Ash and the others really had the chance to sleep very long in this night, and Ash would have chosen to stay in bed for even longer than he did.
He really only woke up early in the morning because of a wet, slobbery tongue that came out of nowhere and licked his face.
Ash jolted up in his bed and rubbed his face in disgust. Anubis' tongue was almost as big as a washcloth... and at least as wet.
The heavy Houndoom crouched next to his bed, his forepaws placed on the blanket, and Ash could have sworn that the Pokémon was sneering at him.
"What's going on, Ash?" Brock murmured from the ground, where he was sleeping in his sleeping bag.
"Nothing much..." Ash muttered, half-awake. "Anubis just thought he had to wake me up..."
"Oh... well, wake me when breakfast is ready..." Brock murmured, turned around and kept on snoring.
Ash gave the Houndoom a grim look. "Well," he grumbled. "Might as well get up..."
So he started to get out of bed... but Anubis seemed to think that it was still a tiny bit too slow. He jumped up and collided with Ash's backside, sending the boy stumbling out of bed.
Ash cursed while he stood up from the ground. Brock groaned. "If you have to do that, can't you at least be a bit more quiet?"
"Mime! Mime!" Mr. Mime was standing in the door and sternly gestured at the floor. He clearly didn't like the fact that Anubis was sitting on Ash's bed.
The Houndoom gave off an amused growl and jumped off. He gave Ash a final grin and then walked out.
Mr. Mime shook his head and followed him.
"A nice way to start the day..." Ash groaned. He shuffled over to the bathroom to wash his face hastily (after all, Anubis already did part of the job) and went downstairs.
In the kitchen, his mother was already up and preparing breakfast. His father and Petach were sitting in the living room and were watching TV. Ash frowned... he didn't know his father's colleague was staying for the night.
He barely noticed that the two men were watching some news report about some big fire in some city, when he walked up to his Mom and mumbled: "Morning..."
"Good morning, Ash!" his mother said. "I see he already woke you up."
Ash blinked. "He did what?"
Deliah smiled. "Anubis. I sent him up to wake you."
"Ah, yeah, he did, even if it was kinda... wet."
"I know he can be silly sometimes," Deliah giggled. "But he is the most capable watchdog I've ever seen."
About 15 minutes later, May and Max were entering the kitchen. They had spent the night in the house's only guestroom... which made Ash wonder where Mr. Petach had slept.
Max rubbed his eyes. "Morning..."
"Good morning, dears!" Mrs. Ketchum greeted them. "Breakfast?"
"Yes, pleeeeeaase!" May yawned. She looked over to the living room and the TV, where they could see police cars and firemen. "What happened?" she mumbled. "Some sort of accident?"
"Let's talk about that later," Deliah said hastily. "Now we'll have breakfast together... Ash, is Brock awake already?"
As if he had waited for his cue, the teenager with the squinty eyes appeared. "Now I could use one of your legendary fried eggs, Mrs. Ketchum..." he mumbled.
While they were eating, Ash looked outside the window. Pikachu looked up from the apple he was gnawing on. "Pika pi?"
"I don't know..." Ash frowned. "I thought I saw something."
"Maybe just a stray Pokémon," his mother said. "They often come near the houses in winter."
Ash looked closely, but couldn't see anything. Still, he could have sworn he saw something moving among the bushes..."
"Now, tell me again: Why did we have to follow the twerps all the way from Hoenn?" James asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" Jessie asked. "So we can steal their Pikachu. We still have to pay them back for all those humiliations when we tried to steal it before."
"If ya ask me, I'll bet that in the end, we'll be blasting off again..." Meowth muttered.
"I didn't ask for your opinion, furball!" Jessie snapped.
Meowth shrugged. "Well, I only know that we won't be able to come even close to dat house with dat beast of a Houndoom inside. He'll smell us before we can say 'Pidgey'."
"The only thing I know is that we had no breakfast... and I can smell those delicious eggs from over there."
"Stop your whining, you wimps!" the red-haired female shouted.
After breakfast, Bruce and Petach came over from where they had been sitting. "So... you all had a good night's sleep?" Bruce asked.
May nodded. "Yes, the bed was very comfortable! Thank you, Mr. Ketchum!"
"Good, good..." Ash's father cleared his throat. "Well, as things turned out, it seems we owe Mr. Petach an apology..."
"What for?" Brock asked.
"You saw the disaster on TV, didn't you?" Bruce asked.
"Yes, but what...?"
"Ash... that was Dustia City!" his father said.
Ash was not the only one to pale. "Wh-what?"
"Didn't you recognize all those buildings?" Bruce asked. "The Pokémon Center, the museum... And nobody knows what really happened. Maybe it was a big fire, maybe an explosion... the police wasn't able to find out what exactly happened. And I am afraid there were several casualties... I just hope it was nobody you knew."
"I-is Nurse Joy all right?" Brock gasped.
"The nurse of the Pokémon Center was lucky enough to survive, and she managed to get most of the Center's current visitors outside of the building."
Ash looked at Petach's face, and Petach gave him a slight nod. Ash didn't know how he knew this, but somehow this proved what he had been afraid of: Greg was among the casualties.
Ash couldn't stand it anymore, he just had to get out of here, away from Petach. His parents looked at him in surprise and his friends gasped. "Ash, where are you going?" Max asked.
"Let him go," Petach said. "All of this must have been too much for him. I'll go and talk to him."
'Great,' Ash thought. Just the man he didn't want to talk to.
Ash sat in front of the house and threw small rocks into a puddle on the road, when Petach came outside. Anubis was standing next to him.
"Who are you?" Ash muttered. "I mean, who are you really?"
