brock." He climbed into his sleeping bag.

Pikachu quickly followed suit.

Still concerned, but hoping her fears were unfounded, Misty finally got into her sleeping bag too. "Goodnight, Togepi," she said to the adventurous little Pokemon.

Togepi trilled and settled on Misty's sleeping bag to curl into an egg shape and go to sleep.

xxxx

As it happened, Team Rocket was up the mountain at an abandoned cabin they had found. Their feelings were torn. On the one hand, they were grateful for the shelter. On the other, it was so old and uncared-for that it seemed ready to crumble down in a small breeze.

"I know I heard something creaking just now!" Jessie exclaimed.

"And that old mattress is probably filled with bedbugs," James whimpered. "I'm not getting on it."

"Will you two stop complainin'?!" Meowth said in frustration. "At least it's a place!"

"Yes, but what kind of place?" James objected.

"We might wake up with it falling down around us!" Jessie added.

"Then sleep on the floor or somethin'!" Meowth snapped.

James cringed. "But maybe rats will come out and run over us in our sleep! Or cockroaches!"

Jessie was just trying to adjust to the idea of sleeping on the floor instead of in the old bed. Those comments didn't help. She growled, debating over what sounded worse. "I'll take my chances in the bed," she said at last.

James finally decided to try an old chair. Meowth curled up on the bed with Jessie.

Their sleep was uneasy and uncomfortable. The bed was old and the springs poked through the mattress at various spots. The springs were also notoriously noisy. The slightest movement resulted in a chorus of rusty voices. And when James started slumping down farther in the chair, it broke and sent him to the floor with a yelp.

Jessie and Meowth leaped up in bed. "James!" Jessie cried in frustration. "Can't you even be quiet in your sleep?!"

"It's not my fault the chair broke!" James whined.

"Well, pick it up and go back to sleep!" Meowth snapped. "And do it quietly, so we can do the same!"

James scowled. There really wasn't any way to put the chair back together. So he just sighed in weariness and slowly got up, turning to look out the window as he did. That was when he saw what Misty had seen moments earlier.

"Hey," he said. "There's someone at that dam!"

"Who cares?!" Meowth retorted.

"Go back to sleep," Jessie added. "Not that we'll be able to do the same now."

James didn't bother saying anything more. But he stayed there, watching out the window. No one should be at the dam at this hour. What were they doing?

He gasped when the sound of a fierce Dynamic Punch rocked the mountain and water suddenly gushed out of a new, gaping hole.

"They broke the dam!" he cried. "They used a Pokemon to punch a hole in it!" He ran over to the bed and desperately shook his friends. "Get up! We're going to be flooded out any moment!"

Jessie tiredly tried to bat him away. "Oh James, stop dreaming. Who would want to break the dam?"

"I don't know, but they did it!" James screamed in utter panic. "Jessie, get up!" Not waiting for her any longer, he hauled her upright in bed.

That earned him a sharp punch of his own. "James . . . !" Jessie's eyes flamed. But then she heard the rushing water. "We really are being flooded!" she shrieked. "The water's coming this way!"

"What?!" Meowth leaped up in terror. "Let's get outta here!"

James was still smarting from the punch, but he pushed the pain aside and pulled Jessie out of bed, keeping an arm around her as they ran for the door. Meowth scrambled onto his back.

The gushing water reached the cabin before they could flee. Then the small abode was pulled free of its foundation, crumbling to splinters as it and the three terrified occupants were swept along by the furious river.

Jessie broke the surface first, coughing and gasping as she frantically clutched a floating log torn from the cabin. "James?!" she screamed. "Meowth?!"

Meowth popped up next, sputtering and flailing before climbing onto the log and digging in his claws for dear life. "I hate water!" he wailed. "Especially the kind you can drown in!"

"Where's James?!" Jessie demanded.

"Huh?" Meowth stared at her. "He didn't come up?!"

"No!" Jessie snapped. "And you were riding on his back! What happened?!"

"We got pulled apart in the current!" Meowth explained. "But . . . if he didn't come up . . ." He stared at the frantic waves.

"Don't say it!" Jessie snapped. "Don't even think it!"

Her heart was racing almost as fast as the water. If she could, she would let go of the log and dive under the surface to look for James. But with the speed of the current, that would be almost certain death. And she wouldn't be likely to find James anyway. She didn't want to die so pointlessly.

"What are we gonna do?!" Meowth wailed.

"Just hang on," Jessie with gritted teeth. "James will turn up."

"Are you sure?"

Meowth sounded both plaintive and doubtful. Jessie responded with fury and desperation. "Yes! . . . Because he has to," she whispered.

xxxx

Ash and Misty were both startled awake by Brock frantically shaking their shoulders. "Wake up!" he called. "The dam's been broken open! The water's coming this way!"

They sprang awake in an instant. "Pika-Pika?!" Pikachu exclaimed in alarm.

"I knew I saw someone up there!" Misty wailed.

"I don't know what it was, but I saw a Pokemon deliberately punch the dam," Brock said grimly. "The water started gushing out instantaneously."

