"Ash?" a loud voice shouted. "Where are you kids? What happened?"
Ash as well as the towering form of the creature looked over to where the voice was coming from, and saw a nearly-bald man coming running at them - Petach.
The four-legged monster (was it a Pokémon or a mythological creature) let out a deep growl, then it blinked... and was gone.
In disbelief, Ash stared at the place where the creature had been standing just seconds ago.
"There you are," Petach wheezed as he arrived next to them. "Whatever were you thinking? I thought I told you children to wait at the car."
May raised her finger. Her whole arm was shaking. "Where... where did it go?"
Petach frowned. "Where did what go?"
"The monster! You must have seen it..."
"There was nothing here but you two! I must say, that was pretty unreasonable of you two. After all, there are wild Pokémon living in these woods that could harm you... and believe me, I'm not questioning your abilities as Pokémon trainers."
Pikachu sniffed the ground the weird beast had been standing on and walked around in circles. Then he looked up at Ash in confusion. "Pika pi? Pika pika?"
"There was something here," Ash frowned. "Or else Pikachu wouldn't act like this..."
Pikachu shook his head. "Pika! Pika pika! Pikachu!"
"Huh?" Now Ash was confused. "You say you can't smell anything? Now that's weird..."
"You... can understand your Pikachu?" Petach asked.
"Well, bits and pieces... it's more of a lucky guess, but up to now, we always managed to get along fine, right, Pikachu?"
Pikachu nodded. "Pika!"
Petach rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, fascinating... but still, we shouldn't stay here. Where are your other friends?"
"Well, I... I heard my brother's voice over there," May said.
"I'm here," Max said as he and Brock appeared between them. He rubbed his leg. "I tripped over the vines of a few sleeping Bellsprouts... they got pretty angry that I woke them up."
"It took me some time to free him from the vines," Brock said. "Where did the monster go?"
"Children, I can assure you, there are no monsters of any kind in these woods, just Pokémon!" Petach said. "Now if you would get back to the car so we can continue our way? I don't want to miss the ferry..."
Reluctantly, the four friends sighed and followed the adult. Ash looked back at where he had seen the creature. "I know what I have seen..." he murmured. "And even though Pikachu smelled nothing... something was there. Something weird is going on here, buddy..."
"Pika pi..." Pikachu said and shivered. Ash could see his friend was crept out by the whole situation.
They managed to get some sleep on the ferry, but not much. The S.S. Aqua was a swift shop that transported passengers and cars between Hoenn, Johto and Kanto, and it only took them a few hours until they reached Vermilion City port.
Another hour of Petach's frustratingly slow driving, and they arrived in Pallet Town.
Ash could see that the light within the house were on, so his parents still had to be up.
Petach and the incredibly tired children walked up to the front door, and Petach rang the doorbell.
The door opened... and Ash's father stood in front of them, a surprised look on his face.
May, Brock and Max looked inquiringly at the member of Ash's family they had never seen before in their lives. Bruce Ketchum was a tall, handsome man in his thirties, with unruly, spiky hair that looked very much like that of his son, only was it brown. He was wearing a pale yellow shirt and a pair of beige-colored pants.
His look of surprise turned into a broad smile when he looked down at Ash. "My boy..."
Ash grinned. "Hi there, Dad!" And both Ketchums gave each other a quick hug, although Ash blushed a bit when his father let go of him.
Then Bruce looked at Petach with a frown. "As much as I am overjoyed to see my son, dear colleague, what was the meaning of this?"
For a while, Ash didn't understand, but when he looked at the ashamed face of Mr. Petach, he realized: His parents didn't know he was bringing them home tonight.
"It just seemed like... the right thing to do," Petach said. "You know I had to take care of things in the Hoenn region, and when I heard that your son was in town, I figured: Why not bring him and his friends along on the way?"
Bruce sighed. "Okay, fine... but please inform me the next time you do something like this." He then looked at May, Brock and Max. "So you are Ash's friends, huh? Deliah told me about you. You are Brock, right?"
"The one and only," Brock grinned as he shook the man's hand. "Nice to meet you, sir!"
"And you must be... Misty?"
May laughed. "No, not quite! I am May!"
"Ah, yes!" Bruce grabbed his head in embarrassment. "Ash met you in Hoenn, right? Sorry about the mix-up..."
May smiled. "That's okay! Oh, and this is my little brother, Max!"
"How are you, sir?" he asked.
"My, what a polite young man," Bruce smiled and took Max's hand.
"Pika pika!"