"I will try to explain everything," Petach said. "Later, when we have the time. Things are not always as easy as they seem, you know? Some people that might look like our friends turn out to be our worst enemies. And people we don't trust can turn out to be your closest confidants. Please, trust me!"
He reached out with his hand, but Ash didn't take it.
Petach pulled it back. "I see. I understand your decision. But you will understand as soon as you know what all of this is really about."
"Then explain it to me!" Ash demanded. "Explain why this had to happen! How many people died in Dustia today, Petach? Five? Ten? One hundred?"
"I was not part of that, Ash," Petach said. "You have to believe me."
And part of Ash really believed him. But that didn't make things better.
"But you knew," he said. "You knew what would happen and that's why you brought me home, right?"
"Yes," Petach admitted. "I knew... something would happen. Something terrible. You would be dead if you had stayed in Dustia, Ash!"
"You... you could have warned them!" Ash stuttered. He knew that would have been easier said than done. Who would have believed him?
But this realization only made it worse. Now Ash felt that it was his fault what happened to the people in Dustia.
Ash spent the rest of the day with his Pokémon, in the garden. His friends could see he was in thought, but they didn't ask him what was on his mind. Instead, they tried to distract him by asking him about his battles against the Hoenn Gym Leaders, or by suggesting to visit Prof. Oak. But Ash didn't really feel like talking. He was just asking himself the very same question again and again: Why was this happening? And did it happen because of him?
In the end, he couldn't take it anymore. He needed to talk to someone about all of this. He wondered if he should tell his friends... but then again, he really only knew one person that always had understood him.
He walked past the living room, where Petach and his father were sitting and watching TV. "Hello, Ash!" his father said. "You wanna join us?"
Ash shook his head. "No, thank you! I need to talk to Mom. Where is she?"
"Upstairs, packing my bags," his father said. "You know I can only stay one day, right?"
Ash nodded and walked to the stairway, to go to his mother and...
Anubis ran past him and blocked his way.
Ash looked at the Houndoom in confusion. "Hey, what's the big idea?" He tried walking past the Pokémon, but every time he tried it, Anubis bared his teeth and let out a small growl.
Now that was absurd. Why should Anubis hinder him from going upstairs to talk to his mother?
Was it because Anubis heard what he and Petach had said to each other? Did he know Ash wanted to tell his mother about what happened?
But how was he supposed to know? He wasn't a Psychic Pokémon, he couldn't possibly read his mind.
Ash sighed. Oh well, if he couldn't talk to his mother, he would have to tell his father. He didn't even mind that Petach was present.
But when he turned around and walked back to the living room, Anubis once again ran past him, and for a short while, Ash really believed that he would now block his way into the living room.
But instead of doing that, Anubis ran to the door, barked as loud as he could and scratched the door.
"What's wrong with that dog?" Bruce asked in surprise as he heard the barking.
"Do you hear that, Jess?" James asked. "You think that crazy Pokémon might have caught our scent?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if he caught your scents," Jessie said. "You always stink like wet Growlithe fur."
"Maybe there's another Pokémon around here..." Meowth guessed. Then he heard something behind him, and he turned around. "Huh?"
"Delcatty?"
Meowth blinked. "Hey, guys, would you look at this? It's a Delcatty!"
"Wow, they aren't too common around here," James said in awe. "You think we should try to catch it?"
"That's not a bad idea, since I know the boss likes pretty cats with soft fur, heheheheh!" Meowth snickered.
Jessie crawled towards the feline Pokémon. "Now, be a good Delcatty and let Mama Jessie put this collar around your neck, okay... OW!!"
"What happened?" James asked in surprise as the Delcatty suddenly hissed, jumped over their heads and ran towards the house.
Jessie put her finger in her mouth. "The damn thing bit me..." she grumbled.
"You think he scented a wild Pokémon?" Ash asked his father while Anubis continued to scratch at the door.
"Maybe, but he has never reacted like this before. Anubis, stop it! You'll ruin the whole door!"
But since the Houndoom didn't comply, Ash's father had no other choice but to open the door.
A small yellow shape came running in between Ash's legs and dashed into the living room. Anubis gave off an excited bark and ran after whatever it was.
"What happened?" May asked as she, Brock and Max came running from behind the house, where they had taken care of their Pokémon."
"Something... something just came running in and now Anubis has gone all crazy!" Ash said.
It was true. The small yellow shape was running wildly in-between the furniture, never touching anything. But Anubis came running after it like a living bulldozer, knocking chairs over and throwing a lamp from the table. When he collided with the cupboard, several of the glasses inside fell down to the ground and broke.
"Oh my god!" Bruce gasped. "Has that dog gone mad? Anubis, STOP!"
And just then Ash realized what it was that Anubis was chasing... it was a small cat Pokémon with yellow and purple fur... a Delcatty! And just when he realized it, the Delcatty came jumping off the TV and landed in his arms.
Ash winced when he saw how Anubis came running at him, his jaws wide open. He saw how the Houndoom aimed for the Delcatty's head and...
The deadly bite never came. When Ash opened his eyes, he saw that Anubis was licking the cat Pokémon's whole body with his tongue while the Delcatty was purring in delight.
Was all of this just one big game of tag for both of them?
"Oh this... this stupid dog!" Bruce said again and again. He looked at the ruined living room in disbelief. "What... what did those crazy Pokémon do?"
May looked at Anubis and the Delcatty. "Wow, now that's a beautiful Delcatty! And look how good they get along with each other... as if they were old friends."
Ash shuddered when he heard what May said. Somehow, he felt that she was right. And that this friendship was much older than any of them would suspect.
Maybe even several thousands of years old.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:07)
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