"Well, Team Rocket sure doesn't have any Pokemon that could do that," Ash said.

"Speaking of Team Rocket . . ." Brock stared as a log flew right at them. "Incoming!"

Jessie and Meowth shrieked in terror. So did the younger kids. Then the wave eclipsed the campsite and they were all clutching the log for dear life.

"Pikachu!" Ash called in fear.

"Pi-Pikachu!" Pikachu clutched at Ash's shoulder.

"Togepi?!" Misty looked around, frantic.

Brock heard a terrified trill and turned to look as Togepi floated past. He reached out with one arm while keeping the other wrapped around the log. ". . . I've got him!" he announced as he pulled the little Pokemon close to his heart.

"Oh, thank goodness," Misty breathed.

Meowth also looked relieved. "This ain't a good ride for a little guy like that."

Now Misty focused her attention on the two members of Team Rocket. "So it was you!" she cried. "You broke the dam and then fell into your own trap!"

"That isn't true!" Jessie snarled. "We were in the cabin this log belonged to, trying to get some sleep! James saw a Pokemon punch the dam open and tried to get us out of there before the water could reach us."

"But now he ain't here!" Meowth finished.

"That's right," Ash realized with a blink. "But then . . . where is he?"

Brock's expression was grim. "If he hasn't ever surfaced, by now he isn't likely to."

"Shut up, twerp," Jessie snapped. "He's going to come up. . . . He's alright. . . ."

But everyone could hear the helplessness in her voice, even over the violent waves.

xxxx

The water flowing from the dam was sweeping over the entire area and carrying passengers and objects in many different directions. It was far to the left of the very occupied log that it spat out a limp body onto the new bank. For a moment the form lay still, facedown in the grass. Then without warning he knelt up and coughed and choked.

"Jessie?! Meowth?!"

Half-conscious and dizzy from repeatedly going under the water and being battered so roughly, James stumbled to his feet and grabbed onto the nearest tree trunk. He stood there, hugging the tree while he tried to get his bearings.

"Where are they?" he said in rising panic. "I don't see them anywhere!"

"Oh, such a pity, Honey," a dark feminine voice cooed from behind him. "You won't be seeing them ever again."

He spun around in shock and indignation. "What are you saying?!"

"They should be dead by now," the woman replied. She was standing among the trees, little more than a silhouette under the moon.

"And even if they're not, you're going to be," said a man as he came up next to her. "Just a sad casualty of a wild Pokemon freaking out and breaking a dam that it felt was damaging its territory."

"Wait a minute." James' gaze darted back and forth between the duo. "I know these voices. You're . . ."

"Bonnie, Sugar." A woman with curly blonde hair and a Team Rocket beret stepped into the moonlight.

"And Clyde," intoned a dark-haired man.

"What is this?!" James demanded. "We're all on the same side!"

"We're taking it upon ourselves to rid Team Rocket of all its unnecessary items," Bonnie purred.

"And we figure nothing could be more unnecessary than you, Jessie, and Meowth," Clyde added. "The boss always says how incompetent you all are."

"We're doing him a favor," Bonnie smirked. "And we'll get a big promotion for it."

"Well, we'll just see about that!" James snapped. "Go, Weezing! Go, Victreebel!" He reached for his Pokeballs and then went stiff. They were both gone, swept away in the current. "Oh no. . . ."

"Lights out, idiot." While James was distracted, Clyde had brought out what he had been carrying all along-a large tree branch. He cracked the boy on the head, sending him in a heap to the grass.

"That should've killed him all on its own," Bonnie drawled.

"But even if it didn't, we'll just throw him back in the water and he'll drown," Clyde said. He reached down to feel for a pulse.

James sprang to life, grabbing Clyde's wrist and giving it a painful twist. Then, shoving the other Team Rocket agent away from him, he took off running through the trees.

Bonnie was after him in an instant. "You're not getting away that easy!" she vowed.

She caught up to him at the edge of the trees. He turned as she grabbed for him and grabbed her first. Just as he managed to shove her away, Clyde caught up and swung the tree branch again. James ducked and stumbled to the side.

The ground suddenly crumbled underneath him. He fell with a cry of terror, hitting an outcropping of rock in the cliffside before slamming onto the beach below. This time he didn't get up.

Bonnie and Clyde stared down at him. "That fool," Clyde sneered. "He caused his own downfall."

"Do you think he's really dead this time?" Bonnie said in concern.

The sound of a helicopter somewhere nearby startled Clyde into looking to the sky. "He couldn't have survived that fall," he insisted. "But we'd better get out of here."

Bonnie nodded. "We can't have anyone tyin' us or our precious Machamp in to this flood, after all." She glanced down at James again. "Sweet everlasting dreams, Sugar Pie."

Clyde sneered as he tossed the branch into the trees and turned to run. "The boss is really going to give us some hefty promotions when he finds out we got rid of his most useless agents."

Bonnie laughed. "Now Team Rocket will only be efficient."

They disappeared into the shadows.