"Ah, and I would never forget Ash's champion Pokémon! Good to finally meet you, Pikachu!" He stroked Pikachu's head fur and the little critter pushed his head back against the hand in pleasure.
Ash's stomach started grumbling. "Um, I don't want to interrupt you, Dad, but... we're kinda hungry and tired from the trip. So if you we could just come inside..."
"Yes, of course! Please, come in, everyone!"
"Thank you, Mr. Ketchum!" Brock said, and everyone walked inside.
Ash headed right for the living room and the kitchen which was behind it. "Man, I can't wait to taste Mom's home cooking..."
"Ash, wait!" his father suddenly shouted. "I forgot to tell you..."
A dark shadow suddenly came shooting out from behind the sofa and stood in front of Ash. Dark eyes were looking at him suspiciously.
"AAAAAHHH!" May screamed. "The monster of the forest! It has come back to get us!"
"Don't be silly, sis!" Max grumbled. "The guy we saw was much bigger than that."
But for a very short moment, Ash had been afraid that this was the same monster he and the others saw in the forest. But except for the fact that they were both four-legged, there wasn't much of a similarity between them.
Bruce looked at the Pokémon sternly. "They are friends, got it? Friends!"
Still, the Pokémon was a prime specimen of its kind... and surprisingly obedient, as Ash noticed when it sat back on its haunches.
"Since... since when do we have a Houndoom?" he asked. After all, they weren't that common in Kanto.
"Ever since that night when a burglar broke in, Ash," his father explained.
"A burglar?" Ash gasped.
"Now calm down!" his father said. "Nothing happened to your mother, and he ran away when Mr. Mime stepped in. Still, when she told me about it, I thought it would be best to get a real watchdog that would scare burglars away."
Ash frowned. "Why didn't she tell me about this?"
"Because I didn't want to make you worry, honey!" his mother said as she and Mr. Mime came from the kitchen.
Ash smiled. "Mom!" He gave her a hug as well. "Hello, Mr. Mime!"
"Mime, Mime!" the psychic Pokémon said and waved. Ash noted the disgruntled look he was giving the Houndoom.
Shortly afterwards, they were all sitting around the living room table and drank some of Deliah's famous tea.
Bruce petted his Houndoom's head fur while sipping from his cup. The dog-like Pokémon murred in contentment.
"Anubis is a very good watchdog," he said. "He once scared off a group of wild Mankeys that were coming close to the house."
"What did you call him?" Petach wondered. "Anubis?"
"I think the name fits, doesn't it?" Bruce smiled. Anubis barked once as if he wanted to say he approved of the name.
"Where is he from?" Max asked with interest.
"From the Pokémon shelter in Goldenrod City," Bruce explained. "I found him there when I was on a business trip in Johto."
"From the Pokémon shelter?" Brock asked in surprise. "Such a magnificent specimen?"
Ash's father didn't say anything, but he smiled down proudly at his Pokémon.
"How did you come here, Ash?" his mother asked. "There's nothing wrong with your Pokémon, is it?"
Ash shook his head, but it was his father who answered. "No, Mr. Petach just thought it would be a good idea to take him along." He didn't bother to hide the annoyance in his voice.
Petach winced. "As I told you, it seemed like a good idea at the moment..."
"Well, we'll talk about that later, dear colleague," Bruce said as he stood up. "But now there are a few things I have to talk to you about regarding our next project..."
"Well..." Ash and his friends didn't hear the rest of the conversation, while the two men walked outside.
"Are you really okay?" Deliah asked in worry. She then saw the scratches on Max's leg. "Oh my, what happened to you?"
The children looked at each other, then Max said quickly: "Eh, it was nothing. The car had a puncture on our way here, near some woods, and I just tripped and fell. That's all!"
Deliah nodded, but didn't look too convinced. She put down her cup. "All right, kids, I know something is on your minds. So what is it?"
Finally, Ash told his mother everything that happened when they were in Dustia City. But he still didn't tell her that the mummy started to move on its own, or even mentioned the scary beast they encountered in the forest.
Deliah gasped. "You... you were there when it happened?"
"You heard of the accident?" May wondered.
Ash's mother nodded. "Yes, I saw it on TV... but they never mentioned that you were the children in the museum that day."
"But why did they show it on TV?" Max asked. "I mean, nothing happened, right? Nobody got hurt..."
"Well, my guess is you didn't stay long enough to notice the rest of the story..." Deliah said. "When the museum's curator went to take a look at the exhibit this morning, just before he was going to open up, the mummies were gone!"
"They are WHAT?" Ash asked in disbelief.
"They are gone!" his mother repeated. "Both of them!"
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:24)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.